I have an OTS mini 20 that was built by Ceriatone.  I bought it because my OTS50 was overkill for my situation.  But it has always been more noisey than the OTS50 even on the clean channel.  Now it seems to be getting static issues when playing notes.  Bass frequencies accentuate this even more.  I thought it was the tubes and swapped out all of them.  This didn't change anything.  I am not an amp builder.  Would appreciate some suggestions though!


http://soundcloud.com/baron-von-hugenstein/noisey-amp

Jun24,
How did these mods change the tone?  Did you gain more bass? 
-M

Just because it is PCB doesn't mean it can not be modded. 
I would think the deep mod switch could be added to the tonestack.
Also I think a few people have changed resistors to flavour the OD. 
And you can change transformers. 
But not sure what else you can change or would want to change...

So I am not a pro or even semi pro player.  But I have an OTS 50w.  This amp is amazing.  But I have a herniated disc and I am just a jam with friends/bedroom player. 

So I am thinking of selling the 50, and getting an OTS 20, using a Neo speaker, pine or paulownia cabinet and making a light weight dumble.

But I am worried that the tone will suck after being used to the big sound of 6L6s.  There is no one on youtube that has compared the 2 despite some of these people owning both. 

If anyone here owns both, can you tell me if I will be crying about my lost clean tone? 

Your pic link doesn't work...

I noticed that Nik has a message saying that he doesn't mod the OTS mini?

I also noticed that the OTS mini does not have a deep switch. 

Has anyone modded the overdrive section of the mini to get it more dumble like instead of overdriven to the max? 

I had wondered about power scaling or a similar concept to make it so the power tubes are still delivering overdrive at lower volumes instead of only the preamp tubes in the case of a master volume amp. 

Has anyone built such a feature into one of the Ceriatone kits?

Any idea on the possibility of adding reverb to this circuit?  (ie. do the transformers allow for this?)
I am guessing it would be difficult to squeeze into that chassis! 

I remember hearing a Princeton a long time ago and thought the reverb was mesmerizing. 

A half power switch, reverb would be the way I would want to build this.  (er, if I had any time...)

hmmm, the lack of a effects loop sucks with no reverb.  but also not much space to work with to add one in!

I am just trying to figure out if this amp has an effects loop.  There is no mention of it but one of the build pics looks like there are jacks in the back for an effects loop (pic didn't have face plates though). 

I wish this project had existed over 1 year ago!  The Princeton Reverb was the best amps I ever heard clean.  If this has an effects loop for adding a reverb pedal it would be very cool. 

I hope Nik updates the ceriatone site with pics soon.

Ok, so it is shielding.  So I just have to verify about the wiring.  In the case of the master pot.  Is the left tab being connected to the shielding as a ground?

Ok, I can't tell how to wire T,V,X, C, Y (off the pots)

The black wire has a core surrounded by plastic, surrounded by more metal fibres which at first I thought were just shielding.  So take the master for example, the left lug is soldered indirectly on to T via another wire and T -core is wired to the middle lug on the pot.  My question is does the left lug get wired to the metal fibres on the outside of the plastic?  I assumed this was the case but those are so fragile that I have few fibres left when I take off the outside rubber layer with my wire strippers. 

Anyways, if someone can clue me into how I am supposed to do this part it would be appreciated.  I am also wondering what happens at the other end.  T attaches to the effects loop socket but I can't tell what the --T--O--  symbolism means at that end. 

Yeah, sorry it was the choke.  It says 100w on it and looks like a transformer but only 2 yellow wires.  lol
Sometimes I see light green as yellow due to the red/green colour blindness so I wanted to verify that this wasn't occurring.   


How can I use the multimeter on the OT primaries to make certain which wire is which?  There is a blue one and then the other 2 look to be the same colour to me. 

Ok, so I had stopped building this amp months ago when work got crazy.  I have returned to building it now and will post a series of questions that most likely other people would also have.

1)  Impedence selector:  it shows 3 tabs + a center tab on the diagram.  In real life it is 4 tabs along to top with no centre tab.  So I just want to verify the centre tab on the schematic is actually the tab on the far right when you are looking at the back of the selector in the chassis from the inside. 

2)  The 100w transformer (which is the choke).  It has 2 yellow wires right?  I assume it doesn't matter which one you choose to wire up as long as you have the 2 yellow wires going as demonstrated on the wiring diagram.  (this question is also based on the fact that they both look like the same colour to me since I am colour blind)  So I just want to verify things before I continue on with the build.

No doubt, more questions will come.

Thanks for these posts.  I am sure the photos will help me as I progress through my build (at about 1/10th your speed!)