# Trinity vs. Ceriatone



## MGP141 (Dec 2, 2007)

what is the difference between the two as far as a 5e3 goes. The ceriatone seems to be much more affordable. 

www.trinityamps.com
www.ceriatone.com


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## Guest (Sep 5, 2008)

Paul said:


> With trinity you get GREAT local support.


That'd be my big + for a Trinity kit. By all reports Ceriatone's phone, forum and email support are great but you are working with people who are 13 hours ahead of you (so responses can feel delayed). Plus I'm a big "buy local" guy.



> I don't know anybody who has bought Ceriatone, but I imagine the shipping, customs, duties and brokerage fees will be more than you will see from a local vendor. My stepson built the amp for me, and literally walked into Stephen's basement for some guidance. You won't get that with Ceriatone.


The import fees on the Ceriatone kits are high. Shipping and duty add about $100 to any of the small kit prices on the site.


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## LowWatt (Jun 27, 2007)

Trinity uses vintage exact transformers and components. The Ceriatone uses modern equivalents that are not as exact to spec of a vintage Tweed amp as what Trinity uses.

The transformer set is a HUGE part of the tone of a tweed amp. 

Also, +1 on the support. The 55 page instruction manual that comes with the Trinity kit is incredibly well written and easy to understand.


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## Stratin2traynor (Sep 27, 2006)

+++++1 on the Trinity kits. I've never tried a Ceriatone but from what I've read they are good amps as well. I prefer to buy "Canadian" or at least support Canadian businesses even if at time it is a bit more expensive. I built a Trinity 18W Plexi combo kit and bought the cab from Stephen. The build quality of the cab was fantastic and now I have an amp that sounds amazing and I can say I "built myself" albeit from a kit. The support is awesome as well. The longest I had to wait for a reply to a question was overnight (I'm in BC he's in Ontario). Plus there is always the Trinity Forum to go to for help. All in all a great experience.

I like the amp so much that I just bought the Trinity TC-15 head kit which I should be receiving soon. Next may be the Deluxe who knows...

:food-smiley-004:


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## bcmatt (Aug 25, 2007)

I won't say which one is better, but I have built Ceriatone 5e3 for a friend of mine. 
Shipping does add up, so I whenever I buy parts from Ceriatone, I plan a few amps at once. That being said, I will continue to buy from Ceriatone to at least buy Chassis'. I charged my friend exactly what everything costed me, and my treat was that I was allowed to build it.

In the end for his 5E3, he paid $525 Canadian total for everything. That included the amp plus a couple hundred dollars worth of supplies from tubesandmore.com, plus his share of all duty and shipping. The other parts were a new 12" P12Q Jensen Speaker($100), a $16 handle, grill cloth, and feet. He built the cab himself out of stained pine. Here is a link to some pics:
http://yeomansinstruments.blogspot.com/2008/06/shawns-tweed-deluxe.html

I love the sound of his Tweed Deluxe now, and I also installed a Variable Voltage Regulator to make all the possible tones much more usable at any volume. It ended up being the perfect candidate for the basic VVR and it works great and he absolutely loves it.
I've never heard an official Fender 5e3, so I can't comment on how close the tone is, but this one does sound absolutely great. All the parts are very high quality except the pilot light, which you can completely replace with a real fender one for about $3.

While Ceriatone transformers are good quality and tend to be quite loud, they usually tend to be the parts that differ the tone of Ceriatones from the originals. I usually don't need an exact replication of tone (because I don't know the sound of originals), as long as the tone is still something great. However, I am building a Trainwreck Express for a friend and I will use a Ceriatone kit but get the Transformers from Toneslut.com because they apparently nail the sound of the originals much better. They say the Ceriatone ones are much too loud and more Marshallesque on that model.

So, that being said, it really depends on what you want exactly and how much you want to pay.


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## Emohawk (Feb 3, 2006)

Yep - by the time you pay duties & shipping costs the Ceriatone will probably cost as much or more. I also agree with bcmatt on the transformers. Plus the added weight of the trannies will drive the shipping cost of the Ceriatone kit somewaht through the roof.

However, I've bought boards, chassis & faceplates from Ceriatone and have been very pleased with the quality & using the UPS Worldwide shipping option I received the stuff in under 4 business days with no additional brokerage fees (just duty/GST). Nik Azam (Ceriatone) is a pretty helpful dude, but Stephen at Trinity should be the poster-child for customer service (as I've said many times before).

So, IMHO, if Trinity has the kit you want I'd recommend ordering from them. You will get a top-notch product and service that's second-to-none. Otherwise, Ceriatone is a good option for chassis, boards (loaded or naked), & some hardware but sourcing the iron from a different source might be more cost-effective. Also, considering what Nik charges for the Ceriatone trannies I can't help but wonder about the quality. Both trannies & choke for my 2204 from Ceriatone cost about the same as the Heyboer Drake clone PT I actually put in the thing.


