Ceriatone Forum

I cant really find any info on this model of HRM.

Has anyone played an MK2 ?

I should have mine built by saturday evening ;D
I will let you know.

A while back I asked Nik if it sounded Marshally due to the EL-34's .
He replied back that it was not at all Marshally but Greasy, Dumble sound.
I will report back once I get the feel and how it compares to my non HRM FM50

Todd

Great thanks!!

Well I got the HRM MK2 built and fired her up, biased it and played for about 10 minutes of pure D-style bliss, wow it sounded good. Then I decided hey I better check all the voltages and make sure everything is in spec. Found my B+ was way high 511Vdc and after a few emails between Nik and I ( Again Nik is so helpful ) I pulled the HT ckt and metered it and found my PT was unbalanced and reading 304-0-410 ( should be 340-0-340 ). The PT is a Magnetic components PT so I have emailed them to get a return/replace authorization, they should get back to me today hopefully.
So I am just hoping this thing sounds that good when I get a good PT in it, but now it may be a while.
Will report back

EDIT: With a little help from TAG I may have found my problem and will be fixing it this afternoon. 2 wires for the bias ckt are swapped apparently. Hope thats it ;D

Todd

OK fixed my wiring screw up and got to play the HRM MK2 for a couple hours yesterday. Spent most of the time tweaking the internal trimmers to get the OD and Clean tones to mesh. Once I was happy with the settings I tied in my C-lator and played for a little while. So far I really like it. Compared to my FM it has a tad bit more hair on both the clean and OD, which is probably due to the EL-34. The OD is crunchier and a little more compressed than the FM's ( not for better or worse just different which is good ). On my FM I have the OD trim set pretty low because I find it a little fizzy when set to high. On the MK2 the OD trim adds more dirt but doesn't get too fizzy which so far I like, kinda Marshally but different.
Right now the amp is a little stiff, but I am using pretty crappy tubes and also think it will need some breaking in so Im sure it will only get better.
So thats my 1st impression. I will leave a better review once I get some more play time with it.

Todd

Heres some gut shots

+ Got a few more hours playtime on this thing and I am really starting to like the way it plays alot ;D

Todd

One more

Looks really good, Todd. I like the red knobs.

I notice the one poly cap on the HRM board is a non-6PS. Did you source this or is this from Nik? I think I remember seeing other OTS's having that specific cap. The regular HRM uses a 6PS. I wonder what tone properties this gives? And is does it make a significant difference?

Also, what's up with the blue wire used on V3's plate and grid? It looks translucent.

Hey Chris

I like the red knobs too, but as soon as my wife saw them her face melted. Guess she doesn't. I think the cab I will get for this will be Marshall Green so the red knobs might have to go on another amp anyways

Not sure about that cap it almost looks NOS or something ( probably not ). I got this old frequency generator that uses caps like that throughout.

It's probably the camera or the flash that makes that blue wire look translucent. its just standard blue wire that was attached to pre-amp bd when shipped.

Its actually evrything other than the boards that are non-standard. Ie FET input simulator resistor. All wire that was not already attached to bd's is PVC 20awg solid ( the kind that melts really easy if your not careful ). Switchcraft jacks, radio shack mini toggles, ceramic output tube sockets, and MC iron.

Thanks


Todd

Are there any sound clips of the MK2 available? I haven't been able to find any on the Ceriatone site or YouTube.

Not yet, sorry hopefully in next couple months I can get my recording setup together and AB it with my FM50

Todd

Just wanted to bump this topic. Any clips of the HRM MK2? This is the one amp that has kind of been elusive. Love to hear a few clips if anyone has them or has a chance to record some. Thanks.

Bump...

+1 on this, specifically I'd like to hear some clean + Strat clips as I've heard that Mayer used an EL34 equipped Dumble for some of Continuum...

I was in pretty close communication with T.Wilcox for awhile back when he built his amp. He sort of dropped off the map since then, I wish he'd come back. He was a good guy.

Anyway, the one thing I think I remember him saying was that it was way easy to get it to break up on the clean channel, and not so easy to get a perfectly clean sound. But, it's been a long time and I could be wrong about the exact specifics. Sorry no clips, though.

Bump

I honestly don't think there's enough owners of these two amps that frequent these boards that your going to get a good answer. I would really send Nik at Ceriatone an email asking your specific questions. He's really cool and will get back to you quickly. I don't think I have ever heard of someone not getting a reply back from Nik!!

yeah, not too many owners of the MkII or the FM on the board that i know of. You may wanna either contact Nik directly, which would be your best bet, or check the Facebook Page or the Amp Garage. There seems to be quite a few owner on the Facebook page in particular that aren't on this forum.

The layouts of the 183 and the MK II are quite similar they both use EL34's have similar tone stacks, etc. The main difference being different values in the main filter caps, no FET on the HRM version, and of course the addition of the HRM stack to the MKII. If i had to a hazard a guess, and this is just a guess and a huge one at that, i'd say the MKII sounds similar to the 183, but with the additional tone shaping of the HRM on the OD side.

Again that is a huge guess, and Nik would be your best bet on getting the best info

Gregg

Thanks for the good words Chris. Between having my schedule change at work and dealing with a home internet connection worse than dial up, I just haven't been able to find the time to get on here much.
As far as the MKII goes I find myself playing it much more than my FM lately. The cleans on the MKII are a little cleaner and less plinky than the FM and the OD is a little less gritty I guess you could say more dumbley. It may be the ME mod on my FM but after going from the MKII to the FM the FM sounds much darker almost muffled compared to the MK it takes a little while to get used to. Either way both are great amps! I'll try to check back in every now and then. Oh and sorry no clips.
Regards
Todd

I am the proud owner of a FM 50 ME.  I also relied on Todd when building it.  I guess I can address a couple issues for the board.... Finally, a chance to give back a little bit!!!!

I've been using the amp in a church setting for about 3 months.  The clean channel sounds great.  I can get good clean LP tones.  I've been using it as a clean platform with a pedal board, and I have a G Major II through a C-Lator in the loop.  I have an EVM-12L in an old Crate combo cab (temporary), so it has a nice full sound.

Right from the start, the overdrive was a little fizzy with a few "ice-pick" frequencies in it. Because of that, I didn't really play with the OD channel much. I bought new tubes to start with and wanted to get a couple NOS tubes to see if that takes the edge off, but I haven't yet.  I also got the parts for a treble bleed, but I haven't had time for that.  

Well, after ignoring the OD for a while, I've found that a lot of those problem frequencies have softened somewhat.  The OD is good, but not stellar.  I can run the OD trimmer up to about 11 o'clock before it gets annoying, but I stay down around 9...  Some of all this may be tubes, some of that may be the need to rebias, or some of that may be pedals up front that aren't true bypass.  I just haven't had any tweak time... I'm a FULL TIME student again and a business owner, so all my free time evaporated at the first of the year.

Since I only have one OTS amp, I can't comment on the others.  As far as the ME, the clean channel starts to break up at about 6-7 or so.  I don't like the "clean channel break up" on this amp too much, but I am pretty picky.  IT is a GREAT clean channel, but it started out as one of two OD channels.  It took hours before it cleaned up!!!  The amp is a winner, but a few tweaks and some parallel effects action will really improve things...  I already tweaked the Slope value to get it a little lower in the mids... Good mod.

Hope that helps!!!