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Allen Old Flame hand wired amp. Upgraded refined. Wow.

Bluespower

Les Paul Forum Member
Joined
Feb 26, 2003
Messages
3,487
I just got my 20 yr old Allen Old Flame amplifier back from David Allen who upgraded it, refined it, and tuned it up.
Wow! Couldnt be happier. My R9 and both strats sound better than ever.. An outstanding value for a quality build.
Now if I could only get to gigging again......
8 - (
 

Señor Verde

Active member
Joined
Jan 13, 2005
Messages
619
I have an old, Old Flame (flat front) and a newer Encore. They really are great amps. Do you know what the upgrades and refinements are?
 

Bluespower

Les Paul Forum Member
Joined
Feb 26, 2003
Messages
3,487
It hasn't been sounding right,
and since I only have the single input model, he had no room to add a foot switch for the raw control, which he can do on the later models.

Besides a cleaning, and tune up
This is what David did to it.
"The preamp tubes in it were groove tubes or sovtek and just not my favorite tubes. So I put 3 of the new Electro Harmonix 7025s in it plus a JJ ECC81 (12AT7) in V4 to help tame the amp down some more like a blackface amp.

Added a brightening capacitor in the reverb mix circuit like Fender did and reduced the gain of the last gain stage before the phase inverter 50% to compensate for no vibrato and to be more in line with blackface gain levels. This change and the 12AT7 should have tamed the amp a lot making the volume control much lesss sensitive. If I find it too sensitive still, I will put a JJ 12AY7 in V1.

My amp sounds great. Although I have to turn the Vol control to 7 instead of 3, like I used to. Master on 8. there is no trouble with overall headroom or volume just different in a good way..
 

BurstWurst

Member
Joined
Jan 24, 2008
Messages
568
I jammed with some friends in Cincy last weekend and was tossed an Allan amp to use. Was duly impressed with it!
 

Bluespower

Les Paul Forum Member
Joined
Feb 26, 2003
Messages
3,487
David Allen is the best kept secret in the hand wired Amp world. He specializes in upgraded versions of the famous AB763 Fender Chassis's of the mid 60's. He adds a few upgrades and creates the perfect amp. IMO. Im in Cinci too.
 

el84ster

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 10, 2001
Messages
1,420
Allen is such a great and helpful guy. I built one of his Class Act kits back in 2000 and have been building ever since.
 
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