Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive

Knobs are self explanatory & most settings are useful.

I have 3 strats all rosewood necks, a '62 reissue japanese fender with no alterations(a quality guitar), a Squier silver series with Texas specials and a mexican with '54 reissue pickups, so it's important to me to retain their excellent clarity of tone. I use a Fender Blues DeVille 4x10 for gigs and an SJB Ant 1x12 with valve reverb,(an excellent 19W all valve british made amp). The only digital effects I use are reverb/delay and lezlie type effects which I find are acceptable for my needs, I use an Alesis Midiverb 4 for this. Setup is Strat>Colorsound wah>Crybaby wah copy>Boss CS-3 Compressor>Home made TS9(Lo drive setting)>Home made TS9(Higher drive setting)>Midiverb4>Amp. (the midiverb is used in front of the Ant and in the effects loop of the DeVille.) All effects are true bypass except for the Boss and Midiverb. I have used the Sparkle drive to replace the 1st TS9 and that's now my backup. I use combinations of the 2 drive pedals and volume on the guitar to vary the mount of drive. Yes I do play SRV stuff, but I play lots of different styles besides, such as Jimi Hendrix, ZZ Top, Robben Ford, Buddy Guy, Offspring, AC/DC, so it ranges from jazzy clean to electric blues to hard rock/punky type stuff, quite a mixed bag really.
The Sparkle drive is very quiet in operation on it's own, but obviously adds a little hiss when used along with other pedals because they have noise of their own so this is expected anyway. Excellent quality overdrive and the clean control is a masterstroke as other users have said. It sounds great with my kit with one reservation, it sounds far better used with the normal channel of my amps as opposed to the bright channel because it sound a bit thin used like that. This is no problem for me, because I use this channel anyway, I find the tone is far better for me. The pedal is a true bypass regardless of what previous doubters have said. The way you can test this is to remove the battery and plug in guitar & amp with it in bypass. If you still get a straight through sound, it's a true bypass, and it does do this. Unpowered electronics will not pass uncoloured signal if any at all, and this does! I have a considerable amount of experience building my own effects and have built Ts9s, fuzzfaces etc all with true bypass features to retain the original guitar tone when bypassed,(I hate fet/electronic switching because it artificially brightens or boosts the sound level, but sometimes you have to put up with it if you have no alternative. I'm referring to the Midiverb of course, which is not too bad I suppose!) so I do know what I'm talking about regarding the points about true bypass. I don't know how they got the LED to work and have true bypass with a DPDT switch, but they have.

The quality of this product is excellent. The individual who criticised the build quality of this pedal must have a problem with spotting genuine quality when he sees it. The comments he made actually contradicted themselves. Yes, the footswitch is PCB mounted, but its also screwed firmly to the box which supports the PCB rather that stressing it. The box is a sturdy metal one, so that's no problem then. The comment about the LED is a puzzle too, board mounted LEDs are far more reliable than flying leads, in fact the more leads you have floating around the more likely it is that one will come off, I have had this happen in one of the pedals that I made, so as far as possible I minimise flying leads. The comment about the connectors is in the same category, you can easily get replacement PCB mount 1/4" jack sockets, and these support the front of the PCB too so I don't understand the concern here. The PCB itself is a quality Fibreglass type board, unlike the crappy, brittle SRBP boards you find in most of the other effects I've looked inside, so this persons critical comments are not really valid. I work in the electronics industry and I know quality components when I see them, and I see them in this pedal. Incidentally I have nothing to do with the company or UK distributors, I used these reviews to decide on whether to buy the product or not, so I have no axe to grind(if you'll pardon the pun)! It's not my intention to criticise the person who sent in the review in question, but his views did aggravate me, because they could mislead people who didn't know any better.
I haven't had it very long, but having seen inside it I would gig this without a backup if I didn't have one.

I haven't needed to contact them so I can't comment here

I have been playing about 15 years and I have been apalled at the cruddy quality of some devices I've seen and I have returned some in disgust before now. It's fantastic to see that there are still companies out there who still care about quality and can do a quality product at a reasonable price. If I lost it etc. I would buy again at the drop of a hat and I will be recommending it to my musician friends into the bargain! Keep it up Voodoo Labs, I'll be checking out some of your other products before long. A comment my wife passed made me chuckle(she's the bass player in our band), She said that the Sparkle Drive looked like something that I would put together, which I thought was an interesting observation, but actually quite accurate I suppose. Although the Sparkle Drive was definitely nicer looking than anything I've put together, limited resources doncha know!

Simple. Like most overdrive units out there.

