Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive

A bit complex because of the clean/overdrive blend thing, but once you get the hang of it it sounds great.

This overdrive is in a class by itself. You can hear your guitar and then add gain to it. Dial as much or as little of your clean sound into it as you want. Nice. Talk about flexible.

In my board I have a Sparkle Drive and a 2003 Custom Shop Fulldrive 2 (the one with 3 modes). I have to tell you; although the Fulldrive is a bit more gainy.......meaty maybe?.......the Sparkle Drive is the one I end up using more often. When you kick it on your playing is boosted, more assertive and powerful, more ballsy,.....with 100% clarity. The Fulldrive simply does not approach what this thing does well. The Fulldrive is a GREAT pedal with much more gain on tap, but totaly different. There is more coloring with the Fulldrive. The Sparkle Drive is in a class by itself, really.

Seems perfect. No issues whatsoever.

Called them up once to have another effect repaired. They fixed it and picked up the tab to send it back to me. Nice!

I can't imagine not having this pedal now that I have it. I have been looking for an overdrive box like this for years. If you need an overdrive that is Tubescreamer in nature, but a more flexible, modern take on it, you may like this a lot. If you are a Heavy Metal kid that wants his Ibanez guitar through the Line 6 amp to retain no remnants of original sound and take on a hellish wall of indiscriminate, noisy, generic and nuance assasinating crunch, well......you may be bummed with this pedal. This won't cover up all the sloppy two-hand tapping and anemic tone from the basswood body.

If you have a great guitar, great tube amp, good technique and musical ideas, this pedal will allow you to have overdrive that does not turn your sound to sludge. You can hear every note. Makes ya wanna practice.....

Actually, it is pretty tuff. Becuase you gotta decide what kind of sound you want. But no body sed music was easy to play. So, you gotta bend over and twist the knobs and think -- do I want a clean drive or do I want some sweet punch, or how about that overdrive saturation? Also it is weird cuz if you have the clean knob up high - you get no tone control, but if you have the distortion up high, with the gain - then the tone works like a real miracle.

This pedal sounds fantastic. IT GOT THE PUNCH. I don't know about you boys, but this is a damn nice sounding overdrive. I use it as a boost, almost like a preamp - I use a Keeley Compressor after it and a Carl Martin Compressor before it - and then an Ernie Ball Volume after that my signal sees a Roger Mayer Fuzz (sounds better boosted by the Sparkle Drive) some pitch shift, Mooger Ring Mod. then into an Electric Mistress, Turbo Rat, Ibanez CH-505 chorus (best chorus) and finally an MXR Blue Box.

Anyway - the Sparkle Drive is a great pedal for punchy boost, clean drive and SRV style 808 texas lickin.' I mostly play a G&L ASAT Classic and a Guild Starfire-90, and the pedal sounds great with both - I like to use the gain side for the ASAT and the clean boost with the Guild - I really like the sound of the Sparkle Drive - it has a sweet punch that doesn't overtake your guitar's natural ride but isn't afraid to boost your signal all the way to goodville. Where is goodville you ask? It is that place where you know where your feedback is, you trust it, you ride it, you set up a dwelling on it, you get to know its family and sometime you wrap yourself underneath its sleeping bag of squeal. I am sure this makes some people angry, that I am not talking about the pedal alone.

So, I have played the pedal alone and it delivers a great bite of overdrive, not to much, not to little - and it adds to the percussivity of your guitar's electric sound.

I bought this pedal used, and it plays great. I understand it. I would buy another if it broke or went kapoot.

Who cares? I am just glad that there are companies making pedals. I don't need their support - they need mine!!! AND YOURS!! BUY GUITAR PEDALS!!!!! FOR THE SAKE OF GOODNESS!!!

Overall I think this pedal is perfect as a clean boost, and a TS-808 styled distortion. I like the idea of having the 'clean' knob in order to find the perfect balance between overdrive and natural signal - but I am that kind of player. I like to hear my fingers interact with the fretboard, this pedal is also great as a pre-amp, as in, you can use it to boost other fuzz pedals and overdrives to add sustain, bite and clarity. I would recommend this pedal to anyone who uses fuzz... just add this pedal before your favorite fuzz and take a listen to the difference. Fuzzier. This pedal is like a ripe banana to a starving man.

