K400 in need of columns [message #7749] |
Tue, 17 October 2006 17:15 |
Wattsyurz
Messages: 16 Registered: July 2005 Location: SC
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Junior Member |
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Hey all. Need some decent 3X columns, black is good. With or without horns. I'm in the Carolinas.
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Re: K400 in need of columns [message #7758 is a reply to message #7749] |
Thu, 19 October 2006 09:53 |
edforgothispassword
Messages: 202 Registered: July 2004
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Senior Member |
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hey Gary...was great to hear from you...very very sorry to have to cut the call short last night..was right smack in the middle of a "babies R us" expedition with wife and daughter..gonna be a first time grandpa come this January and we were out baby shower shopping last night (I'm getting queezy just talkin like this)..jeesh...fact is, the whole baby thing doesn't impress me a bit...now when they get about 3 yrs old..then they start to get fun..til then.. I'm not really standing in line to be able to hold the lil bundle of joy and spitup and dookie diapers...but the kid has a large list of aunts and grandmas...so no worries...they just had me along last night to carry the now-empty wallet.
anyway..yeah...nothing screams personality from stage like a big tall kustom rig..and like you, I looked long n hard for a set of the siren cabs...always they were beyond reasonable driving distance and the shipping cost would kill the deal...so I was pleased when I found my pair right here in Charlotte...they had some rough edges on the bottom..and I did a half-A%$ repair job..but standing on stage they look great..and unless you're a kustom guy..you wouldn't even notice what I did to em...it would bother me that they are not 100% except that I got them cheap and to be played out so I just wanted them to be stage pretty..not mint.
most of my band jobs these past few years has been the typical wedding/corporate gig and country club fluff jobs..so even a single kustom SC2x10 is enough..but my preference is to run my boss stereo board into a pair of rigs..I keep a nice set of several models depending on the venue size...most of the work goes to the SC2x10s..a nice set of black beauties...but if I'm outdoors I'll typically opt for the SC2x12 as they can give me more low end.
My dream rig is the pair of blue 4x10SC models that you'll see in my photo album with the matching blue strat...those are nice size amps..they can keep up with drums and make a nice visual on stage without being too big...and in stereo...its a really happy place.
I've only once had my 3x12 rig out...it was a small arena gig where I didn't have to be on endorsement or backline amps and we needed to be able to push the rig upstage and back quickly several times..with about 6,000 folks out front and a really bad acoustic environment I wanted some amp behind me...and standing a good 20 ft out in front of that 3x12 with it actuall working hard...I was impressed.
I also sideman most years for an outdoor festival with a friend's band..and that stage is big enough that they let me get away with bringing more toys..in fact, they have come to expect it...its not often that this one comes out to play, but I have a 64 fender showman head that I run through my kustom 4x12 cab and then use a morely ABY switch to also kick in the kustom SC2x12s..darn if that don't look cool..and the sound of both the fender and the kustoms working at it...oh my gosh.
the kombo organ was a gift from my wife (as were so many of the kustoms) she got it for me for our 25th wedding anniversary about 5 years back..what a gal...as I started to say last night before I got the evil eye from her..warning me of certain death should I even consider selling the organ or any of the kustoms...there are times when I've considered unloading most of the stuff..then I turn around and buy another one..its an illness....more and more the past couple years I've just not had time to go out n play.. I used to work band jobs most every weekend..now I'm lucky if its every 8-12 weeks...I'm just to busy with my backline biz..so most of the kustoms stay buried along the back wall of the warehouse behind the lesser marshalls and fenders and vox and mesa POS stuff that the market insists they have to have to play their music...actually I do have one mesa head..a 2nd year (92?) mesa dual rec tremoverb..that one is a good one....wouldn't mind sitting that on top of a pair of 3x12 kustom cabs if I were out touring sideman...there is very little sparkle stuff in the house...cause everyone seems to have more money than me when the rigs come up for sale.. what I do have a treasures..gifts from kustom buds mostly..my little charcoal 2x10SC has gone out to play a few times..its mint...the big frank cascade stuff...no..it represents a real prize of vintage kustom gear...but I gotta say..I have this ol frank head in cascade that runs into a 2x10 hi freq cab that I loaded with reconed old CTS speakers...dude..there is no better sounding guitar rig ...period..end of story...that little closed back cab was originally designed for the 10" horns..but it is tight and full with CTS in there...and the ol Frank can push that box to every possible limit.. I keep it in my office cause it looks good..but I do crank it up and play through it alot cause it kills!
my guitar tone was established over 10 years ago when I was doing some national touring and often found myself on whatever amps were backlined at the venue and needed to be able to get my tone on any amp in any volume situation.
I'm still running older gear..when it breaks I'll struggle to move on..til then...it works... I have an old early 90s Boss ME-X board..the brain has all the wet fx...in stereo..chorus, delay tap, flange, reverbs, etc...onboard tuner, midi capable..but it lets me drop 3 pedals into the chain as well..so I can stuff my favorite overdrive pedals in place...my pedal chain typically starts with a boss compressor/sustain pedal into a boss dual overdrive which I can sub for a metalzone, etc..but for most of my variety work the dual overdrive with guitar pickup selections gives me all I really need. I can soar clean or go power chord...its better than just a tube screamer..although I've been known to pull one out.
the thing i found is that the kustoms take to this pedal setup better than any other amp...most tube rigs complicate the tone, some amps break up too quickly with that much input voltage/signal.. I do use a voltage control pedal as volume from the boss board..that allows me to stay consistent with the tone while keeping the volume in hand...but the kustoms just carry it all through so transparently..they do add a nice bold output..but they don't color it... I truly love using my kustoms..almost as much as I love the look...talk to you soon I hope..and come up for a visit!