I have an array of guitars I use but my favorite is the American Deluxe Fat Strat. I use an Ampeg SuperJet(2x6L6 tubes, 2x12AX7 tubes)which is a great amp by the way. It doesn't have an overdrive channel so I use a couple different overdrives. I have two seperate effects chains. The first(in order) Boss BD-2..TS9 Turbo Reissue..Cry Baby Wah..Guyatone Chorus..and a H&K Replex. The other is a Boss CS-3..Sparkle Drive..Line 6 DL-4 and a Boss EQ. I use the first effects chain for most of my lead work. The tone out I get from the TS9 and BD-2 together is just outstanding. I never bypass the replex so it's always on reverb or delay. When I picked up the Sparkle Drive it didn't necessarily blow me away but it is a good pedal. The clean boost is nice. Definatly doesn't sound like two amps, but it does add clarity if used correctly. For me I use it when creating loops on my Line 6 Delay Modeler because it can be set to have that bluesy edge without loosing clarity in chord progressions. I also use it for a lot of riffs when I'm playing with my band. To be honest, I'm an effects junky. I love to try them out and use different ones for a time. But the only one I've ever fallen in love with is the Replex. Running that TS9 though it is the most beautiful thing you'll ever here. I'm into SRV, Dave matthews band, and phish to name a few. I take my influence from almost any music just too stay sharp. And I would say that The Sparkle Drive is very very versitile. Especially if you learn the clean control's function and use it to your advantage.

I have read some junky reviews on this things reliability. I haven't had any problems yet so I'll say it's alright. Feels sturdy.

N/A

I'd say this one is good to buy if you have another overdrive pedal. I wouldn't use it as your only tone source. But some may disagree. Anyhow, if you're into smooth overdrive and you like to hear everynote in those big chords than you'll love this pedal. If you want one that you can use to scream out metallica riffs you won't find it very useful. Try setting it with the gain all the way up, the clean set pointing at the LED(a little less than 50%) and the volume at 12:00(I'm running to a small tube amp through a clean channel). See what you think.

Pedal is very easy to use, four knobs, everything is self explanatory. Easy to tweak on the fly, this unit really does not make a bad sound.

I have five guitars, they are as follows: Gretsch Chet Atkins Tennessean, Fender Custom Shop Strat, Limited Edition Hot Rodded American Series Strat, Yngwie Malmsteen Signature Strat, and a Jackson DK-2 Dinky. I use this pedal only with my strats for a nice bluesy sound. I play through a Blues Jr., a Deluxe Reverb, and a Hot Rod Deville 212, and use the sparkle drive with my Boss Delay Reverb Pedal for some ambience. I have owned several tube screamer type overdrives, and this one is my favorite hands down. The tone is there, it does not make a bad sound. This pedal features a knob that enables you to blend in clean sound over your overdriven sound. This feature is just awesome, you can get anything from a nice smooth saturated blues overdrive, to a clean sound thats just a little hairy around the edges for some bite. The tone control on this pedal is very well balanced, it responds well to tweaking. Great for anything Blues, SRV, Clapton, etc. Pedal does not have a lot of gain, so if you want something really crunchy and in your face, look elsewhere. If you want tone and a great smooth bluesy overdrive, then this is your pedal. This unit uses the same Op amp chip as the ts-808 tubescreamer, like I said earlier, the tone is there!! Best of all, at $119, its no more expensive than all of the other tubescreamer clones on the market, and its HAND MADE IN THE USA!!! Gotta love it!!

This thing has a 5 year warranty like Boss pedals have, and is built like a tank. I expect no problems.

If your after the tube screamer type sound and your tired of everything else on the market, try this thing out, its the best tubescreamer type pedal I have ever heard. Pedal makes a nice variety of blues type sounds, and works great with some nice tube amps and some strats. This unit HELPS ME TO MAKE MUSIC!! GO TRY ONE OUT!!

The Sparkle Drive is very is to use it has 4 knobs Drive,Tone,Clean and Volume.
But I wish Voodoo Lab would make batttery acsess a little easier.

I use a Fender Strat(Noiseless pickups and Boost) through a MXR Dynocomp and the Sparkle Drive through in to either a old Musicman Valve combo,Fender Blues Jr,cheap Yamaha amp or a Boss stage monitor.
You can get a really clean bluesy overdrive with that bottom end crunch.
You can also get those SRV tones.

It seems to be very reliable the knobs are sturdy and the metal casing is tough but I still wished there was easier battery acsess on it.

The customer support sucked on the net I tried getting info off them by sending a E-Mail but they still hav'nt given me a reply.

This is a Voodoo Sparkle Drive bought new a couple of months ago. Fairly easy to get a good sound, although you should have a good idea of what you're in for here... Not a high gain pedal, but one that gives you a moderate buzz ala Walter Becker or John Jennings (Mary Chapin Carpenter's lead guitarist). If you're looking for the big buzz, forget it. Nothing complicated about the pedal, and I'll defer to previous reviewers as far as the features.

