Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive

Easy to use, to be sure, but I've noticed that what they say in their marketing lit is very true--the difference in sound and repsonse between different guits and amps is pronounced, to say the least. Otherwise, all you have to do is understand what it is doing, understand the 4 knobs, and understand that the tone knob only effects gain, not clean.

I am not an uber-purist. Or rather, I am, but I'm not geeky or particularly knowledgable about amps and pedals. I've now used it with 3 guitars (Strat+, a FrankenTele with standard pups, and a Les Paul Special from the 70s or 80s, with 2 P90s. And into 2 amps: a Mesa/Boogie Studio .22+ (1x12") and a circa '70s Bassman head through 1x12" Cab with a celestion on some flavor.

The bassman breaks up beautifully at very low volumes on its own (begins as low as 2 1/2 depedning on how hot the incoming signal is). So The Saprkle Drive tends to send the bassman into pretty rich and gritty territotry even if I'm running it entirely on clean boost. Not a bad sound, mind you, but if you're main reason for wanting the Sparkle Drive is as a boost pedal to add presence, volume, and a touch of grit to a fundamentally clean sound, I think you'll be happier using it with an amp like my Mesa/Boogie, an amp that is not BORN on the verge of breaking up.

With the Boogie I experienced the full range of the Sparkle Drive, and I was very impressed. It cleans up nicely, adds a very pleasant boost, dial in moderate grit to your liking. It especially likes the lower output pickups on my strat, and that's good news. Again, even if dortier territory, it sound very good, but for me it's allure is that you can get good crisp and very present clean-ish tones out of it.

And, as they advertise, it respond extremely well to attack dynamics. That might be the most pleasing thing about it.

I've only had it two weeks and haven't gigged with yet (very soon) but I'm pleased as punch with this so far.

No occasion to judge reliability yet. Read about issues with switch mechanism. We'll see.

I play quirky original pop rock along the Elvis Costello/XTC-to-Tom Waits spectrum. I'm the "tricky bits" guitarist in my present band Good vintage tones are desirable. I've been playing for more than 30 years, but what does that matter?

I wish I had compared it to the Fulltone Full Drive 2. That's really the only other one I was interested in.

This is a good sounding boost/drive pedal. In the right rig, it produces an excellent clean boost, and its distortion is very playable. For the densest, darkest distortions, you'd probably want to look elsewhere.

It takes a little fidling, but you can get quite a great bit of sounds out of this. I have to switch the tone out for singles/hbs, which has the upside of having convinced me to not be lazy and actually switch between two of my good guitars (Gretsch Duo Jet and Am. Strat) instead of using my less good coil split-equipped guitar (Dean EVO-FTX).

I actually own and use two of them. Typically i run one as a dark, ratty distortion (Gain - 60%, Tone - 40%, Clean - 35%, Vol - 50%) that makes a great blues sound esp. on a neck pickup on my Strat or archtop (Gretsch Tennesse Rose). The second i use *primarily* as a solo boost (Gain - 100%, Tone - 65%, Clean - 80%, Vol - 40%) on top of other distortion pedals. There's just so many things that you can do with it. These two pedals replaced my Boss Blues Driver and my Tube Screamer.

Never had a problem.

Never deal with em

Great match for any style of music except lo-fi or traditional jazz. I wouldn't use it as a *primary* distortion box outside of blues or bluesy rock, but it makes one hell of a solo pedal in any context.

I've been playing for 14 years and professionally for 8. I run:
Gretsch Tennessee Rose / Fender Strat (American) / Gretsch Duo Jet / Dean EVO --> Ernie Ball Vol. --> Cry Baby --> VoxWah --> MXR Phaser --> --> Line6 Liquaflange --> EHX Polychorus --> Q-Tron --> Danelectro Blue Paisley --> EHX Big Muff --> Line6 Crunchtone --> Line6 Dr Distorto --> SPARLKE DRIVE 1 --> SPARKLE DRIVE 2 --> Vox AC30 TB / Peavey Delta Blues ==> Line6 DL4 ==> Line6 Verbzilla ==> amps ==> SM57s

Out of all that, if i had to have one pedal it would be the DL4; but if i could get two the second would be the Sparkler.

