Kustom Tube 12 Combo

It's a 12 watt practice amp with the cheapest Celestion 8" speaker and an ECC83S tube in the preamp section. The headphone jack is nice and it has a funky retro look. If you need reverb and tremolo, this is not your practice amp unless you add an effects unit. If you're a beginner (even a grown one) on a tight budget, this would be a great first amp.

The clean is OK if you lay off the bass on the tone controls. The speaker has a warm sound, HOWEVER, it does not play loudly in the bass without farting out. The clean tone is warm without the sterility normally associated with cheap solid state. For that alone, it is well worth the price. The gain channel gives a limited range of distortion. It is preamp distortion and sort of buzzy sounding as you would expect. Could be useful when added to the sounds you get from an effects unit. If you want really good overdriven tones, you MUST use an effects unit. I would use one of the smaller SansAmp units, like a Tri-O.D. or Tri-A.C or Bass Driver DI. I already had an RBI I use for bass, and it sounds great, but at $300 it is too much for this thing. Celestion Vintage 8 speakers are no longer produced, and at $60-$80 were too expensive for this cheap little amp. I went with an Eminence Legend 875 for the warm tone and ability to go low without farting out. At $40 it is a way better deal than the Vintage 8. The amp + speaker set me back $120 plus a bit of shipping. There is some hum when the gain is used, but I use the clean channel mostly and get extra gain from my effects unit. A Korg AX-1G complements this amp nicely if you need lots of effects at a cheap price, but for just getting overdriven tube tones a SansAmp unit works better. If you play at low to mid volumes, there is really no need to change out the speaker. I would get something like a SansAmp Tri-O.D. pedal first if my funds were limited. You can get a good used one on eBay for the price of the amp, and you will be out half the price of a Marshall AVT20 with about the same range of tone available, minus the reverb and extra volume that 20 watts and a 10" speaker gives you. The Tube 12 really sounds good for the price, but it is a practice amp. Sounds good in your bedroom or small studio, but it does NOT have the volume for doing gigs unless it was some kind of quiet coffee house setting. It's a little amp for little rooms, PERIOD. There is a need for amps like that, and it's cheap as well.

I would not depend on this thing too heavily. It is OK as far as cheap practice amps go, but the particle board used in the cabinet is very weak and crumbly. The tolex covering is quite thin compared to better quality amps. I installed thru-bolts on the baffle board, per an earlier review. The short wood screws supplied easily strip when you try to tighten the baffle board down to prevent rattling. Just head for the hardware ware store and do it; black bolt heads will not show much against the black grill cloth and chrome bolt heads would give a funky industrial look. TIGHTEN THOSE SCREWS! This is the cause of most of those rattles noted in previous reviews. It ain't a Roland Blues Cube 30. If you need lots of reliability, LOOK ELSEWHERE. It's the most tone for the least scratch, and nothing more. If it stays in your bedroom or under your coffee table, it should work just fine. It's small size and light weight makes it easy to get in and out of the closet. You can easily set in on a top shelf out of the way, like I do. I think it would be great for somebody looking for a cheap travel amp for their camper or RV. No big deal if it gets trashed or stolen.

I seriously doubt that you would be sending something this cheap back and forth between the manufacturer. If you intend on paying a technician to fix your amps, buy something better. I suppose Kustom would replace the amp if it failed. Don't expect much after the warranty expires. I'll never return mine outside of warranty, so it's basically a "throw away" if I can't fix it myself.

I paid $120 not counting postage. That includes a better speaker. You can get used Marshall AVT20 amps in mint condition on eBay for less than $200 if you are patient. It sounds as good as the Tube 12 with the speaker upgrade and a SansAmp pedal added. Either way you spend about $200 and get a solid state practice amp with a tube preamp section. The AVT20 gives you a reverb and better bass, the Tube 12/speaker upgrade/SansAmp pedal route gives you a separate pedal you can use on other amps. If you are into overdriven tones and need the extra volume and don't mind lugging the extra weight, go with a used Marshall AVT20. If you need basically a clean tone and only plan on using it in a home type setting, then at only $80 this basically gets you as good a tone as the AVT20 played clean. Still, I would buy the AVT20 if I had $200 to blow, which I did. The AVT20 simply wipes it out as far as overdriven tones go (hey, it's a Marshall, what did you expect?), unless you spend an equivalent amount of money upgrading it with a better speaker and an overdrive pedal (but you would have the pedal for better amps later on. Decisions, decisions!). For the price you pay, the clean rates a 10 (at sane practice volumes) and the distortion rates a 6 at best. I'm rounding it out to an 8, which at $80 is still a very high rating. I only use this amp for traveling and where not risking my AVT20 or expensive 40 watt tube combo is the issue. If you only have $80 to spend, look no further. If you have more to spend, I would look elsewhere unless, like me, you need a cheap "throw away" amp for traveling and taking into harms way.

Bought new in 2003. It's the model with the tweed grill cloth and the line out/speaker out. I won't bother with the features - everyone else has already listed them. Spring reverb would be nice, but even more than that I'd like the gain to work on the clean setting so I could actually get a subtle overdrive...

I've tried this with a bunch of guitars but 99% of the time I run my unknown brand Les Paul copy into this - though it has two of the hottest humbuckers I have ever used. The Kustom sounds alright - the clean is probably the best feature, though after replacing the stock tube with a JJ ECC83s the distortion sounds better, I'd like to think the clean sounds better too but that's maybe cos I spent NZ$40 on the valve alone... It's still kind of more fuzzy than overdriven though. Sadly I have yet to get this amp to do what I really want - which is a really mild overdrive. It will do sparkling clean, and ultra fuzzy, just don't count on getting anything close to just breaking up out of it.
I even followed some of the advice further down the page and found myself an old Matsushita ECC82 valve to get the mild overdrive I'm after. I'm not sure these guys noticed but you actually get a pretty similar level of distortion. Correct me if I'm wrong but 20% gain just means you're getting 1/5 the output of the tube, not 1/5 the distortion when you push it just as hard.
Because of my super hot pickusp I now run a Boss LMB-3 (yes it's a bass guitar pedal) so that when I turn it on it cuts the volume to the amp - I use this as my 'cleaner' sound. By switching the pedal off the volume returns to normal and the level of distortion increases. It's partway to the sound I want...Still this is only a practice amp. Buy it for the clean channel, not the 'overdrive'.

After two weeks it started buzzing and humming away. Tightened the screws on the transformer and that got rid of some of the buzzing. Going to try moving it to the bottom of the box at some point to try and further cut the humming. Not really impressed - my other practice amp which I've owned for nearly the last 10 years is as quiet a runner as they come...

Emailed the company with a few questions after having owned it for a few days. That was about a month ago now and I still haven't received a reply.

Been playing guitar on and off for the last 8 or 9 years, though I'm still not really getting any better. I've owned a 1970s Jansen 50 watt tube amp which I should not have got rid of, and a bunch of solid state rubbish amps. Got effects pedals coming out my ears, though I've only just come to realise that the only pedal I really need is a volume booster sitting in front of a tube amp pushed to the edge.
I love the look of this amp and even in New Zealand for the price can't be beat new. This isn't a match for the Jansen (or virtually any other tube amp I've played through) in sound, but it sounds better than any other solid state amp the same, and definitely better than any amp new for this price. Rember though - just because it has Tube in the title, and one preamp tube inside, doesn't mean it is going to sound like a full tube amp.

All listed before, there is confusion however on the line out and speaker out features, Kustoms web site and online manual shows these features. I ordered mine from musicians friend in July 2003 and got one without any line or speaker out. Called musicians friend and they were clueless about the missing features on my amp, to be fair their web site listed the features and it did not have the line and speaker out listed and they offered a refund/exchange so I?m gonna have to dig Kustom for this confusion

I expected the sound of an $80 practice amp and that?s what I got. Cleans ok, heavy gain channel is nothing that I will be able to use either, didn?t respond well to playing dynamics etc.. think the tubes a whole lot of hype. (I like hard sounds similar to heavy VH distortion, SRV & Hendrix-ish gain, and clean with a bit of rough low dirt distortion. I played it with an SG Special and Carvin SC90). But it seems well made and gets very loud. I?m going to keep it and use it for my portable ?rack mount? system, basically a sans-amp psa 1, boss vf-1 and the amp, the amp will replace lugging around the mesa 20/20 power amp (tube, I think this is where tubes make the most difference, at least for me) and heavy speaker cabs. So I love what it does for me, reproduces my rack setup sounds very accurately at low volumes, is light weight and can crank very very loud. On it?s own though as a tone generator I would give it a low rating.

