| K 400b-4 [message #20799] |
Fri, 27 June 2014 02:40  |
Iowa Boy
Messages: 767
Registered: June 2014
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Senior Member |
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Just picked up another amp today. I know its listed as a 400 series Energizer with harmonic clipper selective boost and a stereo/mono switch. Another amp saved from the jaws of death. It was so dirty I thought it was teal instead of charcoal. Cabinets are (2) D-130's, missing all the 15 inch speakers of course. What can you tell me about this amp since once again, I am clueless as to how its suppose to operate. Would be great if you guys could come up with owners manuals and post them on this site or if other Kustomites would download what they have. Just a thought.
The guy I bought it from claimed he bought it new in 68 and that you could use a Y adapter and play through both amps at same time. Other than that, think he partied too much back then and couldn't remember how anything else worked or if it did anymore.
So what's the story on this amp? He says it guitar and all the controls seem to agree with that. However, I thought "b" indicated bass.
Again, no footswitch with this unit and looks like it took a couple.
Final question, on the speaker cabinets I noticed that the ports were made of plastic and not chrome like I thought they were suppose to be. Is there anything out there that I can replace these cracked ones with?
Pleat, you'd better load up your truck with the stuff you want to sell and head for Iowa before I run out of money.
As always, appreciate all the help you guys give us rookies.
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| Re: K 400b-4 [message #20800 is a reply to message #20799] |
Fri, 27 June 2014 06:53  |
stevem
Messages: 4774
Registered: June 2004
Location: NY
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Senior Member |
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The stereo / mono switch runs the signal of either channel into both of the amps two output stages when in the mono setting, in stereo the right hand channel gets fed to the amps right side power amp, and the left channel goes the other way.
In those days, yes a Y cord was used to run one instrument into both channels, to day you could do the same, or use a A/B type box that is common today.
If it came with JBL D130 drivers than it was not sold as a bass set up, but if you if you still had four of those drivers you could certainly play bass through It at less than loud volumes with no ill. Effects.
Amp circuit wise It makes no difference to the electronics!
I have never seen owners Manuel's on ebay, or anywhere, but I do have them for the K100-1 and -2 non. Combo heads.
Weber speakers makes a driver to replace those 130s, and if you even find blown up D or K model JBL.s on ebay or what not, you can get them reconed into the D130 models, but you will still be spending when all is said and done some 180 per driver!
The Eminence commonwealth driver with its 4" aluminum voice coil cover and 172 buck price tag is the 130s off the shelf replacement, another way you could go would be to get the Jensen Alinco magnet 15 incher and then from weber get a 4 inch aluminum voice coil cover.
With these you can cut off the stock cover and than super glue on the 4 inch cover and get the D130s look and close to the tone for way less of the green from your wallet,
[Updated on: Fri, 27 June 2014 07:06] Report message to a moderator |
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| Re: K 400b-4 [message #20801 is a reply to message #20799] |
Fri, 27 June 2014 07:07 |
pleat
Messages: 1454
Registered: June 2004
Location: Belding, Mi
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Senior Member |
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Another great find. The model number would be K400B-4 and has all the effects, reverb, vibrato, selective boost and harmonic clipper. Footswitch jack on the each end of the control panel. All effects will work without the footswitches.
The head has two power amps, each amp has two output jacks (100 watts RMS into a 4 ohm load) on each side on the back panel. The stereo/ mono switch, in the mono position the signal from either channel is sent to both power amps. In the stereo mode, signal from each channel is sent to it's own amp and speaker cabinet.
In the stereo mode, you run a bass guitar using one channel feeding its power amp and speaker cabinet, and a guitar or keyboard using the other channel that is feeding the other power amp and speaker cabinet.
Turn the switch to mono and both bass guitar and keyboard will be heard through both speaker cabinets.
The two speaker cabinets, are they the 2x15 or 3x15 cabinets? The chrome plastic ports will be hard to replace unless you find some for sale on Ebay.
