Hi Ryan, I hope that I got your name right. It's guys like you that really just amaze me how you build your own amp. I wish that I had the patience and skill to do something like this. Just awesome! I could talk to someone like you all day. I'm an amp geek as well. I originally didn't know squat about Ceriatone HRM amps. But I had read so many positive posts about Ceriatone. I took the chance and bought the Ceriatone HRM amp. I was not disappointed withe the purchase. The price is what really blew me away. Yeah you can spend $5000.00 on a Welagen or a Two Rock amp, but why spend that kind of coin on one of those amps when you can buy a Ceriatone for a 1/3 of the price. I also was so impressed that I bought the Ceriatone JTM45 bluesbreaker amp. Awesome awesome amp. Love the valve rectifier. I'm just curious, but where are you from? Thanks Michael Newell from Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
In regards to the jumpers on the potentiometers, this means the pot is set up as a variable resistor instead of potential divider (as you would see in a volume control etc.), to make a variable resistor you don't even need to put the jumper link you can just use 2 pins on the pot, in other words the jumper isn't doing anything.
The Tone Geek thanks for the info. I did change the Reverb tank to the MOD and I still am not entirely happy with it. I’m a vintage fender guy and used to my fender Reverb tank.
shingomyelin ah I see. Try the jumper on the bass pot if you’re comfortable opening it up and soldering. The reverb sits down a bit compared to a reverb of a vintage fender. Highlights the guitar mostly with a darker reverb splash. You could try the Jerry Garcia thing and dial the treble and mid high (bright off) and mix bass knob until it sounds like what you’re looking for. This will make the reverb come in harder and more vintage-y. Hope that helps too and sorry to hear you’re still searching for good tones :-(
The Tone Geek thanks for the info. Well I’m done searching. I found a vintage super reverb that satisfies my playing needs. My amp tech is suggesting I find a twin reverb. I have the ceriatone for sale but I may hold onto it for now and see if I warm up to it. It sounds great with pedals.
First of all thanks a lot for this video, and let me ask you what if we had a jumper on the bass and the middle pot instead of just replacing one with the other,
I've learned recently through LTSPice simulation that the jumper on the middle pot can remain when the jumper on the bass pot is on/off. No need to remove the middle jumper.
Thank you for your videos! I've subscribed and I've got two questions about the differences here :) 1. Filter stage is clearly different in the two amps, how much does this affect the amp? I see 10 caps and some extra 470k resistors on the Ceriatone vs the 6 on the Amplifiednation amp. 2. If I'm looking to build a 50W version of the amp, according to the Amplifiednation layout its a standard 100W Fender PT and they don't mention an OT. Would I have to change the transformers going down to a 50W amp?
Hey Zak. Thank you for your kind words and subscription! The Ceriatone uses a "precision power supply" which Dumble started to use later in his designs. There is improvements in stability and quietness/cleaner with this approach for what I've read. The AN Layout uses a truer filter design per Two-Rock. The capacitance reservoir values add up to be about the same. Personally, I like the precision power supply approach based on what I've read on The Amp Garage forums. You will likely need a smaller output transformer. I've seen some forum members get away with a larger power and output transformers and adjust their speaker load accordingly but that makes me a little uneasy with the concept. Not to mention, most folks that use a half power switch (basically using a 100w transformer with 50 watts) will alter the tone. Most of them never use the half power switch after a test because the tone suffers in a way they do not like. Some do like it though so it's something you'll have to research. Ceriatone has a great transformer set and can do 50w JM set if you'd like. Mine are 100W and absolutely "big iron" compared to the stock Fender as on the Amplified Nation layout. Hope that helps!
Hi Ryan, thanks for your great video. On a similar subject, if you had to pick one amp between the Ceriatone JM vs the Ceriatone SSS? Similar question between 50 vs 100 W. Is the 100W playable at room volume? Thanks so much and greetings from Chile. Your VS10 is on the way, thanks for the help!
Hey, I'm bought the JM100 kit, of I wanted to do a global NFB 3 way switch to change cap values, TR Ceriatone and dumble, what would the diferent values be?
