Kustom KPC12MP...dirt cheap

shasha

shasha

Fractal Fanatic
Got them in today from Music123.

I've been wanting to get something affordable, but not useless and these are probably about as close to the low end of that threshold as possible. I'd read a few reviews on them and I saw a few demos from zentman on youtube with the AxeFX feeding them and nothing I could find sent up a red flag of any kind. I read one guy say that all Kustom stuff is garbage...that was his entire argument so I kind of ignored it. :)

I am not gigging right now, but I am planning on getting something going in the next few weeks with a drummer I just met and obviously I need something to jam with at a bare minimum. I'd also like to go down to my old man's house and do some jamming and these will do fine for that.

I only got to spend about an hour with them so far because all my neighbors are home (hate living the suburban life), but I did get them to the point that my drop ceiling in the basement was rattling pretty good and there were no signs of farting out and it was painfully loud in my little studio/mancave.

No hiss or anything at about 3/4 volume and I rode the output volume of the AxeFX and never got past about 4 on there because it was so damn loud (my closest neighbor is a cop who works nights and was sleeping). I need to get these out somewhere so that I can see what the headroom is. It didn't sound like I was getting close to distorting, but I can't imagine them getting much louder without falling apart....we'll see. I'm definitely curious.

First thing that hit me is that these are not made for the club scene on their own...definitely not a lot of thumping going on which to be honest is exactly what I was hoping for. They seemed a bit harsh in the higher frequencies initially, but two seconds on the EQ and it smoothed out nicely. I hit the global EQ to knock down the 4 and 8kHz bands a few dB and I always have 63Hz all the way down anyway. To be honest I think that they're going to turn out to be voiced very well for modelling (spec'd at 70Hz-20kHz).

Sounded all right with high gain; once again only for a moment or two (plus I have old neighbors that don't seem to like heartattacks), but clean it felt and sounded very much like an amp to me; closer than as I was hoping for anyway. All my patches are dialed in with headphones or nearfield monitors so it's probably going to take some tweaking at volume to optimize them, but I was closer than I thought I'd be out of the box based on the stories I've read from others.

Fit and finish is decent. They did have that made in China smell to them, but it's not overpowering (you know the smell from the solvents probably used in the adhesive for the tolex). Tolex appears to be fairly thick and on there very well although I can see the seams in it (non-factor for me). The handles and feet feel like they'll hold up for a while as long as you don't go out of your way to abuse them.

The controls all seem to work well, it's simple and I like that to be honest as I'll do all my tone shaping at the source.

They're about 40lbs each which isn't too bad and they feel substantial. No rattles or anything at all which is good.

I love the fact that I can use them as monitors on the floor, on stands or just stand them up like a regular monitor.

Once again, this is just the initial response, but I think that I may be able to hang with a drummer as long as he doesn't go insane. It's been a long time since I played with a drummer so it'll be interesting. Definitely need to see what the headroom is like.

$240 shipped to my front door for a pair of 12" powered 100W Class A/B PA Monitors with a 45 day return policy and 5 year warranty was too good to not take a chance on. Even if I end up just using them to monitor and plug into a PA or FOH or whatever else I think that they're going to work out for me.
 
My god... if these actually sound decent I will definately be picking up a pair. If you could compare them to other FRFR monitors that would be great.... or anyone really.
 
Yeah, part of the problem is that unless I drag my AxeFX to the store I'm not going to get my hands onto a lot of FRFR stuff to A/B against.

The other part (and it's probably kind of stupid sounding) is that I'm not really sure that I want to have it in my head that a $1k speaker sounds X amount better because the truth is that it absolutely should. I don't need to start lusting for bigger and better for the sake of just having it unless I start gigging regularly which is still extremely fluid right now. Ideally these will get me through some rehearsals and perhaps a few small gigs and then if things go somewhere or these come up short I'll use them as floor monitors for me or vocals or something. They'll definitely handle that without a problem.

I still got a lot of work to do with these to make sure that they fit the bill, but it's looking pretty good at this point.

They're on sale right now at musiciansfriend for $119 a piece which is stupid cheap and I thought they were worth taking a flyer on.

Here's a review of the entire KPC series on musiciansfriend.

Here's the post over at TGP where zentman talks about them and has a video of them.
 
