Hi,
I was wondering if anyone had a Positive Grid Spark Amp? I’m considering treating myself to one for Christmas as it looks like it could be a lot of fun but nearly every single review I can find is sponsored by Positive Grid.
If anyone has any experience with this I would really like to hear about this? I know Bill Hall uses one and he seems to like it.
Cheers,
I haven’t used the Spark amp but I have both Bias amp 2 and Bias fx 2 and I have to say that you get a lot of value for your money. Plenty of amps and effects to play around with, I guess the spark is somewhat similar.
The opinion I’ve seen in many forums is that you are better off with one of the yamaha thrs (fewer options but better sounds). But I haven’t tried any of the two!
I did have one. had to wait a long time due to the present state of things. It was a great tool. It had alot of usuable features and was even subbed as a very good blue tooth speaker. The backing tracks were decent but the fact that I could search for others inside the app was great. The app is very usable. I sold it due to the fact that I got a Marshall JVM and a captor X so had to free up some cash lol. It was great though had great sounds and now they have a blue tooth switcher to change presets so that’s cool.
Cool thanks for the reccomendation
I think the Spark amps are fun, @Muso1981. Here is a review with the settings I like to use and I do a lot of playing on it… Pretty cool sounds for the money I think. I haven’t really tried any of the amps similar to it that are out there now though. I hope this helps! 
Yngwie, Eric Johnson, Holdsworth Style Soloing through a Positive Grid Spark 40w With Amp Settings! - YouTube
Thanks Bill, I’ve actually already seen your videos which made me want to buy it 
Hey Bill I watched your video again, have you tried out the app yet?
Hello. You know…I have not tried it yet. I just dialed in a tone when I first tried it and that is what I use. I need to try the app…I am always in such a hurry to jam that I never take the time to mess with it, lol!
You make that amp sound really good. Nice chops!
The Positive Grid Spark has a lot of unique features. I think how much you enjoy it will depend a lot on what you get out of those features.
There are features that I find useless - Auto Chords and Voice Commands - but maybe someone out there finds them useful. The song streaming is useful, but fiddly, and you can do the same on your phone / tablet. The presets are hit or miss, like most presets are.
Bluetooth streaming to the amp is at once convenient and annoying. It’s cool conceptually, but in practice I don’t want my phone to connect to the amp whenever the amp is on, and manually connecting and disconnecting is not any more convenient than plugging / unplugging an audio cable.
The Smart Jam is a really cool feature, if only it worked as well for me as it did in the ads.
The sound out of the amp itself is fine, but it sounds like a small practice amp because it is a small practice amp. I think my Boss Katana 50W sounds better, and I can take my Katana to a jam with a drummer while the Spark is purely an at-home practice amp.
The USB audio interface is useful if you don’t have one. The Katana has one as well, but I think getting a dedicated interface such as the Scarlett 2i2 is money well spent. I do have to point out the amusing selling point that the Spark comes with a “free copy of PreSonus Studio One Prime.” Studio One is great - I really like it - but Studio One Prime is free, is always free, has always been free. A free copy of free software is… not really a great selling point.
Anyway, my opinion is that the Spark is fine as a small practice amp with some cool features. If I had to pick between the Spark and the Katana, I’d go with the Katana - it sounds better to me, and is far more versatile in terms of being able to jam with a drummer. For recording I’d get a dedicated audio interface such as a Scarlett 2i2 and an amp sim such as ReAmp Studio. For a small travel practice amp, it’s a coin flip between the Spark and Yamaha THR, probably leaning towards the Spark for it’s additional features.
Hey Timo,
Thanks for your detailed reply, I’m really looking forward to trying this little amp out now. I use Bias fx so hopefully the tones are similar.
Yeah, they’re pretty similar. If you’re happy with the Bias FX tones I think you’ll be very happy with the Spark tones.
Hi everyone,
I just wanted to say I’m really impressed with the spark amp and it’s so much fun to use.
I was so dubious because of how hard they are advertising it online but it really is a great bit of kit.
It has literally been years since I’ve owned an amp, the last one being a Peavy 5150 which was really impractical for home use. This really is the perfect amp for quiet home practice.
I was thinking about buying the Spark too for traveling but ended up buying the Katana two weeks ago because of it’s more compact size and the option to run it on batteries. I’m pretty sure the Spark is an amazing little practice amp. I hope you’ll have a lot of fun with it!
I bought one as an impulse buy when they first came out because I love the BIAS FX 2 software. If you’re a guitar teacher or beginner, it is a great all in one tool that has meh at best tones. I thought it was actually a better speaker/portable PA system(for small events) than guitar amp. If you already have a desktop setup with monitors/software, the spark offers nothing different with much worse tones than BIAS FX 2. It all depends on the intended purpose of the amp but if you need a little portable amp, I would lean towards something that put more development into the guitar tones, not the practice features and app. A friend of mine has the Katana mini and borrowed my spark. He much preferred the Katana but I have not played or heard the Katana mini.
I have since sold my spark to a beginner who loves it and I use the fender Mustang Micro headphone amp for quiet practice. It sounds decent as well but is a totally different tool than any mini amplifier.