These Go to 11 - The Guitar Amp Thread

[tigol 2380]

My Spark arrived!!  This little amp is LOUD.    I need to mess with it and I haven't done shit with the iPad.  Great for $200.

[Buzzrock 14785]

My Spark arrived!!  This little amp is LOUD.    I need to mess with it and I haven't done shit with the iPad.  Great for $200.

Nice! How long did it take to get it?

Also for the Katana Bros: this guy is kind of a doofus but I really like this setting on my 100W combo.

[Goredho 17181]

On 5/5/2020 at 8:51 PM, tigol said:

My Spark arrived!!  This little amp is LOUD.    I need to mess with it and I haven't done shit with the iPad.  Great for $200.

Congrats, please post updates as you get into the different features

[Buzzrock 14785]

I’m intrigued, but the wait time is brutal. 5-6 months.

[Napoleon 8580]

5 minutes ago, Buzzrock said:

I’m intrigued, but the wait time is brutal. 5-6 months.

Yes, I've been reading the comments under the ads for those things for nearly 3 months now and I couldn't pull the trigger until there is steady production.

[Buzzrock 14785]

One of my customers just told me he ordered one on March 1st and got a shipped notice today. So it appears to be improving.

[Goredho 17181]

On 5/13/2020 at 11:11 AM, Napoleon said:

Yes, I've been reading the comments under the ads for those things for nearly 3 months now and I couldn't pull the trigger until there is steady production.

Yeah, the early purchases seem to have essentially been funding R&D like a kickstarter campaign — but without full disclosure to the consumer.  I like positive grid software, but not sure I want to reward a company that’s going to treat their customers like that.  Also makes me wonder how healthy they are and if they’ll be around to support it over the life of the amp.  If it lives up to its hype, I’ll probably get off my high horse and pick one up.

Edited May 15, 2020 by Goredho

[Napoleon 8580]

12 hours ago, Goredho said:

Yeah, the early purchases seem to have essentially been funding R&D like a kickstarter campaign — but without full disclosure to the consumer.  I like positive grid software, but not sure I want to reward a company that’s going to treat their customers like that.  Also makes me wonder how healthy they are and if they’ll be around to support it over the life of the amp.  If it lives up to its hype, I’ll probably get off my high horse and pick one up.

I think that COVID had a lot to do with production issues of things coming out of China.

Also, don't know if this was a Kickstarter thing, but Kickstarter/Indiegogo don't "sell" items, what they do is "offer rewards" if you fund their company. There is a possibility that the rewards are never fulfilled, but usually they are... just way behind schedule. Again, I don't know how this was done.

[Goredho 17181]

I understand it’s not the same thing, but it’s close and shady enough for me to be severely disappointed in a company that I previously enthusiastically supported and evangelized for.  

These Sparks were promised before the 2019 holidays with a lot of marketing hype well before coronavirus came into play.  The only logical explanation is that they had a target release date to coincide with the 2019 holidays, it became apparent they would not have a product to demo let alone sell and came up with their marketing campaign and presale “bargain” offer to capitalize on holiday shopping without having any idea when they could make good on their offer.  That’s a drastic decision.  To sacrifice consumer loyalty and long term profit in such a productless money grab is something I would only consider if the alternative meant the company wouldn’t make it to a 2020 holiday shopping season otherwise.

Ita great that they are finally upholding their end of the bargain, but it’s severely negatively affected my perception of them as a company I want to consume from.  Ymmv.

Edited May 16, 2020 by Goredho

[AnotherUTFan 9576]

The last time I got my Blues Jr III out was to sell it. Then I plugged my Telecaster into it and decided I couldnt live without it.

That's been a few years. I just got it out again because I was thinking of taking it to Texas to have there. This time I plugged a Gretsch into it. Not sure the last time I had so much fun jamming electric alone. Came up with 2 new riff idea's and inspired to write some more.

Fuck. Now I don't know if I should take it or keep it here.

Rulz

[Deej 76219]

So, Ronnie is apparently playing through a little Silverface Champ here. That tone...

 

[Napoleon 8580]

Did not buy the Boss Katana I said I probably would about 3 or 4 months ago. 

Bought a used Fender Mustang 1 v2...

...but sold that today and then picked up my Positive Grid SPARK amp that I ordered 8 days ago (8/2). Some people have been waiting 100+ days to even 200+ for their SPARK pre-order. I feel a little guilty. 

