PRODUCT REVIEW: Positive Grid Spark 40 Amplifier

 (Through The Darkness - Gareth Coker)

There's very little to argue with when it comes to what guitar amplifiers bring to the equation of playing, especially if you're playing an electric.  The classic noises that you've had rattling around in your head?  You get a lot of those out of an amp, not the guitar itself.  A good amplifier is one of the first upgrades I suggest every new guitar player invest in.

Shortly after you upgrade that amp, however, you're going to start wondering how to get your instrument to sound like your favorite guitarist.  This is where the search for 'Tone' begins and it can be a long search at that.  While an amp on its own can make your guitar louder, the effects like 'Drive', 'Reverb', 'Flange', and 'Compression' are a huge part of shaping your sound into something that takes you from simply being more willing to play to being inspired.  That's where the magic happens.

So then, you don't just need a new guitar amp, you need a way to generate those effects as well.  You need all of it, you need it in one package, and if you're like most of us, you sort of...need it to be affordable.

Positive Grid, a long-time member of the guitar amp and effects modeling community, says they have you covered with their Spark 40 Practice Amplifier.  Actually, they say they've got you more than covered.  They say that the Spark 40 is one of the most feature-rich practice amps that will do precisely what all players want:

Bring inspiration, and do it at an incredible value.

Does it?

THE SHORT VERSION:

Yes.  Hands down, the Spark 40 is probably the best practice amp on the market right now.

THE LONG VERSION:

I re-wrote this portion of the review a few times because of how varied a person's opinion about the Spark might be after a cursory inspection.  I'll explain why in a moment, but first, I want to get something out of the way right up front.

The Spark 40 is a 40-Watt practice amp that retails for around $260, depending on how much of a sale you get it on.  That might feel like a lot for a 'practice amp', especially when you consider that you can get little 15-20 watt amps like the Fender Mustang for far less, especially if you buy them used.  If you're on a really tight budget and that's all you can afford, there's nothing inherently wrong with those smaller, cheaper amps.  The Spark might cost a little more than those introductory amps, but it more than makes up for it.

Let's start with all of the things that the Spark 40 claims it can do for that $260.

- It's a 40-Watt desktop amp for electric guitar, bass guitar, and acoustic guitar.  40 watts is a lot of oomph for a 'practice' amp, and the Spark can get plenty loud when you ask it.  And even if you don't!  I was shocked at how loud the Spark got at less than half volume, especially once I started piling Mods and Drivers onto it.  Better still, the Spark sounds -good-.  Really, REALLY good.  It leans a little warm by default in terms of tone, but it comes with a three-band EQ that you can easily use to turn the bass down and get that bright, shimmery tone you're after if you want it.

- It's a USB-Powered Audio Interface.  This is HUGE.  What it means is that you can hook your Spark directly up to your computer using USB -- the cable is included! -- and then immediately begin recording things directly into your DAW.  This might be less of a thing to beginners, but if you have the bug even a little bit, the ability to cleanly record your music is INVALUABLE.  A good Audio Interface like the Scarlett 2x4 can run you $150 on its own.  This has one built in.  While it's not a feature-rich as something like a Scarlett, just the interface itself is an insane value when rolled into an amp.

- It's a Bluetooth speaker.  You can bluetooth whatever you want to it and play music.  Think about that one for a moment.  This is an INSANELY powerful speaker for the money.  Yes, it's not portable because it requires power, but you can take this thing anywhere there -is- power and get insane audio quality with it.

Those things I've listed this far more than justify the price tag.  They're also only the tip of the iceberg where the Spark is concerned.

- It's a modeling amp with SEVEN different categories of effect that it can model.  Using the companion Spark app that you can install on any mobile device, you can connect wirelessly to the amp and configure your effects and cabinet settings to find the tone you're after.  This kind of robust modeling is precisely what Positive Grid is known for and they're putting on a master class here.  Want to model an Orange head with a Tube Screamer and a flanger?  Done. Not just done, but done in a very realistic-sounding way. Use the Spark app to configure a noise gate, compressor, drive, cabinet/head, mod, delay, and reverb.  There are thousands -- tens of thousands! -- of combinations available.  Want something specific but don't want to do the work?  No problem. Use the Spark app and your phone's internet connection to search the ToneCloud for both Positive Grid and user-created tone combinations.  Download them for free and get playing.  

- Want to learn how to play a song that you saw on YouTube?  No problem.  The Spark App allows you to search YouTube videos for music.  Once you've selected one, Spark will analyze the song, pick out the chords it things are in it, and then put them up on the screen in-tempo to help you learn to play along.  And it displays the chords with chord diagrams.

