Kustom Defender 5H Guitar Amp Head 

Overall - I give this amp a "9."
This amp is a darling but it is very picky about the speakers "it likes."
I hooked it up to a 4ohm-10" Jensen and a 12" Jensen (both custom-made closed back beechwood cabs) and both sounded like total crap.
I hooked it up to a 12" Celestion (80 watt) in an open back enclosure and it sounded really good.
I hooked it up to a 4x12" Marshall cab (cheap MG cab) and it sounded great, though a lttle dark when played clean.
The clean headroom on this amp is a very small window. To play it really clean it needs to be barely up. To play it slightly clean you can turn it up a bit and back off the volume on your guitar.
The amp will get seriously overdriven and quite easily. This is probably the biggest selling point for many novice players: "Wow, listen to that thing rock!" - but, you need to experiment with the right settings...crank it up, back off guitar volume...find the sweet spot, etc. This amp does only a couple things well, but well it does! It is a keeper and yet, another distinct species in the myriad of small wattage tube guitar amps. For the price.. I'm happy! I am sure if you want to tame it down a bit for more clean headroom you can replace the 12AX7 preamp tube with a 12AU7 or something similar...and using a better quality/more expensive tube will do it wonders.
Make sure you hook it up to the speakers "it likes" and you will be very happy. I suggest a higher watt 12" CelestionOpen back or Marshall 4x12 cab. The Vox 12" TV cab sounded like total crap, so make sure you don't use Jensens or the cheap Vox 12".
I am giving this amp Features a rating of 9 - because anybody who is buying an all-tube class A amp with only one knob (Volume) should know what they are getting into. The reason for the 9 is for the three speaker outputs giving you the option of hooking it up to either a 4, 8, or 16 ohm speaker/cab. I would have given it a "10" if it had a Preamp Line Output ...which it does not.
Sturdy metal chassis that is well vented to allow heat to escape. The tubes are mounted 'upright' which allows the tube sockets to not get so hot and need replacement prematurely. The input and output jacks are metal but are soldered directly to the mini circuit board(s) inside the amp. Nice detachable standard A/C power cable, easy to replace if lost of damaged. Illuminated 'rocker-type' power switch that glows a cool blue when powered on.
I own 12 all-tube amps. Fender, VHT, Kustom, Epi Valve Jr., Vox, Blackstar, and pound for pound dollarwise this is a great little amp at 'eighty-four.ninety-nine.' I am unsure if this is a clearance price or a regular price because I bought mine on an advertise special and the price never dropped. I would go so far as to pay "one hundred & nineteen" for this amp. This amp proves itself to be a terrific price when compared to other similar amps in the market. The Blackstar is triple the cost and so are the hand-wired VHT amps...both excellent. I sold my Epi Valve Jr. long ago (which was mod friendly) and the Vox 4TV is a little boxy sounding with only a single 16 ohm speaker output.

My first amp was a '60s Fender Super Reverb. I like this better.
Buy it. Now.

When Kustom decides to stop making this, you'll see them on eBay for $200 plus.

Read all the reviews, and you'll know why.

Buy it. Now.
As good as anything else coming out of China.
This purchase is a no-brainer... the sound is fantastic.

Overall, if your looking for a nice tube sound and can get tone by using your guitars features.
This head is well woth the money, go for it!!!!
It's good bang for the buck! CRANK it ALL the way up & get them tubes burning. Then adjust your geetar's volume/tone knob to get a nice tube sound!!
I bought the cab too, it's ok I guess...I would pass on it, if given the chance again. Not worth packing back up though.
Mine had some minor scratches/markings, Musicians friend was quick to fix the problem.
Kustom needs to BUILD IN THE USA....as do the others! Yea right?
What can you say? Class A tube head under $85 bucks shipped, I spend that much at the bar last night...again!

