Lola, my killer watchdog frantically guarding the precious booty!

So, for you folks that got one, how you digging the Spark after the honeymoon? I’m thinking about taking the plunge.

I love it way more than any other practice amp I ever owned. It slides right past my Line 6 Spider Jam amp into first place. (Although I still love the Spider Jam, especially since I sprung for the full size foot controller with expression pedal)

My wife was so excited (not even sarcastic) that she basically set up the iPad connection and ran through all the virtual amp models and foot switches while I played. Before I could say let me play through it for a while before we venture into the rest of the software, she went right to the looping/jam section and had me playing chords and leads to a slow blues progression. Displayed at the top of the screen were all the chords charted. The rest of the screen, except for one small box, was a follow the beat style lighted box that circled you through the progression with the chord changes written in. In the remaining small box was a YouTube video of a guitarist playing along showing you lead improv ideas. It was going a little to fast for me to catch it all so I hit the tempo button and was able to slow it down to any speed I wanted without changing the key or the pitch of the leads the guy on the video was playing. The loop kept going while I watched the guys fingers on the video. There were immediate ideas I could play right away. None of it was over my head. It was in Em which I commonly play in cause I feel more comfortable. I thought, what better time to practice in a different key then on my new boss awesome Spark amp. So I pick where you change the key and it kept playing but in Dm. And the video switched to Dm. It’s mind bogglingly cool.

And so intuitive my wife had no problem flipping through the software while going “Try this.....ok, now try this.....” And this was all in the first 20 minutes after the unboxing. There might have been a small “easy start guide” on a card in the box, but we never looked at it. No instruction book at all. It’s that easy.

I’m sure that when I have some time this weekend I’ll easily find a million more secrets this little devil has in store for me. And it was only $229 (case was additional). My Boss Katana Air ran my brother 5 bills for me last Christmas. (Saw it just now for 4) It’s cool but nowhere near this thing.

Alan, my advice is buy this immediately!

She's adorable.

After all the love here and elsewhere among my guitar playing friends for the Spark up there, I took the plunge and bought one this evening. It sounds like something I've been wishing existed for years, and the price is pretty good too! Hopefully I don't have to wait too long for it to arrive.

I have a decent tube amp already, but it's just that...decent, and very limited in what it can do (with me at the helm anyway. ). Looking forward to having some fun with this!

Yeah they’ve got me thinking about it too.

I'm sticking with my 12-watt Orange practice amp. You can't even plug a CD player into it. I used that feature once on my old Line-6 amp and it just annoyed me so I never used it again.

A Spark would be wasted on me. I just don't get into fidgeting with technology when I'm messing around on a guitar. I just sort of put my headphones on and go for it - the more steps there are in between me plugging in the guitar and just making noises on it the less I enjoy myself.

Simon, I forgot to mention that the Spark also is an awesome stand alone unit. All the regular practice amp control knobs Including an amp modeling section. 40w clean or crunchy or high gain or metal. Or just plug in the headphones. Like you said, plug and play. That’s what really sold me originally when my friend brought it in. He didn’t have his iPhone hooked to it so I just ran through the regular knobs. The tone was incredible.

And yes, Lola the dog is adorable. I’m not sure if it’s possible to lick a person to death, but she’ll definitely have a go at it.

Thanks, Dr. Jack...I will keep it in mind, then. I don't even know if they're available in Australia, but I'll keep it in mind...and Lola is awesome.

I took the plunge the other day. Estimated arrival is before the end of the month, which is pretty much perfect because I'm off the week after Labor Day. Not sure how much of a vacation it's going to be since I still have to trudge through my office every day to get to the kitchen or basement!

I'm sure I'll find a spot for this on a recording somewhere down the line, but I expect this to be the practice amp I use when I don't feel like firing up the Mac. I've got the heavy iron for most of my recording, but this will be great to run some tracks through so I can play along, plus the pitch-shifting and time manipulation. Stuff I used to do w/my Superscope CD player before it stopped reading discs.

Speaking of recording, I finished the mix for this last week. Mixing this gave me fits - I started to doubt what I was doing, so it took longer to get to where I think I wanted to go. I'd had the idea for the arrangement bubbling in my head for years, and finally decided I could live with it as an instrumental.

http://www.soundcloud.com/alantig/all-a ... watchtower

Got my Spark about two weeks ago. Didn’t do much other than make sure it worked the first week. This past week, I spent a little time with it. There are some really nice features with this thing. The modeling is pretty good - good enough to be a primary amp? I don’t know. I haven’t dug that deeply into it, and I’m not really the person to be able to tell how faithful the various models are.

