Initial thoughts about the Ceritatone DC30, Part II
With my PRS success still fresh in my mind, I switched back to the Weddington Custom tonight, trying to dial in some better tones with this guitar.
I started by cranking the bridge pickup to 10, but dialed down the volume to the neck pickup to six or seven. Much better. It seems that the Benedetto pickup that was installed in the neck position just too bassy and overwhelmed the DiMarzio in the bridge position. With the neck pickup rolled back, the sound is thicker and creamier than the PRS. It feels more powerful, too, which is ironic since the PRS’ pickups drive the amp into overdrive far more easily. To my ears, the DC30 and Weddington now yield a nice overdriven crunch through this amp. If the PRS/Ceritone DC30 combination ventured into Brian May’s territory, the Weddington/DC30 were more like vintage Thin Lizzy. Jail Break, maybe. The sounds were darker, thicker and, to my ear, a bit crunchier. Rolling up the neck pickup to 9 or 10 gave a bit more power for single-note runs, though it brought some of the flab back. Rolling off the neck pickup even more—down to five—and rolling off the bridge pickup cleaned the sound up a bit. Not perfectly clean tones, but cleaner. So the PRS/DC30 is a bit more biting, a bit more modern. The Weddington/DC30 is a bit darker and probably quite good for southern and blues rock.
I think I need to look at the Weddington’s wiring, though. The PRS was quiet, even using the single coil settings, but the Weddington exhibited a bit of hum in single coil mode. Not enough to be distracting while playing, but enough to be noticeable when it was quite. The pots are also a concern. While I can roll off the neck pickup’s volume down to five or six, most of the good tones seem to be in the 8-9 range, and going from 9-10 is a noticeable change.
While I could easily live with setup, I think new pickup would really bring out the best in this guitar. Darkburst, anyone?
It probably isn’t fair to compare the two guitars—especially when I started out talking about an amp—but each one has individual personalities. The Weddington Custom is like a ‘71 Hemi Cuda—big, ballsy and powerful. The PRS is more like a Ferrari F430—sharp, fast, snarling. The Ceriatone DC30 works well with both of them, showing the individual flavors of each guitar. The amp highlights the difference between the two guitars, which I think is as it should be—the DC30 doesn’t mask the sound of the guitar or make them homogeneous, but let’s each one sound distinct. Moreover, tweaking individual settings—pickup selection, volume and tone settings—has a pronounced effect, which is another sign of a good amp. Weaknesses? I think tightening the amp’s bass response, especially the EF86 channel, would be an improvement. And I’d like the 6-position tone twitch to be a bit more versatile. Otherwise, I’m happy for now. That’s not to say that I won’t be building another amp in the near future, but that the DC30 will be around for a while while I uncover it’s secrets and coax it into giving up even better tones.
Now if I could just get power scaling working, I’d be a happy camper.