Ceriatone Ultra Champ - out of the box

tfarny

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So this arrived on my birthday! Packaged EXTREMELY well. Plugged in the included tubes (JJ 12ax7, EH 6v6, JAN 5Y3GT) and fired up right away. Early impressions: Are you kidding me? This is EXACTLY the sound I needed. I've never heard a champ through a good speaker in a good cab before, so this was a shot in the dark but I'm telling you this guy delivered. Built like an absolute tank - you see the transformers for this 5w beast? The chassis weighs more than Fender's current champ amp does. LOVE the tremolo, it's my favorite effect for cleans and this one is just perfect. The 'tweed' switch knocks out the tone circuit and substantially ups the volume and gain. Haven't gotten to messing with the triode switch, but it's there to play with later on.

My problem is that I used all my musical $$ to fund this and to finish up that red tele, just before I joined a band as the bass / acoustic slide player, so not only am I broke as far as music $ but I'm in need of a bass amp. Also, I have no woodworking tools and no space to make a cabinet for myself. One look at that chassis and I knew a crooked, 5th grade quality cab wouldn't cut it.

SO: I will trade you my Blackheart Killer Ant head (the 1w guy), http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=9594.0 lightly used at home, with decent replacement tubes, for a custom head cab. Doesn't need to be tolexed or fancy, just good enough to do the job, maybe pine with some lacquer brushed on. Alternatively I have two sets of Bill Lawrence Keystone pickups that I would trade, I guess - one strat set in black, one 'standard' tele set (neck pup has no cover). All are unused except the tele neck which is basically new. PM if interested.
 
It does look pretty good in there!  Nice wiring.  Nice FIR4 fiberglass eyelet board.  Nice electrolytic caps.  Nice power transformer.

The alpha pots could be improved upon, but having said that I used them in all my amps that I made without any problems.  Also not a fan of the ceramic disk caps and the carbon comp resistors - but that's just me.

Nice amp!  :headbang:
 
Dang! Cool amp. I wich I could help...I'd love those keystones!
Sorry man...oh....maybe MetalMan can make you a head cab?  :dontknow:
 
Just noticed that the ceramic caps are in the tremolo circuit and are not in the signal path.  There's a nice silver mica cap in the signal path there. 

And the power resistors are metal film too... I'm liking this amp more and more!

 
Tidy!  Nice one Tfarny!  I'm in the process of selling off my 100 watt monster of a head to get something smaller, and cooler.  Ceriatone is on the short list!
 
Looks great!  You'll have to get some sound clips up sometime.  I'm getting GAS far a Ceriatone now!  :help:
 
Nice and I like alpha pots.  Nik's amps are so clean inside it's crazy.  I was thisclose to buying a Hiwatt DR-504 clone from Ceriatone when I came across the bassman.
 
I suppose if you start from scatch - Alpha is ok.  But... I never cozied up to them because they have smaller bushings, made of aluminum, with threads that seem to strip for some reason.  The bigger bushing made of brass, like on the CTS seem to tighten up easier and not strip, and fit in the holes of classic amp, and the 3rd party chassis.  Also, the Alpha bushing is a little shorter.  Never had an electrical problem with them - only complaint is the bushing.
 
CB, question for you, or anyone else that knows, heres a link, and on the front page top right theres an add for a pot thats called an astro glide pot

They take a regular stiff pot and do something to make it spin freely  http://www.ampparts.com/

Can we share the info here on how to do this?
 
Take apart a pot, clean out all the grease, bend the two little butterfly springs a little, and stick it back together.  Its not rocket surgery.

The trick is getting the wiper to keep contact, and to do this, you play with the spring and maybe bending the wiper a little, so that you dont have any dropout areas on the pot.

Let me also add:  ol' John Sprung has his reputation, and its not exactly the best.
 
I don't know what all the alpha stuff is, but I *can* tell that the wiring looks very neat. Glad you liked it! I'm feeling more confident about going Ceriatone when I can.
 
Thanks. Been playing hookie from work for a couple of hours, just jamming w/ my new baby.
1. It's not as loud as the 5w blackheart little giant, even in tweed mode, which is noticeably louder than the bf mode. Overall it's still plenty loud enough to annoy the guy downstairs, and probably loud enough for a little coffee shop-type gig. That's through a V30. In BF mode, it really doesn't saturate much at all, maybe a bit after 2 or 3 oclock on the dial. In Tweed mode, there's moderate amount of fantastic saturation from noon on up.
2. It LOVES vintage-output strat, tele, and P90 sounds. PAF-output humbuckers a bit less so, but I need to change strings on my LP and polish up the frets, so I'll def. return to this question. Obviously, this is not the amp for you metal guys, but you already knew that.
3. The triode switch option (custom option, added all of $15 to the price!) isn't anything special. Seems to be a bit less harmonically rich, and of course quieter. Nik did question whether it would be worthwhile - maybe I'll find a use for it at some point.
4. LOVES a blues-driver type pedal (my ME70 version of the blues driver). Other effects seem like a waste of time, except for the built-in tremolo on cleaner sounds. But I've never been a big effects guy anyhow. Doesn't really seem to need or want any reverb, but I'm playing in a pretty 'live' room. Tweed mode, dimed out, with an OD pedal, and controlling volume from the guitar, is pure ridiculous tone heaven.
5. I have a couple of 12ax7 alternative tubes, but I'm in no rush to start swapping. The stock stuff is pretty decent and god it sounds great.

As far as what it basically sounds like - you already know exactly what it sounds like - it sounds like all the early Stones records, it sounds like "Layla", and so on and so forth.  :icon_biggrin: :icon_biggrin: :icon_biggrin: :icon_biggrin:
 
The solo on Fripp&Eno's "Evening Star" was played on a '59 LP Custom through a Champ - an awesome, awesome sound. So awesome, in fact, that they blew the speaker.
 
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