CeriaTone JCM800 2204

Made in Malaysia by Nik and his Company Ceriatone, 2009.
PTP hand assembled board with good components.
Standard JCM800 style amp, 50 watt, 2 EL34 Tubes, 3 12AX7 tubes
Two inputs - Hi&Lo, 6 knobs - Pre volume, Master Volume, Bass, Middle, Treble, Presence.

Voltage Selector, Output selector, 2 output jack in parallel.

Reason for the 10/10 - its got all the features you expected (i mean, who buys an amp without knowing what it comes with?) with a 2204 model, if you want extra, Talk to Nik and ask him for more!

Set Up:

Gibson LP Standard 07 -> Wah -> MXR 10 band EQ -> TS808 -> Amp

Styles: 80's hard rock (leather pants and jackets... maybe some spandex) stuff like GnR, Ozzy, Bon Jovi, even go into Led Zepplin and Hendrix territory, but you get the idea.

The amp is very very very quiet. when i first plugged it in straight without FX and flipped the stand by off? (the amp was on, and ready to rock) i thought it might have been broken because i did not hear a single little noise... (please note i had a mesa combo before and it had a cooling fan and was pretty noisy when idle). SO this amp is super quiet. i tried turning all my FX to see how much hum i can pick up, and the only thing that gave some idle noise is the 808 (i maxed out the Vol and Drive), but even then it was not annoying, nor too loud.

As for playing volume, Usually i end up pracitising at home so it does not go overly loud unless the house is empty, have yet to try it in a Band environment...

The Amp sounds exactly like i expected it to, i can get slash sounds no problemo, and even abit edgier than that, with a nice OD infornt you can really drive this amp to really high gain!

The Clean channel is really cool, nice Dark cleans with the LP on the Lo input, have not tried it yet with single coils.

Again, as mentioned, it is the exact sound i was looking for, so another 10/10!

I've had it for about 2 days. Survived UPS shipping to Canada from malaysia (although, i dont think it was dropped or anything) PTP board, nice solder points, good wiring, everything seems sturby, no random loose sounds of things rattling. Received without tubes installed in original manufacterer's packaging, so they could not have been damaged, Packaged very very well!

Nik is the Man!

He will help out with any question and lives for his business! Answers emails withing an hour... but the longest been about 7/8 hours.

I have no doubts in him!

Awesome Amp! Great Price! Get Exactly what is expected (which of course was a hand wired 2204 model amp). Sounds terrific! I have been playing for a little while compared to seasoned pros (3 years now) but i am kind of a tone fanatic. i regularly play in band settings and have owned a Mesa Stiletto Ace, TSL100, and a peavey valveking. By far this amp is the best, unless i find a way to hot rod it to shear awesome on crack... but am not sure if that is possible.

Out of all the amps i have tried, i have found that this does the tone i am looking for, and that tone used a jcm800 model, so why try modeling it? when you can just use the original to get the same tone?

Regarding the Price - VERY good, its about $700 usd for a full working chassis less head box, plus about $115 shipping to North america, Beware in Canada, you will be charged Taxes (umm 13%?) and DUTIES (6.5%) on the Declared Value.. so watch out for that.

Overall - great amp, love it alot, looking forward to rocking out on this amp and building the same in a kit form!

It has the features that are needed. You dont need any more.

I can be in the same room with it. It goes from barely audible, to too late.

Dont know. If some one wants to buy it, let me know. It is brand new, still have the box, and has less than an hour use.

The owner is fantastic. I cant complain. I am dissapointed that I spent this much money on an amp, and now am stuck with something I cant use.

I would not buy again. But, at this point, I am sticking with marshall and fender.

I bought this as a kit to build myself. Nik added some mods on the board. All components nicely packaged in separate bags. Ok quality on the parts. Moore colors on wires would have been good.
The amp is the standard JCM800, high and low input.
I choosed Mercury Magnetics transformers and JJ valves, ECC83 and KT77 with support from Eurotubes. I have also E3??s but prefer the KT??s bass response and overall tighter sound.
This ampkit is a bargain, I cant even get a second handed for the money here in Sweden.

