Practice Amps Comparison
- Thread starter diablo175
- Start date
I sold my Spark within days. ALL the dirt effects are annoyingly loud. If you play clean or get the dirt from the amp it’s better, but not great. For me, the hardware really got in the way too. If I’m practicing I’m usually near my computer, so the lack of computer software interface (phone/tablet only) and the physical size of the amp itself were distractions.
I didn’t bother with any of the jam-along features which I get is the draw for some.
I’m a sucker for “new” tech but it turns out I’m happier plugging into a USB interface and wearing headphones. I think I’ve finally decided anything more is unnecessarily complicated.
I didn’t bother with any of the jam-along features which I get is the draw for some.
I’m a sucker for “new” tech but it turns out I’m happier plugging into a USB interface and wearing headphones. I think I’ve finally decided anything more is unnecessarily complicated.
I have a Yamaha THR10C and a Spark; I like the THR models for clean to mid-gain and the effects knobs simplify dialing in a decent tone on the fly (not so great if you want to tweak every parameter on an effect though, and the compressor model can only be activated from the windows interface). It's easy to blast spotify on my pc, and just dial in a decent tone. It just plain works.
The Spark is interesting; the models are ok but cluster primarily into 'cleanish' and 'total buzzsaw metal'. Being able to download other people's presets are great if you like being deafened by shrill microphonic blasts of feedback; pretty much every patch i've downloaded from the web makes me wonder if any of those creators actually have ears. The model interface is intuitive but somewhat clunky (put your finger on the knob of the pedal or amp and swipe up to increase and down to decrease). The heralded 'jam with spotify or youtube' feature is ok if you only want to play one song or video at a time (I don't think it handles playlists afaik) but feels like a kludge. I launch spotify separately and just use the spark app to tweak the models. I've been using the clean Twin Reverb model with some reverb and echo to work on early Dire Straits and it does a nice job with that tone. Outside that tone and one or two others i've tweaked to my prefs I scanned through the models once or twice without finding much compelling. Probably it's best use is as a bluetooth speaker for listening to spotify while working at home.
The Spark is interesting; the models are ok but cluster primarily into 'cleanish' and 'total buzzsaw metal'. Being able to download other people's presets are great if you like being deafened by shrill microphonic blasts of feedback; pretty much every patch i've downloaded from the web makes me wonder if any of those creators actually have ears. The model interface is intuitive but somewhat clunky (put your finger on the knob of the pedal or amp and swipe up to increase and down to decrease). The heralded 'jam with spotify or youtube' feature is ok if you only want to play one song or video at a time (I don't think it handles playlists afaik) but feels like a kludge. I launch spotify separately and just use the spark app to tweak the models. I've been using the clean Twin Reverb model with some reverb and echo to work on early Dire Straits and it does a nice job with that tone. Outside that tone and one or two others i've tweaked to my prefs I scanned through the models once or twice without finding much compelling. Probably it's best use is as a bluetooth speaker for listening to spotify while working at home.
I received my Spark the same day as Cynic. We had several conversations along the way and I ended up with an RM number from Positive Grid, but complained I was going to have to pay shipping on the return. They responded with a shipping label. By then I'd decided to reconsider the return.
I'm still torn, but I haven't had another minute to work with it again. We had 'people' working in the house a couple of weeks ago, so, as always, every single hint of guitar was put well out of sight and I have yet to get a thing back out.
It's noisy, but the gate can be used to hide most of it. To me it seems the noise is coming from the modeling rather than the hardware. If that is the case there could be a fix in a firmware update. Or not.
The appeal to me (above a guitar practice amp) is that it accepts bass and keyboards. Putting my JD-Xi (70's organ preset) into the Marshall Plexi model cranked brought some serious John Lord (except for the chops, of course), so there is some merit to keeping it around... so far.
I'm still torn, but I haven't had another minute to work with it again. We had 'people' working in the house a couple of weeks ago, so, as always, every single hint of guitar was put well out of sight and I have yet to get a thing back out.
It's noisy, but the gate can be used to hide most of it. To me it seems the noise is coming from the modeling rather than the hardware. If that is the case there could be a fix in a firmware update. Or not.
The appeal to me (above a guitar practice amp) is that it accepts bass and keyboards. Putting my JD-Xi (70's organ preset) into the Marshall Plexi model cranked brought some serious John Lord (except for the chops, of course), so there is some merit to keeping it around... so far.
