Pulled the trigger on a Ceriatone DC30 kit today
I’ve listed to a lot of sound clips, read a lot of forum posts and magazine reviews and visited a lot of guitar shops lately in my quest for an amp. In the end I decided that I would rather build a kit that is almost exactly what I want rather than try to modify a factory built amp. There are a couple of reasons for this decision: First, I don’t want to spend a fortune on an amp. I can build a complete kit amp for my $1000 limit. Second, I didn’t want to hack apart a factory built amp to install power scaling. Sure, it’s easy enough, but I’d rather build the power scaling in as part of the amp. Finally, well, I just enjoy building things. Building amps gives me a great sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.
I looked at a number of kits from Allen Amplification, Metropoulos, Trinity, Weber, Mojotone, Ceriatone Amplification and others. I looked at more DIY projects from The AX84 Project and the 18 Watt forum. I looked at, and listed to, a lot of amps over the past week. Most of the kits tend to focus on the established Marshall and Fender tones (especially 18 watt and Deluxe Reverb, respectively). And, to be honest, they are great tones indeed. I was especially impressed with the various JTM45 clones from Ceriatone and Metropoulos, and the 18 watt kits from Trinity. Trinity, has a killer 18 watt “SIII” kit that uses both EL84 and 6V6 output tubes. Steven Cohrs from Trinity comes across as being super-helpful and this is a great sounding amplifier, so this is the first runner up.
Ultimately, I decided to go with a Ceriatone kit based around the Matchless DC30. I remember reading the DC30 reviews when Matchless first introduced this amp back in the early ‘90s, and after listening to them I could understand what all the hype was about. Now I’m going to build my own. (Why build a kit instead of just buying a real Matchless? The Ceriatone kit, when complete, should set me back about $1000 including the amp, cabinet and speakers. A used Matchless would be double that. Also, I’m going to install power scaling and don’t have any reservations about modifying a kit, but I’m not sure I would want to fire up my soldering iron and drill to go to work on a vintage Matchless.)
I emailed Nic at Ceriatone a few times today to ask questions about their amps and if they would do mine a bit differently from most to accommodate power scaling. He was very responsive and easy to work with so I decided to go for it and placed my order. The amp will basically be a DC30 and Nik is going to do the assembly with a few custom tweaks. I asked that the amp be build without Ceriatone’s stock transformers and choke; instead, I will use the OEM transformers and choke supplied by West Labs. There’s nothing wrong with the parts that Ceriatone supplies, but I’ve read that the West Labs units might be slightly better. Besides, the difference in price will be offset by the cost of shipping. I also asked Nik to eliminate the half/full power switch from the circuit—no reason to have a half power switch when I have power scaling. The speaker polarity selector switch will be relocated to where the half power switch usually lives. This frees up the space for the power scaling control on the back panel. As a side benefit, this locates the power scaling near the mains input and transformer—and away from the input jacks and preamp circuit—where electrical noise is less of a concern. Nice. One thing that I won’t be changing is the super-cool yellow chicken head knobs—they rock!
Now I just need to order the transformers from West Labs and the PSK-2 power scaling kit from London Power. I’m still not sure what I’m going to do about a cabinet (1x12 or 2x12 combo), but I’m thinking about asking a local woodworker to make something in Zebrawood with a Wenge front panel. A Dragonfly laser engraved on the front and half-blind dovetail joints on the corners… yeah, that would be sharp. Very sharp.
With any luck, all the parts will be here by the end of the month or Early January and I can put it all together! Stay tuned....