Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive

Fairly easy to use and straight-forward. Not a whole lot of a learning curve. It's really up to your basic taste and setting the knobs to your preferences.

At first, I really liked this pedal. But after using it a while, I just found it to be too overbearing. I can't put my finger on it, but something seemed a little artificial about this pedal. I know, I know, all effects pedals are, in a sense, artifical colors of your guitar and amp's tone. But rather than providing a realistic overdriven sound, I got this overwhelmingly bassy signal on top of my drive signal. I also found the controls to be just a little too sensitive for my tastes. Too much of an adjustment from the clean control and that's all you heard. It's almost like one sound was trying to drown out the other and in a sense, they compete with one another which, in my opinion, becomes kind of annoying. I know I sound like I'm beating this pedal up, but that's why this website is here.

Overall, the sound quality was good and I got some good sounds from it, but consistently I wasn't very happy with it.

Had some problems with signal strength. One tap of the switch and I got a pretty beefy sound, the next tap of the switch (all settings the same) I'd get the distorted sound, but at a much lower volume. I'm sure that was just a single isolated problem with my pedal, but it still popped questions into my head about its long-term reliability.

Flip side is the pedal is in a very sturdy steel housing and seems to be built for abuse.

Never had to deal with them. It looks like some people reviewing other Voodoo Lab products have had some problems with their service. Nonetheless, I cannot comment on this.

Play many types, but love to play old rock, blues and country. This pedal does a pretty decent job of fitting those styles, but overall, this just wasn't the pedal for me. I happen to feel like the little Guyatone OD-2 has a better more natural sound than this, but again, that is just my opinion. I ended up selling my Sparkle Drive for the Fulltone Fulldrive2 and have never looked back.

All I can really advise on this is to be sure you A/B this pedal with as many overdrive pedals as you can. Don't get me wrong. This is a nice pedal with some unique features. You may decide it's the best overdrive in the world as we know it. I just think you need to really sample the pedal yourself and not get it based on the way the pedal sounds with professional demoing the unit in a professional studio. (I say this because I did that) Get your hands dirty with it, play will ALL of the settings and then see if you like the sound. If you like it after that, then good for you and you'll be happy for years to come. Unlike the Fulldrive, which is worth every bit of $170.00, this pedal competes sonically with pedals that are good, but don't cost nearly as much.

Pretty intuitive. It's easy to get a good sound out of almost any setting.

For warm overdrive sounds for a guitar, this thing rocks. However, I accidentally stumbled on the most useful setting for myself anyway that any folk/ acoustic musician can appreciate. I play electric violin, which is a fun instrument, but can still be subject to the limits of piezo pickups. However, this setting allows you to get that grit that happens on an acoustic instrument when you really dig in to it that piezos, IMHO, have failed to capture. I have all controls except tone at 12 o'clock, and tone can be adjusted to taste. I have mine set to give me a little bit of boost as well, and so this setting basically gives me the sound of stepping up to the mic and digging in. It's so nice to be able to blend in the clean sound with the driven sound to whatever suits your needs. Plus it's quite responsive to playing dynamics, so you could use this setting for something fingerpicked and then into something that needed more bite.

Oh yeah, the other stuff. Umm.... I'm using the pedal through this rig: Violin --> Samson airline wireless --> Ibanez F7 Fuzz --> Dimebag Darryll Wah --> Sparkle Drive --> Boss PS-5 Super Shifter --> Boss DD-5 delay --> Zoom 504 (the old one) --> L.R.Baggs Para-Acoustic DI --> board/ PA. It's unnoticably quiet both off and on.

It's only farted out on me once, and that was due to it's AC power cord coming unplugged from the Pedal Power box. Fortunately, due to its true bypass, I didn't have to panic about taking by whole pedalboard apart then and there.

The one time I've emailed them about one of their products, I stressed it was a non-priority question and they still got back to me in about 2 days. Quite helpful.

I play celtic rock. I've pretty much been playing all my life. This is a good match for being able to step up and play a nice sounding solo. If it were misplaced, I'd get another without question. I don't think there's one quality about it I dislike. It's definitely inspiring.

Couldn't be easier. Didn't bother with the "manual"!

61 strat & epiphone explorer with line6 pod2.0 & Fender Deluxe amp are the tools at hand. I keep it on all the time with lotsa clean and 1/2 overdrive and have had very good results. I find that when you hit a good clean pod patch and then add some dirt to it, well..the sound gets "thin". Adding the sparkle drive keeps the clean and the bottom there and you lose that airy, uh...shit sound. Quite nice now.

dunno. had it a week.

i hope not to have to find out

mostly play blues based rock. i'd like to say "white hot r'nr' that'll tear the top of your head off" but i'm not that good. i think of this pedal as an "enhancer". there isn't much overdrive which is good. turning the clean setting down with the drive up gives me the aforementioned shit sound. i don't think anyone will be disappointed with this box. funny though, i STILL don't soung like Gary Moore!!