Don?t know yet, the ?powered by celestian? sticker fell off right way.

haven't delt w/ them yet

For using it as my portable poweramp and speaker cab practice box this is a great little amp. I really like it so far and would give it a 10 for this. But for tone generation which is average and the confusion over the missing line out and speaker out features I have to lower it.

Not alot of features but very adequate. mine does not have the line out speaker feature which blows. I have a system worked out to wire the amp to different speakers through 1/4 inch jacks. All other features mention in reviews below.

The clean is my fav. channel. The distortion/gain is not the greatest. I have an old Marshall Gov. dist box that really compliments this amp well. I also use a J-station and the Tube 12 sounds great through the J-station. The tube really adds dynamic tone and sound quality over many solid state amps I've heard or owned. The celestion really can't handle high volumes or a really low end with out major vibration and sound problems. I wired my Tube 12 to a 12 inch no name speaker, and it sounded 10 times better. running through the bigger speaker, it handled the lows and volume a whole lot better than the Celestion in that little crappy cabinet. I plugged my bass into the tube 12 and wow,when running through the 12 in. speaker it sounded superb. Nice tight bass sound with a very nice punch, I was very pleased. With the sound diverted out of the tube 12 cabinet and inro am another, the hum and vibrations stop.
I did also replace the stock pretube with a Sovtek 12AX7LP. I did notice a difference between the two. I like the Sovtek better.
One more thing, I hit the mid shift and it is only a fraction of a difference in sound. With both tubes neither of which showed much difference in the mid shift button. Is that normal?? E-mail me with any info about the mid shift, I know what mid shift is suppose to do, butt the amp doesn't seem to respond.

No problems so far other than possibly the mid shift button does not work.

Haven't dealt with them yet butt may about my mid shift button concern.

Great amp, great price. I've been looking around for a hybrid for a long time. I wanted an amp that had tube tonal qualities without having to turn it up to high volume levels to get a good sound like all tube amps. this Tube 12 is perfect. I was looking hard at the Marshall ATV's witch sound great,butt not worth all the dough they are. I've been playing for 22 years and this is a super great amp for home practice and recording purposes.

Has exactly everything I need, which is not much - I admitt. I wanted practice amp with the smooth and warm sound, and without a bunch of half-worthless DSP effects. Has a (half?) tube preamp, with 4558 op amp which I replaced immediatelly with AD OP249 (National LM6172 would be even better), and 12AX7 double triode. LM1875 integrated power amp at the output, rated at 30 watts at 60V Vcc and 8ohm load. With 40V power supply (non-symmetrical), it's rated to be around 17 watts according to National's datasheet (I wonder why is this amp rated as 12W?). Celestion Red 15W/8ohm speaker. Metal caps for pots, nice overall looks.

I am using Ibanez RG270, but I am not doing metal. I play clean sounds mostly, blues, pop, rock. Amp used to rattle and hum at first, but while messing around it and after moving the transformer to the bottom of the box, it's now silent like a grave. Lots of different sounds, clean, warm and cozy. Distortion is nothing to write home about, but I don't think it could be easily beaten by budget pedals like zoom 505 II.

Seems pretty reliable, too early to tell. From the glimpse at the inside, not much can go wrong there. So I would say 10.

Excellent! I sent them an e-mail asking for Service Manual and got it within 24 hours! Now I can really tweak this little buddy!

Amazing practice amp, closest to tube sound you can get under 250 bucks. Very light, nice looking and sounding.

Not much features, but about everything I need.

I am using Ibanez RG270, although I do not do metal. A bit of hard rock occasionally, but mostly jazz, pop. I voided warranty as soon as I got home, and went ahead to replace cheap 4558 op amp in preamp section with faster Analogue Devices OP275. Sound is very warm and clean. You can vary it a lot with just few pots on the top. Rattles a bit with deep bass, but I'll try to get to the bottom of that in the next few days. There was also a hum which I reduced by moving the transformer to the bottom of the case.

It looks reliable, from what I've seen inside.

Don't know. Warranty is void anyway...

Warmest clean sound I heard for the money (and above). Nice looks, sturdy pot caps, cool blue led on top of nicely crafted box. Throw in a Celestion speaker and a bit of tubes, and you got a winner. I was just about to buy Cube 15 when I saw this baby.

Nice, simple amp setup - but huge range of possible sounds with just a two band eq (with optional eq shift), pre and post gain. Many people mention the lack of reverb, but that doesn't bother me as I run through a ZOOM 505II.

This amp is really exceptional! Let's not forget that it's a budget practice amp and as such it excells. Clean or distorted, you get a lovely warm tone - great classic valve sound, well suited to blues and rock styles. It sounds much more than 12 Watts - especially with an external 12" speaker connected.. more than enough clout for practice, recording and even small gigs.

My only complaint about the sound is the loud buzzing from the mains transformer. I've not read this from any of the other reviews so perhaps it's not present in all amps. I've isolated the buzz by actually disconnecting the mains transformer from the main circuit board and powering it up... still hums away quite loudly. I guess the transfomer is a cheap part and the hum isn't enough to spoil the overall sound of the amp - I wonder if anyone else has seen this problem?

No problems as yet (apart from mains transformer buzz mentioned above). The circuit design is elegant... the power amplifier is implemented in a single integrated circuit, keeping component count down and thus reliailty should be good. The valve is hidden well out of harms way too which is a nice thought (it must have been tempting for the designers to put it on display as it's the main feature of the amp!)
.. I'll give it an 8 because of the transformer problem.

No idea yet!

I've not played a huge range of amps. My main amp is a Peavey Bandit 65 (with excellent Scorpion speaker). I bought the Tube 12 for recording, as for all it's up-front klout, the Peavey sound is a little thin for my liking.

On value, though, the Kustom Tube 12 rates 10/10 - there's just nothing else to come close for a budget practice amp.

AS previous reviews. This is the updated model with external speaker and line out. No reverb. But as others have noted this would increase the price and a poor reverb would compromise the sound.

Bear with me. I'll get around to reviewing this amp. I play at home just for fun and have no need for a gigging amp. For many years I used an 80s Sessionette 75 (British ss well regarded for sounding tube like) which was fine but not too good for high gain saturated sounds. I like to play any style which takes my fancy so I bought a J-Station which unfortunately just sounded muddy straight into the Session or in the fx loop. Lately I've started recording to hard disk and had been using the J-station which was extremely flexible and sounded great (I thought). However like many players I've been looking for that cranked tube sound in a package that delivers at a volume level that can be used at home. Recording is also a bonus. Having looked around there were a small number of options (Laney LC15R; Blues Junior; Cornford Harlequin etc). Cornford probably offering the real boutique tone but at #500 with no reverb - too rich for me. Also reading the reviews on this site consenus opinion was that even little amps like the Laney are too loud fof home use. In fact I've seen some knowledgeable comments that half a watt is about ideal for power stage tube distortion in a small room.

The solution? The Hughers and Kettner Tubeman three channel pre-amp. Like the Kustom Tube 12 this uses a 12ax7 pre-amp and can be used in front of an amp (again didn't work well with the Session) or for its real purpose as a direct recording device. Happy with the J-Station sounds? Not any more. The difference is like night and day. The Tubeman sounds like a real amp. Compared to the J-Station recordings now sound alive with every track sitting beautifully in the mix - very professional. The only downsides were the price (approx #250 sterling) and the fact that it doesn't work well for me in front of my amp although other reviews of the Tubeman suggest it is great direct into a pa. The other drawback is changing the tube which is a major operation which after a lot of practice I've managed to get down to 15 minutes - still a lot of hassle though. Again after reading reviews I sent off for some replacement tubes (Phillips nos and JJ Tesla 12ax7) which I tried in the Tubeman but wasn't impressed (loss of highs etc). I reverted to the orginal Ruby which the unit may have been optimised for. Like the Kustom Tube 12 the Tubeman has no reverb but I now route the Tubeman through the 'no amp' patch on the J Station but using the compression, noise gate, fx and speaker models to taste. The result is incredible for everything except for rectifier high gain (which I'm not that interested in and which the J-Station can provide anyway).

