SSS - cathode follower tube?

[bmcash]

Hi everyone. A member performed a modification on a Ceriatone SSS but adding in a cathode follower tube. I understand the process of how to complete this, but what does this do to an amp? Increase headroom? Change the tone? The details are below. Thanks for looking


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!

[groovtubin]

Hi everyone. A member performed a modification on a Ceriatone SSS but adding in a cathode follower tube. I understand the process of how to complete this, but what does this do to an amp? Increase headroom? Change the tone? The details are below. Thanks for looking


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!

AWesome! Look fwd! I`m up north of you in Moravian Falls NC, have a friend in Spartanburg w/some modded amps, maybe we can ampfest together sometime! I`l be building a SSS in near future, 2B honest, not really lookin fwd to it, the ODS`s have been my fav for awhile!

jim@Omegaamps