Very easy to use and the knobs do not get moved too easily on stage. GAIN, TONE, CLEAN, VOLUME. Just plug it in and choose whether you want a super clean boost or some sort of dirty tone with the gain and clean knob (the clean knob is actually a mix knob between distortion and clean). The tone knob is very helpful as well. I use this pedal for two different jobs, clean boost as well as distortion. It runs on a 9 volt battery or a power supply. I am a pro bassist and have been playing for over twenty years. The only reason for the "Nine" rating in this category is that you have to unscrew the bottom plate to replace the battery. If you are not going to use an adapter this could be a hassle when you don't have time to unscrew four screws. Although the battery seems to last quite a long time.

I usually wait for at least six months to rate an effect or instrument. This way I'm not rating something on the heels of expectations or "new toy" syndrome. I am a professional bassist and tour about 6 months of the year. Mostly jazz and fusion gigs but I've done my share of pop and Rock tours. I have owned and used this pedal for one year. This thing is very clean. I have a couple different setups that I use. I run my basses into either an EBS classic preamp or Alembic preamp. that goes into a Crown K2 power amp and two bagend 4x10 cabinets (one with the horn). Sometimes I use my Walter Woods amp that is 1200 watts with those same cabinets or with a bag end 1x15 with horn. the preamp on the walter woods is super clean and flat sounding. When I play straight ahead jazz that's great but for the rock and fusion gigs the SPARKLE DRIVE really gives it some variation. The bag end cabs are full frequency (20hz to 20khz) so when I say that this pedal is clean it really is! I hear any kind of hiss from my horn. I also use other effect pedals or no effect pedals depending on the gig. Line six delay, boss octaver, ernie ball volume, and various wahs and choruses. I replaced a "Fulltone Bass Drive" with this pedal. The "Sparkle Drive" is so much better. The clean boost is really clean with no loss of highs or lows, the "Bass Drive" lost a considerable amount of highs and some lows at all settings even though FULLTONE advertises the BASSDRIVE as a boost that does not alter your tone. As far as distortion this kills the BASSDRIVE as well. I could never get the BASSDRIVE to sound good. The distortions would make my bass muddy and indistinct especially when I would solo over any changes and the clean boost is horrible. The SPARKLE has a blend knob so you can always have your original tone along with the distortion. I cannot stress how important this is for bass players! Also the amount of extra volume the SPARKLE puts out is incredible. At nine o'clock the volume knob seems to be unity gain so you can really crank this thing to drive tube amps or for volume boost. In an emergency you could probably run straight into a power amp and drive it well. I must also say that this pedal has a certain "MOJO" with it. Those of you that have had a lot of different pedals or any kind of gear know what I'm talking about. It sounds good just being in the signal chain. All settings seem to work great and are usable. It also is true bypass so when it's off it is not in the signal chain at all, in fact if the batteries fail you can still play with it off. If you are looking for a high gain distortion unit this is not for you. This is for either clean boost or distortions similar to SVT's and other tube amps.

It's built like a tank and I've had zero problems with it. I do not have a backup for it but I'm sure a new one could be located quickly if this one went down.

I have called Voodoo lab once to ask about their power supply and they were very helpful and answered the phone within 5 rings.

I have tried many boost/distortion pedals, this seems to be the best pedal I have found for bass distortion and boost. It is audiophile quality and is much cheaper in price than the boutique pedals that I have found not to be audiophile quality. The only other pedal that I like that also has "MOJO" is the Klon Centaur. It does not have a blend knob (called clean on the SPARKLE DRIVE) and goes through batteries before a 90 minute set is over but it is another great pedal for bass but twice the money. The BASSDRIVE is a waste of time and is the epitome of the worst in the Boutique pedal mystique. If this pedal was lost I would certainly buy another.

