Nik from Ceriatone talks about their components.

[yalesmith]

cant go wrong with ordering from nik, great product and great guy

[powmat]

Thanks for the feedback Mark and Amiga.

It does make sense to me to "go with a kit" - then maybe tweak as inspired or motivated. I'm not a 'builder' really, like a lot of folks here, so it does make sense to start with something proven. Maybe after this build I'll feel more inclined to tackle more of a 'scratch' build..

As for the rest of this thread, ... Ceriatones' longevity and continued reputation on this forum clearly speak for themselves.

Regards,

Matt

[Richie]

I know some may not like him for whatever reason. Just from my experience he is a stand up guy. I use to repair some amps for him when he was just starting out. If i needed a part, it was shipped right then.
Mostly the amps i worked on were damaged in shipping, or some very small problem, knocked loose in shipping.His builds were solid.

But if one got banged up.
It was easier and much less expensive to have someone here, ship the amp to have it repaired in the USA,than back to NIk.
Nik always made sure the owner was taken care of. If there was a problem with a transformer, he wanted that shipped back to him to tear down,and find or look to see if, or what caused it to fail.
Although only had one of those i recall. His amps are very well built, and the parts are better than in many other amps you might buy. Oh yeah, i never read the thread. All i can say is Nik has always been a great guy to deal with.

[Toppscore]

THat guy has a multi million dollar buis...

Is Ceriatone really a multi-million dollar business? I would find that very hard to believe based on nothing but simple calculations.

$1,000 an amp (guess-tamation)
100 amps a month = $100,000/month
$100,000 x 12 months = $1,200,000.

This could be much higher ($3,000,000) if Ceriatone is selling completed built
amps to make the 100 amp total, plus the parts-amps added on.

[vibratoking]

Yea, I can do math. You'll notice I posted before the link to the article was made. I did not estimate that Ceriatone is selling 100 kits/month.

Your math still does not get you to multi-millions. It gets you to slightly over ONE milliion. I would also estimate that Ceriatone's kits to completed amp ratio is VERY high.

Slightly off-topic, but Metro amps could not survive on kits, although they did not have the wide variety that Ceriatone has and they also had to deal with higher costs due to their US location.

[Toppscore]

Yea, I can do math. You'll notice I posted before the link to the article was made. I did not estimate that Ceriatone is selling 100 kits/month.

Your math still does not get you to multi-millions. It gets you to slightly over ONE milliion. I would also estimate that Ceriatone's kits to completed amp ratio is VERY high.

Slightly off-topic, but Metro amps could not survive on kits, although they did not have the wide variety that Ceriatone has and they also had to deal with higher costs due to their US location.

Yes. I agree.
In the computer industry, system sales are different than parts sales.

Guitar Amplifiers should be or are different than incomplete kits.

Total company sales would included both.

If Ceriatone's total "completed amps" are over 100/month,
then Ceriatone is a $2,000,000 annual company.
If just parts, then less as you figured.
Take care. This is fun speculating. Toppscore

[LeftyStrat]

So he has 18 employees. Malaysia enacted a minimum wage of around $300 a month in 2012. That's less than $2 an hour.

I'm sure his employees would make more than this, being skilled labor. But even if they made four times that, you're talking close to minimum wage in the US.

Very hard for a US builder to compete. But then the shipping sort of becomes an little bit of an equalizer.

So I need to buy a small cruise ship and locate it off the coast of the US, convince a bunch of amp builders to come live on it and work for minimum wage, throw in free housing and food. In international waters, drugs and gambling would be legal. We could declare it a country, "Tubelandia," make everyone citizens and not have to pay US income taxes.

Park another ship off the coast of Europe, named "Valvelandia."

We could also have a booming tourist industry with rich rock stars flying out to have their amps tweaked.

Whose with me!

Actually, I read an article on some entrepreneurs planing on doing something similar for offshore programming. Big problem with offshore programming is communication; time zone differences and the ability for product managers to meet with programmers. They were going to park it off the coast of LA.

[Chad]

So he has 18 employees. Malaysia enacted a minimum wage of around $300 a month in 2012. That's less than $2 an hour.

I'm sure his employees would make more than this, being skilled labor. But even if they made four times that, you're talking close to minimum wage in the US.

Very hard for a US builder to compete. But then the shipping sort of becomes an little bit of an equalizer.