@@TheToneGeek Great ! thanks :) would you say the JM 100 leans towards "Fender territory" ? In some of the demos of the JM 50/100 i really get a fender-vibe. I am looking for a "supercharged/steroid" super reverb :) cheers
Hi I just started my build of the ceriatone layout, but I’m wanting to do it at 20w with 2 6v6’s. Basically hoping to graft the OTS mini 20’s power section for this. I have a chassis and transformer set for a deluxe Reverb already which is why I’d like to go 20w, plus it’s more power than I’d ever need. Any ideas or things to look out for? Thanks for the explanation on these differences between TR and CT
Hi Ryan, did you ever wonder why ceriatone uses a 2k2 decoupling resistor after the choke instead of 1k5? What changes does it make? I then started to wonder if the Ceriatone version really has different preamp voltages (higher) because of this? My v1 plates are about 10v higher than that of the AN layout for example. Thanks i thought this is the best place to bring this up.
Hey man. You nailed it. I believe Ceriatone PT is higher voltage so this resistor change would lower preamp a bit to compensate . 10v is not bad. Is your wall voltage exactly 120? I bought a brown box since my wall can be 123-120v which makes it hard to compare voltages from other techs. Let me know!
@@TheToneGeek Oh interesting! I have the 350v secondaries, am using the 240v primary on a 235v ish wall voltage country. To make things weirder my 6l6 plate voltages are 436v tops! Would be interesting to compare voltage charts on these amps at this point to be honest! Interesting though! Especially as Im finding my amp to be quiet after gigging it two times now.
@@captainbackfirejr ah right. I forgot about your location. Wall voltage definitely would make a difference. 10V is not too far off. You can drop voltage slightly too if you use a lower gain tube. That will drop your voltage as well so you could try a 5751 and you'll notice it will drop the voltage for that tube. That's likely not what JM did on his amp but it's hard to tell from Taylor's layout what the wall voltage was measured at. Good your amp is playing well! Quiet is good!
@@TheToneGeek Oh haha! By quiet I mean not very loud. But i figured the JM sig is not really loud per the TAG threads. Oh well as long as Im happy about the tone I should probably leave things as they are sometimes. Oh some folks suggest raising the voltage divider 68k to 150k , to lessen the gain dump not sure about that though. Its fun though to learn these things about the amp the longer I have it. Oh and I asked Nik what the 1k5 was for, he basically said it would affect the voltage drops. I mean yea haha. I sorta have the itch then to swith that out and see how close we get to Taylor's voltages.
Nicogee Music 👍 yes!! Very cool. It’s a great amp to experiment with. Try 470pf on the reverb return too 🙂 very quiet, indeed! Has bite when gain and master is 2 o clock and really opened up!
Hey Ryan I tried the bass jumper and I cant decide whether to keep it or not. It just changes the amp a lot. Do you reckon I can us a Pot in place of the jumper so I can find a sweet spot or doesn't it work like that?
Hey man. You could always make a small hole and add a switch on the front panel like folks are doing now with the JM amps. You're right it changes it quite a bit and not for everyone. Especially when you're running only one amp at a time 😂 . So to answer your question, I don't believe there is a way to have the tone in-between. I do suggest trying to work your bright switch, treble, and contour a little more (like JM's settings) and see if that gets you in the right range
@@TheToneGeek Actually to re phrase, I built it originally with the bass jumper and liked it. I then thot I need more piano bass and zing.. just bench tested without it, and then with a mid jumper. I totally literally want the in between tone of the bass jumper and no jumper anywhere! It works well with my now dual gnfb (adds a 10k series=18k or stock) No jumper also cleans up my headroom . Hence I thot about getting it in between. Really? Its not like you could jump just the bass halfway via resistor/ pot? ..No mid jumper for me its honky for me haha Thaaanks btw!
Hi man, Just to be sure, can you explain here the connections from the two pots to the 6 pins of the switch please ? I have a JM100 kit that I’m building And I’d like to add this Two Rock/Ceriatone jumpers Mod. Thanks a lot !
Hi Ryan, I hope that I got your name right. It's guys like you that really just amaze me how you build your own amp. I wish that I had the patience and skill to do something like this. Just awesome! I could talk to someone like you all day. I'm an amp geek as well. I originally didn't know squat about Ceriatone HRM amps. But I had read so many positive posts about Ceriatone. I took the chance and bought the Ceriatone HRM amp. I was not disappointed withe the purchase. The price is what really blew me away. Yeah you can spend $5000.00 on a Welagen or a Two Rock amp, but why spend that kind of coin on one of those amps when you can buy a Ceriatone for a 1/3 of the price. I also was so impressed that I bought the Ceriatone JTM45 bluesbreaker amp. Awesome awesome amp. Love the valve rectifier. I'm just curious, but where are you from? Thanks Michael Newell from Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
TY for the analysis.. very interesting....
Thanks for taking the time to do these! These are super helpful!