It's pretty easy to use, and the controls are self explanatory. There's a range of good sounds, but most of the dialing in for me has been trying to replicate a particular sound since we play covers. No hard work, just a bit of trial and error. The overdrive is just that; an overdrive, meaning no extreme, "thunking" gain for uber metal, but for me, the Sparkle Drive's range of sounds is extremely useful when a full-out distortion is too much. I get compliments on my sound when using this pedal.

I've had luck getting great sounds from this unit. I use it with a Les Paul standard (through a modified Marshall JCM 600 combo), so the bottom dropping out isn't really an issue like it seems to be for other reviewers. I use it when the Marshall's gain (which I leave almost pegged all the time) is too much. It provides a nice, musical-sounding overdrive with plenty of presence with the "clean" control down. Lots of note clarity for chords. As you turn the "clean" up, it takes away the growl to varying degrees, but in a different way than just turning the gain down...it's hard to describe. It can sometimes sound dry, so I sometimes use a compressor and a bit reverb with it.
When I first bought this unit, I put it away for a while after fiddling with it, and then "rediscovered" it again after a year. Now it's part of my permanent effects board.

I had a problem with the switch when I began using the unit in my pedal board; it would cut my signal to half when switching it on or off, so the guitar sounded weak (keep in mind that bought this pedal about six years ago, so I'm sure they've worked out some bugs). But it was intermittent and it took a while to figure out that it wasn't a patch cord, which can be the cause of the same problem sometimes. See "Customer Support."

Once I was resonable sure that the drive was causing my signal problem, I contacted VooDoo Lab, and Adam got back to me on the same day. He gave me a reference number, and I sent the unit back. They fixed it promptly, and since then, I haven't had any trouble with it. Also, it's important to mention that he didn't ask when the unit was purchased, if it was abused (it wasn't), or any warranty information, which was really cool.

Like I stated above, I play modern rock covers, and the pedal is necessary tool for our set list every gig. I've been playing for about 27 years now, and have used lots of effect units from various manufacturers.
I primarily used two Les Pauls ('89 standard and '91 custom) to gig with, but I also have a Strat ("Highway 1") with a Warmoth replacement neck ( I don't dig fender stock necks), and a Tele. I play through a Marshall JCM 600 combo (now discontinued), which has been modified (half switch added, local amp whiz John Nau added some chime and sparkle to clean channel sound).
Pedal board consists of: VOX wah, Sparkle Drive, Analog Man Compressor & overdrive unit, H2O Liquid Chorus/delay unit, Boss graphic EQ...

Not really hard. 4 knobs, all easy to understand.

One word: Fantastic!

I use it with a gibson les paul studio, to a chain of effects to a fender blues junior amp.

This pedal is simply amazing. You can do so many things with it: turn the clean knob all the way up, it will simply boost your volume - sweet feature. Really useful if for example, you play a clean accompaniment, and then you have a solo, on a clean sound too. You put the clean knob all the way up, turn the volume as up as you like, and with a single switch you're in a solo mode.
This pedal can also be used as a pure overdrive, with the clean all the way down. The tone knob is the most versitale I ever heard. It sounds like an old tube screamer. It sounds even better when used on an already saturated tube amp (let's say - volume at half way) BUT - you can mix a bit of clean, to have an overdrive with a bit of clean. With the gain at half way and some clean (let's say, 9' o clock), it's perfect for solos with a bluesy tone, like pink floyd's "shine on you crazy diamond". Much better than the classic Boss Blues Driver (I used to own one of these. Sold it when I bought this pedal). It can also give you a great half-clean half-drive tone, sounds like you're using two amps at once, one clean and one saturated. And that's only a bit of what you can do with it.

It's not noisy at all, it is true by pass, no volume drop (Well, unless you set the volume knob at the wrong position) - simply perfect.