As far as heading to Iowa, I'm saving my cash to head to VA. this summer, a collector friend of mine has the mother load of kustoms that he is starting to sell off.
pleat
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| Re: K 400b-4 [message #20813 is a reply to message #20812] |
Sat, 28 June 2014 09:07 |
pleat
Messages: 1454
Registered: June 2004
Location: Belding, Mi
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Senior Member |
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You mentioned you have two empty 3x15 speaker cabinets, one K400B-4 amp and I think you mentioned you have a K200B-5 PA head. I'm not sure exactly what is to be accomplished. We need to backtrack and understand how your amps and speaker cabinets were intended to be used for when sold new.
The K200 PA head was offered with three speaker cabinet options. A pair of 4x10 columns, a pair of 4x12" columns, both size columns are 8 ohms each to present a 4 ohm load to the K200 amp. The third option are the siren horn 3x15 speaker cabinets. With the siren horn cabs, each cabinet is 5.3 ohms which would be just under 3 ohms to the amp. (Long story but horns with simple passive crossover present a different mix of impedence so going under the 4 ohms isn't an issue)
Look through all the catalogs on this site in the literature section and you will see a pattern of how many cabinet speaker configurations were offered with either the K200 or K400 heads.
All K200B series and K400B series amps share a one common power amp section. 100 watts RMS into a 4 ohm total load.
Starting with the K200B series, one thing will become evedent, The K200 GUITAR and BASS amps were sold with either one or two of the 2x15 speaker cabinet (each cabinet uses 16 ohm speakers for a cabinet impedence of 8 ohms). The 3x15 cabinet regardless of brand of speaker sold with just one cabient. The exception would be the PA system with two 3x15 siren horn cabs.
The K400 series keeping in mind the amp has two of the common power amps that is used in the K200 series amps. The GUITAR and BASS amps were sold with four 2x15 speaker cabinets or two 3x15 speaker cabinets. In the four 2x15 speaker cabinets, each amp would drive two cabinets.
The K400 series the amps was offered with just two 3x15" speaker cabinets regardless of brand of speaker.
The exeption again is the K400-5 PA amp, the catalog shows four of the 3x15" siren horn cabinets.
Having a game plan as to what you want to do with your cabinets and amp heads would allow us to help you.
Loading the empty 3x15 cabinet for PA use, siren horn in the top and I wouldn't mix woofers as to have a bottom woofer and another 15" to act as midrange. Pick a speaker that you think will give the best results in your price range and load both cabinet with matching woofers.
The woofers will want to be 16 ohms each so with a siren horn, each cabinet is 5.3 ohms. This will allow you to use both speaker cabinets with either the K200 amp or the K400 amp.
A couple of tricks you can do with the cabinets, you can make a bracket to mount a simple on/off switch that can reached through one of the port tubes, or mount a level control on the bracket to control the horn level.
Using the cabinets for bass guitar, you could simply turn off the horn.
My band uses two of siren 3x15 cabinets for PA (simple two way system, and we add a single 18" sub cabinet with electronic crossover to make it a three way system.
Hope this helps,
pleat
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| Re: K 400b-4 [message #20824 is a reply to message #20814] |
Sat, 28 June 2014 19:34 |
rodak
Messages: 516
Registered: October 2001
Location: Georgia
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Senior Member |
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Why would you want to section off the top part of the cabinet? As stevem said, the internal volume is good for 2 15s, but not for 3. The horn is completely sealed on the back, isn't it? If so then the horn and speakers wouldn't interfere with each other, and the 2 15s would have a happy cabinet volume, the amp would see an 8 ohm load below the crossover frequency, so everyone is happy, and no need to relocate the ports. And as a bass player, I'd rather invest the suggested 20 bucks in a decent crossover, with an adjustable pad, and USE the horn for my bass - otherwise, how would anyone know I was playing a Rick  And with a K400, you could run FOUR such cabinets - wow, what a bass rig!
