Double Cross - Question and Answer

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• • Question #16 - Zellocaster - Va. Beach VA

    James this amp sounds simply amazing and that's over my crappy laptop. Your design philosophy seems to be spot on and I can't wait to get my hands on one of these. My question is do you have plans to make this into a combo? I don't have a need for big boxes and I'm wondering if it's possible to get the voicing you intended for this amp to be successfully transferred into a 2x12 combo form? Thanks

  • Answer - 3.3.2009

    Zellocaster,
    I'm sure at some point in the future we'll look into the idea of a combo version....for now we do offer a nice 212 cabinet built right here in the US with either our Coupe KEI speakers(Eminence made with aluminum dust covers like the old Kustom speakers) or Celestion Vintage 30's.

    James Brown
    Lead Engineer Kustom Amplification

• • Question #15 - Trev Mooney - Dublin, Ireland

    Hi James, I checked out the Kustom vid on Harmony Central winter NAMM coverage. For some time I've been playing a marshall JCM 2000 DSL 100 Watt. I've always liked the crunch channel and always tried to drive it harder on input with pedals for a high gain tone when needed because the actual gain channel(s) seems to lose (for want of a better description), its balls.

    Im about start tracking an album and am demo-ing tones and amps, borrowing from mates and the like. Im struggling a bit getting the right mixture of tones , especially on the high gain end of things. Anyway Ive come to the conclusion that the tone Im looking for is most likely gonna come out of a Mesa Rec .... but thats some serious bread so need to explore alternatives.
    

    The double cross seems to have a lot of attention to detail and a lot of tonal control, how close to the mark do you think I could emulate the triple rec high gain sound, Id imagine your probably fed up with comparisons at this stage but genuinely Im interested to hear your view? Your explanation of the amp on your site is superb and your approach to this amp sounds spot on so figure you could make a direct technical comparison.

    Also Im using the 1960A Marshall cab , I might aswell add I use a Gibson Les Paul Classic, A Les Paul Standard(77) predominantly, both refitted with vintage bumblebee caps for added sweetness!!

    By the way the videos on Kustom.com are cool the amp comes across very well overall, but as ya know yourself nothin beats feeling the tone of the amp as well as hearing it. For the price I think this could potentially be a super buy and any time given to my query is appreciated.

  • Answer - 2.4.2009

    Trev,
    Actually, this amp turned out like it is BECAUSE of amps like the Mesa and 5150. Of course I've played and designed a lot of different amps, and I like a particularly tight attack....but some people love the buzzy thick distortion you get from an amp like those. My only problem is that it comes at a price of losing the tight low end, and sometimes it can sound overly compressed. They tend to have the opposite of dynamics, since the harder you hit the string, the MORE it compresses.

    I also noticed that on Satriani's latest album where he uses the JSX(this was the last amp I designed before leaving Peavey) I could hear when he would use it versus when he would play his distortion pedal through the clean. What I noticed was that the distortion pedal had so much less distortion that it 'cut through' better...you could tell when he hit the guitar hard or soft. Whenever he was on the JSX, it was very smooth and singing, but also quite compressed sounding.

    So the problem was how to go from our moderate gained Kustom Hardtop amplifier to this higher gain amp without causing those traditional problems....but while adding the things you DO like about them. Namely the buzzy thick distortion of the Mesa's and 5150's and the dynamic cutting through tone you get from cleaner more vintage-gained amps without the amp getting floppy feeling.

    That's where the idea came from to mix extra tubes in parallel to existing ones, so that the resulting distortion is a blend of different styles of distortion. Usually tubes are added in series, which gives much more gain, but it also compresses more and more as you add them. In this amp, no single distortion style overwhelms the others (this took quite a bit of tweaking to come up with the right balances) and the result is a huge amount of variation over the attack and chunk while at the same time allowing a lot of variation of the thickness or richness of the distortion. The added 'Tight Stage' gives you a very dynamic cutting sound when you hit it hard, while the 'Thick Stage' gives you a good bit of the thick, rich sounding distortion you'd get from a Mesa.

    Top it off with the Bright switch already on the Hardtop, which changes the low chunk as well, the Gain switch for the guy who wants more of the traditional sounding singing, compressed gain, and the Tight Input for the guy who needs the most aggressive attack possible, and the amp has incredible flexibility.

