Spark GO - I Was Wrong
I learn through doing and often by making mistakes. I am here to admit that I was wrong about the Spark GO.
I am a fan of the Spark 40 and the Spark Mini. In fact, when I am now asked about a home practice amp, I recommend a Spark. That does not mean that I have lost respect for the BOSS Katana or the Line 6 Catalyst, it’s just that home practice has a lot of required deliverables including sounding good at low volumes. I love tube amps. but unless you get a great little unit like the ½ watt Dark Gene that I wrote about last time, to get good sound out of a tube amp means loud. And there will be no effects. If you go with a great DSP powered amp, like a Katana or Catalyst, you might get one small enough to keep the volume at levels that will not get you evicted and still get some great sounding effects, and have the ability to connect it to your computer for home recording, you still won’t get some of the incredible software benefits that come with a Spark. Moreover, every Spark uses the same smartphone or tablet based app and the learning curves are short and straightforward.
What Did I Get Wrong
My mistake was trusting what I heard on a demo video. Mr. Peter Honore at Andersons was doing a demo of the Spark GO and he was quite enthused. I expect Mr. Honore to be enthused. He is employed by a store that sells guitars, amps and pedals. He has been regularly criticized for never saying a bad word about anything. Here in Canada, you can buy Spark products either direct from Positive Grid or through the Positive Grid store on Amazon. I think it is the same in the US, as my understanding is that Spark kit is not sold through the traditional retail channel. May be its different in the UK, I have no idea and as I am not a UK resident, it’s not the top of my problem list.
What I got wrong is believing what I heard. In the video, the Spark GO sounded tinny and weak, much like the transistor radio with the little wrist strap I had back in 1966.
Then I Bought One
I ordered the Spark GO because I was blown away by how good the Spark 40 sounded and even more so by how good the Spark Mini sounded. Yes there is DSP happening there and there is definitely some computational audio happening. However, for the use case defined, lower volume home practice, they sound killer and do not disturb anyone, although I can make the Spark 40 loud enough that others in my home start closing doors and felines seek other places to sleep.
The Spark Go is tiny, and I was testing it out resting on its back on one of the computer desks with my 59 Gretsch White Penguin. I thought it sounded really good live, far superior to what I had heard in the Anderton’s video and with more bass and more high end. It does not get all that loud, which is the point, but it does the job of a bedroom practice amp superbly and the effects available are more than sufficient for that task. I have not bought licenses for the Jimi Hendrix branded add-ons, because I am cheap and because I am not one to want to sound like Hendrix. Your choice is right for you.
My daughter knocked on the door to say that I sounded really good from the hall and wanted to know which of the eight or so amps in the room was producing such good tone without rattling the china. When I pointed to the Spark GO, she was suitably amazed. I then quickly ran through the four presets that I had set up on the unit using the app on my phone, and she agreed that it was incredibly flexible and sounded great at lower volumes. She then offered to trade me back my own Katana Air for the Spark Go. A wheeler dealer that one.
What’s In It?
The amp is really driven by the app that runs on iOS and Android. In addition to the 33 different amps and 43 different effects, there are tools to help you learn such as AutoChords. You feed your song from iTunes or Spotify and the app analyzes the song to show you the chords being used. It’s surprisingly accurate. Don’t expect AutoChords to decode a Slash solo, but it does a good job at tone analysis to figure out the chords and display them on your smartphone screen.
It also has a JAM function that I am still working with to maximize my return. Basically you turn it on and play your song through the Spark GO. Spark learns what you are playing and builds a backing track to go along with you. For people who don’t have a lot of opportunity to play with others or who might be nervous about going to a jam night, this is pretty killer.
There’s also a video function that lets you use your phone to record videos of yourself playing using the Spark GO to upload to whatever video sharing service that you use. I can guarantee that this is something that I am never going to use myself, but I expect it to be very popular with the kind of players who want to do that sort of thing.
And if making your own presets is more work than you want to do, Positive Grid who make the product say that there are over 50,000 tones available for download through the app.
Finally you can pair the unit via Bluetooth to your smart device to use it as an external Bluetooth 5.0 compliant speaker.
The small box contains the amp, two different grills, two straps (you can use these to hang the amp off your guitar strap), USB cable for charging and Interface use. The amp is covered by a rubber (rubberized?) cover to help protect the unit. It will run up to eight hours on a full charge and you use the included USB C cable for charging or to connect it directly to your computer to use as an audio interface, similar to the other Spark units and many other amplifiers that do USB instead of a balanced DI output.
Samples
For the knob values I am listing them as on a clock face.
#1 uses the Match DC (Matchless DC30) Amp Sim set for clean playback. The Gain is at noon and the Volume at 2. Bass at 11, Middle and Treble at 1. Studio A Reverb on with mix at 10. Guitar is a PRS Paul’s guitar, bridge and neck humbuckers, Volume 8 Tone 10
#2 uses the Blues Boy (Fender Tweed) Amp Sim set for a bit of overdrive. The Gain is at 2 and the Volume at 11. Bass at 11, Middle at noon and Treble at 1. Clean Boost at 2, Studio B Reverb on with mix at 2. Guitar is a PRS Paul’s guitar, bridge in single coil mode, Volume 8 Tone 10
#3 uses the Plexiglas (Marshall Model 1959) Amp Sim. The Gain is at 2 and the Volume at 2. Bass at 12, Middle at 1 and Treble at 1. Noise Gate On, low threshold, Tube Drive (Tube Screamer) at OD 9 Level 2, EQ with +2dB mid hump, Digital Delay at 500ms and Short Plate Reverb with mix at 10. Guitar is a PRS Paul’s guitar, neck humbucker, Volume 8 Tone 10
#4 uses the Insane Amp Sim. The Gain is at 1 and the Volume at 2. Bass at 12, Middle at 1 and Treble at 1. Noise Gate On, low threshold fast decay, Tube Drive (Tube Screamer) at OD 7 Level 2, EQ with +2dB boost between 400 and 800Hz. Guitar is a PRS Paul’s guitar, bridge humbucker, Volume 8 Tone 10.
What we see from these samples is a great deal of versatility. I must be honest in that I would not want to use the Spark GO as my primary recording interface. What comes into the DAW is a lot darker than what you hear from the Spark GO speaker. I don’t think that the computational audio is stripped before the signal heads out the USB C port to the computer. I had to use a Pultec EQ-1A and UA 1176 to bring the recorded signals into more usable alignment. As a get things down on disc quickly tool, I think it is great, but if you are going to do some serious home recording, this is not the device that you want to be using. It’s not bad, but it’s not optimal either.
Conclusions
While the Spark GO is designed predominantly for the electric player, there are a couple of acoustic amp models that simplify recording via USB of any acoustic guitar with a pickup and an output jack. At $179 CAD, I really think that this thing is unbeatable. It’s small, sounds great, works with headphones or the built in speaker and the app brings a lot to the table. Regular readers know that I have been an advocate of the Fender Mustang Micro to use with headphones when practicing or travelling, but I have to say that for a tiny bit more space, that I would now be inclined to recommend the Spark Go. It brings everything that the Fender Mustang Micro brings, with a far more usable user interface and way more control over the built in amps and effects. Honestly, I cannot think of any player who would not get value from one of these little critters.
Please feel free to leave a comment or post a question. I’m Ross Chevalier, and until next time, peace.
