Guitar World's gear editor Paul Riario demonstrates the features of the Kustom Defender Amp. For more gear reviews, lessons, interviews and more check out guitarworld.com!
In my experience, and very humble opinion, Kustom are the only company who actually made (whether through conscious effort or not) an amp that is suited to the most abyssic death metal sound. Strange that so many bands opt for Marshall etc, when Kustom's distortion, low end and reverb, even on smaller amps, is like a violin from hell with tremolo riffs. For those into stuff like Necrovore, Timeghoul, Disembowelment, and all other old and obscure sounding death metal, give Kustom amps a try because you can get a very dark sound without even using a pedal. Low end 3/4 of the way up, mid 1/4 of the way up, high end 1/2 way up, reverb all the way up, gain all the way up, it's the old coffin spirit ;)
Not even just death metal, basically any metal/hardrock sound, you can get from this baby and even more, ambient, beautiful clean tones, it's got it all. put a tube screamer over it, fantastic overdriven sounds, it's amazing.
Got one of these and geared it up as a Harmonica amp to use with both the bands I play in. I swapped out (& kept) the original speaker for a smooth cone alnico Jensen P10Q, put a 5751 tube in pre amp 1 slot to take the gainy edge off the input signal caused by a hi-z mic and harmonica and play through a bullet mic and boss delay. It sounds absolutely awesome and has had many a compliment on its old school sound, classic Chicago blues break up and it’s sheer volume. It now has a WGS G10C/S ceramic smooth cone 75w speaker and sounds absolutely raucous, even improving on the sound I had!! It keeps up with two very loud classic rock & blues bands with no struggle and room to spare. Treating her to a set of Harma Retro EL34 Cryo tubes and two Russian nos 12ay7 in pre amp tube slots 2 & 3 to round off the job. Once it’s all done, I might even do a video.... I can recommend this for guitar and harmonica. Especially harmonica!!🤘🏼🔈
I have that same amp. I bought it two years ago, and I still have it. I even sold an ENGL Thunder combo, because I felt that this amp sounded better, at least for my taste. The only thing that I've upgraded was, that I changed the speaker for a Celestion Heritage, and after that the tone was really working for me! It's a really good amp for a beginner to get-to-know tubeamplifiers.
our guitarrist has a kustom amp as well. a 50 watt one. he connected it to a marshall 4x12 cabinet and it kicked ass. and the 10 db booster helps a lot for solos and/or a thicker sound during the chorus
Very nice amp..I picked mine up for $190 Aust and it performs very well...solid well built with great tones..only used the 'boutique' channel as I have just got stuck on the great sound it gives..I'm using a LP..
+Green DayPlayer94 Everyone goes through learning all the terminologies, like bright and dark tones, how wet reverb splash-back is, and so many other terms. When you think you know em all somebody will tell you another you haven't heard. The best way to think of reverb is just the sounds reverberating, bouncing back, almost like an echo. But, there's echo pedals for when you need that kind of reverberation.
Why are there thumbs down to this statement? It's not candy coated but it's true, alot of crappy guitarists cover up their bad playing with distortion and effects. I prefer to make my crappy playing openly known. I feel the people I'm playing for have a right to know.
I got that amp for free, the owner said just "it`s broken ." He didnt even try to look inside and find the failure... So I took it home, opened it and saw on the first glance 2 faulty caps. I changed them (and a third one for safety). It costs me 6€ and the amp is like new. :)
Kustom hired James Brown the man who single handedly re-designed the tweed peavey classics in the 80s. This was a huge boon for Peavey and James became uber famous in amp designer circles. Kustom wanted to basically reinvent themselves in the amp business and this is one of the amps, so is the amp James likes the most, The Coupe 36 and 72. Great amps.
@Ryan Wil He told me that when Kustom wanted to save cost of manufacturing they took the manufacturing of the Coupe Series from the USA and changed the speaker from the JB voice Emminence and replaced it with a Celestion. The amp was done more in mass production and into China. It was better as a Coupe..
@Ryan Wil James researched the paper and glue for the speaker until he got a vintage thing that is no long made. These special voiced speakers are still for sale at the Amp Tweaker website. James is back at EVH as of recent. Big title that he deserves.
