Hey guys, long time reader, not many time poster Love the site! Has kept me reading for a long time now. I am the proud owner of a Ceriatone Expression that I bought second hand. It has a few mods which many consider sins (PPIMV, Tube Buffered FX Loop - all done before I bought it) but probably the biggest difference is the tube compliment that I run.
V1 - 12AY7
V2 - 12AT7
V3 - 12AX7
Power - EL34
I reckon it's great for the music I like to play (blues kinda stuff)
I posted a few videos on youtube (I'm just starting to play again after breakin gmy hand in October so please excuse the clumking/bashing/clanging style )
Your Ceriatone Express a whole heck of a lot better than mine. I get a lot of noise even after I repaired the broken shielded wire coming of the input jack to pin 7 on V1 and made a bottom chassis plate. I tried moving things around and that did not help. Also I got a grounding problem. I have been trying to get the bugs out for many months.
Hey thanks man. I definitely didn't build it (Nik gets all the Kudos for that), I just roll valves and play guitars I wish I could help you out - maybe send Nik an email, he is a dead set legend!
I have talked many times with NIK and hard to figure out something by email. I will be trying a few tricks this weekend to end the ground loop problem that seems to be in this amp.
Well the good news is that I worked on my Express today and it is working very well.
I was having a ground loop problem and noise which we all know is not right. When talking with Nik he had suggested using a 15k resistor from the input to pin 7 on V1. That made my problems worse. I knew the area involved was the input area. A while ago I made up a new shielded wire for V1 that helped but still I was having ground loop issues. I knew it was not the AC wiring, not the tubes or anything to do with a shielding plate.
Today I did what I should done before. I got rid of the cliff style input jack and put in a swtichcraft switching jack. I think the problem was with the old jacks switching and grounding wire. That eliminated all the ground loop problems and I removed the 15k resistor as well. The amp was sounding good and very responsive, not parasitic like before. I had some hiss which is normal but I decided to shield the volume pot to pin 2 V1 and see what that did. It did not get rid of the hiss and that hiss is normal but I had to see anyway. I am pleased so I buttoned this one up and on to my next project.
Mark
A photo of my Rocket and Express heads and Express combo with my new faceplates that Francois gave me his file information.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
Thanks to you the faceplates look good. I plan to go with another local graffics/plastic vendor in the future to get the cost down. But $47 per plate, aluminum black anodized and milled is cheap.
I forgot to mention this little tid bit. If you are tired of the knurl nut on your carling switches. Remove the outer knurl nut, remove the lower regular bottom nut, twist the knurl nut back on to the bottom position with star washer and then place switch back into chassi and use the regular nut you salvaged from the bottom on the outside and tighten with regular nut driver. I hate those knurl nuts and my tools do not work well with them. I hate trying find or remembering to get replacement nuts.
My two cents. Also, if you insist and want those 9/16 and 5/8 knurl nut drivers they only cost a little over $7 at a whole sale electric house not $30.
Love the site! Has kept me reading for a long time now. I am the proud owner of a Ceriatone Expression that I bought second hand. It has a few mods which many consider sins (PPIMV, Tube Buffered FX Loop - all done before I bought it) but probably the biggest difference is the tube compliment that I run. 
)
