Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive

4 knobs which are easy to use. Ever use a Tubescreamer? same circut.

I use a fender strat or moded epi SG into a behringer GMX 212 set to a good clean sound or overdriven Marshall sound. in addition i have other pedals which suck tone or i thought they did. turns out it was the amount of cabble i use.
got this for about 50 bucks off a sale price. dont remember the amount but it was under 100. this thing has my tone in it. well no it doesn't but the clean blend is agod send to me because with the gain i'm looking for but the articulations and stuff i use in my playing i often had to sacrifice one or the other. Not any more. Now to the amp thing it doesn't sound like 2 amps although you can get a decent Keef sound with it. I have about 4 amps one of them being a vintage reverborocket.
overdriving the reverborocket and using the clean of the Behringer i tested the sound. the pedal just doesn't have that delay you get with 2 amps. but since i'm not looking for that i was looking for more articulations in a tubescreamer type pedal (which is why i have th BD-2 the trebly frequency lets more shine through than a TS9 just sayin). if you dont like the clean function the best reason to buy this pedal is that it has the same circut as an 808 but is made from higher quality parts than the current Ibanez reissue. all in all it sounds amazing in my rig and lets my tone shine through so i dont have to fight a pedal while playing.

well since i got a once in a lifetime deal on this and a small clone (bringing the total up to about $130) i guess i have to use it without backup being as i cant afford another an dont want another. it seems well made and sturdy and think about it if i can gig heavily with a plastic Dano pedal i think a metal encased pedal realy ought to stand up to the rigors. but it's to soon to tell

I play alot of things and i dont feel like going into it again. been playing abou 10 years come september and have always been able to get my tone out of most setups. What i like about my current setup ,which is mainly my favorite pedals, is that i dont have to fight through a pedal for my tone. what i disliked about my previous sources of dirt is that they all sounded like pedals and were a bit to muddy had to fight for my tone to get through. Well then i'm giving this a 9 because what ever i dont have to think about is a good thing.

very basic pedal

been playing for 15 years, and now we perform in a punk/psychobilly band, and our set up goes like so: either gretsch 6119 w/tv joneses, rickenbacker 330/6 with bigsby, or dearmond jazzbox with dearmotrons into that pedal, memory man, and a tuner into either a vox ac15 reissue, peavey classic 30 or an ampeg reverborocket, usually 2 amps! the sound is great! since were a big fan of layering guitar parts as george harrison did on certain beatles/solo recordings, we know how cool they could sound. with a good dirt amp, this pedal is a great boost for solos and all, since our mix is very very dense. it consists of a drummer, upright bassist and rhythm guitarist (using a les paul thru marshall combo) and a skitzofrenic singer. since our sound HAS to be very mid-rangey to have its voice heard in this mix, this pedal does a good job of getting it like so. we know its not common for a rockabilly guitarist to use pedals like so, but we like the sound we get from this.

voodoo labs builds em like rocks! we gig either with this one, or an ibanez turbo tube screamer

never dealt with them, but if necessary, we hear that they are good!

this pedal is a good match for rockabilly/psychobilly! no noe else uses it, cause theyre afraid of stubbing their toes on the pedals or something! weve been playing for 15 years, and own tons of kick ass gear! if lost,m wed definately get this or a reverend drive train, since we used to have that, and it is one hell of a pedal as well. the best feature is the blend knob, since layering sounds cool! we wish it had 2 separate outputs, so the signal could be switched between 2 amps. it definately helps us make the music, since its uncomplicated, and gets great tone!

All knobs are self explanitory. Just a little tricky when blending drive & clean boost.

Using a Aerodyne strat with a all tube handwired(from original specs)Fender Princeton amp treble and bass no mid w/reverb & tremolo . Very basic!!. The unit is a tad noisy with drive past 12 O'clock but nothing major. The effect nails pure vintage amps on 11 and the clean boost really gets rid of any muddy sound you would typically get from a tube amp cranked and not elevated. I love the sound out of this box because I had many overdrives and distortions in my time!

