Allen Hot Fudge w/Nuts 112 Combo

Hand wired by David Allen in Sept. 2005. 15 watts using 6V6s, 25 watts when using 6L6s. Very versatile amp, can go from pristine clean to bluesy raunch with a turn of your guitar's volume knob. Very simple features, which I love: four knobs. Volume, Tone, Tremolo Speed, Tremolo Intensity. That's it. I love very basic amps, I hate having to dial in fourteen different knobs when I'd rather be playing instead of tweaking. No reverb, but you don't miss it on this amp. Amp is based on the early 60s Fender 6G2 Princeton. As such, it has two power tubes (uses 6V6 or 6L6) and two preamp tubes (both 12AX7). Theres a tremolo footswitch jack on the back too. It does have several refinements: a Negative Feedback dial on the back that allows you to add a little NFB for a bit more gain; not a huge amount of gain like a Marshall, but some nice nuance and texture to your notes. More beef without grainy buzziness that a lot of gain knobs supply. It also has what I consider Allen's best feature: self biasing jacks on the rear of the the amp. Allows you to substitute tubes to tweak your tone. Plug a simple voltmeter into the jacks, and there's a pot on the chassis that you dial in the bias to the range that he tells you for your tubes. No brainer even for a newbie like me. The 15 watts is power enough for a small gig, and with 6L6s, you can roar, or just have a bit more headroom. The amp shipped with an Emimence Patriot speaker, very nice.

I use this amp with my two Telecasters and it's a match made in heaven. I play raunchy blues but occaisionally some classic rock and even some jazz and it excells in all areas. Just superb, heavenly tone. Not thin, but full of texture and guts. I keep it full volume and control everything from my guitar volume knob. I can dial in smooth jazz, warm round tones, then up the volume and I'm in Stevie Ray Vaughan territory. The tremolo is very quiet and sounds lush and full. It's the kind of amp that I can't wait to get home to play it, because it sounds so darn good. It makes my playing better because you can't flub up, you hear everything. I don't even use pedals since I got this amp, I've sold all my pedals. I don't want anything between my guitar and this jewel.

Built like a tank. I opened it up to look at the guts, and the lead dress and soldering was pristine and beautiful. What you'd expect from a boutique, hand wired, one builder amp.

I called Dave when I got the amp because I couldn't get the 6V6s to bias correctly. (Turns out I had a bad tube.) He was patient and kind on the phone, walking me through the process. He immediately sent me a new set of tubes. He is very accessable and friendly and solved my problem on the phone. And this was on a Sunday night, 5:30pm west coast time, so it was a couple hours later in Kentucky. Now that's service. Plus, he answers emails within 24 hours, sometimes the same day. Super support.

If anything happened to my beloved Hot Fudge, I'd definitely get another one. This is the best amp I have ever owned. I play with it in my bedroom and it sounds great at ALL volumes. Of course, being a tube amp, it sounds best cranked. I've gigged with it in a huge high school auditorium, unmiked, with a loud drummer, no problem. And this with the 6V6s (15 watts). It held its own and people in the back said I sounded great. It's great as it is, I wouldn't change a thing. Looks cool too with the dark brown tolex and light brown grillcloth. Yes it's expensive but not too bad considering Fender charges up to a grand or more for production line tube amps with printed circuit boards. For a one man built, hand wired, point to point constructed amp with topflight components, this amp is a steal at $1100. Compare to Victoria , Bad Cat, other makers that are in the $2500 range, and you'll see what I mean.

Just a followup to provide a link to the soundclips to which John Ellis referred in his review:
http://www.nowhereradio.com/mkg/singles
They may be streamed and/or downloaded.

Sometimes less is more, and the Hot Fudge with Nuts is one of those times. Rather than repeat the previous post, I?ll just say that if you are concerned about this amp just having one tone control ? don?t be, ya won?t miss it, read on. I had David Allen put 6L6 power tubes in mine because Neil Young put them in his and Bassmans have ?em too.

