Anybody ever seen one of these in person? (Kustom)

[D. Gauss]

Kustom Kombo L-1595 Tuck N Roll Organ. Loves me some Kustom amps, but never knew they made this krazy thingy:

 

 

 

 

Here's Pig Pen playing one with the Dead in '67:

 

 

 

[zxcvbnm098]

I've certainly seen pictures of them, but never one in the flesh. The combo organ heaven website has great info on them:

 

https://www.combo-organ.com/Kustom/index.htm

 

 

[mate stubb]

Yup. Played one in a music store back in the day.

[CEB]

Yes Sir!  👍.   Kustoms were cool. Kombo II was glorious.   Especially the sparkly ones. 

[jerrythek]

HammondDave has... he wrote this on a Facebook group where that picture was posted the otherday:

 

David Martin Jacques

It was a Kustom transistor organ. They sounded like crapola.

 

Austin Bach

David Martin Jacques Did you ever play one?

 

David Martin Jacques

Austin Bach yes. It sounded very thin and dull

[CEB]

Well yes but they looked cool.  😀

[CEB]

I wonder who actually built these for Bud Ross?  
 

As stretched thin as they would have been during this time period with amp production I can’t see them building organs in Kansas.  

[Docbop]

Kustoms looked cool, but seemed like bass players were the only people I saw using them.  I never knew a guitar player with one, and didn't even know they made a keyboard. 

[CEB]

I had a Kustom 200 head. They were loud and clean.   CCR were big Kustom amp users.  They made a decent clean pedal platform when I was a teenager. I traded my Kustom in for  a Mississippi Marshall ( Peavey Mace VT). It was a definite upgrade.  

[D. Gauss]

12 minutes ago, Docbop said:

  I never knew a guitar player with one 

 

this guy kinda did alright with one.    A lot of the CCR hits and most all live gigs were done with a Kustom 200 with tremolo.  

 

 

 

[16251]

[Baldwin Funster]

Problem was that naugas became protected. Between Kustoms and conversation van dashboards and seat covers naugas almost got hunted out.

[Old No7]

15 hours ago, Baldwin Funster said:

Problem was that naugas became protected. Between Kustoms and conversation van dashboards and seat covers naugas almost got hunted out.

 

True, that was called naugacide.  It was also because the remaining naugas learned to hide really well, causing even more shortages of naugahyde due to naugahide.

 

Old No7

[mate stubb]

 

[cassdad]

The guitarist in one of my bands in grade school had one.  As cool as the “finest tufted vinyl look” was, what we all really loved the most about it was:  1). the on/off light in the front center of the amp head was replaceable with different color prism glass, and he would change them at will;  2). most cool = at a loud volume, that light would dim …. so when he hit a short chord, that light would dim (as if the power going to the speakers was sucking electricity from that bulb)!  We loved that!

[eric]

Never seen or played one. I have a recollection from a Keyboard Magazine article, maybe early-mid '90s, I believe related to Lenny Kravitz. They had their organ tech make the touring Hammond into a Kustom padded tuck and roll case. It was red or burgundy in color. Might have even had sparkle flakes.

 

I did a lot of searching and can't find it online. I may have dreamed it. I hope it was real.

[CEB]

If it wasn’t real … It should be.    
 

If I was Katy Perry’s keyboardist I would have my rig done in Pink Sparkling Tuck and Roll.  

[Bill H.]

Yeah I've seen 'em, played 'em. Never owned one. They were around for a hot minute between the end of the British pop invasion and the emergence of bluesier and more experimental music featuring electric pianos, Hammonds, Minimoogs, Odysseys... In other words, not long. By the late 1960s I'd spot them languishing in the back of the keyboard section of music stores - unloved. 

 

That Grateful Dead pic has been floating around a lot lately. FB keeps putting it in my news feed... I guess they know how old I am. It must have been before Pigpen moved on to his Vox Continental. 

[Chris Link]

I have searched in vain for anything about an electromechanical piano made by Kustom in the mid-1970s. They had one at the local music shop in KCK when I was in high school. I mostly recall that it was way out of my price range.

[Doerfler]

5 hours ago, eric said:

Never seen or played one. I have a recollection from a Keyboard Magazine article, maybe early-mid '90s, I believe related to Lenny Kravitz. They had their organ tech make the touring Hammond into a Kustom padded tuck and roll case. It was red or burgundy in color. Might have even had sparkle flakes.

 

I did a lot of searching and can't find it online. I may have dreamed it. I hope it was real.

It was real. The keyboard tech you referred to, whose name I cannot recall at the moment, (I'll ask Roger Hooper, he will remember), purchased a fair amount of gear through me when I

 

worked at Washington Music Center. I was comp'd tickets when they passed through town, impossible to get tickets at 930 Club (because it's so small).

 

They had been playing stadiums in Europe  and then do this club gig. Was the best show I ever saw there, and I have been there many, many, times.

 

Sorry to go off topic, carry on. 

[Shamanzarek]

I was in a couple of bands in Oregon with guitar players who had Kustom amps. Other than John Fogerty never saw any pros use them back them. Those organs were almost as big as a spinet organ but didn't sound near as good as something like a Hammond M-3. Most of those Kombo organs that were ordered with JBL's have probably been cannibalized by now since the speakers are probably worth more than the organ.

 

When I moved to southern California in 1972 Plush amps were sold at NET Electronics surplus. Plush amps had a similar upholstery covering to Kustom but were high quality tube amps similar to Fender designs. NET had bought the bankrupt company's inventory of unfinished amps/parts and finished building them to sell in their stores. The Jeff Beck Group used them on an East Coast tour. Buddy Rich used a Plush PA system to play his drums through.

Plush catalog: http://www.plush-amps.com/cat_pages.htm#da_mk3_cat

[musicbysterling]

I remember seeing one in blue sparkle in the 70s at a music store in Dearborn MI