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40 years old (Again) and they still rumble the House [message #24926]

Fri, 22 April 2016 15:56

olnutjob
Messages: 4
Registered: April 2016
Location: West of Philly

Junior Member

I went into the local GC last year looking for a single 12-cabinet, or the like. For less $$$ than an Orange 8" cabinet, "Oh why, oh why I took home 2 Kustom 4-10 PA cabinets.

The speakers have a 1976 date code.....EEEEEh, Black Tolex, again.

All 8 drivers are 100% good, as are the cabinets but I don't have an honest PA....(Nor am I gigging.) I wired them in parallel & plugged in Micro Terror, & they do the job quite well.

Is Kustom Stuff supposed to last forever?

(I don't text or partake of "Social Media.")

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Re: 40 years old (Again) and they still rumble the House [message #24928 is a reply to message #24926]

Sat, 23 April 2016 11:39

efinger
Messages: 18
Registered: April 2010
Location: North Carolina

Junior Member

I have a 4x10 PA column with the original speakers that I paid 100$ for. If it was square instead of rectangular it would probably be worth twice as much. I was pretty amazed to find original speakers inside when I opened it.

I use it sometimes with my K100. It sounds so loud and clear its hard to believe they are 40+ years old. Only thing id hesitate to do would be to pump alot of bass through them. I dont have a lot invested in it but Id have to ruin it now.

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Re: 40 years old (Again) and they still rumble the House [message #24931 is a reply to message #24926]

Sat, 23 April 2016 22:17

Iowa Boy
Messages: 767
Registered: June 2014

Senior Member

Pleat will tell you that this stuff was built to last........plywood cabinets instead of particle board like some were made, and the amp heads to me look almost like they were of military grade quality. The guy definitely knew what he was doing when he designed these units.

As to your PA columns, they were designed for vocal like all of the Kustom PA speaker cabinets. You wouldn't want to be running a mixer through them and running a bass guitar through the PA like you can do with todays PA's. I know of guys who use them for guitar with no problems, but a bass or probably even a keyboard might do some serious damage especially if they are the original speakers. Cabinets aren't designed either to handle the low frequencies either I believe. Pleat has all the info on this and maybe will chime in.

I'm willing to bet if you take care of your equipment, it will be around another 45 years......not that most of us will be. Smile

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Re: 40 years old (Again) and they still rumble the House [message #24936 is a reply to message #24931]

Sun, 24 April 2016 15:19

olnutjob
Messages: 4
Registered: April 2016
Location: West of Philly

Junior Member

Alas.... The cabinets are mostly MDF & quite heavy. I'm savvy on not porting anything with really low end Hz's into them. The drivers are CTS, ceramics and all have a weird OHM reading. Both in parallel are approx. a 4 ohm load.

I'm willing to bet, with an age correct PA amplifier they would beat the pants off of anything "New," (extremely high end, not included.) My Big "K" Lead III, head, probably would work fine.

I'd like to pull a 10" from each & replace with a horn, (& make a grab & go, 2-10, box.)

(And you may have figured out....."I miss the good old days.")
(I'm also a compulsive tinkerer, and wish some kid would offer "A Ben" for the pair)

(I don't text or partake of "Social Media.")

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Re: 40 years old (Again) and they still rumble the House [message #24937 is a reply to message #24936]

Sun, 24 April 2016 17:40

Iowa Boy
Messages: 767
Registered: June 2014

Senior Member

Problem
with the horn is you can't do it......I've tried. Your speakers are 16 ohms originally wired series/parallel to get an 16 ohm cabinets. Two cabinets used together got you an 8 ohm load which works okay with the Kustom 4 ohm load total amps. If you have them wired in parallel one cabinet is now 4 ohms and that is the limit you can run the T&R amp heads at. If the speakers are 8 ohms, you can't wire them in parallel because your load is 2 ohms and will fry your amp. They would have to be wired series/parallel to get 8 ohms a cabinet and you can use the two cabinets and now you are at 4 ohm load. As to a 16 ohm crossover......none to be found that could go inside the cabinet other than using a capacitor....which I am not crazy about. A 3 speaker series/parallel wiring setup isn't advised because your sound will not be evenly divided between the speakers. So with 16 ohm speakers, your kind of screwed. Now if you want to just use one cabinet with 2 8 ohm speakers, you could put in an 8 ohm driver on the horn and still be at a 4 ohm load. Then you could use an 8 ohm crossover. I've spent hours trying to use waveguides that I bought for the purpose of putting into two of my cabinets and nothing works. That's why they are on Craigslist now. Live and learn.

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