Very easy to use if you have experience with overdrive pedals,and the one page leaflet explains what you can expect the pedal to do on each particular setting. I use a Fender Strat. and the posiions 2 and 5 really sing with this pedal, truly transparent, the drive is there but so is the sound of your favourite instrument and amp. If you don't like the sound of them to begin with...look for another pedal!

My set-up is Fender Strat-modified crybaby-voodoolab microvibe-sparkledrive-JD sessionmaster- Dan echo-Hiwatt DR103+ marshall 4x12" with greenbacks. With this setup I can get a great Hendrixy blues/rock sound.

I have used the Voodoolab microvibe for over one year, and have had no problem with it at all, these effects are very well made and I do not forsee any problems.

Never contacted them for customer support.

For the Hendrixy vibe this will get you in the ballpark, with a Strat and clean amp, I can't wait to try it with a plexi.I have been playing 32 years and am a stickler for tone, but tone being subjective, this pedal might not boil everybodies egg!If it was lost or stolen I would replace it straight away,I love the fact that although it is mid biased, and as such, I think more suited to single coils, your guitar and amp soun are compimented rather than masked.My only gripe is that the footswitch is to close to the controls, and as I sing as well, it can be a bit tricky onstage to hit the button without stompin my size 10's on the controls. Overall I find it is very articulate, in that you van play faster licks without the notes gurging into a mess.I was after a good drive pedal, and rejected pedals by Carl Martin,Jacques, Roger Mayer and Fulltone as to my ears they did not deliver the goods.

This is an addition to the review I submitted below. I have had a chance to try the pedal out in two different bands gigging.

Sometimes it can be a little tricky to get the perfect blend of the overdrive, it's tone control, and the clean layer. But once you do, it's magic.

In the last review I compared it to my Maxon re-issue TS-9 Tube Screamer (with true bypass and original JRC4558D chip) and I said it sounded basically the same, but a bit warmer.

After playing two gigs with both pedals, have to amend that:

The Sparkle Drive in it's distortion side is NOTICEABLEY warmer, bigger, clearer and with more definition than the Tube Screamer.

The basic characteristic sound of the chip, and the WAY the pedal breaks up is similar. It is the same TYPE of distortion, due to that chip. But the Tube Screamer is more muddy and undefined in the midrange, and definitely weaker in the bass. A bit "fuzzier" too. Don't get me wrong, it still a GREAT pedal (Maxon did a GREAT job of reissue-ing it and making it BETTER than the original Ibanez by adding True Bypass). But side by side with the Sparkle.......no contest.

The midrange is a key element here. The Tube Screamer has a pronounced midrange "hump". Everyone knows this and it is well documented everywhere on the internet. It makes for a very FAT lead sound. But sometimes it can sound a bit.......congested. A little on the muddy side making you want to turn the tone control up, which works to add clarity, but at the same time loses bass. And you did not fix the problem of lack of clarity in the midrange. You merely added treble so that everything "sounds" more defined.

The Sparkle Drive 100% fixed this problem. In spades. Without the clean control added at ALL, the distortion sound is very fat, with a well defined bottom, extremely muscular midrange that is perfectly clear, defined and not exaggerated, and as much top end as you'd like to add with the tone control. Bigger, clearer more full bodied and MUCH more defined than the Tube Screamer, but with the same warm character and basic personality. I imagine it is similar to what Analog Man's "Silver Mod" is like, but I have never tried that, so I am talking through my ass (but that's the way Analog Mike describes it on his website).

And this is ALL WITHOUT the clean "layer" added. Amazing.

Now to the clean control. As you turn up the clean, the distortion layer gets lower. It's not just that the clean gets louder, but as you dial in the clean, you notice as the distortion goes more and more into the background until you don't even hear it anymore. So an ability to blend these two "channels" and then set the right output becomes more complex than the average distortion pedal. Some people may not be able to get the right balance right away and may get a bit frustrated. Experimentation is the key here.

