Positive Grid Spark, now only $239, Anyone want to talk me in/out of this?

It's a fun device. You can play your phone's music through it. Big library of tones. It's small speakers limits it to being a practice amp.

 

They sound good on YT clips but I guess you have to own one to really know. I am on the fence with this one. It's either this or a Roland Microcube.

A friend has an older Roland Cube and it's outstanding.

 

Had one for a living room amp under an end table and it sounds pretty good, but I quickly tired of tweaking and deep diving. Replaced it with a Champion 20 and am happier.

 

I ran one of my basses through my Spark and it sounded pretty good. It doesn’t get as loud as my guitars, but for its size, it’s impressive.

My only gripe is that the its gain is noisy (that’s why the built-in noise gate). It makes me appreciate how quiet my Mark V:25 is.

There are other practice amps that sound better (Yamaha), but the app is what makes the Spark. While you *can* run the app on a phone, you’ll want to use a tablet to tweak the knobs more easily. If you don’t have one, add that to the Spark’s price tag.

 

@Mike M , So did you get the Spark? You can’t leave us hanging.

 

It’s a great Bluetooth speaker, provides backing tracks with chord analysis (not perfect, but helpful) and a built-in “Trio pedal”. It also has that headphone jack for silent practice and a USB port for a recording interface.

For the lazy person who wants to pick out leads without annoying the patience of other musician— it’s perfect.

What’s holding you back? (The leather strap for a handle? I know, but it’s its visual signature)

 

FOMO!

Edit: if you don’t desire super easy to use backing tracks, then you can probably pass on the Spark.

 

Too many features. Price is too low. Don't do it.

 

eh, i'd rather just use an amp sim and monitors and have youtube/media player pulled up on the computer. doesn't cost anything extra, essentially the same thing, and probably sounds better.

 

Darrell Braun just did another video with the Spark vs some "real" amps in his studio. The results were pretty darn impressive relative to the modeling sound vs "real". He did mention he had to turn back the lower end on the Spark a bit as it is a bit warm.

I have one but haven't had the opportunity to do much with it. My single gripe about it physically is that there's no "analog" audio output other than the headphone jack, as I'd like to be able to plug it into my board alongside of my keyboards to play around without having a computer involved. The sound of the bass in the smart accompaniment mode is pretty wonky from a sound standpoint. It's a little thing....