Great review! The only thing i really dislike about most of the reviews on RUclips is that they never play metal or something else really heavy. I want to play metal so i want to know how metal sounds on an amp. If they don't play metal, i don't know if i wanna buy the amp...
I noticed a handful of people talked about using with a cab, and I agree. I have one and replaced the speaker; easily it's weakest link, with an Eminence Texas Heat. It sounds really good paired with a decent Marshall and real British Celestions (G12M/G12H). other than the stock speaker I couldn't be more satisfied with this amp.
As a proud owner of this beauty i can say this is an amazing amp, thank for the review its great! BTW, could i get the exact setting for the first sound demo? the video is a little blurry to understand.
Might just get the head for an easy way to throw a rhythm track that doesn't match without having to mess around with EQs. This is surprisingly good sounding.
hey, about how long do tubes last for generally playing like 2 times a week. because i'm getting this amp soon, and i'm wondering if i should change the tubes out :] thanks.
Yes, that was 50 watts. If someone looking for a cheap amp, to 1000$. That's best way! ( but need to adnotice that it sounds cool on clean, blues and only a little boosted tone.. If you turn on a crunch or harder tone, the quality of sound is getting down proportionaly to amount of all those effects... Sorry for my english. I haven't speak in much time... I now it's terrible =)
(davidarlette) i run pedals through a kustom and fender amp. using the same pedals, both sound different so yea, you get different sounds running pedals through different amps :D
Love how the mic isn't even aimed at the speaker. That said, I own this amp and even though the demo sounds quite good, it actually sounds quite a bit better in person. The reverb on it sucks though.
@@rbagel55 Yours must be a different version, since mine doesn't have an effects loop at all. Is yours the Defender 50 or the Defender V50? I wonder what other differences there are.
Has anyone compared this amp to the Defender v30? I know the v30 has a celestion instead of the no name that is in the original. Also the Cabinets are different. They have the same layout and both are 50 watts. So why the change? I'd prefer the version in this video because I like front facing control panel more, and the cosmetics. If anybody has any input let me know!!!
sheesh, combo sounds better than the head no? could be the speakers are more compressed here than the other head demo, dood dint say which speaker(s) he was using or ohms for that matter) for his head demo... this is actually very creamy, tight, not too artificial.. really should alway hit the FR on these, a very high chord, then very low chord, see if it stumbles anywhere, or where it stumbles.. in any event Mikey Likes it bang for buck its Godzilla offerings.. something a guy could sink his teeth into for a day, or two.. :-)
@Hatredismypride Used to own a marshall 30DFX, don't waste your money man, the honeymoon phase ends real quick. Check out the Peavey Vypyr 75, that thing doesn't even need a pedal for metal
@ajatkinson2004 lol im the same way, i can go to a GC and hear 15 people play either metallica, ACDC, or led zeppelin....but im usually over in the corner with the volume on one just loud enough for me to hear while playin carlos santana or somethin
No man there's no effects loop. I'm playing my friends right now...other than no effects loop it sounds great, close to a Fender Super Reverb or Deluxe.
Any amp can be a Metal Amp by simply placing a Boss Metal Zone in front of it. An amp like this is more unforgiving, you can't cover up crappy playing with gain. To rectify that, I suggest guitar lessons.
The youtube-audio is really the last piece of shit. I have this amp at home and when you turn on the bright-switch the difference is like day and night. Here you can hear bearly any differece at all
@ajatkinson2004 you end up getting a shitty sound then bud,and you rob yourself of understanding how the amp would even sound .if you don't turn up a tube amp you dont get the warm,creamy distortion that only occurs at higher volumes. so if you dont turn it up because your afraid you might offend someone,then just buy a nice 10 watt solid state amp thart sucks and go home and dont turn it up there too !!!
In my experience, and very humble opinion, Kustom are the only company who actually made (whether through conscious effort or not) an amp that is suited to the most abyssic death metal sound. Strange that so many bands opt for Marshall etc, when Kustom's distortion, low end and reverb, even on smaller amps, is like a violin from hell with tremolo riffs.