So I need to buy a small cruise ship and locate it off the coast of the US, convince a bunch of amp builders to come live on it and work for minimum wage, throw in free housing and food. In international waters, drugs and gambling would be legal. We could declare it a country, "Tubelandia," make everyone citizens and not have to pay US income taxes.

Park another ship off the coast of Europe, named "Valvelandia."

We could also have a booming tourist industry with rich rock stars flying out to have their amps tweaked.

Whose with me!

Actually, I read an article on some entrepreneurs planing on doing something similar for offshore programming. Big problem with offshore programming is communication; time zone differences and the ability for product managers to meet with programmers. They were going to park it off the coast of LA.

Us left handers think alike. I'm in.Will start thinking of are national anthem soon.All hail Cheif of amporium Lefty... Chad

[C Moore]

JME.....
I bought a Ceriatone chassis and PT from a guy here on TAG. I sourced a board that was robbed of 50% of its parts (have no idea why) from another guy on TGP.
Bought an Edcor OT from RJ.
Bought a Poplar cab from some guy on E-Bay.
Bought a front panel from that wonderful gal that makes panels (her name escapes me at the moment) ...
This was all for a Wreck Express.
I had some problems with oscillation and the like. I emailed Nik with pics of my build. He was VERY helpful with a few things, and also suggested I seek help from TAG.
He knew I had not bought anything from him, and that my build was not his responsibility to troubleshoot. But Nik did what he could for me with no questions asked. I stayed in email contact with him for a few years. One thing we talked about was:
"All the cheap parts he uses" in his amps. He just kind of laughed it off. I see the same parts in his amps that I do in any other boutique builder. This was right at the time when Sozo was taking the amp world by storm. Guys were swearing on their Grand Mothers graves how much better a Sozo was than a... Mallory 150 for example.
How many GREAT amps were built with those yellow M-150 caps do you think.? "Should they all be ripped out".?
Then you throw the word "Asian" into the mix and things get real ugly sometimes.
Good Luck All
Sorry For The Short Story

[Toppscore]

So he has 18 employees. Malaysia enacted a minimum wage of around $300 a month in 2012. That's less than $2 an hour.

I'm sure his employees would make more than this, being skilled labor. But even if they made four times that, you're talking close to minimum wage in the US.

Very hard for a US builder to compete. But then the shipping sort of becomes an little bit of an equalizer.

So I need to buy a small cruise ship and locate it off the coast of the US, convince a bunch of amp builders to come live on it and work for minimum wage, throw in free housing and food. In international waters, drugs and gambling would be legal. We could declare it a country, "Tubelandia," make everyone citizens and not have to pay US income taxes.

Park another ship off the coast of Europe, named "Valvelandia."

We could also have a booming tourist industry with rich rock stars flying out to have their amps tweaked.

Whose with me!

Actually, I read an article on some entrepreneurs planing on doing something similar for offshore programming. Big problem with offshore programming is communication; time zone differences and the ability for product managers to meet with programmers. They were going to park it off the coast of LA.

Please talk to Larry Ellison over at Oracle.
He recently purchased an entire Hawaiian Island

The Lanai Island is only ten miles west of Maui.
It has a functioning full city and an airport.

You can easily setup your amp production center
and enjoy more favorable conditions than Malaysia.

Toppscore

[SmallSpecial50]

....

[yalesmith]

Funny but the fact that things might be done locally does not deter from its quality.... all the PTP wiring is done locally and is top notch. If he is having something made to spec, you should challenge the spec as i know his stuff is pretty reliable. Also the TW guys don't hate him like our brethren on the Dumble side of this site. I do have a one of his overdrive amps and it is not earth shattering but quality wise it is really really good. I will be venturing over soon for a el34 based ods build

[Reeltarded]

If you don't like the caps change them. If you don't like the iron order without it.

My cars were made in Germany and Japan. Way better than buying local.. oh wait, they did buy local I guess.

[Toppscore]

Funny but the fact that things might be done locally does not deter from its quality.... all the PTP wiring is done locally and is top notch. If he is having something made to spec, you should challenge the spec as i know his stuff is pretty reliable. Also the TW guys don't hate him like our brethren on the Dumble side of this site. I do have a one of his overdrive amps and it is not earth shattering but quality wise it is really really good. I will be venturing over soon for a el34 based ods build

What is the reason for Dumbleites liking Ceriatone and the TWs not too happy?

[Reeltarded]

Other way 'round.