Nathan of Brainfertilizer Fame
New member
Damn.
I shouldn't have ordered one, I should have just bought Cynic's or yours.
Oh, well, there was no way to know.
I think Cynic's sold in around thirty minutes at a very reasonable price. Given the backlog, any of them on Reverb or eBay not asking "Ludicrous Speed" prices are going quickly (e.g., when I started researching what to ask, there was one on eBay for $650). If I throw in the towel I'll give you a shout. If you just ordered your new one should make it in time for Christmas.
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Nathan of Brainfertilizer Fame
New member
I don't have my Spark yet.
Here are my stupid thoughts:
1) I have a MicroCube, and while I always loved it for it's portability (I get YEARS out of set of batteries), I think I never fully appreciated what it could do. It really does have great tones from each of its settings. Not quite a "push button for Van Halen or Metallica or SRV sound", but almost. If I'd been more patient for tweaking it, I could probably get every sound I wanted out of it. And there's probably a way to use it as a head through a Powered Speaker.
What it lacks: any reasonable sort of jam/practice capability or computer interface.
2) I had an AMPLIFi 150 I got on clearance from GC. I had avoided them because they got such bad reviews, and because I had tried out 4-5 different Line6 products but couldn't stand their control interface. I finally decided to try one because it was cheap, and I was trying to find some sort of whole-house speaker system (like SONUS) but not so expensive, and the AMPLIFi's work as bluetooth speakers, too. Well, when I got it home, it was incredibly easy to tweak tones. It still suffers, somewhat, from Line6's problem of throwing too many choices at you with some variations that are too minor to warrant so many choices. I tried some of the SoundCloud downloads, but it wasn't that intuitive and didn't seem like much of an advantage. I played music through it a few times to jam, and it worked fine, but not really an advantage over playing along with a song coming from my computer.
I ended up selling it because I got a Firehawk FX through a powered FRFR speaker, mainly because the Firehawk has the same interface, more functions, better input/output options, and better Variax interoperability.
What the AMPLIFi lacked: any sort of interactive jamming or integral drum machine.
3) Digitech Trio Plus. Great at learning the chords you want to play, sounds like real instruments. Perfect for jamming to a groove, also decent for recording the basics of a song.
Can't pull a song off of the Trio Plus to build tracks around it. Some basslines you might want can't be recreated. Never figured out how to set up the cables to get the crunch guitar tone I wanted without distorting the entire sound feed, unless I used the onboard effects, which are limited.
4) Spider Jam. Typical Line6 user interface inadequacy. I got one, had it delivered, saw a SpiderIV 75 that I thought was a Spider Jam for $100 cheaper, so returned the Spider Jam to GC. When I discovered my mistake, have never felt like it was worth paying full price for one, and never found one close by used for cheap enough to get it. The learning curve to make it do the kind of stuff I wanted was just too high.
5) THR-10. Credible tones. I agree with the text printed here:
I just didn't like it, tho. I had the same problem with it as I had with the THR-100 I tried out at Atomic Music: it gets credible sounds, but it just seems sort of lifeless, or edgeless, or soulless. It's good enough, but it seemed way to difficult to get it to go extreme, to get a really inspiring guitar tone, the way I could with even the MicroCube (if I tweaked it). It was like experiencing life on Sudafed, or listening to music with the speaker in the other room. It just didn't sound *live* enough.
But I sometimes don't give gear the full shake it deserves; I give up too easy.
Looking forward to the Spark, tho. I hope I'm not disappointed.
I have the tones I need from other places, but I'm really hoping for a good jam device, that makes it easier to learn songs, play along with famous songs, and develop my own songs.
We'll see.
Here are my stupid thoughts:
1) I have a MicroCube, and while I always loved it for it's portability (I get YEARS out of set of batteries), I think I never fully appreciated what it could do. It really does have great tones from each of its settings. Not quite a "push button for Van Halen or Metallica or SRV sound", but almost. If I'd been more patient for tweaking it, I could probably get every sound I wanted out of it. And there's probably a way to use it as a head through a Powered Speaker.
What it lacks: any reasonable sort of jam/practice capability or computer interface.