This gets a 10 on overall rating. I bought my son a Kustom Tube 12 a few years ago, and I use it occasionally when I'm in looking for a different flavor. I am familiar with "Kustom tone" because of playing this 12 watt amp. It's hybrid though with only a 12AX7 for preamp and solid state output. I'm a tube purist/freak and while this amp does a nice job, all tube is better. My main amp is a Soldano Hot Rod 50 with the aforementioned Jet City 4x12 cab, good for sessions with other live guitars and drums and such, but way overkill for general "bedroom" practice. I had a Jet City 1x12 around and when I found the 5H I thought this would be a great set up for general practice. I was not wrong. As I mentioned earlier, if you rely on channel switching for clean to crunch tones you may not get the functionality of this amp. Set the amp volume to your level of crunch and manipulate the guitar volume for all levels of OD/distortion. It's really quite incredible what this little 5 watt amp will dish out. I'm definitely spoiled by Soldano tone, so I experimented with tube swapping to get a tone close to it. While the stock Chinese tubes aren't terrible, they are "crispy" and don't allow for singing sustain. After trying many combinations of tubes I have around I settled on a Tube Amp Doctor (TAD) for output and a Groove Tube for preamp. While it won't quite get the bass frequencies of the Soldano (and I A/B'd them side by side) it gets very, VERY close in other frequencies. I generally run the 5H at 2/3's to 3/4's volume. You can turn it all the way up for insane, over-the-top distortion with this tube combination, but I have very little use for full crank on the amp other than just experimentation. I have not yet run any pedals into it as I don't normally use effects. Pick dynamics and the right amount of crunch is all I need. This amp does it well.
The volume knob works great! And, uhhh.....3 speaker input choices is sweet as well. I can plug into my Jet City 1x12 16ohm cab, my beat up old 4ohm 4x12 Crate cab or Jet City 4x12 cab with variable impedance. I'd much rather have a 3-way toggle (on, off, standby) with pilot light rather than a lit rocker switch (on, off) but maybe a upgrade/mod down the road if the rocker fails. It gets a 9 for that nit-pick.

Also, if you're a channel-switcher, this amp may not be your cup o' tea. But if you're accustomed to using your guitar volume to regulate crunch this amp is spot on for that functionality. Set the amp volume to your desired level of "well done" and off you go!
Well, unfortunately, it's made in China. And it's likely it's made in China to keep costs down. It's also likely I wouldn't have bought it if it were made in USA and 3 times the price (or more). Believe me, I'd MUCH rather have a USA made amp for this price, but we all know that is a pipe dream. No rating here because it seems sturdy and well constructed but I don't want to drag the overall rating down by assigning a "0" simply because of where it's made. Of course, time will also tell what quality will be like in the long run.
A no-brainer here. At least without getting into a political rant. Class A tube tone at this price? Out of this world value.

No frills. Sounds great with my old Marshall cab. It gets nice and crunchy. I just orderd a variety of tubes to try out, but the tubes that come with it seen pretty clear to me. This thing gets freaking loud BTW.

I've had it a few months and it still works...

I bought this amp as a backup. With the stock tubes, the overdrive can get a little brittle/harsh. However, if you simply replace the preamp's 12AX7 with a smoother sounding tube, it gets much better and will simply wail a brilliant Live at Leeds sound at very impressive volume. For even better sound, replace the stock EL84 power tube. If you spend more on tubes, you'll get high end tone for a low price. I recommend a NOS GE 12AX7 and either a Jan Phillips, GE or RCA EL84 combination - great sounding tubes. If you want a loud clean channel (volume knob below 12 o'clock) you will need a power tube that breaks up a little later. If you can't get the tone you're after with the tone knob on your guitar, then you need a solid state/transistor amp in this price range. Death metal, etc. need not apply - this amp was not made for you. If you want decent clean and awesome Live at Leeds, Oasis, Green Day, etc. sound - this is your Holy Grail at this price level. Just swapping the preamp tube for a sweeter tube will get you real close to optimum sound.
This amp is all about classic rock tones - you don't need any features if this is the tone you're after. What other features can you expect for the price?
Board is average quality, everything else is excellent for price.
Please note that I used this amp with high quality equipment including my Gibson Les Paul Traditional Plus, Gretsch G5120 and stock Marshall 1965 4x10 cab. I have the complete stack, but only used one cab with the 5H. The 15H uses two power tubes and can run both cabs. I like this amp so much I next plan to buy the 15H. This amp is the best tone per dollar imaginable. My favorite tone was the neck pup on the Gretsch with the volume knob of the amp at 2 o'clock or higher. Dead on perfect early Oasis sound. Also you can have a fun time just messing around with the brilliant feedback from this amp a'la Pete Townsend's early days with the Who.

I am very impressed with the performance of this item. It is small and easy to carry around. It gives you a nice tone that a solid state amp cannot give you.
This is my introduction to tube amplifiers. I have avoided purchasing them because I didn't have the patience to save money for the high end tube amplifiers. I read 28 reviews before getting this one. Most all the reviews said the sound was good. I would have to agree. I first plugged this in to a cabinet with an 8" speaker. It was a cheap speaker, but the sound was good. I plugged it into a Kustom KPCM 10M monitor. It sounded incredible. I got a nice crisp, clean sound. Because of the tubes, the volume control on my guitar became most useful. It went from a clean sound to crunch by the time I got to 10. I was very impressed with the sounds I could get out of it by simply using the volume and tone controls on my guitar. I continued to experiment with this amp. I plugged a Boss ME-25 effects pedal along with this amp. It made the guitar come to life. I could finally get that elusive tonal sound from my head into the speaker. As a solo artist, I tried using this as a primary power amp for my PA. It made my vocals come alive with clarity. Every combination I tried with this amp impressed me. I now wish I had gotten this a long time ago. I used this for my guitar at an open mic night. It worked well with a drummer and bass player as the room was small. For larger venues, I would mic this and run it through the board. After all it's only 5 watts. But it is also quite loud for 5 watts.
This amp is well built.
For a one channel tube amp with only a volume control, this is a great value.

