Ceriatone Forum

When I decided to get a new amp I had several criteria.  Had to have the Fender blackface tone, tube rectifier, low wattage, 10" speaker, and reliability.  I didn't want a 40 year old amp (I'm not a collector.  Just a guitar player) with tired components,  Not to mention there have been improvements in cap and resistor technology over the years.  This amp is for my home office.  Had to be physically small.  I wanted the big Fender overdrive tone but at a volume that wouldn't get me thrown out of the house. 

I began looking at old small Fender amps on ebay, and researched clone manufacturers on the web.  Ultimately, I ended up at the Ceriatone website.  I spent a couple of weeks researching Nik's products, support, and reputation.  I then ordered the BF Vibro Champ with the tone stack bypass mod.

My first impression of Ceriatone was their outstanding reputation all over the web.  Second impression was Nik's attentiveness to my emails.  Third was the amp's quality of construction.  And finally the perfection of the tone!

This is the amp for anyone that wants the unique Fender tone in a small package and at volume levels that won't make your ears bleed.  My son has a '65 BF Superreverb.  The problem is that he has to crank it to unpleasant volume levels to get the same tone I have with the Vibro Champ at a comfortable level.  The amp is ideal for home and small clubs.

I designed mine as a combo cabinet with 2 10" speakers.  Initially I had two Weber 10" Signature Series alnico speakers.  The problem was this little amp was actually able to distort them.  I love the tube distortion sound, but dislike distorted speakers.  I upgraded to two Weber Vintage Series and am thrilled.   I used tweed tolex to give the little amp a vintage look to go with its sound.

This is the amp for Fender aficionados.  It has the pure warm clean tone, but when cranked you would think you're listening to a mini Dual Showman.  I am actually quite surprised at how loud the amp is - quite a bit more than I expected.  I don't know if this is due to the speaker configuration.  The original Vibro Champ only had a single 8" speaker - and not a very good one at that.   Don



 

This is my first post on this forum.  I'm just starting to check out these Ceriatone amps, and so far, i really like what i see!  Currently I play a '76 VibroChamp that I put in a 1x12 pine combo cab with a weber 12A125. 

I really like the look of your 2x10 combo. Great job, thanks for sharing!

Thanks tumka and welcome to the forum.  I don't believe any of us have been around for too long.  You won't regret buying a Ceriatone amp.  I recommend them at every opportunity.  Nik has an amp for any requirement.  I also have a highly modified '72 Traynor YRM-1 with a 1x12 JBL D120.  For all practical purposes it's a plexi.  I love the tone for rocking.  However, the Ceriatone has the most incredible tone for blues and clean.  You should hear it with a Dyna Comp pedal when I play "Still Got the Blues For You"; it's almost hypnotic!

Hi guys!

Great stuff! Nice cab by the way!

The champs were eating too much space on website so I cut em, and make a single ultra champ.

It's just a vibrochamp with tonestack bypass (so you'd get the tweed champ type,  but still with tremolo!)

I have always liked vibrohamps better than any blackface champs. The VC can do the BF champ tones anyways (and sweeter). So now...Champ Ultra.

And the faceplate thats been 4 yrs in the making! LOL!

Nik,

The faceplates are sweet and about time.

haha.

Nice review!!!

I'm where you were when you were researching amps/solutions for playing with great tone at low volume and I too have arrived at Ceriatone.
Your finished product is what I'm looking for.
Where did you buy or who built your cabinet?
Any problems to date?
Please advise,

Whitebeard, I made the mistake of sell this camp last November when I was making room for my new HRM Bluesmaster.  Within a week of selling it, I immediately had seller's remorse.  I loved all aspects of the Champ, so I HAD to buy another one.

I now have my new Champ and am happy again.  I AM NEVER GOING TO SELL THIS CHAMP!!! It will go to my son will all of my other gear when the time comes.  I bought Nik's Ultra Champ which is nice because I now have a proper faceplate where my last Champ did not. 

I had the cab built to my specification by Sourmash Cabinets.  I have had Sourmash build 7 cabinets for various amps, including my new Bluesmaster.  The quality is stellar, excellent communications, less expensive than Avatar, and you get to pick cab dimension, tolex, grill cloth, and piping color.  I wanted my new Champ to be smaller than the last so as to take up less room.  It's a 1x10 combo.  Contact Bob at Sourmash: bforrester4@tampabay.rr.com  Let him know you're interested in a Tweed Champ combo cab like the one he built for Don.

I put a Weber 10A100 alnico speaker in it.  I am an admitted speaker snob!  I've used half a dozen different speaker with the Champ in order to find what I consider to be the best, which is the 10A100 alnico.