Stunning!
When I set it up clean it feels as if I am picking the speaker?s voice coil ? now that?s what I call touch sensitive.
Tone: 10
Many other amps have 2 or 3 knob tone stacks, my Hot Fudge with Nuts actually has 4, and they are:
1. My guitar?s Volume knob (clean to Neil Young feedback)
2. The amp?s Volume knob (again clean to Keith Richards)
3. The amp?s lone Tone knob (Strats to Les Pauls)
4. The amp?s Soul Control (smooth to gritty and greasy, well actually brownface to tweed)

David explained to me that tone control circuits throw away a lot of the midrange frequencies generated by the guitar. Without tone controls the Hot Fudge w/ Nuts passes those frequencies on to the power tubes, which gives the amp a much fuller sound ? and how!

The interaction of the guitar?s volume knob with the amp?s volume knob is magical; producing all those shades of preamp and power tube overdrive that we?ve come to know and love. You like Fender Bassmans, Plexi Marshalls, overdriven power tubes, you?ll love this amp. Its overdrive covers an astounding range of grind and grit ? think furry to milkshake thick JMP45 tones. Death Metal? Mesa Boogie grunt? Doesn?t get ?em, didn?t want ?em.

Reverb
This is the second amp I have ever owned that did not have reverb, and frankly, I was a bit nervous. Once I played the amp all my doubts disappeared. Instead of reverb, it has a very resonant cabinet. At clean settings the cabinet reverberates more than the reverb on other amps!

Sustain:
So much sustain, Clean: I started to fingerpick my electric just to listen to each string?s overtones intermingle with the overtones of the other strings. Overdriven: each note sings.

Loudness:
David put an Eminence Red, White, and Blue speaker in my amp and it is very efficient, which, as he warned me, it is incredibly loud, I would have no hesitation gigging with a drummer and I could always hook up a 4x12. I have had the amp for almost a month now and the speaker is broken in and sounds better than ever. Because I practice in my apartment, I bought a Weber miniMASS attenuator ? no good it just strangled the golden tone, back to Weber it went, and I purchased a THD Hot Plate, which I had saved my ears from the onslaught of a 50 watt Marshall Plexi in a small room. I?m happy to report that the Hot Plate works great with the amp ? so yes with a Hot Plate this is fantastic bedroom amp.

If you haven?t heard the previous poster?s sound clips, stop reading and download them. You?ll hear The Beatles, The Stones, the James Gang, Mark Knofler, and more ? nailed!!! Ok, now let me add to that list: Neil Young and Ted Nugent, between 8 and 9.5 on the volume knob.

Although I have only had my Hot Fudge with Nuts for about three weeks, if my Old Flame amp is any indication, I expect the amp to outlast me. In five years, I never had any problems with my Old Flame, and every time I fired it up, it put a smile on my face. David?s an Electrical Engineer and he designs reliability into his amps.

What can I say; David?s customer support is simply second to none. Since the first phone call I made to David years ago, I have felt that he is sincerely interested in supporting my experience with every one of the products. Time and again, he endured my dumb questions and ramblings in my quest for tone and every answer or suggestion he gave me always steered me in the right direction.

I?ve been playing electric guitar for 49 years. I have an American Fat Strat with 2 Kinman noiseless pickups and one Seymour Duncan Alnico Pro humbucker. I have owned several blackface Fenders, two Marshalls. The Hot Fudge with Nuts can keep up with any of them. The thing that knocks me out about this amp is its wonderful warm overdrive.

Sometimes less is more, and the Hot Fudge with Nuts is one of those times. Rather than repeat the previous post, I?ll just say that if you are concerned about this amp just having one tone control ? don?t be, ya won?t miss it, read on. I had David Allen put 6L6 power tubes in mine because Neil Young put them in his and Bassmans have ?em too.

Stunning!
What this amp lacks in features it delivers in tone! When I set it up clean it feels as if I am picking the speaker?s voice coil ? now that?s what I call touch sensitive.