This is a fun low to medium gain overdrive pedal that allows you to blend back the clean signal to add clarity and definition to your overdrive tones. If you appreciate clean tones and occasionally require bluesy, medium grind overdrive, you should check one out.
It's kind of small, light and the dials are really close to each other, but that's not really an issue unless you constantly fiddle with your dials. Just dial-up the grind, blend back some clean signal and go.

I've always liked the natural overdrive of tube amps and still do. But this pedal allows you to really dial-in the amount of grind you want, then you simply blend back the clean signal for the desired amount of definition you need. Nice and neat. The overdrive is evenly compressed and gritty - perfect for blues, roots, rock & surf.
You can also use it as a nice clean boost for low-wattage tube amps. It really pushes the front end there's just enough compression to make boosted clean tones ring. This unit has a respectable true bypass which is reasonably transparent, but, to my ears, I detect a slight high end roll-off. The tone control only affects the overdriven signal but offers a wide range of compensation for both single coil and humbucker guitars. I play tele's, strats and humbucker guitars through
a 1x10 Mesa Subway Blues and a Fender Hot Rod DeVille 4x10 with George
L cables. Occasionally I'll throw a Line6 DL4 in the signal chain.

Had it about a year and a half. Works fine.

Nice website. Never had to contact them for anything though.

Been playing for 30+ years. Enjoy playing a wide variety of styles with a wide variety of musicians. Over the years, I've reduced the amount of effects I use and mostly rely on my hands, good cords and high quality tubes for my "tone". I don't usually prefer pedals, but this little guy has the goods. It's a keeper.

Not much to it; 4 knobs & a switch. Other reviews have covered in detail how the various parameters interact. I've had the Sparkle Drive for about a week, and have only used it on one gig. I give this pedal a glowing review for sound quality. The physical design is my only beef. If it were designed sloping upwards, like many pedals are, it would be easier to turn on and off. It's also a bit on the small side, making the knobs quite close to the switch. I'm a lead vocalist, and find it a bit tricky to aim and hit the exact spot to activate the effect while singing. Also, the switch itself has about 1/2 an inch of 'play' in it before it is activated. Maybe the switches on other high end pedals like Fulltone's are the same in this regard, not sure. Anyway, that's my only criticism. If you're strictly a guitar player, it should pose no problem. And I'm sure I'll get used to it and improve my aim over time.

I'm primarily a rhythm player. My main live rig consists of various Telecasters (all retrofitted with Fender Texas Special pickups) and Les Paul Juniors, a couple of pedals used sparingly- an early Boss phaser, and a Danelectro Dan Echo (hardly botique, but still my favorite-sounding echo pedal), run into a either a Fender tweed Blues Deluxe or a 1965 Bassman head turned up to about 8, through a THD Hot Plate, then into a Mesa Boogie 4x12 cab. So the tone, as you would expect, is sort of a raggedy Keith Richards type of thing. The Sparkle Drive instantly sounded awesome as soon as I plugged it in, with everything set at 12 o'clock. It provides a very natural-feeling compression on both chords and solos. A few other HC reviews for the pedal noted it as being a bit harsh in the high end, but I found it to be very warm throughout the spectrum, and my setup can be borderline brittle at the best of times, depending on the room. Now my problem is that I'm actually considering getting another one- keeping one on a low-gain setting all of the time for rhythm work, because it tightens everything up so nicely, and a second one for boosting solos. Obviously this is not a modern high-gain pedal, but I'm sure you'd get very nice results using it in front of something like a Boogie, Soldano, etc. just to push your tone over the edge a bit more. Guitar hero stuff like SRV, Clapton, etc. is not really my cup of tea, but clearly this pedal could nail those kind of TS-808 blues tones if that's what you're after. I've also tried this pedal with my baritone guitar, and it sounds great- instant Los Lobos.

I was very surprised how light this pedal was- less than half the weight of a Boss or Dano pedal. Apparently the casing is aluminum. It appears to be very solid though. I don't rely on pedals for my tone, so I'd never bring a back-up for any pedal. If something were to cause me grief in a live situation, I'd just yank it out of the signal path and forget about it. And in my opinion, part of spending the extra dough on a pro-quality pedal like this one, is the peace of mind that it won't fall apart under normal gigging conditions.

Can't say. Judging from their literature and website, they seem to be an approachable bunch of folks.

Aside from my slight criticisms of the physical design, this truly is the pedal I've been looking for for years. I've tried just about every overdrive on the market, and the voicing and gain structure of this one (plus the blend control- genius!) is perfect for rock & roll. The effect is subtle, but it just has a way of tightening everything up in a very musical way. I've tried compression pedals, and always hated them, but this adds a gorgeous, smooth & nicely compressed overdrive to the signal. Kind of like adding a high-end vintage outboard compressor to a track in a mix session- evreything just suddenly sounds GOOD. I'm really looking forward to using this pedal heavily both live and in the studio.

