Kustom 72 coupe

[gratay]

I'm just wondering as these things are going pretty cheap. Even around half RRP new.

They are made in the USA I believe so does anyone know what they are like as far as build quality goes?
reliability? any issues?

They look like they have interesting features and the few soundclips I have heard sound pretty decent.
If they do fender cleans I'm interested . rather than lugging my twin around I'd be interested in the 72 coupe head.
I'm assuming its purely aesthetic reasons for the prices.

thanks for any info

[Chicago Slim]

I've owned a '72 Hardtop (head), as well as a '36 Coupe and Defender V15. The Coupes and Hardtops are made in Cincinatti, the Defender in China.

They are very well built. I've owned the '36 Coupe for about 6 years and the '72 Hardtop for about 5. My amps get bounced down the highway, 100 to 400 miles a week, at 70 to 80 mph. I play shows in hot, humid weather, and do back to back studio sesions (8 hrs). I've never had a problem.

The Kustom tupe amps were designed by James Brown, who designed the Peavey Classic's. They tend to sound like a tweed, only with more headroom. They can also do blackface sounds, by cutting the Mids. I had been playing Fender tweeds and blackface amps, for over 20 years, before getting the Kustoms. After a year of playing the Kustoms, I sold my Vintage amps. The sound was that much better, and the amps had more usable features.

I started out playing the '72 Hardtop, through a 4X10 cabinet. Sold the half stack, and bought a 2X10 speaker cabinet, with Eminence Legend 105's. I recently sold the '72 Hardtop, and bought the Defender V15, 10" combo. With Mods, my '36 Coupe or 2 10" combo's (stereo), give me about as much headroom as the four 6L6, '72 Hardtop.

[dinglehopper]

I had a coupe 36. sounded great clean and distorted. emulator out sounded really good.

[dave_mc]

i liked the 36 i tried. the clean channel sounded fendery to my ears, but i'm no vintage amp afficionado.

[neastguy]

I miss my 36 I had... seemed solid and sounded great

[Lublin]

I owned and gigged a '36 for many years before I sold it to fund a head/cab combo. It was a fantastic amp. Never an issue.

[Frank Speak]

I had a 36 for awhile; great sounding amp. I sold it *only* because of the shared eq. I didn't like that aspect of the amp when playing live.

[gratay]

Thanks very much everyone. Sounds like everyone is happy with the sounds they are getting with them which is great.

I have read a bit online about heat issues with the 72 coupe in particular.
Wonder if anyone has looked under the hood at the quality of the components and build?

I've found a 72 head which has never been gigged and is going for a 1/4 the retail price which is very tempting .
Sounds like they can do fender cleans which is all I'm really interested in it doing so I will have to go and have a play I think.

[Chicago Slim]

My Kustoms have held up to the heat and humidity of Florida. I have had problems with a Mesa, that used 10 tubes, in a short chassis. I would say that they are built much better than Fender PCB amps. Some of the top touring pro's, like John Bohlinger, Scotty Anderson and Rick Eckhardt are Kustom endorsee's.

I heard that while touring in Iraq with Toby Keith, Eckhardt had some heat issues. But, he uses two heads, stacked in a rack. Under those conditions, you could have trouble with any amp. These guy's tour all over the Southern US, without any issues.

Kustom tube amps never caught on with the amateur, forum crowd. They seem more interested in the old solid state amps. The US made coupes, have been discontinued, and have been replaced with the MIC Defender line. This is the time to pick a coupe up, at a great price.