Spark PositiveGrid Amp

[Stinger22]

Yep, knew you'd like it. I've tweaked into a really nice Fender Twin clean with the gain setting just right you can drive it into a little crunch and then using the Spark OCD clone, the last Drive box, for leads and that's where I pretty much stay on it unless I just want to play around with crazy presets. So I pretty much treat it as the one amp. I do have the American Deluxe set up for more of a Dumble type higher gain for more blues/rock stuff.

Footswitch, yes would be nice but it uses wi-fi. I has asked the Customer Service to add 4 user assigned buttons to the bottom of the screen that you could assign say boost-OD-MOD-MOD or OD-Patch#__-Patch#__-Mod You get what I mean. Quick access touch them like would would tap a pedal. You can message them here https://forum.positivegrid.com/category/28/spark

You are correct it sounds bigger than it is and looks good sitting in my living room. About perfect for what I bought it for.

 

[Elio]

Yep, knew you'd like it. I've tweaked into a really nice Fender Twin clean with the gain setting just right you can drive it into a little crunch and then using the Spark OCD clone, the last Drive box, for leads and that's where I pretty much stay on it unless I just want to play around with crazy presets. So I pretty much treat it as the one amp. I do have the American Deluxe set up for more of a Dumble type higher gain for more blues/rock stuff.

Footswitch, yes would be nice but it uses wi-fi. I has asked the Customer Service to add 4 user assigned buttons to the bottom of the screen that you could assign say boost-OD-MOD-MOD or OD-Patch#__-Patch#__-Mod You get what I mean. Quick access touch them like would would tap a pedal. You can message them here https://forum.positivegrid.com/category/28/spark

You are correct it sounds bigger than it is and looks good sitting in my living room. About perfect for what I bought it for.

Keeping in mind that I bought it to replace my current practice amp, it is really a good fit for my needs. I still get the USB connectivity for recording, with the addition of all if the online and Tone Cloud options that will make it much easier to explore what other users have done. Together with the song analysis and backing track creation, it also takes the place of my Trio. Right now, it's just a matter of figuring out the best way to take advantage of the features. I am still amazed at how good it sounds!

Any chance of sharing your Fender Twin preset in the cloud? I would love to see what others here have done.

 

[Stinger22]

Keeping in mind that I bought it to replace my current practice amp, it is really a good fit for my needs. I still get the USB connectivity for recording, with the addition of all if the online and Tone Cloud options that will make it much easier to explore what other users have done. Together with the song analysis and backing track creation, it also takes the place of my Trio. Right now, it's just a matter of figuring out the best way to take advantage of the features. I am still amazed at how good it sounds!

Any chance of sharing your Fender Twin preset in the cloud? I would love to see what others here have done.

You know my preset is set for my guitars in my room and my ears. It's so simple to tweak just like an amp sitting there. I find the Twin and Deluxe good places to start with settings just like my tube amps, gain around 9 -10 oclock eq as needed touch of delay touch of reverb and I'm there. A boost or OD for that little bit extra.

 

[PapaBear]

The REFER40 code for $40 off has been extend to 9/30

 

[MarkDyson]

The "Free" gig bag for my Spark finally arrived. Initial impression is it's sturdy, fairly well padded around the sides, and a good fit. Looks good, too.

 

[MarkDyson]

I think I've come the a conclusion concerning what I don't like about this (and similar) amps: reliance on an external app. It bothers me that, when I look at the knobs on the top, I can't count on those being accurate reflections of what the amp's actually set at.

It was my main negative about the Bias Mini, also, as well as Tone Print pedals: something that's not part of the amp itself over-riding what the physical knobs say. That attitude is probably a large part of why I still have my BOSS ME-80 board around: everything is right there, in the form of physical knobs.