www.combo-organ.com
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| Re: K 400b-4 [message #20830 is a reply to message #20799] |
Sun, 29 June 2014 14:57 |
rodak
Messages: 516
Registered: October 2001
Location: Georgia
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Senior Member |
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Oh, I see. I guess you could try it both ways and decide which sounds better (sectioning the cabinet for 2x15s only or leaving it as-is). As for playing bass, if you have a decent crossover set to the proper frequency for that horn (or higher, but NOT lower), it shouldn't be a problem. I sometimes just like the extra sparkle I get from a midrange or hi-freq horn with my bass, especially the Rick.
www.combo-organ.com
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| Re: K 400b-4 [message #20832 is a reply to message #20831] |
Sun, 29 June 2014 16:49 |
rodak
Messages: 516
Registered: October 2001
Location: Georgia
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Senior Member |
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I don't know what the original crossover point was for those horns. I'm guessing it's in the neighborhood of 1,000hz. Here's a nice looking 1,600hz crossover:
http://www.parts-express.com/eminence-pxb-1k6-high-pass-cros sover-board-1600-hz--290-600
18db/octave, so it's sufficiently steep that you shouldn't have to worry about any bass frequencies getting through.
Here's another:
http://www.parts-express.com/800-hz-high-pass-8-ohm-crossove r--266-470
800hz, 12db/octave. Not as steep, but still better than the original single capacitor (which, I believe, is only 6db/octave). But the more gradual rolloff may actually sound better, I'm not sure.
Of course, these are both designed for 8 ohm drivers. If the Kustom horns are 16ohms, that would change the crossover point, although I'm not sure in which direction or how much. (as you can see, I know *some* of this stuff, but I'm hardly an expert)
You may also want to add an L-pad (level control):
http://www.parts-express.com/speaker-l-pad-attenuator-100w-m ono-1-shaft-8-ohm--260-265
www.combo-organ.com
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| Re: K 400b-4 [message #20839 is a reply to message #20838] |
Sun, 29 June 2014 19:58 |
rodak
Messages: 516
Registered: October 2001
Location: Georgia
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Senior Member |
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Yeow! 2,500hz? Ok, so you'll need a higher cutoff crossover than the ones I'd suggested. The 2-way option might be worth considering, too - that's where the signal from the amp hits the crossover first, which splits it into separate low and high frequency outputs. That can make for a more even transition, I guess, although I think it would be more important in hi-fi stereo applications. It would be really hard to say which one would work/sound better. And remember, you're dealing with 16ohm drivers, and most crossovers are designed for 4ohm/8ohm drivers. Again, I'm not sure how the higher impedance affects the crossover frequency.
Shoot, just get a 4mfd 50v non-polar cap and be done with it!
Well, this has been fun thought exercise, anyway. I would love to someday have two 3x15 cabs with 2 15s and a horn to run my bass through (driven by a K200, of course). Hey, I can dream, can't I?
www.combo-organ.com
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| Re: K 400b-4 [message #20845 is a reply to message #20843] |
Mon, 30 June 2014 10:54 |
rodak
Messages: 516
Registered: October 2001
Location: Georgia
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Senior Member |
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The 511b horns are like the ones in the later Kustoms, when they went to the metal, slant front amps with the lighted blue power switches. They're nothing like the original horns for the cabs you have. It may take a year or more of searching, but some original horns are bound to turn up. Meanwhile, those Pleat recommended are about as close as you'll get to the original look, and you won't have to butcher the baffle board and grillcloth to install them.
www.combo-organ.com
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| Re: K 400b-4 [message #20849 is a reply to message #20845] |
Mon, 30 June 2014 16:47 |
pleat
Messages: 1454
Registered: June 2004
Location: Belding, Mi
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Senior Member |
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Depending on if the horns are in the slant metal face era, they would have the vertical fins in the horn opening. The latter version that was used in the tolex series Horn cabs don't have the fins.
pleat
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