    The extremes could be found by going from the Tightest(Tight Input, Bright ON, Tight Stage ON) to the thickest sound(Bright OFF, Thick Stage ON, Gain ON, Normal Input). And the best thing is you can change them yourself, instead of hiring an 'amp guru' to tweak it for you.

    I always tell people that my job is to make the LAST amp I designed sound bad. So each time I do a new one, I try to make incremental improvements that solve whatever little problems are left, and keep striving for the perfect blend of tone, feel, dynamics, and flexibility in an amp that has real world features a gigging musician would want.

    James Brown
    Lead Engineer Kustom Amplification

• • Question #14 - Brian Carrasco - Denver, CO

    Any chance of building a power scaled 2x cross, i'd get kicked out of my house for cranking that amp....

  • Answer - 1.29.2009

    Brian,
    I'm sure at some point we'll consider that option, but for now, the extra headroom really helps the low end get through the Double Cross uncompressed so we don't have any immediate plans for a lower powered version.

    I will say, however, that the amp is very good at getting a good tone at lower volumes, especially due to the way that each channel has its own master volume. Even the clean channel can get really fat at low volumes, and there's sufficient preamp gain that you can get a lot of distortion and chunk without having to crank it up much.

    James Brown
    Lead Engineer Kustom Amplification

• • Question #13 - TAB

    Speaking of volume issues, when volume is not an issue, how can we expect the amp to respond when cranking the global master volume? I know Lead II is supposed to simulate the 'cranked amp' character, but, does this amp respond in that wonderful way when, well, the amp is cranked? Us old skool folks want to know :-)

  • Answer - 10.9.2008

    If you looked at the video, you can tell I'm pretty old school myself, so it definitely cranks well!

    Lead II sounds more like a cranked amp because of the EQ and how it sounds with it all set halfway. The Lead I sound is a little more modern/scooped. I set the Volumes up so it's fairly loud with all the Channel Masters halfway and balances pretty well between them, and the Global Master halfway. At that point you still have plenty of footswitchable boost left when you kick it in, and if you crank the masters you can still overdrive the power amp. You'll especially like the Rhythm channel when you crank it up to get your Angus tone.

    James Brown
    Lead Engineer Kustom Amplification

• • Question #12 - Steve W. - Los Angeles, CA

    This amp sounds really good even via video through my PC speakers, so I'm excited. Your logic in designing it is perfect. The problem you seek to address has plagued guitar players. Plus, I can can get good crystal clean tones from an affordable solid state amplifier. The street price seems fair given the features and craftsmanship.

    Here's my problem. I'm just a home hobbyist who is considering joining a band for fun in the distant future. I don't want my neighbors to assault me with pitchforks or have the police visiting me because my guitar volume is cracking windows. But I've really been yearning for great lead tone with endless sustain like that I hear on CDs by players like EVH, Tony Iommi, and Zakk Wylde. Sounds to me like your new amp is a step in that direction. But is this amp too powerful for a hobbyist like me?

    If you can assist me in getting the rhythm and lead tones that I hear in my dreams, I'll be forever grateful!

  • Answer - 10.8.2008

    Of course some might consider this amp overkill for using at home, but I made sure it can get really good tones even at low volumes. This makes the fact that each channel has its own 'Master Volume' control even more important, since you can get really low volume clean tones that are still fat and you can barely dial in some breakup. Most amps won't do this, and you end up with TOO clean of a clean tone. So the power helps the low end get through to the speaker at loud volumes, but it doesn't mean the amp is ALWAYS too loud.

    James Brown
    Lead Engineer Kustom Amplification

• • Question #11 - Jorge Rodriguez - Puerto Rico

    When the doblecross become available in november (as I read musiciansfriend), its going to be a limited number of the amp available or are there going to be a constant supply of the amp to the stores?

  • Answer - 10.7.2008

    Any time a new model comes out you never want to schedule too many at first. Once high volume manufacturing starts, then you typically find minor issues that can be solved quickly before you have 100's of them to deal with.

    An example would be the brushed metal grills on the Double Cross. When we received the pilot run of 10 pieces, a few of the grills were not quite right, and though many people would say that the sound is more important, we still didn't want any to get out wrong. Even the first big production run of a typical manufactured product would be limited somewhat.

    Having said that, our first big production run is scheduled to finish around the end of October/1st week of November, and we're building about twice as many as currently on backorder. So hopefully you won't have to wait long for yours.

