Allen Class Act Head

This is the Class Act 2, single channel kit amp. High/low gain inputs, vol bass treb, on/off standby and bright switch. 2 12ax7 preamp tubes using all 4 gain stages, 1 EL34 output cathode bias, and a 5Y3GT rectifier. You can swap 6L6 tubes. Simple but versatile. Output is a very loud approx 10 watts.

Low gain input is good for crunch blues and does a good clean. Pre/power amp tube swaps can steer you torward soft clean Fender. High gain input gives you a boatload of Marshall gain when you crank it up. I built this amp mainly for the high gain channel and am tuning the sound for fully cranked volume. Tube selection is critical for good defenition when the vol is cranked as the soft tube rectifier can make things a bit muddy. The sound reminds me of a cross between early Van Halen and late 70's Ritchie Blackmore, but a bit softer. I use strats with a single coil Rio Grande Mid Bottom set and one loaded with a set of Dave Stephens Texas Twisters. I'm using a JJ EL34 in the power socket. I tried a new issue Tung Sol 5881, but it was a little flappy in the bass. The JJ has good tone but is a little too smooth. A JJ 6L6 definitely makes the tone more Fendery but I prefer the British/Marshall thing. This amp would benefit from a brighter tube with more cut for my setup. Keep in mind I'm trying to be critical in detail. This amp is wonderfull sounding and extremely responsive to tubes and pickups. The gain is very rich and full, the best I've played through.

I built it myself, my second Allen amp project and it went without a hitch. Good color layout diagram and large, high quality American made transformers. I've played it for 3 months and never a problem. It's suprisingly quiet for a single ended amp used with single coil pickups. Dave Allen supplies top notch stuff.

As mentioned above, this is my second amp from Dave Allen. Both purchases were pleasant experiences with great customer service. Shipments are timely and Dave is very patient with questions from beginner amp builders. He deserves more than a 10.

Been playing for over 25 years and I get evermore picky with my tone. I wanted a simple amp with good high gain tone at relatively low volume levels and this amp delivers. It's great to see the snickers from others as I walk into a jam with my homemade amp head and cabinet, then watch the color drain from their faces when the sound pours out.

Tube changes are a great feature for me. It was fun trying different tubes to find what I dig. Many subtle sound changes in one amp.

This was my first step towards real plexi sound. I enjoyed it, but it fell just a little short for me. I wanted that 60s and 70s power tube distortion at low volumes, but this amp was really getting most of its distortion from the preamp. This was the *later* Class Act with a bigger transformer (its a little heavier too), and reading previous reviews, I'm thinking that the earlier ones just saturated the tubes. I'm a fan of that power tube sound, and I just never felt that this amp pushed the power tubes hard enough. Seriously, the distortion sounded the same with the master volume all the way up as it did with the master volume down (tubes not pushed).

I built this amp and know that it would be strong. An incredibly reliable piece of equipment. Like a tank.

David Allen gave me a great building experience with helpful information along the way. I enjoyed buildng and playing this amp, especially with his help.

Once again, I think the earlier versions (smaller output transformer) probably reached that out of control tube sound better.

The Class Act has a high and low input with no switching,bass, treble and mid tone controls. It also has gain and master volume controls. My favorite feature is that several different output tubes can be used without rebiasing. It will accept 6K6, 6V6, 6L6, EL34 or KT88 tubes which vary the outpart and tone considerably. There is no reverb but I don't really mind because this amp sounds great without it.

I mostly use this amp with a Gibson ES 335 and occasionally with a Carvin bolt neck strat style guitar with Seymour Duncan pickups. With the 335 you can get a vintage Marshall tone with almost no effort. There's plenty of gain but I find myself using less gain and letting the output tubes do some of the dirty work. When I first completed my kit I was so knocked out by the crunch of the high input that I almost overlooked the low input. There are lots of excellent sounds there as well especially for blues and roots rock. This is the first amp I've owned that I can get a great distotion sound with single coil pickups, too. Recording is easy just shove an SM57 in front of the speaker and go for it. It sounds big and fat on tape. It's a wee bit noisy with the gain on ten but if you're playing with bass and drums it's not really noticeable. I've tried all of the output tube choices except the KT88 and my favorite is the EL34- it gives a tighter bottom end and crunch. I use it with a homemade cabinet with a Celestion Vintage 30 12" speaker and is actually rather loud when cranked.

