This New Practice Amp is so Stunning, You'll Want to Display it in Your Living Room
Positive Grid's new Spark Pearl – a limited version of their best-selling smart amplifier – delivers both brilliant looks and tones
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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Did you ever wonder how the most epic guitar solos of our time were crafted? Let Chris Shiflett of the Foo Fighters be your tour guide and listen in as he breaks down legendary guitar solos with the artists themselves.
“I love guitar playing, and in particular, I love lead guitar playing (not to mention all things related to lead guitar playing: amps, pedals, stories about recording, and of course, guitars). My new show, SHRED WITH SHIFTY, was born out of the fact that I spend an awful lot of time watching people on the internet explain guitar parts almost right, so I thought, what if I could just go to the source and find out what my favorite players actually did on the solos I love? I’m about halfway through doing the interviews for this first season and the lineup is insane plus I’ve already got a big new bag of hot licks to learn. Working on launching this show has been a good reminder of why I picked up a guitar in the first place - because it’s really, really fun.” - Chris Shiflett
Each and every episode gets inside what it was like in the recording studio where some of the most iconic guitar solos were created and highlights aspects of each solo that only the artist knows. Alex Lifeson talks about how the “Limelight” solo was pieced together in the studio, while Rivers Cuomo discusses why his go-to “guitar store” lick is a classic from super shredder Yngwie Malmsteen. Wonder how Richie Sambora put together the “Wanted Dead or Alive” solo? We have you covered. Need a breakdown of the chords to Diana Ross’s “I’m Coming Out?” No one knows the nuances better than Nile Rodgers himself.
Shred With Shifty Guests Include:
- Nile Rodgers
- Brad Paisley
- Alex Lifeson (Rush)
- Mike McCready (Pearl Jam)
- Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi)
- Rivers Cuomo (Weezer)
- Charlie Starr (Blackberry Smoke)
- Lindsay Ell
- Blake Schwarzenbach, (Jawbreaker)
- John Osborne (Brothers Osborne)
- Brent Mason (Session Legend)
SHRED WITH SHIFTY is produced by Jason Shadrick, Chris Shiflett, leading music podcast company Double Elvis, and Volume.com along with Premier Guitar. Full video episodes will be available exclusively on Volume.com. Audio versions of every episode will be available on all major podcast platforms. Go to Volume.com/shifty and follow to get alerts as new video episodes are released.
Fans can smash play on Shiflett’s latest singles "Black Top White Lines" (written with alt-country heroes Jaren Johnston and John Osborne) and"Dead And Gone" right now, and stay tuned for a forthcoming full-length album announcement later this summer. Want to know what’s in Shiflett’s personal guitar vault? Check out his Rig Rundown via Premier Guitar.
"Double Elvis thrives on the power of music and storytelling. With 'SHRED WITH SHIFTY,' we're embodying these values by diving into the world of guitar legends, the solos that define them, and the untold stories behind those iconic moments. Chris Shiflett's passion for the craft, his curiosity, and his unique ability to connect with other musicians makes him the perfect person to lead this exploration. We couldn't be more excited to partner with him, and with Volume.com to bring this truly unique and entertaining new show to life.”
-Brady Sadler, Executive Producer & Co-Founder of Double Elvis
We are beyond thrilled to bring SHRED WITH SHIFTY to life with video on Volume.com. What we love about having this podcast on Volume is the visual nature of the content. The incredible material that Chris covers with these Legends is more compelling with the additional video component. We believe fans and guitarists being able to see the frets and fingerings up close and personal creates an enhanced viewer experience.
-Greg Nacron, COO, Volume.com
Fishman's new micro pedals add scads of acoustic performance flexibility and a ton of fun.
Tailored specifically for acoustic guitars, Fishman AFX Mini Acoustic Pedals allow you to explore new textures, rhythms, and spaces without sacrificing your tone. Whether you’re a beginner or seasoned player, experience the acoustic focused design of Fishman AFX Mini pedals and unlock the full potential of your acoustic sound.
AcoustiVerb
Three quality reverbs – Hall, Plate, Spring – are blended in parallel with your direct sound while preserving your acoustic tone. The Reverb Time knob controls how long you hear the effect, and ranges from short to very large spaces. Tone knob affects only the reverb and not your direct sound. Similarly, the Level knob adds the effect into your signal chain without overwhelming the sound of your instrument.
SPRING:
Recreates the classic sound of a spring type reverb found in many electric guitar amplifiers.
HALL:
An all-around reverb with natural, resonate spaces capable of replicating rooms both small and large, with long reverb decay times.
PLATE:
Recreates the dense reflections and metallic characteristics of mechanical plate reverbs used throughout the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s.
Pro EQ
Based on the highly-regarded Fishman Platinum series of instrument preamps, AFX Pro EQ Mini offers quality preamplification and critical equalization voiced specifically for acoustic instruments.
This is no off-the-shelf graphic EQ – plug in and your signal begins with a high-impedance instrument preamp to condition nearly any passive or active pickup.
Then, use the four bands of acoustic tone control to sculpt your bass, mids, treble, and brilliance.
A sweepable Low Cut fine-tunes the very low frequencies to reduce or enhance thumps and subs.
Finally, hold the footswitch to toggle your output polarity. Also known as “phase,” this simple circuit can tame low-frequency howl very effectively.
Broken Record Looper/Sampler
AFX Broken Record packs high-quality audio looping and sampling into a tiny, yet deceptively-simple stompbox package. It features intuitive one-button operation, endless overdub capability and offers easy transfer to a computer.
A single footswitch is all it takes to record, overdub, and play along with your coolest riffs and patterns.
Featuring high-quality 24-bit, 44.1kHz audio recording of up to 6 minutes, AFX Broken Record let’s you capture cool ideas and build on them, or even play along with pre-recorded audio you transfer from your computer.
Built-in memory will retain what you recorded even after the power is disconnected. So, you can unplug at your gig and transfer your loop to your computer later. This also means that the backing track you transfer from your computer will be ready and waiting for you to play back at your next performance.
Updated USA NS basses combine the most popular elements of Spector’s Brooklyn, Kramer, and modern Woodstock eras while expanding the line with new, player-focused options.
Spector announces the release of its updated USA NS series of basses crafted in the new Spector USA Custom Shop facility outside of Woodstock, New York. These iconic basses remain faithful to the intent of the original instruments while combining the most popular design elements of their nearly 50-year history, an expanding menu of player-focused options, and the increased consistency of modern manufacturing techniques.
These basses boast classic, player-favorite options, such as body contours, our proprietary bridge, and the custom appointments like matching headstocks, all drawn from Spector’s famed Brooklyn, Kramer, and modern Woodstock eras. They are also available with newer options or upgrades, including modern or vintage pickup spacing, improved fingerboard tapers, standard and thin neck profiles, and premium electronics and preamps.
In addition to the new basses, Spector has made significant investments in the brand's future with their new USA Custom Shop near Woodstock, New York. While maintaining tried and true hand-building methods, the facility harnesses modern manufacturing technology, such as 3D modeling, and overhauled CNC programming to foster growth and create more consistent and accurate versions of its flagship instruments.
Spector USA NS-2 Bass Guitar - Hyper Violet Matte, Sweetwater Exclusive
Spector Marketing Manager Jeff Shreiner explains, “This new NS Revision project aims to incorporate the “best of” Spector’s storied history, all while remaining true to Ned Steinberger and Stuart Spector’s original 1977 design. It represents the first major project implemented by the new team at Spector and sets forth a standard for the future of the NS design.”
For more information, please visit spectorbass.com.