Guitar YouTuber Darrell Braun dials in legendary sounds with his trusty Spark desktop amp
You’d be hard pressed to name an amplifier that has made a bigger splash in the guitar world in recent years than Positive Grid’s Spark. Then again, Spark isn’t just an amp – at least not in the conventional sense.
The intelligent amplifier is loaded with amp models and effects, and can access more than 10,000 additional amp-and-effect presets via the online ToneCloud.
Additionally, music can be imported from Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube, and Spark’s smart app will auto display the guitar chords in real time. And users can pick a tempo, play a riff or a chord progression or choose the genre they want and the amp will create a backing track with authentic bass and drum sounds to jam over.
That’s a whole lot of functionality – and also only the tip of the Spark iceberg. For those interested in trying out Spark for themselves, Positive Grid is now offering the opportunity to seriously deck out your at-home practice, jamming and recording setup with your own Spark in thePositive Grid Jam at Home Giveaway.
One lucky winner will receive over $3,300 in prizes, including a Positive Grid Spark guitar amp and BIAS software pack, plus amazing items from ESP, PreSonus, Dunlop and more. Enter here.
(Image credit: Positive Grid)
For an easy introduction to some of the amazing sounds Spark is capable of producing, YouTuber Darrell Braun has put together a new video in which he plugs in and unlocks five of the most iconic amp tones in history.
What’s more, he hooks the Spark directly into his computer via the USB output. “It’s a hugely convenient feature,” Darrell says, “to have an audio interface built straight into a practice amp.”
From there he dives into iconic amp tone #1: the AC Boost. Using the controls on the Spark app, Darrell adds noise gate and compressor and dials in his own amount of reverb to achieve that classic AC liquid chime. “Every note is just clean and legible,” he marvels. “Every string and every range sounds so, so beautiful.”
The next four amp sounds are just as stunningly authentic, from the “perfect Fender tone” of the American Deluxe patch to the “aggressive attack” of the British 30, the spongy, singing quality of the Plexiglass to the modern metal roar of the Boogie-like Treadplate.
Of that last patch, Darrell notes, “There’s so many awesome high-gain amps on the Spark, and once you connect the amp to the internet it’s pretty much unlimited.”
Which, essentially, is the Spark in a nutshell – seemingly unlimited tones, effects and features, which combine to unlock boundless creativity in your playing.
And to enter for your chance to win a Spark and BIAS software pack along with other prizes, head to thePositive Grid Jam at Home Giveaway. Entries close on November 30.
Rich is the co-author of the best-selling Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion. He is also a recording and performing musician, and a former editor of Guitar World magazine and executive editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine. He has authored several additional books, among them Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the companion to the documentary of the same name.