Finally to the Kustom 12. With the line out facility the Kustom can do just about the same job as the Tubeman. Again just route it through the J-Station giving you your compression, reverb and noise gate etc and you have a great real tube recording sound straight to disk. Its also so much easier to tinker with the valve. Simply loosen the two side screws holding the electronics module and remove the two top panel screws. This allows you to simply rotate the module giving direct access to the tube. First time you will need to crack the green paint sealing the aluminium tube shield. I can mow swap in my Philips and Tesla tubes in a matter of seconds giving me a variety of tones and distortion characteristics (Phillips rounder and smoother; tesla higher gain, sharper). One word of warning if you do this is the tube shield will ratlle unless secured again. As I only use this at home I just leave it off.

As an amp I would only repeat what others have said. A nice warm clean tone and overdrive tones which is great for blues and classic rock but won't get you Santana of metal. I have to admit that I don't even miss reverb that much with this little amp. Finally I appreciate what others have said about about swapping the speaker but I haven't as yet experienced any rattles of buzz.

Volume wise this li

Nothing to report. I've voided the warranty (within hours) but can't imagine much could go wrong with the solid state bits and replacing the tube is a breeze.

Haven't tried.

Overall I would rate this at 9 to 10 given the sound price and potential. If you record and have access to a J-Station (or POD) you might just be amazed at what this little amp can do for your sound at a much lower price that a H&K Tubeman. You also have the added bonus of a great little standalone amp which is ideal for home practice. What do I love about this amp? I think it was designed by (in the US I believe) by people who like to tinker. By removing a few screws you can experiment with swapping tubes and tailoring our sound within seconds.

Finally I wish we could get US gear (Fender, Gibson or this) at the prices you can in the states. $100 dollars rather than #100 Sterling is a steal.

All it needs is a good reverb.

OK. This is the rating that matters. The sound is good. I'm not ecstatic & not disappointed. The clean is warm. The OD/distortion is a little brittle & congested, but it beats your average transistor in the pre. I'll likely stick with the clean. The sound is fairly tweakable, so you can get something that works. You'll experience the shakes if you push it (not you, the amp). I'm not a big basshead so I'm not worried about speaker fartiness. The stock Celestion seems adequate. I may put in another tube at some point.

This is my initial reaction. I've used the amp once for a few hours. It feels well-built & worked as expected---good start. I think that problem with hiss others have mentioned is either a) tube needs replacing or b) a lemon. I had a Mesa Subway Rocket with really bad hiss on the clean channel. Mesa was kind enough to give me replacement tubes (& a tour of the factory!) but something possessed me to never change the tubes. I just sold the amp. I think if I bothered this hiss might've subsided, but the same voodoo that made me not change the tubes made me decide to get rid of it. I don't think I'll have this problem with the Tube 12.

The documentation is sparce. What do you need to know? Plug in, twittle a few knobs & play. It works, so no need for customer support so far.

The distortion is somewhere between most solid state amps & what you'd deem acceptable, but I'd never expect a <$100 amp to be perfect. For this price the amp is a gift. It's more question of why NOT buy one.

this is a very versitile amp. solid state amps are typically more versitile than tube amps and this one is no exception. no, i didn't forget that it has a tube, which adds some warmth to the tone, i'm just saying it is still very versitle for all types of music. it has a headphone jack, which is nice, but no cd in. i've never heard of using the cd in on amps anyways so it doesn't matter to me. i use this amp in my bedroom and it is VERY powerful. don't get caught up in people saying that, "it's 12W therefore it's weak." THAT IS COMPLETELY UNTRUE. the way it works is that you have to multiply the wattage by 10 to double the output. therefore to double the output of this 12W amp you'd need a 120W amp!!! trust me this amp is LOUD!

i use this with my telecaster. i was really surprised by the high end this amp has. pressing the "high shift" button and turning up the treble produced highs i had never experienced before. with the high eq turned up all the way it hurts my ears at low volumes. it wasn't until i started adding more bass eq (i keep it around 8) and pulled back on the high eq (around 4) that i was able to create a really beefy tone even from the treble strings. turn on the gain and you really got a heavy metal tone! this amp also produces killer clean tones. blues sound really good from my telecaster with the clean channel (amp doesn't have a clean channel per se but you can un-push the gain button to make a clean tone). i've had no problems with noise from this amp.

never gigged with this but it is definitely loud enough and since only its pre-amp is solid state it you don't have to worry about output tubes breaking, which are usually what bust before pre-amp tubes. typically you should replace your 12AX7 ($12) once a year but it really all depends on how much you play and how hard you drive the amp.

this amp is very reliable-- i've never had to take it to customer support!

if this were lost or stolen i'd definitely buy it again because this is the best amp i've ever had and it's value is second to none. this product is analagous to the marshall valvestate line, which also feature a tube pre-amp and solid state output stage, except they cost upwards of $300.

Apparently Kustom has been paying attention. The model I bought about a month ago from Musician's Friend HAS a line out jack, an external speaker jack, headphone jack. I noticed a lot of reviews said that theirs just had a headphone jack. Like others, this would be the perfect little practice amp if it had spring reverb. As far as the power, it is great for practice or certain recording applications. It looks retro-cool and it is very light weight. I think that by its self, it is well suited for You really couldn't ask for more for less than $100.00

I play a Hamer Echotone Custom electric(ES335 type) and an Ovation Celebrity Deluxe shallow bowl. Since I play mostly blues and pop-rock, the amp is well suited for such. Because of the tube in the preamp, it is great for that thick warm bluesy tone. Though the gain is relatively smooth, it will not satisfy most heavy metal players because the gain is more a "crunch" than "shred". If you like seventies rock, it works great. It will work great for metal heads too if you use a good pedal. I did replace the cheap tube that came with it. I chose the Groove Tube 12ax7r, even though it too is a Chinese made tube. It still has a warmer less brittle tone than the stock one. I will eventually replace the celestion speaker with something like the other reviews listed below. By the way, THERE IS A LOT OF GOOD ADVICE LISTED IN THESE REVIEWS! Some talked about the amp casing ratling when used at high volumes. I didn't have the rattle but I did have the speaker break up and get muddy. The clean is good and vintage sounding. I have a fender as well and you really can't compare the two. The Fender can't be beat on the clean channel. I bought this little amp because I wanted a "tube" sound for blues playing and seventies style rock. For that it deserves an 8. As one person suggested in an earlier review, turn the gain on and move it back from the 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock and crank it up to about half way and it really sounds good. If you play clean and turn the volume most of the way up you will get a mild distortion. The amp is not especially noisy if you play at moderate levels.

Since I have only had it a month, who knows. I think if you play it for what it is intended, it should last.

I have been playing off and on for years. I play mostly as a hobbyist and enjoy playing different styles of music. So what I paid, this is a great amp. It is simple and not flashy. I love the metal knobs instead of plastic. If it were stolen, I would replace it because it is a good balance of size/sound/price. It doesn't sound like a 4x12 cabinet or anything but if you buy one based on what it is suppose to be, you won't be dissapointed.

New Kustom Tube 12, I hear actually made in China through American company Kustom. Suits my needs very well...it's a smallish, 12-watt hybrid tube/solid state amp that almost sounds like someone miniaturized a Marshall tube combo. It's got a quasi-second channel that is activated with a push of the "gain" button, plus controls for bass, treble, and a mid shift switch that boosts your mids signal. Eight inch Celestion speaker, open back, big cool blue jewel light to signify power on.

As it is, the features are very good, but a completely controllable mids knob would have been nicer.

I play through this amp with an Epiphone G-400 with '57 Classic pickups in it, and it sounds great. Unlike pure solid state practice amps, which tend to get crackly when you turn the gain up, the gain on this sucker is real smooth and easy, the product of the 12AX7 tube residing within. At the highest gain settings, it sort of lacks that real heavy metal bite--it's not an amp well-suited for the heaviest of the heavy unless you run an extreme distortion pedal through it...but it's very well suited for hard rock. Think AC/DC! It's not hard at all to get that smooth, overdriven, hard rock tone with this baby.

