my ceriatone SSS w/ cathode follower project

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sck1001931
Posts: 20
Joined: Sat Jan 18, 2014 5:23 am
Location: corpus christi, tx

my ceriatone SSS w/ cathode follower project

Post by sck1001931 »

so ive got a ceriatone SSS that I did a few modifications to and now it sounds like absolute gold. using information I found on TAG I took out the bias pot, widened the hole that was about 3/8 of inch so that I was big enough to fit the 9 pin socket through, I used one of those cone shaped grinding bits and used a shopvac for the the shavings. the hard part was widening the hole but after getting the socket in the whole process of hooking it up didn't take long at all. I went with a 12bz7 cathode follower tube but the 12ax7 worked just as good. I used some of mhartman's layout and a schematic of sss 001 that I found on here. Anyways it turned out great and this thing sounds incredible. a friend of mine has a Sebago sound texas flood(which is a very great sounding amp) and mine sounded better. I will say that I also had all NOS tubes and his are all new production tubes however.
I also replaced the 2 electrolytic caps on the preamp from 22mfd 450volts(Holy Grail) to 20uf 500volts (Sprague atom) which made a big difference. Not as bright, very smooth chords as well as great sustain, shimmering cleans and true SSS tone. The Sprague atom addition made the amp a lot cleaner too whereas before the amp could breakup rather soon. The cathode follower was easy to do and anyone who has some amp building experience should be able to pull it off. if not a tech should be able to do it for you and it wouldn't be that expensive. Very great improvent adding the cathode follower.

I also used a resistor to set the bias. I took out the bias pot to make room for the tube socket but ill probably put the bias pot back in. I was going to order one of the fender style bias pots to put in it so I wouldn't have to drill another hole in the chassis.

Also I filled in the "S" cutout and painted a "steel string singer" stencil I made on the faceplate. then I got 11 dumble knobs off ebay for 15 bucks. after adding the vox black diamond grill cloth this amp looks as cool as it sounds. These are some additions that weren't hard but were a great improvement! ill post some gut shots as soon as I get a chance with some sound clips too! This whole thing only cost me about 80 dollars in parts which certainly beats the 5000 and up price tag for similar amps that I couldn't afford!
will add gut shots soon!
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Last edited by sck1001931 on Fri Mar 07, 2014 1:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
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mhartman
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Re: my ceriatone SSS w/ cathode follower project

Post by mhartman »

Looks great. Also, I'm glad that it sounds great (which is even more important). So, did that cathode follower design work (the one that you posted above)? That was from a rambling post that I did way back -- I wasn't sure if it would work or not. I ended up going with a tweaked version for my last SSS (the one that I posted around here somewhere).

Enjoy that cool amp!

BTW, you should offer this as an upgrade service to Ceriatone SSS owners. I know that there are a lot of folks out there who would like to have the cathode follower installed in their amp. I've tried it both ways in the same amp and much prefer the amp with the CF.
sck1001931
Posts: 20
Joined: Sat Jan 18, 2014 5:23 am
Location: corpus christi, tx

Re: my ceriatone SSS w/ cathode follower project

Post by sck1001931 »

thanks a lot man. yeah this one worked great but I did a few tweeks myself to get it to work and be stable I noticed the schematic also had some different values at the plates on the reverb return so I might change them to see how that sounds. ive got a lot of the information I found. do you have the schematic that you ended up using? I just had your layout to your completed one that helped a lot but I didn't find that schematic.

I would love to offer that to people too. itd be great to work on amps more on the side. im a musician but every year or two I have to take a break (like now) to make money selling cars. which is the worst...but I make cabinets too so hopefully after I save enough money from this car selling stint I can do more amp & cabinet work for others.

id love to see that other schematic you were talking about if you have it man. also great job on yours. your amp was inspire-ingly great looking!
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mhartman
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Re: my ceriatone SSS w/ cathode follower project

Post by mhartman »

Thanks man. Enjoy that amp.

BTW, your friend should do a checkup on his/her Sebago amp (tubes/bias/etc). The one that I played had a really nice sound to it.
sck1001931
Posts: 20
Joined: Sat Jan 18, 2014 5:23 am
Location: corpus christi, tx

Re: my ceriatone SSS w/ cathode follower project

Post by sck1001931 »

I agree man, the texas flood is a great amp and sounded awesome when I played it. But mine really sounded better. I did and do have way better tubes though. his are all new production and Im running 4 STR 387's in the power section and all NOS GE & RCA in the preamp which adds a lot to mine.
bmcash
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Joined: Thu Dec 29, 2011 7:33 pm
Location: South Carolina

Re: my ceriatone SSS w/ cathode follower project

Post by bmcash »

What exactly does the cathode follower do to the amp, technically and tonally?
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M Fowler
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Location: Walcott ND

Re: my ceriatone SSS w/ cathode follower project

Post by M Fowler »

Question regarding the bias of this circuit. So both sck1001931 and mhartman are using a fixed resistor for bias rather then bias pot?

Mark

EDIT found the answer in mhartman's SSS thread
mhartmen This amp layout does not have a "bias knob". I wanted to build the bias section as hefty as possible given the cathode follower setup, so I followed SSS04's lead and just used a resistor to ground (the 130K to ground in the PI section). Adjust this resistor to adjust the power tube bias.
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