Five reasons why you need to try the new Spark Pedal
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Positive Grid’s Spark smart amp has been one of the most revolutionary new guitar products of the last decade. With its great sound and ease of use, it has completely changed what people expect from home practice amps, while the range has expanded to ensure that no matter what musical situation you might find yourself in, the Spark can help you sound great with minimal fuss.
The latest addition to the range is the Spark Pedal, and it might be the most versatile and useful Spark product yet. With its compact pedal-based form factor, it has the potential to be a wonderfully useful bridge between home, stage and studio. These are our top five reasons why you need to give the Spark Pedal a try next time you’re in a guitar store.
Its sounds and usability are as good as ever
The reason that so many guitar players have been charmed by the Spark ecosystem is how remarkably easy it is to build your own sounds, with rugged and clear multifunction knobs that make it easy to dial in sounds in a heartbeat.
But that’s only part of it – the benchmark-setting companion smartphone app that controls all of the complicated stuff, you can easily build your signal chain in moments, hearing them in real time on the device. And what good sounds they are too – with 33 high-quality amp models and 43 effects using the same HD Tone engine as the Spark 2, you can run the gamut of all the classic amps and effects you’d ever need – and they all sound remarkably faithful and organic, whether running through a PA or headphones.
It’s truly a Spark for any situation
While the original Spark was designed for relatively quiet home practice and recording, the various other models in the range have expanded the offering to cover any scenario – from full-on live performances and busking to bedroom headphone jamming. The Spark Pedal however, manages to be everything in one.
Of course, if you want to play at home, you can either plug into the headphone jack and enjoy impressive sounds in cans, or you can run it into your PC speakers or a powered cab. If you’re recording? Well the built-in USB-C recording interface makes going direct a doddle, but there’s more. For gigging guitarists, the Spark Pedal might be the most versatile box yet – you can choose to run it direct into a powered cab or PA live, or you could bypass the amp models and use the onboard effects going into a traditional amp. Indeed, the Spark Pedal plays nicely at the end of your existing pedalboard, with stereo outs, an expression pedal jack, and even MIDI control to ensure that you can program any element of your performance to go off without a hitch.
And with a built-in 60-second looper, the Spark Pedal is the perfect companion for solo guitarists looking to build their song from the ground up. And with simple and easy to understand controls for the looper built right into the Pedal’s three footswitches, you won’t have any trouble when it comes to overdubs and syncing your playing up just right.
You don’t have to worry about powering it
If you’re trying to run light at a gig, or you’re performing at a location where plentiful supplies of power sockets are not forthcoming (and we’ve all been there) the Spark Pedal takes the stress out of your set-up. With its built-in rechargeable battery that offers up to 7 hours of playing time, you don’t need to fumble around looking for a power outlet – simply turn it on, plug it in, and you’re ready to rock.
You can find your tone in a heartbeat
One of the most exciting features about the whole Spark ecosystem is how easy and fun it is to find the tone you’re looking for. Thanks to the busy folks on Positive Grid’s ToneCloud platform, there are now over 100,000 different user-created presets that you can search through, often ones aimed at nailing the tone of a specific song or artist. If you’re playing covers, this is an absolute godsend, and means that you can be as flexible in your set as your songbook allows. In addition to the onboard presets, if you don’t want to use something someone else has made, Spark AI’s Text to Tone feature lets the computer do the hard work, building a totally new tone from your prompt.
It’s built for the road
The build quality and smart physical design of the Spark amps has always been a huge strength, and the Spark Pedal takes this and makes it even more useful. With its compact form factor, you can easily fit it in the pocket of a gigbag, but with a metal chassis and rugged metal footswitches, you don’t have to worry about it getting damaged. What’s more, a rubbery neoprene shell and rubber feet mean that you don’t have to worry about it moving around on stage too much either.
Another reassuring thing about the Spark Pedal’s design is its stripped down control layout. There’s no LCD screen to worry about treading on here – with the deep editing done via the app, what’s on the pedal is designed for those moments where you need to make quick changes on the fly, and you can do those without worrying about how it’s going to mess up your sound if you get it wrong.
With versatility, connectivity, portability and durability the Spark Pedal would be great anyway, but add all that to the great tones and ease of use that we’re already used to from Positive Grid, and you have a gigging guitarist’s new best friend.
Find out more about the Spark Pedal at Positive Grid.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