Well, a lot of people complain about the switches, but they (Voodoo Lab) fixed it on the newer editions, and it is working fine. I have this pedal for a few month now, and I have their analog chorus for a year, none of them ever had any problem. I giged with it with no backup many times.

Just beware, I wouldn't have bought this pedal second handed, because of the problems with older units.

never really dealt with them. I did send them an email about their new Wah once and they asked me.

Fantastic pedal, sounds great, versitile, everything I need.

Controls work well, they do what you'd expect. It's not rocket science, but it did take me a bit of fiddling to find useful sounds.

It took me a while to find useful sounds. The problem I have with it is that the clean sound is pretty flat but the more gain you dial in the thinner the bass gets. This actually works well for the neck pickup because it can have a bit too much bass anyhow, but I don't care for it on the bridge pickup. When you start introducing more gain it has a midrange bump and the bottom drops out just like a Tube Screamer. Not my cup of tea. Used as a clean boost with a bit of hair on it though, this pedal sounds great IMO. Anybody who's a fan of the Tube Screamer should love this pedal.

Well, the switch on mine went bad after about a week of light use, big surprise. I hadn't sent in my warranty card, but I contacted Voodoo Lab anyhow. Much to my surprise they issued me an RMA, no questions asked. My pedal was repaired free of charge and returned quickly. I've had switches go bad on numerous pedals, some very expensive ones too. This is unacceptable to me. If these companies want us to continue to spend $100~$200 on a metal box with $15 worth of parts inside they'd better put some quality switches in there, come on!

I've only had the one dealing with Voodoo Lab and it was a positive one. The fact that I hadn't mailed in my warranty card wasn't an issue and my pedal was repaired and returned quickly.

The failing switches seem to be common with the Voodoo Lab pedals. When I spoke to the VL rep on the phone I was told that they are using a different, better switch now. I hope that's true. Voodoo Lab makes some cool stuff, but if it can't be relied on there's no reason not to try somebody else's product. To me, what makes the Sparkle Drive unique is the clean blend control. If it didn't have that it would be just another TS clone. It's a nice sounding pedal, too bad about the switch.

Very easy to use and well thought out pedal.I love the blend knob!

This is a wonderful sounding pedal. It has a great blend function. As a clean boost this pedal can't be beat, the fact that it also has an OverDrive built in makes it a must-have pedal!

Now here is the MAJOR problem with this pedal(all VooDoo Lab pedals), the switches will(I don't mean might) go out on you. I have three VL pedals and they all have bad switches. I've sent them in to VL for repairs and they did it for free, but guess what? within a month I had the same problem with all three pedals again. Horrible, stay away!

I would have given them a 8 because they fixed them for free, but the problem wasn't really fixed. After they fixed them once they ignored all my e-mails after that. Horrible customer Service, stay away!

Great great pedal, when it worked.

This pedal has a rare combination: Extremely versitaile, yet exteremly easy to use. A volume, gain, tone and the clean blender. Nothing more.

My setup is: Gibson Les Paul Studio--->T-Rex Compnova--->Sparkle Drive--->T-Rex Mudhoney--> Voodoo Lab Analog Chorus--->T-Rex Replica-->Fender Blues Junior Amp.

The sound quality of this unit is fantasic!

With clean all the way up, you get the clean sound of the amp. Turn it down a bit, you got a great clean with a hint of drive. at 12 of clock, a very smooth half-drive half-clean sound. At zero, great tube-like overdrive. The tone knob is the most versitale I ever heard.

Gave it only 9, because the overdrive could have been fatter, but this can be easily fixed with the blues junior "fat" switch.

No problem so far. Build like a tank.

Never dealt with them.

Overall great clean blender, sounds fantastic! great overdrive too. Wish the drive would be fatter, though.

I'd say it's very easy to get a good sound out of it.

Greco strat -77/Fralin VH neck pu w baseplate - Fulltone Clyde - Sparkle Drive - Fulltone '69 - AMZ Booster - modded/"blackfaced" Fender Concert -83 top - THD 2X12 cab

A little bit noice whith full gain and my drivechannel on high gain, nothing to mention.

