I find the overall sound very bass heavy.....anyone else?

stratobiker

My Spark arrived today.
I find the sound of the speakers very bass heavy.....even playing a telecaster!
Backing track sound overly bassy.

There’s nothing wrong with me hearing.

Does anyone else find this.
Is there a way to adjust the EQ.

I know I can adjust the sound of the patches, and guitar sounds.

Thanks in advance,
SB

pickmaster60

@stratobiker Seems overly dark to me. In the bass man amp even turning bass off won’t turn it down. Maybe they can put in an equalizer.
That is what the mustang GT had to do.
On playback from phone I eq’ed on my IPhone bass reducer. Still not enough.

emmongi

Yes, very bass heavy. I play a Tele as well. I expected the opposite with a tiny amp like this.

Yes I too find it especially bass heavy on both a Strat and Les Paul. The overall sound is very dark and muddy especially on metal or overdrive tones. Slightly better but only slightly using headphones. Anyone any ideas??? Can this be rectified??? Other amps definitely do not come across as muddy when using same guitars.

pontesilli70

@spikethelizard I'm happy (very happy) about my Spark, yes the sound has a nice dosis of basses but you need to consider that Spark is not a regular Guitar Amplifier......It's designed to sound with music as well (that's why is stereo) you can not compare it with a classic guitar amp, Spark is for practicing and having some fun with soloing when playing backing tracks. I like the sound of it anyway, very full and amp/fx modelling are also very nice. Mine does not sound muddy at all (I also play it with a Tele) I can get some really good twangy clean tones out of it.......This little machine is quite an invention for practicing.....Good job PG......Of course if you are a "purist" of sound then you better off using a real TubeAmp....But will never be able to turn that on at 03am even for practiicng a little when you live in a small apartment in downtown NYC or in London center.....

@pontesilli70 totally get what you are saying. Although I am only a beginner so have only tried on small 15w or 50w amps and they sounded a lot more clear using a Strat and Les Paul. I have yet to venture into anything even remotely like a tube amp or cab. I solely bought it to help learn guitar. Just noticed it sounds very deep and bass orientated. Do you know what I mean? 😀

pontesilli70

@spikethelizard Yes, of course I do know what you mean and that's correct in a way(I'm a beginner too...) But if you consider that you can get such nice and warm tube amp style tones at extremly low volumes.... that's a miracle! You can use your 50w (!) amp for gigging or if you live in a big house in the country side and get they most perfect and clean sound. This little thing is made for music+guitar strumming (soloing) and it's stereo with musical effects (try to play some music on your regualar amps!) If you don't like too much bases you can still lower down a bit using the app or the knobs...But mine does not sound that extremly bassy at all...

@pontesilli70 no worries. Thanks for the info... Have found messing around with the presets and Tonecloud presets give me a good range. Notice that noise gate has to be on quite high for the high gain or metal tones to eliminate buzz/static especially when no string being played. Thanks for the advice 😀🤘

dshanley25

I agree that the amp is very "bassy", i used a small eq pedal in front of the amp and that helped a little bit, however I got some hum from what I think was the power going to the eq pedal.

Prucopyn

Agreed. I find myself dialing the bass level right down in most cases. It would be nice to have a more powerful eq in the fx chain somewhere as the bass, middle and treble knobs are great but don't give enough flexibility IMO.

All said though, I think this amp is fantastic. It's not perfect but what it offers for the price is remarkable. If I can get the buzz/hum reduced then a few software and app updates will make this even better!

emmongi

I also find there is too much bass when just playing Bluetooth sound through the amp. I did ask PG support about it and they don’t seem to think there is an issue. I’m wondering if ours are worse than other peoples’s amps. Is there something wrong with ours?
Here is the response I received from PG support.

Joseph (Positive Grid)
Jun 5, 2020, 2:49:23 PM GMT+8

Hi,

Thank you for reaching out.

I have forwarded your suggestions to our product team. While it is unlikely that we will directly reduce the bass or boost the mids and trebles in a update patch, we still really appreciate your feeback.

Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have further suggestions in the future.

@emmongi yes I agree with reducing down the bass somehow via an update would be great. The controls don't seem to have an effect on the bass level, although whilst cranking up the noise gate does reduce hum.

In regards support, I too contacted them and they suggested placing on a different surface and not in the corner of the room, and that the hum needs noise gate cranked to fix. I thought this was a poor response as several users have given the same feedback.

How many would say this? - It's not practical to place in the middle of a room all the time, on a solid stone surface to reduce hum and bass! It's whole advertising campaign is based on the fact that it is an amazing practice amp... I practice in a room at a desk connected to computer using the 1m usb cable they supplied to connect the amp in.

Please Positive Grid, acknowledge there is a bass issue and try resolving it 😀👍

andre.langenbach

Hi,
it‘s not only bass heavy, I‘m also missing the „crystal clear highs“… it‘s all mids, undefined bass and gets annoying when turning up loud.
And talking about loud: where are the 40W?
My old THR10v1 sounds way better (with guitar and as a Boombox) and is as loud as the Spark.

Prucopyn

Given that most patches have masses of reverb on them, it's a good idea to check if you have the effect you have give the option to cut the low frequencies as that will clean things up. Also worth checking the other effects in the chain for "low cut" or "tone" knobs and dialing them down.

restoube

I agree with you. Not enough Trebles, it's too bassy.

ksmichel

The Spark doesn't have a Tweeter for the higher frequencies. It only has two 4"-custom-speakers

@ksmichel do you think the amount of bass and mids could be adjusted or decreased with a future firmware and app update??? Or the treble increased to compensate???

ksmichel

@spikethelizard I don't know what PG does. Of course, they might change settings, but I heard plenty guitarists saying that this missing of tweeters is not so bad as they are used to cabinets which sound a bit dull. As a beginner I'd vote that the Spark is a bluetooth speaker for the rest of the family as well and may need a sound correction at least for the music and backing sounds.

I took it to my singing teacher today and he was quite impressed about the powerful sounds coming out of that tiny box and in fact for me as a noob the sound is okay for my needs. If I become a guitar god one time (ha, satan is smiling!) I might change my mind. But, hey, it's a - not too expensive - training-machine packed with a lot of new things and I don't expect it to be a perfect compromise in every case.

sergio

Yes, very muddy and muffy. bass and middles makes the distortion sounds unusable. The Roland Microcube sounds much better.

wellestad

My Spark has essentially no treble response. Sounds like a pillow is front of the amp. Makes it very frustrating to play. It is pretty much unusable. I thought that is just what they sound like, but I was able to speak to other spark owners and they have said their amp's are clear sounding. I have sent in a support email with a demo video. Hopefully they have a solution.