[topochico 1048]

On 5/16/2020 at 8:56 AM, Goredho said:

I understand it’s not the same thing, but it’s close and shady enough for me to be severely disappointed in a company that I previously enthusiastically supported and evangelized for.  

These Sparks were promised before the 2019 holidays with a lot of marketing hype well before coronavirus came into play.  The only logical explanation is that they had a target release date to coincide with the 2019 holidays, it became apparent they would not have a product to demo let alone sell and came up with their marketing campaign and presale “bargain” offer to capitalize on holiday shopping without having any idea when they could make good on their offer.  That’s a drastic decision.  To sacrifice consumer loyalty and long term profit in such a productless money grab is something I would only consider if the alternative meant the company wouldn’t make it to a 2020 holiday shopping season otherwise.

Ita great that they are finally upholding their end of the bargain, but it’s severely negatively affected my perception of them as a company I want to consume from.  Ymmv.

Fool me once......

 

[Goredho 17181]

1 hour ago, Napoleon said:

Did not buy the Boss Katana I said I probably would about 3 or 4 months ago. 

Bought a used Fender Mustang 1 v2...

...but sold that today and then picked up my Positive Grid SPARK amp that I ordered 8 days ago (8/2). Some people have been waiting 100+ days to even 200+ for their SPARK pre-order. I feel a little guilty. 

Congrats .  Let us know how it works.

[Deej 76219]

20 minutes ago, Goredho said:

Congrats .  Let us know how it works.

Fender discontinued supporting the software for the Mustangs, so good call.

 

[Napoleon 8580]

43 minutes ago, Deej said:

Fender discontinued supporting the software for the Mustangs, so good call.

I knew that when I bought it for $75 back in April, but I found the instructions online and printed out the pages pertaining to my amp, which made a difference to the guy who bought the amp for $90. 🤷‍♂️

[Napoleon 8580]

On 5/5/2020 at 9:51 PM, tigol said:

My Spark arrived!!  This little amp is LOUD.    I need to mess with it and I haven't done shit with the iPad.  Great for $200.

I was reading that the bass on the SPARK can be overwhelming and then I saw someone who 3D printed a stand so that the amp wouldn't have something solid below it. It seems that the bass sound might be shooting down and raising the amp off of a solid surface might be better for sound.

 

 

15 hours ago, Deej said:

Fender discontinued supporting the software for the Mustangs, so good call.

 

14 hours ago, Napoleon said:

I knew that when I bought it for $75 back in April, but I found the instructions online and printed out the pages pertaining to my amp, which made a difference to the guy who bought the amp for $90. 🤷‍♂️

So here is a link to the manual for all Mustang v2 amps, no matter the number.

http://cdn2.fender.com/support/manuals/guitar_amplifiers/Mustang_I-IV_(V.2)_Advanced_Manual_Rev-A_English.pdf

 

Mustang 1 v2 was the first 4 pages after the cover page. http://cdn2.fender.com/support/manuals/guitar_amplifiers/Mustang_I-IV_(V.2)_Advanced_Manual_Rev-A_English.pdf

[Deej 76219]

Problem isn’t instructions, they discontinued the Fuse software back in March. More than a few people on Reddit and forums saying it stopped working on their computers after Fender stopped support.

Edited August 11, 2020 by Deej

[Napoleon 8580]

1 hour ago, Deej said:

Problem isn’t instructions, they discontinued the Fuse software back in March. More than a few people on Reddit and forums saying it stopped working on their computers after Fender stopped support.

Correct. That is the far bigger problem, however understanding the basics of your Fuse-less amp is also a problem. 

I had no idea why I was getting different sounds every time I would turn the damned thing back on. 

[Buzzrock 14785]

Did not buy the Boss Katana I said I probably would about 3 or 4 months ago. 
Bought a used Fender Mustang 1 v2...
...but sold that today and then picked up my Positive Grid SPARK amp that I ordered 8 days ago (8/2). Some people have been waiting 100+ days to even 200+ for their SPARK pre-order. I feel a little guilty. 

Did you order it from Positive Grid? If so why do you think you got it so fast?

[Deej 76219]

1 hour ago, Buzzrock said:

 

Did you order it from Positive Grid? If so why do you think you got it so fast?

 

I received an email from them this week saying if I placed an order, it would ship out the same day.

[Goredho 17181]

If they have production and fulfillment figured out, the past products I’ve used from positive grid were of good quality and value.  Some of the earlier recordings I have in the composition thread were made with positive grid’s Bias FX software which is the same amp and fx modeling engine built into the spark.

