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Does anyone else have a Spark Amp? I received mine a few days ago and it’s quite the fun amp when you combine it with the app. Lot’s of features and nice tones and makes my acoustic sound really nice also. About the only issue I have seen is that a lot of tones created by users use a heavy dose of the noise gate and that makes the the tone but in and out. The fix is too lower the noisegate with adding a lot of noise. I don’t use much of those type of tones to start with so it’s no big deal to me. The play along with backing tracks feature is nice also. I have wondered if there is any way to import a backing track of my own into the app but have not put that much effort into that yet.
[img]https://i.imgur.com/ewFB5Qv.jpg[/img]
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Now that I am getting back into the site here I will need to do that. It’s a very fun amp and sounds good also. Never has it been so easy to make my acoustic sound good!
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Hi, I have it too and I’m playing my electric guitars through it. I discovered I’m not the kind of guy who enjoys tinkering much with tones and settings, so I guess this amp will be as far as I get in terms of sound shaping; never say never, but I doubt I will buy more complicated rig like Helix or Kemper.
I like to set my amps settings for electric guitars at the edge of breakup; but I got different guitars, with different PU, so I found that a preset that I had made for my Strat has too much gain for my Les Paul. I could save different presets for different guitars, but I like to use the 4 hardware buttons on top and not having to connect to it via tablet.
So, after some months of tinkering, I still have to find a perfect tone for all my guitars and for different situations (clean/edge of breakup, crunch, lead…). I think I can act on the Gain knob for that.
It’s interesting that you use it for your acoustic; I wonder if you use the Spark with your acoustic also when you’re practicing. What effects do you add: reverb and delay?
Roberto
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I was hoping to hear from more of you about the spark amp.
can anyone tell me what there thoughts on this amp are?
Is it worth buying?thanks
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I recommend it, if you haven’t made a previous investment in a ‘serious’ pedalboard and/or amps. As I wrote before, sometimes it’s not that easy to dial in the perfect tone. With other gear (e.g. the Strymon Iridium) I’ve heard that every sound comes out fine; that’s not the case with the Spark, you have to mess with the settings and invest time in it.
One feature that I really miss and that is not replaced by the Smart Jam feature is a looper; I can connect my external pedal before the Spark, but then I cannot use it to play a clean part and play an overdriven lead on top.
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I think it’s a good sounding practice amp. A good blue tooth speaker if nothing else. Very conviennent when learning a new song. Just search and the smart amp brings up song and will show you chord progression as well. I haven’t had much success with the create your ow’ music. Where you choose one of their drummers and play a few chords and they develop a drum and bass line for you. Otherwise as i said very fun to experiment with amp/tone/effects and easy to learn new songs.
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Mine sounds great and the best part is that I can hook up my loop and my headphones and feed to my laptop when I want to record. The headphones allow me to play any time I want without bothering anyone, which is huge. I have always been suspicious of non-tube amps, but this little bugger has changed my thinking.
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I have a Spark its a great practise tool with a great selection of pedals, for me the pedal rabbit hole was a nightmare .. the spark cured that problem with its built in pedals . You can pay as much for a pedal as you can for the Spark so in that case its a no brainer .
Tone cloud is a minefield just check on number of hits on a tone is a good start in sorting the wheat from the chaff.
At worst its $200 on a streaming device
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I have one , I had one pedal (Soul Food) which was around £100 GBP the Spark with multiple amps and pedals for circa £220GBP seemed a steal and proved to be a great practise tool for the money .
Its a great learning tool to help you develop Amp tones and using pedals without the expense and the worst that can happen is you use it for streaming music through
Tone cloud can be hit and miss the best guide I can offer is to look for those with many downloads .
Early adopters had to deal with delivery and hum issues all of which seem to have been sorted by Positive Grid so I wouldn’t be put off by early comments about issues
Best of luck
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Hi guys, hello from another new 68 year old Scottish dinosaur on the block. I have just joined the AM family after following Brian’s lessons for a few months now.
I bought the ‘Once it’s gone, never to be repeated’ Spark Pearl a couple of months back. At around £220 with the carry case thrown in and the various reviews I came across, it seemed a bargain. There was an update several weeks back which gave another set of amps, pedals and EQ pedals. This update did not have any problems.
There has been a lot of hype for ‘back by public demand’ for the Spark Pearl plus the new Hendrix Amp and Pedal Pack. This is not a free upgrade, it costs (?)£18. I would suggest that folk be careful with this Hendrix update. It patches a firmware update as well as the amp and pedals but has caused a bit of ‘noise’ on the various forums. Problems have arisen from losing presets all the way up to ‘bricking’ the actual Spark. Just search the various music forums and Positive Grid Support itself to see what a mess has been made of this release.
My problems were relatively minor possibly due to the fact I have iOS iPads for my control. After running the Hendrix App update via the Apple Store, the presets went all to cock and best described as all reduced to screechy toneless tones. I was lucky to have a second iPad which hadn’t been Spark App Hendrix patched and it plays as it should. So the patch for the Hendrix Pack seems to screw with the control App as well as the Amp firmware. I might be in a lucky minority with my iPads.
I would strongly advise people to wait for a known stable release before running the Hendrix Update unless they intentionally want the Hendrix Kit. I just hope that the ‘Nag Screens’ plus locked kit are not a permanent feature.
OK, aside from that moan, the Spark Amp is a great bit of kit. I was starting to trip over pedals and cables even though I have a BOSS BCB60 Case, swapping out different pedals was a pain. Being able to play all the features (backing tracks, TABS, YouTube videos etc.) through my headphones at full volume is much appreciated by my neighbours. 🙂
If you are looking through the Tone Cloud, I suggest turning the volume on the headphones way down and tap on the preview to hear a sample of the Kit. There are a lot where the Tube Screamer is king and some are set to ridiculous distortion level. OK if you like that sort of thing but personally I want to keep the hearing I have left.
The Tuner function is pretty accurate. I’ve compared it alongside my BOSS TU-3 and the Green LED seems to be spot on.
My next exploration is to check whether I can assign 4x settings to each function switch and have more than just 4 switchable presets on the Preset Buttons. IE, Acoustic, Glassy, Crunch etc..
I would recommend the Spark 40 Amp but hold off any updates if the Hendrix Pack is not high on your list of needs.
Sorry if my first post seems a bit grumpy, it isn’t intended to be. 😉I own these guitars… I didn’t say I could play them!
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