Hi Buzzer,

Here are some pics after mods.









Let me clarify some issues with the Thunderbox.
It is NOT LOUD cab!!!. Ordinary 1x12 cabinet cuts better in loud band situation.
Thunderbox is great for recording (via inner Zenhizer 609 mic capsules) and small club gigs where you don’t want to kill listeners with the directional speaker cabinets.
It’s great for big stages if goes through PA and if it stands NEAR player where one can hear it clearly. Because of that you need high efficiency speakers not less than 100db, like EVm-12L, Eminence Wizard, Jensen NEO Tornado or Celestion Century.

here is a video of the cab with ensen Tornado speaker and OTS



After playing loads of NON PA gigs I’m coming back to idea of well designed closed back, front ported 2X12 with built in mic. One like this



It is still directional, but one can use Weber’s beam blockers or even better Jay Mitchell’s doughnuts.

So probably you’ll be better with ordinary 1x12 or 2x12 cab, one like Larry’s or Robben’s.

Hello everyone,

I’ve published this post on BUZZER’s thread but also I’m publishing here as well

29th of March I was invited to Larry Carlton’s sound check at the Jazz Café (London) to show him Thunderbox and my OTS.
Larry was using Bludodrive 100 w head and Bludodrive 1x12 EV loaded cabinet, both made by Brandon Montgomery. It was really great sounding combination. Only problem for me (not for Larry) was EV’s killing directivity on axis, off axis tone was great.
Larry really liked Ceriatone’s tone (congratulations Nik) but it was not powerful enough for him (my amp is 50w only) and he likes 100 watter.
I have to admit that Larry did not like Thunderbox for two reasons:
1. I had Celestion Century neo in it and tone was bit OPEN for him.
2. Because of reflections from the top and the beck of the cab, some notes were phzasing.

Larry suggested to cover the top and the back  of the cab with 50mm egg crate foam and change the speaker. I’ve replaced the speaker with Jensen Tornado neo100 and covered the cab. It sounds great now but it has to much bass.
I’ve realised that port on the bottom was to small or it MUST be on the front side of the speaker compartment.
You can have two or three 10 cm diameter ports and if you wish to change the tone you can cover one or two from inside with large plywood circle and screws.


Tone on my thunderbox (I’ve enlarged a bottom hall to 25cm) is so smooth now that I don’t want to go back to 2x12. and it records great too via inner mics.

Hope this helps

Cheers 

Hi Buzzer,

Before you start building let mi tell you couple of very recent developments.
29th of March I was invited to Larry Carlton’s sound check to show him Thunderbox and my OTS.
Larry was using Bludodrive 100 w head and Bludodrive 1x12 EV loaded cabinet, both made by Brandon Montgomery. It was really great sounding combination. Only problem for me (not for Larry) was EV’s killing directivity on axis, off axis tone was great.
Larry really liked Ceriatone’s tone (congratulations Nik) but it was not powerful enough for him (my amp is 50w only) and he likes 100 watter.
I have to admit that Larry did not like Thunderbox for two reasons:
1. I had Celestion Century neo in it and tone was bit OPEN for him.
2. Because of reflections from the top and the beck of the cab, some notes were phzasing.

Larry suggested to cover the top and the back  of the cab with 50mm egg crate foam and change the speaker. I’ve replaced the speaker with Jensen Tornado neo100 and covered the cab. It sounds great now but it has to much bass.
I’ve realised that port on the bottom was to small or it MUST be on the front side of the speaker compartment.
You can have two or three 10 cm diameter ports and if you wish to change the tone you can cover one or two from inside with large plywood circle and screws.

Tone on my thunderbox (I’ve enlarged a bottom hall to 25cm) is so smooth now that I don’t want to go back to 2x12. and it records great too via inner mics.

Hope this helps

Cheers 

Thanks guys for listening (watching).
I must be high pitch deaf but anyway it is straight recording to the camera from the pedal.
When played with the band it sits nicely in the mix though.

That’s why I’m waiting to mini OTS or even better OTS preamp with 0,5 w power section like Koch.

Cheers

I can’t wait when Nik builds mini OTS or OTS based preamp which I’d love to use on my pedalboard  instead of Koch Pedaltone (lovely preamp as well)

Check this out


I've built this pedalboard for direct recording and also travelling purposes.
To be able to switch it straight to the PA and still retain constant worm tube sound everywhere I go, without transporting heavy and expensive tube amps and multispeaker cabinets.
Pedalboard components:
1. International power supply with the hum free toroidal transformer.
2. Koch pedaltone 4 ECC83 tube complete amplifier with FIVE channels funky, clean and three different overdrive gain settings.
3. Digitech RP 250 with LEXICON reverbs and delays, loads of FXs, tuner and volume/expression pedal.
4. Modified Dunlop Cry baby 535Q with true bypass and double indication.
5. Three way stereo (or mono) output for amps, PAs and computer with built in high quality stereo DI box.

Marin my man, you are A jazz-rock monster!
Lovely tone and playing.
Love this strat.

Great tone and playing! really enjoyed it.

mine is 12cm dia. It has to much bass so probably you'll be ok with 20 - 25cm.

Hi tonequest,

My OTS is old model probably S&M but I modified it to later OTS specs and some more. You  can see my mods here: http://ceriatoneforum.com/index.php?topic=740.0
I’m sure if you follow explanations on this thread it will be really helpful to balance clean end drive volumes.

My settings are (end I use mainly strat type guitars): volume – 4, deep switch – off,
Rock switch – on ROCK, treble – 4, middle – 6, bass – 6,  drive level – 4, ratio – 6,
Master – 4, presence – 5.

Hope this helps.
Cheers

Not really, something light and dense, probably some form of foam, and you can attach mic capsule to it too.

It is ported underneath, 20cm hall exactly in front of the speaker bell. It cools magnet down as well. And it is important to put highest legs (not less than 25mm) to let air move freely. Large port = less bass !!!

You and everyone are welcome to try (built) this and if you do please let me know the results.
One can also install reflective ellipsoid pyramid as shown on pic. To reflect and disperse high beam to all directions.

Good luck

P.S. can’t sell it though !!! CCC holds a copyright!


Here are the dimentions:

I hear myself much better, especially in small clubs where I have to stand very close to the cab. Most importantly I hear a real tone and I can adjust sound properly. No ice pick to listeners in audience, just big fat tone (cab has loads of bass) and some sweetness from PA too. And my ceriatone OTS sits nicely on the top of it. 

Hello everyone,

While ago I’ve mentioned nondirectional speaker cabinet where speaker looks upwards and microphones are built in.
Here is a prototype guys built for me at CCC.






And here is a short live video how it sounds

Sounds great!

There are loads of sound samples on Ceriatone's website.
This is one of them - Overtone clean and strat
http://www.guitarampcab.com/cclean.mp3

DC-30 and Overtone both have great cleans.