Phoenix2443 you’re very welcome! Stay tuned for more on this topic
Nik is awesome, I'll be ordering a C-Wreck Combo soon. Thanks for the video, great stuff.
Thank you!
Is that a Z Wreck clone?
Late to the party! Great informative video and super build 👍
Thanks!
In regards to the jumpers on the potentiometers, this means the pot is set up as a variable resistor instead of potential divider (as you would see in a volume control etc.), to make a variable resistor you don't even need to put the jumper link you can just use 2 pins on the pot, in other words the jumper isn't doing anything.
You are correct on the mid pot. The bass pot wiring does make a difference.
Your videos are great!!! Please keep them coming!!
Thank you, Paul!!
Killer video bro as always
Thanks!!
Nice info - thanks 👍 keep em’ coming
Tricko absolutely! Thank you for taking the time to comment and reassuring me I’m on a good path here :-)
I’m impressed. I own the ceriatone JM100. I find the amp just OK. To me, my amp is slightly sterile but comes to life with pedals.
shingomyelin indeed a great pedal platform. The contour really helps dial things in with a stock jm100. Thanks for watching!!
The Tone Geek thanks for the info. I did change the Reverb tank to the MOD and I still am not entirely happy with it. I’m a vintage fender guy and used to my fender Reverb tank.
shingomyelin ah I see. Try the jumper on the bass pot if you’re comfortable opening it up and soldering. The reverb sits down a bit compared to a reverb of a vintage fender. Highlights the guitar mostly with a darker reverb splash. You could try the Jerry Garcia thing and dial the treble and mid high (bright off) and mix bass knob until it sounds like what you’re looking for. This will make the reverb come in harder and more vintage-y. Hope that helps too and sorry to hear you’re still searching for good tones :-(
The Tone Geek thanks for the info. Well I’m done searching. I found a vintage super reverb that satisfies my playing needs. My amp tech is suggesting I find a twin reverb. I have the ceriatone for sale but I may hold onto it for now and see if I warm up to it. It sounds great with pedals.
shingomyelin What about a Boss RV-500 or Strymon Flint? Both are great reverb pedals and will get the vintage reverb vibe easy
real nice info! can we get a play thru of your amp showing the differences in your mods?
of course! Trying to put everything back together soon.
Amazing content.
First of all thanks a lot for this video, and let me ask you what if we had a jumper on the bass and the middle pot instead of just replacing one with the other,
I've learned recently through LTSPice simulation that the jumper on the middle pot can remain when the jumper on the bass pot is on/off. No need to remove the middle jumper.
Thank you for your videos! I've subscribed and I've got two questions about the differences here :)
1. Filter stage is clearly different in the two amps, how much does this affect the amp? I see 10 caps and some extra 470k resistors on the Ceriatone vs the 6 on the Amplifiednation amp.
2. If I'm looking to build a 50W version of the amp, according to the Amplifiednation layout its a standard 100W Fender PT and they don't mention an OT. Would I have to change the transformers going down to a 50W amp?
Hey Zak. Thank you for your kind words and subscription! The Ceriatone uses a "precision power supply" which Dumble started to use later in his designs. There is improvements in stability and quietness/cleaner with this approach for what I've read. The AN Layout uses a truer filter design per Two-Rock. The capacitance reservoir values add up to be about the same. Personally, I like the precision power supply approach based on what I've read on The Amp Garage forums.
You will likely need a smaller output transformer. I've seen some forum members get away with a larger power and output transformers and adjust their speaker load accordingly but that makes me a little uneasy with the concept. Not to mention, most folks that use a half power switch (basically using a 100w transformer with 50 watts) will alter the tone. Most of them never use the half power switch after a test because the tone suffers in a way they do not like. Some do like it though so it's something you'll have to research. Ceriatone has a great transformer set and can do 50w JM set if you'd like. Mine are 100W and absolutely "big iron" compared to the stock Fender as on the Amplified Nation layout. Hope that helps!
Hi Ryan, thanks for your great video. On a similar subject, if you had to pick one amp between the Ceriatone JM vs the Ceriatone SSS? Similar question between 50 vs 100 W. Is the 100W playable at room volume? Thanks so much and greetings from Chile. Your VS10 is on the way, thanks for the help!
Hey, I'm bought the JM100 kit, of I wanted to do a global NFB 3 way switch to change cap values, TR Ceriatone and dumble, what would the diferent values be?
So, is it correctly understood that you find the Ceriatone to be better balanced and not as dark as the John Mayer model ?