Now take the distortion I described above and the add just a touch of the clean "underneath" the sound, and it is a thing of beauty. Crunchy, clear ballsy and amazing. I stand by what I said in the earlier review. Even MORE now. This is the single best distortion box I have ever used. I LOVE it. Of course this is just the way I use it. You can very easily just boost the clean and put a bit of "hair" or "grind" around the edges ala Stevie Ray. That works too. But this thing is definitely capable of some serious crunch as well. I can't imagine a better overdrive pedal. I just got a second one and it sounds even better than the 1st one Wow. (I notice REALLY subtle stuff most people wouldn't even hear).

I use it into my Fenders and it is bad ass. This thing into a slightly crunchy 70's Marshall would KILL (because of the definition it has - isn't that what a Marshall is all about?). I almost want to keep this thing a secret (I'm not kidding), but I'm so psyched I have to share. I'll regret this someday......

Construction is ABSOLUTELY top notch. These guys are great. The pots feel smooth (not cheap like many pedals). And the pedals are light. Much lighter than a Boss pedal for instance which adds up when you are lugging around a big effects board.

The True Bypass switches seem fine. Sometimes there is a BIT of a click (not always...just every now and then), but come on people. Do you prefer the reliable Boss style FET "silent switching".......that sucks all of your tone? Reliable, yes. Good sounding, no. Or how about the same idea as Boss but in a cheap switch that WILL break...like the Ibanez switches? The WORST! I'll take a slight click any day and keep my tone, thank you.

Very nice people. I haven't needed support (I called them once to ask about a Micro Vibe), but the guys are friendly, talkative, knowledable, and seem to genuinely love guitar effects and great tone. A very welcome thing if you ask me.

A beautiful, beautiful pedal. It makes me smile. It makes me say "damn that sounds good". It makes me wanna write a review on Harmony Central. :-)

A true classic. No doubt about it. For the money you cannot beat it.

Easy as a Tube Screamer with one added control.

I use SG's and strats through a Rivera made Fender Concert and a Fender Blues Jr.

This is basically a TS-9 tube screamer with true bypass and an added control to dial in a blend of pure clean sound. It is fantastic. You can add just enough to bring some definition and clarity to the tone, which is already excellent.

In my opinion, this is the single best overdrive pedal ever made. What a fantastic idea. I cannot believe that no one had ever though about this before. The added clean control brigs a deep, big clarity to the distortion sound. It reminds me of Stevie Ray Vaughan a lot. Of course there are many ways to use the pedal. But the bottom line is that if you have a great guitar and great amp, and you are tired of overdrive pedals that mask the sound of your guitar, then THIS is your pedal.

Keep in mind there is NOT a lot of gain on board. It is very much an overdrive, NOT a distortion box. Compared to my Maxon Tubescreamer (with true bypass), the Sparkle drive sounded ALMOST identical when using just the overdrive side. The SD has a bit more low end and warmth though. Compared to my vintage Boss SD-1, the Sparkle has a bit less gain and crunch, but much more low end in the overdrive side. And as soon as you kick that clean side in there, the sound fattens up AMAZINGLY well. Provided of course, that you have a good fat clean sound to begin with. This is the type of pedal for people who have great tone to begin with, becasue it doesn't mask your tone.

I'll say it again: this is quite possibly the best overdrive box ever made. Forget about the Tube Screamer. This is the pedal. Man I love this box.

It looks like it was engineered great like all Voodoo Lab stuff. These guys are at the top of the game right now. Get their stuff while we are in the "golden age" of it. Mark my words.

I dalled them once about something completely different (a Micro Vibe...another great pedal) and they were REALLY nice at chatty. Very sweet and warm. Ane they know their shit too.

