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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The legendary shred maestro—best known for his work as a solo artist and as a member of Return to Forever and other high-profile, hot-shot collabs—drops by to chat with Cory about his new epic full-length, Twentyfour. It features “sixteen brand-new compositions and they’re all very involved. I hope I don’t have to do this again.”
One of Di Meola’s biggest projects is, of course, the guitar trio he shared with John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucía and their thrilling 1981 record, Friday Night in San Francisco, which elevated the acoustic guitar ensemble to the level of high art. Di Meola shares the behind-the-scenes stories of that tour and the 2022 archival release from the next night’s concert, Saturday Night in San Francisco. He calls the ensemble’s dynamic a “real healthy competition” and explains, “I knew I was up against two guys who were relentless in their delivery of phenomenal ideas. When they finished a solo, it was like, ’Oh my god, what am I gonna come up with.”
No chat with Di Meola, who famously opened up his kitchen in the post-lockdown part of the pandemic, would be complete without a survey of Southern Italian food. Why is sfogliatelle the maestro’s favorite pastry, and where does he get his? If he’s on tour and there’s nowhere to eat but an Olive Garden, what’s his order? And much, much more.
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Alive and kicking! This made-in-England, 25-watt, EL86-equipped, single-channel head is fun and breathes fire.
Introducing The Deputy, a 25 Watt amplifier born from collaboration with Peter Honore. Simple, versatile, and robust, this all-valve amp embodies 'plug and play' convenience. Boasting a single channel, master volume design, along with a Bright switch, a three-position voice switch, and onboard reverb, it's a versatile companion.
Whether you're chasing the soulful cleans of the 60s or cranking it up for classic rock, The Deputy has your back. Its compact size makes it the ideal on-the-go gigging amplifier, equally comfortable in the studio setting.
Summer School Electronics Class Reunion combines 90’s Russian Muff with 2020’s Trash Panda for a versatile drive pedal.
Each side features its own Drive and Tone knobs as well as Diode Selection toggle. (BLACK KNOBS= 90’S MUFF, GREEN KNOBS = TRASH PANDA) By tweaking the parameters, the user can open a world of tones which makes The Class Reunion a versatile drive, as well as a Riff-Writing-Machine.
The silicon setting on the muff side (BLACK KNOBS) is a more standard classic muff sound, while the LED setting creates a darker sound with more low-end. The LED setting on the Trash Panda side(GREEN KNOBS) is the classic amp-like overdrive from our Trash Panda, while the silicon setting is a lower output, but provides a crispier fizzier drive. By mixing these diode settings with the blend knob, the user can create so many sonic flavors, making this a reliable pedal for studio or live performance, as well as an addicting pedal to play at home and explore new tones and ideas.
Each pedal offers the following features:
- Independent Drive, Tone and Diode selection for each side of the circuit
- Master Volume and Blend controls
- Hand Built in Syracuse, NY
- Lifetime Warranty
- 9-volt operation and standard DC input
The Class Reunion is available at Summer School Electronics dealers, at a street price of $179.99.
For more information, please visit summerschoolelectronics.com.