Ok, when everything was soldered into place it was time for the birth of a slighty modded JCM800. The sound was instant AC/DC, rather low gain acctually. I had to use my T-Rex Mudhoney to reach Van Halen och thoose kind of sounds.
I was impressed with the clean sound however, Marshalls weak point normally. The repons from the tonestack isn??t great but I changed the middle pot to 50K and really came alive, the bass control doesn??t do much. Added fixed resonance to cure that.
Really low noice from this amp, perfect.
As I??m a bit of a gainfreak it was time for moore mods.
I found one called Rocca mod on Metroamp??s forum. This resulted in a complete rebuild of the preamp, releasing on moore gainstage without adding a 4th tube :)
The sound was incredible I must say, really fat and tight distortion without muddiness. This was what I wanted from the beginning.
The amp now covers blues to metal.
My prefered guitar is an LesPaul with DiMarzio sper distortion and super II in neck position. Have tried my fenders yet.
10 points with Rocca mod, 8 out of the box.

Everything seems sturdy, not worrying about a backup amp.
Answers and feedback from Ceriatone (Nik) is excellent.

Answers and feedback from Ceriatone (Nik) is excellent.

I??ve been playing for 25 years +. I have owned other Marshalls, Fenders and Peavey??s, but this one will stay forever as my main rock and metal amp.

If you??re thinking of building your first amp, this is a good start kit, not moore complicated than a pedal really.

Fantastic amp for the money - probably beats original Marshalls due to better components. Go and buy one - you won`t regret it!!

This was build in 2008 by Ceriatone. I went with the no tube option since I have plenty of those. In it's stock form, this amp is very simple. It's a one channel amp that can get a great grinding rock tone. I have modified this amp to make it more modern. I added a buffered effects loop and added a second set of pre-gain/master volume controls. This allows me to set up a clean tone and a dirty tone and footswitch between the 2.

This one is a keeper. I primarily play a Les Paul that has coil taps for a more strat-ish tone when needed. With the mods that I have done, this amp is a tone monster. I wish I could get by using a 1 channel amp with no pedals, but being in a cover band that covers a lot of musical territory has forced my hand (and soldering iron). I tried a lot of channel switching amps and none of them had the tone. I tried a DSL 100, a Rivera M-60, JCM 900, Sunn Model T (I do miss this amp), Mesas, etc. None of them had the right tone. I've been using a plexi type amp run clean and use drive pedals. This amp allows me to get a true tube driven drive that sounds awesome! Played clean the amp is surprisingly nice too. It's not a Fender clean, but I'm not looking for that sound with this amp. The cleans are warm, ever so slightly compressed, with a very nice top end that can jangle and bite. Set for distortion, this is just a classic tone. The best part is that the 2 tones together complement each other. It doesn't sound like I switch to a completely different amp. The drive is just a wonderful extension of the clean tone that can bark with the best. It is truly the classic Marshall roar!

No worries in this category. The build quality at Ceriatone is exceptional. Good parts and terrific workmanship. Very neat and clean! It's also easy to tweak.

Nik at Ceriatone is a great guy to work with and very flexible. I was looking for a custom chassis for this so that the extra knob holes were machined by him (instead of being done by me with a hand drill!) He was very accommodating and the additional cost was next to nothing. I was going to build this whole amp myself, but to have the level of craftsmanship that Nik does for $100 more was a no brainer. Nik has always responded VERY quickly to any inquiries.

I've been playing for over 15 years and I also own a Fender Deluxe Reverb, a 18/30 Watt JTM-45 clone, and a Marshall DSL-100. This is my #1 rig unless the venue size dictates the 18 Watt amp. It has all the tone I'll ever need and I get compliments on my tone. That's really all I can ask for.

Build this year at Ceriatone Package 4 (Chassis, tubes, and ready to play). I got a small box head cab off ebay and mounted it myself. All brand new. It's a handwired Marshall JCM800-2204, 50 watt circuit with EL34's and I had Nik install a bypassable effects loop. $20. extra bucks. This amp does not channel switch but there is a high and low input. Take your pick the spectrum is beautiful clean to super crunch. The Low input almost does not distort on full gain so there is a ton of clean headroom that sounds like a Plexi to me. The High input is bright with a lot of distortion at full gain. Plenty loud.

