1974 Kasino Club L2 (Kustom Solid State 2x12)

[muttznmongrelz]

Been dropping by a local shop and playing through this for a couple weeks now and finally decided to bring it home for the grand total of $235.00...fully functional and I love the Clean Sound with the Tremolo & Reverb!!! One Loud Funky Beast!

One owner since 1974 and came with the original Puchase Receipt dated February 27, 1974 and Lifetime Warranty Card filled out, signed and dated April 27, 1974. Presume it was a 60 Day Layaway Purchase based on the dates.

1974 Kasino Club L-2. The L stands for Lead and the 2 for 2x12" CTS Alnico Speakers (silver dust cap), 60W RMS 100W Peak. It uses PC5033 power amp board as the Mid-70s 60W Kustom Lead II. Kasino were made from sometime in 1973-1974 with the brand gone by 1975.

 

[zzmoore]

Re: 1974 Kasino Club L2 (Kustom Solid State 2x12)

Wow...pretty cool. Would love to see some gut-shots of That.
Do those speakers say 8-16 Ohms.?

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: 1974 Kasino Club L2 (Kustom Solid State 2x12)

So are those speakers 8 or 16 ohms
Or both
If both please elaborate

 

[zzmoore]

Re: 1974 Kasino Club L2 (Kustom Solid State 2x12)

Anybody recognize those.?
The speakers might be "worth" more than the amp.

 

[muttznmongrelz]

Re: 1974 Kasino Club L2 (Kustom Solid State 2x12)

Speakers are CTS (Chicago Telephone Supply) which became Eminence. While there is a CTS / Eminence connection...CTS is an acronym for Chicago Telephone Supply. I don't know the precise corporate history but I do know that CTS took over speaker production for Magnavox in '62. Speakers that were previously Magnavox show up with CTS 137 codes circa 1962. Same baskets, same magnets, same voice coils, same cones.

Magnavox in turn is the original Peter Jensen speaker company. Yeah, that Peter Jensen.

The brief history:

1915: First moving coil loudspeaker as we know it.

1917: Changed the company name to "Magnavox".

1925: Jensen resigned as Magnavox's chief engineer.

1927: Jensen founded the Jensen Radio Manufacturing Company, "Jensen Speakers" as we know it.

1940: Jensen resigned as the president of Jensen Radio.

So: Jensen and Magnavox chugged along as parallel companies. Magnavox eventually became a manufacturer of a broad range of consumer electronics including radios, televisions and phonographs.

Similar to Jensen's departure from Magnavox in 1925, frequently when engineers parted company with speaker manufacturers they went on to found their own speaker companies.

Which brings us back to the CTS / Magnavox / Eminence connection:

1966: After building speakers at CTS / Magnavox Bob Gault started his own speaker company in Eminence, Kentucky. Circa 1966 Eminence built three speakers per day to supply Ampeg.

CTS continued speaker manufacturing post- '66, thus the CTS speakers in Fender amps trough the mid- '70s. While not quite as nice for the most part as the Jensens found in much of Fender's line, the CTS alnicos found in Super Reverbs are the exception. They're relatively exceptional.

 

[Chris Pile]

Re: 1974 Kasino Club L2 (Kustom Solid State 2x12)

My first bass amp was a 100 watt Kasino with a tall folded W cabinet (this is back in the 70's). I loaded it with a 15 inch JBL and gigged with it for many years. They made some great pedal steel amps, as I remember.

 

[muttznmongrelz]

Re: 1974 Kasino Club L2 (Kustom Solid State 2x12)

As to the 8-16 ohms...I'm not sure but from the little I found they run at 4 ohms each?

 

[muttznmongrelz]

Re: 1974 Kasino Club L2 (Kustom Solid State 2x12)

My first bass amp was a 100 watt Kasino with a tall folded W cabinet (this is back in the 70's). I loaded it with a 15 inch JBL and gigged with it for many years. They made some great pedal steel amps, as I remember.

Nice. I had a Kustom Lead II Combo briefly abut two years ago and it did a nice clean tone with reverb and tremolo if I recall correctly. Also had a '36 Coupe 1x12 but that's "new" Kustom not "old school".

 

[muttznmongrelz]

Re: 1974 Kasino Club L2 (Kustom Solid State 2x12)

Had a bit of time playing the Kasino last night and this afternoon and I do like the sound of it. CTS Speakers are really quite nice and full sounding. Both the Clean Channel and the Gain Channel with Reverb/Tremolo are all shimmery and vibrato laden. For the price; I'm very pleased.

 

[muttznmongrelz]

Re: 1974 Kasino Club L2 (Kustom Solid State 2x12)

Wow...pretty cool. Would love to see some gut-shots of That.
Do those speakers say 8-16 Ohms.?

Not mine but another Club L2...

 

[muttznmongrelz]

Re: 1974 Kasino Club L2 (Kustom Solid State 2x12)

 

[zzmoore]

Re: 1974 Kasino Club L2 (Kustom Solid State 2x12)

Yeah Well.....look at how nicely That Is laid-out.
The 2 channels are separate from each other and separate from the Power/Output section.....any lead dress is clean and tight...plenty of elbow room...etc etc
Looks like somebody knew what they were doing.
If built today, it would all be stacked on top of each other in a chassis half that size.

 

[muttznmongrelz]

Re: 1974 Kasino Club L2 (Kustom Solid State 2x12)

It was fun while it lasted; after 4 days of playing through it I could not get the "boominess" out of the sound no matter how much adjusting I did to the controls. Returned it and picked up the Gary Kramer Crusader Deluxe.

 

[Rand-O-Monium]

Re: 1974 Kasino Club L2 (Kustom Solid State 2x12)

Bah,the guitar's cooler anyway!!!