GEAR 23_COVER - JHS

Gigging musician Dave Press didn’t
really mean to go to such extreme
lengths to prove quite how reliable
and robust his Kustom amp was...
but he found out anyway.
M
y name’s Dave Press and I’m a semiprofessional
musician doing sessions,
gigs and other shows in London and
the South East. An event occurred which
you may find interesting and which is quite
a testament to the ruggedness of a piece
of kit that I regularly use...
Let me explain. Back in November 2008,
I was driving along on my way to pick up a
cheque for a show. Before I knew it, my van
had spun out of control for some reason,
then went spiralling down a hill and - bang!
- slammed into the barriers on the hilly side
of the carriageway, on the left hand side.
Then, very shaken by the experience and
trying to get my thoughts together to decide
what to do now, as I looked up, another
large van was rapidly bearing down on me,
also spinning along as I had. Bracing myself,
the other van slammed into me...Ouch!
However, we were both physically okay
as it turns out, but both very shaken. The
vans weren’t so good - my one was a total
write-off, and the cause of our crashes
turned out to be a diesel spill from a truck
(Oh yes, we know about diesel spills -
motorcycling Ed who came off on spilt diesel
on a roundabout...).
MISSING!
Meantime, a lot of my equipment and
gigging gear which was in the back of the
van was thrown out as I’d spun along.
Once I’d finally collected my thoughts after
the crash, I walked around and collected it
all up. It all seemed okay. So, this had all
happened on a Thursday and there were
weekend shows coming and band gigs,
fortunately all went well.
The next Thursday I was scheduled to do
a sit-down acoustic gig, for which I’d
planned to use my Kustom 100 watt PA.
But I couldn’t find the PA amp... I thought
it might be at the rehearsal studio, or at
home, but no, it seemed to be missing.
My girlfriend suggested it must still be
‘There had been six days of rain in the
interim period during which my amp
had lain out in the elements...’
somewhere around the crash site. I said
I’d already checked the site after the crash,
and anyway if it was still there it would be
ruined as there had been six days of rain in
the interim period during which my amp had
lain out in the elements... But she convinced
me to take another look the day before the
gig, so we drove down. The crash site was a
grass verge which bordered a forest and as
we drove slowly along where the van had
spun off the road I suddenly spotted the
amp peeking through
some nearby bramble
bushes - you can
imagine how hard to
spot that was, no
wonder I’d missed it!
I pulled the amp out
which wasn’t at all easy.
It was a bit muddy and wet
and the corners had taken a
bashing but it looked intact. Anyway
I took it home and put it in the airing
cupboard to dry off overnight. Still thinking
I’d need to organise a replacement unit for
the gig, I took it out of the cupboard the
next day, gingerly plugged it in and pressed
the ‘On’ switch... It was totally fine! I ran
through a test of all the
functions, and everything
worked as it should!
Amazing. Even more
amazing, I took it with me
and used it for the gig
that night where it was
100% and gave no trouble.
RUGGED
I thought that Kustom
might like to hear
about how rugged and robust the kit
they produce actually is, especially having
survived the not-often-used ‘thrown from
a spinning van and left in the mud and
rain for 6 days’ test!
Mind you, I can’t quite see magazines
incorporating this into their review testing
schedules..but the amp is still working fine
and I’ve been gigging it relentlessly since
then - I don’t think anyone could expect
more from a piece of kit, could they? Well
done Kustom for performance levels surely
above and beyond the call of duty!
KPA80
PA System
with 2 mics
£299.00rrp
SYS-KPA100
Profile One
Complete
PA System
£599.00rrp
SYS-KPA200
Profile Two
Complete
PA System
£999.00rrp
KPA80
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