I built this amp and am confident I will have no problems as the parts are all top quality. The Old Flame I built three years ago still sounds like it did the day I completed it. These kits are somewhat tricky to assemble and you really have to pay attention at all times. I caught myself several times on the verge of screwing up, so if you do the kit double and triple check everything before you solder.

I don't know if there's a warranty on the kits but David will help you out any way he can while you're building your kit. He answers E-mails faster than any company I've ever dealt with and will take care of any problems quickly. I've built three Allen kits and I was missing a part or two on each one- no big deal- just let him know what you need and you'll get as fast as possible. He even sent me several extra caps, pots and resistors at no charge. With David you don't get that "Gee, we don't make mistakes you must have lost it youself " attitude like I've gotten with the big companies. He really does want his customers to be 100% satisfied which I am.

I have been playing for almost 25 years now and I'm no great player but I do know great tone when I hear it and the Class Act has it. I would replace this amp in a minute if something happened to it. I might even build another one and run my rig in stereo.

'03 Allen class act head, features single ended class A power with a plexi/tweed preamp section. No channel switching but it goes from a sweet gritty tweed champ to a bedroom level screamin' plexi by plugging your guitar in the high input. has volume(gain)treble, bass, mid, and a master volume. This little monster can use any standard octal power tube from a 6k6 all the way up t a kt88. it also uses a tube/plug-in SS rectifier so you can actually adjust the power amp sag! The coolest thing about this little screamer is the fact that he sells it as a kit, so I built this one m'self. I hate when people rate features based on esoteric bells and whistles, this amp doesn't need anything else-if you need a bunch of extra junk buy a line 6 or something.

I play rock, blues, jazz, funk and just about everything in-between. Right now I'm playing a warrior signature w/ a walnut body and a quilt maple top, and a tom anderson cobra type guitar that a local luthier built for me. This little amp is great for getting "real tone" at reasonable volumes. the overdrive is sweet and infinitely adjustable tone wise since you can put any power tube in it. the clean is clean at real low volumes, but I like that nice tweed breakup myself. being ptp wired, it's very responsive to touch.

Since I built it myself, I know that everything is put together solid, PTP amps last forever with little or no mantenance

David allen is awesome to deal with, he is friendly and knowledgeable and he seems to really care about your success in building these kits.

I've been playing for 15 years, All of my gear is Boutique. If it were lost or stolen I'd definitely build another. So far I'm very impressed with it for what it is, I can't think of anything I don't like about it, since i can add any features I may think it'll need down the road.

I got the newer version (tube rectified). Swap and play tubes (class A). Low gain and high gain channels. Tube rectifier. It really is the perfect combination of features for me. I've tried KT-66 (angus), 6v6, el34 power tubes in it. I still love the el34 plexi sound.

I have gotten nothing but complements on the sound. It really captures that Marshall sound, with the plexi flavor just dripping out of it. It handles different guitars differently and records like I always hoped it would. This amp is for keeps. The clean sound is great. The distortion is what you want it to be - over the top or just a touch of grit or smooth soloing. I just plug into this guitar mic'd with headphones to hear the recorded sound. One thing I have noticed is that different brands of power tubes have an amazing change on the tone of this amp. More expensive tubes are not critical(I currently have a "medium priced" el34 in it). I get sounds ranging from the Hives to Aerosmith to Jimi (if done right). It does more.

It has never had any problems. I built it myself and am not worried about it. This is a solid amp.

David Allen was very supportive. He made an amp I could build (I bought my first "good" soldering iron just to do this project and did just fine.

What a cool thing - a low-watt plexi amp (plus more) that records and plays like a dream for me. It has been a learning experience playing through it. I can't explain how great it is to hear a fuzzface snarl and spit through this well-voiced amp and enjoy that over-the-top sound. And it was a great experience building it too.

