Ceriatone, what are your thoughts?

[TremoJem]

I played a Ceriatone Super Lead 100 using a THD Hotplate that a friend brought over for me to A/B with a Splawn Quickrod.

All of this because I just really want a Marshall, but have no experience with them, as I am very new to that type of amp.

So without revealing my review of them.

What are you very honest thoughts on the amps, build quality and sound etc.

Thanks

 

[bbaug14]

Amps are great. Build quality is fantastic. Tones are very good. Some argue using your own iron, which I will agree with.

 

[Racerxrated]

Amps are great. Build quality is fantastic. Tones are very good. Some argue using your own iron, which I will agree with.

This. Had a Fortin Cali modded Ceriatone 800. PT went out after 1 gig. It was the original stock Ceriatone PT. Put a Classic tone in and never looked back.

 

[paulyc]

Love my King Kong, no issues with it. Great tone and "feel".

 

[sleewell2]

dollar for dollar I would much rather support a company in the USA like splawn every single day of the week.

 

[The Traveller]

I have a Yeti that is not going anywhere.The build quality is awesome. Nik will answer all you questions day or night, I'm not sure he sleeps. I've never had an issue with mine unlike Marshalls I have had. Great sounding amp, I love it.

 

[Chris6870]

dollar for dollar I would much rather support a company in the USA like splawn every single day of the week.

This. Ceriatone will always have the "amp built from a kit" thing attached to it. Your never really sure who built it.

 

[paulyc]

dollar for dollar I would much rather support a company in the USA like splawn every single day of the week.

This. Ceriatone will always have the "amp built from a kit" thing attached to it. Your never really sure who built it.

I don't agree. I bought a used Splawn that had issues, sent it to Scott who gave it a clean bill of health and when I got it back, still FUBAR. Had a local tech mes with it (fixed some REALLY STUPID SHIT with it) and sold it. YMMV.

When I brought it up on the Splawn forum, I was labeled a troll and banned by that douche Vomhalen...

But it was all true.

 

[Chris6870]

And sending your Cieratone back to Malaysia for repairs for "some really stupid shit" would somehow have been better? You said it was simple shit so why the butthurt?

 

[Beyond Black]

I have a Yeti that is not going anywhere.The build quality is awesome. Nik will answer all you questions day or night, I'm not sure he sleeps. I've never had an issue with mine unlike Marshalls I have had. Great sounding amp, I love it.

This. My Yeti 100 fuckin rips. I'll put it up against any modded Marshall and it'll hang. It's a ridiculous amount of amp for what I paid ($900 used).

 

[Red_Label]

Owned three Ceris. (RP 36W, JTM45, and Chupacabra). All great amps. I just parted with the Chup two weeks ago, because a Friedman Smallbox displaced it (and my Quickrod wasn't going anywhere). But it was a hard decision. Glad I did, because I friggin LOVE the Smallbox. But I gotta say... if money wasn't an issue and I didn't have a strict one-in/one-out policy... I'd still have the Chupacabra (as well as the Smallbox and Quickrod). Mine was built by Nik and was just an awesome rock amp for 80s and newer stuff. The only reason it got moved was lack of a separate clean channel. I cannot say enough good things about it. The RP and JTM were great amps as well... just not my cup 'O tea tone wise.

 

[paulyc]

And sending your Cieratone back to Malaysia for repairs for "some really stupid shit" would somehow have been better? You said it was simple shit so why the butthurt?

Because I had to eat the shipping, the "simple stupid shit" was an arcing half power switch that Scott should have caught and a few other minor things, and the amp never sounded right...ever.

Ceriatone has authorized service centers here in America, so no need to ship back to Malaysia.

 

[sjk]

And sending your Cieratone back to Malaysia for repairs for "some really stupid shit" would somehow have been better? You said it was simple shit so why the butthurt?

Because I had to eat the shipping, the "simple stupid shit" was an arcing half power switch that Scott should have caught and a few other minor things, and the amp never sounded right...ever.

