Kustom 12 Gauge amp

bugileman

Bought a Kustom 12 Gauge (Solid state) quite a few months back. It's a great little amp, as it's name suggests it is a 1 x 12" amp. The overdrive sounds are it's weak point, but the clean sounds really very good. 

There are a few people who own the Kustom 12 Gauge, have suggested replacing the 12" speaker for a good old celestion. So I'm probably going to do that at some point. 

Anyone else own one and any upgrades recommended???

bugileman

Anyone?

ICBM

I've not heard this particular model yet, but in my experience Kustom amps always perform well above their price point - even the very cheap ones.

A speaker upgrade would make sense, the stock ones in cheaper amps are never that good. There's no other part you can easily upgrade on a solid-state amp anyway.

bugileman

ICBM said:

I've not heard this particular model yet, but in my experience Kustom amps always perform well above their price point - even the very cheap ones.

A speaker upgrade would make sense, the stock ones in cheaper amps are never that good. There's no other part you can easily upgrade on a solid-state amp anyway.

Thanks ICBM, it's a great little amp for clean sounds, the gains sounds are not very good, but I knew that when I bought it. I have other amps for that. I have an old ev 12" speaker that I try with it. 

ICBM

I’ve just acquired an old Kustom KGA-30, which is an even cheaper solid-state 10” speaker model.

It actually sounds pretty good. Surprisingly, it’s much better *without* the rather whiny Celestion ‘Tube 10’ speaker it came with. By coincidence I had a spare Kustom-labelled 10” speaker that came out of a pair of PA cabs I upgraded after the other one got blown, so I stuck that in to see what it sounded like, as it seemed appropriate - and it’s much chunkier-sounding than the Celestion. Just goes to show that you can’t always assume the brand-name speaker will always be better...

I’m actually going to keep it, because it sounds better - especially with pedals - than the Vox modelling amp I’ve been using at home, and which is worth a bit more to sell.

mbe

Celestion Tube 10 sounds better in a closed cab.

mbe

I have found a simple mod to try for the 12 Gauge. The blogger in the link also put up simple mods for the Randall RX20R which I tried and thought made an improvement.

https://guitar-dreamer.blogspot.com/2013/08/kustom-12-gauge-amplifier-mod.html

ICBM

mbe said:

Celestion Tube 10 sounds better in a closed cab.

I'll have to try that - I've only heard them in open-back combos, and never liked them.

mbe said:

I have found a simple mod to try for the 12 Gauge. The blogger in the link also put up simple mods for the Randall RX20R which I tried and thought made an improvement.

https://guitar-dreamer.blogspot.com/2013/08/kustom-12-gauge-amplifier-mod.html

Yes, that will make a difference. I'll have to check what it is in the KGA-30 - although if I'm ever using it 'for real' (it's basically going to be my workshop amp mostly) then it will always have a buffered pedal in front of it so it won't actually matter - the input impedance is only important if it's connected to a passive guitar output.

It is a genuinely good-sounding amp though, not just 'OK for something I got more or less for free'.

bugileman

mbe said:

I have found a simple mod to try for the 12 Gauge. The blogger in the link also put up simple mods for the Randall RX20R which I tried and thought made an improvement.

https://guitar-dreamer.blogspot.com/2013/08/kustom-12-gauge-amplifier-mod.html

Thanks for the info, I'll probably do the mods at some point along with a possible speaker change, but it may be the stock speaker is better than one would think?. This is a great amp and has a nice clean tone that punches well above it's price range. I bought this second hand after hearing a Japanese strat played through it and immediately jumped on it!

ICBM

bugileman said:

Thanks for the info, I'll probably do the mods at some point along with a possible speaker change, but it may be the stock speaker is better than one would think?

Could be.

What I am sure of is that there's someone at Kustom who knows a thing or two about how to design and spec good-sounding amps - I've never come across one, at any price point, that didn't sound a lot better than you would expect compared to other similarly-priced amps.

My one certainly didn't sound terrible with the Celestion, it just had something of the tone I've heard from that speaker before and not liked, and it just sounds a bit better with the 'cheap' Kustom-branded one.

bugileman

ICBM said:

bugileman said:

Thanks for the info, I'll probably do the mods at some point along with a possible speaker change, but it may be the stock speaker is better than one would think?

Could be.

What I am sure of is that there's someone at Kustom who knows a thing or two about how to design and spec good-sounding amps - I've never come across one, at any price point, that didn't sound a lot better than you would expect compared to other similarly-priced amps.

My one certainly didn't sound terrible with the Celestion, it just had something of the tone I've heard from that speaker before and not liked, and it just sounds a bit better with the 'cheap' Kustom-branded one.

bugileman

bugileman said:

ICBM 

My one certainly didn't sound terrible with the Celestion, it just had something of the tone I've heard from that speaker before and not liked, and it just sounds a bit better with the 'cheap' Kustom-branded one.

That's interesting. I will eventually get round to replacing only for curiosity. I do like the sound from the stock speaker, but I think we're all obsessed with finding a better tone whether we like it or not!

bugileman

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/123596195797 link to this great amp. If I didn't have one already I'd be on it.

bugileman

Got round to replacing the stock speaker for a celestion rock driver pro G12. Sounds superb makes a huge difference, even the grainy overdrive now sounds smoother. The clean sounds are definitely much improved, with some punch. Now very pleased. 

english_bob

ICBM said:

What I am sure of is that there's someone at Kustom who knows a thing or two about how to design and spec good-sounding amps 

James Brown, formerly at Peavey, now behind Amptweaker, was their chief engineer- might still be.

He designed the Peavey Classic 30 and 50, 5150 and JSX among others. Even if the Bandit wasn't one of his you'd expect that he'd be familiar with the design, and it's pretty much the archetypal good, inexpensive solid state amp.