Kustom Tube 12 Combo

I bought the Tube 12 to put upstairs to have available to play out song ideas quickly without having to get out a lot of equipment. I have been looking and planning to get a practice unit for this purpose for 2 years.

(6) Controls: gain knob/ gain, clean channel off-on switch/ low freq EQ knob/ high freq EQ knob/ mid boost or shift? switch/ volume
Features: 8" Celestion speaker, headphone jack, black tolex open-back cabinet, carrying handle. 12 window shakin watts; transistored power stage, 12AX7 real tube pre-amp stage.

I would have liked built-in reverb like everyone else, but understand the cost significance. I think I'll just put something portable like a Zoom 505 with it for effects, tuck it in a corner upstairs to work out ideas on.

Warm, warm, warm. I don't particularly desire a lot of treble sound thru an 8" speaker, anyway. I compared this sound with some used $175 40 yr-old class A tube amps with one vol knob and one tone knob with the snot beat out of them. Good airy, even order, warm distortion - 6 controls instead of 2 - for $100, new. I'm quite satisfied with the tone.
That warmth works well for blues. The gain is crisp and edgy enough to make you stay with it for awhile, too.
I tested the unit with an ES-335 and it handled the twin humbucks well; except with everything bassy turned up 70-100%, it rattled the speaker. I switched to a couple of Teles and was quite pleased with the warm touch it put to the sound. Teles too often sound brittle on small amps. The clean channel starts breaking up maybe a little too quickly, at half-volume, but I forget that its not a 100W. With the gain turned up 70-100% on the Teles, hum was detectable.
New all-tube 15-20W amps are $300. No way I was going to pay that for a practice amp. $100 will do.

The knobs are top-mounted, recessed, beefy, and dome shaped. Designed not to snag things and rip off. The power cord is probably 6' long, appropiately guaged, folds up perfectly and stays in the bottom box of the cabinet.
I appreciate design like that.

No experience with this company... first product of theirs I've owned. I understand Kustom is a US company that has this Tube 12 unit manufactured in China.

I have 100W amps in their own room in the basement. I got this unit for upstairs, when I hear a flurry of ides and want to play them out ASAP. 5 extra minutes makes a lot of difference when you're trying to get ideas down as you hear them.
A tube sound, 2 channel practice amp for $100 new is a good deal, even without reverb. The portability is a big plus in my case, I can tuck the unit behind the stereo cabinet so my wife doesn't have to see it all the time. The warm tones are quite useable and work with a host of different guitar/pickup types.

Low and high eq setting controls. Mid boost button. Gain selection button and gain control knob. Volume knob. 8" Celestion "Super 8" speaker. 12AX7 tube at 12 watts. Black tolex cabinet that is aesthetically pleasing -- very classy looking. Input and headphone jack. Open-back cabinet. No reverb.

Very warm and good bottom-end when clean -- not too much headroom, though. With gain it sounds okay, but you seem to lose some tone. The mid boost works well with the gain or clean channel. As far as practice amps go, this is as warm as it gets. Clean, this amp can't be beat for an 8" speaker.

So far so good.

Been playing for 16 years and have had my fair share of gear and tones. This is a good practice amp for those who need something small and portable with decent tone. I bought it for those areas in my life where my half stack is just not practical. It is very small and mobile. The price can't be beat for the quality of tone.

Okay - I should have waited before doing the review - I played the amp for a couple hours tonight and it was sounding pretty dang good. I'm adding a "9" to average out my earlier "7" to an 8 - I think it definitely deserves an 8. After playing on a Kustom 100% solid state (which sounded good, too), I hooked up to this amp again and there was definitely more warmth to it - and the lows and chords were really impressive for such a small amp (with and without the extra pedals).

I got this amp brand new today. It has 2 channels, a mid-boost switch, and gain, low, high, and volume knobs. It's pretty small (smaller than a Crate GFX15). It looks good - black with white piping around the speaker grill. Nice features for a small practice amp.