I really like the Spark's built in amps, to the point I don't think I'll use the app at all. I have a clean, crunch, bass, and acoustic preset in place, all done with the physical knobs, and I can tweak them to taste from the presets as starting points. It still bugs me, even then, when I switch presets and, again, the tone and effects settings are wonky with respect to the knobs but that's the best I can do. My presets tend to be with everything at noon (tone) or zero (effects) so it's easy to sync up and then tweak to taste.

Guess I'm a little bit of a Luddite at heart—or just lazy.

 

[Crossroads]

I think I've come the a conclusion concerning what I don't like about this (and similar) amps: reliance on an external app. It bothers me that, when I look at the knobs on the top, I can't count on those being accurate reflections of what the amp's actually set at.

It was my main negative about the Bias Mini, also, as well as Tone Print pedals: something that's not part of the amp itself over-riding what the physical knobs say. That attitude is probably a large part of why I still have my BOSS ME-80 board around: everything is right there, in the form of physical knobs.

I really like the Spark's built in amps, to the point I don't think I'll use the app at all. I have a clean, crunch, bass, and acoustic preset in place, all done with the physical knobs, and I can tweak them to taste from the presets as starting points. It still bugs me, even then, when I switch presets and, again, the tone and effects settings are wonky with respect to the knobs but that's the best I can do. My presets tend to be with everything at noon (tone) or zero (effects) so it's easy to sync up and then tweak to taste.

Guess I'm a little bit of a Luddite at heart—or just lazy.

First world problem for sure . Don't know if Spark behaves similar to Mini or my older Line6 stuff but I imagine it would, in that if you just tweak one knob then the knobs become the master and all are read at that point, making the knobs the actual settings. If you are not prepared for that it can cause undesired and potentially dangerous effects (particularly master volume).

As I see it, it is a small price to pay, I actually prefer it to motorized knobs or faders. And the convenience and flexibility of what the tech offers you is unattainable by real amps, first off being when is the last time you dragged 2, 3, 4 or 50 amps to a gig or jam?

I used to tell my technicians if they are coming to me with a problem, bring at least 1 and preferably 3 solutions, so outside of motorized knobs ( which have their own set of issues ) do you have a proposed solution? I guess another option would be to read the knobs and adjust when an amp change is made, but when you switch from clean to dirty amp, you have an issue with your gain knob.

Personally I think a quick flip of a knob if I want the change is a small price to pay.

 

[MarkDyson]

I used to tell my technicians if they are coming to me with a problem, bring at least 1 and preferably 3 solutions, so outside of motorized knobs ( which have their own set of issues ) do you have a proposed solution?

I do, indeed!

In line with my post, I've settled on the four presets as crunch, clean, bass, and acoustic, using the built-in amps, and with all the tones at noon and all the effects at zero. Now when I select a preset I know exactly what it should be set at, can quickly move the knobs to those positions so all matches up, then tweak if desired from there. Being a practice amp, I rarely need to tweak much since I'm liking the default tones just fine. Most I do is add some reverb or delay.

Easy peasy.

 

[Stinger22]

I think I've come the a conclusion concerning what I don't like about this (and similar) amps: reliance on an external app. It bothers me that, when I look at the knobs on the top, I can't count on those being accurate reflections of what the amp's actually set at.

It was my main negative about the Bias Mini, also, as well as Tone Print pedals: something that's not part of the amp itself over-riding what the physical knobs say. That attitude is probably a large part of why I still have my BOSS ME-80 board around: everything is right there, in the form of physical knobs.

I really like the Spark's built in amps, to the point I don't think I'll use the app at all. I have a clean, crunch, bass, and acoustic preset in place, all done with the physical knobs, and I can tweak them to taste from the presets as starting points. It still bugs me, even then, when I switch presets and, again, the tone and effects settings are wonky with respect to the knobs but that's the best I can do. My presets tend to be with everything at noon (tone) or zero (effects) so it's easy to sync up and then tweak to taste.

Guess I'm a little bit of a Luddite at heart—or just lazy.

