Chihuahua

New Allen Chihuahua ("chi-wah-wah") takes the home practice amp up to a whole new level. A Class A single-ended tube amp using a single 6L6 or EL34 power tube for 10 watts to drive a 10" Copperhead speaker with a full tone stack including my RAW mid/gain boost control and all tube driven spring reverb! The reverb recovery has an extra gain stage which is very welcome for great overdriven tones. The RAW control unscoops the mids for a more 5F1 tweed type tone. It has a respectable amount of clean headroom and bottom end authority on bass notes for an amp this size/power. At only 17" by 17" and 24lbs it is the perfect grab n' go practice amp. I've added an additional filtering stage to get rid of the typical "single-ended background hum" normally produced by these little amps so it is great for recording, too! All top notch components throughout including a stainless-steel chassis, US made power transformer, Heyboer output transformer, Accutronics 9" reverb tank, Switchcraft jacks, Carling switch, Mallory M150 tone capacitors, etc. Also available as a head and in kit form.

Here is a link to a Chihuahua review on Harmony Central.

Output Power

10 watts with an 8 ohm speaker load.

Tube Compliment

1 6L6 or EL34 power tube, 2 12AX7 and 1 12AT7 preamp tube.

Class

Class A single-ended.

Equalization

Full tone stack with TREBLE, MID/RAW and BASS controls. 0-4 on MID/RAW control is the MIDDLE control with 3 being about the stock setting for amps without a middle control. Above 4 is the RAW control which unscoops and boost the mids as well producing additional gain for overdriven tones.

Chassis

18 ga stainless steel chassis with brushed finish.

Transformers

TP18 power transformer is made in Chicago. TO11C Heyboer paper stick wound interleaved output transformer. See the TRANSFORMERS page for details.

Topology

Loosely based on the blackface Champ™ with AB763ish reverb added. Beefed up transformer set and power supply for use with 6L6/EL34 power tube and addition of MID/RAW control.

Cabinet

Finger-jointed pine cabinet with Birch plywood baffle and MDF back panels that don't warp. Reinforced black strap handle, bottom chrome corners and chassis straps.

Speaker(s)

Eminence 10" Copperhead. Other Eminence 10s available. (2) Eminence 6" Alpha 6A. Jensen and other 6" speakers available.

Special Features

Tube driven spring reverb using the 9" Accutronics tank, extra gain stage for better overdriven tones and a MID/RAW control to go from blackface scooped mids to thicker 5F1 tweed type tone.

Size and Weight

1x10 Combo - 17" x 17" x 9", 24lbs.
2x6 Combo - 17" x 13" x 9", 25lbs.

Price

Sound Clips

Chihuahua 1x10 amp was used for these clips. Clips provided by The Sound LLC in Charlottesville, VA.

Clips played by Ian Lawler on a PRS, Jason Butler on a rosewood necked Strat, or K.W. Miller on a 50's reissue Tele.

The following clips have the amp settings listed as a number separated by dashes, guitar used, genre/style. The numbers correspond to these controls:
Volume-Treble-Mid/raw-Bass-Reverb

1-1-6-9-1 both PU, Tele, Clean blues


2-6-2-2-5 PRS, Clean jazz


3-5-2-6-2 Tele, Country


2-6-5-2-5 PRS, New Age


6-5-3-5-1 Tele, Hoochi Coo


4-5-3-4-3 Tele, Chord melody


3.5-5-7-3.5-3 Strat, Blues lead


6-7-10-7-1 Tele, Distorted blues lead


3-4-10-3-5 PRS, 70s live rock


10-7-10-7-1 Tele, Texas blues


10-7-5-7-1 Tele, Twangy


Rock 59' Les Paul, Hard Rock