Sound quality is awesome. Perfect combination of texture and coloring. I plugged it in whith every knob at 12 o'clock, and they are still that way...

Before I heard it I had a little doubt over the "layereffect", but the clean and overdrive blends perfectly.

Whith everything set at 12:

On the clean channel I get what I missed on the Fulldrive 2:s FM mode I sold a while ago: The sparkle and feel and edge and bite. Tonal coloring about the same.

On the dirtchannel I get raw crunch, clear, but yet whith bite. I hear every note. When I increase gain and blend I get a more searing leadtone whith some harmonics. But I don't use it whits that setting.

I'ts a 808, you can't miss that.

Havent used so long, only a cuouple of months at gigs and rehearsals. I't has the stompswitch attached directly at the board inside, which, have I understood, could be problematic if you should have to repair it. On the other hand, it comes whith a 5 year warranty...

I play in two cover bands, thats covers the most: Rock, soul, pop, disco, funk, from the '60s to nowadays...

I've been playing guitar for 30 years

Would by it again, I'm thinkin about bying another one, and get it modded by Keeley, using it after this one. The "blendingthing" realy made it happen for me. No more mud, only beatyful tone, which I can adjust after taste. Very versatile.

This baby made me think realy serious about getting a Barber Tone Press.

This one came after many OD pedals, example given: BJF Baby Blue, Fulltone OCD, Fulldrive 2 and Distortion Pro. This one I keep.

For the price, its a fantastic value

very easy to use. Blend control is gradual and tapers well. Not suddenly one way or the other.

I saw a lot of reviews that seemed to be guys running them into cleaner amps and commenting on not a ton of gain available. I run mine into a 70's 2203 Marshall usually running the preamp at about 12-2 O'Clock, using Gibsons. It has a perfect push on top of the Marshall. I can definitely play metal with this pedal and the Marshall together. Into a Twin or DRRI, probably not. I love the blend control. Tuned to A440 I only use the clean boost but if I tune down, usually to C#, being able to blend in some of the OD circuit is great for getting some top end snap back. I use the "808" side as an EQ basically.
Overall the pedal as many have said, is quite natural sounding and doesn't obscure the guitar. When boosting I still hear a LP into a Marshall just ballsier and more sustain.

It has True Bypass....a must. I hate using pedals without it now.

It also worked great on Bass as the blend helps you keep the low end together.

It worked solid for over 2 years and has recently had some issues with the switch. Sometimes when turned off the bypassed signal is weak. I would recommend a backup if your sound is designed around this pedal. I have used it live and in the studio many times over those 2+ years so it was really used if you know what I mean.

Here's where it really counts. I have never experienced a better customer support experience than with Voodoo Lab. They return emails very fast and have hooked me up in the past with cables for my Pedal Power and are also going to take care of me on the Sparkledrive's switch, pronto. No muss, no fuss.
It's a given things will go wrong and things will fail. What really matters is how are you taken care of when this happens. Voodoo Lab is obviously all about complete customer support. Make a great product and back it up like it was your own.

I play bluesy hard rock and metal from AC/DC and NWOBHM stuff to COC and BLS. This pedal is great for these with an already driving tube amp. For older Metallica and other similar type stuff I would use a more distortion orientated pedal.
Been playing for 22 years. I also have a Dunlop Dimebag wah, Boss Hyper Fuzz, Line 6 DL4, Boss DS-1, DOD 250, Boss CS-3 and Boss TU-2 tuner. Main guitar is an '83 Gibson Black LP Custom with a Burny Japanese copy as backup.

I also use their Pedal Power (first series), GCX Audio Switcher and the ground control. All work top notch.

I compared it to the MXR Zakk Wylde OD and MXR Distortion + and a few "boutique" choices that GC had. I picked it because it was true bypass and priced better than the other "boutique" choices (also sounded better). The ZW-44 did sound great. In it's own way as good as the Sparkledrive but not better.
If it were lost or stolen I would try another pedal, only for variety, knowing I could always return to the Sparkledrive as a tried and true choice.

