Love the amp. Needs some adjustments.
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I just got mine a few days ago and I am loving it!
It took me quite some time to find the tones I like though.
As a bedroom player, all of the presets from the factory and from the tonecloud seemed to be quite muddy and even muffled. After many hours, I saved my own presets.
I still think that the amp is quite bassy, and lacks treble. It would be nice to have more adjustable tone range. And Positive Grid, please make a desktop version of the Spark Amp App please. I mostly use mine hooked up to my desktop, but there is nothing I can do with my computer other than to use it as an external speaker or as an audio interface. I would like to use the Smart Jam function and etc, while the amp being connected to my computer, since no two devices can be connected to the amp simultaneously.
p.s. I have found some minor glitches in the amp but I am sure it will be fixed some day. When I use the amp as my main external speaker for my computer, sometimes it adds a lot of bass to the sound. Weirdly enough, it goes away soon after. It is a wonder how much joy this thing brings to my life.
Keep rocking everyone! -
@warumfive I've found that decreasing the "Master" level a bit on presets can help clean-up the muddiness somewhat -- sometimes in addition to decreasing the bass, sometimes simply instead of decreasing the bass. Or, it at least gets the preset into the ballpark of being a bit more pedal-friendly (the default presets are not really pedal-friendly), and then I can finish cleaning-up the tone by pushing it with a physical pedal boost. Which brings me to my "hope" for future firmware updates, since one of the CEO apology emails did say there would be new sounds and features:
I know they want to keep this device as simple as possible vs. BIAS FX/Amp, but it would really go a long way if they allowed dirt pedal stacking. It doesn't have to be advanced like w/BIAS FX, where they have three categories of dirt pedals (Boost, Drive, Dist), plus you can even stack within a category. And to keep things simple, they don't need to allow multiple tiers. Simply allowing to use just two pedals at once from the "Drive" section of the chain would be huge in both overall flexibility and in the ability to clean-up muddy tones. I got the Spark hoping it would be a more self-contained solution, without needing pedals, but the combination of muddiness and lack of built-in pedal stacking has prevented this so far.
In the meantime, I've been using my inexpensive Joyo Baatsin in front of the Spark, which is kind of a one-stop-shop for boosting, although 90% of the time, I just use the T808 setting with fairly conservative boost (all dials at 9:00). But the pedal doesn't work well with the default presets -- as said above, I still have to clean-them-up first, just to get them into the ballpark for a pedal to finish the job.
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@warumfive Others have posted here and also in the Spark Amp Owners Club at Facebook that the location of the speaker can make a big difference in the bass level of the Spark's tone. Having it directly on the floor seems to make it the most bassy. Placing it in a corner enhances the bass also. Putting it up on a table seems to help mitigate the bass-heavy tone. Several people in the Facebook group and also in the newer Spark Amp Mods group at Facebook have discussed tilting the amp up a bit using large wedge door stoppers while others have either made or purchased amp stands to raise it off the floor if they didn't have enough open table space. Still others have simply stacked it on top of other amps they have. Relocating the amp is worth a try to attempt to mitigate the bass-heavy tones you don't like.
Another person also things that the bass-heavy sound may be due to the bass port and they are investigating ways to mitigate that port. It seems the Spark's grill is simply held on with velcro and so is easy to remove. I've seen a picture where someone inserted a small piece of foam in the bass port and he said that helped a lot. The foam didn't block the bass port, it was a small circle of foam rubber inserted in the middle of the bass port so that the bass sounds could come through clearly on either side of the foam, but it supposedly restricted how much bass came through. Certainly worth a try and it won't void your warranty since you're not making any permanent destructive changes to the amp.
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@blueingreen It really worked wonder! Thank you!! I realized that I was doing the opposite, turning the master volume of the modeled amp to maximum and turning the Spark down to the minimum. Now I did the opposite and it sounds much better! Thank you!
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@dhbailey I have mine on my desk and it sounds much better! And the foam thing sounds very fascinating. I will look more into the idea. Thank you!
