£229 5W pure valve head & 1x12 cab

Richard - Richards GuitarsRichard - Richards Guitars Posts: 679Member
edited March 2017 in Forum Announcements
For £229 you can now get a 5W pure valve head & a 1 x 12 cabinet.

It has a single rotary control on the front for volume, starting clean and as you crank it up it just gets dirtier and dirtier.

The tone is utterly wonderful - I have never had so much fun - ever.

I hope you can look beyond this being a cynical attempt to sell you something (I really couldnt give a damn if you buy this off me to be honest).

As a guitarist I just wanted to share with you all the fun I had today and to make you aware of the fun you could be having too!

Has anyone tried one yet? Or are there similar things out there - there must be but I just havent seen them as amps isnt really my focus as you know these days.

The Kustoms however are always cool but this one has just made me smile.... and smile... and smile!

Let me know if you try one!

Comments

  • The thing about not giving a damn...

    Obviously that was a lie so if you want one I can help!! lol

    But you know what I mean!!!
  • ScroogeScrooge Posts: 399Member
    Thats always a dillema when you want to rave about something that you just happen to sell, lol! \:\)

    In my old job, at a local electronics store, I dont know how much my credibility was raised or lowered whenever I raved about a product we sold. Sometimes people could see I was genuinely enthusiastic, in those cases the good products really did sell themselves \:\) Other times I got the old "Aaa but you're just say ing that because you sell them!" line \:\(

    The most frustrating one for me was hoovers. We stocked two lines, Sebo and Dyson. Now if you just tried one against the other the difference was night and day...seriously. I'm not one to get excited over a hoover but the Sebos were all quieter, better built and had better suction than their similarly priced dyson counterparts. But dyson has done so much advertising over the last few years that it was hard to convince anyone without getting them into the shop to see for themselves.
    Much the same situation as people who never look into these lesser known manufacturers who make beautiful low powered amps cos "it needs to be a 100w marshall".

    Of course it works the other way as well, I for example associate Kustom with cheap chineese made throw away gear that sounds terrible, because they *have* made a lot of that as well. It'd take something real nice to get me out of that mindset, I might just find one of these amps and see about changing my perception \:\)

    I miss my old job in a lot of ways, you get some cracking stories working in retail \:\)

    Steve.
  • OldSwannerOldSwanner Posts: 56Member
    I haven't bought a new bit of kit in 6 years barring revalves & refrets. Kids have seen to that :-) .

    But I'll bet one of these would work well in lessons.

    You've got me twitching old boy .. not felt the GAS rumble in years.

    You still take trade-ins Richard?
  • Scrooge. Not too sure when the last time you tried a Kustom amp but I must have been raving about them for nigh on 10 years?

    The old comparison we used to make in the old days at Regent was the Marshall MG amps up against the Kustom 16 DFX. There was literally no comparison - The Marshall being a wasp in a jam jar by comparison.

    In recent years it has been the HVT amps which have knocked my socks off - WOW!!! Incredibly valve like tone with a massive range of tones thanks to really useable switching options etc.

    I learnt via a video promotion that the main guy who developed Peavey Transtube was behind the HVT series so not surprising they sound so great.

    The latest Defender range (all valve) should be really exciting if this tiny little package is anything to go by - £200? I still cannot believe how good it is - shocking.

    I find the whole amplifier market as amusing as the guitar market with people so incredibly brand orientated when much of the stuff that is branded being low value, low quality rubbish - whilst on the other hand you have Kustom coming up with some really useable, fantastic value amps.

    Try one!
  •  Originally Posted By: OldSwanner
    I haven't bought a new bit of kit in 6 years barring revalves & refrets. Kids have seen to that :-) .

    But I'll bet one of these would work well in lessons.

    You've got me twitching old boy .. not felt the GAS rumble in years.

    You still take trade-ins Richard?



    Paul.

    The ULTIMATE test!!!!

    To you my friend, forget the trade IN - call it trade PRICE! lol

    You MUST MUST MUST try this and ONLY if you like it must you keep it.

    Its an amp that enables you to rock out even at home levels (all be it at relatively loud home level!) so as you say perfect for a lesson environment where you want to get the feeling of true valve classic rock tone across.

    I spent more time than I should have playing on this today and you know you have something great when this happens.

    I would never oversell my enthusiasm for something and would really appreciate a totally straight opinion on it. I get more of a buzz from someone saying "you know what - you are right - thats great" than how much money I will make selling them. Its £200 for gods sake, cheaper than pretty much any guitar I sell on a day to do day basis so this is no get rick quick scheme. lol

    Would love to see you, show you my new home and if give the amp a blast while you are here that would be great. FINGERS CROSSED that I haven't made an --ooops naughty word-- of myself (IE you think its rubbish).