A lot of reveiwers say that the gain "channel" on this amp is pure crap, but that's just not true. Or maybe I just happened to get an exceptionally well-built model of this amp...but when I was still using my old solid state practice amp, I could REALLY feel the difference between it and a full tube stack. It was crackly, with the bad kind of broken-up sound. But with the Tube 12, though it's definitely NOT in the league of a full tube stack (what do you expect for less than a hundred bucks?), it emulates a full tube stack a LOT more closely than any other fairly low-wattage solid state I've ever heard. Push the gain button, roll back the gain knob to about 11 o'clock, crank the volume, and experience that feel-good rock n' roll sound that kicks so much ass.

So far, while I haven't taken the liberty of beating the hell out of this amp, it's withstood everything I've used it for. It also withstood the bumpy ride over and played great right out of the box...I wouldn't be afraid to take this thing with me anywhere I went.

No opinion.

I bought the amp during a big clearance sale at Music123.com, hence the $65 price tag on it. Since it was only $65, there's no way I could give this less than a 10, because it really was a FANTASTIC value. If I had paid the street price of $99, I probably would give this amp a 9, and if I had paid the list price of $149, I would give it an 8. But if you're on a tight budget and want that tube sound, you cannot go wrong with the Tube 12. Especially if you're a novice who hasn't yet been able to fully appreciate the sounds of a full-blown big-ass tube amp, because then this amp will REALLY sound good to you. The bottom line is that this is not a Marshall stack, which is what I think a lot of people expect of it because it's got one tube in it (okay, slight exxageration, but still). However, it's a great little amp that will give you as close to that tube sound as you will ever get for $100 or less brand new.

The metal knobs on this thing are really cute and seem high quality compared to the plastic knobs you usually get. The controls feel real smooth when you turn them. It has a cool retro look and is a better bargain than a vintage Fender Champ that is usually well worn. More compact than A Vox Pathfinder which also comes with the same kind of Celestion speaker. If it had a spring reverb and an external speaker jack on the back, it would be just about perfect. Add about $45 to the price I have listed if you want an Eminence speaker installed. I listed the price that I paid for the amp in the box, not even counting postage, which was about $8.

It's definitely not a Fender Champ. The sound falls somewhere between a Vox and Marshall sound. It sounds more Marshally than Marshall's own little MG series low wattage amps when you use the gain knob for distortion. It sounds much bigger than what it really is. If you sat it behind a curtain and played it, few guitarists would guess that it is a little 12 watt amp with an 8" speaker. I put an Eminence Legend 875 in mine because it has a really good low end for an 8" speaker, and stays clean as the power is raised until clipping of the output transistor occurs. That makes it good for a chunky fat country sound which is mainly what I use it for. It now stays cleaner than a Fender Champ as the volume is raised, and much tighter in the bass. I have a mint used Rickenbacker 660 in Fireglo with 6 strings, which is similar to the Tom Petty signature model but cheaper and doesn't have the 12 tuning key headstock or 12 saddle bridge or Tom's signature on the pickguard. It came standard with the scatterwound vintage reissue pickups and it is better than any Telecaster I ever owned. It also cost a little more than any Tele I ever owned, but the sound and quality is from another planet compared to most Fenders or anything else I ever owned. The Kustom amp is good enough for practice with even a Rickenbacker, I am not embarassed to be seen with it because the sound is fine. My Champ is spending a lot more time in the closet. The Rick and the Tube 12 have a retro look that goes together quite well. I am looking for a little reverb tank I can install in the bottom, then it will be just about perfect for practice. I gig with a Fender 65 Twin Reverb reissue which is way too big and loud for a practice amp. This thing is better than any Fender practice amp they make now until you get up to around the Blues Junior which is in another category entirely since it is all tube, bigger, heavier, too loud for in the house, and more expensive. The reverb on it is junk compared to a Deluxe Reverb, so I decided to get this and try to add a little spring reverb that would be at least as good as the Blues Junior's, and still have a smaller amp better suited to practice in a home situation. The Tube 12 goes plenty loud for me at home and at practice sessions. Really easy to carry around.

I did a stint in the military as an electronics tech, so I fix things like this myself. Replaced the speaker, snugged everything down tight, and no problems so far. I cannot rate this as I know you must play an amp about 5 years to really know what it will do in the long run. One more thing, I soldered the speaker leads to the Eminence speaker, since they felt a little loose and that is a common area to have problems and can make a good speaker sound really crappy when loose.

I'll probably never use them. I think I could fix it without a schematic. It only had one tube and one output transistor that I could see. There is nothing simpler than that in a guitar amp.

This gets a 10 for what it cost. It is really about an 8 compared to the expensive boutique practice combos you can get (when you upgrade the speaker). I prefer not to spend that kind of money on a practice amp. I had hoped that somebody here had tried installing a spring reverb tank and telling what it sounded like. I'm not into the digital reverb found on most cheap practice amps. Rather do without it than go that route. I guess I will just have to order a little reverb tank and find out for myself. The Marshall AVT20 was also a bit too heavy and loud for what I needed, but reasonable at around $300. I think it's better than the Blues Junior and cheaper to keep going. It has a better reverb than the Blues Junior, for sure, but weighs even a bit more in spite of being mostly solid state. The Crate VC508 just has a painted particle board cabinet and costs almost as much as the AVT20. This is the only amp that sells for less and is smaller than the AVT20 that I find acceptable. Kustom really needs to make it available with a spring reverb then it would be serious competition for the Marshall AVT20 in a smaller package at a lower price. What about it, Mr. Kustom Man??? A plywood cabinet option would be nice also, making it tougher as a small gig amp.

12 watts of power driving a little 8" Celestion speaker. You don't get any reverb, which is a bummer since I am an old chicken pickin' country player that doesn't do those pedal things like the young kids do. Maybe I will find a cheap reverb unit on eBay that I can hook up to it. Somebody said I could get a little one for about $40 on the internet, but I forgot the name.

I have owned a lot of guitars over the years. Most of them cheap and not worth mentioning. I have an old beat up Gretsch hollow electric that can outdo them all, and that is about all that I use these days. Other than that, I just use acoustic guitars. I needed an amp that I could carry around easy and didn't cost too much. I like the sound of good tube amps, but I don't like changing all those tubes when they get old. A bad tube amp can really aggravate you. I remember years ago when the bands would start up their old tube amps and all kinds of noises would come out of those things. It was real common to see an amp fry itself if a person that was ignorant on amp maintenance owned it. I paid a bit more for this thing than most of these young kids that write most of these reviews, but I got it from a dealer I know that fixes tube amps and he put in a new old American tube and went through the amp before he sold it to me and now it's as tight as a tick. It doesn't use power tubes, so my dealer said not much trouble out of it since those are the ones that cause the most trouble. No rattles or bad noises. I don't play it turned all the way up, and I don't use the gain button. I just turn the gain knob all the way back and use the volume knob because my Gretsch sounds just the way I like it without distortion. I can make the speaker give a distressed sound if I play a lot louder than I normally do, but that was just to test it and I haven't done it since. I am real pleased with the sound for what I give for it. A friend of mine has a Fender Deluxe Reverb that sounds nicer, but he gave an insane amount of money for it also. I can buy one of these every couple of years and still come out ahead, I figure.

I have had no problems, but I know that you have to change the tube every couple of years or so.

I lost the warranty card. I think my dealer could fix it cheaper than pay postage both ways to the company.

I've heard better, but not anywhere near this price. I really like the small size and that it will play loud enough without having to get a heavier amp. At my age I have better things to do than carry around an amp that weighs over 40 pounds. For what I paid, I think this is a fine little amp. But remember mine did not come straight out of the box and was checked out by my amp dealer that put in one of his recommended tubes. I forgot the name of the tube, but it is an old American one and it sounds good.

Finally, a cheap practice amp with serious tone. Everything else you get at this price is just icing on the cake. My oldest brother said that Saul Marantz of the famous Marantz stereo gear of the 60's was involved in the design of the old Kustom amps of the 60's and 70's. They were used by Creedence Clearwater Revival and the Doors, I believe he said. I doubt if old Saul helped design this new Chinese amp that Kustom has surprised me with, but it is nice and warm sounding in the same way that my old Marantz solid state integrated stereo amp from the 70's sounds so much better than most other imported stereo amps from that time period. Plus, it lasted while most of the others died a quick death at our frat parties. I only buy old Marantz stereo amps from the 70's. A friend of mine majoring in electrical engineering owns them also. We find them dirt cheap with problems and he fixes them up. Sell most to fellow students, but kept a few of the best ones for ourselves. He helped me modify my Tube 12 amps, and said that while they are cheap and have some minor problems, they are really killer for the prices you can find them selling for. No, they do not have the tuck 'n' roll styling with colored padded vinyl coverings like the 70's amps, just a thin black tolex covering over particle board. Nothing fancy, but rather dead acoustically and no rattles. I like the cool retro look that Kustom gave this little blaster.

