I’d been ignoring amp/gear topics for a while because I’m happy with my Fender GTX100.
I bumped into discussion of the Spark 2 on Reddit last night and hadn’t realized that the Spark folks had 2 pieces of functionality that seem pretty compelling:
Ability to analyze a song, or your own playing, to determine chord progression and generate a backing track
AI to instantly set tone, e.g. “make me a tone like 80s Eric Clapton”
I could see these being useful, or maybe harmful too. On the plus side, I’d sometimes like to effortlessly jam with something that sounds like a song I’m interested in learning without having to analyze it for an hour first and figure it out. On the minus side, is that “cheating” my ear development?
Same thing with the tone. I enjoy eventually decomposing what made the tone of guitarists I enjoy. But sometimes I’d really enjoy to just get a quick “close enough” to play along with something I don’t really love and want to emulate long-term but just felt like playing on a whim some night.
Anyone with a Spark amp care to chime in on this? Apparently any of their amps get you the app that can do this, so I’m now wondering if that Spark Go is worth it or not. $129 to get a “free” jam buddy seems kinda compelling.
Personally, I didn’t find either of these functionalities to be useful when I had my Spark 40.
Maybe they have improved the app (which, by the way, runs entirely on your phone) but I found it often analysed the chord changes wrong, and I found that, even on the larger screen on my tablet, the chord changes were difficult to follow.
If you want a similar app that you can use with your existing kit, try Chord AI (and IME it works better).
If you want a bit of hardware that does this, then I would recommend the Trio+ over the Spark any day of the week. It’s a far better and more useful tool for use as a “jam buddy” and doesn’t require messing with an app.
But the other software option is iRealB pro for which there’s free libraries of chord play along arrangements for hundreds of songs.
Or use backing tracks.
And the “sound like” function seemed to be driven by community suggestions, and I found the results to be pretty unremarkable.
I have a Spark Mini and it’s a great little amp I can recommend to everyone who needs something similar. But I wouldn’t get it just for the app.
The AI tone builder can be entertaining to try and it can make some surprisingly good tones, but don’t expect anything accurate like song-specific tones and such. Tone Cloud is way more useful for that.
I haven’t used song analysing a lot, but Keith described it very well.
To sum it up, there are some nice features that can be more useful to you than they’re to me, but I wouldn’t advise getting any Sparks just for the app. But if you need a little portable amp, they’re
great. Well, Mini is, haven’t tried Go.
I like chordify player. current running a special for $12usd for the year. Presidents day special. you can try it for free. you can 4 songs a day for the free subscription. https://chordify.net/premium
I brought the Spark 40 for a similar reasons and although its ok and does an ok job I like Keith said found it got stuff wrong and working on just a phone all I have difficult especially at my age.
The base was OTT and tone was ok.
All that might have been updated and fixed in the Spark 40 II.
I like the blue tooth connection and the laptop connection using the driver.
In essence thou I much proffer my Tube Amp and using for tone and guitar pro 8.
I think I was caught in the hype at the time looking for a quick fix when what I needed was to take a step back.
I wanted to come back here with an update: I wound up buying a Spark 2 anyway. Not because of the app features, but because of hardware features. I also have a bass that i’ve only ever played through headphones out of concern for damaging my only guitar amp, and I didn’t really want to buy a bass amp because I had no plans to play out anywhere with it. The Spark does bass and guitar equally well. Also, I fell in love with the looper and the fact that you can set BPM and get a count in, features that make using a looper WAY easier for me at my current skill level.
Now that I’ve played with it, the AI feature is nothing amazing but it is useful within its limitations. If I want to ask for tones where I have no idea what the original signal chain is, it’s a useful starting point and so far has at least helped me learn the art of the possible with the Spark’s built-in amp and pedal models. And it’s quicker than searching their ToneCloud where absolute garbage people have uploaded is mixed in with good presets.
The smart jam feature might not be “better” than just looking up backing tracks, but I’m finding it inspiring at least for now. I have an iPad and having this full screen app that I use both to manage tones and then quickly get into playing is so far a practice productivity multiplier for me. Worth $300? No. But a decent add-on. It’s fitting right into my Level 4 blues studies with taking licks and applying them in different keys.
Congrats on your new amp, Jeff! And thanks for a good analysis of Spark 2 for your needs. Sounds like just what you need now, and at $300 that sounds like good value.