New Amp Day! Dumble clone - Ceriatone HRM with mods

So at some point I had sold enough amps, and guitar bodies that my Paypal account was ridiculously large. It was burning a hole in my pocket and I wanted to splurge. So since I had a plethora of guitars I decided I'd get me a nice amp---but, most amp companies of any worth run $1000 and up to $5000. But I didn't have the top end cash-fundage, and I already had comparable amps that would handle the low end range. So what I needed was a high end amp for a low cost, or in other words a clone (or a smokin' good deal on a used one).  One of the clone companies I had read about was Ceriatone amps and I was always hesitant to jump feet first in because the company was based out of Malaysia. There weren't any shops nearby that had these amps so quality and reliability were just word of mouth. But I was feeling adventurous so I perused their website...

There were a ton of amp clones on their page with different levels of package deals (just the parts, assembled parts, assembled parts with tubes, or assembled parts with tubes and cabinet). I figured I'd use my wood working skills to build me a cabinet for it, but my soldering skills needed much more work. I opted for the chassis prebuilt, no tubes as that would make it the easiest and the most cost effective. But which amp?

I already had Fenders and I was not impressed by Marshalls. The site had Hiwatt clones, Matchless clones, Dumble clones, Trainwreck clones, and the hot rodded Marhsall style clones (Soldano, etc). If this was going to be my only purchase from this site I wanted to get a hard to find amp. So what is the hardest amp to find? Well as of recent the Ken Fischer Trainwrecks have jumped up in popularity, but my eye was on the Stevie Ray Vaughn amp...the Dumble Over Drive Special (ODS), or as they called it the Overtone Special. Robben Ford used it and one of my guitar heroes John Mayer started using one (the Steel String Singer model). There were boutique amp companies cloning it (Rivera, Carol Ann, Quinnamps, Bludotone, etc.) but they were out of my price range. The Ceriatone was within my range - just under $1k for the prebuilt chassis (plus shipping) - so I figured I'd go for it, and get one of their clones.

Simple choice right? Wrong. Not only were there both 50w and 100w versions, but there were eight different Overtone Specials (so 16 total). Five were mods of the original ODS (ODS, S&M, 183, FM, Modern Eagle) and three were hot rodded versions referred to as "His Royal Majesty (HRM)" (HRM, Bluesmaster, MK2). I did my research on the bunch and wanted aspects of each, but couldn't decide which to get. It took an email to the owner Nik Azam to lead me to the HRM version with a few mods - a third switch for the midrange, a tonestack switch (stock, low bypass, and almost fully bypassed--the ODS sound), half power switch, and a treble bleed switch. Nik was great in his emails, responding same day if not the next (there is a slight timezone difference).  His honesty was obvious in the emails and he had gained the trust needed to overcome the hesitation of buying from an overseas dealer.

Overtone HRM 50W - Package 3 - $975; HRM bypass switch mod = $20; 3 way mid boost mod = $15; 6 way treble bleed mod = $20; 1/2 power switch mod = $15
Total cost: $1,189, plus I had to write out a check for $23.40 to UPS when it arrived for customs/duties.

The website said 6 weeks for the amp, and I ordered it July 12th, 2012. I expected it August 27th. I was lucky I planned my vacation the week of Aug 6th as it arrived Friday August 10th -- two weeks ahead of schedule.

Ceriatone's pack-job was the cream of the crop. My UPS guy was pretty nice in handling it, and the box looked unharmed. I cracked it open like a little kid on Christmas day. A very hot and humid Christmas day in August...







The chassis looked awesome. New toy! Now I just needed some tubes...


Looking at the amp itself, it's no wonder they said you could spend weeks on this amp trying to dial in your tone. First there is an input gain volume (and bright switch). This affects both channels so in the meantime I have only used it in the "2" position. The deep adds bass, the rock/jazz either tighten the low end (aka drop the low end) for jazz, or keeps it full for rock. The midboost is usually an on-off switch, but I had them create a third setting. The 3way switch between the mid and bass is the OTS/bypass/HRM tonestack setting which is only engaged with the dirty channel.  By bypassing the Treb/Mid/Bass your signal goes from the input to the output in one shot.  The switch between the preamp tube sockets is a local negative feedback switch. I haven't tried it just yet.


The overdrive channel has the most controls. The input gain affects the front end, while the Master controls the volume and the gain controls the distortion amount. On the back there is an "OD Trim" which I feel is best described as the saturation level. Between the three knobs, you'll be fiddling for a while trying to find your optimum gain. Add in the the tonestack switch on the front panel, and you have given yourself a new set of variables.  The last mod I did was a six way bright switch. This knob sits between "His" and "Royal" on the faceplate and is a rotary six way switch.


On the back there is a half switch, on switch, standby switch, OD trim, Output jacks, speaker impedance switch, effects loop and the channel switching section.




So that's the new toy. I still need to bias it and do a sound clip of it. And its a chassis only and currently sitting upside down as I don't have a cabinet.  My buddy Phil (former band member and former cabinet maker colleague) recently built a speaker cabinet with some direction from me. He liked his build and was on a roll so he agreed to build me a head cabinet. Now I gotta get a handle, rubber feet, and amp corners.



You can see his work on his blog here: feinline.blogspot.com

For the concerned builder or avid gear head, here are the gut shots:







































For David Ruiz...the footswitch:
So I'm not exactly sure where you can get the 5-pin, but if you do find one, let me know, cuz if mine goes missing, I'm gonna be stuck in the same boat...

The cable enters the footswitch here. Apparently it's a 6 wire cable (there's a red one tucked in there that wasn't used) and the wires are (L to R) Green, Brown, Black, Yellow, Orange. The colored wires are soldered in that order to the base of this 5 station solder terminal connector. Honestly they could go straight to the switches, but it looks prettier and probably minimizes the effect of the cable getting pulled. So each of the terminals has a grey wire coming off the terminal lug to the switches. For reference I'll call the grey wires the color of where it's connected to at the terminal connector.


On the opposite end is the plug, and the pins make an arc in the same wire order above. So when looking directly into the end of the plug, the L to R smiley face is Green, Brown, Black, Yellow, Orange.


Hopefully you can make out the diagram I drew. I'm not sure which lug (anode/diode) of the LED is which (although I think the negative side goes to the black connection), but I think that's the least of your concerns. Note on the bottom switch the top two sets of lugs are joined (in red on my diagram) and that the orange wire goes to the led, not the switch. The green image is the orange caps.The green and Brown control one toggle, and the orange and yellow control the other. The black is the common.



Sorry my camera's macro was being stupid and now my media card is freezing. Looks like these'll be the only photos I get off that one.