Allen Sole Mate Kit

One thing I wanted to add to my previous review. Have been using the unit daily for a few days now, spent the weekend playing with a buddy (singer) who commented that my overall tone is so much fatter now; equated my playing tone to the guitarist(s) for the Black Crowes (esp. By Your Side, Twice as Hard, Remedy). The Sole Mate has great great great tone, best thing to say is that it sounds "RIGHT", I've hardly been able to put it down, everything I do with it, no matter how I mess with the controls, sounds good.

The Sole Mate effect box kit, by Allen Amplification, is essentially an all-tube, hard wired (no PC board) the front-end of a blackface Fender (probably a Princeton or 1/2 a Deluxe). I purchased it as a pre-amp to run directly into the single-ended class A output section of my Crate VC-508 (by inserting a stereo cable into the "Line Out"slot, and running input of guitar into input of Sole Mate, and output from Sole Mate directly into the stereo "in" into the Line Out effects loop.

This effects box is so much more than just a distortion pedal - Clean channel gives me creamy, articulate, bright (and FAT, with the FAT switch that controls low- and mid-boost) clean headroom in the Crate, and outshines the stock preamp section of my 70's Traynor Reverb Master YRM-1SC. Easy to get great tube blackface Fender sound out of this pre-amp.

All documentation provided with the kit (purchase price $89 + shipping) was excellent, like "amp-building for dummies" - great color circuit diagram, step-by-step instructions, complete parts list. All parts were not included with the kit (as stated in David Allen's website), but remaining parts not included were easily ordered via internet from Antiqueelectronics.com, and Mouser.com

I paid $175, 89 for kit + shipping, and about $70-80 in parts and tools I didn't already have (desolderer, forceps, etc.) You will need a good multimeter to meter your resistors.

Used with Vantage VS-810 with Seymour Duncan Sh-1B '59 Model, and SH-55N Seth Lover, maple neck-through flame Ash body 1980 vintage. Traynor YRM-1SC (1973), and Crate VC-508.

Noise much less than I expected considering I built kit myself - doesn't add notable noise to my tube amps.

Effects are articulate, detailed, vintage, and TUUUBBE, baby.

I give 9 only because I don't think there's a 10 in sound quality - so subjective. It makes my vintage Traynor through my vintage Fender 4x10 cab sound like a great big nasty old Tweed Bassman. Makes my Crate VC508 sound like a nice, articulate and bluesy low-watt class A tube AMP instead of a piece of Sh&T - it's only 5 watts, but it sounds HUGE when recording, and it is an excellent practice amp complement.

Just built last night, appears to be built like a truck - heavy guage steel, this thing is HEAVY DUTY and the design seems very well-thought out - we'll see how it lasts, after all, I soldered the thing together (we'll see if my joints hold up). I think it would be better for basement jams, studio work, etc. rather than gigs because the vacuum tubes are top-mounted, and could get kicked off if caught in an enthusiastic mosh (you shouldn't be playing it in a mosh anyway - not really blackface territory . . .

8 only because I built it, and I ain't michelangelo with a soldering iron. I did a nice and careful job, it looks good inside and out, but it is not perfect, and I hope that this will not hinder its reliability. I'll let you know in twenty years how it held up (I keep my tried and true equipment for a LOOOONG time).

David Allen is great, he was VERY helpful via email, even though his site says "no technical support with this kit". I was describing the writing on some capacitors and resistors that weren't clearly marked, and he was shooting me quick and correct answers.

I play blues, 70s rock, jazz. The fender blackface sound is the ultimate in this arena.

Playing for 30 years, should be SO much better than I am, but I love it. Have had TubeScreamer TS808 (stolen back in 9th grade - Greg and Sean you scheming, conniving rat-bastards, I should have killed you when I had the chance), Arion Stereo Distortion (junk), Chandler Tube Driver (BK Butler) - NOT EVEN CLOSE to the Sole Mate, Danelectro Daddy-O (OK, but there is a weird clipping of my harmonics that just kills the sound EVEN through my 2 x EL34 Traynor output stage when it should be sustaining off into infinity. Played many others. This is a sophisticated, artful masterpiece of a component. David hit on something that is just right for me. I never played the Mesa Boogie V Twin, but I would hope their box is at least this cool for the $500-600 you pay for one (but I doubt it!)

The only thing I might want is for the Clean channel to be able to be driven through the EQ section - Clean is Clean, or Clean is Clean/Fat - the Bass/Treble controls don't factor in on Clean mode.

The Traynor YRM-1SC has ALWAYS needed to brighten up a bit in order to be more useful - the Sole Mate kit does bright, especially in Gain mode.

If stolen or broken, I'd have to buy another kit and build her - every ONCE in a blue moon, you'll see one on Ebay for $180-200. Kids, in good condition that would be a steal. I spent $165 on kit + parts, plus I had to pick up a hemostat (locking curved forceps) (VERY handy in building this kit) and some other tools to do it right, plus it took three evenings (about 10 hours - with tube amp tech bench time running about $65/hour, I got a bargain by doing it myself. You need patience, a clear head and sticktuitiveness.

This tube overdrive/preamp gives me some understanding of where David Allen is coming from - If his amplifier kits are half as fun, and the results are this good, I will build one within the next year.

This is essentially the front end of a guitar amp. It has two channels clean and overdrive footswitchable. Clean channel pretty much retains your original sound and overdrive gives you vintage Marshall tone. There's a gain and master volume as well as bass and treble controls. There's also a fat switch. It doesn't get much simpler.

I use the Sole Mate with my Allen Old Flame 2x10 combo usually with a Gibson ES 335. The sounds I go for are AC/DC, George Thorogood, ZZ Top, and blues rock in general. This pedal gives a very convincing tone, not quite as good as the Class Act that I have but real close. I primarily got it for when I want to play loud (i.e. in the garage). I tried it for direct in recording but it's not as good as when played thru an amp. I'm not a big fan of direct in devices so this is not really an issue, I was experimenting. The noise is low for a tube based overdrive (2-12ax7). It even sounded good with a Polytone Mini Brute solid state jazz amp but is a bit more authentic when played thru a tube amp.

I built this from a kit and don't expect to have any problems as I have not had any problems with the other two Allen kits I built.

This is my third Allen kit and I'm happy with all of them. If you do have any type of problem David will do his best to help you and answer your questions. I guarantee you won't get support like this at the huge conglomerate companies and besides his stuff sounds great.

The Sole Mate works as advertised and I'm happy with it. It's great if you don't want to shell out for another amp. It's tube based and gives real tube tone (i don't care for digital this and modeling that). I would replace it in case it were lost or stolen.