Sorry if this has been answered elsewhere.
I have recently purchased a Spark 40 for home use. I tossed up between this and a Katana but I use bluetooth a lot and figured this would be better for practice.
So far its been great but when using the tonecloud in their app I have a problem. Most of the tones sound fine when I click on them (albeit not neccessarily to my liking) but quite a few seem to have no volume and appear to not be working right. Am I doing something wrong ?
“NO” volume or just low volume compared to other stuff? Low volume is true to life - the amp models do not all have the same gain so won’t have the same volume.
If you are getting no sound, then something is odd there. I haven’t used mine in a very long time - about a year. I do remember setting my 4 presets after adjusting the volume on each to be about the same.
Is there something I can look into for you?
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@sequences hi-think i`m ok for now thanks----just lower volume on some of them. I have found 4 presets that I like and loaded those. . I just assumed that if someone had uploaded them they should sound ok on their guitar and so should be fine straight off. Very happy with amp though. I use the bluetooth a lot to play along with spotify and youtube tracks.(and a standalone bt speaker)
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It’s a common thing with modelling amps, especially when the patches are user submitted. People dial the patches in at different levels which means they are not at the same level as other patches: some are super hot, some seem to be super quiet.
Part of the “joy” of using a modelling amp is curating a patch set and adjusting it so that you can switch between patches and they are at, roughly, the same level.
At the end of the day, most people settle on 2-4 base patches which they like and have tweaked, and add FX over those.
Cheers,
Keith
@Majik ok that makes sense. Now that i have four I like I`m going to keep those active and some on the app as backups. Could spend hours fiddling if not careful .
Yes, it’s easy to get lost in these things. If you want to understand your amp, in my experience it’s best to start with the basics: dial back all the effects (except maybe a touch of reverb) and experiment with the amp models.
For the ones that appeal most to the styles of music you like, pick one amp and play with the amp settings: gain and EQ. Find out how they work, what they do, and how they react with your guitar and your playing style. Make a not of what works for you and what doesn’t. And find out how things like the master volume work with the other controls (including, on the Spark and similar amps, the Bluetooth volume with backing tracks) to get the level you want.
Don’t rush this. Spend a little time every practice session having a tweak, but don’t let it get in the way of actually practicing and playing.
It will take time but, after a month or two, you’ll start to learn what you like and can set those up as your main presets. Then you can start overlaying other effects like delay and modulation.
If it ever starts to feel overwhelming, turn off the effects on the top panel, and just use the amp style, gain and eq knobs. When you do that, it will be similar controls to a basic analogue amplifier.
Cheers,
Keith
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There’s an issue with some of the tones where the noise gate reduces the volume when you play a note or chord etc. You notice it when you play a single note and it plays fine for a second but then cuts out rather than sustaining. Turning the noise gate off solves that problem and reducing the Threshold or Decay on it can also help.
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that is how noise gate works. it is set too high, so turning it off is defeating it completely. turning it down to suit your play or guitar output level is what you want to do if you like having it in there.
I turn mine down quite low. I don’t get little noise glitches from near-by computers or strings ringing when I am reaching to pick up the guitar, but it will not cut out on me under normal play.
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