Picture this. You've just come home from a long day at work. It's time to kick back, plug in, and let off some steam while playing your guitar.
How do you typically play for fun while at home? Lug out your half stack? Grab that tin-y sounding practice amp from the closet that you purchased 20 years ago?
With Spark Pearl, there's a way to practice, jam and record in style – right there in your living room – and sound great while doing it with access to an endless well of inspiring tones. Positive Grid's brilliantly limited version of one of the industry's most popular desktop amplifiers, Spark Pearl offers all of the same crowd-pleasing smart features of the original amp, like Smart Jam, Auto Chords, and access to over 10,000 tones.
Plus, with its snowy white tolex, gold piping and contrast-stitched custom strap, you'll proudly display it in your living room or home studio. (I mean, just look at that thing!) Spark Pearl is a Bluetooth speaker too, perfect for streaming your favorite tunes to liven up any social gathering.
On its own, Spark Pearl offers seven high-quality amp settings to choose from, including hi-gain, clean and crunch. These sounds can be customized further with bass, mid and treble tone stack controls, plus mod, delay and reverb effects. Users can also save up to four tones directly to the amp for later use.
However, Spark Pearl's inspiring tone creation capabilities go way beyond the amp itself. With the companion Spark app, players can access the same tone engine that put the original Spark on the map. Here, guitarists can craft tones virtually using 30 tube amps and 40 effects powered by Positive Grid's BIAS technology, for perfecting that signature tone of their favorite player or discovering a unique sound of their own. They can also share their sounds using Positive Grid's online ToneCloud, which is home to over 10,000 tones created by famous guitarists, session players, engineers and producers from around the world.
Most pieces of guitar gear are designed with one person in mind -- the guitarist. As a result, thousands of amps and pedals have suffered the fate of being banished to basements, home offices and other designated practice areas. With a compact design highlighted by custom white tolex and gold piping, Spark Pearl looks like it could be a piece of modern home décor just as much as a guitar amp. So whether you want to jam in your living room, bedroom, kitchen, or anywhere else in your house, take comfort knowing that you'll look good in the process - so much so that you'll finally not get yelled at for leaving your gear sitting out in the living room!
Watch Spark Pearl’s premiere here.
An extremely limited quantity will be available in late April, and customers can take advantage of special pricing for early orders. Learn more about Spark Pearl at www.positivegrid.com/spark-pearl/ and sign up to be notified when it's available for purchase.
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Greg Koch performing live.
Greg Koch - Guest Picker
Recorded in 1964, this album has been essential listening for generations of guitarists.
A: Going from the gut, I would say B.B. King’s Live at the Regal would be something every guitar player should listen to as it is the well from where every other electric blues guitar player drank from—whether they know it or not. Blues Is King is another one, but Live at the Regal is really the essence of what electric blues is all about.
Another worthy choice is this live album from 1966 which features an incredible take on Willie Nelson’s “Night Life.”
Obsession: I would say playing slide in open tunings. I have been playing mostly standard tuning for the simple convenience of it, but nothing is quite as filthy as playing slide in open G or open E. I’ve been bringing out two guitars specifically for those two tunings and it’s been a lot of fun.
Bret Boyer - Reader of the Month
Photo by Jamie Hicks
Recorded in a single take in 1971, Spence’s vocal style complemented his folky, angular guitar approach.
A: If you’ve never listened to the Bahamian guitarist Joseph Spence, you are in for a treat. Joseph is such a unique guitar player and singer, and his music is the purest expression of joy I’ve heard on an album. Start with Good Morning Mr. Walker; it’s a great reminder to have fun and be yourself.
Obsession: Hub Hildenbrand’s music is very personal and unlike anything I’ve heard on guitar. Check out the album When the Night Lost Its Stars. He even bows his 1953 Gibson archtop on two tracks. Hub draws deeply from non-Western music, with a strong influence from the oud tradition in his playing. His music is quiet, deeply reflective, and searching.
Nick Millevoi - Senior Editor
A: Steve Reich’s “Electric Counterpoint,” the original version performed by Pat Metheny. It shows that since the guitar is capable of anything, you might as well use it to do exactly what you want to do and have some fun. And for experimentalists, it’s a great reminder that there’s so much you can do using nice, tonal chords.
Obsession: The EHX Attack Decay has been delivering loads of inspiration lately. After buying one earlier this year, it hasn’t left my board. The premise is simple—create swells with controls for attack and decay speeds—which leaves so much to be discovered.
Ted Drozdowski - Editorial Director
A: Son House’s Father of the Delta Blues, because it’s a reminder that music is something elemental. It comes from the soil and is more deeply embedded in us than our own DNA. House’s performances are Heaven and Hell, doubt and surety, love and death. It’s that raw, true, and beautifully imperfect—poetry that breathes.
Obsession: Prog rock, thanks to recently experiencing the BEAT Tour and David Gilmour live in the same week. That reminded me of how sublime prog can be when it functions on an empathetic level first. My bedrock for prog remains In the Court of the Crimson King.
Yamaha PACS+12 Pacifica Standard Plus Electric Guitar - Sparkle Blue, Rosewood Fingerboard
Pacifica Standard Plus guitars were designed for players seeking to discover their own unique sound. They deliver exceptional sound and playability, and feature a newly designed alder body, slim, C-shape maple neck with a rosewood or maple fingerboard, Reflectone pickups co-developed with Rupert Neve Designs and a choice of four vibrant finishes.