Ceriatone Forum

There is a Ceriatone 18 TMB combo available for sale locally. The seller is not the original owner and he says that he thinks it was assembled by Ceriatone. Is there an easy way to confirm if it was? Serial number? Are they signed in any way? Thanks.

The seller sent some pictures. Anything here that might indicate that it is or is not a Ceriatone build?

Thanks.

 

Hard to tell since Ceriatone usually ships kits with the circuit board already built. The leads going to the tube sockets look excessively long and messy, but I'm not seeing it in person and it's not enough for me to doubt the possiblity it was built by Ceriatone.

But my big question would be...why does that output transformer look beat to s***?  Not only is there what looks like the protective lacquer is worn off the top of the OT, but the tab there it bolts to the chassis is all bent up. I guessing someone really man-handled, maybe trying to force speaker in without actually removing the chassis fist.

Thanks for your reply. I'm not skilled or especially knowledgeable with amps, but I agree with your observations.

I'm really struggling with this one. It's a 2x10 combo with a ragin caujun and a ram rod in a nice-looking cabinet. The seller is asking $600. It would be a no brainer if it had been assembled by Ceriatone, but not knowing who assembled it makes it tough for me.

I'd love to hear any other thoughts you all have on this. Thanks again.

Doesn't the chassis kind of look older than the components and the circuit board.?
Like the demarcation around the PT cut-out.....and yeah, I would say that is definitely not the lead-dress work of Nik or his employees.
Best

If you and try it before buying, I would consider it even if it's an assembled kit.

The price is excellent. Hell, it is less than the cost of the parts.  And there is nothing wrong with the wiring that I see, much of it is clean, and it doesn't look like a hack job at all... it just doesn't look clean enough to be pro.

Here is the caveat. If it were near me, I would be there with cash in hand.  If there is an issue with the amp, I can fix it myself, and I couldn't buy a kit with cabinet, speakers, chassis, etc. for the price he is selling it. If you aren't an amp builder, then you have to balance a "worst case scenario" which is that you may need to spend $150 on bench fees to have a tech repair anything, plus the cost of any replacement parts. Even then, it may still be a deal.

For here int he U.S., the complete amp from Ceriatone is $525+$125 shipping; let's estimate $200 for the combo cabinet from a U.S. manufacturer (though it's probably more like $250-280); Ragin' Cajun are $59 (x2)

$525+125+200+59+59=$968

Try the amp, then buy the amp.

I tried it. Everything works and it sounds great, so I bought it.

The seller had bought it a year ago on ebay from a seller in Los Angeles. He replaced the power tubes with JJs and replaced the old celestion G10-20s with the Ramrod and Ragin Cajun.

The attached pictures are from the seller's craigslist posting.

Thanks again for your responses.