The History of Kustom Amps
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- čas přidán 12. 04. 2019
- Some day when all amps have gone back to using tubes, us old timers will be in search of that vintage "transistor" sound.
production Courtesy of KTWU
Just to be honest and above board, this video was produced and first posted by KTWU, a PBS member television station in Topeka, Kansas, United States, owned by Washburn University. I copied and reposted it with no intent of monetizing, and on intent of taking any credit for the fine production that went into it. For some reason, KTWU removed their posting of the video shortly thereafter. I'm very happy that I made that decision to copy and re-post this video. Something I've never done before or since.
And I completely understand what solid state Kustom amps are and aren't. What they were and weren't. Today I'm Fender all the way, but still on the lookout for that "barn find" of a lifetime, at some garage sale just waiting for me to come along scoop it up and take it home. Until then... - Hudba
CCR made the kustom amp an legend
Talking about Kustom amplifiers without naming CCR is like talking about VOX without naming The Beatles.
If it wasn't for CCR, I would never heard of Kustom Amps.
Instablaster...
Or taking about the little known West amps without naming Grand Funk Railroad.
Agree
Just imagine all the nauga's that gave their lives for those amps.
Ted Nugent said Nauga was the only hide he hadnt collected yet
Nauga please...
You gotta admire self-made entrepreneurs like Bud Ross who work hard to achieve personal objectives like building guitar amplifiers. It's not easy but Kustom did become a big success for a period of time. I remember checking them out in guitar stores back then but couldn't afford one. Mostly I remember them being used by Creedence Clearwater which really put them on the map.
I attended an estate sale couple weeks ago in Overland Park, KS. I could see in the advance promotion there were an unusual number of Kustom amps and speaker enclosures. And when I arrived at the actual sale I found dozens of Kustom PA systems of different colors and sizes. Then I learned it had apparently belonged to Budd Ross family members. It gave me chills just thinking that this might be all that was left of what was once a very large and successful enterprise. RIP Budd.
Back in the '70's a bass player in a local country band had a Kustom stack. That sound, it was so deep and smooth. It made the music. I loved that sound! Of course, the tuck & roll made it even better!
Yes!!
I still have my late father's old '71 Kustom bass stack, silver sparkle. He worked for Kustom for about a year as a guitar tech when they became a distributor.
I was lucky enough to grow up with this equipment. My grandpa dealt Kustom gear from his music shop in the 60's and used it in all his bands from that time until the late 80's. He had the entire tuck n' roll collection: the black PA system, black 3x12 bass amp, olive/gold 4x10 guitar amp and both the plum and natural finish semi-hollow body guitars. When I was 13, I blew the guitar amp and took it to a local music store for repairs. After months of promises that a replacement part was on order, then complete radio silence, I went to take it back - fixed or not. All I got back was the cabinet without the electronics. I can see still that shyster of a repair guy casually stating "Oh yeah, we trashed it." No question they are quality pieces though. Aside from that last unfortunate incident, everything has remained in good working condition for over 50 years. Great video, brings back memories.
I have bought, and fixed a number of vintage Kustom amps. I will attest that every amp I had pass through my hands only needed minor work to get things back going again. To have a 50 year old amp that's ORIGINAL parts and working OK is really pretty cool. K200 B1 with a 3x15 bass cab... it records great!
Well DeadKoby...find me a Push/ Pull Switch and knob that is for the Vib./ Tremelo on a Kustom 50-2 Combo Amp!!
How would you describe the tone of the vintage Kustom amp? I played (bassist) through a modern (2000s?) Kustom keyboard amp. I adored that sound. The sweetness of my P Bass was captured perfectly. I'm now very curious about these old bass amps
We love KUSTOM amps!
Maybe 25 years ago, I went by the old, abandoned Kustom factory in Chanute. Was so sad to know there weren't going to be any more.
Amazing what can happen when a community helps a man see his ambitions become reality. Great story.
I remember being a teenager and going into the music stores in Detroit and being awed by the Kustom amps. Especially those big cabinets with 3 15" speakers. Finally got to use one and remember it being very powerful for it's day. Just great amps.
I remember Kustom being very popular with Black Southern Gospel groups until Peavey came along. My Uncle still has his plus a Kustom Guitar and Bass he bought back in the early 70's.
Brings back memories of 1970, playing my Gibson EB 0 through a white 200 series bass head, with a 2 15 JBL D140 cabinet.
I just bought a Kustom 250-4.
Silver sparkle.
Absolutely killer.
I was blown away by the tone options of the Fuzz effect. It can get heavy as fuck. When I get it dialed in recording I can get close to that "ORANGE sound"
Doom amp sound.