For those into stuff like Necrovore, Timeghoul, Disembowelment, and all other old and obscure sounding death metal, give Kustom amps a try because you can get a very dark sound without even using a pedal. Low end 3/4 of the way up, mid 1/4 of the way up, high end 1/2 way up, reverb all the way up, gain all the way up, it's the old coffin spirit ;)
+NebuchadnezzarII You get my most sincere applause for mentioning Timeghoul. \m/
Not even just death metal, basically any metal/hardrock sound, you can get from this baby and even more, ambient, beautiful clean tones, it's got it all. put a tube screamer over it, fantastic overdriven sounds, it's amazing.
Not a metalhead myself, but your spot on!! Good comment
Got a big soft spot for Kustom, I have a little 10 watt solid state amp by them which makes me smile everytime I play it.
Got one of these and geared it up as a Harmonica amp to use with both the bands I play in. I swapped out (& kept) the original speaker for a smooth cone alnico Jensen P10Q, put a 5751 tube in pre amp 1 slot to take the gainy edge off the input signal caused by a hi-z mic and harmonica and play through a bullet mic and boss delay. It sounds absolutely awesome and has had many a compliment on its old school sound, classic Chicago blues break up and it’s sheer volume. It now has a WGS G10C/S ceramic smooth cone 75w speaker and sounds absolutely raucous, even improving on the sound I had!! It keeps up with two very loud classic rock & blues bands with no struggle and room to spare. Treating her to a set of Harma Retro EL34 Cryo tubes and two Russian nos 12ay7 in pre amp tube slots 2 & 3 to round off the job. Once it’s all done, I might even do a video.... I can recommend this for guitar and harmonica. Especially harmonica!!🤘🏼🔈
I have that same amp. I bought it two years ago, and I still have it. I even sold an ENGL Thunder combo, because I felt that this amp sounded better, at least for my taste.
The only thing that I've upgraded was, that I changed the speaker for a Celestion Heritage, and after that the tone was really working for me! It's a really good amp for a beginner to get-to-know tubeamplifiers.
our guitarrist has a kustom amp as well. a 50 watt one. he connected it to a marshall 4x12 cabinet and it kicked ass. and the 10 db booster helps a lot for solos and/or a thicker sound during the chorus
wow this amp sounds really good
Very nice amp..I picked mine up for $190 Aust and it performs very well...solid well built with great tones..only used the 'boutique' channel as I have just got stuck on the great sound it gives..I'm using a LP..
Ah, I see... Kustom went to the Mortal Kombat school of spelling.
I've test that amp today... it sounds really great! On clean it's a honey for ears =D
This may sound dumb, but this video helped me understand what reverb is...
+Green DayPlayer94 Everyone goes through learning all the terminologies, like bright and dark tones, how wet reverb splash-back is, and so many other terms. When you think you know em all somebody will tell you another you haven't heard. The best way to think of reverb is just the sounds reverberating, bouncing back, almost like an echo. But, there's echo pedals for when you need that kind of reverberation.
Igamikun Yeah, true.
Igamikun
Just bought one of these. Great amp.
Why are there thumbs down to this statement? It's not candy coated but it's true, alot of crappy guitarists cover up their bad playing with distortion and effects. I prefer to make my crappy playing openly known. I feel the people I'm playing for have a right to know.
great amp - i just tried one. Awesome tube sound
I got that amp for free, the owner said just "it`s broken ." He didnt even try to look inside and find the failure...
So I took it home, opened it and saw on the first glance 2 faulty caps. I changed them (and a third one for safety). It costs me 6€ and the amp is like new.
:)
kuston defender :) have one! and i love it!
This sounds a lot like a "Black Crows" sound. Excellent!
@Magoooobly Moving the mic around adds another element of EQ. Different placement for different results.
Kustom hired James Brown the man who single handedly re-designed the tweed peavey classics in the 80s. This was a huge boon for Peavey and James became uber famous in amp designer circles. Kustom wanted to basically reinvent themselves in the amp business and this is one of the amps, so is the amp James likes the most, The Coupe 36 and 72. Great amps.
@Ryan Wil He told me that when Kustom wanted to save cost of manufacturing they took the manufacturing of the Coupe Series from the USA and changed the speaker from the JB voice Emminence and replaced it with a Celestion. The amp was done more in mass production and into China. It was better as a Coupe..
