Kustom KLA-40

Standar KLA 40 same as rest won't go into that.

As some previous posts state, the amp is kinda stale sounding. However if you use any effects, which a lot of players do, then you can get some decent sounds from this amp. I however took the speaker out of the amp immediately and replaced the stock Kustom speaker with a Celestion Ramrod 10 incher (19.00 ebay) and yeeeeehaw the thing sounds way better. Much clearer highs with plenty of punch and lows to boot. This single modification is a 100% improvement in the sound performance of this little amp.. My rating for sound will be POST speaker replacement

Seems reliable.

1 year warranty I think, but probably voided by replacing speaker, but who cares for 40 bucks.

Overall, this amp with the speaker change is a good little practice amp. Don't get me wrong, you are not going to get high priced tube sounds or even high end SS but for the price and the ease to modify, they make great little amps

This is an update to a previous review. I felt it was only fair to submit again. But to summurize - 40 Watt SS 1x10 Combo. Reeks of 'Cheapness'.

A guy who was doing the same weekly jam at a local club (and who is a great jazz player) was using an old Roland. So I thought I would give this a try. Late one night recently I was fooling around and plugged a Tele into this amp. I set it up for a nice mellow Jazz-type sound (low volume, some bass response on the neck PU, plus a hint of reverb). I played for over an hour! It sounded great. Solid state amps ARE pretty good for Jazz. This thing really sounded real good. Hard to believe but really.

This thing was rained on during hurricane Jeanne last year when a club I left it in lost its roof! (I was using it for a powered monitor.) It sat outside for a couple of weeks. I brought it home and cleaned it up. Still kickin'.

Goes to show you that you never know. This amp might see action some day if I decide to do a quiet easy-listening venue. It depends on if I can get that same resonant sound live. Might have to mike it. So moving from a 3 to a 7.

One channel that switches between clean and overdrive
Reverb
40 Solid State Watts
10" speaker
Head phone jack
Line out jack

I play mostly single coil PUs in fender guitars. But reqardless of your guitar, this amp has no character or 'soul'. It is loud, but the 10" speaker makes it sound like a mosquito in your ear. I suppose you could put a crunch stomp-box in front of it and you might get some grunge. But for the most part, this amp is no good if you are serious about tone.

Never used it out on a gig. It has only be turned on about 3 times. Can't tell.

Playing about 40 years. I have a Fender HotRod Deluxe, Traynor YCV20, and a Marshall Valvestate20. I havd owned a Silvertone 1482, '60 Fender Concert, Fender 50 Watt Bassman, and a Traynor YBA3.

I cannot recommend this amp to any serious player. I bought it as a practice amp new for a sale price of $100 which seemed okay for a 40 watt amp. After using it a few times, I gave up. This would be a good amp for a beginner or student.

Speaker

If amps could talk this one would fart. Does it sound like a 100w driven pc speaker? You wish! Would you trust your hard earned money to an amp manufacturer that cant spell its own fucking name?
I'm sorry Kustom, but your patented kazoo-queue overdrive technology doesn't fool me. And why does the OD switch glow when you play through it?!

I owned a Smoby play-kitchen 15 or so years ago, the dials on which had more functionality than the three way 'EQ' this amp boasts. At first i was confused and put it down to the 'fiddly nature' of guitar amps, but ive now come to realise these knobs should be replaced by the on/off switches 'arse', 'crack', and 'poo'.

Lets talk phono jacks! The high and low impedance jacks work a treat and Kustom have generously provided three spare jacks on the other side of the control panel labeled 'line out', 'external speaker', and 'headphones'. (Can anyone tell me why they labeled dummy jacks like this? I've hooked up to them but the best i can get is a distorted static sound from two of them?)

The reverb on this amp is _fun_. I've wasted many a would be practice session running a dynamic mic through this thing and playing god. Yeah.. Thats it. A #100 megaphone, that about sums this thing up nicely!

IF YOU DROP THIS AMP WITH THE POWER ON I SWEAR TO GOD YOU CAN HEAR JESUS CRYIN

This companies website seems to be powered by the same patented technology as their,

"35 YEARS OF GREAT AMPS!"