Oh yeah and it's 250watts run through 2x15s. It makes one hell of a bedroom amp.
It has a T-handle on the back of the head to set the spring reverb to control the swell.
It's insane.
Turn left for crazy swell turn right to tighten it down for a fast attack.
I'm pissed that I'm 43 years old been playing since I was 13 and I'm just now getting familiar with these American made works of art.
If you ever get to open one up they are really cool on the inside too.
I sold many a Kustom amp in the early '70s. ROSS made one of the first (AND BEST) compressors ever made. Their guitars were REALLY cool, as well. Kustom made one of the most advanced PA systems going, back when Shure was just about the only mass produced system, and quite unreliable. The bass player in my band had a Kustom amp with TWO, 3X12 cabinets, and that thing THUMPED! First Kustoms I ever saw was Tommy James and the Shondells, and that band was fabulous.
great story
Kustom still makes a quality affordable amp. today. Was very much part of the 70's sound.
Don't give up. What an amazing story. Thank you.
Never Surrender!
I have been playing Bass since 1973 and guitar before that. The Guitar Amps for the fortunate Garage Bands of this early era were Fender, Orange, Acoustic, Ampeg & Sunn and the PA System was usually Kustom.
I had an old Kustom guitar practice amp years ago. It sounded amazing. The clean was nice and it had an overdrive channel that sounded awesome. For years I would hook up my pedal chain to it and use it for practice. I teaded it off like an idiot and have missed it since. I just found a 100w half stack that's on back order everywhere I look. I can't wait for my Kustom half stack to come in.
Lovely down to earth people.
I love these Kustom amps. A real icon of the 1960's. Not the best amp, but certainly had the "cool" factor.
they were the best in their time
These amps stacks were the most comfy to sleep on, as long as you were not sticking to nuaga.. good cushion for pushing also!
Bought a used Quad 100 HD with the Quad ST cab today for $200AU. The pots needed some cleaning but once i sorted that out it sounds killer! Best amp purchase I've ever made.
I have the black Kustom 200 with reverb amp. Twin speaker cabinet that I bought back in 1969 used from my band friend that had used it a year. I am the second owner.
Ha ha in the late 60's here in LA my band played the teen fair and for 2 years played in the kustom amp booth so i remember these amps well cheers
I used one of these back in the 70s. It sounded great and it was very sturdy. One afternoon, I picked up my band members and as we were driving on the gravel road, one of the guys yelled out "oh no!". I looked in the rear view mirror and saw the Kustom head bouncing along the road. I thought to myself that I had just lost a few hundred bucks. We got it back the practice space and tried it out - no problems. I added steel corner protectors and for all I know that amp still works today.
nice job on this guys...bit brief, but that's only cause I've spent hours shouldered up to Bud..and brother could that man talk and tell his fantastic stories...miss him...appreciate this video. Play Loud! ET
Ed Taylor..anyplace to buy parts??
@@JammyCrackcorn we have some facebook groups of Kustom collectors...any of those groups will have guys that do repair etc and have parts sourcing..look up Krazy Kustom Kollectors as a good starting place
you need to put your remembrances out there somewhere.
I received a modified 2x15 Tuck n Roll cab as a gift. For some reason the previous owner took out the speakers, and put in a 15" Cerwin Vega woofer on the bottom, and a 12" on the top. Sounds amazing and super smooth, but the grill was cut off and stapled back on right over the metal circle things. Also he cut the top off and lowered it. Super strange modification, and I don't think it would have any value, but I love that thing.
You're great wonderful story and I just got my first one, a K100 8 in blue sparkle and it's just perfect. Thank you so much for building them. I've wanted one for 50 years n now I got one and with a small effects pedal it's even better
Thanks for sharing this video. It really gave some good information. I personally have 4 Kustom amps and 1 Kustom PA they are neat to look at and still sound good after all of this time which is a testament to their quality.
I have Kustom pa amps that were built in the late 70’s, and I still use them. Tough stuff!!
In the mid to late60's, our garage band replaced our Sunn amps Kustom dual cabinet 200's in silver sparkle! They were stellar performers for many years of travel around OHIO, INDIANA & MICHIGAN!! GREAT SOUND & FANTASTIC STAGE PRESENCE!
I have a kustom 250 A, I love the clean tones you get with a strat
I also love my strat plugged into my K300-5, sounds absolutely incredible
these amps always sounded so "warm" and "tube-ey"
Interesting video ,I love those amps.
I will tell you one thing, they are reliable. My bass player had the 200 head and 215 cab in metallic blue, up until maybe 1995 before he got rid of it. It still worked fine.
James Jamerson used a Sparkle Blue Kustom Amp when he played live.