Totally built to last. No backup needed.

Never had to deal with company and hope never to.

I mainly play a lot of bluesy jazz. It fits perfectly for what i do. I have been playing for 25 years and owned alot of guitars,amps,and effects. I love the fact that it does not color your sound unless you turn clean all off and put drive all up. Just enough crackle to rock out on.

Pretty straight forward. Gain, Tone, Blend, and Volume. The only thing that takes a little getting used to is the blend feature which is really the beauty of this pedal.

Set up is: Anderson or Melancon thru Boss tuner-Boss DD3 delay- Dunlop Wah-VooDoo Lab Microvibe-Sparkle Drive. The pedal is only noisey when the volume is cranked up all the way and the blend is all the way down, so obviously it's going to hiss a little. Again, the beauty of this pedal is all the in between sounds like Keith Richards, SRV, and Hendrix which are acheived via the blend option.

So here's where it goes south. I've had this pedal for over 2 years now and in that time, I've had to send it back to the factory twice. It's a problem you read about a lot here; you hit the switch to turn it on and the volume drops almost completely out. The worst part is that it's intermittent. So come solo time, here you go for the gusto, and WHAM! NOTHING THERE! The folks at Voodoo Lab are very nice and accomodating. Both times I sent it back they say the couldn't make the pedal malfunction, so they replaced the switch. It started happening again about 4 months ago, so I called them and John was very professional and sent me some switches. I cannot gig without a backup (HBE Power Screamer) because it is a frightening feeling not knowing when this thing's going to act up. So why do I keep it? It really is the best sounding pedal I've ever owned! I absolutely love it.

Very nice people. Very easy to contact and they react pretty quickly. I wish they were a little more pro-active and deal with the switch problem they have. They seem to be in denial about it, but I have a Microvibe that had the exact same problem, and I have a friend w/a Sparkle Drive with the exact same problem. But I cannot complain about how they've helped me when the pedal malfunctioned.

I've been playing 20 years. I play classic rock and contemporary Christian. This is just a great pedal for any style of music. If it were lost, I'd buy another in a second! This is my desert island pedal. I just wish I could use it without worrying about it going out on me. There really is no comparison to this pedal, no one on the market has anything this hip (again, blend control).

It's a pedal, use your foot!

Very classic in character, like a screamer overdrive or the zillion other screamer imitators, so if you're not shooting for THAT sound you may be disappointed, but in 9 out of 10 cases I'd bet that if you're looking into the sparkle drive then you know that's the case and that IS what you want.

For me, I needed a straight-up overdrive that cleaned up and responded to dynamics. It's not really amp-like in my opinion, but the drive is really biting and clear, which is what I wanted, and the "CLEAN" blend makes it a really cool and fun to customize beyond the standard overdrive tone. I looked at a lot, lot, lot of overdrives when shopping, mostly because there are so dang many, and though there are some really cool things available most anything better or cooler is more expensive, or MUCH more expensive even.

I wanted something basic and I did not want to spend a lot, but I couldn't get excited about picking up a TS or generic clone or Boss version. Despite what brochures or young ears may swear to, a lot of the cheap overdrives out there do not clean up for that NATURAL sound. I don't want to sound old or snobby (like other reviews online can be), but trust me if you know what I mean you know it's important to say this pedal has the goods on the clear but JUST a bit hairy spectrum. This gets it and does a nasty, funky, cool clean thing as well.

Speaking of the "CLEAN" blend, NOTE: it does not sound like you may imagine, so you know. I used to have a funky set up with one guitar split to a clean and dirty signal before hitting the recording board, and this doesn't imitate that the way I thought. It's just more control over the tone, which is good, AND a ready-to-go clean boost, if needed. With one of my old guitars the output is dreadfully thin, and when I use that guitar I beef it up by turning the sparkle drive all the way clean. Saves me from buying a dedicated clean boost, which as much of a pedal hog I am, I just don't need enough to add to an already crowded pedal board. This does the job for those special cases, though. Nice!

