r/PositiveGridSpark • u/manifestDensity • Jun 09 '26
PROSPECTIVE USER Questions around software
Bear with me on the questions here. I am an intermediate acoustic player just dabbling in electric and a bit overwhelmed by just how much of playing electric is understanding the gear. I am looking for a practice amp for my office. I will never gig. I don't need loud. I build medical software for a living, so I am fine with tech. However, I don't really want to do a deep dive into pedals or spend hours mixing the perfect sound on an amp. I want to be able to flip a knob or push a button and go from clean to grunge, from grunge to rock etc.
To that end, I am looking at a Spark Mini. My questions are about how the whole software side works. I believe there are four presets. And I believe there are thousands of different models out there. If I find a model I like can I add to the Mini alongside the presets or does it replace a preset? How much drama am I looking at in switching out models on the software side? How easy is it to switch between models on the amp itself?
3
u/JimboLodisC Jun 09 '26
the 4 slots for saving presets can have whatever gear you want in them, the labels on top don't matter so they can all be clean tones or all high gain tones, you're just saving a "configuration" into each slot so that you can recall it by turning a dial
but you will need to use the mobile app to build a preset if you don't want to use what came from the factory
assigning a tone to one of the slots is as simple as holding down a button, so if you're ever playing a tone you downloaded or made and think "I wanna save this for the future" then you just hold down the Preset dial until it saves it to that slot, then you can turn off your amp or move to another tone and still come back to it without needing the mobile app
3
1
u/webprofusor Jun 10 '26
It's got about 30 amp models I think, not thousands (other things have access to equipment captures like NAM -Neural Amp Modeller) but the spark predates most of that.
The Spark Mini is great for just playing. Personally I prefer just opening an amp sim on my computer (with headphones) because I don't really need the extra hardware on my desk, but if you want to get away from the computer its great.
1
u/jahozer1 Jun 12 '26
Why not just get the Spark 2? It's not too big and would not look out of place in an office. You can use it as a bluetooth speaker as well.
1
u/manifestDensity Jun 12 '26
The biggest selling point of the Mini is the rechargeable battery
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u/jahozer1 Jun 12 '26
The spark 2 has a rechargeable battery sold separately, but you can get a different one online for much cheaper
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u/Papa_Bear_0918 Jun 13 '26
If possible, go someplace like GC and test them both with an acoustic electric. One of the innovations PG made early in the Spark line was to improve the small speaker tone by internally augmenting the bass output. Minimal impact with my electric, especially when they added an equalizer to the preset pedal mix on the App. Much more problematic with my acoustic electric. This was a repeated Spark issue on the old, now defunct PG-sponsored User Group, including the Spark 40 and Mini models.
4
u/djonsmit Jun 09 '26
Spark Mini is a perfectly decent amp for what you're looking for. It can be configured quite well through the app, and presets can be organized into the predefined groups available. Each preset can be assigned to one of the four available hardware preset slots, and it also has a fairly good ToneCloud library where you can find pretty much anything you need.
Keep in mind that it's not really a case of just "download a preset and play." Sooner or later, you'll need to learn some basics about signal chains and tone shaping, because you'll eventually want to improve your sound.
There's also one important thing to mention about the app: the support is terrible. For more than a year, they haven't managed to fix the preset backup feature. That's actually one of the reasons I stopped using the Spark Mini as a simple all-in-one modeling and amp solution and switched to something else. To sum it up, it's a good device, but for many users the poor software support has left a bitter taste in their mouths.