Ceriatone Forum

What are the main different between all the models: special, S&M, 183, FM and HRM, Bluesmaster, Mk2???



TNX

do a search. this has been touched on numerous times (with the exception of the new amps- MK2, FM, 183)


183 is a clone of Dumble #183
FM is a clone of Larry Carltons amp
MK2 is supposed to be a two rock K&M i believe.

FM is abbreviation of Ford Mustang, I guess it refers to Robben Ford's amp.

See here.

http://ceriatoneforum.com/index.php?topic=1117.0

I posted this on the TAG the other day...

Ok here's my take on C-tone offering...

Overtone Special is Skyliner hi-plate nonHRM
don't know why this amp is considered as #124. I don't see it this way, like I said OTS is hi-plate amp and #124 has fender style values in there.
Very smooth and warm sounding OD, lots of OD on tap but not as much as S&M, mid heavy cleans (in a good way). Amp that likes to sustain and compress. Easy amp to play... All knobs at noon and you have a sound to work with. I think this one is the warmest amp compared to others.

Overtone S&M (Sami and Marin) Special Skyliner nonHRM
Overall brighter amp compared to standard OTS... clean tone is more or less the same, on the other hand OD is brighter, more aggressive sounding. Like OTS this amp likes to sustain. In my experience this amp is not designed to switch from clean to OD on the fly. You have to set the clean and stick with it... than go to OD, set the tone again and play that for a while.
BTW this was the first D-style amp from Nik and it was his take on D-stayle amp... some said, it's to harsh sounding but some others liked. Sami and Marin didn't want to mod it (like OTS "jzucker" mods) and that's way it's called S&M model. I don't blame them they sound very good with this amp.

Now I don't have any experience with FM or 183 models... but looking at layouts, I can say that FM is as well as OTS hi-plate amp but has some things in there which will make the amp sound brighter (master cap, presence cap, smaller snubbers)... so I guess this amp is designed to be used with D-lator... without it it might be just to bright.
183 is again hi-plate amp but with some interesting turns... like very small subbers, no LNFB, different style PS. I really don't know what to say about this amp... but you heard TAGs Politician, what's more to say.  ;D

Like I said this is my take on these amp... I played the OTS and S&M and I hope I'll try the other two as well some day.
...but you all know this, tone is a personal thing and what is smooth and warm for me, it might be dark and dull for somebody else.

#183 features what is known as a "precision power supply" this is not a Dumble invention but a well established alternative way of delivering stable and filtered voltages to the various stages in the amp.
I know where the #183 information came from and I have to say that I'm sceptical about the very small snubbers, in my opinion these amps need to have some kind of Low Pass filtering 'post overdrive' in order to tame the brightness / overtones. Either the Low Pass filtering is happening elsewhere or the snubbers should be larger. I know that there were debates on this subject over on TAG, what was written on the snubber caps, did it mean nF and not pF, were the snubbers actually measured 'out of circuit'......the only true test is to play one I guess.

I was thinking the same about those snubbers... in my opinion 250K drive pot can't take away all that hi-end (Miller effect - like Scott mentioned). I remember that my OTS started out as a S&M model and had 250K drive pot and was still to bright with 270p snubbers for my liking... I don't know, perhaps I still have a lot to learn about these amps but for now I would rather stay away from #183 layout,.... at least until some guys report back how this baby sounds like.
 ;)