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Sound:
It does what I want it to do.....OVERDRIVE not overgain. Has great tone, especially hooked up with a compressor. I can get a nice saturated tube sound or a growling overdrive.
Feature:
Very easy to use. It's very easy to fine tune the sound to the venue I'm doing or the different styles I may be doing that night. I love being able to mix the drive with a clean, (awesome feature) I also love the fact that it's a TRUE bypass. Very, very important to me!
Ease of Use:
See features.
Quality:
So far so good......Solid.
Value:
Worth every penny.
Manufacturer Support:
I think that what you hear on their soundbites is what you get. Haven't had to deal with them directly.
Overall:
If your looking for a great drive, this is it. In my opinion worth a lot more than a lot of other pedals I've tried including the Ibanez, Radial and the other "boutique" pedals.
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Sound:
Very good tube screamer tone with a mix knob to dial in as much ( or little ) of the origial uncolored signal . I leave an OCD set up for large crunch , and use this from a clean boost to a heavy SRV type tone , to everything inbetween
Ease of Use:
Plug in , if it sounds bad its you : ) Have about 4-5 tones and levels of OD that I mainly use , no problem to change/ find good settings. Pedal is quiet even on higher settings , with no :pop: when engaged
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Sound:
Very quiet pedal in terms of self-noise; so it's ideal for boosting a tube amp with a clean signal for faster breakup. It has the ability to blend clean/distortion sounds as one would use two amps simultaneously in recording to maintain pitch definition, and this works very well, especially at lower distortion settings. When the distortion is set near the top, the clean tone doesn't blend in well at all, imo (though I haven't done this with two amps to know how this pedal compares to the real thing). It has a saturation range that goes from slight breakup (it nails that) to slightly less than a Mesa Mark IV lead channel. It can't get a boss Metal Zone type distortion. In fact, it's more sweet than aggressive, so it's not for hard rock or metal unless you use it to boost an already high-gain amp channel. Neither can it achieve the illusive "two tube" kind of small amp overdrive that the Mesa Twin V can (but then, the Mesa is pretty muddy). I've used it only in front of a Fender Deluxe Reverb re-issue (so I'm obviously after the classic sound), and I'll eventually get around to using it with my Marshall JCM2000, Mesa Triaxis, and Rocket 44 amps.
Feature:
The blend feature is perfect and unusual (I've never seen another pedal with this feature), so that right there deserves a high rating. The bypass is absolutely clean. Works with battery or 9v power supply (sold separately). The battery compartment is located inside the bottom cover plate, secured with four screws--not convenient for live gigs.
Quality:
I think all of the components are high-quality, inside and out. Should last a long, long time.
Value:
Comparable Boss pedals sell for a little less and are pretty good, I think. But the Sparkle Drive is meant to preserve the signal as much as possible, more so than any Boss pedal I've owned, and that's got to cost more. I also think Voodoo capture a lot smaller portion of the market, have smaller manufacturing runs, etc., which also affects cost. Anyway, I think the price is just right for this box; definitely worth it to me.
Manufacturer Support:
No experience.
The Wow Factor:
The two biggest factors (besides the sound) for me was the true bypass and the blend feature.
Overall:
I do forsee using this pedal time and again for ever, especially to overdrive a clean tube amp. Each distortion pedal sounds different, so it's fun to explore a new one every so often, but I believe this is a keeper. I also have and like the Ibanez Turbo Tube Screamer and the Boss Metal Zone for alternate styles. I don't expect to sell those, either. I returned a Mesa V Twin floor pedal because it wasn't worth it's price, to me. I've liked things about various pedals like the Marshall blues drive (whatever it's called) because it could make a Mesa sound pretty much like a Marshall, and a few of the OS-1/DS-1 etc. Boss sounds are cool to a point. But for an overall, useable, near-vintage tone, the Sparkle rocks!
5 of 6 people
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Sound:
Very good early SRV sound. The clean blend is cool, and adds detail and spank to chords.
Quality:
Solid construction.
Value:
Definitely worth the price. A high quality blues rock machine
Manufacturer Support:
haven't needed it.
Sound:
this pedal sounds great on its own. I also use it doubled with a ts-9 and that souds great as well.
Feature:
the clean blend is awesome.
Quality:
well built. my clean pot is a little noisy
Value:
for the money its a great pedal
Manufacturer Support:
havn't called
Sound:
great for clean rythem especially for christian rock
Feature:
great clean drive not a very good dirty drive
Ease of Use:
twist stomp and play
Quality:
easy to use
Manufacturer Support:
havent had any problems
Overall:
not great for lead but good for rythem
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