Positive Grid Spark Pearl 40-Watt Combo Practice Guitar Amplifier Electric Bass and Acoustic Guitar Amp with Spark Mobile App (Pearl)

An absolute Godsend for the bedroom/home office guitarist. Years ago, as a 21 year old, I toyed with the idea of buying a 50w Marshall JCM2000 DSL50 head and a 4x4 cabinet, intent as I was on becoming the next bonafide Irish rockstar. That, and as they were back then, an American Standard Fender Telecaster in white with a maple fretboard. As life went on, reality took over. Now I am a very happily married 42 year old with a family. However, finances, neighbours, time, work, and a back that isn’t getting any younger simply means that owning said Marshall halfstack is as realistic as having a Bugatti as a daily driver. Is the Spark 40 as good as a valve amp? No, clearly not. But it won’t need re-valved and re-biased either. Are the effects going to compete with my own pedalboard that has been fine tuned over three decades? No, but the app works really well and lets you experiment with different types of the same effects. But does it provide good, consistent, and decent sound at home levels with a convenient way to add some well replicated digital approximations of pedals like the Tubescreamer and EHX Muff? 100%. ***And - let this sink in - all for less than the price of a boutique effect pedal!*** Ever wonder what’s the difference between an analog delay and a digital delay? Or a Klon and Tubescreamer? This gives you an idea, along with the ability to swap between MesaBoogie, Matchless, Vox, and Plexi amp types. An incredible achievement and one that 12 year old me could only have dreamed about when I was wondering why my little solid state Honer Panther amp didn’t sound anything like what I was hearing on Appetite for Destruction. And the fact that you can use it for acoustic and bass guitars is a big plus. I would imagine that, in the right live scenario, the majority of folks in an audience wouldn’t be able to differentiate between this and a valve combo if they were mic’d up correctly.

This is a great practice amplifier! I wish it had been available when I was starting out. The problems you will read about on the internet all appear to have been solved - slow delivery, strange humming, all gone. Despite its small size it has the sound of a much larger amp. I've not played for real all the amps it models but they sound good to me. Some of the reverbs sound a bit samey, but other than that I couldn't fault it. The practice modes are very usable, playing along to backing tracks on YouTube is fun, composing with your built in drummers, a challenge. If you've seen the videos and been unsure, get yourself one. You won't be disappointed.

I love it!

This is the ideal practice amp for anyone who is reasonably tech savvy and familiar with guitar effects pedals. Even if you don’t have much experience though, it really won’t take much effort to get you going and there are plenty of YouTube reviews that show you how to use it and set it up. I found it simple to set up and was playing around with the downloaded patches in less than 10 minutes. One of the first things you’ll want to do is update the firmware by hooking it up to a computer, this was also pretty easy following the instructions from the positive grid website. Once I updated it there were more features and the Jimi Hendrix add on which is fun to play with if you’re a big fan. SOUND: Overall the sound quality is highly impressive and the possibilities are pretty much endless with this amp. The shimmery clean tones with chorus and reverb are honestly some of the best I’ve heard but I mainly bought this for metal. My usual rig is more blues oriented and I really just wanted something to jam Pantera riffs on and go wild! The metal amp models have more than enough gain and the amount of bass this thing can produce means you can rest assured it won’t sound thin or tinny. Overall I recommend this to anyone who wants a fun practice amp to play about with. I’ve got loads of music equipment now but if I had this when I was first starting out It probably would have saved me a small fortune on amps and pedals! If you’re a parent thinking of buying this for your kid then I would say go for it if you can afford it and the kid is committed to playing guitar. If you go for a cheaper no frills amp you may end up having to buy an upgrade in a few years anyway. This amp will be more than enough for most kids until they’re old enough to get a job and buy their own gear!

First class amp. Good for practice or a small venue. Plenty of tone and volume variation.

As a practice and small venue amp this unit fitted the bill. Auto Bluetooth search on switch on finds my iPhone almost instantly and the inclusion of an aux/bluetooth input level control is good. Fx controls for Reverb and Delay are included and work well. Very sophisticated memory of Fx on 4 presets which can fool you at first. Works on a 13a 3 pinned power supply outputting it’s19volts via a small barrel plug which could be easily damaged. This however allows easy changeover to a Lithium 19v battery available separately, at 50% volume this lasted well over 6hrs. Mine is attached to the rear by 4 strong button magnets and a thin steel plate. The package includes access to an App enabling thousands of backing tracks plus anything on the internet.

The Spark is a really good sounding easy to use digital amplifier. The app is also easy to use and gives access to additional features including the ability to play along to pre recorded backing tracks, turn YouTube videos into backing tracks and create your own to play along with. As a practice and creation tool it’s great. The sound is decent, if somewhat bassy, and can be attenuated down to talking level. My only issue is that it costs far more here than it does in the states, that rankles a bit, however for what you get it’s better than anything else you can buy at a similar price point. Will it replace my valve amps and could you realistically gig with it? No however for practice and plug and play ease of use it hits the mark.

If you’re reading this then you are probably already well aware of the Spark amp’s features and capabilities. It really is a hugely flexible little amp with all the models and effects you could ever need, and in a near infinite variation. It sounds really good too. The updated addition of equaliser pedals helps shape your sound even more. I’m very pleased with the sounds I’m getting from this, and as per the title, I’m being inspired to new musical creation as a result of getting this little amp! A really useful and creative tool which I think is great value for money considering all it’s capable of doing! My only criticism would be the on/off switch is a little bit small? A sturdier switch might be better? But as you’re unlikely to be gigging with this and throwing it in tje back of a van, it’s probably perfectly fine for home use. In summary: believe the hype. It’s fab! Get one! :)