This is where it gets interesting. I had bought an old 4x8 cabinet from my oldest brother that was used for country music gigs. It was beat to hell looking from being hauled all over the place, but had solid plywood still, and he had recently loaded it with different models of speakers since he said that blended speakers sounded better than using all the same type speaker in a cabinet. He had installed two Eminence Legend 875, one Celestion Vintage 8, and one Jensen P8R-8 then decided to stop gigging due to job demands and sold it to me at a cost that was too good to pass up. I had remembered that SRV was rumored to have used several amps at once in his recordings, and I was wanting to give the concept a try. I decided to look for small amps with good sound that maybe had blown speakers and I could pick up for a song. The Marshall AVT20 was too expensive for my project, but it was the yardstick for tone since one of my jamming partners owned one. None of the really cheap solid state amps compared to the AVT20, but the Kustom Tube 12 held the most promise after visiting every music store in the local area. They are both hybrid designs. The Vox Pathfinder had good tone but less volume than the Tube 12. I also read in the HC reviews that some Pathfinders suffer from bad chips in the tremolo circuit which affects the loudness, plus it is not as compact as the Tube 12. My jamming partners and I accumulated four Tube 12 amps over the next couple of months while my Marantz tech played around with circuits, speakers and tubes. He made a low cost DC filament circuit from a rectifier bridge, a 470uF 25V electrolytic cap, and a 2W dropping resistor that dropped the DC voltage to 12 volts exactly (the filter cap charges to near peak AC volts, and must be dropped down to RMS or DC value according to my tech. You could use a 12V DC regulator for the ultimate mod, but a resistor will do just as well since the load is constant plus it's cheaper and less likely to fail and provides slightly reduced voltage at turn-on when the filament is cold and drawing heavy current. Trust me, my tech is a whiz on these things and a little guitar amp is like Stone Age to a good Marantz integrated amp.). It cut the hum from the heaters down tremendously and allowed high gain/volume settings without that annoying hum some people have mentioned. A remote speaker jack was added to each amp on the back panel. Each amp got one of the speakers from the 4x8 cab installed in it, and all the Celestion Super 8 speakers were mounted in the 4x8 cab for added boost at live gigs, usually in a corner for max bass effect. I always hated that guitar cabs come in a square speaker arrangement. This is for transport ease and making the sound project efficiently to the front, sort of like a telephoto lens on a camera. That is all wrong for a smaller club or frat house where you want to spread the sound horizontally while maintaining tight vertical spread. PA columns or audiophile speakers like those made by the Magnepan company in Minnesota are vertically oriented to achieve the right effect. My brother has a pair of their tall Magneplanar panel speakers, and they are AWESOME. The acoustic term is "line source" for this arrangement. I wanted that quality they had in the guitar amps, so we stacked them on top of each other. Also we put them near a wall corner in the frat house to bolster the bass and keep them from being knocked over as easy since this whole arrangement is top heavy. Pulling them away from the wall gives a more open sound. To gain access to the control knobs, we had to turn the amps on their sides for stacking. All those knobs running down the side look funky cool. We put wide strips of velcro on the sides to keep everything in place while the amps were playing and vibrating away. We sat them on a 2' tall heavy duty speaker stand that was filled with lead shot and sand owned by one of the frat bros, then threw a 20# bag of lead shot on top of the top amp

Ron can fix anything, and when he mods something, it rarely breaks down later on. Except when he says, "Hey guys, I've never tried this before, but I thought you might want to give it a shot..........". Watch out for the fireworks!

Customer support? We don't need no stinking customer support!!!

This is the most fun we have ever had with an amp. It's our own special design 4 channel/4 flavor Tower of Power. For our Christmas and New Year's gigs we decked it out in flashing christmas tree lights and set it on a beer keg. The beer had lots of fizz, and people tended to NOT want to hang out too near the keg for long periods of time. We got lots of comments on the look and sound of our stack. Our bass player has recently begun to look into small bass amps as well........

Just your basic practice amp features, except it has a tube in the preamp section and sounds nicer than most practice amps. I wish I could hook it up to a bigger speaker.

I got a Highway 1 Strat on sale at Musicians Friend and so I had some money left over to upgrade from my trashed out Crate practice amp. I got on eBay and found this one for $65 used in like new condition. It was worth a try according to these reviews. Mine came with the crappy Chinese tube. Lots of gain but it had a buzzsaw distortion sound and the tube had a really bad rattling sound for a couple of minutes until it warmed up. I decided to change tubes, so I got one of those NOS GE 6072A tubes from Angela Instruments like one of the previous reviews mentioned. It is the same as a 12AY7A, just a military surplus type number. For $16 I think it is a great old American tube and will probably last way longer than an import tube. Much better than the Chinese tube it came with and the distortion is much more bluesy. I can live with the farty speaker since it only acts up when you push it loud and I am in a college dorm so I keep it down anyway. I plan to upgrade when I move out. Otherwise, the sound is nice and warm, which tends to balance the thin sound of most single coil pickups. The output stays clean until you get a transistor type breakup unless you use the gain feature which give preamp distortion sounds. The tube allows you to tailor your sound, but it does not have output overdrive distortion like a vintage tube amp. There is some preamp hum, but I think that is because it does not have DC filament power. If you are the electronic type you can easily put a filtered supply on the filament, but I tried it with a friend's Korg AX1G and that quieted it down, so I will get one of those later. Rather put my money on a good pedal, since you get better distortion that way and lots of other sound effects. A bigger amp would sound no better as I cannot really crank it all the way up except on weekends. With the right speaker and pedal, I think this little amp could really wail.

Other than the Chinese tube, it has been reliable. I kind of expect trouble from those things.

I have no warranty, as I got it used.

I think this is really good for the money. You get it cheap enough that you can afford to play around with it by trying a few different things. If you are a beginner, like me, and screw it up or something, you don't lose much money. Good little amp with a cool retro look that is plenty good enough to learn to play on and also do some experimenting on and learn a few things before messing around with more expensive amps. I couldn't imagine a better amp for the money spent; however, I am going to knock off a point because of the crappy Chinese tube. Some people on here lucked out and got it with a Tesla tube, I think.

Basic practice amp with gain and master volume. Features a mid boost switch instead of a midrange pot.

It has a very nice clean sound for the price. The distortion sounds vastly different according to what tube you have in it. I am currently using a 12AY7 in mine. It is best used through a good pead, however. I find the Korg AX1G fits it perfectly in sound and price. You can get a Tube 12 and an AX1G for around $200, and it will do more than any $200 amp by itself. The Celestion speaker is a cheapo and will get farty in the low end when you push it hard. However, it otherwise has a nice warm tone and will not need to be replaced it you practice at moderate levels. If you like to push the amp hard, plan on changing to a better speaker. Plenty loud enough for practice and makes my guitar sustain real nice.

It hasn,t quit working after a couple of months. Seems OK for the money spent.

Other than repalcing a unit with very major problems, it is too cheap to send off in the mail. No local service is available. I would fix it myself, or toss it or salvage for parts.

You need to tighten the screws down like other reviews have noted. Mine came with the Ruby ECC83S tube, which seems to be the same as the JJ tesla ECC83 tube, so it is OK in that department. Nice little practice amp for the money. It is louder than I expected a little 8" speaker with 12 watts of push to be.

Gain, gain switch, bass, treble, volume, contour switch. 12AX7 pre-amp tube with solid state power. 8" Celestion "Super 8" Speaker.

I owe several Gibson Les Pauls, a Fender Custom Tele, a Standard Tele and a Standard Strat, a Gibson ES-135 and a few other ditties. All of the guitars sounded relatively good, although the single coils seemed to have the best tone. Overdrive was fabulous with the classic 70's saturated tube tone at higher gain settings. Clean was nice sounding, although lack any significant amount of tube compression/warmth. Not much head room on the clean channel past 5, but amazingly loud at 5. Overall quality of the clean and distortion relative to the cost was phenomenal.

Haven't had it very long, but it seems to be built very solidly.

Haven't needed to deal with Kustom on this or the other Kustom products I own. That's good news...

