Kustom Tube 12 Combo

I have dozens of amps ranging from over 40 years old to boutique new stuff. I only need the overdrive sound for recording slide guitar. Cheap is good when it comes to the sound I want and use. I'm not concerned with much else, except switchability would be good for rehearsals.

I use anything from old single coils to humbuckers and hotrails. This amp sounds very sweet on semi acoustics [Epiphones and 335s great] with the top rolled back a bit and is particularly effective on tele's - again with the top rolled back and the drive up. Great valve compression.Work at it a bit and there's a sweet spot there.

Too early to say. I tried 3 identical amps in the store and one was faulty.

Again, too early to say yet. We'll see. It's not going to get hard use. Studio mostly.

I've been playing for [christ, really that long?] 40 years in just about every situation and type of venue imaginable. I tend to blend amps to get the sounds I need, for example, even for festival gigs I'll use a 4w [yes four watt!] 40 year old Jennings Domino valve bass amp for slide guitar, through am Electrovoice 15 inch cab, with an Ashdown Peacemaker 60w combo on top for the gain button control over solos, and some top back up in the overall mix. But I have a selection of anything from rare Gallien Kruger to old Selmer, basic Peavey and oddball Trace Elliot. I had a 60s Fenton Weill 7watt amp from almost new that I used to use for everything. Recording, even miked in a chair for big gigs. It got stolen, along with the car it was in, over 20 years ago. I have now found the perfect replacement in the form of the Kustom. In fact I bought two to use them in stereo - cheaper than a crappy effects pedal! I may yet use them live, miked into P.A.

I like the fact that it's simple, without a lot of effects and complicated stuff. Being a beginner, I just want something simple.

I just want a clean, undistorted sound. As others have said, the warm, soft sound of tube amp is great. I bought a Kustom KGA30 as my first amp (solid state) from a pawn shop, and then I saw this Tube12 at another pawn shop and had to have it. I'm now selling the KGA30, the Tube12 is better.

I don't know anything about amps, but I could tell the difference between these two. I found some old NOS tubes in a box that I got with a tube stereo receiver I once bought, and I replaced the stock 12AX7 tube with an NOS Sylvania 12AX7 made in the USA, and it definitely made the sound cleaner and clearer. I have a Japan made 12AX7 that I might try too, but I'm happy with the USA Sylvania.

The gain dial(distortion) isn't great, but with the new tube it's much better cleaner and more distinct.

Seems to come on when I want it to and hasn't given me any trouble so far. All the dials are smooth and the cabinet seems very solid.

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I've only been playing for 2 months maybe, and this is only my second amp. I think I'll stick with tube amps from now on as I like the sound better than my solid state amp. I like the small compact portable size and the solid feel the unit has. Nice and inexpensive and gets the job done. Actually seem to have quite a bit of volume to it....sounds like more than 12 watts.

12 watt practice amp with tube preamp and Celestion Super 8 speaker. This amp is really small and handy to carry around.

I disagree with previous posts that this amp needs a different speaker. I liked the warmer tone of the Celestion Super 8. I controlled the farting by adding a 200 uF nonpolarized electrolytic cap in series with the speaker. It rolls off the lows in the bass guitar and extreme lower guitar range without affecting the higher frequencies and protects the voice coil from over excursion and jumping out of the magnet gap, which is what farting really is. You can also just back off the volume or at least the treble. Adding the cap allows more lower midrange while still preventing ultra low frequencies from getting to the speaker. The Super 8 can't handle much power, but it sounds so good and is rather efficient. It goes as loud as I want to play in a small room. There is some hum when you turn the amp up loud, just like in an old tube amp. This isn't boutique quality sound, but for $100 it is very good.

Reliability should be about average because of the tube preamp and cheap crumbly particle cabinet and thin tolex covering. Adding the cap protects the speaker. You are protecting yourself by not carrying around an expensive amp that can get stolen. I have two of them, so I'm covered in case of breakdown or theft. I generally keep one in my truck.

No breakdowns yet.

I needed a couple of amps cheap enough that I didn't need to worry about them and without the hassles of a full tube amp. These are cheap and light. You will have to tighten and secure some screws and chase down a rattle or two, but very good sound when you tweak it a bit. The baffle board is weakly held in place by 4 very shallow driven screws, so I glued my baffle board in place on both my amps. I like the fact that changiong tubes affects the sound, so it's cheap to experiment there. I feel the stock speaker is very good for such a cheap amp. I can't give it a 10 because it still needs a reverb and better QC on the cheap particle board cabinet. Your effects unit will probably cost more than this practice amp, so it's a winner for the price. It takes the place of an old Fender Champ rather well and can actually play louder than most Champs.