[tbone_ 13991]

Those flys seem cool.

[Napoleon 8580]

8 hours ago, Buzzrock said:

Did you order it from Positive Grid? If so why do you think you got it so fast?

 

 

6 hours ago, Deej said:

I received an email from them this week saying if I placed an order, it would ship out the same day.

I ordered from Positive Grid on August 2 and received my amp on August 10th. 

I ordered in a small window when they actually had amp in and were using LIFO to fulfill orders. 

Now they are out of stock, but amps can be ordered for $224 (25% of list) un August 23rd. They supposedly have more on the way.

Some people who ordered before March still have not received their amps. 

[Napoleon 8580]

This was just posted this hour on the Facebook group page. So PG is claiming that shit will hit your door by the end of the month.  

[Goredho 17181]

16 minutes ago, Napoleon said:

I ordered in a small window when they actually had amp in and were using LIFO to fulfill orders. 

I guess I can understand they want to get some customers out there talking that didn't have to wait months for the amps to arrive, but man, that's kind of shitting on everyone that funded their R&D back in March.

The comments to their facebook ads are a strange mix of the ecstatically overjoyed with the amp for people that have received them and vehement hatred for people that ordered a long time ago and are still waiting.

[Napoleon 8580]

1 hour ago, Goredho said:

I guess I can understand they want to get some customers out there talking that didn't have to wait months for the amps to arrive, but man, that's kind of shitting on everyone that funded their R&D back in March.

The comments to their facebook ads are a strange mix of the ecstatically overjoyed with the amp for people that have received them and vehement hatred for people that ordered a long time ago and are still waiting.

They also shipped them with 2 prong plugs and several people complained of a hum. Others said that if you used the gate, then there wasn't any hum.

Some people have pressed for a 3 prong plug, while other have just ordered their own from Amazon at about $20 with tax & delivery. That's what I did and my plug is supposed to arrive today. I got my amp on Monday, but I haven't even plugged it in yet. I've taken it out of the box and downloaded the app to my phone, but that's the extent of it.

[Deej 76219]

1 hour ago, Napoleon said:

They also shipped them with 2 prong plugs and several people complained of a hum. Others said that if you used the gate, then there wasn't any hum.

Some people have pressed for a 3 prong plug, while other have just ordered their own from Amazon at about $20 with tax & delivery. That's what I did and my plug is supposed to arrive today. I got my amp on Monday, but I haven't even plugged it in yet. I've taken it out of the box and downloaded the app to my phone, but that's the extent of it.

 "Our amp sounds so authentic, we use two-prong plugs."

[dcbc 14282]

Where do the tubes go?

[Deej 76219]

10 minutes ago, dcbc said:

Where do the tubes go?

Into a real amp?

(I kid)

Edited August 14, 2020 by Deej

[Buzzrock 14785]

They look pretty fun. Curious how good the jam along features are.

[topochico 1048]

CL find yesterday. Absolutely no need for it, but it was cheap and the seller was 20 min away from me.  Sounds fantastic. Great clean tone and nice distortion when you push the gain up.  Fender Rumble is now in time out. 

[Napoleon 8580]

On 8/13/2020 at 2:49 PM, Napoleon said:

I ordered from Positive Grid on August 2 and received my amp on August 10th. 

I ordered in a small window when they actually had amp in and were using LIFO to fulfill orders. 

Now they are out of stock, but amps can be ordered for $224 (25% of list) un August 23rd. They supposedly have more on the way.

Some people who ordered before March still have not received their amps. 

After 2 months and 10 days, I plugged in the SPARK for the first time tonight.

In between I had a road trip to LA and back (to Dallas) and had to move. Not a lot of focus on learning to tweak the amp. Tonight I realized that there will be learning necessary.

The thing makes interesting sounds.

The "play along with a song" thing goes WAY TOOOO FAST for me at this point, so I'll need to learn how to slow it down and focus on the rhythm parts and not the leads.

It's nifty and my new Fender Player Strat is why inspired me to plug 'er in.

And that's all I have to say about that.