I got a pair of these when I saw zentman's review. I still have them, but haven't had too many occasions to use them at serious volume. My only issue with them is the harshness in the high end at volume, but I find that's only really piercing on-axis when they're pointed up at me from the floor. I've rolled off the highs too, but I find simply throwing a thin t-shirt over them takes the edge off nicely. (I know, I know....totally stupid, but it works)

For the price, they are absolutely worth it IMHO. I think the only mod I'll do to them is pull off the ugly "KUSTOM" logo. Maybe I'll replace or cover the metal grills with some nice grillcloth to make it look like a more traditional guitar cab.
 
THANK YOU for posting this! I am all over these. I have been looking for a home practicing solution and these would be a perfect introduction for me to start experimenting with running FRFR.
 
I've been quite pleased with the 10" version. I ordered a pair when I got tired of waiting for the backorder on the 12s at MF. Amazing value proposition. Not as flat or transparent as my Adam A7s, but with a little EQ, just right for when I want more volume.
 
mitch said:
I got a pair of these when I saw zentman's review. I still have them, but haven't had too many occasions to use them at serious volume. My only issue with them is the harshness in the high end at volume, but I find that's only really piercing on-axis when they're pointed up at me from the floor. I've rolled off the highs too, but I find simply throwing a thin t-shirt over them takes the edge off nicely. (I know, I know....totally stupid, but it works)

For the price, they are absolutely worth it IMHO. I think the only mod I'll do to them is pull off the ugly "KUSTOM" logo. Maybe I'll replace or cover the metal grills with some nice grillcloth to make it look like a more traditional guitar cab.
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What pisses me off about these is the manual is nothing but a waste of a few pieces of paper. I would really like to know the crossover frequency because if it's around the 4-5K range I think that disconnecting the horn may make take care of all that. The t-shirt idea makes a ton of sense though even though it's probably not the coolest looking thing ever. :razz
 
Anyone know if any Canadian retailers have these? I have only found American one and I will get killed on shipping/duties if I buy them from there...
 
mitch said:
I got a pair of these when I saw zentman's review. I still have them, but haven't had too many occasions to use them at serious volume. My only issue with them is the harshness in the high end at volume, but I find that's only really piercing on-axis when they're pointed up at me from the floor. I've rolled off the highs too, but I find simply throwing a thin t-shirt over them takes the edge off nicely. (I know, I know....totally stupid, but it works)

For the price, they are absolutely worth it IMHO. I think the only mod I'll do to them is pull off the ugly "KUSTOM" logo. Maybe I'll replace or cover the metal grills with some nice grillcloth to make it look like a more traditional guitar cab.
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The highs were killing me on mine with the stock Kustom speakers. Once I put in my old Peavey Scorpions that all changed. I run them flat now. The Peavey is 8ohms but much more efficient. They were so much louder than the stocks that the tweeter sank down in to the mix. They are also better guitar speakers and by themselves had much more fullness to the sound.

I A/B them side by side, one with stock, one with Scorpion. Night and day for guitar players. Try an efficient guitar speaker in one and leave the stock in the other and you'll see what I mean.
 
I bought a pair of the KSC12MP's when the first review thread was posted.

I ended up installing Jay's speaker directivity modifier (see TGP for details). That made a huge difference. Smoothed it way out.

FYI, I use it for vocals + guitar and the mod made the gain before feedback much better.

YMMV,
Richard
 
I actually did both the 12" driver and the horn.

I posted a while back, I think? in Amps and Cabs, about speaker directivity and horns but I didn't get any responses.

From Jay's article, the basis seems to me, not an expert here, to be the physics of sound and cone transducers. From that I'm not sure there is any basis for doing anything to the horn.

In practice though it sounds better to me with the modifier in front of the horn as well.

I bought a large sheet of poly foam from the source Jay's article sites. But I bought white by mistake. So I ended up buying some 1 in thick gray 2 ft. x 2 ft. acoustic foam panels on ebay and used that. It's the egg crate looking poly foam stuff. It has one smooth side and one egg crate type side. I put the egg crate side toward the transducers.

Through trial and error I figured out, mark the speaker location with tape on the outside of the grill before removing it. I used an cross pattern for the 12 in and a rectangle for the horn. Then you can mount the foam on the inside of the grill in the correct spot.

- Richard
 
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shasha said:
The t-shirt idea makes a ton of sense though even though it's probably not the coolest looking thing ever. :razz
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If you get the girls in the audience to throw their t-shirts over it, it'll be cool, trust me.
 
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