I quit seeing these on eBay, so you might have to cough up the $105 or so that is now being charged for a new one. I think it would be worth building a nice plywood cab for the power head and speaker, and I might just do that. If I do, I will add another Super 8 speaker for a 2x8 combo, and also add an Accutronics reverb unit.

I also tried a Marshall AVT20 combo. If you have the money and don't mind the extra weight, go that route before dumping a lot of extra money into the Tube 12. It has a reverb and 10" speaker with better bass and true Marshall tone. A used AVT20 at $200 is a better buy than a new Tube 12 at $105. It's just that the Tube 12 is so small and handy to pick up and head to a friend's house for some practice. I don't think the Tube 12 could ever equal the AVT20 no matter how much you modded it. Problem is, the AVT20 not only costs 3 times as much, it weighs 3 times as much as well. The AVT20 circuitry is much more complex and it has a DI jack, so it can actually be gigged at a fairly large venue through the PA system.

Bottom line: nothing else this small and light at anywhere near the price has ever sounded as good to me. Just don't think you can get it all from such a package. Compromises had to be made.

It's a little practice amp. Really the basic stuff. No reverb or tremolo. If you need more, plug in some effects. The best feature is the portability, low price, and decent sound.

The stock Celestion red label speaker has a warm tone, but it's not for extreme styles or it will fart and break up. At low practice sound levels there will be no problems. It sounds best if you run it through a good 12" speaker cab, and it mates well with a 15 or 20 watt alnico speaker like those sold by Eminence. I use mainly the clean channel, as the distortion comes on suddenly and there is very little adjustment in the low end of the gain knob. It is best for roughly distorted gain, and the adjustment range is large enough for more extreme styles of rock. A low gain tube like a 12AY7 is what you need if slight amounts of distortion is what you are after. An Electro-Harmonix 12AX7 will work well for high gain styles. An Ei tube works the best on the clean channel for sparkle and high end. The JJ tube gives the most versatility on both channels for a well rounded sound, but the differences were not greatly noticeable between the tubes. Except for a high gain Chinese 12AX7, which is what you want for extreme metal styles, but everyone else will probably hate it. The roughest preamp tube I ever heard with extremely high gain.

The particle board cabinet is of low grade material that's soft and breaks easily. My baffle board was falling out when I got it, and there was very little material to sink a screw into, so I drilled through and bolted it all together. It developed the tube cover rattles which some tape took care of. Electrically, it has worked well and I installed a JJ tube that sounds great in it. You will have to put a bit of work into it when you first get it to make it bug free.

If you get a used one, you can't go wrong for the price. The 8" speaker is what upsets me, as the amp can cause it to break up too much. My favorite speakers are 10" or 12" speakers, so I have decided to look for a speaker cab with a good low wattage alnico speaker. I'm going to cut off the lower portion of the cab and make a little amp head out of it, or just switch the electronics box over to a good speaker cabinet and create a 1x12" combo amp out of it. Don't buy one of these new and pay close to retail when you can get a really clean Roland Blues Cube amp for around the same price in used condition. You'll like the Roland better for the money, but this Tube 12 is very small and that makes it extremely easy to carry to a practice session. The REAL value of the tube is that it allows the electronically challenged a cheap and no-brainer way to alter their sound. You can try any tube in the 12AX7 and 12AY7 families as long as they are compatible with AC heaters. Switching over to DC on the tube heater will get rid of some buzz at high gain settings. I tried a 12AT7A that was only made for DC heaters, and the amp howled like a banshee. 12AT7 tubes can work, but they are made for higher currents than the other two tubes, so they will have a current starved sound. Whatever that turns out to be. 12AY7 tubes will probably have too little gain on the clean channel only, but the 12AY7 tube works great for bluesy distortion when the gain is used. Basically a good amp, but it needs to be fitted to the player to get the most out of it. The latest amp I saw had a JJ tube in it as standard, and it is light years ahead of the Chinese tube for my tastes. Would make a great first amp for a beginner.