I have been playing over twenty-five years and play everything from classical music to blues to heavy metal. If this were stolen I would replace it. It is loud enough for practice gigs and small enough to carry on a motorcycle. The tone is excellent, the price ridiculously low for tube, sounds better than many Fender Champs I've played through and has a vast array of sounds, unlike the Champs. It would be darn near perfect with reverb...

I posted a review 9/02.
Here's another vote for retubing to a 12AU7. In this case, an RCA 12AU7A. Much more-better-clean headroom. Crank the volume and let it growl. AND, the Gain channel (with Shift ON) is very usable for overdrive and beyond. Just enough hum to let you know its running. With an aftermarket speaker, this amp sounds every bit as good as my Blues Jr for practice, on all settings. Actually better. At this price point, I'll give it a 10 - you'd probably have to spend another $400-500 to get a better sound, imho.

Dear Mr Kustom man: add spring reverb to this amp.

Okay let's review this amp for what it is. This is a practice amp for those on a tight budget. So it has all of the feature that I would expect out of a practice amp and the tube thingy is nice too. Based on the fact that you can play it clean, it has a distortion channel, a clean channel, and a headphone out. What else do you need?

I use this with several different guitars and I mostly just plug it straight into the amp. Sometimes I do use effects, but I really like the distortion that this amp has. I play this exclusively at low volume I don't need a loud practice amp. There is a small hum on the distortion channel, but on a practice amp this doesn't bother me.

I've used this amp every single day since 8-20-02 without a single problem. For this I'd give it a 10, but I don't really push this amp so I'll give it a 8.

Like I said this is a cheap practice amp. And of all of the other cheapos that I tried (I'm a tightwad so I tried them all!!) this amp sounded the best. It's Cheap, It sound good for a practice amp. Take it for what it is.

good features for a little tube amp, treble, bass,gain, mid boost, all controls are useful and actually do what they're supposed to.

I've had cheap practice amps before that were useful as direct input boxes, so that's what I was hoping this could be used for, but no luck. This thing has a hum that won't go away. If you're not recording with it, then it won't matter. But the hum gets on my nerves. other than that, here's my review:

I'm comparing this to an all tube seventies fender champ. I a/b ed the two and the fender sounds better, it has an almost indefinable warmth and body that the kustom can't compare to. the champ sounds better, but in the bass department, the kustom is way punchier and has a lot of clarity. the kustom sounds good, just not as smooth and pretty as the champ. it's a really good amp for the money though, although it hums i'm going to keep it because it does sound good. overall (not compared to anything) it's just a good sounding amp. the clean is good, it's kind of a scooped (lacking midrange sound) but it sounds nice. like i said, it is REALLY punchy, it sounds even better than the champ for rhythms (the champ is better for lead). it has a really punchy bass sound. the distortion is ok, it sounds like the cheapest distortion pedal you could find though...it's not totally useless, but it's not that great... it's pretty crappy sounding. this amp is definitely worth the 80 i bought it for at music123.com. i f you're looking for an amp, try a fender bronco (new one for about 120), it's the best amp i've ever played

GREAT RHYTHM SOUND;GOOD FOR BASS;SO SO TO GOOD FOR CLEAN LEAD;DISTORTION BARELY OK

just bought it

fdsfd

definitely worth the money, probably better than anything you can find for 80.00 (remember music123.com), but for 120 you could get an orange crush or fender bronco which both probably sound better, but i haven't abed them...but this is a good amp...other than the humming it's perfect for the price

Same as in my other reviews below. I'm just updating my latest findings in playing around with this great little amp.

Good tubes to try are the JJ or Ruby ECC83S (made by Tesla, latest production), Sovtek 5751 (special 12AX7LPS for guitar amps or low noise, lower gain applications), Electro-Harmonix 12AX7 EH (premium Sovtek brand), NOS GE 5751 or 6072A, and NOS Philips (have not bought any Rhilips yet, but their reputation is good). I bought both the shiny plate and gray plate (better heat dissipation) versions of the EI ECC83 and installed one in my amp and one in my dad's. He admitted it improved the tone over the Chinese tube, but this tube has a bad reputation for soon going microphonic in combo amps, but audiophiles like it a lot in stereos. For $5/$8 from Angela Instruments, it's worth investigating even if you have to buy two tubes for every one that's a keeper. Dad and I have had no problems so far, so maybe the factory has finally got it right. Angela has the latest production, but you might want to call them @ 301-725-0451 to make sure. Try www.angela.com for info on this bargain basement tube. Check out their GE 6072A at only $16 while you're there. When they're gone, they're gone, so stock up! This is a great little amp for checking out tubes for other amps since everything goes through only one tube and you get to hear what it's doing without masking distortions from other tubes. Did anybody else think of that? Therefore, it functions as a very practical test instrument for the truly serious guitarist and can save him lots of grief by sorting out microphonic tubes and such. You can also burn in tubes over the weekend since it uses little power when turned on, testing them every now and then along the way. I looked up the specs on the speaker that Todd suggested. It is nearly as efficient as the Celestion Vintage 8 at 94.4 dB vs. 95 dB for the Vintage 8. Since it is 4 ohms the power of the Tube 12 will almost double into that lower impedance load. I would estimate about a 2 dB improvement in loudness gain over the 8 ohm Vintage 8. HOWEVER, before you go that route, consider this: The Tube 12 will work much harder into the 4 ohm load and the output transistor will run hotter. If it's a MOSFET, it will fade back in power when it gets hot (to help prevent burning out). You can feel the inside of the steel chassis where the output transistor is heat sinked if you go this route. If it gets too hot to touch for a long time, the life of the output transistor will be shortened. Trust me on this one, I was once a failure analysis technician for a semiconductor manufacturer. I must admit, the low cost of the Jensen speaker coupled with high efficiency and possible power increase makes this option enticing. Also, the Jensen has a 10 dB midrange dip centered at 400 Hz while the Vintage 8 has a more linear tone. I am not afraid of midrange, so I prefer the Vintage 8 sound. $60 + S&H does bite the pocketbook, however. Ouch! Don't overlook the 8 ohm Jensen if a lower output level would satisfy you and you're on a budget, as it would prevent overdriving the output transistor. Maybe Todd will update us on any overheating problems the 4 ohm Jensen may or may not cause. Just play a note in full sustain and max volume for about 15 minutes and you should know. The output transistor should be cheap; if you know how to replace it, then give the cheaper 4 0hm Jensen a try! Major cost savings over the Vintage 8.

I would rate the JJ Tesla ECC83S as the best sounding new tube I have tried coupled with high reliability, but the Electro-Harmonix 12AX7 EH is considered even higher in reliability and gain, but at somewhat less refined sound. This is a personal preference call. These tubes are available from almost everybody that sells guitar tubes. The Chinese Ruby tubes have very high gain, but the distortion sounds like bees in a glass jar to me. Watford Valves got the same results in their test report, which every tube amp owner should read. www.watfordvalves.com and they are a good offshore source if you cannot find what you want in the USA.

The Korg

After putting in a better speaker and better tube, I think you could really rely on the Tube 12 as a gig amp after taking care of cabinet rattle issues. If your amp came with the Ruby ECC83S (same as JJ Tesla ECC83S) like my second one did, you should be OK in the tube department. The cabinet is particle board, and cheap particle board at that, so don't abuse it too much. Remember to bolt the speaker baffle to the baffle mounts if you're going to gig it. Not necessary to glue it, but I did. Working in failure analysis made me an overkill design junkie.

Never contacted them. Wonder how they feel about all us guys modifying their little amp? Your warranty is probably shot to hell if you do and they find out. Big deal; it's cheaper to fix it yourself than pay shipping both ways, and you can upgrade while you're at it.

It's at least a 9 after modification when you factor in the cost. Don't mistake this for a boutique amp in the quality of construction, but I wouldn't doubt that it rivals many boutique amps in sound quality after decent mods are made. This is an amp you can play the hell out of without worrying about any major repair cost issues because it's probably repairable by you if you have any common sense and electrical inclinations. My brother got great heavy metal tones out of it when playing two amps in combo. In fact, every style he played sounded good (he's the best guitarist in the family). Get a footswitch and two amps (or more) and rock out! The Vintage 8 can get great tight chunky lows that the stock speaker cannot handle. It is a good speaker platform for getting any sound you want. The small size is very deceiving and you would never guess what this cheap little amp can do without hearing it for yourself (after mods). The Tube 12 deserves to become an entry-level modifier's cult classic amp.