Love it, especially for recording. Run it through your board and leave the heavy one's at home.
This little amp kicks ass! Plenty of LOUD if you want it and crystal clear power as well. It'll run a 4x12 easily and when it's turned all the way up, the thing screams beyond Marshall, Fender, etc.. Use your guitar's tone control and toss the tube screamer - you won't need it anaymore. Perfect for recording!!! Volume control is all you need.
No issues. Built like a tank.
This pirce? - are you kidding? For a quality tube amp? I have no idea how it sells this cheap.

Best money you'll ever spend on musical equipment.
Features= on/off and volume switch; AWESOME! Keep's you honest.
No frew-fru "tone altering" stuff, just volume. Who know's, players may be forced to learn how to use tone, volume and pick attack to mold their sound. What a concept!
Seems great, no issue to date.
Off the charts; a 5 watt tube amp with mulitiple Ohm outputs for a great price? What's not to love!
The only one in the same league for value is the Epi Valve Jr. When A to B'd with each, I liked the Kustom, try it and see what your ears think.

I bought a 5H locally. It's driving a 12" Celestion Vintage 30 in a closed cab. I'd thought this might result in too much dominance by low-mids, but those doubts were groundless.

If you've never run a small all-tube amp before, the 5H takes a little adaptation. With even an underwound single-coil pickup, there's a shocking amount of bark long before you get to half-volume. If most of your experience has been with solid-state amps, turning your guitar down & running up the preamp gain or master volume likely doesn't make a whole lot of difference except adding buzz; when you try a 5H, back down your guitar's volume knob below halfway, then crank the amp volume up to reasonable output. This causes the preamp stage to push the power tube, getting some amazing tone without knocking stuff off the walls. Rather than twiddle the amp's knob all night, a volume pedal (even a passive) could give you instant control over the 5H's dynamic range while keeping your hands on the axe.

Every guitar I've thrown at the 5H (thus far) sounds great. Low volumes are surprisingly clean for something so simple & inexpensive. When pushed, the noise floor remains low, cleaner than most of my solid-state amps. The natural compression is excellent, with softer playing coming through rich & clear, yet snapping a power chord doesn't make it jarringly loud but induces great breakup. Backing off a guitar's tone knob doesn't easily turn it to mud, with the 5H adding nice coloration.

I've never before played an amp that offered so much control over feedback. I could readily create rich feedback just by changing my facing to the speaker (closed-back cabs being very directional), experiencing no problems with howls or whistles even from guitars that've given me microphoning problems in the past. I wouldn't go so far as to say the 5H is somehow immune to "rogue tones," but I practically had to wave a guitar an inch from the grille to get any of this.

Also consider trying different speaker cabs & configs. I'd like to put the 5H through a 4x10 or even a ported 15". When I get done experimenting with the basic potentials, I might plug in an amp-sim box just for more tonal shaping, but I'm in no hurry. Some players have swapped different tubes in, but I'm still experimenting with what the bare-bones amp can do on its own.

The 5H has far more raw power than you'd expect from a "5 watt" amp -- it's certainly not a "practice amp." With a good bridge humbucker (a stock "EMG Designed," hardly powerful), I couldn't get the 5H's knob past 9 o'clock while standing within 20 feet -- it was just too bloody loud (albeit great-sounding). I never thought I'd find an amp at this price that could have a decent chance of holding its own with a band; in situations where it could get overpowered, I'd probably be miking even a 100-watt amp anyway.
Oh, my... that sound harsh. But c'mon -- there AREN'T any features!! Input jack, output jack, on/off switch, Volume knob. Okay, it looks nice in low-light conditions, with the blue status light & the orange tubes, but I'm not sure that's a "feature."
Solid as a rock. I get the feeling I could throw this thing off a tall building, replace the two busted tubes, & it'd not only power up immediately but sound great. It's a small, solid metal box. The top-mounted handle is a bit silly, & a grab handle on the side might make more sense, but that's hardly a deal-breaker.
You're getting an amp that sure sounds like it's worth far more than the price. If it turns out to not be what suits you, you can probably resell it -- how many amps can you say that about?