3RD POWER
DREAM SOLO 4
BY JORDAN WAGNER
3rd Power founder and designer Jamie Scott is ambitious in his approach to
reinterpreting classic amplifier tones. Both
his American and British Dream models
(reviewed in the November 2010 and July
2011 issues, respectively) are becoming
favorites among session guitarists and stage
musicians for their tasty tones, top-shelf
components, fantastic build quality, versatility, and the company’s signature triangular
speaker enclosures that coax the best possible projection and tone.
With the Dream Solo series, Scott has
broken up each of his Dream preamp
sections—based on the ‘ 62 Fender brown-
face Deluxe, ‘ 65 Fender blackface Deluxe,
‘ 59 Vox AC30, and ‘ 68 Marshall Plexi—
and converted them into small amplifiers
of their own. The Dream Solo 4 is the
Marshall-styled member of the family and
packs a lot of big tones in a very sensibly
sized combo.
Running Down a Dream
The Dream Solo 4 is very well built, utilizing 12 mm Baltic birch cabinet construction, covered in a thick layer of black vinyl
with a salt-and-pepper grille. The light and
to hear audio clips of the amp at
premierguitar.com/jul2012
CLICKHere…
strong Baltic birch helps reduce the weight
of the already hefty combo to 44 pounds.
Some of the amp’s considerable weight is
attributable to the triangle-shaped chamber that surrounds the amp’s 12", 50-watt
Eminence Legend V128 speaker. Scott
claims the configuration reduces standing waves and reflections that normally
bounce around inside a standard square
enclosure, so you get more directional and
Non-master volume Plexi-style control set
