If you like playing electric guitar alone (or with a small band) outside of your bedroom or studio, this is the way to go. I wish that it got more than eight hours of battery life, but otherwise I can’t find much not to love. (Pardon my noodly blues playing and out-of-tune barre chords, I’m a drummer first!)įor under $200, it’s really tough to name a guitar-playing tool I like more. I’ve included a few sound samples so you can get an idea of what I mean. For studio sessions, I’d still reach for my Universal Audio OX and a real tube amp, but lead lines or single-note stuff from the Spark Mini could totally make it onto a final track. Still, it’s good enough to hear yourself (and has decent tone at lower volumes).Īs an interface, it offers stereo outs, and the recording quality is solid. Having cool electric guitar tones (and actual songs to play along to!) makes me feel much less like a poor man’s Jack Johnson.īass players will like that this is a solid option for them, too, though low end from the small included woofer is somewhat limited. A change of place can often be the key to finishing a song I’m struggling with, or for letting go after a long day at the keyboard. It's a welcome respite from the windowless room I usually practice in. You can even swap the standard gold and black speaker grill for a red one if you want it to look a bit more metal.īeyond that, it doubles as a guitar interface for recording, via the USB-C port or line-out jacks on the back, which is hugely helpful for sketching out song ideas if you’ve got a laptop in tow (see below for some basic recordings).Īs the weather has been getting nicer here in Portland, Oregon, I’ve taken to playing with the Spark Mini out on my patio toward the end of the day. It comes in white or black, which is a nice touch for matchy-matchy people with white guitars. The little amp has feet to steady it and guitar strap holders on each side to tote it around, with anything from a string to an actual leather strap. Serious fires in telephone battery plants were traced to positive grid. It’s a simple, elegant system that will have you playing in under a minute. However, antimony leaches out of the positive plate, travels through the sulfuric. Now you’ve got yourself a great little stereo Bluetooth speaker, with volume controlled by a knob on top that's labeled “Music.” Plug your guitar into the quarter-inch jack on top, pick between one of four amp presets, and you can play along to your tunes, using a “Guitar” knob to match the music volume. Press a power button on the back and hold the Bluetooth pairing button to connect to your phone. This newer version is smaller and has a battery. Much like its predecessor, the full-size Spark ( 8/10, WIRED Recommends), it was designed for practice and recording use in bedrooms and small studios. Unbox the 6-inch cube, charge it up, and the small amp (which really does look like a shrink ray hit your favorite Marshall) is ready to rock. It's safe to say the minuscule amp will cost less than its $299 full-size counterpart, potentially making it a better value if price and versatility matter more than raw power.The Spark Mini has a ton of functionality available inside Positive Grid’s app, but the device itself is very plug-and-play. Positive hasn't mentioned pricing for the Spark Mini, but it will be available to pre-order in March. The battery is useful for up to eight hours. Tell it to stream a rock song or a blues backing track, or ask for a virtual band to follow your Positive Grid - Spark Mini - Mini USB Powered Practice Amp. The Spark Mini includes 33 amp models, 43 effects, and a USB interface (on top of the virtually mandatory quarter-inch guitar input and eighth-inch aux inputs) to translate your performances to creative software. The Spark mobile app can automatically create backing tracks as you play, display the chords for any song (including slowdowns if you want to learn a segment) and deliver any of 10,000-plus free guitar tones. The connected features remain the centerpiece. The 10W device doubles as a Bluetooth speaker and supposedly delivers "punchy" bass through a downward-facing boost - there's even a swappable grille to personalize the look. Positive has unveiled a Spark Mini amp that promises the digital functionality of its larger sibling in a much smaller (roughly six inches across) design you can carry wherever you want to play. Thankfully, the company now has a portable option. Positive Grid's Spark amp is helpful for practicing musicians, but its size and heft haven't been practical if you've wanted to jam in the bedroom or otherwise venture beyond your studio.
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