Positive Grid 'Spark' amplifier - DEMOS ADDED

[dave robinson]

Having had the pleasure of playing with one of these amps over the past couple of days I went and ordered one and it will arrive today.
I had seen various reports over the past couple of years and I was curious about it and wondered if it would be an aid to me in what I do.
In short, the answer is yes, because with use of the associated app and my iPad it gives me instant practicing and writing tools with not a lot of space taken up, as well as being a great blue tooth speaker for everything else I use.
I plan to investigate it thoroughly and find out if my TVS3 or whatever echo device I choose to plug into it will give us the sound we all seek for our music. As usual with this kit, the focus is heavily weighted on distortion & overdrive, but this can also take a bass and acoustic guitar, so it's pretty versatile too.
I really enjoyed playing my ukulele bass and Martin electro acoustic through it, I struggled to get a bad sound. The bass sounded like a double bass, it's unbelievable but true.
At around £230 it isn't a lot of money and is very tidy offering a great deal of help to beginners and pros alike. Anyone who was wondering about it, I'm going to test what it can do for people like ourselves. Watch this spce.

[dave robinson]

What a great piece of kit this is, I was able to choose any song on the app and it brought up the chords and the backing track for me to play along to. I have also managed to save a few great Shadows sounds with echoes close enough to the originals to please me, though not perfect. The amp sounds amazing with the TVS3, as I just knew it would. The tone was selected by choosing the Top Boost 30 amp and it does sound like a Vox.
I also chose some of the sounds associated with Gary Moore and the app automatically set the amp to sound like him on Parisienne Walkways or Still got the blues for you which feature the Marshall amp - excellent !
There are tons more and I need to explore.

[TimRyland]

Dave,

I’ve been using BIAS FX2 a lot recently with great success so I’m not surprised that you found the Spark Amp so good as I believe the BIAS AMP/FX2 engine is behind it generating the tones. I very rarely use my VOX VT20+ now, and have a much cleaner setup as a result.

Tim.

[dave robinson]

I'm not familiar with BIAS FX2 and only tried the Spark amplifier because a friend had bought it, but I like what it brings to the table for me. At best it's a full rehearsal aid and if I was forced to use it for my Hank sound in an emergency, it would do a great job without being 100% accurate, but close enough to convince.
I have for quite a few months seen reviews and adverts about the 'Spark' and to me it looked like another gimmicky toy in the hands of the people I saw with it, but if you investigate it in depth you will discover it's uses and I appreciate what it does for me in such a compact package.

[artyman]

So when do we get to hear some samples

[dave robinson]

So when do we get to hear some samples

I'll make some demos of what I've done so far, which are patches for Apache, Wonderful Land et al, Gary Moore's Parisienne Walways & a generic Duane Eddy sound.
All the amps are in there including the AC30, Marshall & Fender Twin as well as a multi tap Roland 301 with vari-speed which helps the echos.
I had seen numerous mentions of this amp over the past eighteen months and I was curious but had yet to see something of use to me from the various demonstrators, so I was delighted to get my hands on one, hence the heads up on here to similar motivated people.
I'm busy just now so the demos will be made when I get a few minutes to do them, other that anyone interested could go and try one as I did.

[artyman]

Is it mains only or will it work on batteries?

[dave robinson]

It uses a PSU that is provided.
Playing with it today in spasms when I found a bit of 'me' time, I am continually finding little gems amongst it's offerings and it's all very useful, especially if you are in need of accompaniment. The sounds are superb and it gives a very accurate early Shads tone as well as later tones including the Mesa Boogie, Matchless, Roland Jazz combo and anything else you care to name. Needless to say, all the heavy sounds are there too, plus great acoustic guitar tones as well as great bass.
For me it's a very affordable and winning combination with a tiny footprint, I've taken my Fender 2 x 10 Princeton Chorus down to the studio as it's massive by comparison.
I was playing 'Big Boy' , 'Blue Star', 'Shadoogie' and 'Gonzales' and that early tone with the hollow 'quack' was there in spades, when you hear that you know it's right. First with the TVS3 - it sounded sublime, then using it's in built effects to be honest still sounded damn good, it's how you set it up.

[Tigerdaisy]

It uses a PSU that is provided.
Playing with it today in spasms when I found a bit of 'me' time, I am continually finding little gems amongst it's offerings and it's all very useful, especially if you are in need of accompaniment. The sounds are superb and it gives a very accurate early Shads tone as well as later tones including the Mesa Boogie, Matchless, Roland Jazz combo and anything else you care to name. Needless to say, all the heavy sounds are there too, plus great acoustic guitar tones as well as great bass.
For me it's a very affordable and winning combination with a tiny footprint, I've taken my Fender 2 x 10 Princeton Chorus down to the studio as it's massive by comparison.
I was playing 'Big Boy' , 'Blue Star', 'Shadoogie' and 'Gonzales' and that early tone with the hollow 'quack' was there in spades, when you hear that you know it's right. First with the TVS3 - it sounded sublime, then using it's in built effects to be honest still sounded damn good, it's how you set it up.

Sounds like a good piece of equipment...however some of the reviews on Amazon complain of humming and hissing noises, plus they say the plug isn't 'grounded' (not earthed?) I'm assuming you've not had any of these problems...

[Garystrat]

Software based amp sims often require a little more thought setting up as they tend to be more sensitive to gain staging, whilst a little “dry” in the opening part and Helix Native specific, this is quite a good video by Jason Sadites that demonstrates the general principals and how to test them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqesqtuDjzc

I suspect that Dave is experienced enough to do things intuitively, but the sort of hums and noise that some are experiencing may well be due to this!