[Napoleon 8580]

Just saw these interesting delivery instructions in the SPARK amp group. 😆

 

[BoomMF 1396]

Worth a watch:

(That null test tho)

 

Edited November 4, 2020 by BoomMF

[dcbc 14282]

I'm no virtuoso, as you'll see.  But I can hear a good amp.  This is my 1973 Deluxe Reverb, worked into a nice blackface circuit and then some by the great David Allen at Allen Amps.  Its party piece is a 1967 Jensen speaker, which can't be oversold.  I made this video for a friend of mine after telling him how underrated a good ES335 is into a DR.  Unfortunately, he requested settings to compare to his (my old) 1976 Princeton Reverb.  I change to DCBC settings about half way through.  Guitar is my 1970 ES335.

 

Edited November 15, 2020 by dcbc

[tbone_ 13991]

Great sounding amp man

[Deej 76219]

I feel the need...the need for tweed.

[dcbc 14282]

9 hours ago, tbone_ said:

Great sounding amp man

Thanks.  It's been my number 1 since I bought over twenty years ago.  I've been on such a tweed kick, that it's the last of my Silverface amps.  But it's still the best.  And a birth year amp at that.

[Rollo Tomassi 80]

Hey guys.  My 17 yr old has picked up the guitar this last year and is really into it.  He has an acoustic and I'd like to get him an electric for Christmas.  I'm pretty set on a Squire Tele, but am open to other suggestions.  

As for amp/headphones, I'd love to get your thoughts on reasonably priced beginner-type options.

THX.

[Deej 76219]

6 minutes ago, Rollo Tomassi said:

Hey guys.  My 17 yr old has picked up the guitar this last year and is really into it.  He has an acoustic and I'd like to get him an electric for Christmas.  I'm pretty set on a Squire Tele, but am open to other suggestions.  

As for amp/headphones, I'd love to get your thoughts on reasonably priced beginner-type options.

THX.

The Squier Classic Vibe Teles are a really nice guitar for about $400 new. 

[hullabelew 3698]

2 hours ago, Rollo Tomassi said:

Hey guys.  My 17 yr old has picked up the guitar this last year and is really into it.  He has an acoustic and I'd like to get him an electric for Christmas.  I'm pretty set on a Squire Tele, but am open to other suggestions.  

As for amp/headphones, I'd love to get your thoughts on reasonably priced beginner-type options.

THX.

Make sure HE is set on a Tele. What type of music does he listen to?  What kind is he playing?   

Edited November 17, 2020 by hullabelew

[topochico 1048]

Agree with the above, window shop with him at a GC and see if there is a style he likes. Is a Tele the tone and look he is wanting?  A squire HSS strat would cover a lot of ground in the $400 range. Epiphone Les Paul or SG also fall in that price zone. Kids at my son's music lesson class also seem to gravitate to Schecter. If he likes it, he will definitely play it more. 

For amps: Boss Katana-50, Roland Cube or a  Fender Mustang. Any good modeling amp will let him play around with clean and dirty tones to find his style.
 

Edited November 17, 2020 by topochico

[Rollo Tomassi 80]

Thanks guys.  His guitar playing has been mostly classic rock stuff.  For some reason, he's a big Grateful Dead fan.  I understand that a strat is more versatile than a tele, but don't really understand why.  Is it the extra pickup?  What types of music would one prefer a tele versus a strat?  Sorry for all the questions.

[Deej 76219]

Stop discouraging a kid who wants a Tele. The world needs more Tele players. Plus, if he can learn on a Tele, he will be able to play any guitar well. 

Edited November 18, 2020 by Deej

[AnotherUTFan 9576]

Last night I got out my 335 because I was inspired by a post in the Guitar thread. 10 minutes in, I put it down in favor of a Telecaster.

Just sayin'

[Deej 76219]

 

[BoomMF 1396]

looo

Edited November 18, 2020 by BoomMF

[BoomMF 1396]

2 hours ago, Rollo Tomassi said:

Thanks guys.  His guitar playing has been mostly classic rock stuff.  For some reason, he's a big Grateful Dead fan.  I understand that a strat is more versatile than a tele, but don't really understand why.  Is it the extra pickup?  What types of music would one prefer a tele versus a strat?  Sorry for all the questions.

Careful with the tele route. If he's a Jerry Garcia fan, that dude was about as progressive as it gets when it comes to his guitar - a Telecaster is a blunt utilitarian product of the Cold War, and that's an entirely different charm than what Garcia went for. If you want him to stay engaged, that might mean finding something that will inspire him on a level beyond simple tone.

Disregard the above if he has like a shit load of 40-something friends he wants to impress. In that case, Telecaster would be perfect.

[Deej 76219]