He had the logo all drawn up for me, said that’ll be tree fitty, and I said dammit Loch Ness monster
Bottom Line. ( And I'm a tube amp guy!). John Fogerty, John Fogerty, John Fogerty....... It's a good sounding amp! Really good build quality .
Thanks for uploading! :-)
My first bass guitar was a red Fender Music Master and my first amp was a Kustom "piggy back", and it was awesome ! Yup.... It could really rattle the dishes ! My mom hated that amp !
My first amp. 200. Had such a rich full sound…my favorite. Even above the Sun 360 I “moved up to”.
Cool video. Cool amps.
I had a Kustom 150 watt amp. Very punchy sound. Massively heavy too. Had been a jazz musician's; I bought it as a teen in 1973. It was very powerful; including for its size. Black sparkly tuck n'roll, with that blue pilot light. Tuning the E string down, I could play bass lines as well as guitar lines through it. Good for slide too and controlled feedback effects.
black was the only non-sparkle color..the other 6 colors were "sparkle"
I remember the local music store where I grew up had Kustom amps. I’d go in on Saturdays just to look at them. I can’t tell you anything else they had there!
I remember speaking to my uncle that ran a music store in Lawrence, KS. I asked why he didn't carry Kustom Amps. He said that he would love to but keeping inventory stocked was just awful. Not only would he need an example of every popular model, but of every model in every color! I thought he made a good point.
Bud when he becomes successful and talks to the garage opener guy: “bet you feel pretty dumb right now”
what a positive man!
Had 2 stacks 400s loved em..
My dad was the City Manager of Chanute 1969-1971, and as a member of the Chanute City Council, Bud was one of his bosses. During the summer of 1970, our family got to hitch a ride to Fort Worth with Bud on his Learjet. I was 6 years old at the time.
Any chance his Learjet had tuck and roll interior?
Kustom amps were all over the place when I was growing up in the 1960s. They were a lot less expensive than say a Fender Dual Showman. This made buying a bass amp with two or three 15 inch speakers within reach of most teenage bass players. The CTS speakers would not get very loud without breaking up but Kustom did make amps using JBL15 inch speaker for more $$$. I saw a photo of Jefferson Airplane with a larger Kustom head among all their other gear which they stack up on whatever stage they happen to be using.
Today I learned about Woodson Amps and PAs. Boliver, Missouri. Apparently manufactured Amps and Speaker cabinets with Kustom electronics minus the tuck & roll. Woodson amplifiers were made in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s in Bolivar, Missouri USA. Made by Bud Ross’s brother in law, Thomas Woodson. A prime example of ’70s solid state technology. Woodson amps were only manufactured for about 6 years. jedistar.com/woodson/
I recall lots of them with bass players but not many guitarists.
I use a Kustom 50watt, Class D PA Monitor to this day!
CCR used these live and on SOME studio recordings, like Born on The Bayou and Suzie Q. But mainly John Fogerty's sound was coming from a Fender Vibrolux and Deluxe Reverb. They used Kustoms live because the Fender Combos weren't loud enough. But by the end of the band, they were growing increasingly frustrated and tired of Kustoms and their unreliability. These days, John uses Diezel VH4s and Herberts
Calling BS on this. They bought Kustoms BECAUSE OF their reliability. Those amps are still in use today, even by JF.
I had a Kustom 150 amp head and a bass speaker box rolled and tucked black. The speaker box had 3 15 inch Altec Lansings with silver cones and I sold it with my 1972 Fender Telecaster in 1973 when I got married. Now I wish I had all that back. I love Kustom amplifiers even though I cannot afford them so I had to settle for a Crate Power Block.
Back in the 1970s, I owned a Kustom 100 guitar amp and one of the 3x15 speaker cabinets, but I didn’t own them at the same time. I wish I owned both now, though I probably wouldn’t take them to gigs. Maybe I once in a while.
After I sold the cabinet, the original owner asked me if I’d ever taken apart the cabinet and looked inside. He thinks he may have left a bag of pot inside one of the sound holes. I told him I hadn’t done that. I hope later owners of the cabinet never got in trouble for that bag of pot, if it was in fact in the cabinet.
I have a K300-5 in silver and I would love to find more information about this specific model.
I had the Kustom 200 bass amp with JBL D140's in black. The pleated ported cabinet was horrible with those speakers which needed to be in a sealed cabinet. I put those same speakers in a Fender Showman cab and they sounded great. The first Kustom tube bass amps sounded really nice, the later transistor amps as I had were total crap. The wattage was also stated rather deceivingly, not 200 RMS watts unless you used two cabinets. One channel went out on me and when I had first bought it new I was told it had a lifetime warranty and I had that in writing on tbe receipt. When I took it in to get serviced the place I had originally purchased it from had gone out of business and the new place told me that was all hogwash so I never got it repaired. I should have gotten a Sunn 2000 amp or an Ampeg but didn't know any better because everyone else was using Kustom bass amps. Turns out they didn't know anymore than I did. Times have changed and bass amps have gotten better and lighter.
