THE FEDERAL RESERVE AND THE KUSTOM ARMY

[sleeperNY]

I used to have a Kustom 250 amp just like the pictured above. It has been gone a long time but I do remember it sounding good.

Jim

[brutus]

Looks so freakin cool GattonFan! congrats.

[Mr. Bill]

Gatton Fan:
That is the only guitar that can draw attention away from the Kustom Tuck and Roll!

Very Kool set up.

I assume the amp is a K100-1 with a single 15" speaker?

[GattonFan]

Thanks, All. Yep, Mr Bill - exactly the one, and in incredible shape for its age. The vinyl was in excellent shape, although it had apparently taken a blow on the front casters - they were torn loose and the metal brackets were bent. Other than that, a very nice find!

[oipunkguy]

Hey Guys,

I don't know if anyone is aware of this, but Kustom amps are still around. A guitar store in the Washington Dc area (Gainesville, VA) One of my favorite guitar stores around here is classic axe (http://www.classicaxe.com/) and he's a dealer of Kustom amps. I've played through them from time to time, I've always have liked the big plush vinyl covering (sparklie!)

I don't know much about the different models, but the colors I've seen them in is black, red, blue, and silver sparklie. I think I've seen a green and gold sparklie too, but don't quote me on that.

(this means you Dennis!)

[MWaldorf]

Hey, there's a Kustom K-200A guitar on my local craigslist - it's red, has the dearmond and bigsby. Asking $725:
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/msg/1209369242.html

[bakeoboy]

I sell the new Kustom amps the tube models will give fenders a run for the money.

[boyecho]

i had a kustom 250 in blue sparkle too. my cab was 2x15. i miss it.

[jfine]

There was a guitar factory in Neodesha, Kansas, in the '60's, called Holmes-Woodell or Woodell-Holmes or something like that. I'm pretty sure they built the Kustom guitars, and they definitely built the US-made Wurlitzer guitars (some Wulitzer-branded guitars were made by Welson in Italy)--they also built LaBaye 2x4 guitars, one of the oddest-looking designs you'll ever see; basically a 2x4 with a neck and pickups--sort of a Steinberger 20 years early! The Kustoms were actually quality instruments, but they were clean-sounding guitars that hit the market at a time when everybody wanted to sound like Eric Clapton through a Marshall. I've never owned a Kustom guitar, but I do remember trying a few back in the day--they had thin necks reminiscent of an early-'60's Gibson, and tonally they were somewhere between a Gretsch (their pickups were the same D'Armond design used on '50's Gretsches, as well as on Martin electrics and some Guilds) and a Rickenbacker. I did have Kustom amps back then--I bought a K200 tremolo/reverb head with a 3-12" Altec-equipped cabinet in black tuck-and-roll in '71. Louder than God, and it wouldn't distort unless it was cranked up all the way, and by then it was way too loud for any of the gigs I was doing! In '74, I traded it in on a Kustom Hustler 4-10" combo that was actually a pretty good amp, but I replaced that pretty quickly with a Music Man 410HD-130 that was a lot better. And a few years before, in '68--my senior year in high school--I was in a band in San Francisco called Heavy Bear (anybody remember us?), with a lead singer who owned his own PA, a Vox Churchill head with a pair of Kustom gold-sparkle 4-12" columns.

[vjf1968]

Mel, NICE FIND!

Mind you, I was under the impression that a 325 with "f" holes is an export model 1996?

Well, yes and no...what you mentioned is correct. However, the Originals were a product
of RIC back in the mid 60s, and yes the F hole was the exported model even back then.
Now, here's where I get confused, was the original model called a 325 for the exported
versions back in the 60s, or were they marked as a different Model # by RIC??
I thought it might of been the 320, but that could be a different model entirely.
One of us might have to pay a visit to the RIC Forum and get their help .....

Rose Morris was the UK distributor for Rickenbacker in the 60's and requested that guitars for them have the standard "F" hole and used a 4 digit model number (eg 1996) instead of the American designation. So the 325 model was called model 1996 in the UK. Same guitar