Allen amps?

[harrellab]

Hi all,

I'm the proud owner of a Hollow T and play mostly jazz right now, as I'm a jazz guitar major in college. My Polytone Minibrute II sounds good for that, but I'm looking into going the "boutique" route and getting a great tube amp. I'm really interested in Allen amps(www.allenamps.com), but have never heard them. They are basically Fender blackface clones but with some modern twists. Just curious if any of you have ever played your Andys through these amps.

thanks,

Adam

P.S. I'm also a new member and will try to post a pic of my Hollow T on the "new member" thread pretty soon. Love the forum! :)

[Stan Malinowski]

Adam,

I own an Allen Old Flame 2x10 combo. Built it myself in early 2001. I have 6L6 tubes installed so I am pushing 40 watts thru the amp. It is very loud for my present situation which consists of noodling around in my little "home studio". It does produce some great blackface tones, a real cross between a Super and a Deluxe. Cleans are very pristine and all that you would expect from a BF era amp. Very tight bottom end. I replaced the power tubes with the Groove Tubes 6L6GE models and the amp went from great to over the top as far as a clean tones and tight bottom end. Between the Raw and Master controls you can pull some real good driven tones as well. Component quality is first rate as is David Allen. He's one sharp amp designer and a great guy overall.

[harrellab]

Stan,

Cool, that's the same model I'm interested in (Old Flame 2x10). The tough thing about buying a boutique amp is that it's hard to find them to try them out. I've tried a Badcat and a couple Dr. Z's but would still like to try some others, including Aiken and Allen. I'm just leaning toward Allen because I'm a big Fender blackface fan. He doesn't have any dealers so I might end up just ordering one and sending it back if I don't like it. From what I've read though, most people don't want to send these babies back.

[Stan Malinowski]

Adam,

I take it you're going to have Dave build it instead of purchasing the do-it-yourself kit?

[-CM-]

You might find these threads interesting:

http://forums.birdsandmoons.com/forum/showthread.php?t=189

http://forums.birdsandmoons.com/forum/showthread.php?t=772

[harrellab]

CM, I really enjoyed those threads, thanks. Congrats on assembling those, they looked beautiful. If I order one, I'll have Dave build it 'cause unfortunately I'm not very experienced at that type of stuff and I want to know it's done perfectly. I would like to build an amp someday though. Looks like a lot of fun. My dad just got into the hobby and just finished building the AX84 cooperative amp project thing, designed by Randall Aiken.

[Stan Malinowski]

Maybe a good option would be to buy the kit and work on it with your dad. David's kits have excellent manuals, diagrams and assembly instructions. It took me about 3 days (approx 4 hours/day) to assemble my OF.

[harrellab]

I've thought about that, but I live in Florida and my dad lives in South Carolina, so it would be difficult to get together and work on it. Also, my dad is just getting into the hobby of amp-building and is not an expert either. Maybe I'm paranoid, but I just feel like if I'm dropping that much money on something I want to know it's done right.

[tunacaster]

Wasn't there an ad in a guitar magazine that said something like

"Your amp is ready Mr Clapton, please call me.. David Allen"

I remember reading something like this on the Gear Page, but not 100% sure if I am correct. Please correct me if I am wrong. Thanks

Tommy