In general, pushing 15 watts, the tone was more compressed and a little smaller sounding at higher settings. There was a noticeable volume drop, but not at the expense of richness or character. Without a master volume, 30 watts can become very loud, so I switched over to the watt mode.
Nikko alpha iii owners full#
3rd Power Amps: FULL REVIEW (Very Long Read)īut no matter how hard I pushed the amp, it never collapsed and the break up always tended toward sweet saturation. Because the Sheraton created a thicker sound than the Red Special, I opened the volume up all the way, giving the British Dream a jangling and raw character that suggested the EF86 was working overtime. Single notes seemed to leap off the speaker and chords were rich with harmonics and sustain, and at times it seemed you could feel the Sheraton vibrating in harmony with the sounds leaping from the British Power. And it was startling to discover just how well the 3rd Power captured so many of the sonic and performance characteristics of both classics.Īdjusting the Top Cut moved me to a more tame and contoured treble edge. The removable triangular port is held in place by three screws and has a convenient leather loop for pulling it away from the cab.
The third section has a Presence control for both channels, as well as a standby toggle for switching between 15 and 30 watts. The vents are removable to facilitate easy tube changes. The latter is especially thoughtful given that AC30s have an open back and Marshalls cabs are closed-back. His very successful 6L6-powered American Dream, combined brownface and blackface Fender flavors to excellent effect. Union Jacked Scott has been down this road before. The result of his efforts-the British Dream-boldly combines great-sounding interpretations of those two voices with an effects loop and a power section that's switchable between 15 and 30 watts.
So when Jamie Scott of 3rd Power Amplification decided to design the ultimate Brit-flavored amp, he knew he wanted to merge those two legends into a single amplifier. If your dreams revolve around British amps, the two kings of color are Vox and Marshall.