Kustom KGA-65 112 Combo

2 Channels, 8 preset effects, mid boost, overdrive, 'bright' aka treble boost (gives my PRS copy a great twangy single coil sound), effects loop, external speaker output, line out, foot switch jack (not included), CD/Tape input and a XLR output (useless for me).

This amp has EVERYTHING and more of what I was looking for. 65 watts and a 10 inch speaker, Perfect for practicing with a full band and no PA. Not the best rig for a gig.

Ok, I love the distortion on this amp. Not the greatest for scoop distortion aka super heavy, no mid, fuzzy nu-metal distortion. You'll need a pedal for that. But its GREAT for crunchy metal and thrashy distortion. The mid boost gives out an awesome 'hard rock' sound. It can also spit out a nice generic distortion sound, you know the new school punk rock sort of sound. I'm a fan of this distortion, forget pedals and buy a footswitch!

The clean channel: ok, this isn't great. It sounds quite nice until you hit half way volume, then it'll distort but it doesn't get muddy or crack just a shade distorted (which I don't mind). The 'bright' boost gives it a nice twangy sound which I adore because I have humbuckers in my PRS copy. The 'bright' boost also helps cut down on the excess distortion. To be blunt, it keeps the clean channel cleaner.

The effects: Wow, 8 effects! Too bad, only a few are worth using and they have little to no tweakage.

-The spring reverb sounds nice and its very versitile. I love it.
-The hall reverb is the same as above. But I prefer the spring.
-Slap Back, this is alright if you like it. Somewhat versitile, but not very.
-Echo, useless to me, no versitility, no control over the delay or feedback. Get a pedal.
-Chorus, this is useful. The level knob will control how rich it is. Not to shabby of a chorus either
-Chorus+reverb, This is also useful. It has an alright tone, the level knob control the reverb and how rich the chorus is. The chorus is not very strong though, much thinner then the other chorus.
-Chorus+Flange, this sounds like shit, no control.
-Tremlo, this alright, nothing fancy, you could do the same effect by pressing on your ear with your finger. Yet again, no control over the pace of the tremlo.

You see, the thing about these effects are that they only have 1 knob for control/tone/volume. Basically the level knob controls how much of the signal (volume) they eat up. This effects are nothing fancy but fun to have.

This amp is an odd one. Lately it has been stinking. Thats right, STINKING. An actual electronic smell is coming from it. I'm pretty sure this is a bad sign. Beware!

If anyone else has had this problem please email me!

Dunno!

Its all up there.
The No slugs are rising up!

you know the features. Features are good but I give an eight because I don't like all the effects.

This amp is fucking great. I'm not the lead player in my band, just rhythm and random weird licks and sounds. I don't even play on every song, but this amp does the tricky-trick. It is louder than some 212's I've played on. In fact the other night, my lead guitar players fender twin blew a tube and he used mine and it sounded great. Of course he's awesome and would sound good through a cell phone speaker.but whatever.
The distortion on this is awesome. I've went through a tube screamer, tube works smooth tube, and even a metal zone before I decided to get a footswitch for this. You can get heavy thick crunch, or bluesy overdrive sounds. Throw on the delay effect and your a lead player there brotha. no fucking pedals and chords.
Now, I play in a grunge, blues band. kinda like blind melon. I'm more about feeling that tone. I just go with a 10- bass 6-midrange 9-treble setting all the time. Maybe if I messed around with it more I could get a better sound, but that's for the lead guys to worry about.

hell yeah. I'm gonna go on the record right now and say fuck tube amps. too much of a pain in the ass for how little of a difference it makes.
We tour all over the midwest and this thing takes a licking and keeps on ticking. mine is beat up to hell, but thats because we are one of those fun bands that smash their shit when we are done. I buy cheap guitars to do that though. I would never smash my gibson lp though. I usually pick up a hondo or a harmony at whatever town we're in to do that. But I kick this thing over a couple times a week and it's fine. I threw it at my drummer at one gig. It knocked the speaker loose but I fixed it no problem.

no. I don't think it is covered on the warranty if you throw the thing. I live in cincinnati(where Kustom is based) so if they didn't respond I'd go pay them a visit.
But customer support is for pussies anyway. fix it yourself you baby.

This amp rules. Loud as a 212, but lite as a practice amp. The only reason I would get a bigger amp is if We got signed and someone else was paying for it.
The ONLY problem is that it doesn't come with a footswitch. You can't get one direct from the company either. You have to go to their website and find a dealer in your area, or find one on ebay. they cost between 30 and 50. I just bought a used two button generic pedal and it works great. I know i'm only the rhythm guitar player, but
i know my shit. I play a gibson les paul through this bad boy and it rocks. I get comments from the bands we play with about it all the time. In fact the lead dude in this other band we were on tour with, bought a kustom after his line 6 shit the bed. he bought the 212 version but thats cause he likes stereo effects. They're basically the same thing though.

I bought it used in 2003, I would say it's around a 1999 or 2000 model. Features have been well described by others. Very loud and powerful for a 65 watt "tranny" amp. A lot of features but its the sound that was the trouble.

