Alessandro/Hound Dog Beagle

I LOST A BEST FRIEND THAT I HAVE EVER HAD,SHE WAS MY BEAGLE ANNABELLE
SHE HAD TO LEAVE ME JUST FOR ALITTLE WILE,SHE IS IN A BETTER PLACE FREE OF PAIN AND AWAY FROM THIS CRUEL WORLD,DADDY LOVES YOU ANNABELLE
WE WILL BE JOINED TOGETHER WHEN IT'S MY TURN,REST YOUR LITTLE SOUL SWEETY..."ANF GO GET EM TIGER"

6 STRING AND TWO BANJOS..

VERY

NO

5

My Beagle was made in late 2000, and is the high-end model with the black-gate filter caps and functionally perfect silver wire. 10 watts, Pure Class-A, 2x EL-84's, 2 octal 6SL7 preamp tubes. Controls are Volume, Treble, Mid, and Bass...each with a wide frequency range, these controls allow great versatility without being cumbersome. Superb clean tones to lovely overdrive...all controlled at the guitar! I've had the Beagle for a few months, and its my second Alessandro after having a Redbone Coonhound. Love them!!

I play a 56 strat, and various models of Terry C. McInturff guitars with the Beagle. It loves single coils, P-90's and Humbuckers...with no preference, all types sound great! I play mostly blues/rock, blues, and whatever comes out...funk, pop, whatever. My favorite thing about George's amps is that they have the most PURE, RICH tone I've found. Its hard to explain, but it seems like the bandwidth is wider...the bass extends lower, the mids are complex yet tasteful, and the highs seem to go further without being harsh or brittle. High-end sparkle is lovely, bass is warm without being mushy or farty, and the mids have a complex flavor that really suits the clean tones. Touch response is unparalled...this amp breathes with you! There is very little noise unless cranked, which is normal with EL-84's and Class A, but its nothing that gets in the way. Of all the amps I've had, the Beagle reacts perfectly to volume knob roll-off...as it cleans up the tone is retained, and it doesn't thin-out. This enables complete control over clean/overdriven tones, without losing any tonal quality. Mainly, this amp is a LOUD 10 watts! I beleive George conservatively rates them, before breakup, so that when cranked it is more than 10 watts...either way, the Beagle has more guts than any Deluxe I've put it up against! I use it with a custom cabinet I had before the amp...its a 1x12 Celestion Blue Bulldog and a 1x10 Weber P10Q, and it suits the Beagle perfectly!

I'd have no worries gigging with an Alessandro. George is a master to detail and quality, and his amps are bulletproof! Not overbuilt, but incredubly tasteful and well thought out, the chassis is a brilliant design, and easy to service if needed. Although I've never had a problem with my Alessandro amps, George is always just a phone call away, and he makes himself very available.

George Alessandro is a Class Act! He is incredibly friendly, intelligent, and just a super guy. He answers the phone when you call, and spends time answering questions ro taking comments. He's always been very helpful, informative, and generous. He answers emails quickly, too. He offers a lifetime warranty, and I've heard his turnaround for repairs is FAST! (Most repairs I've heard about are on other brands of amps!)

I've been playing for 15 years, and I own lots of sweet amps. My favorites are my 65 Pro Reverb, 61 Super, and Sewell Wampus Cat 15. However, the Alessandro has something that NO other amp has. I will continue to buy amps from George, as he has a lot of variations available...and I would replace the ones I have if anything happened to them.

As with all other Alessandro models, no extra bells and whistles to degrade your tone. This is a 10 Watt, all tube, Class A amplifier (no tube rectifier). The pre-amp tubes are both octals, and are 5691's (6SL7's). 2 gain stages and a phase inverter. The power tubes are EL84's (two). The front panel consists of Volume, Treble, Middle, and Bass controls. 1 instrument input, power and standby switches. The rear panel has an 8 ohm and 16 ohm speaker impedence switch, and two speaker jacks. The cabinet is natural finished oak. I do not like mega knob amps with multi channel switching etc. etc. features. Less is more to me, so I rate this a "10."

Normally, I will wait for a while after I own a piece of equipment before I will post a review of it on this site. I feel that it takes time to really know the limits/capabilities of a piece of equipment. However, I have owned an Alessandro Redbone Coonhound for 3 years, and I have become pretty damn acclimated/attached to these amplifiers in both gigging and farting around at home.

I have only briefly owned this amplifier, but I have heard enough to honestly say that I have never played through a finer amplifier. My Beagle has the Black Gates power filter capacitors, functionally perfect silver wire, and audiophile grade resistor upgrades. I also ordered a matching natural finished oak 1x12 cabinet loaded with a 12" Celestion Blue Bulldog re-issue speaker. When I ordered the cabinet, I was thinking that I would use it as a practice cabinet, because, surely a 1x12 cabinet would not sound as good as my 4x12 cabinets (loaded with re-issue greenbacks or Webers). I have played the Beagle through my 4x12 cabinets, and I am surprised to admit that I like it best through the 1x12 Alessandro cabinet for any application. I knew that the cabinet would sound good, but I never expected to like a 1x12 cabinet better than a 4x12 cabinet.

This is the only amp that I have ever played, that any guitar, regardless of pickup selection sounds superb. You can grab any guitar, plug it in, try any pickup selection, and it will sound fantastic. Humbuckers, single coils, it doesn't matter. I'm used to having "Les Paul amps" and "Strat amps." The Beagle is an "Anything that has a pickup on it electric guitar amp." Phenominal.

As with the Redbone, a PRS Custom is a perfect match with this amp. Strats also stand out.

As I stated above, I have not had this amp for very long. However, I have owned a Redbone Coonhound for 3 years, and I have not had one problem with it. All parts and construction are of the finest quality. I've never seen better. I'm predicting a "10" in this department based on my experience with my other Alessandro, and in my dealings with George Alessandro.

There is none better. George is not a perfectionist, he is a complete fanatic. He discounted my bill (on his accord, not mine) because both cabinets were "flawed." He gave me the option to return the "flawed" cabinets for new ones if I did not like them. I expected the flaws to be at least noticeable. The flaws on my cabinets are so minor, that they would be analogous to Cindy Crawford having a small freckle on her left ankle. I probably wouldn't have noticed them if George had not mentioned them.

I have been dealing with George for 3 years now, and he has been nothing less than completely honest with me and he has given me a lot of his time to discuss various topics regarding tube amplifiers whether or not I was buying something or just bothering him to ask a question. He deserves higher than "10."

I have been playing for 23 years. I started gigging 20 years ago when I was in high school. I have played a lot of guitars and amplifiers over the years. My guitar heroes are Duane Allman, Dicky Betts, Jimmy Page, and Peter Frampton. My Holy Grail tone is Jimmy Page in the movie "The Song Remains The Same." As with my Redbone, my Beagle allows me to control my tone with my guitar volume control. 5-6 for clean, 10 for distortion. I have had working guitarists complement me on my tone at gigs (Redbone) where I contolled my tone in this manner. I have not yet gigged with the Beagle. No channel switching, no pedals. Just a great amp with a great guitar with the right cabinet. With the Beagle, this is the way. The natural finished wood cabinets are absolutely beautiful, and are furniture quality. I am a very happy customer, and I will be buying more Alessandros in the future.