2) I had an AMPLIFi 150 I got on clearance from GC. I had avoided them because they got such bad reviews, and because I had tried out 4-5 different Line6 products but couldn't stand their control interface. I finally decided to try one because it was cheap, and I was trying to find some sort of whole-house speaker system (like SONUS) but not so expensive, and the AMPLIFi's work as bluetooth speakers, too. Well, when I got it home, it was incredibly easy to tweak tones. It still suffers, somewhat, from Line6's problem of throwing too many choices at you with some variations that are too minor to warrant so many choices. I tried some of the SoundCloud downloads, but it wasn't that intuitive and didn't seem like much of an advantage. I played music through it a few times to jam, and it worked fine, but not really an advantage over playing along with a song coming from my computer.
I ended up selling it because I got a Firehawk FX through a powered FRFR speaker, mainly because the Firehawk has the same interface, more functions, better input/output options, and better Variax interoperability.
What the AMPLIFi lacked: any sort of interactive jamming or integral drum machine.
3) Digitech Trio Plus. Great at learning the chords you want to play, sounds like real instruments. Perfect for jamming to a groove, also decent for recording the basics of a song.
Can't pull a song off of the Trio Plus to build tracks around it. Some basslines you might want can't be recreated. Never figured out how to set up the cables to get the crunch guitar tone I wanted without distorting the entire sound feed, unless I used the onboard effects, which are limited.
4) Spider Jam. Typical Line6 user interface inadequacy. I got one, had it delivered, saw a SpiderIV 75 that I thought was a Spider Jam for $100 cheaper, so returned the Spider Jam to GC. When I discovered my mistake, have never felt like it was worth paying full price for one, and never found one close by used for cheap enough to get it. The learning curve to make it do the kind of stuff I wanted was just too high.
5) THR-10. Credible tones. I agree with the text printed here:
I just didn't like it, tho. I had the same problem with it as I had with the THR-100 I tried out at Atomic Music: it gets credible sounds, but it just seems sort of lifeless, or edgeless, or soulless. It's good enough, but it seemed way to difficult to get it to go extreme, to get a really inspiring guitar tone, the way I could with even the MicroCube (if I tweaked it). It was like experiencing life on Sudafed, or listening to music with the speaker in the other room. It just didn't sound *live* enough.
But I sometimes don't give gear the full shake it deserves; I give up too easy.
Looking forward to the Spark, tho. I hope I'm not disappointed.
I have the tones I need from other places, but I'm really hoping for a good jam device, that makes it easier to learn songs, play along with famous songs, and develop my own songs.
We'll see.
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I have a Yamaha THR10X, but I find the Spark to be a lot more versatile re: the availability of tones. Having access to practice jam tracks and blue tooth are nice as well. One of the downsides to the THR10X is the connection for a smart phone or iPod (if anyone still uses those) ; I typically get it mono and the one side of the mix of songs is lower volume or missing outright.
The Spark is dependent on having decent access to WiFi so, if that's dodgy, you're kinda back to square one.
I noticed some folks citing volume issues and I too, have noted the volume at the low end of the spectrum to be problematic. I am guessing because it can crank, the low end of the volume control was compromised on a bit. Dunno.
The Spark is dependent on having decent access to WiFi so, if that's dodgy, you're kinda back to square one.
I noticed some folks citing volume issues and I too, have noted the volume at the low end of the spectrum to be problematic. I am guessing because it can crank, the low end of the volume control was compromised on a bit. Dunno.
Nathan of Brainfertilizer Fame
New member
No, I ordered it at the end of March, and it is in Local Distribution...they imply, but don't promise, delivery within 2 weeks or so from now.
I will give a nod to the TM10, I dug it and putting it into the East Speaker made a even bigger positive change. I would try a Emi RC if one every passed through here again.
Its tubes for me, I am the type of guy that likes to just boost the amp and play with my volume, tone and pick attack. I have heard some really really great demo's of most of the amps mentioned above, but hearing it and feeling it are two different things. I think fender will or should expand the new line of amps and put out a Champ version.
Its tubes for me, I am the type of guy that likes to just boost the amp and play with my volume, tone and pick attack. I have heard some really really great demo's of most of the amps mentioned above, but hearing it and feeling it are two different things. I think fender will or should expand the new line of amps and put out a Champ version.
S'bout right. The real delay (and what torqued everyone) was we bought in December with a promise of something like February. That was fine: but then they hit everyone's credit card IMMEDIATELY, then, did NOT deliver. The constant flood of excuses really put a bad taste in everyone's mouth, so when the end result finally arrived it had to be absolutely perfect (which nothing ever is). It was just handled poorly in so many ways.
That aside, it's a pretty well-done piece of kit with massive potential if Positive Grid will continue to support and innovate.