...None of which reached their customers.

"Unleash the tones!" They say. "One moment caressing, the next cutting. Each expressing your joy, your anger. You? It's your turn in the spotlight. Turn up and wail!"

..And wail i did. The KLA-40's unstoppable talent for disappointment is second to none. Although admittedly a greater expression of my joy, my anger, would be to see this MDF enclosed 'box'a'tricks!' fall from a bridge.

From all accounts this amp should not work. But it does. If you like cheap tricks or practice wicca this is the amp for you. If you play the guitar then a similarly priced marshall SS (or any other good SS) would probably be the better buy; though having said that the only people i can see ever reading this review are those who already _own_ a KLA-40.

Duno what year this amp was made in. Got few features. 2 channels, 1 EQ settings. Pretty lame. Has reverb which just makes it even noisier. Not good

The sounds u can get here are crap. The bass just adds a background thud which leaves the highs sounding empty and useless. The clean can be nice but gets too much overdrive on high volumes. I use a Yamaha Pacifica 112 which are very good. It ruins it. Looking for a new amp because i'm in a band and this amp is overpowered by a Peavey Rage 15 watt amp. I would never recommend getting this amp unless you were buy it from me because i want the money. I dont know how this can be a 40 watt amp because it is soo quiet. Maybe mines broken or sumthing. Overdrive is thin. Ok for a little punk. Only got this crap cos i was buying my first amp and thought it was an amazing deal. Still, so quiet and really shit

Hasnt broken down on me yet. So good in that respect. Seems though that if you kick it a few times, it works a little better. Still, i'm giving it a bad score because its such a bad amp

Never had to deal with them. Hope crapness doesnt run in the family with this amp

At quiet levels, you can get sum ok sounds. But this thing is not loud enough, even for bedroom levels. I have to say this amp really really really is bad and under no circumstances should anyone buy it. I really want a marshall half-stack or sum peavey or possibly a laney. After this one, anything loud will do. SUCKSSSSS

first of all, i wanna say something. whatever you do, dont buy this amp. ok-its got clean and overdrive. the clean has no feel to it and is rather stale sounding. the overdrive is aweful. not enough gain. but i dont use the overdrive anyway. it has a headphone jack. has a line out and external jacks. this amp is a solid state. i got it because i had a month to get a new amp for my bands first gig and i was desperate. i used the amp to practice with. i managed to play through the clean channel and band practice. but dont try to use distortion. it has reverb but stinks really bad.

i use single coils on a cheap strat. i want humbuckers really bad because as everyone knows, singles dont work good for metal. and that is what i play. i was in a punk band where i used to live, but my parents made me move and i am trying to start a metal band. the amp doesn't play well for metal or punk. it does not have enough gain. the clean channel sounds better but not good. it sounds like no other amp and that is not a good thing. the amp doesn't really feedback-at least not for me. i use a distortion pedal and a multieffect pedal-but that doesn't even fix the tone problem. doesn't have a variety of sounds except bad and real bad. the clean distorts at even middle volumes. that makes me really mad because i like a lot of bass on the clean and it wont let me do that.

it never has broke on me. i have gigged without a back-up. i dont have a job yet and cant afford a back up.

never dealt with them

ive been playing seriously for about 2 years. this was my second amp. i am just about to get a crate 120 watt w/ 2 12's. i use a squire strat. i use a dod distortion and a digitech rp100. if someone stole it i would wonder why anyone would steal this piece of junk. i would never buy it again. i hate everything about it except that its light. dont buy it

THis amp has basic controls treble-mid-bass, two channels 2 inputs headphone and ext speaker and line out. I got it for 199.99 at my local shop and thought it was ok till i played my friends peavey which at only 70 buck more beat the shit out of this amp at which i bought a peavery bandit 112 which is like comparing a ferrari to a kia. over

