Well, I'll be!!

[cozmik_cowboy]

In Grateful Dead Gear (a must-read for anyone interested in the Dead and/or the development of modern musical equipment) Blair Jackson tells of Pigpen playing a Vox Continental or a Hammond B-3, and there is much photographic evidence for both. But hold the presses! I just found a pic of him on a Kustom organ!


https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21AIKNFsEAh6azqNE&cid=2A0A7644FA51B725&id=2A0A7644FA51B725%21203&parId=2A0A7644FA51B725%21126&o=OneUp


I've seen one of these once before this picture; don't remember the band's name, but they were active in NW Illinois in the mid-'70s.


Peter

[lbpesq]

Are you sure that's Pig's rig?  Drinking a Coors?!!!!

hehehehe

Bill, tgo

[StephenR]

For some reason if you lived outside Colorado in the 60s-70s Coors was considered to be a "holy grail" beer. When I finally got to taste some in 1974 it was obvious that it was garbage and I could never understand the allure.

Lots of Kustom gear visible in the shot below from Menlo Park in 1967. The Kustom organ is sure a formidable looking piece of gear. I don't remember ever seeing anyone play one.

[edwardofhuncote]

Oh wow... I had a pair of Kustom speaker cabinets with that rib-padded foam covering, and the Kustom head we used for PA back then. That wretched thing had a spring reverb in it that rattled this awful 'sproing-ey' sound constantly with every bumpy mile in the old van we traveled to gigs in. Sounded like the most obnoxiously loud bed-spings you ever heard. 

[cozmik_cowboy]

The organ I saw in person was white sparkle; tres groovy!  No B-3, but no Farfisa Combo either.
In SE OH in the early-mid '70s, every guitarist ached to dump their Silvertone amps & get a Kustom, or, failing that, a Fender.  Rhythm player in my HS bands had a gold-sparkle Kustom 100 - well, a series of them - they were good enough to have an unlimited lifetime warranty to the original owner, but he still blew up at least 2.  He always put a purple jewel light on them.


Peter (Who has a Silvertone Twin Twelve 1484 sitting on top of his filing cabinets as he types - and would trade it for a Kustom or Fender in a heartbeat!)


ps - I will concur on discovering the truth behind the Coors myth..........

[David Houck]

When I was in high school, there was a small music store a few towns away that carried a knock-off of Kustom called Plush; and somehow the guy that ran the store let us use a couple of those heads and cabs.  They looked really cool on stage, and were better than anything we owned personally.

I also somehow knew somebody who loaned me two Silvertone heads and cabs, both of which I blew up.

[cozmik_cowboy]

Those Plushes look like a fairly straight-forward rip-off - but they're tube!  Kustoms were SS.  I'd like to hear a Plush sometime.

Peter

[lbpesq]

Coors was, indeed, "legendary" in NY in the early 70's.  Twelve days after seeing The Band open for the Dead at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City on Jerry's 31st birthday, (8/1/73), I moved to California.  I flew back to NY that xmas and brought a six pack of Coors talls with me to share with my NY friends.  The next morning my mom told me that she had used 2 or 3 cans to wash her hair and she would give money to buy some more.  I was PISSED!  Of course I was 18, young and dumb, and had no idea what good beer was.

And I always thought the Kustom Tuck 'n Roll cabs were tres cool, certainly much groovier than my Heathkit!

Bill, tgo (the grandfatherly one?)

[adriaan]

Mid 80s, Kustom roll'n'tuck PA - uh, a powered mixer and column speakers - grounding issues and vocal mics - bad memories, but good times. 

Don't mention the beer, though.

[StephenR]

I went to Sam Ash in 1968 to buy a Marshall guitar amp and the salesperson kept trying to talk me into buying a Kustom amp instead. Happy that I stuck with my original purchase plan since I didn't like the sound of any of the Kustom amps I later got to play through. Not a fan of solid state guitar amps. Sure wish I had held on to the Marshall, though, guessing the 60s models are worth a lot of money now.

In October of the same year I was hanging at a friend's house who had spent summer of 68 at Kesey's place in Oregon. Her father was a college professor and friend of Kesey's. While we were musing the origins of the cosmos someone knocked on the door and since I was closest I answered the knock. George Walker (Merry Prankster) was standing there. He had come to Long Island to try and get Katie to go to Tahiti with him and Ken on Kesey's sailboat. Katie laughed and told him she needed to finish her last year of high school. George had driven cross-country in his Lotus Elan convertible which was painted in psychedelic colors. The seats looked like sparkly versions of the Kustom tuck and roll cabinets... car was way cool and the seats way more impressive than any Kustom amp. Good use of tuck and roll...

[pauldo]

Tony K. had a red Kustom cabinet and head and a REAL Fender stratocaster.  He was sought after in high school and ended up in Assassin with me in the late 70's.  We were'nt really good, but Tony and his amp were the schnizzel. 


Best part of that band was the leader, Eric, a giant round guy with an infectious laugh - he was into everything from the Dixie Dregs to The Ramone's,  dude played every note like he felt it.  Leukemia took him just after high school - I still wonder what my musical trajectory would have been if he didn't pass. . . .   


The band name changed to Special E (speaking of bad beer) and we played at his funeral, most awkward gig ever, but his parents "got it" they understood how important music was to Eric. 


Paul (who appreciates the therapy session and realizes that after 35 years I still love that guy  )

[David Houck]

   

[cozmik_cowboy]

Bill, tgo (the grandfatherly one?)

Any news you want to share?


Peter (Awaiting grandson #4 in August)

[edwardofhuncote]

Funny how an odd piece of gear brings out so many memorable stories.

Those Kustom speaker towers (and 4-channel powered head) I want to say were a grayish sparkle. And I was mistaken about the *sproing* reverb... that was in an old Shure Vocalmaster head. Which also had some tubes in it.

[cozmik_cowboy]

Shure being in next-door Evanston, almost every club in Chicago has (or had in my day) a Vocalmaster installed; my impression?  Shure had a great sales staff.......

Peter