The features are covered elsewhere but it seems to have enough given what its real selling point: it's an amp with a TUBE that sounds like it has a tube. If you're looking for other features then you might be disappointed. Some of the reviewers sound like they weren't primarily after the tube tone and so didn't get what they wanted. I don't think that's the fault of the amp or the manufacturer. Don't buy a lawnmower if you want to use it as a rototiller.
I see the amp as having responsive, effective eq, with the added benefits of a line out, a headphone jack, a distortion option, and a filter switch that gives the amp an out-of-phase effect. I'm quite satisfied that I got more than I expected.

This amp responds best to hot pickups with plenty of sizzle. My Les Paul Custom is fine through it but my '68 Tele' with hot humbuckers is far better. If you want to get a sense of the sound, listen the Fender Champ sound Clapton had in the "Let It Rain" period, or what you hear on "Layla": bite, some grit, with spunk and crisp top end. Blues, country, pop, and any rock that doesn't beg for heavily distorted power chords:it's a great little amp. I've played through and owned a number of Fender Champs. I like the sound of this better.

I haven't had it for a long time. Common sense tells me a $100 amp might not last forever. With sound this good, it's worth the risk.

I haven't needed to find out.

I've been playing for 38 years. I own a Fender Vibrolux and Super Reverb, a Vox Cambridge, a new Traynor 2-12' (fine amp!),etc. I have a variety of electrics, the Paul and Tele are most often used.
It has a great small amp tube sound and though the distortion button doesn't give me a sound I want, it's not a bad sound.
I'd definitely buy another one and feel like I got a GREAT deal getting it used but nearly new.

The features are versatile enough, it has two channels; no footswitch, with a gain boost on the overdrive that adds more highs. I never use the boost because it sounds too bright but the preboost overdrive gets a remarkable vintage brit-rock sound. The clean channel is superb, it's very warm and bell like in tone and perfect for jazz or blues. The single tube in the preamp section really warms up the sound. It would be great if it had reverb but i understand why it doesnt; it's a practice amp and a great one at that, but most practice amps don't have reverb because this would drive the price up. Besides the digital reverb that is put in practice amps leaves much to be desired anyway. The thing's got plenty of power for what it was made for, 12 watts is quite enough, plenty of power without having to buy a 15 watt or settling for a 10 or 8 watt. The headphone jack is very efficient, nice and clear without breaking up through headphones.

I play a Gibson SG special and a Danelectro Danoblaster for brighter more surfy stuff. Several people have complained about the overall sound of the amp on here but if you actually take some time tweaking the amp and run a spring reverb pedal through it to compensate for no reverb, I've found that it sounds great. Remember guys it's a pracice amp not a gig rig and it works great as such. A good amp relies on good playing not the other way around. If you play heavy metal don't buy this amp, if you play punkrock don't buy this amp, but if you play jazz, blues, surf or good old rock-n-roll then pick one up because this thing is a steal.

I've had it awhile and so far so good, if you're someone who takes care of your belongings then you shouldn't have a problem.

Phenominal, my sis lives in Cinncinatti so when i was there i stopped in HHI headquarters which owns Kustom(and B.C.Rich by the way) and is also the location of the main Kustom warehouse. I was trying to locate some Kustom products that i couldn't find anywhere. The executive I talked to was great, he called all the Kustom dealers in the area until he found what i was looking for and even wrote out detailed directions for me and gave me his phone number in case i had any problem; it's a super company.

I have been playing for awhile and i have procured a great deal of Kustom equipment along the way, including the KPM8420 PA-system which is awesome and the smaller KPM480 PA. The new Kustom company is as good as the old and their products are top shelf and you can't beat the price. I use the tube 12 for what i bought it for; working out songs, quiet practice and recording and it stands up for all of those. It looks retro, it sounds retro, small enough to take anywhere, it's a workhorse and an all around great little amp as well as a fantastic value.

See the website.

Unless you are playing metal or some extreme style, leave the standard speaker in. It doesn't fart out unless shoving it hard in the bass. The standard speaker has a very warm midrange tone. That Chinese tube in mine was CRAP. I changed it out with an Ei tube I bought cheap at Angela Instruments, and the sound was immensely better. That Chinese tube is for high gain heavy metal styles, and has very raspy overdrive tone. A 8 with the original tube. For the price, it's a 10 with a decent tube because NOTHING else for $100 sounds as good.

I don't think I would gig it unless I had a spare. The particle board cabinet does NOT inspire confidence. This is something small for the bedroom that you can kick under the bed.