- Want to jam to a backing track?  Still not a problem.  The Spark allows you to stream audio from your mobile device through the speaker itself.  Just jam along if you've already got a good backing track available.  Don't have one?  STILL not a problem!  Play 8 bars of music for the Spark to listen to, and it will create a bass and drum track ON THE FLY for you to play to.  Sorcery!

So, let's recap: 

The Spark 40 is a 40-Watt guitar amp, a bluetooth speaker, an audio interface, a drum & bass machine, a rhythm guitar instructor, and a modeling amp, and it does all of these things very, very well.  Better still, the use that you'll get out of it will only increase the more deeply you delve into guitar playing and understanding various pedals and cabinets.  For $260.  If I were more inclined, I would insert that meme of the guy from Futurama telling you to 'shut up and take my money!'.  The Spark 40 is a no-brainer if you're in the market for a practice amp.  Nothing else comes anywhere near close.  

...Right?

Well...that sort of depends on how you've developed as a guitar player.  If you were wondering where the other shoe was, I'm about to drop it.  

The Spark is easy enough to use on the surface, but in order to unlock its true potential, you need a -deep- understanding of how pedals and cabinets work.  Take the Spark's Cabinet emulation for example.  The Spark can emulate 30 different cabinet types.  That's HUGE in terms of configurability, but unless you know the difference between a Marshall Twin and an Orange Stack, you won't really get much out of those 30 cabinet types.  Worse, for licensing reasons, Positive Grid can't call those cabinet models by their true name.  It relies on their visual likeness -- which is very good! -- to tell the player what's what.  If you haven't ever seen these head units before, you're sort of...out of luck.  A zillion options doesn't matter unless you have a strong sense of how to dial all of those options in to a sound you want.  Could you explore?  Certainly, but unless you've got a serious desire to do that -- a lot of people don't, including me -- the Spark may frustrate you long before it inspires you.

The pedals are the same way.  Yes, you can select a Tube Screamer pedal to put in your effects chain, but it's not called a Tube Screamer.  It's just a green Drive pedal.  Now, anyone who has spent any time around effects pedals knows exactly what a Tube Screamer is, but what about the dozens of other pedal types?  We're in the same boat here as we were with the cabinet emulator.

To add insult to injury, you run into another problem: The Spark -can- emulate seven different categories of stuff, but it will only ever allow you to emulate one thing from each category.  Only one drive pedal at a time.  Only one mod at a time.  Only one delay.  Only one reverb.  This is a huge gut punch for people like me who prefer to layer their modulation effects to produce a really unique sound.  If you want a flanger and a phaser, or a chorus and an octaver, you're out of luck.  Spark says 'no'.  Why?!  You also cannot move those pedals around in the signal chain.  You're locked into the order that Spark thinks is best.  That order is a good one that makes a lot of sense, but you still have to wonder why Spark didn't give you more flexibility.  They clearly could have.

If you're just starting your guitar journey out, most of this won't matter to you.  The Spark is -so much- amp right out of the box that it's hard to argue with anything that it offers, especially at the price point.  Even if you're an intermediate player like I am, the Spark does so much for the price that you would still be getting a really robust piece of kit for the money if you were the kind of person that enjoyed being able to fiddle with your device to the Nth degree.

...I'm not though.  I bought a Boss Katana as my first amp.  The Katana amps were designed to put a respectful library of effects at your fingertips that you could access with the simple twist of a knob.  There was more than enough in the Katana for me to play with as a beginner and by the time I wanted something more, I knew enough to simply go out and get it.  I -knew- what kind of sound I wanted.  I bought the Spark because I wanted a strong portable amp, and the Spark surely is that.  It's...just maybe not the best portable amp for -me-.  I know what kind of sound I want, and unfortunately, I'm not sure I can get it out of Spark on its own.  I'd still need to bring some of my pedals with me.  At that point, you're taking the ENTIRE modeling aspect of the Spark off the table, which is a huge blow to its value add.  I also don't really care about playing along with YouTube tracks.  I prefer to just read tabs.

What does all of this mean?  It means that the Spark is still a GONZO incredible amp for beginners.  Maybe the best amp for beginners.  It's also a wonderful amp for those looking for a strong option for a portable amp, as long as you understand where the amp's strengths and weaknesses lay.  If you're a beginner player, the Spark is still a no-brainer.  If you're anything more than that...do your research very carefully.