Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive

You must read the manual to get a feel for how the clean function interacts with the gain. It's not hard to learn though and it becomes very easy to get a great variety of useful sounds out of it.

Excellent tube screamer-like tones with the added versatility of a mixable clean boost. This pedal sounds incredibly close to an old TS-9 pedal when the clean knob is at minimum. Then you can dial in a clean tone which gradually reduces the mix of the gain tone the more you increase the knob. Very useful and I find myself running just a touch of the clean tone with the overdrive sound for a nice clarity of attack not found in other pedals.

Seems to work very well with single-coils or humbuckers, but singles are great because this is a moderate gain bluesy sounding pedal. This is not heavy gain though it has as much gain as my Fulltone overdrive.

No problems after two months of use. Seems to be built sturdily.

Have dealt with Voodoo Lab on other issues through the years and have always received fast answers from the staff.

I have many pedals and have been playing for many years in a professional context. To say this pedal is a fantastic value is a huge understatement. The Sparkle Drive is as good as some other things I own costing more than twice as much. I am very satisfied with this purchase and think the ability to mix a clean sound with a warm and articulate overdrive makes this a great choice for a blues and rock player. Country players will surely flip for this one too. I think is the best overdrive unit released in a long time.

Hey, This is a follow up review to my previous review. Now that I'm used to it, I don't even have any ease of use problems.

I've had it for roughly three months now, and haven't had to change the battery or nothing. Sounds really good as an overdrive. The setting that I use currently is Volume and Gain about 2:00, and Tone and Clean about 10:00. I find this gives me a great overdrive sound, with enough kick to start driving the tubes. I use a TS9 reisue (a friends) after this, with the gain down, volume up, and tone at 12:00. It just gives me a big ol boost for solos. Funny thing is, that since my amp is so low wattage (15 watts.), the amount of overdrive from the TS9 slamming the front end of the tubes, and the overdrive from the Sparkledrive is almost the same. When I turn 'em both on and solo, watch out!! Blues city. Makes even me sound good. And for $110, you can't beat it with a stick!

Three months, and still kicking. There was that incident with the first one though, so I'm hesitant to give it a good score. I don't gig at all, but I also don't play without a backup (TS9).

www.gtrheaven.com Great stuff! Free shipping on all orders over $100, and really good prices.

Overall, this thing gets a nine. If I had two, or they built two into one (one for overdrive, one for boost) It'd get a ten. This thing cooks pretty well. Another thing that bugs me (and I know that this is a tubescreamer, so it's not even supposed to do this at all, but) I can't get super-over-the-top Distortion out of this puppy. (What can I say? My first pedal was a Ibanezz TK999 Tube King. That thing was a beast!) Works great at what it's built for, though.

Really easy. Knobs for GAIN, TONE, CLEAN, and OUTPUT. If you have any experience with stompboxes, it's a cinch to experiment to find your tone.

Played through a Strat and Tele, the overdrive (OD) has a very nice Tubescreamer vibe to it.

The great thing is the blendable CLEAN control. VooDoo claims it's like playing through a clean amp and a distorted one at the same time, but it sounds more like the distortion is blended out and the clean tone comes through at the same time. The tonal character that you end up with is Tubescreamer + Clear Pick Articulation.

With both GAIN and CLEAN all the way up, you lose a LOT of the OD, but it's still a cool sound, lots of beef to it, but still clear. Turning down the CLEAN reveals TS character.

Remember: this unit is not for metal. No extreme sounds.

I use it for direct recording with a J-Station, and it nicely complements the Blackface model (which doesn't have much gain on its own).

I also use it in front of a Reverb Deluxe II, and it does just what it needs to. The unit really helps to keep pick attack strong when the amp is distorting.

The TONE control rolls off treble. The range is perfect. No mosquito sounds or "amp-under-a-blanket" junk.

In fact, it's hard to find a combination of any of the controls that is not valid for some conceivable tonal goal.

I rate it a 9 only because, of course, the perfect pedal is always the next one you're gonna buy. Right?

5 year warranty. Owned one month - no problems

n/a

Blues / Rock tones galore. 14 yrs exp. Would definitely buy again. CLEAN control very useful and takes this box out of the TSceamer clone catagory.

I feel inspired by this box. I'm playing new things. Box Good.

Well, this was the first pedal, that as I was playing it, I thought it deserved a ten. Every pedal I've used, the controls are very interactive, and it takes a little while to get used to. I was very suprised when I started using this effect. Sure the controls are interactive, but they all do EXACTLY what you think they should do! Gain, Tone, Clean, Volume. Gain controls amount of gain, tone functions like every tone knob on every overdrive effect I've used. Clean blends amount of clean, uncompressed, unaltered signal in with the gain signal. Volume adjust amount of volume when thepedal is engaged. Here's why it gets a nine: Last night when I used it in a live setting for the first time, I couldn't remember which setting I liked, and it took some tinkering to get it to sound right. The manual is one sheet of green paper, and would probably answer all of my questions if I had any, but I don't.