Wow was that someone strangling a cat...o wait it was my pos kla 40. there are so many better amps to buy for the same price and cheaper that sound way better than this thing. i also had a kla 10 a10 watt amp and there is no difference but the loudness to make it short and simple it sucks very very very very bad

this thing has poor build quality if u inspect it close you see short-cuts all over the place ...almost like it was build in five minutes. cheap covering thats seperating from the amp cause of crapy glue. and just the over all look tells u that this isnt a work of art

never had to deal with them and dont care to cause i have my peavey

Over all i woundnt piss on this thing to put out a fire! for the price there are far better amps out there. if u dont want quality well built great sounding amp that will last then buy kustom casue damn.....it sucks

itsa 1998 or 99 model...Ok features...2 channels....2 volumes....gain, mid, bass, treb, reverb..no effects which sucks...and a few jacks which i think is dumb

I find no difference from the KLA10 2 the 40 except for loudness. Its still noisy n crap and doesnt really clean up tha much, im into heavy metal thas why i hava better amp....THis amp was very small and very delicate....Noisy n shit....but it was ok fora year .

it worked like shit...anytime i would drop the guitar from a couple of inches and had the reverb up...it would make this wierd sound....i duno, thas b.c its crap tho, and da re verb was weak

n/a

This thing sucks ass!!! I was pist wen i bought it cos it worked like fucking shit!!!!! I would never EVER deal with kustom again, i boughta line6 n this bad ass is awesome...1999 model, and is 100000x better than any kustom u can buy....The only companies i think are the best to deal with are: LINE6, MESA BOOGIE, MARSHALLS, and maybe if ur into a lil light rock, possibly sum fenders...But kustoms just suck....THey look very ugly....allll black and cheap cloth......ok ill.....My line6 hasa sparkly cloth which looks phat.....Big ass line6 logo.......and the 10,000 buttons are on top of the amp which makes it easier to go to...black base with and cool red plate of where the knobs are and the knobs are blak n white....Dontt buyyy a fucking kustom!!!!! They suck!!!! Buy a cheap Line6 spyder 1x10 speaker or get a lil combo from mesa or marshall...If u wana play heavy metal these are the best to buy....Kustoms aaaaareeeeeeee cccccrrrrrapppppyyyyyyy

This amp has the standard stuff.
External Speaker Jack, two channels, clean and dirty, it's a standard amp

The sound on the clean channel of this amp is rather, well, crappy, it's got a very specific tone and nothing else changes it, the controls aren't very effective in this situation, you can only get up to around 6 before the sound gets distorted so it doesn't get very loud, but then again, for $200, you can't expect the world, I would say that the sound is decent for $200, it's a big practice amp. I play with my bro, he's a drummer, and it's sound is good enough for that. I would not think about taking this on to a stage anywhere.

I guess it's tough. I've had it 7 months, hasn't busted or anything, then again, nothing bad has happened to it, the most rigorous thing that has happened is it fell on it's face in the car on the way to a friends house

I would buy a different amp if this one got stolen, the sound makes or breaks it and in this case, it isn't flattering. I reccommend for someone who wants a big PRACTICE amp, but not for really any other reason.

Has plenty of volume, and sounds great when playing quietly, or very loud. Therefore it is excellent as a practice amp or as a proper amp. The overdrive feature sounds great - very useful if you have no effects boxes. I would like it to have a send line output, which would prove very useful for my uses, but there's plent of volume anyway.

I have used a cheap Encore guitar, and now I use an Epiphone Les Paul with my amp. Both sound great - especially the Les Paul when it is loud! I can get some really nice sounding music from it, though sometimes the sound is not as clean as I would like. The variety of sounds is impressive. I have seen better models by Marshall etc.

This amp has been lugged in and out of my car and house so many times, and it still works just fine. It did have a dodgy plug when I got it, but simply replacing that fixed it. I would (and have) used it at gigs without a backup.

Never used them.

This is my first main amp since I've been playing, and it is just excellent for what I use it for. I play on my own and practice at home, then I take it to band practices and gigs, and it manages fine with both. I would certainly buy it again if I was in the same situation, but I am looking to buy bigger soon.