    Check out the videos on this site, and click on the Rhythm Channel button:
    http://www.kustomdoublecross.com/video.asp

    James Brown
    Lead Engineer Kustom Amplification

• • Question #10 - Jorge Rodriguez - Puerto Rico

    I love the beatifull clean channel on the 72 coupe. I my going to be able to sound that clean in the rhythm channel of the doblecross?

  • Answer - 10.7.2008

    Thanks, and I'm glad you like our Clean Channel for the Coupe series. The Rhythm channel of the Double Cross is actually derived from the 72 Coupe, and without the 'Drive' switch pressed it's almost identical. The biggest difference would be based on the extra headroom available from the larger power amp so its easier to get a more sparkly clean-clean, but since the Rhythm channel has its own Gain & Volumes, you can still easily get a nice fat lower volume clean tone just like on the Coupe. Just turn the Gain up a little and the Volume down, and you quickly get into that range where it's barely breaking up.

    Check out the videos on this site, and click on the Rhythm Channel button:
    http://www.kustomdoublecross.com/video.asp

    James Brown
    Lead Engineer Kustom Amplification

• • Question #9 - Ben Hurst - Louisville, KY

    6L6 or EL34s
    
    I've personally listened to the new Double Cross and I am really speachless. What a wonderful amp, you guys have done an wonderful job. It's truely amazing all of the tones that you can get out of this amp. I am currently looking to sell my '72 Hardtop and replace it with the DoubleCross. However with that being said, my other amp is a Bogner Ecstasy, which I love, and I generally prefer the tone of EL-34s. So finally to my question, I know you can use them but can you order the DoubleCross with EL-34s, have you tried them, and would you recommend them, especially to someone who generally prefers an EL-34?

  • Answer - 09.29.2008

    Thanks for your compliments on the Double Cross. I'm also really excited about it, and I'm looking forward to getting some more of them out there so people can check it out.

    I've tested it with EL34s, and you do get a little bit more of an in-your-face tone with a little bit more power. Right now we aren't planning to sell them optionally with EL34s. My experience is that they tend to be a little more problematic to build with, and they do typically cost a bit more than 6L6s. With 6 in the amp, a bit more can add up to a lot for the customers that may not want them. So my plan was to use the same 6L6GC from Sovtek that we've had good luck with, since they are reasonably priced tubes that are very consistent. I can say that I've tweaked the amp with the 6L6GC in mind, so they give you the closest thing to what I was shooting for.

    Frankly, the preamp tubes can make even more of a different tone in an amp like this, where there's so much preamp gain. Traditional tube amps might respond a lot differently with different power tubes, but that's because you're not hitting the preamp tubes much. On the Double Cross, every channel uses a lot of preamp tweaked breakup to get the tones and blend the various types of distortion. So the power amp is a little less important to the overall tone.

    Thanks for your questions,

    James Brown
    Lead Engineer Kustom Amplification

• • Question #8 - Jorge Rodriguez

    It is dificult to adjust the tube bias on this amps? If one tube go bad do I have to change then all?

  • Answer - 09.30.2008

    All the Coupe, Defender, and Double Cross products use a bias scheme that is partially self-biased. The result is that the amp automatically adjusts the bias enough so it's not necessary to adjust it manually. On the Defender and Double Cross there is also a switch to allow you to use EL34s or 6L6GC tubes, and that switch makes a small adjustment to the auto biasing so it will be in the correct range.

    Of course if one tube goes bad, it's sometimes difficult to tell WHICH is bad, since the others also won't work correctly in that case. But generally speaking, you can replace the one tube that is bad and continue.

    However, in my experience, power tubes 'go bad' due to being used a lot....so they tend to all need replacing together anyway.

    Hope this answers your questions.

    James Brown
    Lead Engineer Kustom Amplification

• • Question #7 - T-Bone - Moorpark, CA

    Looks like a winner; when do you anticipate these being available for purchase?

  • Answer - 09.19.2008

    The pilot run is completed and those are out with artists and our sales reps are taking them around to dealers. The first big production run is in process and should be completed near the end of October/first of November.

    James Brown
    Lead Engineer Kustom Amplification

Have a question for James Brown and his team of Engineers? Look no further, you have come to the right place to get your answer! Just email James a question and he and his team will personally answer your question and post it here.

Submit Question

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