Vintage Kustom Amps

[edwardofhuncote]

I don't seriously think anyone here is interested, unless you are planning a roadtrip to Bedford, Virginia (me and Dave had an Alembic mini-meet-up near here one night a year or two back...) but this guy was a serious collector for sure.


Check out the picture. And that's reportedly, just one corner of one roomful. There are three more rooms. https://roanoke.craigslist.org/msg/d/bedford-vintage-kustom-amps/7758545490.html

[lbpesq]

Tuck ‘n Roll, Baby!

Bill, tgo

[pauldo]

My goodness.  That is an impressive collection.  Pricing seems very fair.

[hammer]

There are collectors and then there are COLLECTORS.


Never much been in to Kustom amps but we once had a guitarist who liked to turn his Kustom cab on it side at practices because it made for a nice cushioned seat

[JimmyJ]

That's a crazy thing to collect.  Maybe he worked there when they went bust and took all the leftover stock?  Gotta wonder.

I had a couple Kustoms rigs myself.  I played a 150 head with a 2x12 cab for quite a while.  I had added a convenience outlet on the back of the head to power my DS-5 and replaced the stock speakers with EVs at some point - which made the cabinet so heavy it needed new casters.    Years ago donated that amp to a young friend's garage band and I think it still runs.

Then for a while I had a 250 head (I think) with the big 18" folded horn cabinet.  That had a nice mellow tone but it was not an easy thing to move around.

Jimmy J

[edwardofhuncote]

I just have to be impressed by the resolve of anyone who collects 4 rooms full of anything related... stamps, records, butterflies, whatever. But Kustom tuck-n-roll amps and cabs!? There can't be many folks with a museum of those.


When I first started playing years ago, our PA system was a Kustom... with metallic vinyl covering. And awful heavy.

[StephenR]

I went to Sam Ash to buy a 50 watt Marshall guitar amp with a 6x10 cabinet in 1967. The sales guy insisted I would be better off with one of the large Kustom amps telling me it was much more versatile and the Marshall was a one-trick pony. I am glad I stuck with my first choice. The Kustom amps were pretty new at the time and popular but I didn't really care for the way they looked or sounded.

On a quasi-related note. I was hanging at a friend's house one day after school in the fall of 1968, her father was an English professor who knew Ken Kesey. Kate had spent the summer hanging with Kesey and the Pranksters on the west coast. There was a knock at the door and since I was closest I was asked to answer the door. It turned out to be Merry Prankster George Walker. He had driven across the country to visit and was driving a Lotus Elan convertible painted in psychedelic colors. The seats were covered in the same sparkly blue roll-and tuck material they used for the Kustom amps. Still didn't want a Kustom amp.

[gtrguy]

I had a Kustom 200 when I was a teenager. I remember once my mom was making bread or making a cake and it was in the in the oven and she left for the store. I cranked the amp up all the way while she was gone. When she came back the poor cake or bread (don't remember which it was) had collapsed. I never told her how it was my fault...

That thing was loud. 

[pauldo]

I had a Kustom 200 when I was a teenager. I remember once my mom was making bread or making a cake and it was in the in the oven and she left for the store. I cranked the amp up all the way while she was gone. When she came back the poor cake or bread (don't remember which it was) had collapsed. I never told her how it was my fault...

That thing was loud. 

High school daze- my parents let our band practice in our basement.   Tony K. had a red Kustom.   He left it there.   One time he left his Stratocaster there… guess who discovered feedback?  🫨😀


Remember coming up from the basement and my Dad was sitting at the kitchen table.   He looked up at me and calmly said: “those are the only ears you got”.   

[hammer]

As someone who has lost a significant amount of his hearing due to playing in bands where I always seemed to end up standing close to the crash cymbals of our drummers...your father was a wise man.

[pauldo]

As someone who has lost a significant amount of his hearing due to playing in bands where I always seemed to end up standing close to the crash cymbals of our drummers...your father was a wise man.

He was.  I didn’t realize his wisdom until much later in life.  You know teenagers know everything. 

I love him and am grateful for the things he taught me.

[edwardofhuncote]

Funny, the unexpected turns these threads can take. I've been spending nights at the hospital with my Mom, (lotsa' time to scroll through CL...) if you pay attention, you can get a little advance notice of what's coming for you, as the nuts don't tend to roll far away from the tree they fell out of.

By the way, there's a killer deal on a black Les Paul Studio, (w/ obligatory headstock repair...) and a Mesa head that posted the other day in Lexington. https://roanoke.craigslist.org/msg/d/lexington-mesa-gibson/7758940284.html

Black is an easy color to touch up. That Les would probably sound awesome through one of those old Kustom tuck-n-roll amps... otoh, the Mesa head supposedly has new tubes. Lexington is about an hour from Bedford by backroads. 

[Oscar fusi]

thanks for the assistance, I hope I can get the gipson and I hope I can ship to Italy

oscar

[bigredbass]

That photo of all those Kustoms is just . . . . scary.

[gtrguy]

Ha Ha