This pedal is great. If you want more gain which I can understand people wanting (this pedal has EXACTLY the same amount as a Tube Screamer, and a little less than a Boss SD-1 Super overdrive), Keely Electronics does a mod that boosts the gain. Sounds interesting. I was thinking of getting a second Sparkle Drive for a higher gain thing and keeping one more vintage. That's how good this pedal is. I'd buy two.

my only gripe is that the knobs are hard to adjust in the middle of a song and they are very easily moved if it is accidently bumped. the battery is a pain to get to, but i usually wall-wart it anyhow. otherwise, its my favorite & most used pedal

my usual setup is: american strat-sparkle drive-marshall BB2(sometimes)-RI super reverb. I like it simple & uncluttered. occasionally, i use a les paul loaded with duncan '59s but with this setup the strat sounds better IMO. anyway, the sparkle drive gives many different sounds depending on how its set. i like to adjust it so the notes sound clean but when they sustain they get a smooth overdrive as they decay. its perfect for the music i play.(blues & stuff like that). this pedal pretty much gives the super reverb that "edgy" SRV type tone, yet still manages to let the real tone of the guitar and amp come through. when i play through this pedal i usually just set it, kick it on & forget it. true bypass when its off is a nice plus. very transparent.

its built strong but the switch is mounted directly on the PC board. i'm pretty easy on my gear so no big deal to me but i've heard of problems with this from others. its USA made & all analog so in my book it gets huge points. i never worry about whether or not this thing is gonna work. i've had it almost a year & never a problem.

never dealt but voodoo lab has a cool website with soundbytes for their products

overall this pedal kicks ass. totally gives me the sound i need. i also plug it into smaller tube amps when i'm practicing at home & it still delivers the "edgy" type sound. i used to have a behringer solid state & with that amp it sounded a bit different.(still good) i could here the "two amps in one" description that voodoo lab gives, but when its driving a tube amp it takes the natural breakup of the amp and basically enhances it. another nice feature is when the drive is down & clean is up its a completely transparent boost pedal. i personally think its a little on the pricey side but it does do a great job. still, under $100 would've been nice. (this costs about $130 new).

This pedal is just like a tube screamer with the extra clean setting.If you turn the clean all the way down,it works like an original tube screamer.You get a boost with varying amounts of gain depending on how you set it.You also lose some bass,just like a ts.The cool thing aout this pedal, is that if you turn the tone and gain knobs all the way down and the clean to between 2&3 o'clock and the level to the amoont of boost you want,you get a real nice clean boost without losing any bass.There are also lots of settings in between to play with as well.

Sounds good.If you like the original tube screamer you'll love plus you get other options.

Bought it used, for around $60 at Guitar Center, used. Every once in a while they let a good deal slip through.

4 knobs. Simple. Mixing the clean & overdriven sounds is nothing more than listening for what you like..

I use this with a variety of setups. American Dlx fat strat, Roland Cube 100 (what a tank) at rehearsal and Line6 60/100 amp for gigs (forget the model) with a 90watt EV.

The best thing about this pedal is the way it works in series with other overdrive pedals, like a TS9, a Blues Devil, an orange Fulldrive, all of which I use depending on whatever.

With two overdrives in series, the Sparkle Drive adds the edge to a clean rhythm or pushes the overdrive over the top when the 2nd is kicked on. I set the Sparkle Drive at one level, the other overdrive for slightly more, or slightly less, depending on whatever. The two pedals give me four possibilities. off/off. off/on. on/off. and on/on. Each its own sound.

The SD is quiet.

I do blues mostly, and some classic rock / southern rock stuff. I want to hear the guitar's own tone, not just distortion. The SD is a great pedal for that.

On its own, it's not really a "lead" pedal. It's a little thin. And with the gain higher up, it becomes a little harsh. This pedal is at its best used in moderation.

Where was my sound going? It was cutting out now and then, then coming back. Cables? Power? Nope. Just last weekend I figured out what somebody else did here. The footswitch has a "problem." Haven't had a chance to look at it yet. I saw another Voodoo Labs pedal for sale on eBAY today that had replaced the "crap" footswitch with a good one. That might be the next step. I like the pedal. It looks indestructible, but it seems not to be. And the footswitch, if it's the problem (it is, 99% sure), has self-destructed because I'm easy on stuff. The pedal sits on an SKB pedal board and gets no abuse.

Haven't called them.

Might replace it, or I might try some other pedal, depending on whatever came along.

This thing makes my Twin Reverb sceam. "that's a good thing". The sounds are easy to get set the way you like.The manual is just a single piece of paper explaining very little.But then there is very little to explain.Simple is good!

