Positive Grid Spark MINI 10W Small Smart Guitar Amp & Bluetooth Speaker | Portable Sound for Guitar Playing at Home or On The Go | Pearl

Finally! A small, rechargeable amp that sounds great for bass and guitar! It makes me a little nostalgic for my classic “Pig Nose” from the 90’s, but I like the Vai Mini even better. What makes it a stand-out for many is its ability to connect to a vast library of FX through the app, but I really like having Vai’s 4 preset tones! It’s so much easier to dial in and start playing due to the physical knob and desirable presets (all 4 sound good), versus the other offerings from the Spark series that I felt required a more tedious routine. I can quickly layer or tweak from the presets, but it usually isn’t necessary. Build quality seems robust, and IMHO the aesthetics are fantastic.

Before I bought this, I watched nearly countless review videos to build a general opinion. When I bought and received this product, I got to admit I am very impressed. It's easy to use and packed with MANY features that can be used in a multitude of ways with a bit of creativity.Given the small size and built in battery, it doesn't generate much power drain if energy usage is your thing. It can become very loud and very quiet. There's also a 3.5mm headphone jack in case you don't want to blare the speakers, perfect for exploring the sounds and how to adapt them to your skill level.I personally like the fact that I don't need to lug around a bunch of cables and pedals to generate a neat effect on the guitar. There is a wireless pedal that compliments this product, which I will be investing in later down the road.I DID run into one MAJOR PROBLEM, though. And I feel the need to echo it and my findings here:I had been experiencing the Spark app crashing on my phone after a few minutes of playing with it. It really killed my experience and I nearly formed a poor opinion about the PositiveGrid group. I am happy to report that this experience is a unique issue that happens on "high end" phones that have a refresh rate above 60fps (e.g., if you have a 120 Hz "smooth display"). Apparently the devs of the app didn't consider that their app would run above 60fps, which causes the app to crash. While PositiveGrid [hopefully] works on this, the best workaround is to enable "power saving mode" on your phone, which would likely lock your phones refresh rate at 60fps, allowing a crash-free experience. After learning this, I haven't had a single issue with my experience with this product and it's proprietary app.This is a great product if you enjoy guitar playing or if you know someone who likes to play the guitar but YOU, yourself, know little about guitars.

I really love this amp! It is small, very portable and versatile. Sound quality is amazing for its size, and ability to use almost any tone you need by creating your own or by downloading it from ToneCloud is very useful, especially if you'd like to get as close to the original song you're playing tone as possible.And you can even customise its outlook - Positive Grid can make a custom grille of your own design.And it can work as a bluetooth speaker as well!It has some minor downsides: the application isn't really good on a phone - too small controls, - so you'd better get a tablet for it. And Positive Grid doesn't have an app for PC/Mac. The latter isn't a big deal though because you can use the free (open sourced) Soundshed app. It also has its own flaws, especially with ToneCloud support but it allows you to use your Mac or PC to control the amp via Bluetooth LE (BLE) (not a USB cable), including saving presets into the amp, which is good I guess.So in overall this is a really good device for practice or small home parties.

I resisted the spark in favor of my Katana Mini for a long time. My main problem is: I want to just plug in my guitar and start shredding and not spend a ton of time on an app. But the main problem with the Kata is: no rechargeable battery (remembering to charge AAs is a pain!). I needed a bluetooth speaker anyway, so I decided to give the Spark Mini a try.First off: it's louder than the Katana Mini. Both the Spark and Katana can get louder than I would ever want from a mini practice amp (and both of them start to sound a little funky if you really crank 'em). The Spark has more bass which, again, is not surprising being as how it has 2 speakers and acts as a BT speaker as well.Tone-wise: man they are both good. The Katana has its' own sound, whereas the Spark is trying to sound like other amps. Pound for pound, I think the Katana has a more interesting/unique tone but the Spark more than makes up for it with versatility.Controls are really easy to use. You can save patches over the hardware slots and then never connect to the Spark with your phone again if you want to. That's a key piece for me because, again, I just want software that feels more like a real amp / hardware. This really does a good job of that. And I found myself having more fun with the app than I thought I would (for example, the "jam along" tracks are actually really fun!).I like the simplicity of the controls too. I don't ever want to be in an amp modeler and choosing between an SM57 or a different mic and placing it in a virtual space next to the speaker cone. That stuff doesn't ACTUALLY sound like placing real mics anyway, and it's everything I dislike about modelers. I just want simple controls that sound good (which is why the Neural DSP have been the only plugins I have used long-term on my PC). You can choose a gate, comp/wah, drive/fuzz, amp/cab, mod/eq, delay, and reverb. They all are easy to use and sound good.As a bluetooth speaker: man this thing sounds GREAT for music. It's a bit high in price if you're just buying it as a speaker, but the fact that it does double duty makes it a no-brainer if you're a guitar player. I've honestly used it as a BT speaker about as much as I've used it for guitar. It's so good.Overall, this is something I would buy again. If you're looking for a great practice amp and a bluetooth speaker, this is an awesome choice!