Ceriatone Express: Does it sound good at low volume?

[Seemoore]

By low volume I mean in the range of a DRRI on 5.

I'm ready to order the Express or Liverpool but I keep hearing it's got to be very, very loud to sound good.

Also, I've heard they can be harsh sounding.

Can I get a witness, an expert witness..??

[riscado]

where did you read that??

I've heard people say several times they're loud, but never heard anyone saying it didn't sound right at lower volumes... besides I think there are videos around the internet that will confirm it!

[keithrick]

Seemore, It's a really loud amp. And yes it needs to be pretty loud to give up the goods. Mine is at full volume at around 9 o'clock and just saturates more from there.

You can try to compensate with low efficiency speakersairbrake or a mastervolume of some sort. But if you live in an apartment, townhouse or have kids that need to sleep this is not the amp for you.

[castor]

Hi, I sarted from a nik express (I bought all spare parts from him and mounted by myself).
It sounds good, but fantastic after some tweakings (changing caps... try different tubes...)

I use to play it in my bedroom (I live in a condominium), so the overall volume can be colse to a TV's one.
consider that at this volume with HB pickups you don't hear noise.
I use a Dr.Z airbrake (modded to low down more the volume) at bedroom level. The sound is fantastic... the only thing that miss at this level is the fantastic feedback of this amp.

castor

[Seemoore]

Ok, I think I can describe what I'm looking for by saying that I love the cleans from the DRRI and I'm looking for a lead sound like the one in Boz Scaggs "Breakdown Dead Ahead", using a Strat.

Also, I see a lot of discussion on what caps to use, tubes to swap out, but very little on speakers, which speakers best compliment a TW Express or Liverpool?

[JimiB]

greenbacks

[Rick]

Both of my Ceriatone layout based wrecks were putting out about 40+ watts roughly, very, very loud unless running attenuation and only a single speaker. Through a 4-12, you could gig a fair sized room I bet. You can make a simple and easy attenuator by using an L-pad calculator and just getting the parts to make a static single setting unit. Figure on at least 8 dB and probly 10 dB to keep the cops away. The tone starts to get killed, but it's still cool and a lot quieter.

[fierce_carrot]

my ceriatone liverpool has the PPIMV installed and I'm very pleased with how well it works, and I'm not a fan of Master Volume amps.

You can get the volume down low, but lets be honest, the amp isn't doing what it was designed to do and it's gonna make some noise, but it's not gonna sound like a wreck opened up.

[captain_rusty]

I'm not sure you CAN get a low volume!

Like Fierce Carrot, I have a Liverpool with PPIMV and half-power switch. The half-power seems to do nothing audible

The MV works very well, but you need to open it up to get the real thing...

[iwo]

I have been a ceriatone xpression owner for two days. while I havent had a chance to really open it up I feel that with 6V6 and half power mode it can be played pretty low volumes and it does'n sound bad at all...

[iwo]

I have been a ceriatone xpression owner for two days. while I havent had a chance to really open it up I feel that with 6V6 and half power mode it can be played pretty low volumes and it does'n sound bad at all...

and with a PPIMV.

[Allynmey]

The low volume cleans on a wreck are very nice...3D in fact. That said, if you can't crank it where you are, it would be like having a ferrari and a 100 clear road in front of you with no gas or gas station around! The fun is in the volume