I play just about anything that's electric guitar. Smooth Jazz, Southern,Classic,Modern Rock and I have a special love for high gain heavy metal. Guitars are basic: Strat with single coils, Les Paul with Gibson Classic '57s and Ibanez RG570 with JB bridge and Classic '59 neck and wammy bar. I do greenbacks but I think Vintage 30's would be excellent also. Covers the whole spectrum and this amp does it all. It's very quiet until the gain is up to 11, then there is a little hiss. It's pure Marshall and it's beautiful. I have owned a JCM800 2205, JCM900, 1987x reissue, DSL50, 1974(18watt) clone and a truckload of different amps. I currently own this Ceriatone 2204 and a Ceriatone JTM45 (KT66's) and one little Frenzel 5E3 Deluxe Plus(6L6's killer, killer, killer amp) and I'm done. It stops here. I got this 2204 from Nik, plugged it in and went to work to see if it was money well spent. I still cannot beleive I own this amp. The clean channel (with more critical listening) may replace my JTM45 if you can beleive that. It sounds alot like the Plexi 50 1987x bit with more headroom. The high gain channel has the BEST Marshall crunch I have ever heard. It's the real deal like you hear on the recordings from Aerosmith to Zakk. The gain only goes so far into righteous crunch land until you add a Boss SD-1 to Zakk's settings - L7,T2,D7. Cranked up I unleashed the monster. Holy ****! I was blushing. I had a smile that wrapped around my head. After several days of evaluating the TONE and ABILITIES of this amp I actually walked over and kissed it. It is by far the absolute best sounding amp I have ever heard. It easily gets the good harmonic feedback, not the squeals but the chords harmonicaly sustaining to bliss. Oh i have to stop now so my heart can slow down a bit. The knobs go to 11 so I rate this at 11 !

Hand wired, no circuit boards and built by a pro. I'm not worried about craftsmanship at all. Components like tubes may fail but I'll just get'er fixed and keep on truckin.

Nik is fast and easy to work with and he has a very quality product. He is very good with emails and he say's "cool" alot :)

I wish I'd had this when I started playing electric guitar 30 something years ago. I would definately get another one righ away. I would only hope the replacement sounded as good as this one. These days there are a LOT of aftermarket amp builders and some good products out there. I have 2 Ceriatones JTM45, JCM800 2204 and will tell you that their a steal for the money.

This amp was built by Joe Popp. I would never have considered buying a clone built from a kit, but Joe's blog showed every step of his meticulous process and then presented several sound clips that sounded really nice!

Feature-wise, this is a Marshall 2204 circuit...single channel, master volume, gain, treble, mid, bass, presence controls. The other "feature" I like so much is that it is PTP, so I can tweak it and learn about how tube amps work. There is a lot of info on the web about modifying 2203/2204 Marshalls, and this one is SO much easier to work on than my PCB Marshall.

Plenty of power and the master works well enough that I don't really need to use my attenuator. I've used it on big stages and small rooms. This head alone, or with an OD pedal is enough for me, 'though I do often use it with a few other pedals as well. It's very responsive to picking dynamics and volume changes. I give this a 10 here because there's nothing missing that I feel it needs.

This is where I have to give credit to Nik Azam at Ceriatone as well as Joe. This amp sounds great! It's perfect if you want that classic 70s-80s Marshall grind. I have no trouble getting the sounds I need, including a decent clean, a really nice crunch, and a gainy solo sound. It was originally designed for use with EL34s, but I???ve converted it to use Tung Sol 6550s. Unlike most 6550s, these do break up with musical harmonics, but they also have the headroom and tight strong bottom that 6550/KT88 tubes are known for. The amp has much more punch!

I use this mainly with a Les Paul, but also with P-90s and Strats. The tone is very JCM800, but I've been tweaking it to be a little darker. It is smoother and has more clarity than my Marshall (also a 2204). At any rate, this does the classic rock thing to a tee. There's enough overdrive available to gig with no pedals, but I set it for a good crunch and use guitar volume for clean, pedal for high gain. Works REALLY well with my Tim overdrive, Time Machine Boost, Boss SD1, or Pedalworx Cactus Crunch.

