Ceriatone Plexi 50 build

[Rotorcraft230]

So my son has been taking college courses and got his associates degree and for his accomplishments he wanted a amp kit to build.

Here it is a Ceriatone Plexi 50. This is his second amp, the first was a Ceriatone Overtone Special. He did a great job and has been gigging it along with the All Access 51 which I built. He wanted an amp that he could mod and gig with great reliability. He is 20 and it’s the Plexi sound that he likes the most.So here we go. Follow along and watch the build.

Here is some descriptions of some of the parts

Big filter caps have Nichicon P/N on them which is great.

Cliff jacks

Alpha pots

TAD coupling caps

Belton sockets

Very nice chassis and the potentiometer mounting holes have the locks as well which I like a lot.

Nik rocks and it arrived at my house with in the week, CRAZY, 1/2 way around the world in a week, stupid good

Cheers I’ll be posting pics.

 

[Marcomel79]

Cant stand still huh? I will follow religiously like all your other builds

 

[ReWind James]

Does your variac have an ammeter built into the dial?!

I understand how that could work there, just never would have crossed my mind to do it like that. Brilliant! Your mod or factory?

 

[Rotorcraft230]

Does your variac have an ammeter built into the dial?!

I understand how that could work there, just never would have crossed my mind to do it like that. Brilliant! Your mod or factory?

The meter on the top is for output volts. I have 2 ways I can measure current. My old school Weston 433, or my Fluke. Believe it or not the Weston is just as accurate as the Fluke. And the meter on the Variac is a factory option. They rarely come up on eBay, I have 2.

 

[Rotorcraft230]

He mounted some components and got the heaters hooked up.

 

[ReWind James]

The meter on the top is for output volts. I have 2 ways I can measure current. My old school Weston 433, or my Fluke. Believe it or not the Weston is just as accurate as the Fluke. And the meter on the Variac is a factory option. They rarely come up on eBay, I have 2.View attachment 122932View attachment 122933View attachment 122934

Both of those are beautiful pieces of equipment. I prefer an analog needle for monitoring mains current on my amp repair bench, as well.

I guess my cheapest variac did sort of came with an ammeter in the dial - you can feel it humming when the current gets going!

 

[Marcomel79]

We are waiting!

 

[Rotorcraft230]

Here it is, I wanted to get him to do the thread but he wasn’t too interested in that.

Sounds very much like his Ceriatone Plexi 51.

The purpose of this amp was to build and mod, he has been wanting to mod the amps but I won’t let him mod the ones I built so I bought this one for him.

He has been doing lots of Rob Robenette stuff and learning what he likes and doesn’t like, it’s a great amp to learn on.

 

[kysrsoze]

Looks great. Nice wiring work.

I’m thinking about ordering one of these Ceriatone kits at some point. I’ve built one amp but had very detailed instructions to work with, so i still consider myself a novice. I looked at the website and there are only the user guide and layout files. Do any additional instructions or mod option notes come with the kit? I think I can still figure out things, just rather slowly.

 

[Rotorcraft230]

Looks great. Nice wiring work.

I’m thinking about ordering one of these Ceriatone kits at some point. I’ve built one amp but had very detailed instructions to work with, so i still consider myself a novice. I looked at the website and there are only the user guide and layout files. Do any additional instructions or mod option notes come with the kit? I think I can still figure out things, just rather slowly.

Niks kits are very good and they sound awesome as well, that’s about all we build, easily available and his shipping for the kits is stupid fast.

There aren’t any instructions other than the layout. The layout is good and I haven’t had any issues with them. They are correct and complete, some of the wires aren’t drawn but he uses a point to point method. For example he will have a component marked “HT 1” you have to find the other “HT 1” and complete the wiring. It’s easy enough, you just should know some amp wire dress basics, not too hard.

 

[kysrsoze]

Yes, a week from overseas is super-fast compared with the 4-6 month time for an assembled one. I’ve heard nothing but good about these amps.

Thanks for the tips on the kit. I’ve got a lead dress guide from ax84.com that I used on the prior build, so I’ll just read through that again.

 

[Rotorcraft230]

Kits to me are the way to go, bigger transformers, more robust parts and the ease of modding.

Nik has a lot to choose from, surely there are models there for your tastes.

Cheers

 

[Seanyblee]

He mounted some components and got the heaters hooked up.View attachment 122935

I’m at this step on a 100 watt build. Do you have an image of how you’re wiring up the LED indicator? Is it jumping off V5?

 

[Rotorcraft230]

I’m at this step on a 100 watt build. Do you have an image of how you’re wiring up the LED indicator? Is it jumping off V5?

I do believe so, I didn’t build it. Is does say on the indicator 6v. That would be the closest spot.