Sound quality is good-great depending more on which amp-guitar setup you are using.The Fender Ultra with lace sensors is thick sounding with this.
The Reverand Slingshot Custom's P-90's are thick as well. The Telly is a little lighter but that's understandable. The Gibby's humbuckers are into superdrive with this pedal. In short it works well with any of the above .I have tried for years to get by with no pedals because the darn things just sounded fizzy to me. This unit doesn't. It will give you a boost either clean or with additional grit. Grit is the key word here. You can always hear your guitar notes just with a little more flavor.This is true whether you're a tube hound or a solid state kind of guy.

It seems to be solid. Most of my stuff through the years has held up so I must be fairly easy on it. With it being a fairly subtle device I could probably just keep on going without it as I am used to just plugging in straight anyway.

Never had a word to say to them as of now.It works!.

I play a little of everything. Light Rock, Some blues. Older country. Whatever. It will give me the grit I like without the LOUD volume.That's a definite plus.
I've been playing for 30 years off and on and I own too much gear!Mainly using this through a Fender Twin Reverb-Mesa Boogie Subway Rocket-Fender Vibrochamp or a Princeton Chorus." If it were swiped I'd probably check out a Reverend Drivetrain II. Chances are I'd be used to the Sparkledrive by then and would replace it.
I love the way it let's my "limited" lead stuff come out clear with just a little grit to it. I'd like to see the knobs recessed for their own safety. I like being able to add the clean boost into the overdrive.That's the reason I gave it a go in the first place.
I didn't like the other stuff I tried. Too numerous to mention over the years.
I would like just a little more gain but I'd probably use too much then.Better leave it alone.
Oh yeah! My wife said it sounded much cleaner than my main amps overdrive. Said it was a lot clearer.That's gotta be a first around here.I've only used it for a couple of weeks but if the sound's there it's there!This one stays here!

Very easy to use. I love it. It does exactly what I want it to do.

Great sound. Doesn't color my sound too much. I use two channel amps. I like the rhythm sound clean and use the overdrive of the amp for solos. Sometimes I need a little dirt on my clean sound. This is where the Sparkle Drive comes in. I use it to dirty up my clean sound without adding volume or color. I use other pedals for dirtier rhythm.

I've only had it for 5 months, but I haven't had any problems.

easy ?oAa|b?oCLEAN?oAu??
?UA??oCLEANAa?i11 o'clock?e|V
An-?CLEAN???a|??@AI?}-? very special
?#?Fclean ?aYL???#?oTS-9?@?E???k

An-?<D?`?z?u|U?M,?e?`?A|X?efunk,?u?_BLUES?]?O|??S|a,?UA??o?oAu?i?U?O>!RANGE<D?`?j,Yu-n?aCLEAN?o??,GAIN?MTONE?#?}?j,An-?<U?},?'?i???????O??ROCK RYTHEM,'NOVERDRIVE|O?Y,SPARKLE DRIVE?g?qTS-9?S?U>!,?U-???-O?H???M>!TS-9??SPARKLE DRIVE|n,?F!?u?O??|??U?F,TS-9An-??k?k?#?z?u,?o?O>!SOLO?E??DYNAMIC?F,?#?LYL?Y?#A'????,?]?#???D?U|b??YL~~<?<?ha ha
SPARKLE DRIVE?IIx??|a?e|b?oYL??CLEAN BOOST!!Y<-??W'XYG?S|??oYL?@?E>u|i??overdrive|?|p|?Ix??CLEAN BOOST,YLYiYH?y?A??CLEAN TONE?U?o<U|??e?P,'N?U???PA?|O?Y'XYG?#?|?eZvax super hard on, ?@Au?o>o|nYI?S?#?Q??OVERDRIVE?@?w-n?R?@?U????

