NAD; Ceriatone Molecular

Bad.Seed

Bad.Seed

Well-known member
Long story short, this amp rips. Traded my 88 2204 for the molecular and some cash. Didn’t really know what to expect, but my curiosity was piqued.

Love at first chord. This thing kind of reminds me of a Friedman BE style circuit but with more saturation, the Marshall mods mostly left in tact, and a crunchier, punchier low end. I’m really, really digging it so far, and it’s got me curious about the real deal, though that is a pipe dream at this point.

Here’s a short clip I posted, since I wont get to the real demo for a while
 
Sounds pretty good. Is that boosted or just a gate?

I think Ceriatone has some good designs, although they are just reproduced based on popular amps. The only thing I wonder about is the quality of the transformers at that price point. Building and selling an amp for $1200-1300 is extremely hard to do with quality parts and good transformers. And that's not even factoring in labor.
 
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Bad.Seed said:
Long story short, this amp rips. Traded my 88 2204 for the molecular and some cash. Didn’t really know what to expect, but my curiosity was piqued.

Love at first chord. This thing kind of reminds me of a Friedman BE style circuit but with more saturation, the Marshall mods mostly left in tact, and a crunchier, punchier low end. I’m really, really digging it so far, and it’s got me curious about the real deal, though that is a pipe dream at this point.

Here’s a short clip I posted, since I wont get to the real demo for a while
Click to expand...


If the layout on Ceriatone's website is accurate to what's actually in the amp, it's pretty close to the Friedman Atomica. A few differences but nothing major.
 
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Sorry guys, I'm a fuckin dummy. Yes, I had a boost out in front, the Electric Eye Mud Killer. This boost doesn't add much output at all, probably less than a TS9, but it adds some mids in a slighlty lower frequency than the ts9 and doesn't kill highs, tightens the low end wthout removing the punch.

This was also on the modern mode of the amp, which has bigger lows, more saturation, and is more low mid focused than the 80's mode. I like both modes quite a bit, and feel modern would probably be where I'd end up in my hardcore bands, and 80's mode for Bushido Code with a boosty boost.
 
You don’t see many of these on the used market right now, would like to run across one to try out. Great video, really like your demos
 
RedPlated said:
Sounds pretty good. Is that boosted or just a gate?

I think Ceriatone has some good designs, although they are just reproduced based on popular amps. The only thing I wonder about is the quality of the transformers at that price point. Building and selling an amp for $1200-1300 is extremely hard to do with quality parts and good transformers. And that's not even factoring in labor.
Click to expand...

Agreed about the transformers. I had a chupacabra with upgraded Merren transformers and, while I thought it sounded good before, it was a definite improvement.
 
Yes, I've definiterly heard many people saying the transformers are the weak part of these amps. I have a Ceriatonr 2204 clone that sounds phenominal right now, with Classic Tone transformers. It seems to get louder than the modded marshall ceriatones I've had, but it seemes the compression really reduces the cvolume on these amps. Otherwise, I've thought they sounded good, but never really been able to directly compare the amps with a transformer swap
 
RedPlated said:
Sounds pretty good. Is that boosted or just a gate?

I think Ceriatone has some good designs, although they are just reproduced based on popular amps. The only thing I wonder about is the quality of the transformers at that price point. Building and selling an amp for $1200-1300 is extremely hard to do with quality parts and good transformers. And that's not even factoring in labor.
Click to expand...
I don't think there transformers are bad at all to be honest. I know they have caught a bad rep but I have owned a ceriatone 2204 with classictone and with stock transformers plus I've owned a Molecular, leviathan and used ceriatone transformers in several builds. Maybe they had an issue a long time ago but they have corrected it. I feel like the overengineered their iron at this point
 
Bad.Seed said:
Yes, I've definiterly heard many people saying the transformers are the weak part of these amps. I have a Ceriatonr 2204 clone that sounds phenominal right now, with Classic Tone transformers. It seems to get louder than the modded marshall ceriatones I've had, but it seemes the compression really reduces the cvolume on these amps. Otherwise, I've thought they sounded good, but never really been able to directly compare the amps with a transformer swap
Click to expand...
You still have the monomyth 2204 with the classictones? That amp came out nice. I'm building a new 2204 and it really sucks not having classictone around
 
mhenson42 said:
Agreed about the transformers. I had a chupacabra with upgraded Merren transformers and, while I thought it sounded good before, it was a definite improvement.
Click to expand...

I know I've said this before but I also have a chupa100 that I made some slight tweaks too so it's closer to the molecular and also installed some mercury magnectics iron on it that gives me around 545v to the plates.. it's one of the best sounding amps I have heard both tone wise and feel for that modded marshall type tone. The build quality is amazing from Nik's crew. I think now they have over designed the transformers for these.
 
Sounds great. Would love to hear it without the boost and how it cleans up. ...Also, I wish they would get a better loop, just based on what I've read.
 
Bad.Seed said:
Sorry guys, I'm a fuckin dummy. Yes, I had a boost out in front, the Electric Eye Mud Killer. This boost doesn't add much output at all, probably less than a TS9, but it adds some mids in a slighlty lower frequency than the ts9 and doesn't kill highs, tightens the low end wthout removing the punch.

This was also on the modern mode of the amp, which has bigger lows, more saturation, and is more low mid focused than the 80's mode. I like both modes quite a bit, and feel modern would probably be where I'd end up in my hardcore bands, and 80's mode for Bushido Code with a boosty boost.
Click to expand...

If it were me, I'd ditch the boost pedal and set internal trim pot to 470K, replace 8K B+ resistor with a 5K for a total of 10K to raise preamp voltages a little (might need to adjust loop a bit to compensate since it draws power from B+). Original amp's NFB is 82K on 8ohm tap, so set the NFB control somewhere around there. The Feel/Bleed control is set a bit too high compared to the original amp and other similar designs. 82K or 68K would be a little better and yield a tighter, clearer sound as you increase gain. And if you really want to put some icing on the cake, replace OT with a Merren or Marstran 50W JMP. All of these changes will give the amp more upper-mid snarl and character and a tighter, more angry response. If that's what you're after.
 
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I loved your Chupacabra demo. So much I've been on the hunt for one for a while now. Which of the two models do you like better? (Chupa vs Molecular).
 
FourT6and2 said:
If it were me, I'd ditch the boost pedal and set internal trim pot to 470K, replace 8K B+ resistor with a 5K for a total of 10K to raise preamp voltages a little (might need to adjust loop a bit to compensate since it draws power from B+). Original amp's NFB is 82K on 8ohm tap, so set the NFB control somewhere around there. The Feel/Bleed control is set a bit too high compared to the original amp and other similar designs. 82K or 68K would be a little better and yield a tighter, clearer sound as you increase gain. And if you really want to put some icing on the cake, replace OT with a Merren or Marstran 50W JMP. All of these changes will give the amp more upper-mid snarl and character and a tighter, more angry response. If that's what you're after.
Click to expand...
Great info! Thanks for sharing
 
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