90
by japmn_Archive
A friend of mine brought me a Kustom 1B bass amp about a year ago saying it would buzz real loud. It has been sitting in my living room since then and I never got around to checking it out. He has since moved to Seattle and it became a fuck it, it's yours situation. Tonight turned it on and it sounded pretty cool. A lot of lows, fuzzy mids and a fairly clear top end. Good for low level bass guitar and great for Keys which is why I got curious about it. It is 1X15 and by the sound of it, around 35 watts. Solid state.It would be perfect for our keys rig accept that after about 3 minutes, it starts getting a humming sound and if you touch the volume knob, it crackles at full volume. CKTCKTHTKCHTCK!That is crap. The light flickers too while it is crackling too.I have never had an amp with a bad transformer but have imagined that this is how one would behave. I hit all the solder points hoping it was just a bad connection but no good.I hope it is just caps but am not sure if it is (the only amp I have had caps go bad on wouldn't make any sound other than BuZZZZZZZZZZZZZ! Never eased into crap.)I know these aren't really super expensive vintage gear and am a little concerned that the cost of repair would be more than the amp is worth. It would be perfect for what I need out of a keyboard amp and even a low level bass recording amp (it really sounded pretty good) but I don't want to spend a ton of cash getting it fixed. I am perfectly capable of replacing parts, I just know nothing about diagnosing problems.Any help would be awesome. Thanks Some pictures.grillFaceplate rightfaceplate leftPre Circuit leadsCabFuck yeah for free! If I cant get it working, I might make it a Bassman pre circuit with a simple solid state power section or just cut it down into a 1X15 cab.