I could give it a ten, but come on, it's an overdrive, not a mystical music box that will absolutely change your world. I'm not obsessive about overdrive tone the way I used to be and the way many, many players can be. It's a well-beaten path, no need for reinventing the wheel here. Just give me the perfect thing for getting that classic taste of drive in the right song. The sparkle drive delivers.

9 is very good.

Yeah no problems, and true bypass!

I don't or haven't tried them.

I play guitar, this thing does what I need and more.

I love the CLEAN blend and wish all pedals or pedal makers were into creative additions like that. Like many musicians I get bored, bring on the innovation!

But speaking of random desires, I tend to tweak a lot, so added functions would be nice additions, perhaps, I would add a bass EQ and maybe another, stacked distortion circuit, kinda like the FD2 overdrive, but for half the price I'm quite happy with it. Then again, put it with an EQ pedal and big MUFF like me and you'll have a lot of possiblities, I promise.

Again, I can't just give it a 10, but a 9 means it's does what it does with excellence, though, really, no more, no less. Hard not to love!

No problems here, although learning to blend the clean signal with the gain signal to your preference may take some practice.

I play through fender tube amps with a prs custom 22.

True bypass is a good thing.

Pedal is quiet. I don't know that it could be quieter.

This a fairly excellent sounding pedal; really lovely overdrive sound, and you can retain more attack (via the clean signal) than you can with your average tube screamer style peadal.

I've had some switch problems as well--seems like everyone has. they're not a big deal, but they should fix this.

will probably get the switch replaced soon.

I play various experimental forms of rock and jazz, lots of noisy stuff--I like the varieties of tone and feedback I can get with this baby--I can use her just for boost and let my amp do the overdriving, or I can use the big, overdrive tone from the pedal. Preserves the character of my guitar nicely as well.

Easy to operate. Every knob does something.

This pedal is the perfect match for my plexi. Its pretty much a tube screamer without the clean boost. The plexi is already dirty and i use this pedal to push it over the edge.

Try maxing out the drive, tone and volume knobs which will give you a nasty trebly sound then, set the clean to around halfway. Run this into a plexi(ish) type of amp and this pedal is the shit! You get the boost of the clean to overdrive the preamp and then you can dial in how much 'screamer' you want via the clean dial. Here is where they get the 'sparkle' from.

The options are endless.

Dont get it if you dont like tube screamers!

Ive used it solidly almost daily for 5 months at home, rehearsals and gigs with absolutely no problems.

I expect no problems.

Never dealt with them on this.

This is an extremely useful pedal for my use with my plexi to push the front end and add a little bit of tube screamer to the mix without muddying up the tone.

Forget about it being stolen. Im actually buying another one soon to 'cascade' with even more tonal options.

The clean dial is this pedals selling point and it is perfect for driving a tube amp that is already slightly dirty.

The people dogging this pedal probably dont realise that it IS a good pedal but it just doesnt do what they wanted it to. Dont get it if you hate tube screamers.

Does what it say's on the tin. Add's both sparkle and drive.

It disapoints me when people confuse there requirements with what a unit can provide. Guitarists who don't like this pedal most likely want it to do something it does'nt.
It's great for
'Making any amp's clean and slightly overdriven sound better'

It's bad for
'Metal, thrash, shred etc'

If your looking for a pedal that boosts clean sounds (good for country, blues) and also has the bad bit's of the original tube screamer removed, this is it. I love the simple lightly distorted cristal sound. If you have listened to classic electric blues, country and rock you will spot the value of this pedal.

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In the UK this pedal is expensive. You could score one cheaper on ebay. It is however similar in price to the Ibanez Tube Screamer re-issues and half the price of boutique units.
It's much better than my original tube screamer due to the clean boost and a better mid range. I find the mid's of the TS808 a bit cloudy but it is a classic unit and this highlights the quality of the Voodoo.

