Positive Grid Spark Mini

This looks pretty neat, although I don’t like Positive Grid’s customer support, or even its support of its own products.

Tiny, and a neat alternative to something like an iLoud for practice.

https://www.soundonsound.com/news/positive-grid-announce-spark-mini

Has anyone used the bigger Spark? How are they?

1 Like

That pic, … so cliché…
:rofl:

5 Likes

I was thinking the same. It scores a solid ten on the Hipster Scale.

1 Like

I have the original Spark – it’s really nice as a practice amp. Surprisingly loud as well, I’ve brought it along to jam with a friend (no drummer) and it was more than loud enough, and probably would be able to approach loud enough to practice with a drummer in a pinch, but I really wouldn’t count on it.

The amp modeling and emulation is quite good. I’ve never used some of the main competitors like Headrush, Kemper, or Line 6 Helix, but I can say that I have mine set up to approximate my settings on my Deluxe Reverb, which is my main performance amp and it sounds convincing enough to my ear.

I’ve also used it to do some advance scouting on pedals – if you know much about some of the more popular overdrive/fuzz/distortions available out there, it’s not hard to piece together which one is supposed to be which. It’s very nice to be able to try various pedals at home and then feel better about ordering one blind on the internet or finding a physical store and actually trying it out once I’m sure that I really like it. Generally I find that when I play the “real” versions of their emulated pedals, they sound quite similar to what I expect from their software. Keep in mind that you can’t really mix your own hardware pedals with their emulation though. You can set a preset that just emulates and amp and no pedals at all, but mixing external pedals in doesn’t go very well.

My one major gripe with the original Spark is that it doesn’t have a grounded power supply, and can have some bad 60 cycle hum as a result. Plugging it into a usb port manages to help, actually. They recently added a tuner display to the app which is pretty nice, because the onboard tuner on the amp itself was really awful.

The app is fine – I haven’t really tried to use any of the “smart backing track” shit for more than a couple minutes, but it seemed incredibly gimmicky. There’s a tab in the app for finding backing tracks from youtube and you can mix the volume of your signal vs. the backing track, which is pretty nice if you like to play along. I’m glad they just had it search youtube rather than having their own proprietary list of backing tracks or something like that.

As far as the mini goes, I’m going to probably get one because I already have a nice amp for actual performance, etc, and the mini is much closer to what I need than the original spark. I want something that is battery powered and I can just stuff away on a shelf when I’m not playing it. I rarely turn my Spark output above 10 o’clock or Noon, so I suspect the volume and output will continue to be more than I actually need for what I’m doing.

For context, here are the other amps I’ve owned and used:

  • Fender Tonemaster Deluxe Reverb
  • Fender Blues Jr
  • Peavey Studio 112 (red-stripe mid-00s) solid state
  • Absolute garbage Rogue practice amp circa 00-01

Don’t expect the moon and the stars, but for the price and convenience I think they’re doing a great job. And it sure as hell beats what I had just starting out with my dogshit practice amp and a shitty digitech multi-effects pedal!

1 Like

Also got the original Spark and have similar experience (never tried playing with a drummer).
For the price I find it very good and with the built in pedals I’ve had no problem finding inspiring sounds. In a way it’s a bit overkill for a practice amp as you can easily fiddle more with the knobs than play.
I’d also prefer this new smaller version as portability makes me play my Yamaha THR10 slightly more than the spark.
I’ve used the cloud stuff less than I thought but it’s not bad.

Curious if anyone has compared the Spark to the Boss Katana Mini, which I’ve been eyeing for practice duties. This new Spark Mini looks like a direct competitor to the Katana Mini. I’ve heard good things about both but haven’t tried either in person.

Practice amps have come a long way.

I recently switched to using Overloud’s TH-U for practice, and almost everything else. I have an Ableton template project in my Mac’s dock, and I click that to launch.

It works really well, and if I like something I’m playing, I can start looping instantly.

I have an old tube Champ, too, which is a great practice amp.

I’ve looked at the Katana Mini before (mostly when I was going to buy the original Spark) and ultimately decided against the Katana becuase it runs off AA batteries – I know some folks prefer that (and just get rechargeable AAs), but swapping them in and out and not being able to just plug in the unit via USB to charge it kinda took a lot of the convenience away for me, so I ended up getting the Spark.

I’m seriously considering selling my Spark and buying a mini when it comes out, but will have to wait until other sellers have them available since PG actually won’t ship to my my (non-mainland US) location :frowning:

1 Like

Gotcha, thanks for that info. I did actually end up getting a Katana Mini in a trade and I really like it for what it is. It can also be powered via regular 9V adapter (like a 1-spot) so need to use batteries for it. I was just using it to listen to some music and it sounds pretty nice in that capacity too.

Cheers!

1 Like