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Kustom wAv 212 amplifier |
Kustom wAv 212 amplifier
Designed in Cincinnati Ohio, USA, made in China is what it says on the box. A common moniker these days it would seem and a far cry from the heritage that the original Kustom amps left behind. Originating in the 60's in the USA, these all-transistor amps were a working man's alternative to the all-dominating Marshall and Fender amplifiers. Albeit, with a flare all their own. Hang on, what's changed?
Upon opening the box, I realised the value that was packed with the amplifier. A 2 x 12" Celestion loaded, stereo 50 watt, guitar amplifier, with built in FX, castors and a footswitch. With a RRP of $1399.00, this amp really does seem to fit a working man's budget. The first thing that you will notice about this amplifier is it's unique looks. Hopefully, this is the Kustom designer's way of linking their amps to their origins. The original, Kustom, "Tuck & Roll" amps were very distinct, with padded vynal rolls, quite often in bright glitter colours, contributing to their look. Likewise the new Kustom wAv 212 has a look all it's own. The wAv 212 is built inside a dense chipboard cabinet, sporting a "Rokcoat" finish. The cabinet is essentially rectangular, however, two of the opposing corners are rounded to give this combo a cool symmetrical styling. Even the carry handles are well designed, being formed internally as a part of the cabinet's sides. This seemingly simple concept, combined with the clip on castors, made the 25.5-kg amplifier very easy to maneuver and lift.
Plugging the unit in and getting underway was also very painless. Which was nice considering that there was no accompanying manual. A simple IEC or"jug plug" to connect to mains power. A straight forward CAT 5 cable between the amp and the footswitch, and one of the most impressive amplifier footswitches that I have ever seen. The footswitch is a moulded aluminum, 7 x steel button configuration. Very sexy, and very tough.
I get a little nervous with guitar amps that have built in FX. That's right, I am not a big fan. Old school for me thanks. So I decided to bypass the FX and deal with them later. The wAv 212 is fairly conventional in it's main controls, making the art of pulling the tone a fairly painless one. My only criticism of this amp is that the drive channel appears on the left and the clean, or "rhythm" channel, appears on the right. A little unconventional and a minor gripe. So I will start with right hand "rhythm" channel. Typical controls appear, gain, bass, mids, mid shift, treble and volume. Note, each channel has it's own master volume. Very handy. The controls worked as one would expect, with the gain controlling the level of drive, the tone controls doing just that, and the volume control, well doing it's job. The tone controls all functioned accordingly giving the amplifier a lot of scope in the tone shaping department, aptly assisted by the mid shift button. For those of you who do not know what the mid shift button does, let me explain. It shifts the frequency that the mid tone control operates within. In effect shifting it lower, giving the user the ability to get that smooth mid scooped sound that so many guitarists use, and I despise. There, I got that off my chest and feel much better thank you. Despite the mid shift, I found the rhythm channel, which is all transistor, very sweet, well-voiced and surprisingly un-solid state. Well done Kustom. Likewise the drive channel was equally as simple and effective to operate, with ability to provide more gain of course. However, the mid shift button has been replaced by a boost button, providing, to no one's surprise, more gain. This effectively gives the amp another channel of gain without providing another channel. The drive channel also has a 12AX7 valve in circuit to assist in providing a warmer drive tone. Whether the drive channel requires this valve is anyone's guess. Although the amp did exhibit some valve type compression when the strings were played hard. The drive channel also has a 5 position dial giving you different textures everything from classic and crunch through to modern metal. All of the drive tones were convincing although I found the classic and crunch, or dare we say, "Marshall" style sounds the most inspirational, finding myself playing my Telecaster much longer than I had originally allocated.
Next up was the built in FX. There staring at me from the right hand side of the amplifier was a cluster of small buttons accompanying one single dial, and no manual. That said, it took me about 10 seconds to navigate the controls. Basically, the FX are grouped into 3 categories being, delay, modulation and reverb. Each effect is preset, with a number of alternatives to choose from. The only real parameter control is of the individual level of each particular group. Thankfully the presets are very lush and incredibly useable. The delays offer varying traditional options up to about 500ms, including tape style digital, regen and multi tap. The multi tap delays giving the user a triplet feel only, but what a great feel. The modulation effects were stunning. Great traditional chorus and phaser styles, but the modulation FX really shone in the stereo leslie and tremolo style FX. I could get lost in those lush textures for hours. Reverb is an effect that I believe is poorly implemented in most processors, particularly guitar based FX. However, I must concede that these reverbs were all very useable. Giving the user the option of traditional halls, rooms, plates and springs. As previously stated, the FX are all very nice, but can be very over the top. So take the warning and use with a subtle hand and you will be rewarded handsomely.
All of the above mentioned features are selectable via the footswitch, with the inclusion of 4 free buttons to store your favourite settings. All in all a solid performer, imparting warm and friendly tones, and one that stands out from the over saturated crowd of guitar amplifiers with built in FX. Well worth the test-drive.