Ceriatone Forum

SO.  I've had my 18 watt for some time now and have some lingering questions.

1.  The tone knobs don't do much.  Don't seem to change the tone much.  Thoughts?

2.  The EF86 TMB and the other channel don't seem to be too different.  Thoughts?

3.  When I crank up the gain, I get a phase type sound when I hit single notes.

4.  When I unplug the chord from the input channel, it continues to make noise for a few seconds.  A lingering white noise type sound. 

5.  The Super Champ and the 18 watt don't really sound that much different.  thoughts?

Just thought I'd see if anyone who has experience with these has any thoughts.

Thanks in advance!

When was the last time you changed the tubes? What tubes are you using?

Did you build this amp? If not, where/who did you get it from?

sounds like a ground issue somewhere. also as SoundPerf said, what kind of shape are your tubes in?

Is there anyone out there?

These tubes are pretty new.  I got them from Nik a few months ago.  The amp was built by Nik

Has the amp been like this since you got it? Have you talked to Nik about it?

I would have to agree with Plasticvonband. It's as if part of the circuit is not grounded properly. are you familiar with the amp layout or working with amps?

Yes, I've talked to Nik but haven't gotten a good suggestion as to how to fix it.  He said to try and change tubes around and see if that fixes it.  No, not really familiar with working on amps. 

Also, when i say they don't sound that much different, I guess I mean drastically different.  I guess I was expecting to hear a more drastic difference between channels/amps and the tone knobs.  It seems that newer models are more reactive in regards to the  on board tone knobs. 

well, if you have grounding problems, it could cause your tone stack to not function properly, or not function at all. Check all your solder joints as well. It's not likely that Nik's joints are bad (i've never seen such skillfull soldering in my life), but it is possible. I would suggest a complete retube as well, just to kinda narrow things down.

Gregg

Thanks again for the replies.  I guess I'll try replacing all of the tubes...  Bummer since I paid extra for these tubes to be sent along with the amp straight from Nik.  New tubes within a few months?  I guess I will just buy my own tubes next time to avoid this.  Thanks!

Curious on one more thing...  Should the tone knobs be pretty significant in changing the tone?  It's almost like all the way down and all the way up make a change but not much in the middle.  It's like their not very reactive.  Compared to my Mesa Mark II for example that I can just barely nudge the tmb controls to make a big change.  Does that make sense?