Review of the kustom tube 12a guitar combo amplifier

Kustom appeared on the market in 1966 and immediately stood out among the masses of manufacturers thanks to the unique appearance of their products. Later the specialists of Kustom became famous using the latest technological advances: that is how the company earned its place among the best guitar amplifiers, which applied in their design the then innovative transistor circuits. Among the ardent admirers of this brand are such cult personalities as Leon Russell and Johnny Cash. But back to our topic and try to give a description of the concept of "tube sound". This term came into use in the early 70s to refer to the characteristic sound of tube recorders, which have been slowly pushed out of the market by their transistorized competitors. In our case we can synonymize the words "tube" and "warm", because in the signal spectrum of the discussed devices there is an absence of odd harmonics. Simply put, we hear a pleasant, warm, soft tube sound.The tube equipment has several classes, which are distributed according to the type of sound signal processing. Of course, the classification more than affects the costs, when developing the device, which in turn affects the price and low-power tube amplifier for $ 1000 is not absurd at all, but a reasonable price for quality. Again let us go back down to earth and think about a sum ten times smaller than the last one I mentioned. The example under discussion is a kind of pearl among everything that can be found in similar price range, and now let's directly evaluate Kustom Tube 12A.

All the packaging is full of the word "tube", which translates as "lamp" from English. You should be proud of it :) Besides the traditional illustrations on the box there is a brief list of characteristics of the amplifier:

8" CelestionRMS: 12 wattstube preamp (12AX7)channels: 1 with sensitivity switchequalizer: 2 bandsUK/USAadditional AC socketBy the way, the company Kustom gives its brainchild 3 years free warranty service, which makes you believe in its reliability. Inside the device itself and a very modest manual in one language (English). The manual is more like a menu or a holiday card: the glossy cover very intelligently describes the recommendations for using and tuning Tube 12A, and the main thing - pictures with diagrams of the ideal ratio of potentiometers to get the best sound.

Kustom Tube 12A looks more than decent. The cabinet is covered with leatherette and on the sides there are corners that protect the amplifier from damage, on the front there is iron Kustom logo and no less iron logo of the legendary loudspeaker manufacturer Celestion. The speaker is covered with a woven cloth mesh, which gives our tube friend a classically refined look.

Everything is done "in good faith": iron potentiometers and switches inspire confidence and reliability. The amplifier has only two bands of frequency range tuning, the depth of which can also be changed with the "shift" button. Speaking about the outputs: there are three of them. Headphone output (very useful thing for home lessons), Line out output for recording and output for cabinet connection. Yes, using the last option Kustom Tube 12A can sound louder, which will be enough to rehearse in small venues.

Sound. Everything is also quite fair here: we wait while the tube is heating up and from the first notes you understand how sensitive this combo amplifier is to every accent, to every careless movement. It perfectly reveals the character of the instrument, even though it lacks its own sound. Frankly, it was to be expected on such a paltry budget. Kustom Tube 12A gives great results if you understand and tune this device properly. For starters, just tune it based on the pictures in the manual - you're sure to like it. The overloaded channel is not suitable for playing heavy styles of music, but for fans of blues rock and an unobtrusive dirty touch in the sound - that's the most "it". This budget brainchild of Kustom is perfect for guitarists who use their own, already established effects chains and want quality output of the "native" sound.

In a word: a bargain. You get exemplary quality, the right set of options, and an honest tube sound.You can find more guitar amp options at: https://tubeamplifierparts.com/