Kustom Tube 12A Combo

Bought it new USD 99 shipped at geartree.com .. ... low and high knob ... gain knob .. gain on/off button .. mid shift button on/off ... unfortunately theres no reverb or effects loop ... its quite loud ... the only weakness is the speaker is too small .. no good for bass ..

I used Gibson Les Paul classic .... switched the stock tube with Sovtek 12AX7LPS ... turn off the mid shift ... low and high knob at 1 oclock ..
gain knob at 3 oclock..turn on gain button ... turn on the amp for 5 minutes to heat up the tube .. and bam! .. i got a very good tone that suits my rock style ... good sustain ... good overdrive tone .. it would sound a lot better in a bigger speaker ... this is truly what i call a practise amp ... if u can play it good with this amp .. u got no problem when gigging with bigger and better amp .. the best practise amp u will ever get at this price. With better speaker .. this amp will rock as long as you dont turn the volume till the output transistor clipping occur .. basically this amp will kick any cheap solid-state ass out there .. including Marshall MG series (pure SS) ..

i didnt break so far .. but this is definitely not to be used for gigging .. bc its a practise amp .. sheesh .. it doesnt look sturdy enough for gigging ..

no problem so far

I have been playing for 7 years .. started playing seriously since 3 years ago. I play most rock music ... i like high gain sound of tube and this amp gave me that ....

This is a very basic amp - similar to the tube-driven Fender Champ in sound and functions except that this has a push button option of distortion. As mentioned in the other reviews, this has a line-out, headphone jack, and extention speaker jack. The claim of 12 watts seems legitimate

The amp reminds me a lot of the Fender Champ - it is musical and rich in tone, though with a warmer tone and less bite than the Champ ( I had one for years and can compare them competently) The amp is better suited to single-coils or hot sounding pickups. My hot-rodded Telecaster sounds great through it, my Les Paul Custom less so, unless I'm looking for a warm sound. The amp is quiet, the clean channel is responsive to changes in your guitar's volume control level. When maxed out the clean channel has a pleasant edge - just the start of breakup. The distorted channel does not have much character - a generic solid state distortion sound.
The amp is fine for country, blues, and mainstream 60's-70's rock (think of CCR/Bad Finder or contemporary retro-bands like the Strokes or Jet). As long as you're not in pursuit of heavily saturated distortion, this amp sounds great and responds well to pedals. I would be curious to hear it with a small p.a. speaker under it as an extension speaker. Kustome sells a 10" cabinet and the presence of the horn might add enough bite to make my Les Paul sound better through the amp than it currently does.

I've had it for six months and have had no problems. It's not loud enough to play live with unless you used the line-out feature, used it as part of an A/B/Y stereo rig (which I might do for smaller gigs) so I haven't pushed it hard for hours as you want on a working stage.

I've been playing for 37 years and, not surprisingly, have owned and played through a wide variety of gear.I own quality Fender, Vox, and Traynor tube amps. Keeping in mind the tonal limitations it has, the Kustom needn't be embarrassed to be in the company it keeps. I would buy another one, if stolen, and think two of them would sound great together with a stereo chorus or flanger and would have enough volume and depth for those who perform in church. It could be improved with on-board reverb, a channel switching pedal, and a bright/presence knob/switch. I don't hate anything about it and feel like I got a great deal by finding it in like-new condition for such a low price. Even if you pay the retail price an amp with tube richness in the preamp section and sonic depth in the overall tone is a fine deal. It also weighs very little, takes up little space, and is great for carrying around in your vehicle.
I haven't recorded with it yet but expect it to sound very good.

it is a chinese made tubeamp. bass+ treble-control. a midbooster and a gain-pushbuttom. that is about it. i has one tube. a musician friend recommended it to me, because i was looking for a home-amp. ordered my wife to get it for me as a birthday-present. i could not be much happier, because the amp sound really good and has all the features i need. plus it has really ccol looking telecaster-style control-knobs! considering the price, one can give it nor less than a solid nine.