I use a Dearmond S73(SG style)guitar with two humbuckers, a Yamaha SGV300 (sort of a Mosrite style guitar with a GREAT versatile sound)w/ a single coils, and a decent quality strat knock-off. This amp has a bright "honky" kind of tone that sounded passable when I played it in the store but after I bought the amp I tired of it's tone very quickly. My dislike for the tone is'nt because it's a solid state amp because I own other solid state guitar amps that I like the tone of. Also the stock "red label" Celestion(i.e. cheaper Celestion) speaker could not handle the power of this amp when turned up past about four and would start to fart out badly. Also the onboard effects seem to be to excessive if you turn up the amount knob anywhere past about "two " or so. Effects should be subtle and add to the sound if one should want.

It did not break down on me when I had it, and a kid in my teen sons band has the same model of amp(with the same bright clangy tone I might add) which they gig on a semi-regular basis.
So I guess it's fairly reliable but I definately wouln't call it "overbuilt".

Haven't dealt with Kustom but I'm sure it's just another modern "faceless" company who would rather not deal w/ customers again after they leave the stores.

Been playing long enough to get tired of this amp pretty quick! It cant be stolen from me because I've already traded it for another solid state amp(A Fender M-80 combo which was older and mord beat up than the Kustom but was equally as loud and had much better tone.
You know I usually give equipment a pretty good rating and im not real picky nor am I a Tube purist. I feel people can make good music with relitively modest equipment but this amps grating tone made it NOT a keeper.........

You can read about all the features in one of the many reviews below.

I play an American Fender Tele through this amp most of the time, and when the wife isn't home I have had the chance to really crank it up. The clean channel will distort at higehr volume levels, basically anything above about "5", but it is a very mellow distortion, not a fuzz-tone. This thing will play LOUD, it will rattle everything in my house if I really start jamming with it. It plays extremely loud on "1" though for basement use, so this is a minor issue.

The distortion is a little over the top for my tastes, it does have some nice crunch if you are going for the heavy metal shredder thing. I keep the gain rolled way back around 1 - 3 for some decent bluesy tones.

The effects on this thing mysteriously died about a week after I bought it. Sometimes they work, usualy they don't. Of course they did work in the shop when I purchased it though. I read a review that mentioned a loose chip, so I opened up my amp and couldn't see anything that looked loose. Since the effects are so limited it really doesn't matter because I rarely used them, and even less now that I have an RP200.

Never dealt with them.

I have been "playing guitar" for almost 20 years (doesn't mean I am any good though) and this is the only amp that I currently own. I wish my old Yamaha Fifty-210 hadn't burned up in a friend's studio fire. However, the clean channel of this Kustom reminds me of the sparkling clean channel on that old Yammy (if the volume is under "5") I mainly play a Fender Telecaster through this amp, but also play a Hagstrom 12 string, Acoustics and a cheap strat copy through it as well, each of these guitars sound pretty good to me through this amp. If it were stolen or lost I would probably get something else, just because I am a creature of variety.

65 Watts RMS, 3 Bands of EQ Per Channel, XLR Line out, Line out, CD/Tape In, 12" Celestion Rocket 50 Speaker, 8 Preset Digital Effects

I think this amp is great, sounds great at high volumes and suits my needs very well..... I play mainly instrument music (eg in the style of Hank Marvin) Sounds great with my Zoom GFX-8 and Zoom RFX-2000

I can depend on this amp for gigs etc.. The only thing you have to be careful of is the black covering, it tears and marks quite easily. Mine has a few marks on it hear and there (but marks etc are all part of gigging anyway in my opinion) Yes I do look after my equipment, but i'm not a crybaby if anything gets marked. Also the screws sometimes come a little bit loose after its been carried around a lot....


Most importantly though i have never had any electronical/sound problems with it

Not had to deal with them :-)

I've 17 and have been playing since 1997..... If this amp was stolen i'd want to find who nicked it and smash his head against a wall... I love everything about this amp. I now want a Shure SM 57 + a mixer to do some good recordings using this amp :)

Really nice features for the price. You just wont find many amps in this price reange with and XLR jack, or external speaker output. Has a few digital effects, clean and lead channels. Plus it has a celestion speaker, which is a big plus.

Right now im using a Fat Strat, and it sounds okay. The only real complaint I have is that it can't get to loud volumes without breaking up and getting feedback. Ofcourse, just jack into another speaker and your golden. I would say that the lead channel isn't what I would want distortion-wise, but for lite, jazzy distortion and classic rock its REALLY good. The clean channel can be remarkably nice sounding and soft, or twangy and bluesy. The digital effects...well....at least it has some. They're nice for aesthetic value, but are impractical. The reverbs make it sound nice, and the tremelo is somewhat useful, but you can't change the time intervals, forcing you to either play at a certain pace or add your own tremelo in between the other to make it seem faster. All in all okay for the price.

This thing is SOLID. I've taken it everywhere with me, even with all my cords and books in the open area behind the speaker. It's been dropped, knocked over, plus its even used as a table and chair. It still sounds good, and the only noticable changes is the dust accumulation and the scratches on the plastic corners.