Tone
Many other amps have 2 or 3 knob tone stacks, the Hot Fudge with Nuts actually has 4, and they are:
1. My guitar?s Volume knob (clean to Neil Young feedback)
2. The amp?s Volume knob (again clean to Keith Richards)
3. The amp?s lone Tone knob (Strats to Les Pauls)
4. The amp?s Soul Control (smooth to gritty and greasy, well actually brownface to tweed)

David explained to me that tone control circuits throw away a lot of the midrange frequencies generated by the guitar. Without tone controls the Hot Fudge w/ Nuts passes those frequencies on to the power tubes, which gives the amp a much fuller sound ? and how!

The interaction of the guitar?s volume knob with the amp?s volume knob is magical; producing all those shades of preamp and power tube overdrive that we?ve come to know and love. You like Fender Bassmans, Plexi Marshalls, overdriven power tubes, you?ll love this amp. Its overdrive covers an astounding range of grind and grit ? think slightly airy to milkshake thick JMP45 tones. Death Metal? Mesa Boogie grunt? Doesn?t get ?em, didn?t want ?em.

Reverb
This is the second amp I have ever owned that did not have reverb, and frankly, I was a bit nervous. Once I played the amp all my doubts disappeared. Instead of reverb, it has a very resonant cabinet. At clean settings the cabinet reverberates more than the reverb on other amps!

Sustain
So much sustain, Clean: I started to fingerpick my electric just to listen to each string?s overtones dance with the overtones of the other strings. Overdriven: each note sings.

Loudness
David put an Eminence Red, White, and Blue speaker in my amp and it is very efficient, which, as he warned me, it is incredibly loud, I would have no hesitation gigging with a drummer and I could always hook up a 4x12. I have had the amp for almost a month now and the speaker is broken in and sounds better than ever. Because I practice in my apartment, I bought a Weber miniMASS attenuator ? no good it just strangled the golden tone, back to Weber it went, and I purchased a THD Hot Plate, which I had saved my ears from the onslaught of a 50 watt Marshall Plexi in a small room. I?m happy to report that the Hot Plate works great with the amp ? so yes with a Hot Plate this is fantastic bedroom amp.

If you haven?t heard the previous poster?s sound clips, stop reading and download them. You?ll hear The Beatles, The Stones, the James Gang, Mark Knofler, and more ? nailed!!! Ok, now let me add to that list: Neil Young and Ted Nugent, between 8 and 9.5 on the volume knob.

Although I have only had my Hot Fudge with Nuts for about three weeks, if my Old Flame amp is any indication, I expect the amp to outlast me. In five years, I never had any problems with my Old Flame, and every time I fired it up, it put a smile on my face. David?s an Electrical Engineer and he designs reliability into his amps.

What can I say; David?s customer support is simply second to none. Since the first phone call I made to David years ago, I have felt that he is sincerely interested in supporting my experience with every one of the products. Time and again, he endured my dumb questions and ramblings in my quest for tone and every answer or suggestion he gave me always steered me in the right direction.

I?ve been playing electric guitar for 49 years. I have an American Fat Strat with 2 Kinman noiseless pickups and one Seymour Duncan Alnico Pro humbucker. I have owned several blackface Fenders and two Marshalls. The Hot Fudge with Nuts can keep up with any of them. And remember that clean Brown Deluxes are selling for over $1500!