Well, first, let's start with setup: Currently: Custom American Std. Strat. (Fat Strat style.), or Ibanez Ghost Rider with Duncan '59's--> Voodoo Lab Sparkledrive--> 1965 Blackface Fender Princeton (Brimat NOS output tubes, Weber p10r speaker). If it sounds like I should have more stuff, it's because two months ago all of my stuff was stolen, including: Fulltone Fulldrive II, Fulltone Supa Trem, Vintage (73) Mutron II Phasor, Ernie Ball Mono Volume, Sabine Chromatic tuner, and Arion SAD-1 Stereo Delay (all analog delay: $35.), a ton a cables, strings, a power suply, a capo... All this stuf was in a backpack in the trunk of my car, parked in front of my house. ANYWAY!!!! I ordered this before I had all of my pedals stolen as a clean booster, because it is $50 less than a Fulltone Fat Boost, and almost $200 less than a Klon. Well that was two months ago. I just got this last Thursday, so I have to use it as an overdrive. Lets just go down the line: Boost mode (Clean all the way up, volume just a bit louder than your main signal.): Absolutely gorgeous!!! Very trasnsperent, just makes more signal. Completely awesome! Drives tube nicely! Clasic TS-808 Mode: (For this, I turned the gain to about 1-2:00, and the clean knob off. The rest of the knobs suit to taste.) A while back, I borrowed a friend of mine's Ts9, that has been moded to a ts-808, and I noticed that is sounded crappy with the gain all the way up, so I backed it off 'til about 3-4:00. This pedal has more gain, to for the classic sound, I had to turn the gain lower. Very nice! Still Tranparent! Great overdrive! Classic! Now (The fun part) crank the gain all the way: 1) still sounds transparent 2) pretty darn good crunch (For a 808 clone) 3) Really fun to play. Now back off the gain just a bit, move the clean knob to about 10:30, and man-o-man!!! Watch out!!! (Sounds best when amp is on 6-7) "Most killer overdrive I've ever heard!" (You can quote me.) exactly the overdrive I am looking for: more than my clean signal, not as much as a Boogie. Artists it helps me to sound like? Well, I'm not good enough to me compared to any of them, but it sure helps me find my own sound!

Here's where this pedal falls short. Like I said, I ordered this before all of my stuff was stolen. It was on backorder for two weeks, then took five work days to get here (A whole week, Frickin' UPS), and once it got here, it was defective. This effect is supposed to be true bypass, but first, it doesn't have a 3PDT switch, and it does have an LED, so I can't see how it could be. And second, the one I got was crap! Every third-tenth time I would switch the effect off, my guitar signal would shut off with the effect. Turn it back on: Oh! There's the signal again! Not to mention, that it didn't sound too hot, either. So I sent it back to Mark at WWW.Gtrheaven.com, and he shipped it off to Voodoo Lab. After another two weeks of being on backorder, he shipped me another one, which AGAIN took five Work days to get here (Frickin' UPS!!!!), but now I have it and am happY1

This is an update to a review I previously submitted. After using this pedal for a couple of months I'm still very pleased. However, the way I use it is different than I had originally intended. I use this pedal primarily with a Mesa Boogie Tremoverb head into a 4x12 Recto cab out front. I use it in conjunction with my clean channel to get an overdrive sound. I set my clean channels gain at about the 10-11 o'clock position (which is still pretty clean, only breaks up with hard strumming). Then I set the Sparkle Drive's gain to only the 7-8 o'clock position (barely up at all) and it drives the power tubes just enough to get a really nice sounding overdrive which is very transparent, but not completely (just a slight midrange boost to my ears). The cool thing is that if I kick on my distortion channel (I use the Modern Gain setting) while I have the Sparkle Drive on, it only seems to give a noticeable presence boost to the channel, and only a slight gain boost. It doesn't change the overall sound that much at all which is very useful. I also use the Sparkle Drive with my Custom Vibrolux Reverb, and it sounds really nice. Anyway, it's become an important of my set up, and overall I'm very satisfied.

No problems to date. I gig without a back up.

As I stated above, very satisfied. It a great value in my opinion.

This is as easy to use, but it's gets complicated with the amp(s) you use. The reason is using high gain amps like Marshall, some Fenders in fact a lot of modern amps, the OD effect is minimized by the character of the amp, especially if it has an onboard EQ.

I use Mesa Boogie, (which doesn't need this) Marshall DSL (also doesn't need this), Bassman (I use it here). The short of it is, if your amp has a decent distortion you don't need this.
On the Bassman I like a TS9 better. I have no dea why except a TS9 sounds better on this amp, go figure.

I would never have a single effect drive my entire sound so this doesn't apply.

They have great customer support. They return your emails usually.