I bought the kit and built it myself and learned in the process. This amp is versatile if you like to experiment with different tubes (swap and play). The high gain channel is very different from the low gain, and to me sounds more complex. It has enough power for what I bought it for - recording. I run it through a Vintage 30.

I'm using this amp with a Les Paul and a mod'ed strat. Well -- I FINALLY I realized last week that my Vintage 30 had NOT been broken in by this amp - not at all. NOTE: this amp can not properly break in a Vintage 30 speaker so just go and break it in somewhere else. I wish someone had told me - I spent 2 years just not quite satisfied with the sound. So I put the speaker in my my MusicMan amp and dimed it to ungodly levels for a while. After the cops left and I put the speaker back in the Allen, that speaker and the Allen are now blood brothers of tone. Sweet mother of sound, I found it. This amp is everything they say it is and more. I give it a 10.

Very reliable. No problems.

David's customer support is his product. He gave me building instructions, pictures, answers to my questions by email, etc., David taught me every step for building a truly amazing amp, and gave me all the parts. What more can I ask for?

I would never sell it. I am drawn to it every time I strap on the guitar, and if someone stole it I'd get another. I've played for 20 years and bought this because of the reviews alone. I love experimenting with tone and it is just what I was looking for.

I chose to assemble this from the kit instead of buying completed, hand-wired point-to-point, 2 preamp tubes, 1 tube rectifier and one power tube, rated at 4-10 watts depending on choice of power tube. I am not a tech by trade, but found the directions straight forward and easy to follow. You do have to "read-between-the-lines" during the process so it does require general knowledge and technical skills..ie... don't buy the kit to assemble yourself just to save some money, spend the extra money and save yourself the added headaches. FEATURES rate a 9, only because there is no channel switching, you have to unplug from the low gain to the high gain, but being a class-A amp you can use your guitar volume and a softer pick attack a great deal to control input gain and thus go from distortion/crunch to a cleaner tone. One of the best features is the fact that it has a standby switch which prolongs tube life, a big plus since class-A amps run hotter. Many other low-watt class-A amps on the market do not have a standby. Master volume also which is unusual for a low-watt amp is a great tool when playing late at night when everyone is in bed... you can get real low in volume and have REAL nice tone, it doesn't thin out like solid-state amps do. The overall best feature is the VERSATILITY of this amp, being able to change tube types without re-biasing.. plug and play..what a concept!
The usual bass, mid, treble, volume, master volume, on-off, standby. As for the assembling to the kit, it was fun to get my hands dirty and learn about the inards of a hand-wired amp.. rate it a 9 also! A vintage powerhouse to be just 7-10 watts, no modern high gain without a pedal here.

