So you just got your Spark PEDAL. You’ve probably plugged in your headphones, scrolled through a few presets, and called it a night. Totally fair. But there’s a decent chance you haven’t figured out how many places this thing actually fits. Positive Grid’s Spark PEDAL is a portable smart amp and effects pedal with a built-in looper, which is a roundabout way of saying it can be your entire rig or just one piece of somebody else’s, depending on what the day asks for. We put together five short videos covering different ways to use it. Some of these you already know. A couple might change how your board is laid out by the weekend.
Using Spark PEDAL as an Interface
You’ve got an idea and you want it down before it evaporates. Plug Spark PEDAL into your computer over USB-C, open your DAW, and it shows up as an audio interface with no extra box in the chain and nothing to troubleshoot. The tone you were just playing through is the tone that lands in the session, so you go from idea to recorded take in about thirty seconds. That alone solves a lot of the reasons riffs never turn into finished songs.
Using Spark PEDAL with an FRFR Cab/Speaker
Sometimes you need to actually move some air. Run the two line outputs into Spark CAB and you’ve got a standalone rig that doesn’t need a PA, a house engineer, or anyone’s permission. Because Spark CAB is full range flat response, it isn’t coloring anything on the way out. It just reproduces the sound Spark PEDAL is sending, loud enough for a room. Great for rehearsal, small rooms, or a garage where the neighbors have already given up on you.
Using Spark PEDAL with a Tube Amp
You love your amp. Keep it. Switch off the cab sim, plug into the front of your amp like you would any other pedal, and Spark PEDAL becomes a dedicated effects processor sitting in front of a tone you already trust. Your amp still does what it does best, and you get a stompbox collection in one enclosure instead of five more cables and a bigger board.
Using Spark PEDAL in the FX Loop
If your amp has an effects loop, this is where the time-based stuff really wants to live. Cab sim off, out of the send, back into the return, and now your delays and reverbs sit after the preamp instead of getting pushed through it. The part I like most is that a whole preset behaves like a single pedal, so one footswitch swaps your entire effects setup between songs rather than tap dancing across four stompboxes.
Using Spark PEDAL to Control FX
This is the one people miss. Click the main knob and Spark PEDAL flips into FX mode, turning those same five knobs into a row of stompboxes you can ride in real time, with drive, modulation, delay, and reverb depth all under your hand. No menus, no scrolling. If you want to go deeper before the gig, the Spark app lets you build the signal chain piece by piece and pull from ToneCloud, then you tweak it on the fly once you’re playing.
Quick Reference: 5 Ways to Use Spark PEDAL
- As an audio interface: USB-C into your computer, record straight into your DAW with your own tones
- With Spark CAB: Two line outs into a full range flat response cabinet for a standalone rig that needs no PA
- With a tube amp: Cab sim off, into the front of your amp as a dedicated effects processor
- In the effects loop: Cab sim off, send and return, one footswitch changes your whole effects setup
- For live effects control: FX mode turns the knobs into a stompbox row for drive, modulation, delay, and reverb