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Re: K400 in need of columns [message #7762 is a reply to message #7749] |
Thu, 19 October 2006 17:10 |
Wattsyurz
Messages: 16 Registered: July 2005 Location: SC
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Junior Member |
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Dang, had a message typed and lost it! I actually live in Moss Creek. I drive a lot, and have a few destinations in Winnsboro, Traveler's Rest, and Seneca. Almost went to buy a Chevy in Rock Hill once. There's the look, and the sound of Kustoms, and they are all U.S. and represented good business practice, a solid and guranteed product that was solid.
I have a Les Paul, but use my Ibanez Artcore, a blonde hollow-body with the Rosewood bridge. It's a delight to hear by itself, a clean, rich, acoustic resonance with natural sustain. Upstairs, I use a Crate GFX212 with a Zoom pedal, and a Crate DX212 modeling amp for vocal. All of my larger Kustom gear is downstairs in the music room, where that K400 from Ebay is now fully functional pushing a pair of T&R 4X12s. I also got a 400B1 Stereo bass amp. I have a gold Frankenstein rig, but it has some tears. And a few more K200s and a 795PA. I have all the heads because cabinets are too hard to ship.
I became a Grampa a few years ago (45), Congratulations! I can basically sing/play, but can't really organize a band. Because of my job, I could be interrupted and totally called away. But I plug along with KB and sometimes drums, doing material fitting of the gear: CCR, Beatles, 60s & 70s etc. I don't think it's painful to hear, but I may be unwittingly polluting the air!!
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Re: K400 in need of columns [message #7796 is a reply to message #7795] |
Wed, 25 October 2006 15:32 |
C4ster
Messages: 686 Registered: June 2001 Location: Mukwonago, WI (Milwaukee...
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Senior Member |
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I found my first 2 cascade columns from a tip from someone here on VintageKustom. They were in Huntsville Alabama. I'm in Milwaukee. My wife and I were going to Disney in Florida for our 30th anniversary and we even took out the rear set in the minivan to accomodate the columns on our return. We stopped in, I even had money down on them, but my wife thought they were too rough. Some road rash and a couple of rips on the back weren't enough to nix the deal, but when I saw that the speakers were not originals, I opened one of the cabinets and found 2 crap speakers. I didn't even open the second one. We left and she felt so bad that we spent extra time rummaging around Nashville and other music stores in the south. This was in July. I watched those columns on Music-Go-Round's website until they failed to show up on the store's listing. I called them and they said the columns weren't moving so they shipped them to Atlanta to another Music-Go-Round. They didn't sell even at $200 for the PAIR!!! I pushed my wife over the edge and she finally relented. Besides, I was making all kinds of money on this trip to China. I called the Atlanta store and offered them thier asking price, now $400 when I was in China on assignment. When I returned home, I tried to figure a way to ship the columns up to Milwaukee. I got an emergency phone call from a customer in Macon, Georgia, and my son and I jumped into the shop van and drove to Atlanta, picked up the columns, went to Macon, fixed the problem and then drove home. WHEW!! I didn't want the speakers that were in the columns anyway. I stripped those and installed JBL-E140's. They have worked beautifully for all these years. Then last year, I was doing a gig in the village square in town and a guy came up and said he had a pair of the columns in red. I almost sh*t myself. A few days later, I had 2 pristine Ross 3x15 Jensen siren cabinets with covers that literally walked up to me. It only proves that you never know when or where you will find yours. They are out there. It just takes patience. Good luck
Conrad
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Re: K400 in need of columns [message #7800 is a reply to message #7749] |
Thu, 26 October 2006 10:03 |
edforgothispassword
Messages: 202 Registered: July 2004
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Senior Member |
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you're right Conrad..before ebay and the internet existed...my best means of finding kustoms used to be to just play out with them... I wold haunt the lil music stores and pawnshops..but if they had even a ragged one they would act like it was some vintage treasure worth 5 times more than it should be....but, in terms of the music world, my little town of Charlotte NC is/was still a small place...and with the visibility level that I had...most every local sound company that did festival stages, etc...and about 6,000 church goers and others all knew that Ed had a thing for those old puffy amps...and I fell into several very cool deals.. an old ross 2x12 for $125 mint, a blue 4x10 for $75, the 3x15 sirens for $225 total, a black 2x12SC for $165 mint...columns, heads,....etc all within very reasonable driving range....you can do it man!
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Re: K400 in need of columns [message #7811 is a reply to message #7749] |
Sat, 28 October 2006 22:57 |
edforgothispassword
Messages: 202 Registered: July 2004
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Senior Member |
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here's the best thing...my tech's contact info:
Dave Foxx
Gaffney SC
cell: 704.575.9217 (that's one of my company cell that he carries...you should be able to reach him on it)
just intro yourself as one of our kustom gang..and the good Doctor Dave will take it from there...
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