Mojo vs Ceria

[armandodiaz]

In the market for an 18W TMB. I'm trying to decide which kit to purchase.
Both kits are similar however I notice the Mojo has a secondary 32uF/32uF capacitor.
I'd like your opinion on the pros and cons of having an extra capacitor.

Thanks,
Armando

[JMPGuitars]

Mojo sells some good parts and cabs, but their kits are terrible. Please do not buy their kits.

[armandodiaz]

Thanks,
I did build their JCM 800 kit. I'm not going to say it was terrible, but it wasn't great.
The organization is great.
But all you have is a printout to go by. Which will get you about 90% of the way. But I did have to do a lot of research. For a 1st time builder, it was a bit overwhelming, and it was a bit like baptism by fire. But I got through it. Their support is subpar. When you email support, you get a very generic response. Personally, I think they don't do much support, in order to get more people to sign up for their classes. I probably should've done the 18w first. It seems like a simpler project.
I also didn't like their re-branding of the parts. I'd like to know what I'm putting in. Plus, there is absolutely no substituting.
Case in point, I wanted to get carbon comp resistors, so I can have period correct components. But nope, I had to use the carbon film.

After further research I see pros and cons of both kits and decided to create my own kit, to build. However, I'm wondering which kit would be better to follow, as a template. I'm leaning towards Ceria, but I wonder if having the 2nd 32uF capacitor is better.

Thank you,
Armando

[JMPGuitars]

Look at schematics in our downloads section. Ceriatone is known to have both good kits and support, though I have not personally used them.

Mojotone's 18W kit is probably the worst of their kits. The layout is STUPID, and the docs are usually bad. Do a search on this website for mojotone, and you'll see what I mean.

Regarding resistors, you can do period correct if you want, but carbon comp resistors suck, and they're noisy. I use CMF metal film resistors in my builds. I used to use carbon film because it was supposed to be the medium between CC and MF, but it's all magic mojo B.S.. MF gives you the cleanest circuit, so the tone and distortion you get is by design. The period correct resistors were simply what was available at the time. Nothing magic about them. If you do decide to build with CC, make sure at least your input 1M resistors are MF, or you'll be asking for extra noise.

You're best off picking one of the circuits in our downloads section, and making sure to use both a schematic and layout.

Thanks,
Josh

[Bieworm]

Keep in mind that Ceriatone doesn’t supply schematics, only layouts.

[armandodiaz]

Look at schematics in our downloads section. Ceriatone is known to have both good kits and support, though I have not personally used them.

Mojotone's 18W kit is probably the worst of their kits. The layout is STUPID, and the docs are usually bad. Do a search on this website for mojotone, and you'll see what I mean.

Regarding resistors, you can do period correct if you want, but carbon comp resistors suck, and they're noisy. I use CMF metal film resistors in my builds. I used to use carbon film because it was supposed to be the medium between CC and MF, but it's all magic mojo B.S.. MF gives you the cleanest circuit, so the tone and distortion you get is by design. The period correct resistors were simply what was available at the time. Nothing magic about them. If you do decide to build with CC, make sure at least your input 1M resistors are MF, or you'll be asking for extra noise.

You're best off picking one of the circuits in our downloads section, and making sure to use both a schematic and layout.

Thanks,
Josh

AWESOME!
I definitely want performance over appearance. So I'll take your advise.
thank you!

[JMPGuitars]

AWESOME!
I definitely want performance over appearance. So I'll take your advise.
thank you!

Ours look better too.