I never knew those were called “Kustom Kats”. My sister had one when we were little from our aunt.
I also saw my first Kustom amp in a guitar store around 1997 (ish). It was so cool and different… and way out of my price range. Still today I would love to havre a Kustom half stack.
I dig Kustom amps. One of my best friends owned a nice black one. However, I'd love to know how CZcams's algorithm got me here since I was looking for the Plush Amplifier company instead which was based in NYC.
YT can read thoughts. lol. I keep hearing of stories like yours and this has happened to me, twice. Very weird.
Kustom Quad stack is the only amp I use live, and n the studio I use a 30watt lead Kustom amp, sometimes I just use the 30 watt to play live and people always ask me what I’m using... Dream is to have a special Kustom amp made for me and the metal music I make but don’t think they make any amps anymore.....
Just picked up a 1968 kustom bass amp
My first real amp was a Kustom 100. To be honest, I never liked the sterile solid state sound. But I still have two 2-12 bottoms and wouldn't trade them for anything. They have such great sound I couldn't replace them. I run them both with a '64 blond Fender Bassman head.
save up and get a vintage Kustom head .. then you'll have something
What I'd like to know is how Bud got those loans. The first one from his father I kind of get it but $1000 back then = $8,000 today. My family was decently well off but I never could have gotten that much from my parents and/or relatives. The combined loans from the bank & Chanute, KS business council are equivalent to $153,000 today. Certainly there must have been some kind of collateral. Certainly way more $ than I could ever get my hands on back then.
Probably because he had a product that they believed would get a great return, no risk, and they were right.
@@wefukthenwo banker know next to nothing about guitar amps.
I have two Kustom B-series from 1968 and one C-series from 1969-70. B-series is THE sound. C- is a little thin.
I am using a kustom amp for my new single... Too much low end and also too bright.. Turn low and high down to 0 and turn the mid a fraction.. Turn gain down to 0... With out eq it's perfect for recording... Throw everything up to normal levels in low mid and high and it sounds great live .. Its the KGA10FX with KS6 little speaker
My buddy bought one used in the 70's. We made 1 45rpm its here on you tube! Song is "Freight Train" by Macbeth! , 1 PEAVY AMP, AND ITS PEDAL. 1 MUFF FUZZ IF I REMEMBER RIGHT, 😆..its only 3 min. And j.geils liked it.. but never sang it. So they got famous. I learned more pyro . Helped other guys get famous..it was the start of MTv..and no one wanted pyro done around live sound studio's..real pyro smoke is not electronic friendly.
So reliable and wonderful on tone that pawn shops can't even sell these things for $100
Meanwhile my Sunn Model T can't even be sold for less than $2,500
if they're in too rough shape, and black, then no they won't bring much. But nice upholstery and especially in colors, they bring Nice money
Creedence Clearwater Revival were users
I wish I could find a company who had parts I could order...!!
The Sliders? He must have eaten some White Castle hamburgers.
I wonder why you couldnt buy one here in the UK??
Are they good? I saw some vendors selling kustom cabinets. I like the color and want to buy it
vendors? we're talking about 50+ year old vintage gear here
CCR . Thats all i have to say.
i got the speakers
Ted Nugent, too. Yep.
Kustom amps are now made in china, sign of the times.
They were good for bass, but lousy for guitar.
Yeah, John Fogerty’s guitar work sure sucked.
Not good for guitar? I used to own a K200 A-4. That thing SCREAMED at all volumes. I would put that up to any guitar amp! Also, the K200 A-4 had both tremolo AND vibrato (at the same time if I wanted to). The K200 B-4 only had tremolo.
Don’t these amps notoriously suck moose balls?
not nearly as much as your avatar
@@WeWereYoungandCrazy wow. Was that a attempt at humor? What’s you fucking problem? I asked a legitimate question and you obviously got butt hurt. You’re very sensitive about equipment you have nothing to do with. Or maybe you do. Whatever. Just another dick on the internet. And those amps do notoriously suck, I just wanted maybe a rebuff how they don’t. Instead I got some dope. Good luck with that. And my avatar is a HR Ginger painting that’s been adored by thousands. You got bad taste too. That explains why you like that amp. Have a good one weasel.
They were gaudy looking and sounded terrible . Lot of output and knobs , no tone mostly used by country players
Stop whining.