Rate the sound a 9 simply because nothing is perfect. Amps I have owned in the past are Peavey Classic 50, Boogie DC-3, Marshall JTM30, Fender Ult Chirus, Mmaeshall VS65 & new MicroStack. The amp I had wanted was the Dr. Z Route 66 but did not have $2300. Next was the Marshall JTM45/ Bluesbreaker outfitted with original specs, but there again did not have $1800. You could say that I settled for the Class Act, but in my mind I did not settle, I FOUND a treasure. Along with building the head I also built my cabinets, a 1x12 sealed and ported cabinet and the head cabinet made out of figured claro walnut, Beautiful pair!!! I bought just the chasis and parts from Allen and not the head cabinet. In my cab I have a WeberVST C12N with a 50oz. magnet, and let me tell you, you would NOT BELEIVE how much low end and punch I have from this setup.. you would not believe this is a 7-10 watt wamp ! It has tremendous low-end and punch ! The Class Act purrs, growls and screams through it! At first, I did not like the overall sound from the head, it was too bright and harsh in the high frequencies for my taste, but after talking with David, I changed 3 three capicitors, one resistor, and added a capicitor to roll off the highs.. and boy did that do it for me ! It was a little shrilly also, so I switched the second preamp 12ax7 to a NOS 5751. The 5751 has a lower gain rating and it quieted the amp down and took out the shrillines, and gave me more clean headroom. Not that the amp was noisy, it is a quiet amp, but using a lot of preamp gain it got fizzy. At first the amp favored the EL-34, as everyone else has stated, it IS a PLEXI, all the tight crunch and grind you could want, and REAL nice rounded clean tone from the low gain. I was pleasantly surprised at how great the clean tone was on the low gain, tight, punchy, well rounded, again, a vintage powerhouse. It did not favor the Valve-Art KT66 I bought, I was disappointed because this was the tube I bought the head for. But after the changes I made, the KT66 CAME ALIVE !! This IS a JTM45 Bluesbreaker !!!! The changes tightened up the tone of the "66" and let her scream for joy!! I was amazed at how this amp recreated the infamous "BEANO" tone from Mayall & Clapton, it has all the growl, howl and snarl of that album. Great sustain, even on the low gain ! I was affraid that after the changes I would mess up the low gain and mess up how the the EL34 sounded, but again to my surprise nothing changed, the Class Act now favors both tubes and it actually gave the EL34 a little more grind than before. However YOU sound, and whatever style of music YOU play, that is how this amp will sound, there is no "PRE-SET-CURVED" way this amps sounds. Responsive to picking dynamics, and did it ever amplify my fingernail hitting the strings !!! For my needs it has it all except modern high-gain and the pristine fender clean, both of which do not fit my style, and as far as the modern high gain goes, stick a pedal in front of the amp, it reacts well with pedals, as long as there is no signal boost when engaged because it will distort the preamp..unless that is what you want. Nice smooth, burnished clean tone, great crunch and grind...I play a Wolfgang Special and there is a more noticable difference switching pickups with this amp than any other I have played this guitar through.. it makes it a more versatile guitar for me ! I find that I rarely adjust the bass, mid and treble, that will tell you that the tone of this amp is really good. Tone settings simply tailor the sound, the true tone comes through the tubes and circuit, and the Class Act is just that a Class-Act

As with anything, like a car or a house, there will be times when you have to do a little maintenance as time goes by, not that it is a bad thing, because resistors and capacitors will eventually need to be replaced, they will not last forever, but I have no doubt that this will be a very reliable amp, quality parts, proven circuit, stable, and quiet...

David Allen quickly responded to all inquiries and gave me advice on how to tailor the sound to my liking, even sent me a new capacitor that I broke when I was assembling at no caost to me. Very helpful, and patient with a "novice" kit builder.

I would by another one just to put it together, I had that much fun... the beauty is you can go back in there and fix and change things to make it sould like you want it to sound. I am a bedroom musician and find this fits my bill... it is PLENTY loud enough, I saw a chart that stated that a 7 watt amp is 50% as loud as a 50 watt amp. Dynamics on a tube amp far outweigh those of solid state amps, In fact this 7-10 watt amp is as loud as a 30 watt solid-state amp! This amp has a lot going for it, the first is TONE, then VERSATILTY, then FUN-FACTOR... turn it up and let her scream!!!

This is a all tube,class A tube rectified head that is point to point hand wired.You can buy it as a kit but I had David Allen build this one. The amp can run on a single 6k6 reverb tubes at 3watts root measured squared,6v6 at 4 watts rms,6l6/el34 at 7 watts rms or a kt88 at 10 watts rms with a (solid state)rectifier.I don't miss the lack of reverb to my suprise! Volume,Treble,Bass,mid and a master.