No firmware ... :) No need manuel.
it's 100 % analogic, 4 knobs : drive tone clean volume. Nothing complicated.

The worst thing with this pedal is that i have to bend over to turn the knob, which is pretty normal for a pedal "on the floor".

light overdrive; light clean; tone around 10 or 11 o'clock and enough volume whatever setting i obtain a warm pretty good jazz sound.

drive at 12; no clean; tone 1 o'clock with a volume not too high : i can play with the clean in order to sweep away a little of dirt and i obtain a SRV hendrix and good crunchy light od tube sound which is very good.

drive at max, I play around with tht tone knob : volume low ... i got a good OD for rythm "kick ass" when the amp is clean warm when tone is low, with lot of volume and the tone pushed to the right the amp change is color and get really nasty if you have already a light od from the amp. That rocks.

After all of it ...

I put after the sparkle drive a classic distortion : with the clean at the max : WOW ..... here i am .. blowing like a hurricane ... if you know what i mean ....
so same config with drive instead of clean in the setting ... and again ...WOW ... lot of dynamics ... lot of compresion for the solo and it's natural .... nothing to worry about it.

This pedal rocks .... Check this out ...

no noise you don't want to hear when you record or something like that .... and the sound is really dynamic and warn (not like the podxt which put you in cold non natural sound even if that's do a good job, it's damn far of the real thing)

all what is in it is high quality features ... film resistors, capacitors polystuffidon'tknow, JRC4558whatever, etc ....

A true bypass .... Who does that really ? ibanez .... no no no i have to buy a mod or a A/B pedal to get back my clean sound ... GRRRR ... i don't to be stiggy but damn ....

i open it !!!! i didn't see any excessive wire which increase the lost of the ... it's tight ... eventhe battery plug actually is ot made with crap it's a damn robust plastich which is'nt gonna die in your hand after years O_O

129 $ : LOL are you kidding me ? why is it so cheap .. and it's made in U.S.A ??????

I plug it just after the guitar ... and i need an another one for serial plug : i need it :)

hmm hmmm ....

the pedal is well built so there is no matter calling them ...

... I would like a sticker ?

I play everything and nothing !

Good'sic to crap'sic.

I would like a twin sparkle drive something damn killing.

ONE is not enough :)

I use the sparke drive with mainly a 57' reissue Strat, a Vox AC30 and/or an 80's JC-120. My effects chain consists of a Dyna Comp>Sparkle Drive> Fuzz Face clone> Ibanez CS9 Chorus> Maxon Ad-900 delay.
I'm a bit confused by some of the negative comments regarding this unit. To me, first and foremost it is a TS-808 clone, with an added clean boost that can be mixed in to taste. Now a few words about each of these seperately: The OD circuit is an accurate reproduction of the 808 Tubescreamer circuit, warts and all. If the TS sound is not your thing, there is no sense in buying the Sparkle Drive. That said, as far as TS9's and 808's go, the Sparkle Drive sounds as good if not better than the best of the originals. Imagine replacing all the cheap caps and resistors in a 808 with high quality components and the resulting improvement in clarity (read -less muffled) and noise ratio. Also, it seems the taper of the pots is more smooth and gradual, as well the tone knob having a bit more usefullness as opposed to the original. Enough said.
The Clean boost is wonderful. Your original tone, just louder with the "hardness and stiffness" many otherwise excellent clean boosts have.
Blending the two sides gives a little more character the one side or the other, but for the most parts I use one side or the other.

So far so good. I think they stand behind thier products.

Two classic effects in one makes this a great value. High quality components, low noise and true bypass. The TS-9/808 sound has become a staple of classic rock and blues. Forget the hype of how it's transparent or sounds just like your amp- it doesn't. It completely colors you tone and sounds like a Tube Screamer- learn to love it. The Sparkle drive is a Great TS-808 plus added blendable Clean Boost. Enjoy.