?i?M?O<D?`>Y-nYL.....I really rely on it very much!! ?U??|U|O?{?R?aAu|e|b?@?_YI,?@Au?iCLEAN BOOST?uCLEAN TONE,Yt?@Au?iOVERDRIVEYI

?RVOODOO LAB?A?G?? YL?#?|?????@?u???YCD ?y?A?]?a?Y?Y?aYL?#<~ ?Z?K?????A?E

?F?oAu?u?O?y?UA??oamazing wonderful,YL?i?o?U?O>!?u?O???uperfect, |p?G?A?O??FUNK, rock, rocking blues,?#<D?`?A|X,?a?eYu-n?#??METAL?#YiYH?OYo,sparkle drive?'?i?O?A?Y??TS-9?Q'<?@Au?I?I???i?U,?I<a????|h?@AIYx?W?H?I???e?H?a?O?o?IYI?????o?i?N?#,?????C-^???#?O|n??????|P-M|?|h?@AI???e?T, YA~~ Chinese Rules!!

it is really super simple.Turn the clean up for a nice boost that will add some some punch to your sound. Turn the gain up for... well... gain. COOL PART COMING UP IN SOUND QUALITY
V V V

I have a Epihone les paul and a custom strat going to > danelectro cpmpressor > original crybaby > Sparkle drive > boss metalzone > Dod chorus> danelectro pscho flange> Marshall AVT50. Overall if you are looking for a cool overdrive that sounds really really nice and smooth and gives you punchy sustaining solos, go with the Ibanez tube screamer. It is a little bit better than the sparkle drive. BUT... If you want a pedal that not every single person has, one where you can mix the gain and clean (you can hear both sounds seperate from each other it is GREAT for adding a little snap to your solos.) Don't get me wrong it stills sounds really warm, really vintage, but the tube screamer just has a little something extra. If you wondering why I didn't get the tube screamer, its because is didn't react well with my amps overdrive. You have to hear this clean gain mixing. Its awsome!!!! This pedal has silent switching, and true bypass. I am pretty sure its analog too. GO TO GUITAR CENTER TRY THEM!!!!!!!! AND THEN WHEN THE COUNTER GUYS AINT LOOKIN' STUFF THEM BOTH IN YOU PANTS AND WALK CASUALLY OUT OF THE STORE.

seems super solid

This pedal won't give you metal if your looking for that.
Try the tube screamer as well.

The pedal is very simple to use. Plug n play.

I use it as a pre-amp to hit the front end of my Marshall DSL201 combo or Marshall stack, or Fender Super Reverb. It sounds great in front of any of them. It opens up your sound, making the amp more harmonic and responsive to your playing. I think it is the easiest pre-amp out there, turn down the overdrive and turn up the clean output for the clean boost you want to get the strat singing or the Les Paul crankin'.

The mail order company sent it with the wrong power adaptor and it fried it. Not Voodoo Labs fault. The mail order company sent me another one with the correct adaptor and its great.

Never spoke to Voodoo about the power supply issue, it wasnt'their fault.

Works great, sounds great, easy to use. Everyone uses a pre-amp to hit a tube amp to get better tone. Get a Sparkle Drive and live.

This Pedal Rules! for specs and sound samples go to musictoyz.com

I use this pedal in front of a fender pro reverb and a G&L Legacy and this is te sound I've been looking for, ths will give you SRV, Hendrix, trower and much much more, You can dial in a clean sound with the distortion, it's like playing through two amps, simply the best pedal I've ever heard,I traded in a Fulltone for this puppy w/ no regrets

Just got it, don't know

?

I've been playing for 40 years plus and been through every piece of gear out there, some I wish i never got rid of & could find again.Been through all the Amp modeling gear, line six, Tech 21, johnson etc.and it's gonna be a long time before they come even close to a good tube amp with a good stomp box. I've bought the Voodoo Labs sparkle drive, super fuzz and analog chorus and they are "BAR NON" he best sounding pedals I have ever heard, and guess what, they are
inexpensive considering the price for value ratio
traded a fulltone which sounded good, but for my tastes the Vodoo Labs rules, if these pedels were lost or stolen, I would instantly replace them after I hunted down the dirty rotten scoundrels who stold
them and....well,i don't want to think about losig them.
Cheers!

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