I use a 51 nocaster (closet classic)out of fender's custom shop.The tele is in eb.I play at home covering various styles of music.I play rock,r&b,Blues and alternative.I am playing the head with a bogner cube that I loaded with a 15 watt vox alnico blue.The cabinet is the closed back double ported version.I have the two connected with a speaker cable from allessandro to get everything out of the unit. I got to tell you,this thing sounds so good you forget you don't have reverb.I can get the supped up champ,deluxe and tweed sound depending which imput jack your in and tube being used.This thing also is the "plexi".I mean the "plexi".I can't believe the quality of crunch,grind and drive I get out of this set up with single coil alnico pickups using a 6L6 tube! All the other tubes sound good but I am a 6L6 guy that always got and wanted that fender tone out of my 6L6 amp's but couldn't get that quality drive sound.I tried fultones' fulldrives and klons and they sounded good but they are pedals.I even tried a recto verb(6L6)amps but that didn't work. I've always had amps that were 55watts,which is to loud in my newly giving condo setting. As a result I started looking for a low wattage class A amp.Well I wish I knew about the class act before but I am happy I know now.This thing is all tone!!

David Allen was very helpful with all my questions.He managed to get that brown sound in my amp.Too new for any problems but I am sure he will stand behind his product.

Warranty is one year to the original owner. Guy's who built their own have had no problems with him.That's pretty good when you consider dealing with a number of customer with varian degrees of knowledge regarding electronic's.David Allen is a good guy to talk with.

This is the real deal.I would buy another if i lost it.I compared it to the thd univalue and the class act is head of the class.The thd is weak compared to the class act.I have played off and on for over 25 years.I am no pro but I know tone .I have always owned good stuff. I've owned rivera's & mesa's amps.Prs archtops and a 70 les paul custom. Got to tell you,I only wish I had my 70 fretless wonder les paul,my tele and my current set up .

I purchased the Class Act "plexi" Head in kit form and assembled it myself. This is a simple amp, without many bells and whistles, just what you need to get great tube tones. The amp has volume, treble, mid, bass and master volume, two pre-amp tubes (12AX7s, others can be used), one power tube (6L6, EL34, or 6V6, others can be used), a solid state rectifier and an 8 ohm speaker out. It also has two inputs, high and low gain, which do yield very different sounds, but are not switchable with an A/B switch.

I use a '78 Les Paul Custom with Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates pickups and an early '80's Charvel strat copy with stock Jackson single coils and a standard "vintage" style trem bridge. I bought this amp for the high gain side, as I wanted to A/B a higher gain amp with my Fender Dual Showman Reverb head (converted to blackface Twin specs) for a broad spectrum of sounds for rehersals and gigs with my original rock band. I am too much of a purist to buy a modeling amp, and couldn't justify the price of a channel switching amp that approached the sound quality I can get from the Fender and, I was hoping, a nice, pure higher gain amp that I could run hot. I was not disappointed by the Allen. At first, as the previous reviewer states, the amp was a bit trebly for my taste. I think this stems from the fact that David Allen is primarily a Fender tone fanatic (most of his other amps are based on Blackface Fender designs), and the tone section of the Class Act is similar. I noticed that using the low gain input, the treble was more balanced, but since I'm using the amp on high gain most of the time, I emailed David and he sent me more parts (free) and also sent me a short list of mods to try. I changed one resistor and removed one capacitor, and it is damn near perfect. The beauty of it is, you can always tinker around and experiment to change the tone, which is a great way to learn about tube amp electronics. I also installed a Torres Line out kit ($15.00), as I knew I wanted to use this live, so I can slave it into the Normal channel of my Dual Showman, which works well. Anyway, the tone is excellent. I run the master wide open, and with the mods I made, I run all tone controls maxed out as well, and then govern the max distortion with the volume control (usually maxed out as well, as you can back off the guitar volume and clean it up a bit without sacrificing your tone). I don't know if David Allen intended the amp to be run all out, all the time, but I've had it running like this for a half dozen long rehersals and one gig so far, and it's doing fine. So far, I seem to gravitate to the 6L6 as my favorite tube, even in max gain land, as it has a bit fuller bottom and low mid tone. The EL34 is a little crunchier (crispier?), but I like the fullness of the 6L6. Different brand/quality of tubes will probably all sound a bit different anyway. The amp self-biases, being class A, so you can just switch 'em out, warm her up, and go. The distorted tones are articulate, with good string definition (one of my main desires) and very responsive to picking and guitar volume dynamics. I have played JCM 800's, JCM 2000's, Soldano 20 and 50 watt models, all kinds of Boogies, and other cheaper amps, and I would put the cranked tone(s) of the Class Act up against any of these amps, at least for my tastes. I prefer the Marshall sound to the Boogie distortions, but in any event, prefer power tube distortion to pre-amp distortion. With everything on "10" on the Class Act, you will not get the saturation of a boogie, soldano or JCM 2000, but you do get more overdrive than a stock JCM 800, even cranked, as a reference point. I'm running the head through an old Fender 2x12 cabinet with two reissue Celestion Greenbacks, and the combination is excellent. Believe it or not, I have plenty of volume with this amp/cabinet combination to rehearse with a moderately loud drummer, as long as I have the Fender to switch to for clean tones. The low gain input still sounds good, but has much lower volume capabilities, so it would be more of a "practice amp" if you want to stay clean.

