If you’re looking for a wide range of classic tube overdrive, but don’t want to hire a road crew to get all the gear from place to place, get your hands on 3rd Power’s Dream Weaver. The new Dream Weaver 38W 1x12” tube-driven combo offers authentic American and British tones in one compact package.
The Dream Weaver features two inputs — American and British — with a master Presence knob, and Treble, Bass and EQ control on the American side, and three-way EQ and volume control on the other side of the sonic pond. The American side features a Tweed/Blonde switch for selecting between authentic ’59 Tweed 5F6-A and ’63 Blonde 6G6-B styled tones , while the British has an Orange Glow switch on the British channel for enhanced gain and harmonics when selecting between authentic ’68 Super Bass Plexi and hot-rodded Plexi styled tones.
The Dream Weaver introduces a new Jump feature – front-panel normalized output jacks on each channel for creating unique tones and signal effect chains when combining and playing through both channels simultaneously. And it also features 3rd Power’s TubeMix combining the two channels together for creating rich, unique tones.
While the 38W power output is a useable amount of power for most environments, a power-cutting switch knocks the output down to 18W to make it a more practice- and studio-friendly tone machine while pushing a wide range of tones through the single Eminence 12" Legend V128, or through the speakers of your choiceof speakers via the 8O mono or 4O stereo outputs.
3rd Power Dream Weaver
THE DREAM WEAVER CONJOINS FOUR AMPS INTO A KIND OF SUPER GROUP combo that aims at replicating many of the guitar sounds you’ve heard on classic rock records. The left channel offers up a choice of ’63 Blonde or ’59 Tweed Fender Bassman voicings, while the right channel toggles between ’68 Marshall Super Bass and “hot-rodded” plexi Marshall tones. For each voice, over 20 dedicated components are selected by a single front-panel toggle switch. Powered by two reissue Mullard EL34s, the power stage offers a choice of 38- or 18-watt operation, making it easy to tailor the amp to the venue size.
Coming up with something new in the boutique market is not easy, but the Dream Weaver abounds with unique features. For starters, the rear panel has a Master Volume control that simultaneously synchronizes AC signal attenuation, DC current limiting, and DC voltage regulation. I didn’t need an engineering degree to decree it the best master volume I have encountered. The basic tonality remained unchanged throughout its range, and the only thing lost when turning down the Master was some of the sheer size and interaction with a vibrating guitar produced solely by raw volume.
The Dream Weaver’s two channels can be bridged with a jumper cable (included) and blended— or switched and blended—with an A/B/C box (not included). Analog summing mixes the preamp signals without audible phase cancellation, while analog noise reduction eliminates noise and hiss at lower gain levels and minimizes it at higher ones.
Some may recall 3rd Power making a splash with stackable, triangular external cabinets. This idea was no gimmick; the Dream Weaver combo uses a similar triangular design inside the speaker chamber to eliminate standing waves. It also allows the chassis and tubes to be located in separate compartments isolated from the movements of the speaker. The design takes into account speaker cone diameter and depth to create a larger sound than the cabinet’s dimensions would seem to warrant. The single 12" Eminence Legend equipped Dream Weaver definitely sounded bigger than any 1x12 combo I can remember, evidencing the low-end and thump normally associated with a 4x12. The cabinet also sports a triangular tuned port that can be left open or closed, depending on the room you’re playing in and the response you want.
The Blonde setting was like a Bassman on steroids, not so much gain-wise, but in its increased harmonic richness. Toggling over to Tweed kicked both the highs and gain up, yielding Texas blues bite. The Plexi setting on the right channel offered up the high-headroom, open sound of a 100- watt Marshall, while the louder Orange Glow broke up sooner and quite beautifully. All the settings had so much depth and dynamic response that the lack of reverb wasn’t an issue—although there is an effects loop if you want to add it. Each guitar I used sounded like a winner, sustaining well above its pay grade, and, at higher volumes, bloomed into harmonic feedback on the tail of almost every sustained note.