Ceriatone has authorized service centers here in America, so no need to ship back to Malaysia.

Also all there stuff is hand wired on turret boards so trouble shooting and fixes are not that hard for a good tech, and the price on the amps is low enough who cares if it's warranty work or not. I had the chupacabra 100 and the guts of the amp were just a work of art to look at although the parts were not always cork sniffer approved lol. I agree I would not want a kit version built by any Joe blow but the ones built in factory are built by very skilled people and the amps are play tested before they leave as well.

 

[shredi knight]

And sending your Cieratone back to Malaysia for repairs for "some really stupid shit" would somehow have been better? You said it was simple shit so why the butthurt?

I think his complaint is that he went to the hassle of sending a faulty amp to Scott Splawn for repairs, and he somehow managed to overlook/not fix what was wrong with it, which turned out to be "some stupid shit" that his local tech discovered and repaired.


I remember many years ago I had a Charvel Model 5 guitar with active pickups and one day the output became very weak. Being a kid and not knowing anything about guitar electronics, I took it to a local tech to see what had gone wrong with it. The tech told me the guitar was fine and that I was getting full output from the pickups. When I got home I was frustrated because I knew something was wrong with it, so I decided to open up the electronics compartment of the guitar and have a look. There plain as day was a loose wire that had come unattached from (if I'm remembering right) the volume pot. As soon as I touched the wire to the pot, guitar's output about doubled and it sounded like it was supposed to.

But somehow the tech I took the guitar to missed this "stupid shit", so I can understand why paulyc would have a gripe.



Edit - Looks like paulyc beat me to the reply.

 

[paulyc]

The local tech also drew out the schematic and layout of the Quickrod, and it's a mess...the signal goes back and forth between the dirty and clean channels, I asked Scott to upgrade the loop to the one with the volume control (he didn't), and the amp just never felt/sounded right. I had a buddy that had a QR and his was night and day to mine. I tried running cords from one amp's loop out to the other one's in and vice versa trying to isolate the source...used the same guitar, cab, cables, etc...nothing worked. Frustrating. Later on he sold it and bought an Axe Effects unit...

 

[dstroud]

My main recording amp and favorite amp I've ever had is a Ceriatone 1987 with Mercury Transformers. I wouldn't hesitate to pick up one of their JCM 800 or nmv models with their transformers - I'd actually be curious to see how different they are than mine with the Mercury.

 

[southpark tube lab]

watt audio jcm-800 is a great kit good parts tubes do not like chiness crap pcb boards the jcm-800 is the last good amp marshall built modern amps to many bells and wisels

 

[Racerxrated]

My main recording amp and favorite amp I've ever had is a Ceriatone 1987 with Mercury Transformers. I wouldn't hesitate to pick up one of their JCM 800 or nmv models with their transformers - I'd actually be curious to see how different they are than mine with the Mercury.

Based on my previous experience if I grabbed another one with stock transformers I'd swap them out for the classic tones. Can't have an amp die on me during a gig! And the classic tones are cheap enough. I think you can order them without and put your own in?

 

[dstroud]

My main recording amp and favorite amp I've ever had is a Ceriatone 1987 with Mercury Transformers. I wouldn't hesitate to pick up one of their JCM 800 or nmv models with their transformers - I'd actually be curious to see how different they are than mine with the Mercury.

Based on my previous experience if I grabbed another one with stock transformers I'd swap them out for the classic tones. Can't have an amp die on me during a gig! And the classic tones are cheap enough. I think you can order them without and put your own in?

yeah, you can order them without transformers. I remember at the time I ordered I was getting a smoking deal on the Mercury's and the Ceriatone was way cheaper to ship without transformers. It was kind of a no brainer at the time as I was on a tight budget.

 

[legend71]

I love Ceriatone amps. I have had 2 of them and they were great.

If only he would clone a Bogner!!!!!!!