So far, so good. I think I may go through power tubes pretty quickly, given my settings, but I point-to-point wired it myself and took my time, so I think it should be fine. My old Fenders seem to last forever with a little care and understanding, and David Allen uses good components, oversized transformers, etc. The only problem I had so far was the original design of this amp caused an oscillation to occur at high gain settings. David figured this out and gave me the fix (one different resistor), so I expect he'll probably make the change on all subsequent amps he ships. This manifests itself as the "motorboating" sound another reviewer noticed. Mine never does it anymore now that I replaced that one resistor.

David Allen is awesome. He is very responsive, knowledgable, willing to talk or email at length, and really knows his stuff technically. I would recommend his products across the board, given the fact that he will work with you if you have any problems at all. I only give 9's on other categories, as I have not played every amp ever made, but I've dealt with enough people in my 20 years of playing guitar and living life to give this category a 10.

The only thing I left out was that the layout diagram was very easy to use. In full color, all component values shown, I think it's even the exact scale. If you can soldier and have some patience, you should be able to put this together pretty well. The written instructions were not perfectly accurate, but the layout diagram is, so you can default to that every time, or call David for help.

This is a brand new amp head kit from Allen amplification. 4-7 watts depending on what tube you put in (el34, 6v6, 6l6). It has controls for bass, mid, treble, gain, and master volume. 2 inputs, high gain and low. No efeects loop or anything. But you won't miss it.

This amp was a kit. My learning experience. The instructions are very clear and he includes a parts list, a color diagram, step-by-step instructions and a schematic. He is incredibly helpful through the whole process. After I got it running, I thought it was a little bright. He sent me out some parts to replace for free! then I kept changing my mind and he was still going to send me more parts. I finally told him to just send me the info and I'd get the stuff myself, otherwise he'd have kept sending me more and more parts as I whimsically kept fooling around with the sound. Anyway, I kept fiddling (with his advice) and I now have this mother voiced better than any amp I've heard. I like a fat, darkish but clear, rich sound. When I started the amp was more fendery-brighter with not much bass or lower midrange. Now, it's perfect. It is not noisy at all.

Well, I put it together and I'm confident that if something goes wrong, I'll be able to fix it with some customer support (He already helped my fix it once via email). It is really a pure and simple circuit with nothing tricky or complicated.

I can't believe how nice david allen is. He answered all of my questions, sent out free parts, offered to send out other tubes. He gives you a 10 day money-back deal, plus the promise of helping you mod it to your tastes (as in my case) by even sending the parts to you free! incredible. 11!

I've been playing for 11 years, went to Berklee College of Music and heard/played/talked about every amp there is over there. And this amp now modded to my taste is as good as (actually better I think) than any amp you can get. Plus it was a blast building it and changing it to my own liking. Now I've got an amp that sounds different than anyone elses! I love this little guy because you can swap in 3 different types of tubes and don't have to think about biasing. It's supreisingly loud too. I can't crank it up all the way in my apartment. It's great to get the tubes pushing at relatively low volums. It's very clear and articulate, and extremely dymanic. I also have a 50 marshall plexi and a vox ac15 reissue which I am selling because the tone is so weak compared to the Allen. Everybody I tell about it wants to see it and find out more about Allen.