No problems here. Very user friendly

My setup is usually an Anderson Hollow T Classic w/ 3 single coils (phenominal guitar) into: vox wah, stage tuner, sparkle drive, fulldrive 2, distortion pro, line 6 delay - into either a pro verb. or a classic 30. This pedal sounds great for what it does. THIS IS NOT A HEAVY OVERDRIVE PEDAL. This pedal is so beautifully unique I can't believe there aren't copies of it everywhere. For so long I have looked for a light overdrive where you can still hear the clean signal of the guitar. In fact, on some recordings I have played on I will record a clean track and then overlay the exact same part with a slightly overdriven TS9/Fulldrive sound. This is a great mix of the two. You can mix exactly how much clean and how much dirty you want together. It sounds like you're playing out of two amps. Very cool for atmospheric-organic type stuff.

Looks great. Built well.

Never dealt with them.

I play all sorts of different stuff. This is a great pedal for what it does. Very ujique, and again, not a high gain type of thing, but very cool and exactly what I wanted.

4 knobs. Pretty basic. Found a few great tones after a couple minutes of fiddling with it.

Setup is a Fender Mexi-Tele or Fender Voodoo Strat into the Sparkle->DanEcho->Voodoo Analog Chorus->Fender Twin Reverb reissue. It sounds great, from a light overdrive all the way up to a full driven crunch. The clean boost can make things pretty funky as well.

Only used in practice thus far, but I think it could take a fair amount of live abuse.

Haven't needed it yet.

I love this pedal!! I've been playing for about 16 years and I'd probably choose this over my friend's Tube Screamer. If Sparkle were stolen I would definitely replace it. I love the tonal variations one can get with some simple knob twisting. A great pedal!

The exact features have already been covered in previous reviews, so I'd just like to add a bit about my experience with the pedal. It's extremely easy to use; very intuitive. I got great tones straight away. It takes quite a bit of knob-twirling to chance a sound radically, so stage use is essentially limited to set-and-forget; no changing tones on-the-fly. You might say, "well, duh...," but I found the clean(ish) boost sound so agreeable I wanted the effect on all the time, not just for the overdrive. Pity I don't have the cash to spring for 2 units.

The sound can range from a very transparent clean boost to a mild overdrive. Not for metal-types, or infinite-sustainers, but perfect for those looking for a more organic tube-like warmth. The gain/clean blend can be dialed to give you a just-breaking-around-the-edges Keith Richards-type vibe, or a wide-open amp sound. A mixed gain/clean gives your chords a nice chunk.

So far so good, about a year out, but I'd expect that of any pedal in this price range. Certainly solidly-built, as noted before.

Overall, a great find. If you like the Tube Screamer, you'll most likely enjoy this one, and probably find it a little more versatile. (I seem to remember the TS being a little hotter, but it's been a few years) It sounds great with my Strat and my Ric 330, running into either a 70's Bassman head or a Peavey Classic 30 (a great little amp - yeah, yeah, I used to hate Peavey, too.) I'd replace it in a heartbeat. Good for any manner of roots-rockin'.

It's very easy to use. The fact that the labels for the controls appear above the knobs rather than below them hasn't confused me yet. ;)
The manual is literally a joke - it's half a side of one sheet of grainy xeroxed paper - but you really don't need it.
As far as power goes, you do need to unscrew the bottom off the case to change the battery. It does have a power jack & will work off the current BOSS adapter or something similar.

If you like the Tube Screamer/overdrive type sound, you'll probably like this pedal as it sounds an awful lot like a TS-808. The "Clean" control is great - you can blend in some "straight" signal with the overdriven signal to simulate the sound of double-tracked guitars. Very cool. If you turn the "Clean" all the way up, the overdrive drops out & you just get a bit of a volume and presence boost. It's not noiseless, but is pretty quiet as overdrive pedals go. It doesn't tone suck when bypassed. The level boost is substantial, unity gain occurs at just under the 9 o'clock position, so use caution the first time you fire it up lest you blow out your speakers or eardrums...

It seems to be built pretty well...

It's hard to reach them. I never received a response to the e-mails I've sent, but then again that might not be their fault.

Cool concept, great pedal. If you're after the Tube Screamer kind of sound, the price is fair.

Very easy, nothing out of this world.

Setup is - Fender american Strat with DiMarzio Virtual vintage into
DOD 250Compressor/Spkldrive/voodolabBosstone/wah/etc.../.../Fender De'Ville212
Not noisy at all, love the warmth the sound radiates. One improtant feature - thye sound of this pedal cuts thru the sound of the band.
Mine is 7 people band with 2 guitars&2keyboards and thats LOUD, but I hear the padal anywhere on stage&in the room we rehearse.

It's good.

never had a reason to deal with'em

super