Ceriatone Amp Kits

[Benjy_26]

Hey all.

Just wondering what luck y'all have had with the DIY amp kits from Ceriatone.

I've been thinking of building my own amp for fun for a while now, and have also been wanting some Vox-ish chime, and was wondering if any of Ceriatone's kits might work out for me.

I was mainly looking at the DC-30 and Liver-pull kits.

Thanks a bunch for any and all info!

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Ceriatone Amp Kits

They seem to be pretty cool, but if you're not experienced in assembling an amp, you may be better off buying a built one. It's a bit harder than putting together a puzzle, because you could finish it, and end up with a firework show or a simple ground hum that's hard to figure out. Or, you could get lucky, and it fires up and sounds awesome.

Part of me thinks it's easier to sit on Ebay or Craigslist and come down like a hawk when you see a great amp getting ready to end at a bargain price.

But, if your goal is to spend time learning, Ceriatone may be your best bet.
And it'd be cool to have a custom Mojo headshell too.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Ceriatone Amp Kits

The Ceriatone stuff I've seen is pretty cool but there are 2 things that I feel the need to tell you at this point...the DC-30 is pretty Voxish but thats a far more complex amp than I would suggest for a first or even second build and the Liver-pull is not very Vox at all so just be careful...

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Ceriatone Amp Kits

Points well taken, gentlemen. What would you guys suggest for a first build?

 

[bancika]

Re: Ceriatone Amp Kits

try going to ax84.com
they have p1 project which is great first build and can later be easily upgraded to high octane, which is somewhere in the marshall territory. They offer kits at decent prices...
building amps is a lot of fun, I got addicted few years back

 

[PoorMan]

Re: Ceriatone Amp Kits

Don't electrocute yourself.

5E3s are very basic circuits.

 

[shaka]

Re: Ceriatone Amp Kits

The Lightning kit is a good one if you want Vox type tones. Make sure you get the cut control mod.

I did one for my first build and it wasn't too bad. Nik at Ceriatone is great with the support.

 

[Young Angus]

Re: Ceriatone Amp Kits

I've got a Ceriatone 18watt TMB handwired marshall clone...great sounding amp, but apparently the output transformers aren't the best going around. Mine went on me one song into a gig a while ago and I ended up having to use a DSL halfstack one of the other guys had...YUK!

(I was of course eternally grateful that one of the guys let me use his amp but it didn't change the fact that it sounded like a$$)

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Ceriatone Amp Kits

Lightning eh? I'll look into it.

Tough luck on your 18 watter, YA. Were you able to fix it?

 

[Fresh_Start]

Re: Ceriatone Amp Kits

+ 1 on the AX84 recommendation or a tweed Champ/Princeton (5F2-A) for a first build. Debugging is the hardest part of building amps and it's a heck of a lot easier with a simple circuit. Besides, everyone should have a low output, single-ended amp to play with!

FWIW Trinity Amps makes a Lightning clone and seems to have great support. Better transformers from what I've read here on the www but I do not have direct experience with them.

Chip

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Ceriatone Amp Kits

I'm not worried about putting it together and troubleshooting, actually (I'm a special systems tech; plenty of electronics and troubleshooting at my job) .

I'm more worried about getting quality components. I don't want to spend hours building the thing and end up with something that looks, sounds, and feels like some 6th grader's science project.

 

[shaka]

Re: Ceriatone Amp Kits

+ 1 on the AX84 recommendation or a tweed Champ/Princeton (5F2-A) for a first build. Debugging is the hardest part of building amps and it's a heck of a lot easier with a simple circuit. Besides, everyone should have a low output, single-ended amp to play with!

FWIW Trinity Amps makes a Lightning clone and seems to have great support. Better transformers from what I've read here on the www but I do not have direct experience with them.

Chip

I have experience with them and they are amazing. Stephen is one of the good guys.