GK is missing the boat.

I'm a bit discouraged that GK is mired where they are, ignoring guitarists like me BUT I am extremely excited to have discovered an American amplifier company that is positioned to fill the void.

Four Force is a small American company that makes guitar amplifiers and their flagship product, the EM-1 sounds amazing. So much so it won awards at NAMM, beating out the big boys like Marshall, Fender, Peavey and ALL THE REST! Certainly no small task and a testament to what the EM-1 sounds like.

With the recent craze of low wattage boutique amps that cost $500 plus, the EM-1 is extremely affordable, at just $120, it's less than 25% of the cost of most of them, but don't let the small price tag fool you and don't fall for the perceived value scheme (It's very expensive so it must be very good) That is blatantly false and proves nothing other than mega corporations need mega profits to keep their shareholders from bailing.

Four Force, and their EM-1 is decidedly different, not just in size, price point or the nontraditional design of their products, but in their whole business model. There is truly a method to their madness.

Take the EM-1 amp for example. It doesn't look like anything on the market. Why? Why not create yet another box? Simple, because this sounds better! Think about it. Are you a musician or a model? What matters to you? Looking like every other musician lugging around their big black box or sounding good?

Anyone with knowledge of speaker design can tell you, box like speaker cabinets are bad because the sound gets bounced around off of the parallel surfaces. The EM-1 avoids this by having NO parallel surfaces in it's cabinet design, which of course contributes to the unique and pretty dang cool look, but it's shaped the way it is because that is what makes it SOUND good. Everything about this amp is FUNCTION OVER FORM, but as it happens, the form is pretty sweet too.

Same goes for the circuitry. It uses a patented design that has a minimalist approach resulting in an extremely efficient yet affordable amp that behaves the way more expensive tube amps behave. Breaking up the way tube amps do, and sounding full and warm the way tube amps do.

Another pretty cool thing about the electronics is it's universal power requirements. Normally an amp designed to run on America's power standard of 110volts at 60hz would need a power adapter to use it in places like Japan, and yet another to use it in Europe. Not this bad boy. All you would need is a power cord that fits the outlet for the respective country. The power plug on the back of the amp is a standardized 3 prong, just like the one on the back of your desktop computer.. (people still use those right?)

Another major selling point is how well it powers external speaker cabinets should the need ever arise. Anyways, enough rambling from me. Take a look, and let me know what you think.



Four Force is a startup guitar amplifier company started by a former Hewlett Packard engineer and high tech executive Jim McGillivary. It¹s dedicated to bringing affordable, high quality sound to guitar players everywhere.