Allen Old Flame build

[JimiRayBoneKing]

I built an Allen Old Flame about a year ago. I chose this amp because I was interested in building an amp that came with a lot of build support and would be effective enough for me to gig with. I finally selected the Old Flame with the single 15” speaker. My goal was to make one like the famous Cesar Diaz modified Fender Vibros. Yep, I wanted “That” sound plus I wanted to learn as much as possible about tube amp circuitry without spending years researching and studying all of the electronics that pertain only to tube guitar amps. Well I received that in spades.
David is nothing if not an immensely patient and attentive individual (I guess that’s what it takes to be a successful engineer). It didn’t take all that long to put it together and many of my email questions were answered within an hour (even on the weekend that I chose to do this). I gained a boatload of knowledge and have an amp that satisfies my “Tone Jones” anytime that I use it.
I ended up with a single channel 40 watt AB763 based amp with reverb and a several niceties. I’ve also been working with tweed amps during this time and learned a lot about how tone controls/circuits really work. The “Raw” function in the OF lets you bypass the heavily scooped “Fender” tone stack and allows you to bring the mids back for a more tweed like tone. The effect is almost as good as using a Tweed Bassman and a SR in parallel. It becomes its own sound. While I’m not crazy about the way that a SR breaks up, I find that this amp responds very well to OD pedals. So you dial in your best clean sound and take it over the top with the OD pedal d’jour. (I’ve been using a Barber Burn Unit EQ EL. This effectively gives me 3 channels to work with and the effects loop opens up many more options)

I built it stock with the following mods:
TAD 6L6WGCs
NOS Phillips 5751 up front
NOS Mullard 12AT7s
SOZO caps in all of the Mallory positions
Weber 15A150 - 50w w/British ribbed cone per Ted’s rec.
(This kit came with an Em. Legend 151 but I couldn’t get it to break up the way I like. The 151 is rated at 150 Watts)

I know this sounds more like a HC review but I felt bad that no one is posting anything on the Allen Amps section. Yeah, these amps might be a little pricier than Ted’s equivalents but they really do represent circuits that have developed mods for guitar players and are well thought out to offer features that are great sounding in the BF genre. They’re also loaded with top quality components: David’s own Tranny’s, Sprague Electrolytics, Mallory 150s, Carbon comp resistors, etc.

http://www.allenamps.com/oldflame.html

So, based on this, I would highly recommend any of David’s “Supported” kits for first time builders. After you make the first one, you are now an “experienced builder” (you can look at virtually any kit on the web and feel confident that you can put it together and get it to work).

I hope that this represents my experience with David’s amps and provides enough info. for anyone that is interested in his kits.

[Richard]

I've been checking out his site, it's good to read this. How much experience did you have before building the amp?

[JimiRayBoneKing]

Old Flame build

Hello Richard,
Sorry I couldn't get back sooner.
I've been building things all of my life but this was the first amp that I ever built from the ground up. I have a bit of experience making guitars and effects pedals and I've tinkered with amplifiers but I really wanted to understand how an amp works and how to get it to sound the way that I wanted.
The reason that I first started building guitars was because I wanted to understand just what it was that a particularly good playing one had that an off the shelf one didn't.
Allen Amps are delivered with a very precise layout sheet that shows where every wire goes and how to route them. You really just need to know how to solder well and follow instructions. It's really not at all like effect pedal circuits with circuit board tracings and tiny components, Dave says it's more like soldering for plumbing.
When I was building it, I measured the value of every component just to make sure that I put it in the right place. In my correspondence with David I learned about tone stacks and wire dress of which I had no prior knowledge. David also cautions you about the parts of a circuit that contain especially dangerous voltages and how to minimize your exposure to these hazards.
Hope this helps you out and brings you closer to buying an Allen Amplification creation. I know that I'm really happy with mine.
Good Luck

[Steve A.]

The Allen "Old Flame" amp is popular with a lot of the blues guitarists around here, so you are getting a top notch amp (in addition to the hand-holding and detailed instructions that you mentioned). For a second kit amp getting a different Allen amp might not be a bad idea... either an Ultimate Amp Kit or a Bare Bones Amp Kit

Like Mission Amps, when you buy an Allen amp kit you are getting something that you'd be proud to play... maybe not quite a Holy Grail boutique amp but close enough for rock'n'roll.

I guess you can buy a kit from the Far East that might cost a lot less than either an Allen or a Mission Amp kit, but when you are done the results might be less than stellar. (You can still learn a lot fine-tuning the cheaper amp kit so that it isn't a total waste, but don't expect the helpful tips that you might get from Bruce or David.)

Steve Ahola

P.S. Funny that you should mention a Barber Burn Unit... I just picked up one of their Small Fry's yesterday and am very impressed with it!

[JimiRayBoneKing]

Old Flame build

Hey Steve,
Yeah, Barber makes some great pedals.
I was looking for a pedal to compliment the OF amp and the BU is supposed to emulate a Dumble OD (I was also interested in the Menatone "Howie" pedal which is now out of production). It uses a JRC4559D chip (Supposedly a more Hifi-ish 4558) in a socket that you allows you to plug in any dual opamp that will fit (and hopefully work). I was also looking for a box that had 2 channel switching to offset the single channel Old Flame. A real bonus is the effects loop of the EL model. It allows you to patch in any effect to any of the 3 loop nodes available (even another distortion box if you like). I have no problem with the TS pedals and their clones but the BU has a series of trim pots that allow you to fine tune the bass, mids and highs to your tastes (and then change it when your tastes change).
So, what does this have to do with the Old Flame, well it brings it closer to being the "Holy Grail" of tone with a single coil Strat. This combination is so close to that "SRV" Texas tone that it's inspiring to work with. It's a little heavier and more like Chris Duarte's sound (although I understand that he's partial to the early '80s Fender "75" amps) .