$100 for the amp and $10 for a better tube. That's chump change these days. Comes with a real Celestion red label speaker. Sure, it's a $15 speaker, but that's a lot of money to put into a $100 amp. If I was doing some high gain extreme styles, I would have probably kept the Chinese tube in the amp. The amp is so incredibly light and handy. It goes really well with a small 20-50 watt bass amp for practice sessions.

Good for a little practice amp.

This is the amp that some day will be bought by a lot of poor kids on the used market and they will learn to play rock, blues, or country guitar through it. There will be all kinds of mods listed for it because it is such a widely sold beginners amp. The distortion is a bit rough unless you are into heavy metal and such, but the clean channel is great for the price. The distortion can be smoothed quite a bit by using a lower gain tube. Haven't tried changing out the op amps yet, but I imagine that would improve the tone as well. No need to change out the speaker unless you play really bass heavy style, in which case it will fart out. Putting filtered DC to the tube heater would take out a lot of the hum. In short, this is a great amp for the price that can be made a lot better sounding with a few tweaks that aren't hard to do.

There are probably some pure solid state amps at this price that are more dependable, but they almost certainly sound like crap in comparison. The particle board used in construction is really weak, so you can't kick it around too much or let it get wet.

I think you had better plan on being your own customer support. This amp is available at too low a price to justify shipping back and forth for service.

I own three better amps: one cost me $350, one cost $425, and the other cost $550, so I guess I can't complain. For the price, it was a pleasant surprise.

Bought two of them, brand new at a local guitar dealership. Nothing to write home about but get good tones in stereo from a POD XT connected to them.

I use a Les Paul copy (dillion extreme) through a PODXT. Good tones through these little amps. As others have noted however, at higher volumes the 8" Celestions get a little farty.

I don't think I would use these to gig with permanantly without backup, after reading the existing reviews. I bought these mostly to experiment with, may put them in a rackmount config and power a small cab with them. Those are my plans anyway.

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Amps sound ok. Fit right behind the seat of my 2003 Ranger extend cab. Also, had a buddy of mine come over and play my drumset with these set up right next to it and we were able to jam in the living room, no hearing problems whatsoever. Loud little boogers. If they were stolen, it would be much less heartburn than if I lost my Marshall 9200 and cabs.

This amp has 12 solid state watts and a lonely 12AX7 tube in the preamp all through an 8" speaker. 2 channels; headphone, line out and speaker out outputs; bass and treble EQ and a tone shift switch to scoop out the mids. Oh yeah, it has a jewel power light and slick metal control knobs. First impression - NICE! I can live without reverb on a practice amp, but I think it's ridiculous not to include a dedicated mid frequency control on a tube amp, even if it's a wanna-be.

The clean sound is great even with the stock tube and speaker. Very warm, ringing and all around very tube-like. You really start to hear the tube working when you turn the volume up past halfway. Great dynamics, good harmonics - I'm surprised this is all done with one preamp tube. The distortion, on the other hand is terrible beyond belief. What happened, Kustom?! Luckily, I have a bunch of distortion pedals or I would have been mad. This amp works great with all of them, from the Tubescreamer to DOD Death Metal. It also makes my Digitech RP200 sound like it's not just a crappy toy. Must be the tube. All these pedals can make the speaker fart out if you try, but if you don't exceed the volume that you get when you plug straight into the amp, it's fine. It's a nice speaker, people. If you want more volume, use the speaker out jack and plug it into something else. Even if you decide to upgrade the speaker it's still not going to be loud enough to play with a drummer, so why bother? This is a practice/bedroom amp for the tube-tone connosieur, nothing more.

I've only had it for a couple of months.

E-mailed them for the schematics and received them the next day.

Bought this amp because I didnt want to fire up my vintage Ampeg head without a good reason (like other people listening) and wanted more out of a practice amp. Since nobody around here sells them, I ordered one from Music123 based on the reviews below without ever playing it first. Thanks guys! This is a nice sounding, cool looking little amp and it's cheap. It does have its quirks though. It pops loud when you turn it on, it also hums about as loud as if you were playing with single coils in a bad environment, it even picks up a faint radio signal when volume and gain are all the way up. In short, it acts like an old tube amp in need of a little service, which is pretty cool in itself if you consider the price. I would definitely buy it again because of its clean sound, it is that good. You won't get real power tube overdrive out of it, but a TS9 will get you amazingly close. Any good distortion pedal will also sound good through it as long as you keep the pedal volume down to what the amp was designed to handle. If you want a cheap, small amp that you will actually ENJOY playing through, this is it.