Ceriatone Forum

Hi there, I have a 50w OTS standard with two cabs: a 2x12 VibroKing cab with Vintage 30´s for big gigs and one 1x12" with Celestion G12-65 for smaller. My other rig is a pedalboard with Lovepedal Les Lius, Timmy, BJ Honey Bee and a Fender Vibro King. With my Ceriatone OTS I am seeking more of the "Robben" tone and I find that my pedals doesn´t add so much - if I for instance need a push or boost in the lead channel, I think pedals make a little difference. Well, maybe it´s my settings, I don´t know.
 
I try to find settings on the OTS so that I can use clean and dirty channels and the PAB for more cutting-leads. Right now I believe my magic is in the very first volume knob - I have it to 7 to make the clean channel crunch a bit, and I think it sounds quite good cause the first volume/gain really affects the whole amp. Live
with the OTS, my only setup on the floor is footswitch, tuner and wah. I have the Hermida Reverb in the loop - that´s it!



But how about you? How do you use it, do you use pedals with your amp, and how?

Very similar to you, I only need a wah & the OTS footswitch live (although I do also have a MIDI foot controller for the rack mounted Intellifex).  Otherwise, 50w OTS, 2x12" cab, C-lator/Intellifex in the loop.  First volume is set between 5 and 7 as well.

I use mine for a range of styles. I have a convertable 2x12 that i also use and a mini rotary speaker with a 1x10. Sometimes i will use a second clean amp to use with it as well

OTS into Mesa Cab with EV speaker and into Motion Sound SR-112, Boss DD3 & RV3 in loop, sometimes Xotic BB+ in front. That's enough knobs and sounds for me! Bert

My pedal board consists of a Tuner, Wah, Whammy and Tube Screamer in front of the amp, Volume and TC Electronic Nova System in the loop and after it is put through a Talk Box. I use my Ceriatone for everything that has to be clean or not super saturated distortion. For the latter I use a Randall RM-4 which is output to the Ceriatone Return.

In the front of my amp I have Boss TU2 Tuner into T-Rex Spin Doctor (Most of the time in bypass, but it adds really nice boost) the into the amp.
FX Loop into a C_Lator the into TC Electronics G Major and I switch the amp channels by midi and have a Rocktron Midimate on my pedal board.
Speakers are WGS 65's in a Marshall 4 x 12 cab running at 4 ohms.

I haven't tried it yet but coming soon, I also have a Stray Cat 30 and a Morley Triple switcher and running the 2 heads into either side of the Marshall cab 8 ohm inputs

(http://i686.photobucket.com/albums/vv228/Nairbr/IMG_0009.jpg)

WARNING: Nik doesn't tell people this but building amps is addictive

I use:
- a Korg Tuner,
- Crybabe 535Q Wah,
- an Emma Discombobulator Auto Wah (Love them),
- a Xotic RC booster great to boost clean sounds like the 2 and 4 position of a strat.
- a Wampler Super Plextortion in front of the amp Good rock distortion.
In the loop
- a D'lator made by Erwin
- a Dynacord CLS 222 leslie (GREAT!) True bypass
- a Rocktron Xpression for Reverb delay and chorus. it has an Internal mixer so the dry signal remains analog. I use a Roland midi switch to change patches. I have 2 sets where the second set is the same but louder.
- 2 Celestion G12-65''s in an open back cab (removable back panel so it can be used closed as well.

Don't use the PAB switch very  much. I think it's kinda boxy and nasal.
Need to turn up the presence quite a bit to compensate for the D'Lator. I have several bright switches but the don't seem to do the trick. Might try another value bright cap.
volume at 7 (with a strat) 4/5 with humbuckers

Hi Steven,

I hope you moded your Crybaby 535Q for true bypass otherwise it will cut loads of highs from your tone.

Hi Pickmaster

I had the impression this model IS true bypass? Isn't that an old discussion on the internet about this pedal?
Thanks for your reply

Steven did you already try to hardwire bypass your rack fx?
I'm curious if there's a lot of highs getting lost around the Rocktron/Dynacord cabling.

I did disconnect my fx from my D'lator. Also tried my guitar straight into the amp.
Obviously there is a difference, but all in all the D'lator has the biggest impact on the sound. Not necessarily a bad thing.

@ Pickmaster I think the newer models of the 535Q are true bypass or have a similair solution.

No It is not.
Here is a letter from Derek Jones:

Hi Dr. Ika,

Ok, by doing this you will void your warranty and there could be a loud “pop” while switching the pedal on first time.  You just need to remove R42 and R41.

Cheers,

Derek

 Derek Jones
Electronics Technician
Dunlop Manufacturing, Inc.

I try not to use anything in front of my OTS amps anymore, so my guitar goes directly into the amp and I have my home built  D-Lator along with Lexicon MPX-1 in the loop. I also use Suhr Mini Mix for the parallel functionality.
...and I power everything through PowerBrite Pro Power Conditioner.

I also modded the PAB in my nonHRM... I didn't like it before. Now it's built in a bluesmaster fashion but I used different resister value. Now I can use clean, OD and PAB on both ch. - more then enough for anything really.
 ;)

Don't want to steal the topic, but I 'd love to hear more about the usefullness of a power conditioner.
Why how what? ;-)

I sometimes feel there is a fluctuation in volume and sometimes in tone when playing live or at home. Could this be power related? Could a conditioner solve this?
The electricity net in Holland is pretty good. But I have played in bars where even the light bulbs seem to be unstable LOL.

Steven, last year I made some measurements at home, gigging places etc.

