Ceriatone King Kong Owners?

[glpg80]

Sold my JMP and looking for something that can scratch the modded marshall tone with the creature comforts of a channel switching clean channel and not break the bank or be scared of someone spilling a beer on it The Ceriatone king kong 100W seems to have tickled my fancies. Anyone here own one or have put one together? Can anyone describe the features on the lead channel and how well it takes to boost pedals?

Thanks ahead of time gents

 

[Zado]

I have a Yeti, which is supposedly one half of the KK, and it just rips. From great crunch to heavy in a heartbeat, very dinamic amp as well. Apparently Kansas guitarist Rich Williams is enjoying his

 

[skullfxr]

I have not tried that cetiatone.

I can say that a splawn on gear one with mid gain is a hell of a modded plexi tone. Most people don't use it for that though, but I do it on occasion. Then you also have the od1/od2 on the footswitch and a a mv1/mv2 on the footswitch.

 

[ClintN667]

I want another Marshall flavor amp. I've been looking at Ceriatone. I may end up getting another Splawn though unless I win the lottery and can buy a Butterslax

 

[ClintN667]

if you end up grabbing one post some clips

 

[FourT6and2]

Good platform for modifications. In stock form it's ok. With a few tweaks it can be a real monster.

 

[Zado]

I want another Marshall flavor amp. I've been looking at Ceriatone. I may end up getting another Splawn though unless I win the lottery and can buy a Butterslax

Totally different beasts. The Splawn is tighter with no saturation. The Ceriatone(s) are more on the friedman side of the thing

 

[Beyond Black]

Good platform for modifications. In stock form it's ok. With a few tweaks it can be a real monster.

What tweaks do you recommend for the Yeti, and what do they do?

 

[FourT6and2]

Good platform for modifications. In stock form it's ok. With a few tweaks it can be a real monster.

What tweaks do you recommend for the Yeti, and what do they do?

Check out the tech forum. Lots of suggestions there. I posted a schematic of a good Jose mod. Easy to incorporate any of those tweaks into the Yeti. But if it were me I would raise the NFB resistor a bit, lower the depth cap a bit, add a dropping resistor between PI and CF B+ nodes, lower the slope resistor to stock Marshall value, and swap out the diodes with something more to my taste, which would be 18v zeners on one side and MPSA06 on the other. Oh and I'd swap the mid-boost cap on Gain 2 out for a 4700pF version.

 

[ClintN667]

I want another Marshall flavor amp. I've been looking at Ceriatone. I may end up getting another Splawn though unless I win the lottery and can buy a Butterslax

Totally different beasts. The Splawn is tighter with no saturation. The Ceriatone(s) are more on the friedman side of the thing

I had a Quick Rod and Nitro so I've been kinda missing them but I think I do want to try a Ceriatone.

 

[ClintN667]

Good platform for modifications. In stock form it's ok. With a few tweaks it can be a real monster.

What tweaks do you recommend for the Yeti, and what do they do?

Check out the tech forum. Lots of suggestions there. I posted a schematic of a good Jose mod. Easy to incorporate any of those tweaks into the Yeti. But if it were me I would raise the NFB resistor a bit, lower the depth cap a bit, add a dropping resistor between PI and CF B+ nodes, lower the slope resistor to stock Marshall value, and swap out the diodes with something more to my taste, which would be 18v zeners on one side and MPSA06 on the other. Oh and I'd swap the mid-boost cap on Gain 2 out for a 4700pF version.

How hard is it to make these mods? I've read elsewhere that they are pretty easy to work on but I'm a complete noob when it comes to this.

 

[skullfxr]

I have a good and REALLY cheap idea, an original Rivera knucklehead. Not the ktre for this. Awesome gain with a boost and nice cleans on the other channel. It likes K85's.

Or look into Laney. I want an AOR at some point.

 

[Beyond Black]

Good platform for modifications. In stock form it's ok. With a few tweaks it can be a real monster.

What tweaks do you recommend for the Yeti, and what do they do?

Check out the tech forum. Lots of suggestions there. I posted a schematic of a good Jose mod. Easy to incorporate any of those tweaks into the Yeti. But if it were me I would raise the NFB resistor a bit, lower the depth cap a bit, add a dropping resistor between PI and CF B+ nodes, lower the slope resistor to stock Marshall value, and swap out the diodes with something more to my taste, which would be 18v zeners on one side and MPSA06 on the other. Oh and I'd swap the mid-boost cap on Gain 2 out for a 4700pF version.

How do these mods change/improve the tone?

 

[skullfxr]

Good platform for modifications. In stock form it's ok. With a few tweaks it can be a real monster.

What tweaks do you recommend for the Yeti, and what do they do?

Check out the tech forum. Lots of suggestions there. I posted a schematic of a good Jose mod. Easy to incorporate any of those tweaks into the Yeti. But if it were me I would raise the NFB resistor a bit, lower the depth cap a bit, add a dropping resistor between PI and CF B+ nodes, lower the slope resistor to stock Marshall value, and swap out the diodes with something more to my taste, which would be 18v zeners on one side and MPSA06 on the other. Oh and I'd swap the mid-boost cap on Gain 2 out for a 4700pF version.

