Ceriatone Overtone Special 50. C-Lator REPAIR and TONES !!

An Overtone Special has come in because the c-lator external buffered effect loop has stropped working. Bench time on the repair, and while I have the amp let's try and bond with the overdrive channel.
0:00 Play in
1:52 Intro
7:04 Tones
9:19 Fault description
10:08 At the bench
28:48 Outro
headfirstamplification.com
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Signal path:
Guitar - Amp - Suhr RL - Suhr Hedgehog 2x12 IR - Apollo Twin - Logic Pro

[@stevelark9840]

Well done on a thorough walkthrough of the repair process and overview of the OTS50. Loving your videos and channel, Jason.

[@HeadfirstAmps]

Thanks Steve!

[@murraysanders7779]

I have about 10 tube amps but the Ceriatone 100/50 watt O/T special with the C Labor is my favourite , I've owned mine for about 8 years , there's something about these amps that makes you play better , I run a Boomerang chorus /delay pedal in the effects loop and that's it tone heaven

[@TheAxe4Ever]

Great video! Nik certainly does some excellent work with his build quality. He obviously takes pride in his work. Quite a long wait time when you order an amp from him and I can see why. Lot’s of demand and he takes his time to build an amp right. I’ve been waiting for one of his Chupacabra 100’s since the first week of June and can’t wait to get it. I’m sure it’ll be worth the wait!

[@HeadfirstAmps]

The Chupa is a great amp.

[@phillamoore157]

Amen....I couldn't decide on the Chupa or the Yeti, and decided to go for the Yeti. Nik said the clan on the yeti should be a bit warmer. I put my order in at the end of May, myself. I'm chomping at the bit to get mine, as well. I want to have my Yeti in front of me when I jump into building my Headfirst amp, as somewhat of a reference point. With all the supply chain issues, it wouldn't surprise me if I don't get it till early Feb, unfortunately. Oh well....it is what it is.

[@HeadfirstAmps]

Nik’s layout diagrams are a great reference!

[@russoloco1662]

The cathode/grid are in a bootstrapped configuration which lowers the impedance and signal to noise ratio far better than just a run-of-the-mill cathode follower. It also allows a hotter signal to come from wherever before the triode saturates. I'd do it with different values for an even lower send impedance but that should be fine for most line level devices.

[@Hakujap1]

Oh yeah baby!!!

[@TeleCaster66]

Ive found, for me, it takes a period of time to figure out any amp I buy. When I went from playing Marshall and Marshall type amps to Fender and Fender type amps it took a long time to make the Fender sound work for me. 40 years of pretty serious playing for whatever that's worth.

[@RDamps]

Get your Carlton/Ford on baby yeah!!

[@jamesprice6381]

Imho. The voltage used in Aussie land makes these amps sound waaay more muscular than US versions

[@metart93]

Seems to be biased a bit cold no? IIRC a 50W ODS should be around 34ma to get the most out of it. Nik recommends between 35-40ma.

[@matthewf1979]

It’s all about extenuating the mids in these amp. Electric guitar just comes alive when you don’t scoop the natural frequencies with “standard” guitar amplifier EQing. That’s where almost all of the gain is! With the right coupling caps in the phase inverter and no tone control, you can get some bitching sounds out of a lot of circuits. It’s not very versatile like that, but neither are the ODS’s out there. Dumble made these amps for very specific people that wanted a very specific sound. I’ve messed around with the non lead JMP circuit. 10nf coupling caps in the PI and lifted the mids pot ground(no eq). The harmonics fly off the fingerboard!

[@seancuomo7762]

Great Job! Can your zero loss loop work in this amp without having to use an external loop? Thanks for sharing.

[@HeadfirstAmps]

Hi Sean, yeah it should work fine in this amp.

[@Frankentoane]

Headfirst dumble pcbs coming?

[@nj1255]

I've never played, or even heard, a real Dumble in person but I feel like this Ceriatone sounds quite bright compared to the Dumble amps I've heard on records and videos. Could it be that the one it's modeled after is a bit brighter? Sounds great anyhow! Wouldn't mind having one 😅

[@HeadfirstAmps]

They are not easy to dial in I found. So much variation between the various drive channel controls, FET input etc etc. You can dial out more of the brightness I think, but I like to maintain a bit of cut.

[@matthewf1979]

The Steel String Singer’s I have heard are very snappy and bright. Especially running through a couple of JBL D-120F’s. You can hear Jackson Browne’s SSS on SRV’s Texas Flood throughout the album The Overdrive Specials from what I can remember were very upper mid, nasally higher gain(for the time) tone. These amps changed hands all over Southern California in the 90’s(they were special, but not that special) and you’d see them on the Sunset Strip. Not so much now that they’re going for $100k

[@HeadfirstAmps]

Great info Matt, tnx for posting.

[@RDamps]

I find most pro’s favour a brighter tone than you imagine. You have to be on top of your game for sure.

[@Mark70609]

Nik’s wiring of the amps is top notch. However, the cab’s are a bit disappointing, they aren’t as good quality as from Marshall or Fender. You can buy the fully made chassis and use a third party cab which is suede like the originals. I don’t know if Jason tried it in his demo, but to nail the Robben Ford sound, you want to be driving the cathode follower quite hard so it distorts. This fattens the sound of the amp. I built a Brown Note kit which was more or less this amp with 6V6’s.

[@placeholder7044]

Does anyone have a schematic for the C-Lator?

[@HeadfirstAmps]

ceriatone.com/c-lator/ It’s a layout, but should be enough for what you are looking for

[@placeholder7044]

@@HeadfirstAmps Thank you for helping me. Have an amazing day!!!

[@Gek_Sogen]

Moding it to Friedman....

[@russellesimonetta3835]

Uhhh, dumbles are basically a fender type amp that you can unscoop the mids and is more second order hamonics rich.

[@brianleecooper1814]

great vid Nik ive got the same amp love the cleans but trying to find a good sounding drive, but not much luck any advice had this amp about a year running through 2 x 1x12 jenson black bird speakers at 4 ohms. what are your settings for the c-lator ? what volume are you running at ? i really dont wont to sell after hearing so many great vids of this amp many thanks brian UK

[@murraysanders7779]

@@brianleecooper1814 I've got some great amps but I tend to favour playing through Niks Ceriatone OTS , mine is the 100w/50w version with the built in Clator which I have a chorus and delay running through it and that's it , I don't need any other pedals , the head is running through 2 12 inch celestion redbacks in special cabinets I built myself like an old style inverted W bin which spreads the sound throughout the room evenly , my Clator knobs are all about 11 o'clock hope that helps , they are truly a fantastic amp