They called this amp The Defender!
@Ryan Wil James researched the paper and glue for the speaker until he got a vintage thing that is no long made. These special voiced speakers are still for sale at the Amp Tweaker website. James is back at EVH as of recent. Big title that he deserves.
Great review! The only thing i really dislike about most of the reviews on RUclips is that they never play metal or something else really heavy. I want to play metal so i want to know how metal sounds on an amp. If they don't play metal, i don't know if i wanna buy the amp...
I noticed a handful of people talked about using with a cab, and I agree. I have one and replaced the speaker; easily it's weakest link, with an Eminence Texas Heat. It sounds really good paired with a decent Marshall and real British Celestions (G12M/G12H). other than the stock speaker I couldn't be more satisfied with this amp.
@vlxxx its to change the tone of the recording from the amp. i think it has something to do with the presence and treble and bass frequencies
He slaps the strings at 4:25 and does a slide down but you don't hear any sound. :D
It sound pretty good
As a proud owner of this beauty i can say this is an amazing amp, thank for the review its great!
BTW, could i get the exact setting for the first sound demo? the video is a little blurry to understand.
I have this exact amp...so nice and it was cheap. You need distortion pedals if you want high-gain sounds.
@johndcofdc it's off-axis a lot. You need to search for the best spot when mic'ing an amp, slap-bang in front of the speaker isn't always the best.
The basic sound, specially the clean sound of the Defender is very good.
Is this better than Peavey Valveking ?
value is a musician's best friend
It's probably because it's geared more towards blues playing, which generally doesn't call for any more effects than maybe some reverb.
does anyone know what they mean by EL34 or 6L6 powered? and what is the autobiase switch and how that works?
I like it. I'm torn between it and Peavey's 6505+. So many amps, so little time (and money).
Would have been nice if you had 2 of these amps, one with EL34s and the other with 6L6s so we can here the difference
peefect amp for hard rock
@highvelocity2
Go & get the kustom double cross.It has everything from a great clean to a monster distortion sound.
Might just get the head for an easy way to throw a rhythm track that doesn't match without having to mess around with EQs. This is surprisingly good sounding.
id love to try this amp
hey, about how long do tubes last for generally playing like 2 times a week. because i'm getting this amp soon, and i'm wondering if i should change the tubes out :] thanks.
Yes, that was 50 watts.
If someone looking for a cheap amp, to 1000$. That's best way! ( but need to adnotice that it sounds cool on clean, blues and only a little boosted tone.. If you turn on a crunch or harder tone, the quality of sound is getting down proportionaly to amount of all those effects...
Sorry for my english. I haven't speak in much time... I now it's terrible =)
When i saw em a few months ago they used peavey 5150 & mesa triple rec.
I bet this amp would sound good with a telecaster
Can you guys tell me where this amp is made? It seems like a great amp, I'm just skeptical on where it's put together.
@Unequipped5 It's distortion I believe
(davidarlette)
i run pedals through a kustom and fender amp. using the same pedals, both sound different so yea, you get different sounds running pedals through different amps :D
Love how the mic isn't even aimed at the speaker. That said, I own this amp and even though the demo sounds quite good, it actually sounds quite a bit better in person. The reverb on it sucks though.
Sly Sound I bought one used and the reverb didn't work at all. No big deal , I just run a digital reverb through the fx loop
@@rbagel55 Yours must be a different version, since mine doesn't have an effects loop at all. Is yours the Defender 50 or the Defender V50? I wonder what other differences there are.
yeah overdrive, wah, reverb, and just pedals in general.
"The-Fender" amp?
Stock speaker sounds nice, very nice on clean.. but.. I've connected my defender to 2 x G12H-100 .. It sounds like rock monster...
Well, I am late to the party, but holy hell this thing sounds great!
Hi!
What is better? Peavey Valveking 112 or Kustom Defender?
