Ceriatone Hot Rodded Plexi Custom King Kong 50
This is a new beautifully built King Kong 50 amplifier head. This was built by a local Florida guru amp builder and housed in a USA made Sour Mash head cabinet. The amp has been tweaked and many upgraded components and sounds wonderful.
Build Log
Objective:
I wanted to go with a full-on multi-channel build that would have both a high gain channel and a standard Plexi / 2204 style channel. The solo boost is icing on the cake. This seems like the ideal design for a ‘do it all’ amp, without the need to plan on using outboard pedals to get enough dirt. Either way, I will definitely be voicing one channel as a Plexi / 2204 channel, and I’ll want it to sound as ‘vintage correct’ as possible. ALL NOS in Preamp.
King Kong 50 Build
1/11/22:
- Mounted OT Transformer & choke in chassis.
- Organized hardware: pots, jacks, tube sockets, filter cap brackets, filter caps, switch’s & pilot light.
- Put electrical components aside.
- Prepped pots & set aside.
1/12/22:
- Prepped preamp & power tube sockets prior to install (jumpers, resistors, etc.).
- Assembled & soldered voltage doubling/rectifier board for 12v relay power supply.
1/13/22:
- Installed filter cap cans.
- Installed blanks on unused tube sockets.
- Installed preamp & power tube sockets.
1/14/22:
- Installed ground lugs throughout chassis.
- Installed terminal strips for AC & DC power for 12v relays.
- Installed stand-offs for turret boards.
- Checked & tightened all ground tabs, stand-off & terminal strip bolts.
- Mounted Power Transformer.
- Installed 50K (linear) bias pot.
- Using drill, twisted filament/heater wires from PT.
- Connected 6vac filament/heater supply from PT to 6v AC terminal strip.
- Assembled & connected faux CT for heater filaments with 2x 100R resistors at terminal strip.
- Ran F1 & F2 6v AC wires from terminal strip to V7-V3.
- Ran F1 & F2 wires from terminal strip to turret board 2 area for later connection (at diodes).
- Installed jumpers on Bias Pot at lugs 2 & 3.
- Ran Ground for Bias Pot.
- Installed 470K dropping resistors in F1-F4 cap cans.
- Install ground jumper & grounded F1-F4 Filter Cap Cans at chassis ground.
- Completed wiring on F1-F4 filter cap cans.
1/15/22:
- Ground unused triode of V3 (connect pins 6-8 to ground).
- Ran F3 & F4 6v DC filament heater wires to V1 & V2 tube sockets leaving supply end for later connection to turret board 2 (bottom/left 2 turrets).
- Cut & capped filament CT from PT.
- Connected OT primary wires to power tubes, pin 3.
- Cut & capped HV CT.
- Installed & secured rear panel with adhesive, using fuse holders & Pussy Trimmer pot to align panel.
- Wired Bias Test Points.
- Wire half power switch.
- Braided & shrink-wrapped OT secondaries & ran between Bias pot & V5.
- Wired OT secondaries to Impedance Selector.
- Installed remaining rear panel hardware (5 pin footswitch jack, speaker & loop jacks).
- Wired speaker jacks.
- Wired loop jacks.
- Grounded loop jacks with speaker jacks at bias pot ground).
- Wired ‘Pussy Trimmer’ pot.
- Ensured all grounds are grounded to designated ground point (bias test points, bias pot, speaker outputs, loop jacks, etc.).
- Capped & wrapped all unused wires from PT.
- Installed front panel with mains switch & mini switch temp. installed
- Remove mini switch & with panel aligned, use 1/2 adhesive to secure.
- Install mini switched & remove mains switch to stick other half of adhesive panel backing to chassis.
- Deburred chassis holes as needed.
- Wired mains switch to mains fuse holder (S1).
- Ran wire from mains switch to IEC connector (S2).
- Wired IEC hot to mains fuse holder.
- Grounded IEC connector at dedicated chassis ground @ IEC connector.
- Wired PT 120v (blue) & Neutral (black) to mains switch.
- Wired .047uf cap to Standby switch.
- Installed stand by switch.
- Wired stand by switch to Filter Cap F1 (Y).
- Ran wire from stand by switch to HT fuse holder (S4).
- Wired S3 wire to standby switch for later connection at TB #1.
- Installed Pilot light on front panel.
- Installed 47R resistor on pilot light & wired with twisted wire pair from filament/heater connections at 6v AC terminal strip.
1/16/22:
- Wired & connected each mini switch & associated pot, in order, from mains switch towards input jack.
- Wired Presence & Resonance controls & installed caps on pots & switches.
- Ran wire connecting Resonance pot, lug 1 @ 8 ohm tap on impedance selector.
- Connected wiring between Tone controls.
- Assembled the 2 x 12vdc relays & set aside.
- Installed main ground buss above pots.
- Installed secondary ground connection between Gain 1 & Gain 2 pots using 2” copper buss rod.
- Grounded Main ground buss at input chassis ground.
- Installed & wired input network on input jack.
- Installed input jack.
- Ran chassis ground for input jack.
- Ran ground for ‘Feel’ & ‘Channel’ switches to input chassis ground (both are 2 way on/off switches).
- Grounded clean channel ERA switch to main ground buss.
1/17/22:
- Ran shielded cables from input jack to V1a terminal strip.
- Ran shielded cables from V1a terminal strip to V3a terminal strip.
- Wired grid stoppers & caps on terminal strips at V1a, V1b & V3a.
- Ran shielded cable from channel 2, Gain 1 wiper to V1b terminal strip.
- Ran shielded cable from channel 2, Gain 1 input for later connection to turret board.
- Ran shielded cable from channel 2, Gain 2 wiper for later connection to turret board.
- Ran shielded cable from channel 2, Gain 2 input for later connection to turret board.
- Connected PTFE wires to 12v relay board #2 for later connection to destination.
- Ran shielded cable from treble pot wiper for later connection to 12v Relay board #2.
- Ran Shielded cables for Channel 2 Master Volume pot (to input from turret board, and from wiper to relay board #1).
- Ran jumper from Master Volume input to Solo Volume input.
- Ran Shielded cable from Solo Volume control wiper for later connection to 12v relay board #1.
