**NAD** Kustom Defender 5H

[FrankenFretter]

Not long ago Hello Music had a blowout deal on the Kustom Defender 5H with matching 1 x 12 cab. I fought the temptation until almost midnight that evening, then finally gave in to the urge and bought one. I had just sold some Oakley sunglasses, and therefor had a little extra money, and the bills were all paid...why not?

I had to wait for the next shipment to come in to HM, then it shipped last Friday. It got here today, and was waiting for me when I got home from work. I got it unboxed, and carried it upstairs to try it out quickly before dinner; everything worked, and all the chatter about how LOUD it is, is definitely true. I can't turn it up loud enough for the amph to start breaking up (which from what I hear is about 10 O'clock), it's just too loud for my household and my neighbors. That said, it is actually a really decent sounding amph. I tried it with three different guitars and three speaker cabs. It sounds best through my 2 x 12, loudest through my Epi VJ 1 x 12, but actually pretty good through the stock cab. The speaker in the stock cab is pretty light weight, as is the entire cab. The nice thing about that is that I can use this for my grab-n-go amph, rather than my Cube 60. The head and cab together is still a good five or more pounds lighter than the Cube.

My first thoughts are that I wish it had a closed-back cab, and it would be nice if it wasn't so dang LOUD! I may end up making another panel for the cab to totally enclose it, and may possibly put a vintage alnico speaker in there (I happen to have two sitting around). I was thinking about changing tubes before I got the amph, but now that I've heard it, I may just leave that alone for a while.

And because we all know, pics or it didn't happen:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7129/7089396363_489f2ea0f1_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/54283110@N06/7089396363/)
Untitled (http://www.flickr.com/photos/54283110@N06/7089396363/) by FrankenFretter (http://www.flickr.com/people/54283110@N06/), on Flickr
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7257/6943327572_5baeba4947_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/54283110@N06/6943327572/)
Untitled (http://www.flickr.com/photos/54283110@N06/6943327572/) by FrankenFretter (http://www.flickr.com/people/54283110@N06/), on Flickr
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7183/6943328966_c2286aed63_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/54283110@N06/6943328966/)
Untitled (http://www.flickr.com/photos/54283110@N06/6943328966/) by FrankenFretter (http://www.flickr.com/people/54283110@N06/), on Flickr

[Ch0jin]

Happy NAD!!

What's the power rating on it? Just curios from your "It's loud" comments. The JTM45 I built is the same, before I put the master volume on it, it would have to be quite obnoxiously loud (for my place) before it would distort.

[Eric]

Cool. So I guess this might work as a nice tube-ish clean amp, huh? Congrats!

[FrankenFretter]

Happy NAD!!

What's the power rating on it? Just curios from your "It's loud" comments. The JTM45 I built is the same, before I put the master volume on it, it would have to be quite obnoxiously loud (for my place) before it would distort.

Sorry! It's 5W, class A (of course). Very similar to the Epiphone Valve Junior, it only has the "Volume" control, nothing else.


Cool. So I guess this might work as a nice tube-ish clean amp, huh? Congrats!

Thanks, Eric. From what I understand, it has very little clean headroom; since I can't turn it above "1", I may never know! ;)

I put a mini-pedalboard together last night to see how it responded to effects. I used my Joyo California Sound pedal (an amp sim, basically a clone of the Tech 21 pedals, based on the Mesa Boogie Mk II), my Dano Fab Echo, and my Dano Fab Distortion. The echo was set to be more of a reverb. The California Sound pedal does sound very nice through this amph. The Dano Distortion sounded very sterile, however. The Joyo pedal has active tone controls, and is really versatile. I think it's a really good match for the Defender. I'll probably try some other pedals in the next few days.

[Eric]

Thanks, Eric. From what I understand, it has very little clean headroom; since I can't turn it above "1", I may never know! ;)
That what I meant though -- if you never turn it up very far, it does have plenty of clean headroom. It might start breaking up at 4 or 5, but if you only use it up to 0.6, that sounds like it would be a pretty clean amph!

I'm glad to hear the California pedal worked well. I've been eyeing the British one myself for many moons.

[FrankenFretter]

That what I meant though -- if you never turn it up very far, it does have plenty of clean headroom. It might start breaking up at 4 or 5, but if you only use it up to 0.6, that sounds like it would be a pretty clean amph!

I'm glad to hear the California pedal worked well. I've been eyeing the British one myself for many moons.

Ah, that is true. Plenty of clean headroom from 0 to 1!

The pedal was my first Joyo purchase. It is a great pedal, but gets noisy if you turn the "Voice" or "Drive" up to near max. The tone controls are really the winner on this pedal, being so sensitive to small adjustments. I don't know how close it is to the real thing (Mesa Mk II), since I've never played through one.

[markb]

Pretty loud, these single ended 5 watters, eh? Joyo pedals are pretty cool too. I have the tremolo and am waiting on the Ultimate Drive OCD clone.

[Katastrophe]

Congrats, FF!

[Ch0jin]

I've got to try one of these 5W SE style amps I think. Perhaps one with an extra gain stage or something though as I have "too powerful to go past 1" covered with the 36W (or so) JTM45 :)

[mapka]

I've got to try one of these 5W SE style amps I think. Perhaps one with an extra gain stage or something though as I have "too powerful to go past 1" covered with the 36W (or so) JTM45 :)

Only get to 1/2 with my JCM 900 50W! :D

[teejayw28]

I too couldnt pass up the deal and got mine a couple weeks ago . I had actually been wanting something low watts and simple and the price was AOK !!
I changed the preamp tube out with a sovtek I had already . It made a big difference . Also eurotubes has a el84 that will help with this and make the amp overdrive
more useable at lower volumes because it is loud . I like how between your level and distortion on a pedal and your volume control and tone on guitar , Im getting some funky
tones .

[FrankenFretter]

I too couldnt pass up the deal and got mine a couple weeks ago . I had actually been wanting something low watts and simple and the price was AOK !!
I changed the preamp tube out with a sovtek I had already . It made a big difference . Also eurotubes has a el84 that will help with this and make the amp overdrive
more useable at lower volumes because it is loud . I like how between your level and distortion on a pedal and your volume control and tone on guitar , Im getting some funky
tones .

I have an EH preamp tube, and some Sovtec power tubes. May try swapping at some point. I've heard that they are not easy to change, tight sockets or something. Did you have much trouble?

[FrankenFretter]

Hello Music (http://www.hellomusic.com/ec/Home.aspx) has these again, same price. If it's your first order with them, you can apply a $30 off code at checkout (see main page for code). Shipped to your front door for $114 (in the US, anyway). I am extremely pleased at the deal I got, it's a pretty nice amph. Apparently there's some very easy mods you can do to this amph if you are so inclined.