I have recently purchased a Kustom Tube 12 Guitar Amp for use at home. The tube preamp helps the this amp differentiate itself from the others at this price point. For a samll amp it sounds "big" the tone, volume and gain knobs work well and have a solid feel. The "gain on" and "shift" push buttons are a little cheesy but work OK. This amp is capable of sounding great with most types of music but you will have to spend time learning the settings to get the most out of it. The two features I would like to see are " a remote speaker jack" and "remote gain switching". After making a few minor changes, this amp is loud enough to play with a drummer, bass and other guitarists at "sane" volume levels. If it were miked you "gig" with it as well.

The modification that needs to made to get the most out of this amp is "CHANGE THE SPEAKER" Per other reviews our amp had numerious rattles and speaker break up out of the box, under high gain, high volume situations. I ordered a Vintage Jenson 8" inch speaker from Joe Scinta @ www.VintageSpeaker.com. I chose a 4 Ohm version with a ceramic magnet for about $25.00 delivered. After installing the speaker and using black electrical tape on the tube chimney, I also tightened all the screws holding everything together. This was the best $25.00 I have ever spent on an Amp.

We use this amp with 3 guitars. My son has a "Squire Strat" and I use my 76' "Tele" and 96' Jackson "Dinky Pro EX". These guitars all sound great through this amp. I play mostly Blues and Blues Rock, but I also crank it up and can get a great distortion sound with the Jackson. The amp is much better and sounds in complete control now because of the new Jenson Vintage Speaker we ordered. The clean channel can be overdriven by turning off the gain and cranking the volume to about 2 O'Clock or higher, this is a great blues sound especially with the 'Tele" using the neck P/U. With the "gain on" button activated and "gain knob" turned up to 1 O'Clock you can acheive a good overdriven sound with great sustain. The higher the gain the greater the crunch! However you must swap out the original speaker with a new higher quality unit to obtain these results! The original speaker sounds nasty, it rattles and is very harsh when pushed. The amp also has a good clean sound when played at moderate 9 O'Clock to 12 O'Clock volume levels.

So far so good! We will see when my son starts taking it to band practice.

No experience here.

Good basic amp for the money. It has a better sound stock than most other amps in this price range. Much better than most with the mods I described.

This is an update to my previous review. Price includes the cost of installing a new Celestion Vintage 8 speaker and hardware for taking care of rattles in the cabinet. It does NOT include the cost of any NOS tubes as the prices of the NOS tubes I have on hand vary anywhere from $10 to $100. The $100 NOS Amperex tubes are being saved for my Conrad-Johnson EV-1 audiophile-grade phono amplifier, not this cheap little amp. I would suggest trying something like Electro-Harmonix 12AX7A or the new Sovtek 5751 available for very reasonable prices from The Tube Store and other quality retailers before getting addicted to NOS tubes. I have some NOS tubes that are absolute junk for audio, but OK for other purposes, so do not head down that path until you research what works best for the intended purpose. I have some Russian tubes that sound great (Sovtek KT66) and are even used by Conrad-Johnson (12AU7) in their high-end audiophile amps. Some of the latest tubes from overseas are very good indeed. Features have not changed from my previous review.

The Vintage 8 speaker sounds better all the way around while maintaining that vintage sound. Not quite as warm in the bass as the original red label Celestion, but with at least 3 dB more efficiency you can turn up the bass while turning back the master volume and arrive at the same approximate tonal balance. The bass is tighter with the Vintage 8, as you would expect from the magnet structure that's about 4 times heavier. It seems to have doubled the power of the amp. This will please the hard rockers among us, while doing very little for the clean country pickers like my dad who play at relatively low volumes. I get a more even response all up and down the fretboard with less deadspotting which is probably due to the edge treatment on the speaker cone that reduces resonate spikes as well as the huge magnetand bigger voice coil that more tightly controls cone motion. It is important that the Celestion speaker be mounted correctly to prevent rattles or overstressing the weak 1/2" particle board baffle. It would be best to install a stronger plywood baffle board, but my mounting method gets the job done right: Remove the speaker leadwires and then carefully remove the electronics box from the cabinet. Lay the Tube 12 down on it's face. Remove the red label speaker. Save the nuts, but throw away those flimsy washers. Now make sure the nuts that hold the mounting screws in place are snugged tight. Run the nuts you saved down on these nuts and snug them tight. Use a small amount of super glue to prevent the nuts from loosening. Place one or two washers on top of this double-nutted assembly. These washers must be properly sized or the speaker may not mount into place. The purpose is to provide at most 1/16" compression of the hard foam Vintage 8 gasket in order to prevent excessive deforming of the weak particle board while still allowing very snug tightening of the washer and nut used to hold the speaker in place. It also prevents any possibility of deforming the Vintage 8 frame due to overtightening of the mounting nuts. Now CAREFULLY lower the speaker into place while the cabinet is laying on it's face. Those screws can very easily punch through that paper cone. Check that there is no more than 1/16" clearance between the washer(s) and the inside of the speaker's metal frame. Add or remove a washer as needed and measure again. Now use another washer that is slightly wider than the ones under the frame as a mounting washer on top of the frame. Use a metric Keps nut (my preference), nylock nut, or conventional nut and star locking washer to secure the speaker in place. Tighten snugly and check that there are no rattles when played. You may notice a slight bending of the top and bottom sides of the baffle board due to the pressure from the hard foam gasket. This is normal as the baffle is only about 1" wide from outside edge to speaker cutout at this point. This is the reason for limiting compression of the gasket while firmly clamping the speaker between the washers and nuts to prevent loosening under loud playing conditions. You should have firmly mounted the baffle board to cabinet as per my previous review. If not, then do that before mounting the speaker, unless you're really feeling lucky. My baffle board is bolted AND glued to the cabinet now. I still noted a rattle at a specific frequency and a higher harmonic of that frequency. This denoted a high-Q resonance and not speaker breakup. The culprit turned out to be the aluminum tube shield. I felt around inside the cabinet while turning the amp up loud and holding the note. The sound quit when I grabbed the tube shield. I wrapped some electrical tape around the tube shield in such a way that the edges contaced the chassis when mounting the shield to the chassis. About 1/32" of push against the tape edge allowed the shield to rotate into place while stopping any tendency to rattle. The small flathead screws that hold the plastic covered particle board

I would not advise gigging with the Tube 12 unless you make the modifications I have noted, carry another one as a spare (no problem; it's small, cheap, and light!), and have played it loud for extended periods with no breakdowns. I think this amp is just too new to tell what it will do under stressful conditions and hard constant use. It should be just fine as a home practice amp or studio amp, however. The new Kustom company is NOT the same one that made all those vintage tuck'n'roll amps in Chanute, Kansas. I saw many pros using them in the 70's. The back panel had all 6 of the screws backing out when I unpacked my second sample. This is no English made Marshall or American made Fender or Canadian made Traynor; it is not gig ready out of the box. It is an amp with potential in need of a little help from an understanding owner. It uses cheap carbon film resistors as well as PC board mounted components that are harder to change out and substitute for when breakdowns occur. The single-sided circuit board is made from resin coated paper, just like a cheap TV set. Double-sided plated-through mil-spec circuit boards with higher grade components are just fine for building gigging amps, but they cost nearly as much as hand wired units and are not possible at this price point or for twice the price even if built in Asia. That does not mean they cannot be made fairly dependable. It just takes a good job of engineering and manufacturing to prevent any constant problem areas from surfacing on a regular basis. My mods have taken care of those areas I have spotted so far. YMMV.

Like I said, I'll probably fix it myself if it breaks. Too cheap to send off for repairs. I just wish they would do a better QC job during the assembly of their amps.

