Alessandro/Working Dog Rottweiler 210 Combo

The amp was purchased new 2003. Does a great job in all styles.
The amp is 40 Loud watts. More than enough juice for small clubs.
I find a nice level with a large crowd 100+ people and the amp is set midpoint. Really cuts through well with maintaining a good sense of dynamics. I get many compliments on my tone.

I currently play a baker chambered and a fender custom.
I use a dynamic overdrive-Rmc-3-stereo chorus -ad900 into
boss rc20 into the alessandro and a Carr elmoto.
The alessandro is a tone machine.From clean to mean.It does it all.

Takes a beating an keeps on ticking.

It was a pleasure dealing with george and his staff. The customer service is unmatched.

Boutique amp 1200. that does it all and is a pleasure to play every time. HMMMM not much to think about.
Buy one

Made in 2002. One channel, no effects loop or switching, no "overdrive" channel. Has a power attenuator that works a lot like a master volume but without the tone-sucking. "creamy" and "jangly" switch. Basically this is a great, hand made, 40 watt two 6l6 fender-ish amp with more versatility than your standard fender, the quality of ptp wiring, but without the overcomplicated crap that degrades the tone. It all works for a working musician

The half power knob is really effective--it takes the amp from a 40 watt to something like twenty, so you can get an overdrien tone at lower volumes, But no, it's not going to give you overdrive at bedroom levels, or close to it. It's a well designed working tool--you can adjust the power output, and the breakup level, to suit the gig

The creamy/jangly switch gives you instant midrange tone. I use the "jangly" position all the time, and play mostly clean and clean-ish, but If you like that fat humbucker "woman tone" this will get you right there.

Tone controls are very powerful, and sensitive--it's easy to radically change the sound of the amp, wihtout losing the basic quality--see below

Short pan reverb tank, and the reverb knob crackles when you adjust it, which is part of the design of the high impedance circuit, I'm told

final feature: It's light--36 pounds or so. very easy to haul to gigs.

I'm giving it an 7, because it lacks a lot of fancy features, like an effects loop or channel switching. These are features I don't use or care about: the features it has are well designed and effective. They WORK--they do what a musician needs them to do without fuss, and sound great doing it. The short pan reverb is a little less to my liking than the long pan, and I'm knocking a point off for that too.

But I'm rating it not for it's ability to sound "just like" so and so, or nail so and so's tone on some hit, but for how it allows you to play what you want

I use it with telecasters and with an archtop for jazz. I rarely use pedals, maybe a sparkle drive in front mostly as a clean boost. Playing in clubs and cafes, jazz, country, blues, soul. Loud it opens up and really sings: the tbes start pushing and you're in tone heaven

it suits my style, because it doesn't really sound "like" anything else--it's not one of those deals where you switch it on and "hey, I sound just like ---"insert guitar hero here. It has plenty of clean headroom at 40 watts without a lot of weight: it has an attenuator that cuts the power if you need crunch at lower volume. The attenuator--and this is key--seems to hit the POWER tunes rather than the preamp tubes, so you get a more pleasing form of distortion. less mesa buzz, more bassman grind. The tone controls allow you to go from blackface midcut to vox sparkle to warm tweed, but they aren't imitations--it's just a really versatile, great sounding tone stack on top of a clean, beautifully laid out and thought out power section. It doesn't sound "just like" any other amp, which is why it's good. It makes beautiful tones and allows you enough versatility to vary them to suit the room and the band. It's fenderish, but not a clone.

It's a solid state rectifier, which makes it tighter and gives you more solid bass, some people (me included) like a tube rectifier for "sag" and compression. with this amp you get a tighter feel longer. I love a tube recto for blues, and bluesy leads, but with jazz stuff it gets muddy and sloppy. The amp really tsings at high volume levels, and at lower clean levels it's tight and responsive. I don't miss the tube rectifier, and when i do I fire up my princeton reverb

The sound is detailed, rich, and pleasing. How can you describe sound, any way? It just sounds good--lots of depth, lots of sparkle, lots of "air."

I do think it's a little too bright with a telecaster--the treble gets a little shrill. It has two jensen reissue speakers, c10Q, and I'm told these are known to be shrill till they break in. I emailed the company about this and they replied basically "give it time and play it, the whole thing will mellow out." It has mellowed out some (In two months) but i still think it's a little bright. But then tele's are bright, and with my archtop I can't believe the tone--grainy, detailed, warm. I have tried running it at half power through the Weber p10q I have in my princeton, and i think the weber is a better sounding speaker. Maybe down the line I'll do a swap, but really this is a small complaint. Your guitar will just sound good through it, as good as a good tube amp can sound, which is amazing.