    Paul is the local (and national with touring etc) rock & roll, blues guitar hero from Leamington Spa so he will know if it "works".

    By the way Paul, my mum and dad were RAVING about a band they watched the other night "the hang over blues band".

    They never watch live music and never go out but this night they happened to be at someones party where this band were playing. I said to mum "What do you mean? That was the band that played at my wedding!!!!!!!!" She had no idea!!!

    Did you remember seeing her?

    Anyway - she thought you were great, as did Dad and several of their pals.
  • OldSwannerOldSwanner Posts: 56Member
    Sounds good .. I'd no doubt have to bring the tribe along though (I have manacles for the kids).. maybe a Sunday?
  • VialliVialli Posts: 34Member
    "I find the whole amplifier market as amusing as the guitar market with people so incredibly brand orientated when much of the stuff that is branded being low value, low quality rubbish".

    This rings true to me. Not only with guitars but with most consumer items marketing often wins over substance. But I find this especially true in the guitar market.

    Me, on the other hand, I am probably go too far in the other direction. I hate to buy "name" gear and will deliberately seek out more obscure stuff. Partly because I like to be a bit different and partly because I know that marketing doesn't equal quality & in many cases the exact opposite is true.

    I own a Kustom DFX 16 by the way. Bought it as my first amp about 5 years ago. I've since encountered better, but the thing sounds great for the price & is built like a brick. I suspect I will have it in 20 years if I don't sell it.

    I'd be very interested to hear the Defender.
  • Before anyone shoots me down, it is a purists amp. IE no it doesn't have reverb, nope it doesnt have a headphone sock....ummmm....effects? Nope!

    But it is fun and should make you smile.
  • Noise_MakerNoise_Maker Posts: 714Member
    At what stage does the distortion start coming in Richard?

    I had a HT-5 which I loved but was just a little too much for me. Too much fiddling about.

    I like the idea of a single "knob" approach and was thinking of the Vox offering due to the 1/4, 1 and 4 what scaling.

    Does it give a good usable range without blowing home windows out? (in your opinion)?
  • OldSwannerOldSwanner Posts: 56Member
    I have a Vox 120VT.

    It sucks as a gigging amp .. doesn't cut through. My 40w valve Fender wipes the floor with the 120w hybrid Vox.

    At bedroom volume with the Vox set to 2w and power amp on full, my Fender Blues Jr kills it dead for tone with its power amp on 0.5 and the preamp up full.

    The Valvetronix was the last thing I bought gear-wise and a big mistake.

    It's got to be valves all the way, hence the attraction of the amp mentioned here.
  • Options
    Five watt, bonehead simple amps are all the rage at the moment, so it doesn't surprise me that Kustom have got in on the act- Competition would be from the likes of the Epiphone Valve Jr, Vox AC4TV, or in combo form the Fender Champion 600 and one or two others.

    I've played a couple of different Kustom amps and have never failed to be impressed with the sound- yes, they're probably made in China (remember when we used to say similar things about Korea?) and no, they probably won't last a hundred years doing a gig every night, but what amp at that price is any different?
  • Options
    Does the cabinet it goes into need to be 8ohms or 16ohms?
  • It has outputs for 4 8 and 16 I believe.
  • ScroogeScrooge Posts: 399Member
     Originally Posted By: Richard - Richards Guitars
    Scrooge. Not too sure when the last time you tried a Kustom amp but I must have been raving about them for nigh on 10 years?


    Yeah, before that! lol \:\)
    When I started playing electric, probably about 15 years ago, my first amp was a kustom 15. A terrible wee open back thing with a hissy overdrive. I heard a 10watt equivalent produced a couple years later that sounded a little better, so looks like they've got their act together since then. They also had a notoriously terrible PA system that I see has now been discontinued. Reputation is so easily destroyed in todays market! I know that they were a well respected company in the seventies.

    Steve.
  • Well - Cant comment on 15 years ago and genuinely didnt even know they were aorund in the 70s but yes - it sounds like they have come on since then.
  • The bad news is the wonderful HVT series has just been discontinued.... bum...

    Not sure what I will replace it with?!!!
  • SpykeSpyke Posts: 140Member
    5W + Valves is a nice usable combination. I love my modified Epiphone Junior with 1x12 cab, and for reverb I just stick a Marshall Reflector pedal in front of it. That's a great price for the cab and head.

    Admittedly, the modifications give me different gain voicings, but even before the mods it was a great usable amp with nice tone.
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