Ceriatone Forum

I'm almost to the point of not being able to resist picking up one of these kits. I listened to the clips onlline and  :o the GAS hit pretty hard. This would be my first full on amp build. I'm glad there's a forum dedicted to these things. I have a couple questions maybe you guys can shed some light on.

1. I don't think I want to buy the OT and PT and choke with the kit. What would I look for from mercury or the likes as far as model? I looked at the site but didn't see a dumble or ceria listed.

2. Seems there are a few quality part upgrades to be done. Is it better to just buy the board and chassis and do the mods from there or buy the whole kit?

3. I noticed to buy the board, chassis and plate is under 300 where as the kit is 450, what am i missing as far as the price difference from the kit to the parts? I mean is there stuff included in the kit that I would have to buy seperate if I just got the parts?

4. I don't play too many high volume gigs. Is the power cut mod worth its weight in gold to a medium volume guy?

5. On a scale of 1 to 10, how rockin' is this amp? I mean just from the crap recording online through my crappy laptop speakers I can tell it nails the dumble sound and schools everything I have. Just wondering about some players opinions.

Thanks

I can't answer most of your questions since I bought the whole kit from Nik, but I'd be interested in the answers nevertheless.

Forget the low power mod, you'll be running the 6L6's in triode mode and the tone will suffer.

I'd also say this isn't really a 'rockin' amp my my understanding of the word. I think for that you'd need something more Marshally. What the OTS is though is hugely versatile, because its is designed to be clean almost to max volume. So it takes pedals very well, and thats what I've done to get a more 'rockin' sound. An Xotic BB and a Menatone TBIAC juice it up nicely. The OD channel is really intended for lead and isn't that good I find for powerchord type stuff, especially if you've got the trimmer set to give a lot of overdrive.

My two penn'orth, but I reckon others will have more info for you.

2. Buy the whole kit; it's hell of a job to get it cheaper, Nik already uses quality parts.
The only parts that differ from a real dumble: filter caps and tranny's, but I think these parts are a matter of taste..
3. teflon wiring, pots, footswitch, frontplate, backplate, filter board, jacks and a lot of small annoying things you notice once building...

If this is your first amp build, the OTS isn't the kit for you.  This is a difficult build period.

Jim

I'm pretty keen on having one of these at some point. I got an email from nik that suggested I check out the dizzy 30. The layout looks a lot simpler to me. I might start with the dizzy and check out a OTS this summer once I have a few more hours soldering under my belt. Thanks for the replys

BTW, anybody know how tough the build is on a dizzy?

I'm on my second build, a DC-30 and I have to say it is marginally more complicated than an OTS so I'd say go with an OTS first if thats what you really want. The thing about the DC-30 build is the photos Nik has put up are not as clear as those for the OTS so if you need to refer to them for checking lead dress etc. the OTS is easier. Also the layout for the DC-30 is missing some important info like where to ground signal wire shielding for example and you do have to know a little about how it should be done since the photos are not especially helpful. The OTS drawing is much more complete in this respect.