Any Ceriatone Chupacabra users here?

I built one a few years back, fun amp to play through and tinker with. Not the easiest build if it’s your first one, but not impossible. Tons of mods and changes you can do to it, there’s a lot of good threads on this site about that. I second that Nik is great to work with. I’ve ordered a bunch of random stuff from him over the years for other projects, he always answers emails quickly and his shipping is insanely fast. I’ll get stuff from him in Malaysia faster than parts I order in the US!
 
Proud owner of a chupa 50. As good as any modded Marshall I’ve ever tried with the exception of a Cameron modded one, since I never played one. The 80’s mode is super fun and effortless to play. I can jam on it all day.

My only complaint, which is a small one, is the 70’s era is nowhere near as ballsy as a real modded Plexi. The voicing and midrange roar is delivered in spades but the wall shaking power is just not there.
 
PurityS.L.G said:
Proud owner of a chupa 50. As good as any modded Marshall I’ve ever tried with the exception of a Cameron modded one, since I never played one. The 80’s mode is super fun and effortless to play. I can jam on it all day.

My only complaint, which is a small one, is the 70’s era is nowhere near as ballsy as a real modded Plexi. The voicing and midrange roar is delivered in spades but the wall shaking power is just not there.
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How is the Master volume? Hit you hard and fast or gradual sweep?

As far as the Plexi do you boost it? Also 50w versus 100W thoughts? I was gonna go hundo!
 
I had Nic send me an amp that was ready for my own set of transformers, basically almost fully built with out the transformers and can caps installed. I installed a set of basically off the shelf Mercury Magnetics iron that MC recommended to me. It's probably the best sounding amp I have and have played for that classic modded Marshall type tone. After getting it up and running I made a couple changes to the circuit, and what is really cool about this type of circuit is small changes make a pretty big difference in tone, which makes it fun to learn on and the fact of it being built on a turret board, rather then say a PCB makes it easier to change parts if wanting to experiment. It's based off the Fortin Cali mod from what I recall.. You will find that the differences between them all are just a couple of changes here and there.
 
cragginshred77 said:
How is the Master volume? Hit you hard and fast or gradual sweep?

As far as the Plexi do you boost it? Also 50w versus 100W thoughts? I was gonna go hundo!
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It's got a pretty gradual sweep to the master volume, the "era" switch does effect the volume so you will have to compensate by turning the volume up to get the same loudness out of the amp when you are in clipping diodes.

The 100 has a little bit different phase inverter setup then the 50 so it will feel a bit different.
 
jasonP said:
It's got a pretty gradual sweep to the master volume, the "era" switch does effect the volume so you will have to compensate by turning the volume up to get the same loudness out of the amp when you are in clipping diodes.

The 100 has a little bit different phase inverter setup then the 50 so it will feel a bit different.
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Good to know and compensating is no prob

Does this amp sound like a Marshall or closer to boutique amps that have become their own thing - Friedman, Soldano ect?
I understand it's not a Marshall but hoping it will capture the vibe

Have you played thru Friedman Soldano or Wizards to compare tone quality?
Just curious!
 
cragginshred77 said:
Good to know and compensating is no prob

Does this amp sound like a Marshall or closer to boutique amps that have become their own thing - Friedman, Soldano ect?
I understand it's not a Marshall but hoping it will capture the vibe

Have you played thru Friedman Soldano or Wizards to compare tone quality?
Just curious!
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Base amp is definitely a Marshall clone so yeah, I would say it will most likely be Marshall enough for you. It smokes any current production Friedman IMO. I wouldn’t compare it to a Soldano or wizard. Those aren’t good comparable benchmarks to pit the chupa against
 
Small point but we've had three Ceriatones through the studio - all had issues with the thin tolex they use coming unglued from the headshell. Haven't seen this mentioned around online, so not sure if it's a thing with their materials/process or just bad luck on our part.
 
cragginshred77 said:
How is the Master volume? Hit you hard and fast or gradual sweep?
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The master is an audio pot, and with the modern era setting makes the volume veeeeery gradual, too much I'd say. Sort of 1/4 of the max volume is reached around 7 or so. With other modes it's a lil more sudden but not by much.

ZEN Amps said:
Small point but we've had three Ceriatones through the studio - all had issues with the thin tolex they use coming unglued from the headshell. Haven't seen this mentioned around online, so not sure if it's a thing with their materials/process or just bad luck on our part.
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Never heard of that, but you should tell Nik about this if you haven't yet. Definitely.
Too bad tho, I'd have loved to see some demos of yours of the Yeti or the Chupa, not enough hot stuff on YouTube about those.
 
Its funny of all the "Hot Rodded Plexi" circuits they do, the Chupa is still the only one I'm interested in.
 
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