It's a little thick with my Epi LP custom. I can't wait to try it out with single coils (but I loaned my strat clone to my brother). I mainly got it because I play blues and heard this was a decent amp for that. Like the other review stated, it's kinda lacking by itself. It does rattle a little on the lower notes. To me it sounds best with the following setup - gain at 8 o'clock, low at 9 o'clock, high at 1 o'clock, with gain on and mid boost on. But the key is I hooked up a Snarling Dogs Very Tone pedal set to "B" with attack control on "bite". With that setup it gets a good smooth bluesy sound in my opinion. It is a little whiney on it own, but after it warms up good, it starts to sound similar to a real tube amp. I'd rate the sound at an 8 or maybe 9 with the Very Tone - but I'll give it a 7 (really more of a 6.5, but that wasn't an option) since the amp doesn't include the pedal. It may grow on me over time (and as the tube gets broke in - does that make a difference in a preamp tube? - we'll see - or I may try a different tube).

I don't gig yet (maybe never) - I mainly play for my enjoyment and it's only been for less than 6 months - so take my review with that in mind.

Haven't needed any repair, but I did email them before I bought it and asked what brand tube came in it and got a response within a couple of hours. Pretty impressive in my opinion. Oh, by the way, it's supposed to be a Ruby tube (12ax7).

Okay, maybe I rated it a little high - but it says "10 fantastic value". I got the deal of a life time on this amp - I can't tell you how or I may have to make you disappear. Put it this way, I got it so cheap that I could have bought another very tone pedal and still come out cheaper than Musician's Friend (who already has a good price). Considering the price I paid, definitely a 10 - if I had to pay $100, I wouldn't be quite as happy (but I've only messed with it for one night and my opinion may improve as I get it more fine-tuned), but still a solid 7 even at $100.

This amp is new to the market. It is very good for the Rock and Blues sound. Its main feature is the 12 AX7 tube in the pre-amp section. Also need to mention the Celestion 8-inch speaker, it seems very strong. It has a clean sound with a gain push-button and a "shift" push-button for adding more mids to your sound. It has a headphone jack, but no speaker out option, and no reverb. That's a shame because you could drive a cabinet with this amp I think. I got this for home practice, and wanted a small tube amp. It is similar to the Marshall AVT I think because it uses the 12ax7 tube. However you can get this for a fraction of the price of the AVT. I've only had it a few days, so I won't try to compare it too much. It has a lot of balls, however, I find that the gain side breaks up a little too soon....but, I found a remedy to that. I give it an 8 because of no speaker out jack and no reverb.

I play an American Strat and a modified Squire Fat Tele that is hot-rodded with a Seymour Duncan SH-1 '59 humbucker in the neck and a Dimarzio Virtual-T on the bridge (courtesy of ALPHA MUSIC in VA Beach, VA). I actually think it sounds better with my Strat, but let me tell you what works with this amp. I play mostly Rock and hard-edged blues, so I'm looking for a break-up, but not a mushy, over-distorted sound. Ummm, kind of like a "baby-plexi" sound maybe? Anyway, I put the amp on the clean setting (gain button is out), then hooked up my Dano "Pastrami overdrive" pedal, both knobs at about the 1 or 2 o'clock position, cranked the amps volume knob and WOW! What a sound! I got a clear, driving, slightly distorted and MUCH LOUDER sound. I know I was working that little 12AX7 but I don't care 'cause I got another in my drawer if this one blows!! VERY COOL SOUND. This can also be attributed to the 8-inch Celestion speaker. You have to try it to believe it. Just use your favorite overdrive pedal. I got this Dano overdrive used and cheap, but it works great! The clean without overdrive is ok, not great. No Fender clean here, no reverb. So I give it an 8 again.

Looks reliable enough for a practice amp. Don't plan on major gigging with it. It will be cool to carry out for practice with some one I think. It is about the same size as a Fender Bullet or Squire Champ amp, just a little deeper body maybe. All parts seem durable enough. It has what seems to be a rubber handle, but that's ok, it doesn't weigh too much. I don't know anything about KUSTOM service department, hopefully I won't have to find out.

Never used them, don't know.

I've been playing on and off for over 20 years, and used a lot of different gear. If it were lost I might get another or try another small tube combo maybe. It's cool to mess around with. My main amp is A Marshall TSL 60W, with an Ampeg V212 cab with vintage 30's. This is just a practice amp, and it's great for that. Without the overdrive pedal it is limited though. I might find I like it more as I experiment. Sometimes tweaking makes a world of difference. One pretty cool feature I forgot to mention is that it has black tolex covering with white piping around the edges, kind of matches my Marshall head and Ampeg cabinet, COOL! Overall it gets an 8, that might be high because of the lack of features (reverb, speaker out).