Remember that my price includes some serious upgrading. Nothing that you can buy new at retail will touch this amp unless you locate a fire sale, but you will have to invest a few hours of your time and some extra money to realize the potential this amp has locked away inside it. Just taking care of the rattles/buzzes and maybe substituting a better tube is the only upgrade you will need if you want a practice amp at low to medium volumes. My amp can now run with the big dogs and not be embarassed. As I said, I'm a beginning guitarist, but I know good tone as I have a rack with about $10K worth of high end audio gear such as Conrad-Johnson, VPI, and Vandersteen and some audiophile grade recordings to play on it. My youngest brother used to play in a band as well, and I got to hear him practice. I like the sound of my Tube 12 practice amp driven by my Rickenbacker 650D better than his solid state Crate and Randall amps driven by his Washburn. His style is NOT clean and smooth. He hates the Fender clean sound. My father plays the clean country music with his Gretsch and Tube 12 (unmodified). He does not like solid state sound. I'm somewhere in between. Different strokes for different folks. I would probably buy a couple of these amps again and modify them as I have an electrical engineering degree and can do my own mods. I have never heard a better sound in this extremely low price range. However, it dictates that the amp be built in a third world country with extremely cheap labor and fast production schedules. If you need a completely finished amp built by fanatical workers that's ready to gig out of the box, look elsewhere. I now have two amps sporting genuine Celestion Vintage 8 speakers (with original speakers in reserve) that I can individually set for clean and dirty tones and play together or individually through a switch box. For around $350 new for a pair, I consider that a bargain, even if I had to spend some of my labor and time on them. I can get a very wide range of tones out of my two little Tube 12 amps. Tone is what it's all about.

I'm a beginning guitarist. Messed around with a Fender Precision Bass twentysomething years ago. Decided to try guitar as my dad has a vintage solid body Gretsch and when he bought one of these Tube 12 amps and plugged in the Gretsch, it was the best sound I ever heard that Gretsch make. Hmmmm.......for $100 it was simply unbelievable on the clean channel. The gain stage (not a separate channel, just an extra gain stage that is engaged by a little chrome button) was not so hot, but I later found a way to make it more useful. The Celestion Super 8 speaker with the dinky magnet makes a lot more music than I ever would have guessed without hearing it. The headphone jack is really useful and has plenty of volume for my Grado SR60 headphones. You have a master volume knob, a bass knob, a treble knob, and a mid boost switch. Just what you need to get your basic clean tone and nothing more to screw it up. Reverb is clearly missing, but if it had been included at the asking price, either it would have been poorly executed or the sound on the clean channel or the cosmetics and overall build quality would have been compromised. If reverb and distortion is your thing, figure on adding a pedal or two. I ordered a Korg AX1G and have more effects than I'll ever need. Kustom wisely chose to put the money into the basic clean tone and build quality and thereby saved the customer enough money to add the effects he/she wanted without having to pay for an amp with a lot of extras that tries to be all things to all guitarists. The chromed steel knobs, cabinet edge protectors, quality rubber feet, detachable power cord, brushed and anodized aluminum control panel, blue power light, and white piping around the grille give this little amp a deluxe appearance. As long as Kustom included the distortion feature, they should have made it work better and more gradually. It also lacks a remote speaker outlet, and an amp that sounds this good should have one. In my eyes, these two things keep it from being a perfect 10 for the money spent.

I wanted a guitar that covered a lot of different tones, so I read the reviews and ordered a new Rickenbacker 650D Dakota from Rhoads Music in Pennsylvania. Jim Rhoads had one in stock and gave me a really good price. Like the Tube 12, it is also a giant killer for the money. Way better than any Gibson or Fender I have ever met at anywhere near the price. My father and brother played the guitar, and rated it as excellent. Better and wider range of tones than the Gretsch when played through the Tube 12. The tung oil finish and lack of sound-killing plastic paint makes the Rick look and sound like a really great guitar. The Tube 12 let the unique character of each guitar come through clearly on the clean channel. Wish I had a Strat, Tele, LP, Explorer, or ES to also try on the Tube 12, but I am sure they would sound good also. My Rick has humbuckers, but they have a bit of single coil sound to them and are high output in nature. My brother got the Rick and Tube 12 to sustain with controlled feedback with no problem when using the gain stage. My brother once owned Dimebag Darrel's used Randall halfstack and a Washburn guitar. He was impressed by the 650 Dakota and Tube 12 combo. The distortion didn't sound all that bad to him. I like the clean channel the best, but I found you could improve the distortion feature by changing to a 12AY7 tube. If you always play with the gain stage engaged, you might getting even better sound by using a 12AU7 like a previous reviewer did. The problem in doing so is that you would not have enough gain in the clean channel when you disengaged the gain stage and played clean. You might not reach sustain level when playing hard rock also. The 12AY7 barely has enough gain to bring the clean channel to distortion with the Rick's pickup volume and Tube 12 master volume turned full on when picking a single note. It will sustain when the gain knob is cranked at least half way. Now then, that Celestion cheapo speaker with the dinky magnet certainly sounds nice, sweet, and warm most of the time, but when you crank the bass and play real loud it rattles and buzzes. Tightening all the screws in the amp helped some, but I know what speaker breakup sounds like when I hear it. Replacing the stock speaker with something like a Celestion Vintage 8, Jensen P8R-8, or Eminence Legend 875 would solve that problem, but it will set you back about $60 or more if you do it yourself. If you are a clean country picker like my dad, you would never be bothered by rattles or buzzes in most cases. If you once owned Dimebag Darrel's Randall halfstack like my brother, you're going to spring for the Vintage 8 or Legend 875 unless you like the sound of rattling and buzzing speakers (at least he didn't freak out over the rattles, and the speaker suffered no damage). The amp is capable of attaining a wide range of clean tones, but limited in the distortion area unless you do some tube swapping. Metal heads and hardcore rockers had better plan on springing for a better speaker. I'll probably get the Celestion Vintage 8. I will also probably hook up an output transformer of my own concoction between the output transistors and the speaker (MacIntosh did this on one of their transistorised audiophile amps many years ago). What we know as tube tone has as much to do with the output transformer as the output tubes. You pick a transformer that starts going into saturation just before the output transistor clips and that softens the harsh clipping transients, just like in a tube amp. But that transformer will cost you as much as the upgraded speaker, and now you have an amp over $200 and still no effects pedal(s). If you are a clean country picker the amp rates a 10, if a raging metal head then it's a 6. I give it an 8 because I'm somewhere in between those two extremes.

OK, this amp's cabinet isn't made from 13-ply Baltic Birch plywood because you didn't pay over $1000 for it. The particle board would probably get busted if you took it on the road continually, but particle board is deader and has a more neutral sound than plywood, so that makes it better for home practice or recording studio use. And it takes a heap less wampum to get it out the dealer's door. It's not a gigging amp, it's a practice amp. It should be reliable for its intended purpose. I went to tighten ALL the screws after I got it out of the box (because this thing came all the way from China and spent several days in the loving arms of UPS) and that was when I noticed that two screws of the six that hold the front baffle in place spun freely when I attempted to tighten them. I gave the baffle a shove and it almost fell out of the amp. Those six screws get less than a half inch bite each in brittle particle board, and the baffle board gets the most vibration in the whole amp. A lot of people are going to get into trouble with this little design flaw. I think it has something to do with the sound problems that others have mentioned. I drilled through the baffle board from behind after removing the electronics box and used six little 1/8" machine bolts and machine nuts to hold the baffle in place. I used round headed black bolts that match the grille cloth, and they are not noticeable from a distance unless you look for them. That baffle isn't rattling now! I give Kustom a 5 for making me fix the amp as soon as I unpacked it, even if it was minor. The good part is that it is something you can do yourself when you have that electronic box out for a preamp tube change if you decide a 12AU7 or 12AY7 would give you better distortion tone. I would have given them a 9 if all I had to do was tighten a few screws. Since I was able to easily fix it myself, I am splitting the difference and making it a 7.

Other than asking for a schematic, I doubt that I will ever use them. It is cheaper to fix this amp myself than ship it back and forth between Texas and Ohio. I will know when I call for that schematic.

This amp has an overall rating of 9. It really is a great amp considering how little it costs. I give it an 8 because I am picky and I found some problem areas that some of the other reviewers did not. If it cost $300 like a Marshall AVT20, then I would grade much more harshly, but not as harshly as some of the previous overly negative reviewers have done. Considering that it has a street price of $100 and about $10 delivery to your door, I consider it an outstanding value. I like it so well that I bought another one. One will be optimized for playing clean, and the other will be optimized for playing distorted. I am going to build a footswitch to switch between the two. This little amp sounds way better and plays way louder than a hundred dollar bill gives you the right to expect. Buy two of them for $200 and you have a very cheap and very good stereo amp. It is only significantly bettered by amps that cost much more than it does. I am a tough customer, and an 8 rating is really high for such an inexpensive amp.