I wish it had a long pan reverb, but then I don't use verb all that much

Open up the back and take a look--it's amazingly clean and simple, and faultlessly wired. he lightness of the cab wrreis me a little, but as far as the eye can see it's solidly constructed, clean and tight. There's a bias adjust pot inside, easily accessible, and directions for the bias level. It's too early to tell, but evrything about it says well-built

Emailed alessandro, they responded right away

Been playing bass and guitar more than twenty years, in many situations. This is all the guitar amp you really need--loud enough for any gig that doesn't need PA support, clean or overdriven, versatile tone stack, sounds good in every mode. Wish it had long pan reverb, find the treble a teeny bit bright with teles, but roll back the tone knob

1200 is not cheap, but it's not outrageous either. The construction method--ptpt wiring, is easy to fix and lasts for ever--look how many forty year old blackface fenders are still out there. When you get tired of modeling amps, pedal boards and imitating someone else, come here and find great tone and a tool that gets you heard right

Working Dog is a new line from Alessandro which is more Fender-inspired (6L6 & 6V6 Combos) and more affordably priced. The amp was purchased in March 2002. My model is the 2-10' 6L6 version.
Features include:
-Bright/Jangly switch
-Volume, Reverb, Treble, Mid, Bass, and FOC controls
-Final Output Control which attenuates power up to 50%
-Jensen re-issue C-10Q speakers
-Handmade PTP wiring with excellent detail

What's missing:
-Tremolo
-High-Gain Channel
-Effects Loop
-No built in digital effects, drum machines, 48-track digital recorder, or EVH Guitar Simulator buttons.

Pedals required for high gain stuff. I'm using the amp in 2 bands and can cover everything from 70's Funk to heavy modern Complaint Rock with only a handful of pedals. Built-in FOC attenuator excellent for the blues player, as user can dime the amp and use the guitar volume to control distortion--Wicked Tone!

I'll give it a 6, as the FOC allows for volume versatility beyond vintage designs(+1), but no built-in effects, modeling, effects loop, or channel switching is available.(-5)

Amp is set up as follows:
-Ernie Ball Music Man Silhouette or Axis Sport
-Fulltone Clyde, Visual Sounds H20, MJM Blues Devil (TS808 Clone), Menatone KOB.

My last 5 amps owned were: Demeter TGA-2 (still own), Rivera Jake, Budda Twinmaster, Fender Bassman ('61 Brownface), Mesa DC-3.

Tonewise--Best clean I've ever heard, period. The tone controls are very responsive, and somewhat interactive, but also quite easy to dial in. Extreme settings produce extreme tones (overly bassy/trebly) but they still sound great. There is SO MUCH bass available, turning it up all the way can produce flab. I think this is more of a limitation of the speaker configuration, not the amp itself. I'd love to try that in a 4-12" combo.

I usually set the amp as follows: Volume 4.5, Treble 4.5, Mids 4.5, Bass 6, FOC adjusted according to room. This puts the amp on the brink of breakup with single coils, and just slightly more breakup with humbuckers (very creamy). The KOB is used for over-the top gain, and the Blues Devil sounds phenominal for texas-style blues or classic Rock. The 1st time my soundguy heard the amp, he thought it was a soldano! I guess the pedals were working pretty good.

Turning the amp up all the way is a religious experience--no pedals required, although a Fuzz sounds cool in this application. The amp stays real warm, and can take on some brittish personality. It doesn't get harsh the way a vintage fender can.

Finally, the solid pine cabinet construction contributes a great deal to the tone of this amp. There's a fantastic bassy resonance when you knock on the front baffle. It really turns the whole amp into a big speaker, which I think is part of the reason there's such a good bass response. Oh yeah, at 35 pounds, it is very back-friendly at 2am.

I'm giving the amp a 9 only because there's too many 10s on the board. It's the best fender-style clean I've ever heard, but hopefully this will keep George busy.

PTP wiring should keep the amp servicable for years to come. Tubes are always the most common point of failure, so I bring backups.

Amp came with a slightly microphonic preamp tube. George sent one no charge. It's really cool when the company's phone number is printed on the back of the amp, and when you call it, the owner answers! And, he stays on the line for like 20 minutes talking about tone.

Given the excellent layout and PTP construction, I have no doubts any copentant technician could work on the amp. Of course, I can always send it back to Alessandro should I have any problems.

I guess I have to give a 10 here.

I came to the conclusion of purchasing this amp after a several-years long search for a vintage Fender Vibrolux. That's always been my favorite sound, however after trying several out, I was always either underwhelmed by the tone, or overwhelmed by the price (up to $2000 dollars!) This thing arguably sounds better, has a cool understated vibe, better reliability, and is cheaper than the vintage alternative.

This is the 1st time I've owned an amp for more than 3 months and not even thought about upgrading. I'm more satisfied with the tone of this amp and a few pedals than I have been playing some Really Great high gain amps over the last few years.

Amp can be compared to Holland, Allen, Blues Pearl. The FOC allows for greater control over the Holland, Blues Pearl is a risky proposition as there's no support, and the Allen tone savor I played this next to sounded like a joke in comparison.

There's no comparison to the current fender line. Sure, you could buy a new Super Reverb or Vibrolux, replace the board with a Hoffman, upgrade the speakers, and still have less of an amp due to Cabinet Construction limitations--Oh yeah, try doing that for less than $1200.

I have to give the amp another 10 overall.

Oh yeah, I purchased the amp upon recommendation from Matt Baker at Action Music. Excellent dealer--Highest recommendation to them as well.