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Pedals for Kustom 250 amp [message #11936]

Tue, 22 September 2009 23:04

brucifer
Messages: 3
Registered: September 2009
Location: NC

Junior Member

Hey everyone,

I have a Kustom 250 T&R head (the one without effects)and a matching 2X15 cab (Circa 73-78).
I am playing a 68 danelectro double neck 6/4 thru it.

I love this set up! i can switch between guitar and bass quickly and get a great loud clean sound.

But i am having trouble finding the right distortion/overdrive pedals for the guitar.

i have a couple tube screamer ts-808 type pedals and a couple supper fuzz type pedals that work great with my tube amps, but not so well with this solid state Kustom.

any help would be greatly appreciated

Kustom 250 Head (T&R Black)circa 1973
Kustom 2x15 Cab (T&R Black)Circa 1973
Orange OR-50+2x12 cab
Fender twin reverb circa 1981
Roland jazz chorus 120 circa 1978
Rick 360 fireglo circa 1989
Danelectro Dan&Stan double neck 4/6 circa 1968

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Re: Pedals for Kustom 250 amp [message #11939 is a reply to message #11936]

Wed, 23 September 2009 06:17

stevem
Messages: 4775
Registered: June 2004
Location: NY

Senior Member

These amps have a very wide frequency range(alot of highs) and not as much mid as your average tube amp, the 72 and up 250s also had a good amount more gaim on tap then the first issue 71 era model.
These amps where offfered with the built in distortion which although it sounded fuzzy it was not harsh and killer brite liek you get with placing a stomp box in front of these amps.
My suggestion to you would be to find yourself a real tube stomp box you like that is a tad on the mellow/mid rangy side or can offer at least more mids than your screamer.
The problem with using stomp boxes in front of a solid state amp is the signal level, as they put out not only distortion bt the signal needed to drive a tube amps preamp stage into clipping also. The problem with a SS amp is over driving their preamps sound like crap, you want to feed them a distored signal but not a hot distored signal!
And also when a transistor clips/distorts they go from clean to clipping real fast, where as a tube would be more gentle in the change, and also when a transistor clips it produces harmonic overtones up above 5ths 7ths and 9ths that will make certain notes sound out of tune of which a classic example would be the Beatles raunchy version of Revolution with its guitar sound.

Hope some of these tips help you out!

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Re: Pedals for Kustom 250 amp [message #11970 is a reply to message #11939]

Thu, 24 September 2009 22:08

Shaun_Musings
Messages: 323
Registered: April 2009
Location: Reading, MA

Senior Member

I have a Boss ME-30 digital effects pedal... it sounds great through my Kustom 200 stack... give it a whirl..

Shaun

Born on the Baaaaayou (Ok, in Massachusetts)

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Re: Pedals for Kustom 250 amp [message #11985 is a reply to message #11970]

Fri, 25 September 2009 17:46

brucifer
Messages: 3
Registered: September 2009
Location: NC

Junior Member

Thanks for your help and input!

I'm sure with some experimentation and patience i will get the sound I'm looking for. The Dano sounds AMAZING clean! The lipstick pickup sounds very bouncy and fender-y with a huge deep full sound. That added with my echoplex makes for hours of fun. The bass is just fantastic through it. Bass seems to sound better with conventional pedals. I am using a Super Fuzz clone with the bass and its perfect.

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Re: Pedals for Kustom 250 amp [message #11989 is a reply to message #11936]

Fri, 25 September 2009 22:26

Shaun_Musings
Messages: 323
Registered: April 2009
Location: Reading, MA

Senior Member

It also depends on what sound you're looking for. A strat is going to sound much different than, say, brucifer's rickenbacker (lucky guy). Experiment. I always thought I would love the bluesy feel of a Boss Blues Driver. The amp tremolo of the Kustom B2 I have has a much more mellower tone, and coupled with a Super Chorus or Cool Cat pedal, it's outstanding. Depends on who you want to sound like. I dunno if Led Zeppelin would have sounded the same if they'd been playing through the Kustoms instead of the Marshalls...

Shaun

Born on the Baaaaayou (Ok, in Massachusetts)

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Re: Pedals for Kustom 250 amp [message #11990 is a reply to message #11989]

Fri, 25 September 2009 23:14

pleat
Messages: 1454
Registered: June 2004
Location: Belding, Mi

Senior Member

I think we are comparing two different amps. Brucifer has a K250 and Shawn is using a K200 which is much more user friendly with stomp boxes or processors.
You might want to try the lower input jack of the two vertical input jacks on each channel. The lower jack has more gain and see how the pedal works.
Kustom K250 had different input gains depending if you were using humbuckers or single coils. The lower jack will give you the most gain.
Don

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Re: Pedals for Kustom 250 amp [message #11999 is a reply to message #11990]

Sat, 26 September 2009 20:30

brucifer
Messages: 3
Registered: September 2009
Location: NC

Junior Member

Actually I have been jumping the the two channels with a short cable. i found the sound to be fuller and bigger when jumped. I used to do the same thing with my old Traynor yba.
I think my problem may also have to do with the dano pickups. There is only one pickup and its placed kinda between where a middle and neck would be on a strat.
My dano double neck has two outputs one for guitar, one for bass, i run both cables to a A/B box so i can switch quickly between bass and guitar. Also i have an old SLM pedal bass synth to keep the low end going when i switch to guitar,(i play the pedal bass thru a seperate bass amp not the kustom).

I,m gonna try a real tube pedal. my friend has an old blue tube i can try. ill let you know how it works.

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Re: Pedals for Kustom 250 amp [message #12004 is a reply to message #11999]

Sun, 27 September 2009 12:03

RickBlacker
Messages: 133
Registered: October 2008
Location: Oregon

Senior Member

What kind of cable are you using to patch between both low and hi inputs?

I've used a Ibanez TS9, Boss DS1, and a Keeley modified Boss MT2. So far, I find that i like keeley modded MT2 best with this amp at low volumes.

My amp : K100C-8

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Re: Pedals for Kustom 250 amp [message #12012 is a reply to message #11936]

Mon, 28 September 2009 06:09

stevem
Messages: 4775
Registered: June 2004
Location: NY

Senior Member

You may or may not be able to jump the channels on your k100c as they may be out of phase with each other. The reason being that the reverb channel has one stages of gain than the normal channel in most amps, although I have now lokked that closly at the pc1500 schematic to see how its output ends up in comparison to the normal channel on my duel trace o-scope.
All I can say is to try it out, if you get a fatter sound you are ok, if it sounds thinner and turning sat the treble control up on one channel takes out highs you aready have than its out of phase.
You will not hurt the amp if things are out of phase, it will just sound poor, like the thing out of phase middle pick up position on a strat type axe.

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