3rd Power Amps Factory Tour- AWESOME!

[DrewJD82]

This was really endearing to watch, I don’t know that I’ve ever heard someone as passionate and articulate when it comes to describing abstract ideas, sentiments and ideas, but she nails it with the analogies.

When I saw the cost of the Dragon I immediately forgot about purchasing the amp due to its cost, but now I’m not seeing it as quite so over the top. The engineering aspects they’re kicking off here are impressive as hell. THIS is the definition of a customer facing company, from beginning to end and I’d have zero problems handing a stack of cash over to a business like this.



And this particular bit, right here aligns with everything I’ve tried to impart on employees since I got into management 20 years ago- (timestamped)


The way she gives props and accolades to her team is equally as endearing, that stuff only occurs when a leader sees their staff as peers and is truly grateful for the team they’ve created. I wish them all the best and I hope to own a Dragon in my near future.

 

[paisleywookiee]

I wish they still made the British Dream(?). That was a cool amp.

 

[la szum]

I wish they still made the British Dream(?). That was a cool amp.

It was! They used to make those cool lunchbox heads, too, and tiny combos. Dream Solo(s).

I was in Vox/Dr. Z shootout land over a decade ago when I had the Dream Solo 3 AC head.

I ended up liking the Mesa TA-30 more.


Great amps, though. Nothing bad to say here!

 

[la szum]

Damn! Everyone should watch this just for the History of Tube Amplification for Guitar alone.

 

[la szum]

I wish them all the best and I hope to own a Dragon in my near future.

It's not much more, and is comparable to Friedman's BE100, or Bogners 101B.

I know I am super curious, and would love to play/hear one in person for sure.

I think I am getting used to the fact that 2026's $4,000 is relly just 2010's $2,000.

 

[AlbertA]

With them going to PCB I wonder if that’ll bring their prices down or not.

 

[newholland]

shes awesome! i love her- what an awesome goofy amazing human!

 

[V|J]

Yeah, great video. I think they have some cool designs including innovative pickups and speaker cabs.

I was a little surprised (pleasantly) they expanded from a garage to this apparently huge warehouse space.
I’m glad the collab w/ Joe Sat got them on the radar as she pointed out.

 

[GuitarBilly74]

I'll watch this tomorrow from my computer. I love her amps!

 

[laxu]

With them going to PCB I wonder if that’ll bring their prices down or not.

I sure hope so. They make a lot of cool amps that are unpalatably expensive in Europe. US folks don't know how good they got when they have such a large local market that allows for a lot of companies like this to flourish easier than brands spread out in various European countries.

 

[laxu]

Watching that video, it's interesting to see her wax lyrical about their PCB design. It looks like a good one too, with big traces and especially the easy to swap capacitors still on turret boards. That's all good stuff, but it's also things that many have known for decades. It's kinda like figuring out how to do early PCBs in 2026?

Like that "snap on full pots into a mini-PCB template" thing just seems like a worse way than a PCB with PCB-mounted pots that are designed to mount neatly on a PCB.

The guitar amp industry is a weird thing where so much is based on "what they did in the 1960s" as the gold standard as if we haven't had decades of development. I mean capacitors are now like 1/3 of the size of the huge bottles mounted onto the chassis of a vintage Fender or Marshall, and every other part is more consistent in spec. Yet when it comes to wiring it all up that goes out of the window and it has to be PTP, turret/eyelet boards etc and PCBs are seen as "lesser", even though when well designed they would be a way to make more consistent, lower noise amps.

She talks about making them heirloom quality but we still have early PCB Marshalls, Mesas and whatnot still out there working just fine after having a cap job done as appropriate maintenance. I don't think most amps have to be massively overbuilt, just made to a solid standard.

Still, a great and very interesting video!