Kasino U100

[jthomas]

Hello All;

I buddy picked up one of these. It is a solid state combo amp built by Kustom from the early 1970's. DK if it works cuz he hasn't plugged it in yet. Anybody have any experience with one of these puppies. Sure would be great if someone has a user manual and a schemo. (hint hint)

Supposedly Kustom used their existing tech from the Kustom amps in these spinoffs. I found the vintage Kustom amp website, but I don't see anythine specific for this amp.

Thanks in advance.

Jim

[Adamism]

I wasn't able to find anything specific to the U100, but it sounds like Kasinos were basically just rebrands of Kustom amps to the extent that they used the same PCBs. You may have better luck figuring out which amp the U100 is a reskin of and hunting down the service manual for that? Good luck, trying to track down old amp service manuals can be a crapshoot.

[MrShake]

I have, I beleive, the U200 , I'm sorry, I can't dig too deep right now, on a train, but check my post history for Kustom and Kasino info, and I put a lot more under the same username over on TGP.

Definitely Kustom-made, and while they don't have the wild aesthetics, they're but pretty sturdy and sound like absolute MONSTERS when fully cranked.

MOST IMPORTANTLY - take it to a shop, get a 3-prong cord put on there before you do anything else. I've taken the "death cap" out of three of these and each was stone-cold dead. Which means I had a 50/50 of wall voltage going to my strings and the chassis of the amp.

[jthomas]

Thanks Mr. Shake. I will look up your posts. I plan on doing the power cord replacement at some point when the weather turns cold. This should be a good project for a Maine winter. It's not my amp, but the owner (friend and neighbor) wants me to do whatever it needs to get it growling. So at least a re-cap.

And thanks for the well-wishes Adamism. I do not have much experience with solid state electronics so this is a good chance to pick up some new skills.

[MrShake]

HERE is the thread I've found with the most info.

I had to do a lot of digging an research, there's not a lot out there, but here's the highlights cribbed from that other thread that might be useful for you:

[...]
"Kasino was a sub-brand of Kustom, without the fancy tuck and roll. Some say it was a way to market amps to players who didn't want the sparkled vinyl of yesteryear, some say it was a way to distribute similar amps in the same market via different dealers. I say it was a little bit of both.

Kustom had three main periods.
1965-1971 - they have the "classic" flat-front look of the Kustoms many of us have seen. Lines were based on power, the "100" (50W) and "200" (100W) series.
1972-1973 - Bud Ross left the company and the amps changed to a slanted-front style with blue light-up push buttons for power and polarity. [EDIT: at this point they changed the circuit with increased power and all the model numbers end in "-50", so "150/250".]
1974 - the company changed hands again, and began what collectors call the "Big K" era of tolex-covered, otherwise kinda generic '70s amps.

Kasino had the same progression. Despite prevailing wisdom, Kasino started in late 1970 or early 1971 according to printing dates on the pricelists and catalogs that have survived. The first line of Kasinos had numbers like 100 and 200 on the grill cloth, and were all giant combos with flat-front chassis, aluminum trim, and pinstripes. I mean up to GIANT. 8x10 combos with built in tilt-back casters. Matching powered extension speakers. This head seems to be a bit of a rarity in that a separate head is not listed in the surviving price lists and literature.

Kasino's second line in 1972 had slanted-front heads (just like Kustom's redesign) with pinstripes now encroaching onto the heads themselves, and names like "Snake Eyes" and "Natural".

The third and final phase of the Kasino stuff was a parallel to the Kustom "Big K" era, and have more traditional styling, black tolex, and blue faceplates. And a big K.

Everybody says that Kasino is just Kustom with a different paint job. But the PCBs are laid out differently and there are some changes like the fact that it's only single channel. The "Selectone" function is also a late addition to the earliest period of Kustom/Kasino, only showing up on the transitional K200B-6 amp previously, but in a different configuration. A couple of the earlier, "silver trim"-era Kasino PA heads, like the Club and Concert, do seem to be 1:1 copies of Kustom's PA heads (The 50W K100B-5 and 100W K200B-5, respectively.)"

[...]

And just because I love any Kasino/Kustom thread, here's an excuse to show off my trio of Chanute Monsters:

Mid-late 1971 U200-1 with a repurposed Woodson (!) 2x12


Early 1971 Club PA (50W)


Kustom K200B-1 (1969)
w/1965-6 2x15 (a very early one!)


I've done the 2-prong to 3-prong cord conversion just to get them on their feet and "safe" but I wanna get that work checked/redone and get 'em recapped and they're so sturdy inside, they'll be hard to kill from there.

Good luck, happy refurbing!