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## bcmatt (Aug 25, 2007)

Emohawk said:


> Yep - by the time you pay duties & shipping costs the Ceriatone will probably cost as much or more.


Whoa! I wasn't quite saying this. I think that you are guaranteed to save several hundred dollars by going with Ceriatone, especially if you want to build your own cab. It looks to me like the Trinity Deluxe starts at $1100 US. That is about double what my friend's Ceriatone 5E3 cost him in the end for all parts and all fees.

With all the times I ordered from Ceriatone, the cost of taxes and duty and brokerage all together never seemed to add to more than $23, and some orders were multiple amps. Of course, they charged me another $20 at the border for a mere OT and power cord. It seems it is always a standard $20 customs fee attached to any shipment I get through DHL no matter how big or small.


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## Emohawk (Feb 3, 2006)

Actually, the Trinity Deluxe kit costs $400 US, including trannies & tubes. The cab will sink you another $250 or so (or 350 if you go with something more exotic) plus a speaker of choice. All + taxes & minimal shipping of course!

The Trinity Deluxe I recently built was about $900 all-in, and that was a solid maple cab.

The same deal from Ceriatone would be about $800 including shipping, and that's not including duties or a speaker or the fancy maple cab. That's for his 5E3 combo kit 2, BTW. Hard to compare apples with apples here as the products themselves are packaged/bundled very differently.

I did do the research! 

But, if you're ordering more in a "bulk" mode it may work out better. I only have experience with a single pile of parts here or there. I'm certainly not trying to mis-represent Nik's stuff in any way. The service I've gotten from him has been top notch and the gear has been of excellent quality. I'm just saying that in the case of a 5E3-ish kit, Trinity is about the same cost overall and you get to buy Canadian with top shelf support.


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## bcmatt (Aug 25, 2007)

Emohawk said:


> Actually, the Trinity Deluxe kit costs $400 US, including trannies & tubes. The cab will sink you another $250 or so (or 350 if you go with something more exotic) plus a speaker of choice. All + taxes & minimal shipping of course!
> 
> The Trinity Deluxe I recently built was about $900 all-in, and that was a solid maple cab.
> 
> ...


Hey! You are right! The prices aren't bad at all. I wasn't so familiar with the Trinity website and I was looking at the completed versions. I guess Trinity is pretty competitive after all.
Yes, totally my Stupid! Sorry about that. I should learn to use the internets (as Bush would say).


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## Stratin2traynor (Sep 27, 2006)

I just got my TC-15 kit today. Unfortunately I just got really busy at work and may have to shelf this project for a little bit. DAMN!! At least it will still be there when I'm done.


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

This looks like a pretty sweet deal. I think I might have to order a 5E3 kit myself. Anyone have any idea the dimensions of the cabinet? I think I might build my own and save some $$$ :smilie_flagge17:


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## Emohawk (Feb 3, 2006)

bcmatt said:


> Hey! You are right! The prices aren't bad at all. I wasn't so familiar with the Trinity website and I was looking at the completed versions. I guess Trinity is pretty competitive after all.
> Yes, totally my Stupid! Sorry about that. I should learn to use the internets (as Bush would say).


No probleml my friend. That's why we're here after all - information exchange!


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## Emohawk (Feb 3, 2006)

hollowbody said:


> This looks like a pretty sweet deal. I think I might have to order a 5E3 kit myself. Anyone have any idea the dimensions of the cabinet? I think I might build my own and save some $$$ :smilie_flagge17:


There's a couple of plans for a 1x8 combo cabinet kicking around on the web. It could probably be easily modded to a 1x12. I have one on my drive somewhere but I can't remember where it came from.


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## bcmatt (Aug 25, 2007)

Emohawk said:


> There's a couple of plans for a 1x8 combo cabinet kicking around on the web. It could probably be easily modded to a 1x12. I have one on my drive somewhere but I can't remember where it came from.


When I built my friend's 5E3 clone I ran across these plans, that he loosely used to build his:
http://home.att.net/~scole90/photos/5e3_cabinet-SHEET_1.pdf
http://home.att.net/~scole90/photos/5e3_cabinet-SHEET_2.pdf
http://home.att.net/~scole90/photos/5e3_cabinet_SHEET_3.pdf


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## FortinAmps (Oct 10, 2008)

MGP141 said:


> what is the difference between the two as far as a 5e3 goes. The ceriatone seems to be much more affordable.
> 
> www.trinityamps.com
> www.ceriatone.com


Support Canadian Products !!!:wave::smilie_flagge17:


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## J S Moore (Feb 18, 2006)

Trinity is the best. Superb customer support. I was missing a couple things in my kit and Stephen mailed them out to me, no questions asked. He even delivered my head and cabinet personally.


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