I've had a couple of physical boxes with apps and they give similar behavior. My ElevenRack I think has an option as to whether the app or the physical unit acts as the master but I keep at the setting like the Spark behavior. As mentioned above unless it has motorized knobs how do you get the knobs to automatically reflect the app settings and changes even when just changing to one of your other presets? And to have motorized knobs would be an additional cost and not a small additional cost. I also prefer to be sitting out infront of my Spark when I do tweak it which is not much now as my four presets are pretty much what I need. But sitting infront using the app let's me hear the amp better as I make the changes.

 

[MarkDyson]

General disclaimer: in sum I really like my Spark—quite a lot, in fact. It's just that some of its fancier features are lost on me. I'm digging it as just a meat and potatoes modeling amp with great tone and convenience without adding in the stuff the app gives you. Those are fine, just not tickling my particular fancy. It's all good.

 

[Al Holloway]

I saw a review on a unit, can't remember which. The knobs had no pointer and each knob was surounded by 10 mini lights. As you switched patch the lights would light to show what the setting was. If you moved the knob the lights would change to reflect the new setting. Genius solution as you now have the real settings for all the patches.
On a lot of the units (The Atomic ones all do this apart from the Firebox where you get wysiwyg) when you change a knob arrows appear to show whether you are above or below the recorded value so it is easy to move the knob to the correct value and then adjust from their. This is how I tweak if the app isn't connected. Also only the knob you turn is changed. If you don't move a knob it retains the stored valus.

cheers

Al.

 

[MarkDyson]

motorized knobs.

That was the first idea that sprang to mind, and I rejected it immediately as bulky, heavy, prone to failure, and so on. Another idea was knobs where the indicators were all LED so they'd shift to match without physically moving the knobs; maybe a better approach, but still most likely expensive and another thing that could break eventually.

My main unhappiness with the status quo is, if I want to tweak a setting, unless I'm looking at the app I have no way of knowing what the initial position was to start from. I'm not big on having my phone around or dealing with an extra device to set up where I can see it. Like I said: I'm lazy.

In the end I just settled on my current plan of defining the presets with the knobs all neutral so I can remember the starting position. Works for me, YMMV.

 

[MarkDyson]

I saw a review on a unit, can't remember which. The knobs had no pointer and each knob was surounded by 10 mini lights. As you switched patch the lights would light to show what the setting was. If you moved the knob the lights would change to reflect the new setting. Genius solution as you now have the real settings for all the patches.
On a lot of the units (The Atomic ones all do this) when you change a knob arrows appear to show whether you are above or below the recored value so it is easy to move the knob to the correct value and then adjust from their. This is how I tweak if the app isn't connected. Also only the knob you turn is changed. If you don't move a knob it retains the stored valus.

cheers

Al.

Cool! I knew it had to be a solution smarter folks had already thunk up.

 

[Stinger22]

That was the first idea that sprang to mind, and I rejected it immediately as bulky, heavy, prone to failure, and so on. Another idea was knobs where the indicators were all LED so they'd shift to match without physically moving the knobs; maybe a better approach, but still most likely expensive and another thing that could break eventually.

My main unhappiness with the status quo is, if I want to tweak a setting, unless I'm looking at the app I have no way of knowing what the initial position was to start from. I'm not big on having my phone around or dealing with an extra device to set up where I can see it. Like I said: I'm lazy.

In the end I just settled on my current plan of defining the presets with the knobs all neutral so I can remember the starting position. Works for me, YMMV.

The last three times I have played mine it has been sans app just the Spark iteself. I have my presets where I want them so I don't have to tweak it everytime I start it up because it is in some default mode with just neutral settings. When I had my Mesa Express in the living room I didn't tweak it play and then set everything back to 12 o'clock. So maybe I'm missing what exactly you are trying to accomplish. Seems what you are looking for is something the Spark doesn't have, universal encoders with LED lights and would make it much more costly and more to break. The Yamaha THR's don't even have that yet cost more than double.