Gear Review

Name: Kustom Profile System One

They say what goes around comes around, and that's the old saying I found myself living recently when Musician's Friend sent me a Kustom Profile Systems One PA System for review.

You see, way (way) back in the old days, I was a gigging musician, and my good friend Bob was the soundman. He had invested most of his net worth in a beautiful new Kustom 300, complete with spring reverb, feedback control, and 4' tall speaker towers wrapped in glorious white metal flake tuck-and-roll naugahyde upholstery. How he put up with our endless blowing into mics, asking "is this thing on," is still a mystery to me, but put up with it he did. Night after night, the old Hell Roaring Saloon was host to our creative output. And night after night, Bob and the Kustom 300 did the job. Fast forward a couple of decades, and we find the tables turned. Bob learned to play the guitar, and has become quite the musician. So it was with a certain irony that only a few hours after I received the Profile System One, he called and
asked if I would do the sound for his first live gig. It would just be Bob and his partner Joy, singing and playing acoustic and electric guitars.

Bein’ The Roadie
Fortunately, the Profile came with the optional wheeled storage bag - really a heavy-duty padded suitcase that looks and feels like it could take some serious abuse - and it was an easy matter to load it into my car. I didn't have time to read the manual, but fully expected the engineers at Kustom would have worked out an intuitive system.

Set Up
I arrived at the venue, a small club, unpacked the Profile, and connected the two 1/4"; jacks in the back to the two Line Array speakers with the included 25' cables. Although I didn't need them in this situation, Kustom makes matching speaker stands that'll raise the speakers up a couple of feet. I set the mixer on a nearby table, and plugged two SM58s for the vocals into the XLR jacks of the first two channels. Because the XLR jacks deliver phantom power, I was able to use condenser mics for their acoustic guitars. Bob also plays a Gibson ES-135, so I plugged that into the instrument input of Channel 5. They wanted to use a small synth on one tune, so I used the Playback section - normally used for playing CDs or cassettes during breaks - as an extra input channel.

I found the Profile's insert jack to be a great feature, and used it for patching in a compressor. Bob and Joy don't always stay a fixed distance from their mics, and I knew that adding a bit of compression would smooth the sound out considerably. There's also an external effects loop jack - very handy - but with the Profile's built-in digital effects including four reverbs, chorus, chorus/reverb, slap back, and echo, I felt like I was well-covered. I decided that Small Room reverb
would be just the ticket.

I plugged an on/off switch into the footswitch jack, which mutes everything except the playback input with a single stomp. If I ended up with runaway feedback, it would be easy to eliminate. Finally, we wanted to make a tape of the gig. Again, Profile made it easy by providing RCA jacks that I hooked directly into a cassette recorder.

Sound Check
Mics were cabled and plugs were plugged, so it was time to hear what the Profile could do. I adjusted the mics, and powered up the mixer. After balancing levels, I adjusted the active EQ on each channel to suit the voices - a little turn to the left to add a touch of bass to Bob's voice, a turn to the right to add a little treble to Joy's - and they sounded great! Worked a little more EQ magic on their guitars so they would blend better, then added the reverb. Some folks like that old analog spring sound, but I prefer the quiet, un-boingy sound of 24-bit digital 'verb. The Small Room sounded good, but I decided the Small Hall actually suited this duo better.

Show Time
With everything tried and tested beforehand, it was an easy show to work. As the crowd filled in, I boosted the master volume. This added a bit of low-frequency howl, so I lowered the bass control in the Master section and the feedback quietly faded away. I also added a bit of treble to make up for all the bodies that were soakin' up the highs. I admit, I was a bit concerned about the size of the Profile speakers, but because their Line Array speaker cabinets really focus the sound, getting enough level was no problem at all.

Bob and Joy's first set went well - thanks to the musical power of the Profile. Their raucous rendition "Mr. Football" had the crowd stompin' and dancin', while the their intimate interpretation of "In My Life" held the audience in rapt silence, thanks to the Profile's detail and presence.

Since they used the synthesizer in the first set, I swapped it out for a portable CD player during the break. I used the mute footswitch to kill the mics, plugged the CD player into the Playback jacks, and kept the crowd entertained during the intermission. When Bob and Joy returned to the stage, I turned off the CD, switched the mics back on, and with only occasional tweaking, was able to listen to the rest of the show from various parts of the club. The coverage was great, with no real obvious dead spots, and I was surprised at how far back those little monitors carried.

Show's over, folks.
Packing up is never a pleasure. There are wires everywhere, heavy stuff to haul, and by the time you're done, the beer's warm! The Profile, however, was very easy to pack. Unplug the mics and speaker cables, slip the mics, mixer, and speakers into the travel bag; roll up the cables and stick them into the big, zippered front pouch; and finally, wheel the whole thing out to the car. It went so quickly that the frost was still on the mug when I got back inside. We celebrated a successful gig, and I realized once again what a workhorse a Kustom PA can be.

With the Profile back in the box, it's time to wrap up this review and move on to the next project. But before I go, remember that old tuck-and-roll Kustom I mentioned at the beginning of the article? It's still around, sitting in Bob's music room ready for the occasional jam session. I guess you can count on Kustom gear to last!
--Bob Jackson

Kustom Profile One PA System