jonlucman82
TDPRI Member
Hi all,
I have been looking at Allen amps for awhile and had been considering buying a kit. I then heard rumors that the company was sold. It turns out that is true. Anyways, I decided to give the new Allen Amplification a try. I settled on the Chihuahua since I am mostly looking for an at home practice type amp. I liked that it seems to have some versatility with the master volume, raw control, built in reverb and can run either a 6L6 or 6V6.
I placed my order late November and recieved the chassis portion of the order mid December. Everything looked great and was packed really well. After a quick inventory noticed a couple wrong and/or missing parts. Sent this over to Alan (he now runs Allen Amps). He shipped over replacement parts right away.
Over Christmas I spent roughly 12 hours putting together/wiring the chassis. The written instruction were pretty good and where they were lacking I was able to follow the layout and figure out what I was doing. Prior to populating the board I identified, verified with a multimeter and labeled all parts.
This is my second build, the first being a Mojotone 5e3 build, so I am certainly a newbie. I did learn doing the 5e3 that lead dress was very important. Once I shortened and arranged the leads better most of my noise issues went away.
After completing the chassis I gave it a couple weeks so I could check it over with fresh eyes. I took the layout diagram and highlighted each competent and attachment. Everything looked good.
I built a light bulb limiter based off of Rob Robinettes site. I used this to start it up last night (the instructions did not call for this but it seemed safer). Everything fired up with no problem, no smoking, no arcing and no fire. I plugged it into the 5e3 8 ohm speaker and even had sound!
The cabinet is supposed to arrive next week, with speaker and reverb tank. So excited to actually hear it then.
I didn't think about doing this at first, so I apologize that I don't have great pictures documenting the steps.
So far I am very pleased with my experience. And have had a lot of fun. Hopefully this can help anyone on the fence.
I do have one question that has stuck with me through the process. I generally know that leads/wires are supposed to be as short as possible, maintain space between the wires, run wires along the floor of the chassis and cross at 90 degrees if possible. The question I have is about the leads from the board to the pots. I wasn't sure which was more important the shortest route possible and have the wires elevated or to run them along the floor of the chassis but increase their length? I chose the later but wonder what others think about this topic.
When the cabinet arrives and I have some time with it, I plan to do an updated post.
Thanks!
I have been looking at Allen amps for awhile and had been considering buying a kit. I then heard rumors that the company was sold. It turns out that is true. Anyways, I decided to give the new Allen Amplification a try. I settled on the Chihuahua since I am mostly looking for an at home practice type amp. I liked that it seems to have some versatility with the master volume, raw control, built in reverb and can run either a 6L6 or 6V6.
I placed my order late November and recieved the chassis portion of the order mid December. Everything looked great and was packed really well. After a quick inventory noticed a couple wrong and/or missing parts. Sent this over to Alan (he now runs Allen Amps). He shipped over replacement parts right away.
Over Christmas I spent roughly 12 hours putting together/wiring the chassis. The written instruction were pretty good and where they were lacking I was able to follow the layout and figure out what I was doing. Prior to populating the board I identified, verified with a multimeter and labeled all parts.
This is my second build, the first being a Mojotone 5e3 build, so I am certainly a newbie. I did learn doing the 5e3 that lead dress was very important. Once I shortened and arranged the leads better most of my noise issues went away.
After completing the chassis I gave it a couple weeks so I could check it over with fresh eyes. I took the layout diagram and highlighted each competent and attachment. Everything looked good.
I built a light bulb limiter based off of Rob Robinettes site. I used this to start it up last night (the instructions did not call for this but it seemed safer). Everything fired up with no problem, no smoking, no arcing and no fire. I plugged it into the 5e3 8 ohm speaker and even had sound!
The cabinet is supposed to arrive next week, with speaker and reverb tank. So excited to actually hear it then.
I didn't think about doing this at first, so I apologize that I don't have great pictures documenting the steps.
So far I am very pleased with my experience. And have had a lot of fun. Hopefully this can help anyone on the fence.
I do have one question that has stuck with me through the process. I generally know that leads/wires are supposed to be as short as possible, maintain space between the wires, run wires along the floor of the chassis and cross at 90 degrees if possible. The question I have is about the leads from the board to the pots. I wasn't sure which was more important the shortest route possible and have the wires elevated or to run them along the floor of the chassis but increase their length? I chose the later but wonder what others think about this topic.
When the cabinet arrives and I have some time with it, I plan to do an updated post.
Thanks!
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