The Positive Grid Spark Go is one of 2023’s hottest guitar mini-amps and Smart speakers. Real guitarists love it for practicing, and for the range of tones you can access on it by connecting it with the Spark app on your phone. From the app, you can dial into dozens of classic amp sounds and pedals, literally at your fingertips, plus play along with backing tracks or real songs. And right now it’s £30/$30 off.
The Spark Go clocked up great reviews from people who know what they’re talking about, who raved about its sound quality, depth of tone and the volume it creates despite its size. But it is also great for those of us who don’t (read: “can’t”/“shouldn’t”) take our guitar playing too seriously.
It is small – literally smaller than my phone, though far chunkier, which means it doesn’t take up any floor space and packs away easily – and it is more than loud enough for my embarrassing playing. I bought it earlier this year because my son was learning to play and was frustrated that he couldn’t make the guitar sound like the songs he was listening to.
I play guitar – I am “busker level” (and by that I mean, the most basic busker you can think of, not the fancy-dan street performers you get in city centres today: someone who can knock out a song with three of four chords) but I usually just favour my acoustic. Acoustics are straightforward: no need to plug in, or find an effects pedal, just pick it up and bash away.
Electric guitars, on the other hand, are a world of pain to me. I have an ESP Les Paul-type guitar and for years all I have had to play it through is a small Marshall amp. I had a multi-fx unit (Digitech, I think) for a while but I gave it to a friend: it took me forever to find a sound I liked. By the time I sounded good, I had no time left to practice. So my electric sat in a wardrobe until my son said he’d like to play.
The Spark lived up to its name: it ignited something.
It turned a flat-sounding guitar into a world of sound. I would pass his room and hear him working out Come As You Are, the Arctic Monkeys Do I Wanna Know? or the lick from Brazil by Declan McKenna. And I found myself drawn in: “Let me try.” He’d hear a song by Bakar and we’d find the tab and work it out.
The Spark Go was at the heart of this: portable, easy to use (I have two favourite settings: a rhythm sound that’s quite clean but I’ve modified with some added Drive, Delay and Reverb) and a lead sound that it is very Angus Young (or maybe more Billy Duffy). It is hours of fun. With headphones on, he could practice until late (hey, it beats him shouting at Fifa). Rechargeable, portable, it's so small that my other half doesn't even know I have it.
I have no ambitions of getting on stage or going in a recording studio, so the Spark Go means I don’t have to invest in hundreds of pounds of unnecessary amps and effects. To my son, it’s a jumping-off point. Maybe he’ll stick in and graduate on to something bigger and meaner. Or maybe he’ll pass his driving test and forget all about it. It doesn’t matter – if all else fails, we’ve got an extra Bluetooth speaker.
For more speaker discounts, take a look at our pick of the Black Friday speaker deals and for everything else, check out our favourite Black Friday music deals.
