Ceriatone Yeti or Chupacabra

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NaturalBornBoy

NaturalBornBoy

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Do any of you guys own or maybe have owned either of these Ceriatone amps?

What's the consensus on Ceriatone build quality and reliability?

Between the Yeti and the Chup, which would be better for AFD and early VH tones?
 
I have the Chupa and had the luxury of playing a friends Yeti just recently.

1. Build quality is absolute top notch. Nothing to worry about in that aspect I can assure you. DM me if you want gut shots of my particular amp or have any serious concerns about the build quality.

2. The Chupa has the ULTIMATE hot rodded Marshall Plexi tone at a "discounted" price. Its what I wished the Splawn QR was, and for different reasons than the populous. The Chupa has one of the best MV's I've ever experienced, unlike the QR. The amp is glorious at all volume levels.

3. While I'm more than happy with the Chupa, I get why the Yeti is more popular. I have to admit I like it slightly more than my Chupa. Its more modern and tighter. However, if you crave more of that VH tone like you mentioned, the Chupa is your ticket. It excels at vintage Marshall tone and then some.
 
I've read online about people saying that the trannies Ceriatone uses/used, are crap.

Any truth to this?
 
Not crap . BUT if you really get way up there in volume they won’t perform like more expensive transformers in my experience.
 
I have the Chupa and had the luxury of playing a friends Yeti just recently.

1. Build quality is absolute top notch. Nothing to worry about in that aspect I can assure you. DM me if you want gut shots of my particular amp or have any serious concerns about the build quality.

2. The Chupa has the ULTIMATE hot rodded Marshall Plexi tone at a "discounted" price. Its what I wished the Splawn QR was, and for different reasons than the populous. The Chupa has one of the best MV's I've ever experienced, unlike the QR. The amp is glorious at all volume levels.

3. While I'm more than happy with the Chupa, I get why the Yeti is more popular. I have to admit I like it slightly more than my Chupa. Its more modern and tighter. However, if you crave more of that VH tone like you mentioned, the Chupa is your ticket. It excels at vintage Marshall tone and then some.

The chupa on the other end cuts better in the mix, I struggle with my Yeti in a dense situation at times.
I've read online about people saying that the trannies Ceriatone uses/used, are crap.

Any truth to this?
Nope, old old story that happened years ago with different trafos, and took the shape of a "every Ceriatone tranny since the dawn of history to end of the days sucked and will suck hard"
 
Not crap . BUT if you really get way up there in volume they won’t perform like more expensive transformers in my experience.
Mmm in what way? It's an Eq thing? I didnt notice my Yeti sounding bad at band volumes honestly.
 
Not crap . BUT if you really get way up there in volume they won’t perform like more expensive transformers in my experience.
The volume on those has to do with the taper of pot Nic used. A lot of Jose type amps use a Reverse audio or linear taper. Nic uses audio which requires you to turn it up more.
 
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I've read online about people saying that the trannies Ceriatone uses/used, are crap.

Any truth to this?
Thats one of those things where a couple people had issues 10+ years ago. I know Nik is proud of the quality of his builds and he has put a lot of effort into his amps. I've asked him about adding or modding some stuff and he will advise against it if he doesn't think it makes sense or it will have drawbacks in other areas.

I bought a 2204 from him without transformers and with them and I didn't see any noticeable improvement with the classictone transformers. If anything they have over engineered the hell out of them(they also probably weigh twice the amount of regular transformers.)
 
Mmm in what way? It's an Eq thing? I didnt notice my Yeti sounding bad at band volumes honestly.
Yeah this won’t be a deal breaker for most people because I’m talking very loud volumes. Any tube amp I get I like to see what kind of headroom is possible. I can play very loud in my basement and stand far away enough that I don’t blow out my ears. But compared to other 100 waters I have I could easily get the 100w King Kong to where it would start to give out.. Its like driving a stick and pushing to far past the power ban in any gear. There is nothing left and pushing it more just makes the tone start to fall apart and overly compress.

Thats not to say that if you change the transformers the amp will sound better. It’s just a matter of what type of performance are you looking for. I think Ceriatone is an amazing value at the price point.
 
The volume on those has to do with the taper of pot Nic used. A lot of Jose type amps use a Reverse audio or linear taper. Mic uses audio which requires you to turn it up more.

Would that be something that Nik from Ceriatone would swap out as a customer request?
 
Hope your ready to wait . If your buying direct at least
 
Yeah this won’t be a deal breaker for most people because I’m talking very loud volumes. Any tube amp I get I like to see what kind of headroom is possible. I can play very loud in my basement and stand far away enough that I don’t blow out my ears. But compared to other 100 waters I have I could easily get the 100w King Kong to where it would start to give out.. Its like driving a stick and pushing to far past the power ban in any gear. There is nothing left and pushing it more just makes the tone start to fall apart and overly compress.

Thats not to say that if you change the transformers the amp will sound better. It’s just a matter of what type of performance are you looking for. I think Ceriatone is an amazing value at the price point.
I see, I guess we are talking insanely loud tho, I've tried to raise up some volume at rehearsal in Plexi NMV mode, and honestly after a certain point it gets unusable, too loud for anything. But sounded good there, so it likely wasn't the volume point you tried.
One thing to be noticed is that, unlike the chupa, the yeti in Plexi mode won't deliver the super ear piercing bright tone of many SLP so many likes, it's a more balanced and smooth sound in the upper frequencies.

Would that be something that Nik from Ceriatone would swap out as a customer request?
You mean the pot? Sure, no problem. But I don't see the point, the log pot makes sure you have a good amount of low volume possibilities before getting unbearable
 
You mean the pot? Sure, no problem. But I don't see the point, the log pot makes sure you have a good amount of low volume possibilities before getting unbearable

Cool cool.

Does the Chupa have a good master volume?
 
The volume on those has to do with the taper of pot Nic used. A lot of Jose type amps use a Reverse audio or linear taper. Nic uses audio which requires you to turn it up more.

Not sure why he does tho. Maybe to make the overall volume more usable? Not sure, but in 90's mode my Yeti is really damn quiet, especially when playing with my band, when the other guitar player uses his DSL15 or his Dual Terror he totally dominates the mix (also thanks to his damn ear piercing bright setup and EQ). That is until the Yeti pots gets to 8, then the amp opens up suddendly and gets brutal as heck. No big deal, but still at times a more linear volume would be welcome.
 
The stock loop is just a simple passive loop, nothing special. The only problem with it, is the spacing. The jacks are 1" apart CtC, where Metro loops that have the jacks fixed to the board, are 1-1/2" apart.

Now, you could put a Metro loop in and drill a hole to line up with the Metro board, then use the other unused hole for a Return control, which on a multi channel amp is a good move as it can also be a global master volume (y)

Ceriatone's buffered loop kit is good though, and worth it.
 
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