Ceriatone King Kong?

[FourT6and2]

I would check with Nik before doing anything crazy. I was just looking at the board layouts and the Yeti & Chupa are the only two that look similar. The other two are completely different looking. They can all be changed around though in one way or the other, however I would check with Nik to find out what to change to get what you may be after.

Like I said, if you know what you're doing, it's easy. If you have to ask Nik for advice, then go for it.

 

[Hydreigon]

I did ask nik if he could change the modern era switch setting to the molecular but he said the changes are more than that. He did say he could change the KK preamp from chupa to molecular if I wanted.

 

[FourT6and2]

I did ask nik if he could change the modern era switch setting to the molecular but he said the changes are more than that. He did say he could change the KK preamp from chupa to molecular if I wanted.

I want to make sure I understand what you're wanting to do. You currently have a normal, stock KK and you want to change the "modern" setting of the Era switch to mimic the Molecular's voicing on the "modern" setting of its Era switch?

If so, it's not hard to do this. It just depends on how far down the rabbit hole you want to go. The most basic and easy way is to simply replace the zener diodes and/or transistors used in your amp's Era switch to what the Molecular (Atomica) uses: MPSA06. That will take about 15 minutes. And all that will do is alter the clamping voltage of the Jose mod. I don't know off-hand what the KK has on the "Modern" position of its switch, though. It very well might already be MPSA06 transistors. You'll have to look in your amp to find out. But my educated guess is, the KK uses zener diodes. Most likely what the Yeti and Chupa have, which is something like 10v - 5v diodes.

If you want to go even further, which maybe Nik thought you were asking, you would want to swap the large cap feeding the Jose master volume to match the Molecular's value (0.33uF).

Next step would be to change the first two gain stages to bias them like the Molecular instead of the attempted clone of the Cameron CCV values: 0.68uF/2k7.

Then just keep working your way through the circuit to match the Molecular's layout. The Molecular's layout is available on Ceriatone's website. So it's pretty easy to just compare it to what's in your amp and make the relevant changes. But this won't JUST change the sound of the amp on the "modern" Era switch setting. It will change the entire sound/feel of the amp.

The Era switch is simply a voltage clamping circuit (Jose master volume / diode clipping). To change the sound/feel of the diode clipping, you really only have two components to work with: the large DC-blocking cap coming off the cathode follower and the diodes/transistors themselves, which set the clipping threshold. Of course you could also add/remove/alter any "softening" resistors used to help cushion the effect of the clamping, a'la Friedman. Check out the Ultimate Tone book series chapters on voltage clamping, softening, and bounding for more info.

 

[Hydreigon]

Thanks for taking the time to reply FourT6 that information is very helpful.

My amp arrived not too long ago, it took 3 days total to ship.

It sounds absolutely wicked. It took some time before I figured out where I wanted everything set but now I am absolutely loving it. I love that I can footswitch from the '60s' mode to '80s' diode clipping.

I opted to have the buffered loop with on off switch installed. When I turn the loop on I get a decent amount of white noise, even when bridged with a quality patch cable. Is this normal?