Guitars won’t plug into Bluetooth speakers and typically need a little more power, but there’s now one device that can rock out with both of those concepts.
One of the things we love about modern technology collectively is convergence, a concept that ironically sees several things collectively collapsed into something newer and possibly better.
Your phone is possibly the best example of that, bringing together a mobile communication device, camera, music player, web surfer, email system, games machine, and digital wallet, to name a few things. Some phones even work as a thermometer!
Lots of devices see convergence in lots of different ways, and it may affect how you play music, as well. Fender recently made a neat pedal that allows several amplifier effects and sounds to exist in the one system, but it’s not exactly portable.
But there’s another player doing something focused on that, as Positive Grid launches a specialty amp made to take your music to go, be it the kind you’re playing physically with an instrument or the kind you’re streaming from your phone.
Called the “Spark Go”, it’s a wireless speaker that can take Bluetooth streams from your phone just like any other wireless speaker, but then it also has a physical input jack. That input is a 1/4 inch jack designed to take the lead from either a guitar or a bass, delivering the sound from a guitar or bass using a 2 inch full range speaker and passive radiator on the inside.
In short, the Spark Go is a combination of tiny 5 watt amp and wireless speaker, not much bigger than a phone and yet packing in the power portable musicians may need, and it’s not the only feature.
The Spark Go also comes with a built-in tuner and headphone out, so you can practice using the speaker rather than force everyone to listen to you play.
Positive Grid has gone a step further and made it support its app, providing a library of tones and sound presets, effects and pedals, and 33 emulated amplifier sounds, as well as a system that can pick up on what you play and provide some backup in “Smart Jam”. There are also chords on the app to help you learn songs, too. You can even use the Spark Go with a USB port in a computer as a recording system, capturing what you play to your computer.
The clever idea costs a little over $200 locally and could just make musicians a little happier, allowing them to take their pride and joy with them, and not only practice in peace, but also share it with the world and at parties. And when they get tired, there’s always music streaming like a regular speaker, too.
Positive Grid’s Spark Go is available now, priced at $219 from online stores including Amazon and Positive Grid’s own store, as well as select Australian retailers including Manny’s Music.