Haven't had to deal with them yet.

Nice practice amp, starter amp, or small gig amp. But, lack of crunchy distortion and pedal (it does not come with the amp) makes it less then major gig worthy. It does show nice advantages in studio settings. Overall, very good amp for the price, and the best starter amp I have ever seen.

usual, 2 channels 65watts and some dumbass digi-effects

i use a 2001 fender double fat hardtail strat with the stock seymour pearly gates in it and also a squire tele with a kent armstrong blade humbucker at the bridge. Most of the stuff i play is rock/ punk orientated, stuff like jimmy eat world, taking back sunday, something corporate and that kinda stuff. So far ive been happy with the amp, the clean sound using the strat is great, quite glassy but with enough bottom end to make those open chords sound full. The bright switch on the clean channel is rubbish, it just makes the treble too harsh especially if you're using brand new strings. The drive channel is ace, get that "more" button pushed straight in, otherwise it sounds a little gay. with the mid backed off to half way and the gain up to 3 o'clock this baby sounds sweet, the gain has good sustain and excellent definition but i'd leave the mid shift out, it tends to mask the sound a bit with excesive low end. the amp will do that saturated gain thing too but i think that it really excels at the low end of the high gain spectrum. As for those effects, i wouldnt bother, they are useless, the only half decent one is the tremelo but you cant even set the rate on that.

seems tough, none of those stupid valves to bust either!!

NO DEALINGS AS OF YET

ive been playing for 8 years now, ive toured the Uk and i'm quite happy to take this little bugger with me on the next tour, hooked up to a 212 cab this really puts out some volume, i'm debating on whether i get a second one and run the badboys in stereo!!

Recent year model - has decent effects but I use a GT-3 for that. Purchased as an emergency backup amp and had to use it. I was very impressed, for the price. It has a pretty good sound and the XLR line out is helpful, as I had to run it to the p.a. Nice features for a low priced amp.

Used clean channel only and it compares favorably with Fender and marshall solid state amps (but doesn't sound exactly like either). Effects are ok for what they are (digital).

didn't keep it long - only used live once and it worked fine.

Where are you Bud Ross?? This ain't your daddy's Kustom. I get better support for my 1968 K-100 combo...

Bought on an emergency basis, expecting to be disappointed. I wasn't - it has a very good sound for the price and a number of useful extras not available on some low priced amps. I have a vintage Ross Kustom, and it still works fine. Those were the days. This isn't the same "Kustom" of course. The KGA65 wuld be a good starter amp or used as a backup amp as I have. I give it high scores considering the price and features for that price.

Kustom 65W amp with Digital FX. Very good amount of features for the price, I only payed $230 for it. A lot of different digital effects built into it, and amazingly, they all sound pretty decent. I'm not saying they're going to beat a good pedal, but for the price, they're great. Lot of different choices on it, can get almost any sound. Just wish it came with a footswitch :(.

I use this with a Godin SD (great guitar for a great price), and sometimes I do get a little feedback from the gain switch, but it's my fault (crank the gain up to high, sorry I'm a born metal-head). Clean channel almost rivals a Fender tube, and with the SD, and the two single coils engaged, it mimicks a strat sound. Now lets talk about gain....HOLY CRAP! This thing has enough gain to make even the hardest rocking metal-head cringe. It has two settings for the distortion, if you leave the more button off, you get a very bluesy, warm sound. Now if you turn the more button on, you will get heavy metal heaven. But there will be a little gain when you get up beyond around the 8 on the gain. It doesn't have a Mesa-Boogie beatiful distortion, but for the price, you get some pretty damn good sounds out of it. I play just about anything (except country), and this amp suits me perfect.

Haven't had it long enough to comment on it, only worry would be the mesh in the front (looks like it'd rip easy).

Comes with a 3-year warranty, but the dealer gave me a lifetime warranty on it, so its great. Dealer was very confident about it, and because it was a floor model, I got a pretty discount on it.

Although I've only been playing for a year now, I do know more than most people would think. I research a lot about the gear I buy, but I saw this and I had to have it. I'm glad I got it. Definitely suit small-medium size gigs (I have it set on 1/2 right now, because even 1 freakin' loud). Only gripe is it didn't come with a footswitch.

An incredible amount of features. I like the fact that when you buy a footswitch you can turn effects on and off and u can switch from clean to distortion. The effects are also well done and sound great.

I'm using a standard fender strat and if you adjust the levels perfectly you can get a awesome clean tone for jazz. It basically delivers any kind of clean guitar style you want. The distorted channel is good but you can get two tones out of it...harsh, really harsh, and super harsh...so not any light distortion at all. It's also slightly fuzzy for leads in distortion. But the distorted channel is perfect if you play rhythm guitar. The sound quality doesn't go down as you turn the volume up either.

Haven't had a problem...it's seems pretty well built.

never had a problem

I've been playing in a band for about a year. This is the only amp i own and i use a standard strat. If it was lost i'd probably get a 100 watt fender amp just for the sake of upgrading. I have no problem with this amp except that i wish there was a more variety of sounds from the distortion channel but overall a incredible amp for the money.