If your looking for a better tubescreamer but with a kickin' clean boost as an option that has a well tapered blend feature then this is a stand out choice. I'll give it an 8 instead of a 10 as the switch should have lasted longer but if not for the excellent customer support it would have been a 6. Great company and product.

Pretty straightforward. It's an Overdrive pedal, nothing here to tax the brain too much. Mine's the stock model, with four knobs: gain, volume, tone, and clean. The only issue is the balance between Gain and Cean, which is the whole selling point of the pedal.

When the Gain is fully engaged, the Clean is overridden, and vice-versa. With Gain turned right DOWN, you have a Clean Boost pedal. The tone control only affects the Gain, not the Clean.

The manual explains all of this, and includes some soundclips on a CD.

Voodoo Labs admit quite openly that this is basically an original 808 Tubescreamer, but with a twist, in the form of its 'clean blend'. The Sparkle Drive doesn't give spectacular gain, but it will take you further than the (admittedly very good) Keith Richards sound the reviews spoke of. It takes you into dirty Classic Rock territory as well: Van Halen /AC-DC/ Gary Moore, if you want to go there. But anyone looking for an extreme killer distortion/ hooligan death-metal device has got the wrong box here.

As a gain pedal, it is pretty damn good. A nice, full, throaty overdrive; tight, but not too compressed. I'm playing it mostly through a small Mesa-Boogie combo, and occasionally a Fender Twin. At rehearsal and small gig volumes, I prefer it to the gain channel on the Boogie. Some overdrive pedals make your sound very thin and compress the hell out of it. This sounds broader somehow, more valve-y and authentic-sounding. Likewise, it is quite transparent and *drives* the signal, without colouring it. My Boogie still sounds like a Boogies, my Twin sounds like a Twin. This pedal does what it should and creates a righteous, overdriven amp tone, not the sound of a gnat in a jam-jar that has just flown into your speaker cabs.

The Clean blend is a good idea. You can go all the way from a mildly overdriven pop/country-rock sound, to full-on growly rock, as mentioned above. This innovation helps keep it more articulate sounding, and also more realistic. There seems to be something about turning UP the clean as opposed to just turning DOWN the gain.

I use a combination of single coil and humbuckered guitars and it seems to cope well with both. On cleaner settings, the single coils shine, as you would expect, but using a 335, for example gives you lots of sustain.

I hear some of the available mods will give you more dirt, which I guess would make it more versatile.

I play varied stuff: blues, rock, country, jazz; rootsy kind of music. I'm not looking to emulate any one particular artist.

Only had the pedal about a week, so I would hope to use it w/o backup. Very sturdy casing, but there seems to be an issue with this type of switch - people claim that they crap out eventually. I guess manufacturers use them to distinguish their product from the ubiquitous Boss design, which seems to have it about perfect.

Brand new pedal, never dealt with the company. There was a form to send back within ten days, giving a 5-year warranty, which sounded fair. Living in the UK, you always pray for good service, as it is a drag to have to deal trans-Atlantic.

I have played guitar over 20 years now and used a whole bunch of overdrives: Boss, Marshall, Ibanez, etc, etc. This is up there with the best of them, if not the best. The Fulltone Fulldrive is supposedly the Holy Grail of overdrives, but based only on the soundclips I have heard, the Sparkle Drive seems to be well in the neighbourhood.

I chose it because I was intrigued, basically, and thought intuitively that it would suit my sound. So far, I am not disappointed. Not a vast amount of gain, to repeat, but very rich, tubey, and authentic-sounding. The Clean blend is a simple but valuable feature.

I am being generous and rating it 9, which is really 8.75. It *is* expensive for what is only an overdrive pedal. Just one switch, no different modes or settings. It's not like a modeller, with patches and bells and whistles, or a rig that makes your cappucino and gets your email. I got a slight discount, but ??100 or more full retail is a lot. Why gear in the UK costs so damn much is anyone's guess, I suppose we're all too polite to say anything about being consistently ripped off.