The voltages in Holland vary from 223 to 238v (if the central power net is used). Especially gigging places have big power consumption and result in a lower voltage.
In the powertransformer of the amp the voltages are upped to 1,4 times the original voltage. Due to this fluctuation in the net , the plates  are 15v-20v lower than they supposed to be. Lower plate voltages sound darker, give more compression and break up earlier.
It's really no voodoo, your actually can hear this...

However a power conditioner will do nothing to help that situation, unfortunately. Whats needed is a Voltage Regulator, along with a conditioner. I've been looking out for one of those as I've noticed exactly the same thing, some times my OTS sounds great and other times not so.

I've looked at the Furman gear but they're too expensive for me for the EU voltage models. I wonder if anyone has tried some of the better (sine wave output) computer regulators? They do seem to be a good price.

Power conditioner will ensure incoming voltage is within range, so it will protect your amp from surge and peaks, plus RF (Radio Frequency) filtering. Mine also has voltmeter and ammeter ... so this way I know what is going on in a certain situation.

Just imagine you are on some stage running your amp on some questionable generators and on the same phase light guy is switching on and off some big lights (kW)... that is bound to cause some voltage spikes. Things like that power conditioner will take care of... for more, you need a Voltage Regulator but like hywelg said, that stuff is expensive.

(http://freeweb.siol.net/mcinku/images/guitars/Rack.jpg)

For my PC, I bought a 2000VA uninterruptable Power supply for £188 new, spec was:

    * UPS,2000VA + USB
    * Output Voltage Fixed:230V
    * External Length / Height:192mm
    * External Width:130mm
    * External Depth:382mm
    * AC Power:2000VA
    * Battery Backup Time:90min
    * Input Frequency:50Hz
    * Max Supply Frequency:60Hz
    * Power Rating:2000VA
    * Supply Voltage:230V
    * Weight:14.5kg

Bear in mind these contain a lead acid battery, so you have to carry them carefully
Fun to carry on playing when the power goes out though!

Not to mention additional 14.5kg to carry around.

...but I agree, UPS is the best thing to have... but you need a roadie as your slave.
 ;D

I'm not sure what the tolerances are for UPS's though, a couple I have read are +-5% which equates to +-11volts. Not sure if that is adequate seeing as that is pretty much what we get now at different times of the day. And very few of them output a sine wave.

my mains power here in England went crazy twice last year (I live in a village with overhead lines)
It went down so much only some things worked at all. I got my DVM out: About 127 volts I think at one stage, about 140v most of the time for an hour or so

I used to work at the UK Electricity research site, I learnt odd bits of info.
When power demand is high or low, they have giant versions of variacs in the local substations, to maintain current (AFAIK), so presumably when a part of the grid fails, the voltage can drop further. I think they would be better to cut it off then, so I got the UPS as a safeguard for my most serious PC.

I currently don't gig, at home player, so my settings are: 

Volume and Master on about 2-3.  Kleinulator, Dr Scientist Reverb and Trex Replica in loop and then I use a Klon as a clean boost (really helps opens up amp at lower volume), Dumkudo and SOV-2 OD pedals for OD, so I don't use the lead channel currently which is wonderful.

Anyone else using in their home and if so, what's your low volume settings, etc.

Separate head and cab loaded with Celestion Gold speaker. I run my guitars straight into the amp with a Strymon Blue Sky reverb in the effects loop, no K-lator or D-lator required. Highly recommend Strymon FX, these units do not screw up the sound of the amp. No OD/distortion pedal can equal the built in overdrive of the OTS, IMO.

Do you use your OTS on lead channel only and roll off volume on guitar to clean up?  I find it a little tough to use both channels while not having a too large of a volume jump when I go to lead/od channel.  Let me know please - thanks. 

It's simple! Use the ratio control to set the balance between the clean channel and OD. These dumble clone amps are unique in the way this works. It's interactive, if the OD sound is too loud compared to clean turn down the ratio and use the master to set  the overall volume. The volume control will also affect the amount of OD you get.           

Here's how my rig is setup:

84' Fender MIJ Strat w/ Burstbuckers,
90's Fender Strat w/ Birdseye neck (Ebony board) Fralin Blackface pups
Sometimes a 53' Harmony Lapsteel or 50's Oahu Tonemaster Lapsteel>
 
Custom Line Buffer (for long cable runs,low output pups)>
Wampler Ecstasy Drive>
BC183 and NKT275 Fuzz's (Either or pending what kind of mood I'm in)>
DOD envelope filter & modded Boss SD-1 in a True bypass isolation looper (to bypass the input buffers these      pedals contain)>
Uni-Vibe clone>
Fulltone OCD v 1.4>

Into a A-B-Y box that goes to>
 
 100w HRM BM (always there "main amp")
 D-lator in the loop with a T.C. M300 (for verb/delay)
 2x12 oval ported cab with 2x EvM-12-L's
 
And pending on how big the gig is I use either of these (Never both)

 64 Bandmaster with Skyliner EQ' (2x6L6)
 into an oval ported 1x12" cab with a Texas Heat

Or:

 Fuzz Face into a 70's Traynor YBA-Bassmaster modded to a JTM-45 with a Pre amp Boost (2xEL34's)
 into a custom Leslie (Vibrotone type) cab with 12" Celestion G12-65


  It all seems elaborate but this is all only for gig's. I'm currently working on a small combo amp (100w 1 channel Dumble Small Special clone w/ buffered loop) for grab and go apps as this rig is just too big for a fly by open mic or rehearsal etc.