now comes the best part of the little amp: the sound. it is really, really tubish and versatile. the clean-channel is rich and harmonic and the distortion can be tweaked to ones need. i use it with lapsteel guitars and it gives me that lindley-sound no problems. strats sound great with the amp. i play it with a boss vb-2 vibrato and it sounds open and free. i woul use it live with an acoustic band but not wit a loud rock outfit. the little celestion speaker sounds really authentic. i can tell, because i have another souped up bluejunio-tubeamp with a celestion vintage 30 speaker. for roots/folkrock/classicrock/blues-players like me, who are looking for a good cheap amp to have a great sound at home, in coffeeshops or at parties, i cannot think of a much better amp for the price. i compared it to other little voxes, marshalls and fenders, they cannot touch it!

seems well made, all knobs go softly. is light, so you can handle it with care.

no idea.....

i ca n ot recommend it highly enough! thanks to my friend i found this little piece of art. kustom is totally unknown among guitarplayers in germany, which is too bad. anyone should have one, it sounds just great and is really inexpensive.

Ive had it for about a year and a half and Ive had no problems whatsoever. Nice and cheap for a tube amp, and I play blues and classic rock mainly. 2 channels. I like simple amps without a lot of unneeded features and this one is good. Good for band practices, never tried to gig with it. The variety of features work for ME.

i use an epi sg and an epiphone joe pass signature model. The clean holds very well, and sounds good. I dont like the distortion because its over the top for what I play, it would surely cater to the tastes of a metal guitarist in terms of rough rhythm and cutting lead. Both channels can get real loud. I really like the clean channel. The low and hi knobs are very responsive.

never had any problems... but i take good care of my amps.

none needed

Ive only been playing for 2 years, but i get in as much practice as possible. Ive played many amps, my circle of friends are experienced musicians with tonnes of gear and I feel at home with this amps clean tones. Again, dist. is harsh for my styles. Good investment for practices.

I just purchased this amp from Musician's Friend the end of February. As stated in the previous report Kustom has added a line out and external speaker jack to this combo. It has a clean channel and a gain channel. It would be nice if it had a touch of reverb and maybe a footswitch to change the channels. But for what it is, you can't beat the price. It is 12 LOUD watts!! The tube preamp has a 12AX7 tube and solid state power section. It is built pretty well, small, and light weight.

I play a Carvin TL60 with ms22 p/u. The clean channel is really nice considering it only has a 8 inch speaker. The gain side to me is a little to distorted. It's not a clean distortion but a rough distortion. I am going to put a 12AX7R in it to clean it up a little. I ran my Digitech RP300 through it at my bands practice one night and you should have seen the looks on their faces when I started jamming on this thing. I hooked it into my 2X12 Carvin cabinet and you should have seen the look on my face when I started playing. This little amp has some potential. It does need alittle better 8 inch speaker and some are suggested below by guys who I think know what their talking about. When I put it through the PA system via the line out it had a little noise but again to my suprise it sounded really good. It has really good pick dynamics too. I'm rating this amp a nine for the following reasons, for a $80.00 dollar tube amp you really can't beat the sound. Also you can add an external cabinet, and run it through the line out to the PA and have a very good setup for the price.

I bought this amp for practice. I have a Carvin SX200 and Behringer GX212 amp for live applications. But if either of these other two amps were not available to me I would hook it up my 2X12 cabinet, run it through the PA and use it. Kustom has been around for a long time. I looked at the circuitry and it looks to be very well assembled. Nice and clean.

Haven't had to deal with Kustom service people.

I've been playing guitar for over 35 years. Like many other musicians I have owned alot of guitars and amps, both solid state and tube. Personally I think solid state amp technology has came along way over the years. Kustom has stepped out and put this little tube/solid state amp on the market for those of us who can't really afford the high price of tube amps. If this little unit was stolen I would get me another one. Just because an amp don't cost $500.00 and have some major name on it dosen't mean it can't sound good. I think you will be pleasantly suprised if you get one too!!