Given Joe's build, I wouldn't worry. And judging by the quality of Nik's work on the circuit board, I would be very comfortable with this amp and no backup. However, I've been futzing around inside it, so I'll be bringing my Powerblock as a backup on gigs just in case. The circuit board was done by Nik at Ceriatone and was immaculate before I started soldering on it!

So far I've neither seen nor heard anything to make me nervous about the amp. Everywhere I've seen Ceria Tone mentioned on the web, it's been overwhelmingly positive with regard to tone and reliability.

Nik is fantastic! I've emailed him with a few questions and he always gets back to me quickly and with the info I need.

I've been playing for over thirty years, and have had Marshalls from the '70s to now, an assortment of Fenders, a Mesa, etc...Overall this is an unbelievable amp, especially for the money. Get Nik to send you a kit OR to build a complete amp...the quality is there...the tone is there. You won't be sorry!

Nik built this amp for me in Feb. of 2007. I got a Mojotone headshell and mounted it in myself. Looks great and sounds killer. This amp is a one channel beast and sounds great when you crank it. I bought this amp because I wanted the classic Marshall grind without the classic Marshall price. I only really use this amp for gigs since it needs to be opened up to sound great, but I may try to recording stuff with it soon. I don't really need any more features as this amp has them all. I have owned some of the best channel switchers around (Bogners, Mesas, Riveras, Koch) and while they are all great in their own way, they don't do everything great. I realized that I just mainly use one tone more or less so I decided to scale it back. An added benefit of course is the money I have recouped after selling some of that other gear. If you know about the old JCM 800 models, there is no effects loop, channel switching, or reverb. The only features this amp offers are great tone and high volume.

To characterize the tone on this amp I would describe it thusly: Great mid range grind that cuts through the mix. Capable of dryer less gainy tones and ideal with a Les Paul type or Strat type of guitar. I use a Les Paul and a 335 for what I do and it sounds great with either. The sound is a little less biting and sweeter with the 335 though. I wouldn't say the distortion on this amp is "Brutal." More like a great standard rock sound from the 70's and early 80"s era. This head is not noisy at all and I think it is built better than the amp it is styled after. Of course, it is new, so we will see down the road.

I haven't had this amp long enough to know. My other head is a Laney Pro Tube Lead and it has blown some fuses, but I think all tube amps evventually have a small issue. Power Tubes are consumable parts as well as caps so their is a shelf life on these things.

Nik's customer service is outstanding and I think his rep bears that out. Read other eviews and you will see.

I have been playing for over 20 years. I am 35 and still gig regularly. I would buy another one of his amps to try out. The price and quality are excellent.

I bought this amp as a kit (JCM800 2204 HW Package 2) from CeriaTone and it was my first build . The quality of parts is great and you get a point to point amp at a fraction of the typical cost. The best feature is Nik Azam, the guy who runs the company. He answered all of my dumb questions! The amp has all of the features I want (which are very few). Just a good rock and roll amp with killer tone.

Well, after I built this amp I sold my Mesa Boogie! It sounds that good. Amps are a very personal thing. I had a very specific tone I was looking for - a good solid crunch. This amp does it to a T. Play lighter and wind back the volume on your guitar and it cleans up nicely. I don't know if it's for everybody, it doesn't have the grind of a Rectifier, but that's not what I wanted. The tone is unreal - think Angus, early Eddie VH, etc.! It is plenty loud, just like a JCM should be, but in regards to buzz and hum it is the quietest Marshall amp I have ever heard!

The coolest thing about this amp is that it is a point to point Marshall that is brand new! Also, by building it myself, I now now where every component is and what it does. I recommend building it, but don't get zapped! Good quality name brand parts too!

This is where I wish the rating for this category went to 11! Nik is the greatest, easiest going guy. He didn't make me feel stupid even when my questions were stupid! He responded quickly and truly understands what rock and roll guys need from an amp.

I am planning on buliding another CeriaTone probably a JTM. I will probably do another JCM just for kicks because it sounds so dang good! If it were stolen I would certainly get another one. Search the web you will much praise for these amps.