This is David Allen's newest offering. Mine is the first one handwired by David (the amp can also be purchased in kit form). The amp is based on the Fender brownface Deluxe 6G3 circuit with a few improvements on the original design.
It's a single channel amp with two inputs. Input #2 is padded down 3dB, very useful for humbuckers. Front panel controls include volume, tone (a single tone control that functions as a treble rolloff, since there's no tone stack) and speed and intensity controls for the bias-vary tremolo. There's also a Deep switch which toggles the sound between Fender and Marshall-type tones. The speaker is an Eminence Texas Heat, a speaker that I'm really liking the more it breaks in.
On the rear of the amp there's a knob called Soul Control. Rotating the knob clockwise gradually dials out the negative feedback loop, slightly increasing grain and giving the amp a more raw sound.
There's an external speaker jack, and two jacks for measuring power tube bias with a standard voltmeter. The bias adjustment pot is located behind the power tranny and is a shaft that can be turned by hand, so no screwdriver is needed...a very handy feature.
The amp has a power switch and a standby switch.
The power and output trannies are beefier than the ones that came in the original brownface Deluxe, a feature that gives the Allen a wider variety of sounds. The amp can run 6V6s, 6L6s, or EL34s. Besides the power tubes, the amp uses three 12AX7 preamp tubes and a 5AR4 rectifier. I've found that I like using a 12AT7 in V1 to reduce gain a bit and give me a little more headroom. A 5AR4 or a solid state rectifier plug can be used with 6L6s and EL34s, and a 5AR4 or 5Y3 can be used with 6V6s.
True to the 6G3 circuit, the amp has no onboard reverb; however, the cabinet is a bit larger than the original brownface Deluxe, measuring 20"Wx18"Hx10"D. Believe me, when you play through this amp you don't miss reverb at all.
The amp has plenty of power for my situation (gigging and home recording). With 6V6s power is 22 watts, with 6L6s or EL34s power is 35 watts. It'll work anywhere a Vibrolux Reverb will. We mic amps on gigs, so power isn't really an issue. The amp more than holds its own at rehearsal with a 5-piece band.
While the amp isn't loaded with bells and whistles, the features it does have give the player a wide variety of sounds.

I'm using a humbucker-equipped LP Studio and an MIJ Strat with this amp.
I generally plug the Strat into input #1, the LP into input #2.
One often hears the phrase "touch sensitive" applied to a guitar amp, with the general opinion that Fender tweeds have this quality as opposed to the blackfaces. With humbuckers especially, this amp is very touch sensitive. It's quite easy to go from mellow jazz tones to serious grind just by varying attack, such as going from soft fingerpicking to more strident pick attack.
I play a variety of styles, from jazz to blues to r&b to r&r to pop. This amp is versatile enough for me to use it for all the above. The amp runs very quietly. Allen build quality is second to none.
One of the outstanding features of this amp is the quality of overdrive. The clean sounds are very sweet and detailed, I feel like I'm hearing every nuance of my playing. Crank up the amp volume and look out...you'll get a very pleasing combination of ballsiness and smoothness. It'll bark and grind with the best, with a wide variation of useable tones depending on guitar and attack.
Probably not suitable for metal, but aces for any other application.
I should point out that one needs to give this amp time to break in. After a week's worth of playing it really starts to open up as the speaker and the components break in.
One of the coolest features of this amp is the bias-vary tremolo, based on the 6G11 brownface Vibrolux. Much more mellow and swampy than the blackface photoresistor kind.

Since I've only had the amp for a week I can't really speak to its reliability; however, I've had work done by David Allen on my '66 BFVR and he did a stellar job. Just reading about experiences reported by others using Allen amps leads me to believe that reliability will not be an issue. I would gig with this amp without a backup, but I always carry spare tubes, etc. in case of problems on the job.
Build quality on Allen amps is second to none, as mentioned above.

As mentioned, I've dealt with David Allen in the past. He's very approachable, prompt to answer emails, easily reached by phone, friendly, and patient.
The warranty on my amp is one year, in which time parts, labor, and shipping are covered.
Doing business with Allen Amplification is a pleasure.

I've been playing guitar for 42 years, done a lot of gigging in that time.
Don't own a lot of gear because I don't need it. An LP, a Strat, a BFVR, and now an Allen Hot Fudge w/Nuts.
There's nothing I hate about this amp, no other features I'd like to see. I love the simplicity of its design, and the improvements David has made over the original 6G3, which was a pretty nice circuit to begin with.
I'd recommend this amp in a heartbeat to anyone who appreciates good tone, responsiveness, and solid design.
The bottom line is that this is one of those amps that makes you smile every time you plug in and makes you want to just keep playing.