I have been playing with both, Strat and 335 and find that when I switch to the strat all I need to do is kick in the mid boost. Although I'm using an A/B switch with a level control that allows me to boost the strat to the same input level as the 335. The mid boost just fattens things up a bit. I'm using a home built 1x12 closed back, front ported D-style cab with a NOS Jensen C12K from a Fender twin. Very fat, deep and smooth on clean...big and ballsy on overdrive.
Settings from left to right are: (Preamp) Vol 5.5, Bright-off, Mid-off(except when using strat), rock, (Tone) Treb 5, Mid 3.5, Bass 4, (Overdrive)  Level 4.5, Ratio  4, (Power amp) Master 4, Presence 5.5.    Give these a shot, see what you think...Bill

You were right on the money! I had an electrical engineer look at the thing and he fixed a couple of very minor issues, but, didn't have a guitar, or, speaker to test it. When I got it home I noticed all the noise. Well, I poked around with a chopstick with the amp on and plugged into a speaker and found that one end of the grid resistor on the first preamp tube looked like it was soldered in, but, the lead was actually moving around in the terminal. I soldered it real good and VOILA!!! no more noise, just clean ringing, rich, fat, awesome tone! Thanks! Bill

Okay,  my two cents worth...for what its worth. I researched D**ble amps for nearly two years and listened to every artist I could find that uses them before I found Ceriatone's web site. Then, I listened to every sound clip I found before I ordered my kit and built my own. I am finding this to be the real deal! I had to play with the OD trimmer and found that a clock position of between 10:45 and 11:15 gets me the real Carlton/ Ford sounds. Also, if you go to www.larrycarlton.com you can find pictures of his gear and see all the knob settings on his amps.  There are a couple of sites that have pics of Ford's set up as well. And as mentioned by another person on this thread...be careful!!!!!! The voltages that can be stored in caps can be DEADLY!!!!! No joke!   I am running my OTS through a 1x12 D-style closed back, ported cab with a Jensen C12K out of a Fender Twin. 100watts, 8ohms, ceramic magnet.  Sounds huge on overdrive and smooth, round and punchy for cleans. I'm running a nice Digitech multi-chorus stomper on the floor and an ART FX-1 in the loop for reverb with great results. Best set up I've ever played with the exception of the D**mble ODS I got to play through for an hour and a half one day when I lived in Las Vegas. It was a 100 watt head through a D**mble 1x12 cab with an Altec speaker. Before that day I had never heard of D**mble amps and after...I had to have one, or, the closest thing I could find to it. Now I have it!   Enjoy!

I found this to be a fun challenge. I am fortunate to have a very patient wife who loves to here me play. So, she wanted me to finish it so she could here me play it. I'm hoping to post a sound bite, or, two soon. I have tinkered with an old 4 watt Kay 703c that I bought at a thrift store and brought back to life. It sounds really good...quite by accident. I recapped and retubed it from info I got on the internet. I had no idea what I was doing! Now I'm hooked! REAL BAD Too! I want to build more!!!!!! 

Nik sets the bias at the factory. You may just want to check it, but, it should be set.   If the tubes are JJ's they're just fine, unless you're going for a different tone, or, breakup. I'm getting a set of 5881's to try. Larry Carlton uses them. The ground hum with Strats is usually the pickups. Single coils have a tendency to do that, especially the neck and bridge. Your instrument cable and how close you're standing to the amp can have an effect as well as any pedals you may be using. You can always add a layer of aluminum, or, copper foil to the underside of your pickguard and in the routered channel in your guitar. This is agreat way to minimize pickup noise. Enjoy!  Bill

I'm very thankful to all of those who gave advise, expertise and patience to the proud owner of this amazing amp. It would have been nearly impossible apart from the help I got here. I've been reading the quips and quarrels on this forum for a while now and felt it important to point out that we all can contribute to the art that each of us has in us. Thanks...let's rock on!!

And then... The cab is solid red oak with maple veneered ply front and back panels. Sorry for the poor pic quality, I took these with my cell phone.

My Overtone is built! It seems that it took forever, but, its operational and sounds awsome! This was my first ever amp build and would have been done way sooner, but, we had a family emergency that took priority. Now for the head and speaker cabs. Here are some pics.

I checked with Nik, this is the PI balance pot. Set it to 12:00 and you're good.

The OTS is operational. But, I am having issues with an annoying buzz, or, hum that shows up as soon as I turn the preamp volume to anything above 1. This noise is not effected by the preamp volume once it is audible, but, it is by the master volume. AND  there is a distorted buzzing on low frequency notes in the CLEAN channel. The annoying buzz all but disappears when I switch to OD and the amp sounds amazing, but, switch back to clean and buzz comes back and the distorted lows show up as well.    I am also having trouble biasing the power tubes as I am not getting a reading on my DMM. BTW the annoying buzz is effected when I turn the bias pot.    Help...PLEASE!!!      Thank you

I've got the latest version, May 2008, and don't have the PAB volume jump issue, or, the OD volume jump issue. I can switch between clean and OD and both are very satisfying. I guess I'm a lucky guy, although, there were some mods done to the original components in the master pot, FX loop, caps on the first preamp tube, etc...    Nik is by far the best guy to ask and THE best I've ever encountered as far as customer service.   Cheers! bill

My amp is up and running!!!!! Now, there are the two internal trimmers...the OD trimm which I've set at 11:00 and am very pleased with. The other trimmer, on the same board, is still somewhat of a mystery. Is this an over all gain trim, or, what? Where does Nik set it at the factory? Thanks! BTW this amp is AWESOME!

I'm having problems getting my amp working and was told to power up with the tubes out and check the voltages. I'm not sure what the voltages should be at what points. HELP!!!!!  please?

Yep, got rid of the squeal, thanks. Now I've got a bigger problem. I plugged in my 335 and no sound!!!!!! Nothing, zip, zilch, nada!! I checked the input jacks for signal, got it. Checked the pins on the tubes and could hear the little tick through the speaker when I touched each pin tab. I even went so far as to plug my guitar into the return jack of the effects loop and could play through the power section which, by the way, was quiet and absolutely noise free. So...now what?? Any ideas? Thanks in advance,  Bill

Hey all, I finished my OTS tonight and put the tubes in, hooked up a speaker and turned on the mains and all the tubes glowed. Waited a couple of minutes and, with all the controls set at zero, I flipped the standby to "on". Instantly, a very loud and high pitched squeal came from the speaker. I immediately turned to standby and changed the impedance switch and tried again. This time the sound was low and also very loud. turned the thing off and came here. Help!!!!!