I took the Ceriatone amp to play in the house band at a jam last night. Also took one of my Gibson 330’s but it fed back too much when things got louder, so I was using other people’s guitars, something I seldom do.
I was really happy with my playing, not least because I probably had the best live sound I’ve ever had. And that on strange guitars. The other people who played through it sounded great too. Every time I play it, I’m more convinced that it the best amp I’ve ever used or heard…
Had a couple of tonehound chums over last night. One had just received his new Ethos overdrive pedal with built in 30w amp.
As a fan of the Dumble sound and having tried an Ethos pedal previously, I was intrigued to see whether the version with the inbuilt amp would deliver.
It does. Perhaps not quite like a great boutique tube amp at full roar, but for a pedal that plus directly into a speaker, it’s amazing. All he benefits of the Ethos pedal – three settings, great sounds, plus no need to lug an amp.
Fantastic product. Must get one, despite the long waiting list….
..and a great sound enhancement. I’ve been looking into power attenuators, so that I can scale the output volume of my various amps to the venues I play. A 50w Marshall may be a beautiful amp but it’s useless if you can’t crank it.
At the moment, I’m confused by the many products on the market at wildly varying prices, and by the many posts decrying this or that solution. My search is made harder by the fact that few UK dealers carry attenuators at all, and then only one of max. two brands, making meaningful inter-product comparisons impossible.
And then there are the interesting new speakers whose efficiencies, and therefore loudnesses are adjustable by means of their magnetic flux! (No good in closed-back cabinets, though!).
In the meantime, I continue to gig, and I’ve found an excellent temporary solution. A CUSHION IN FRONT OF THE SPEAKER! Sure, you lose some top end, but you can make the amp work harder without deafening the audience and obliterating the rest of the band. Works in rehearsal and for home practice too.
Broken hand held up for August 29 gig and it went pretty well, but I realise I need something to keep my amps cooking while not throwing out too much sound. Ie a power amp attenuator.
But what kind? – there are lots out there at all kinds of different price points, and not many retailers stock much of a range to hear and compare….
… Not much playing going on right now as I broke my hand in a mountain bike crash a few days ago. Shiiiit. Got a gig Sunday too – not sure how I’m gonna handle that one!
…playing various guitars through the Ceriatone after a long drive listening to the amazing Matt Schofield.
I was looking for the single setting on which I could leave the amp all night and get all my sounds from the guitar’s volume control, so I turned the amp up and the guitars down.
A whole new world of tones from the ’58 Sunburst, ’61/2 Strat and Dan Armostrong. Well on the way to tone heaven now…
A friend of mine who is an amp designer once told me that his great sadness was that the most important part of guitar sound apart from the player was the speaker(s).
I’ve now had a chance to test my new Ceriatone Overtone Special through a variety of speakers : modern and vintage EV12L; Fane Alnico Blue; Eminence Deltalite neodymium; Celestion Vintage 30’s and a VHT Eminence.
The clear winner for clean and overdrive is the vintage EV in the CCC ported/closed-back Thiele cab, though you sometimes have to watch the thump. My other vintage EV in an open-back 1×12 is nearly, but not quite, as good and there’s less thump. The modern EV is really good, too, probably the best of what is available today for this purpose.
The Deltalite is great and being Neodymium it’s much lighter, though it lacks the depth and texture of the EV’s. The Fane is also very good, especially on overdrive. Quite creamy.
The little VHT Sounds boxy, but to be fair it was bundled with their excellent Special 6 amp and the whole package was just over £200. The big surprise disappointment is the Celestion Vintage 30’s, which I have mounted in a pair of really sturdy Blackstar 1×12 cabs – both examples sound really gnarly and add an unpleasant grind, even to clean sounds.
Hopefully my next post will be abut how my various stompboxes interact with the Ceriatone….
At last, long-awaited, much anticipated, picked it up yesterday with its custom-made Thiele ported 1×12 cab. After some listening we chose to use one of my 20 year-old EV12L speaker drivers. People rave about them on the forums and makers like Fuchs recommend them for ‘D style’ amps, and it sounds really good.
Very early impression is that this amp sings. I’ll be posting some pix and reporting back once I’ve played various guitars through it. Looking forward to playing it in anger at band rehearsal this weekend too. More follows….
Here are the speaker and amp cabs.
The amp was installed yesterday, collecting Monday, then it’s down which speaker? Starting choices include vintage EV12L and Eminence, fun and games, can’t wait…