The basic thing to remember is everything you add is usually an unknown because it depends on you, you equipment, your power supplies, etc. If you get a good sound out of your amp you are there. This will not make a solid state amp sound like a tube amp. The only amps I have not tried this with are vintage Fenders, I suppose it will fatten the sound a bit. If you turn all of the knobs to '10' it will most likely sound awsome until it fries the output tubes. I give it a six for that because there are a lot of old crusty terrible sounding amps out there that need to be fried...ha ha. I rate this lower than a TS9 in sound, but give it points because it has true bypass.

If you can use a TS-9 you can use this. It gets a 9 because some people might be confused buy the clean knob.

Wow! Use this anywhere you would use your TS9/808/SD-1 and you won't be disapointed. It also does a transparent clean boost sort of like the old MXR Micro Amp. Or you can blend the two. I don't think I would use it as a stand alone overdrive into a dead clean amp but then I wouldn't use a TS9 for that either. IMO the Fulldrive 2 is the best pedal for that. I have always liked to run a TS9 or Boss SD1 in front of a tube amp that is alredy distorting to push it over the top and give a little extra upper mid cut. The thing I didn't like was how they changed the sound of my old Strats when they were off. Well let me tell you I'm one happy camper now! I can get everything I liked about the TS9s out of this pedal plus more. And since it's true bypass, when I switch it off it' like it's not even in the line.

It looks pretty solid except for the plastic in/out jacks. I would have prefered metal jacks but for the price $109 I'll put up with it. Plus they come with a 5 year warantee.

never talked to them.

This is a great pedal that will give you all your TS9 sounds plus more if you blend in some clean boost. And it doesn't affect your sound when its off. Very musical sounding pedal.

Dead simple, gain, level and tone like most others, with the wicked addition of a blendable clean boost.

I use Les Pauls and a strat, Fender, marshall and rivera amps. Oh wow, wow, I've been a dedicated 'vintage tubescreamer' user for over 10 years, never thought I'd find anything better, but here it is. With the clean blend turned off, I a-b'd this with my 70's ts9 and my 808. Believe me, it's right on the nail. It's a lawsuit model - just right there. they even advertise it as a straight copy including the 70's op-amp. But here's the thing, turn up the gain higher than you would on your TS, then dial in the clean boost to about 11 o'clock. You get the warmth and sustain of a cranked TS, but with a clarity and cut that the TS can't deliver, really the best of both worlds. True bypass too - the cost here is a slight click when switching, its worth it though. If you're into TS's go and buy one, you won't be disappointed. I was sceptical until I got mine home.

Who knows until its been gigged for a few years?

Never dealt with them

What can I say, i'm blown away and can't see using a tubescreamer again. Never thought I'd say that. The price here is less than a re-issue tubescreamer.

Fairly easy to use, as easy a a TS9 or any stompbox. I didn't get a manual, but it doesn't matter. I rate this equal or better than any other stomp box in the $100 dollar range.

I use mostly Strats with active P/U's, the passive ones are a little noisy. Using actives it get kind of "middy". The tone is really more sensitive than the TS9. During a session, I noticed the sound make a major change and I looked to see I flipped on the neck/middle P/U from the neck P/U. I think the drive gain is equal or lower to a TS9, but it has clean boost op amps inside so that gives it a little more clean boost.
The clean boost is not important to me, when I use it I want TS9 like gain, not clean. The tone control gets a little strident (as opposed to warm), they use newer components (caps and resisitors) that are different than the vintage TS-808. I believe that model uses carbon style resistors. A little thing, but it may cause the difference in sound, but realistically it could be the circuit design. The "blending" of clean boost is really just hype, it sounds nothing like 2 amps.

The input jacks are the cheap plastic type.
The design of the case is metal, but you have to take the back off to get at the battery, 4 screws, which is a hassle.

I haven't dealt with the company so I can't comment fairly.

I play classic, blues, some fusion, some metal. It's only good for the first two. It doesn't have enough crunch for metal. I also have not really put this thing to the test, which is played thru a 100 wt amp, that's where the rubber meets the road. It sounds OK through all of my other amps. The true bypass is a bonus and a feature the TS9 does not have, but if you are using long cords, the buffering effect on non-true bypass can be a benefit because it smooths the sound even when the sound effect is off. This is a benefit when you use an amp that has too much low end and you're stepping on the bass player, like metal, but it's not a good effect for metal, there are better choices.

Great control -- the Volume pot is 75% boost and 25% cut instead of just all Boost -- a useful feature. Check it out at http://www.voodoolab.com/sparkle.html

Great Tube Screamer-like overdrive, and even cooler Clean boost. Mix the two for a really great end result! This thing sounds wonderful.

5 yr warranty -- built like a tank.

Have never had a need -- use their website (voodoolab.com) for info on their poroducts.

Got a great deal from J&S Music (http://jsmusic.com/). They have the best prices on the Planet! Have purchased several items from them -- great service and resonse!!! The only thing that would make the pedal better would be a way to switch between the all-clean and distorted settings.