Has anyone compared this amp to the Defender v30? I know the v30 has a celestion instead of the no name that is in the original. Also the Cabinets are different. They have the same layout and both are 50 watts. So why the change? I'd prefer the version in this video because I like front facing control panel more, and the cosmetics. If anybody has any input let me know!!!
sheesh, combo sounds better than the head no? could be the speakers are more compressed here than the other head demo, dood dint say which speaker(s) he was using or ohms for that matter) for his head demo... this is actually very creamy, tight, not too artificial.. really should alway hit the FR on these, a very high chord, then very low chord, see if it stumbles anywhere, or where it stumbles.. in any event Mikey Likes it bang for buck its Godzilla offerings.. something a guy could sink his teeth into for a day, or two.. :-)
but can it crunch?
my guitar store (amajor music in gurnee IL) is selling it for $300, new, NOT USED!!! im lucky! im getting it tomarrow, i hope!!
@Unequipped5 Yea.
guys, i wanna have heavy metal sound, should i buy it or better serach for anotherone?
@vladradoi I would say so, but that's just my opinion.
how much is this amp??
This is a nice amp, but how the heck is it clean?
i really liked this amp.. but sadly there s no effects loop :(
@Hatredismypride Used to own a marshall 30DFX, don't waste your money man, the honeymoon phase ends real quick. Check out the Peavey Vypyr 75, that thing doesn't even need a pedal for metal
sound great,too bad its only one channel
WOW, this amp sells for $500 ? DAM....
i'm going out right now and buying one
rock and rock guys???
* I'm wrong about the slide, don't have my contacts in.
@ajatkinson2004 lol im the same way, i can go to a GC and hear 15 people play either metallica, ACDC, or led zeppelin....but im usually over in the corner with the volume on one just loud enough for me to hear while playin carlos santana or somethin
marshall doesn't only make old school rock amps. -.-
I loved it to start with but after playing in my band I hate it. Definitely needs something like a cab to help the tone Coz that speaker sucks.
That's doesn't sound bad! Impressive for a kustom. They sure aren't making them like they used to... horribly.
No man there's no effects loop. I'm playing my friends right now...other than no effects loop it sounds great, close to a Fender Super Reverb or Deluxe.
@Hatredismypride In retrospect I wouldn't pay $50 for it a second time around
Any amp can be a Metal Amp by simply placing a Boss Metal Zone in front of it.
An amp like this is more unforgiving, you can't cover up crappy playing with gain.
To rectify that, I suggest guitar lessons.
I just saw Ted Nugent had one and just had to hear it. It sounds great :)
Im the opposite, I play real quiet when I go to GC and shop around lol...I dont like being a showoff
is it too loud for bedroom practice?
Ohh.. I sounds a lot better with the boost on.. I need to try this amp :P
is it good for metal?
Oh... mr. Riaro, it will sound better if you put a mic closer to speaker.. not straight onto wooden front.. :P
he meant the name sounds like heavy metal amp.
4:10...tones are not of the metal persuasion and he goes on to prove that the tones are of the metal persuasion...another big huge massive wtf.
When he said clear with chords I guess I was thinking clean....I guess not
its a demo, so why should that matter? hes not trying to wow anyone hes just demonstrating the sounds
ive got the same amp xD
do Johny B. Good!!
The youtube-audio is really the last piece of shit. I have this amp at home and when you turn on the bright-switch the difference is like day and night. Here you can hear bearly any differece at all
@ajatkinson2004
you end up getting a shitty sound then bud,and you rob yourself of understanding how the amp would even sound .if you don't turn up a tube amp you dont get the warm,creamy distortion that only occurs at higher volumes.
so if you dont turn it up because your afraid you might offend someone,then just buy a nice 10 watt solid state amp thart sucks and go home and dont turn it up there too !!!
Defender :P
lol the microphone is not even in frond of the speaker XD
that would destroy the point.
@godfree2canada needs apedal once channle and its clean
i think he meant it sounds like it WOULD be a metal amp due to its name... I think
I'm starting to like the sound of a amp that's ment to play metal in secret. Oh this thing? It can't play metal it's ment for blues to rock. X3
50... I guess
Lol!
Man. Reviews were so terrible a decade ago.
Using it in a "boutique" way? ugh
Distorted to Bejeezus and Loud as hell.
that production reverb SUCKS.
marshall?? you dont even know wath music he plays...
why do u even care his gay or not , ur here to see the amp right ? not unless UR gay and wanted to judge the dude .