This sounds really good for a practice amp, and that’s what purpose it’s going to serve for me. I’m not really expecting to use it to record. I’ve pumped audio from my iPod Touch to it through Bluetooth - no complaints there. I did the same from my iPad, which is where I’m using the app for it. No issues connecting either device. I played a little bit with finding a YouTube video through the app and playing along. The chord recognition is okay - might be better on an instrumental, but I found it to be about 50% or so on the chords. The jam tracks provided are so-so. The create a track function didn’t seem to track my playing so well, but that could be user error. Need to investigate that a bit more.

There are some things about the editor that I found a little less than intuitive, but I worked around them pretty quickly. I definitely need to spend some time with this function - there’s a lot to explore. I downloaded a few profiles from the shared area - man. I don’t know what people thought they had, but nothing sounded like what it was labeled.

This is going to be a fun toy to play with.

Alan, I have run into some of the same things you mention here. Here are a couple of screens from the backing track section. This is where I found the video I mentioned. But it seems like the content changes all the time. For instance this is the first time I saw all the Michael Jackson stuff. The last time I used the amp it had posted all Metallica material in this location. I haven’t seen that first video since. It strikes me as an open source type situation where anyone can post, but I’m not sure.



On the above screen shot, in the “smart jam” area I have gone through the rock selections by tapping that icon. it’s generic bass and drums tracks and it tells you what chords to play for rhythm or what key to improvise leads to. The chord charts here are iffy and commonly have two different areas showing slightly different chords. I kinda figure it out on my own what sounds best. I practice being the guy in the band responsible for coming up with unique rhythm patterns that sound convincing and what amp and effects are the right sound to match the feel. This has been a weakness for me so it has been a good tool for me.



My main complaint so far has been the hap hazard way they present the options in the music looping section. It’s totally hit or miss and this requires effort to figure out what is worth your time. Now I have found in general the amp models like those on my line 6, Spark, Digitech iPB-10 programmable pedal board, Blackstar, Katana Air, Vox battery operated or Pro Tool plug ins will never sound as good as my Marshall with individual stomp boxes. But what you lose tone wise to not have to roll around that behemoth? I’ll take one for the team. But I like being able to change the settings on the virtual stomp boxes in the Spark helping me learn what they all do.

I’m not as overwhelmed with maximum joy as when I first got it, but instead of a 10+ rating, I’ll give it a 9.25. Each subsequent session I start out looking for what I was working on the last time, get bummed when I can’t find it again, but then end up working on something new for over an hour feeling accomplished when I’m through. I have over 20 practice type amps but none of the others leave me feeling that every practice session has been productive. The Spark still strikes me as by far the best fit yet for me. Spider Jam a distant second. The others never get used. At $229 it’s a steal. My Marshall stack was close to 3k.

As for recording, the only chance I ever had to record in a real studio it was old tube amps and condenser mics or shure sm57’s only. This and my other stuff will work for my home studio recordings and scratch pad efforts.

I picked up one of the new Gibson Parlor Modern acoustics last week. What a lovely, comfortable instrument. This is my first acoustic Gibson (to go with my 335 and Les Paul) and I love it.

Met this cat 7 years ago at my first PRS Experience down in Maryland. It was a very welcome introduction to the world of PRS guitars and their culture. I now own 8 PRS guitars including the John Mayer.

Seven years already? That doesn’t seem possible. That’s a weekend I always look forward to, for the people as much as the guitars and music. I’ve probably bought at least 8 since that day.

And somewhere in an attic on Long Island is a portrait of an old man....

Maybe this would work?

I've had a good few months of work and have treated myself over the past few months:



The first one is one of Gibson's new rosewood parlor acoustic/electrics. It's lovely.
The second is a Gibson es-355 with a Bigsby. I almost pulled the trigger in 2014 or 15 when they came out, but by the time I had the money they were sold out. I found this one used in Paris. The es-335 is my favorite guitar, and this is just a souped up version.
The one on the right is a Jeff Tweedy model Martin. The sound is incredibly warm. It's a beautiful instrument.

Edit: Crap! I can't get the hang of posting with imgur

I have had my eye on one of those hollow body models with the Bigsby for a long time (Gretsch, not Gibson though...I'm not made of money lol). I have a semi-hollow Ibanez though already, which is pretty similar sound I guess, so I can't justify it to myself. I only have room to have one more guitar in my music space. I could sell the Ibanez and get something different (I have no acoustic standard guitar, only a resonator), then buy the Gretsch maybe. But selling guitars is a painful process.