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Kustom The Defender
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Kustom The Defender

Tube Combo Guitar Amp from Kustom belonging to the Defender series

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laurentdom laurentdom

«  A bomb! »

Published on 12/15/12 at 16:15
Of all lamps (5), 50 Watts. Attention, ca push very very hard!!
Connectors: bare minimum. One guitar input facade and an output to connect a cabinet if necessary.
No built-in effects. And much more! Effects, it is a profession in its own!
EQ 3 levels (Bass, Middle, Treble), 1 and 1 reverb presence.
Boost, Master Volume and course.
1 Master bypass for playing full blast without breaking the windows of the house (flange volume without altering the power).
Config ultra simple then. Simple but effective!
Single channel. As used by a lot of famous guitarists (Slash, ...)

UTILIZATION

So this is the config ...
As mentioned above, ultra simple. Moreover, no manual comes with (you can go retrieve a Kustom on the site).
Knobs can play fine on its native from clean to crunch. Reverb is beautiful.

SOUNDS

I play blues to pop / rock. No metal.
This leads me to Southern rock to Molly Hatchett / Lynyrd Skynyrd to Metallica / ACDC. Or the blues (Mississippi Delta, Clapton ...). Fairly wide range so in the end ...
Natively, this amp allows you to enter the clean and crunch. In any case the distortion.
My philosophy (after my experiences) is to focus on the raw amp and consider the effects as "add on" independent.
Now insert a disto (DS1) in the beast ...
And I say ... Yesssss!! The wonderful crunch / clean is transformed into equally magnificent in its fully saturated! The single channel clean so clean that your belongings are sublimated by the beast.
I use a Fender Reissue 57 and stato Indie equipped with micro Gibson 57 and 57 +. 2 guitars in their respective genres found their mark.
I have a Marshall Valvestate hybrid. The whole lamp is truly and definitively radically different in terms of its cleanliness! The sound is "natural" does not scream like a sound from transistors.

OVERALL OPINION

I had a Kustom in my youth and had excellent memories.
Willing to invest in an all-tube, I went in search of the Holy Grail. I tried one Vox (lamps), 1 H & K (lamps) and Kustom Defender that stroke of luck was in my music shop expo preferred.
The Vox and the H & K amps are very good lights. Their prices are cons ... how to say .... quite prohibitive. The H & K had her built-in effects. But as always, the integrated effects are worse than the pedals dedicated to it. No need to pay a higher value for the less ...
Difficult to get opinions on Kustom is a brand that is quite confidential. Some tests on YouTube, however visible.
It is now about 6 months using my Defender. I am still under the spell. The original sound is so clean that the effects go beautifully goods. The beast battery cover without worry.
The quality / price ratio for any lamp is simply unbeatable (made in China necessarily, but like almost everything).
If I had to make a choice of lamps amp, I will return without hesitation a Defender! This is really very good. Simple and pretty darn effective.