How hard is it to make these mods? I've read elsewhere that they are pretty easy to work on but I'm a complete noob when it comes to this.

It's easy. But I would recommend modding a cheap amp first. You can get an epi valve Jr for $50 get the parts and go at it. It will introduce you to it with something much lower risk.

 

[Zado]

I want another Marshall flavor amp. I've been looking at Ceriatone. I may end up getting another Splawn though unless I win the lottery and can buy a Butterslax

Totally different beasts. The Splawn is tighter with no saturation. The Ceriatone(s) are more on the friedman side of the thing

I had a Quick Rod and Nitro so I've been kinda missing them but I think I do want to try a Ceriatone.

I had a QR for certain time, it belonged to a friend of mine. Not sure which series. It was a monster, but felt too stiff and pissed at times. I'm liking my Yeti better honestly.

 

[napalmdeath]

I had a Yeti 100, and it's a great amp. That said, I now own a Quick Rod. As good as the Yeti is, I find the Quick Rod more controllable, and certainly more versatile. I know the King Kong has a clean channel, so I can't comment.

Funny someone mentioned 1st gear on the QR. I like gain, but 1st gear with the gain at about 1:00, and a boost, is just heavenly. The Yeti was too over the top, and full of hiss. I found it a one trick pony - find your tone and set and forget. But with the Spawn, it's possibilites are endless with the footswitch. I'm happy boosting 1st gear and toggling between OD1/OD2, and jumping to 2nd gear for more oomph. All very usable, full of tone, and just plain killer. Amps with multiple channels, added switches and gadgets just have me tweaking instead of playing. Aside from 3rd gear never being used, (for me), I find it virtually impossible to find a bad tone with the QR. It's a badass amp.

 

[Zado]

I had a Yeti 100, and it's a great amp. That said, I now own a Quick Rod. As good as the Yeti is, I find the Quick Rod more controllable, and certainly more versatile. I know the King Kong has a clean channel, so I can't comment.

Funny someone mentioned 1st gear on the QR. I like gain, but 1st gear with the gain at about 1:00, and a boost, is just heavenly. The Yeti was too over the top, and full of hiss. I found it a one trick pony - find your tone and set and forget. But with the Spawn, it's possibilites are endless with the footswitch. I'm happy boosting 1st gear and toggling between OD1/OD2, and jumping to 2nd gear for more oomph. All very usable, full of tone, and just plain killer. Amps with multiple channels, added switches and gadgets just have me tweaking instead of playing. Aside from 3rd gear never being used, (for me), I find it virtually impossible to find a bad tone with the QR. It's a badass amp.

It's weird cause if there are plenty of tones avaiable with the Yeti as long as you play with P-Trimmer, Bright switches, Gains, focus contro and era modes. Also, never had a hiss problem with my Yeti

 

[napalmdeath]

I had a Yeti 100, and it's a great amp. That said, I now own a Quick Rod. As good as the Yeti is, I find the Quick Rod more controllable, and certainly more versatile. I know the King Kong has a clean channel, so I can't comment.

Funny someone mentioned 1st gear on the QR. I like gain, but 1st gear with the gain at about 1:00, and a boost, is just heavenly. The Yeti was too over the top, and full of hiss. I found it a one trick pony - find your tone and set and forget. But with the Spawn, it's possibilites are endless with the footswitch. I'm happy boosting 1st gear and toggling between OD1/OD2, and jumping to 2nd gear for more oomph. All very usable, full of tone, and just plain killer. Amps with multiple channels, added switches and gadgets just have me tweaking instead of playing. Aside from 3rd gear never being used, (for me), I find it virtually impossible to find a bad tone with the QR. It's a badass amp.

It's weird cause if there are plenty of tones avaiable with the Yeti as long as you play with P-Trimmer, Bright switches, Gains, focus contro and era modes. Also, never had a hiss problem with my Yeti

My point exactly. You have to endlessly fiddle-fuck around with the added switches, knobs and gadgets on the Yeti, and none are footswitchable.

I'm not knocking it, it's a killer amp. That said, it's still a one trick pony, single channel amp with "added features".

 

[MikeDV]

Just reading this thread, considered one of these.

Does anyone own one, and report on it - not other models or other brands?

 

[FourT6and2]

Good platform for modifications. In stock form it's ok. With a few tweaks it can be a real monster.

What tweaks do you recommend for the Yeti, and what do they do?

Check out the tech forum. Lots of suggestions there. I posted a schematic of a good Jose mod. Easy to incorporate any of those tweaks into the Yeti. But if it were me I would raise the NFB resistor a bit, lower the depth cap a bit, add a dropping resistor between PI and CF B+ nodes, lower the slope resistor to stock Marshall value, and swap out the diodes with something more to my taste, which would be 18v zeners on one side and MPSA06 on the other. Oh and I'd swap the mid-boost cap on Gain 2 out for a 4700pF version.

How hard is it to make these mods? I've read elsewhere that they are pretty easy to work on but I'm a complete noob when it comes to this.

These mods are all quite simple and easy to do if you know how to solder properly and understand a few Amp 101 basics, which is sounds like you'd need to read up on. I could do all of this in about an hour. It takes all of 5 minutes to swap out a resistor or capacitor on a turret board.