That's correct! ⚡
@@TheToneGeek Great ! thanks :) would you say the JM 100 leans towards "Fender territory" ? In some of the demos of the JM 50/100 i really get a fender-vibe. I am looking for a "supercharged/steroid" super reverb :) cheers
Hi I just started my build of the ceriatone layout, but I’m wanting to do it at 20w with 2 6v6’s. Basically hoping to graft the OTS mini 20’s power section for this. I have a chassis and transformer set for a deluxe Reverb already which is why I’d like to go 20w, plus it’s more power than I’d ever need. Any ideas or things to look out for? Thanks for the explanation on these differences between TR and CT
Hi Ryan, did you ever wonder why ceriatone uses a 2k2 decoupling resistor after the choke instead of 1k5? What changes does it make? I then started to wonder if the Ceriatone version really has different preamp voltages (higher) because of this? My v1 plates are about 10v higher than that of the AN layout for example. Thanks i thought this is the best place to bring this up.
Hey man. You nailed it. I believe Ceriatone PT is higher voltage so this resistor change would lower preamp a bit to compensate . 10v is not bad. Is your wall voltage exactly 120? I bought a brown box since my wall can be 123-120v which makes it hard to compare voltages from other techs. Let me know!
@@TheToneGeek Oh interesting! I have the 350v secondaries, am using the 240v primary on a 235v ish wall voltage country. To make things weirder my 6l6 plate voltages are 436v tops! Would be interesting to compare voltage charts on these amps at this point to be honest! Interesting though! Especially as Im finding my amp to be quiet after gigging it two times now.
@@captainbackfirejr ah right. I forgot about your location. Wall voltage definitely would make a difference. 10V is not too far off. You can drop voltage slightly too if you use a lower gain tube. That will drop your voltage as well so you could try a 5751 and you'll notice it will drop the voltage for that tube. That's likely not what JM did on his amp but it's hard to tell from Taylor's layout what the wall voltage was measured at. Good your amp is playing well! Quiet is good!
@@TheToneGeek Oh haha! By quiet I mean not very loud. But i figured the JM sig is not really loud per the TAG threads. Oh well as long as Im happy about the tone I should probably leave things as they are sometimes. Oh some folks suggest raising the voltage divider 68k to 150k , to lessen the gain dump not sure about that though. Its fun though to learn these things about the amp the longer I have it. Oh and I asked Nik what the 1k5 was for, he basically said it would affect the voltage drops. I mean yea haha. I sorta have the itch then to swith that out and see how close we get to Taylor's voltages.
Nicogee Music 👍 yes!! Very cool. It’s a great amp to experiment with. Try 470pf on the reverb return too 🙂 very quiet, indeed! Has bite when gain and master is 2 o clock and really opened up!
where is in tke link the two rock layout ?
Hey Ryan I tried the bass jumper and I cant decide whether to keep it or not. It just changes the amp a lot. Do you reckon I can us a Pot in place of the jumper so I can find a sweet spot or doesn't it work like that?
Hey man. You could always make a small hole and add a switch on the front panel like folks are doing now with the JM amps. You're right it changes it quite a bit and not for everyone. Especially when you're running only one amp at a time 😂 . So to answer your question, I don't believe there is a way to have the tone in-between. I do suggest trying to work your bright switch, treble, and contour a little more (like JM's settings) and see if that gets you in the right range
@@TheToneGeek Actually to re phrase, I built it originally with the bass jumper and liked it. I then thot I need more piano bass and zing.. just bench tested without it, and then with a mid jumper. I totally literally want the in between tone of the bass jumper and no jumper anywhere! It works well with my now dual gnfb (adds a 10k series=18k or stock) No jumper also cleans up my headroom . Hence I thot about getting it in between. Really? Its not like you could jump just the bass halfway via resistor/ pot? ..No mid jumper for me its honky for me haha Thaaanks btw!
I am looking at buying a JM Ceriatone. Do I want negative feedback option on this amp?
Hi man,
Just to be sure, can you explain here the connections from the two pots to the 6 pins of the switch please ? I have a JM100 kit that I’m building And I’d like to add this Two Rock/Ceriatone jumpers Mod. Thanks a lot !
I think I got my answer :
- Pins 2/3 for the Bass jumper (Rock)
- 4/5 for the mids (Jazz)
Which would be quite logic actually.
What does this Resistor on the Bass Pot to Ground do? What is the deal with that?
The resistor established the lowest amount of bass allowed when the bass knob is all the way off