I use a disgusting array of guitars, Reverend, Strats, and an old PRS Standard, into a bewildering array of amps (Mesa Mark III, Rivera Jake, and Budda SD 30). So far not nearly as noisy as my previous favorite, the Morley JD10; in fact, this is close to dead quiet. I can now nail lower gain lead sounds like the above mentioned players, along with that infamous SRV stuff, if I needed to.

I'd depend on it, although I can function freely without it if need be. I use it with no backup all the time.

Never had to consult with them...

I don't know much about the old TS808 sound that people crap themselves over; they say it's in this box, with a clean undertone. Whatever. I never really GOT that boutique thing anyway. But this is a great sounding, low gain overdrive that gives you a great tone without much onboard volume knob twiddling, or sweet-spot-locating on your Boss or DOD or Rat distortion box. Tailor made for jazz rock, modern country, or blues players. I REALLY like the clean control, which lets you open up your distortion and lose the boxiness that you get with most overdrive units. This also functions as a pretty decent clean boost for solos, and adds some nice saturation on an amp's distorted channel.

Easy

The Sparkle Drive plugs into a THD Univalve, great overdriven sound. No noise. Sounds like me. Here's a tip, plug this into a Creamy Dreamer, crunchy sustain for days with fantastic definition and no noise!.

Switch got flaky, sent to Voodoo Lab. Sent back to me via UPS at light speed. If only all companies were this way.

See above

Play all styles, have been playing over 20 years. It's a good pedal that is more versatile than a Tubescreamer, but costs around the same. Essential pedal for lots of styles. Would buy again.

This thing is easy to use. It has 4 knobs. Gain, Tone, Clean, and Volume. Doesn't get any easier than this. They are pretty self explanitory, so I won't go into detail.

I am using this with a Fender Strat, a Jackson w/ humbuckers, a solid state Crate, and a small tube amp. It has a little noise with the Strat, but that is expected with single coils. I love the sound this thing puts out. I have not been fortunate enough to use an "808", so I cannot tell if it truly sounds like one. That is Voodoo Lab's disclaimer. The Clean control adds a nice punch to the overall sound. Turn it up too high and the overdrive disappears. Mix it in a little and you get a clean distortion of sorts. It has very good note definition. If you are looking for a metal distortion, go somewhere else. This is great for blues and rock. It sounds sweet with a little chorus. Just get one and see for yourself. Using it as a clean boost is great too. It has enough oomph to overdrive my tube amp. The only thing that would be great is if the Tone control worked on the Clean too. It only works on the Gain. Maybe next time. I have to give it a 9 because there is no perfect pedal.

This thing is rock solid. Built to last. No need for a backup.

N/A

I play mostly in the blues and rock genre with a little funk and jazz mixed in. I would recommend to anyone who is looking for a versatile overdrive pedal to go and buy one. I would definately buy another one under any circumstance. I forgot to mention that it is true bypass. All in all, it is a great pedal for $109.

Since others have submitted complete reviews I will just get to the meat.
First of all, beware that if you see any reviews that tout 100% satisfaction it's probably been submitted by the manufacturer, or someone close. I have had problems and because of these, it is difficult to troubleshoot and use.

I have tried this with mostly tube amps, and I can say it does do OK when it works.
When the unit is off, the signal drops out and I have to nudge it on the floor to get the signal back. So something that sounds like an 8 is really a 1 when it constantly gos intermittent.
I've tried other cords, so I decided to open it and have a look. Let me tell you what I found.

On examination of the unit I found the footswitch to be board mounted, all of the pots are soldered to another board and flex wired to the main board. The connectors are also soldered to the main board, and they are the crummy PC mout style. You can't service these. If your plug is not hitting the contacts right, them it will drop out signal. Even the LED is soldered to the board.

They seem to be responsive since I have heard this from other reviewers, but why should I have to servive a unit I paid 100+ for?
I think many of these manufacturers need to wake up and realize that mass manufacturing techniques applied to overpriced effects pedals is not a good way to insure their future. Of course there will always be the new unsuspecting customer that they thrive off of.

If I sound harsh, it's because I think they deserve it. If they intend to apply mass manufacturing techniques, they should do failure analysis or something before pushing it off on the consumer. They way after 1000 hr of analysis, they would find what I found in 5 minutes.

I don't think I'll buy from them again.

I have to say, at first I didn't like this pedal and was considering sending it back, but after some tweaking I came to like this pedal. I think that this is due to the fact that I am a very impatient person, I just expected it to sound good right away.
The clean boost works really well with tube amps.

I mainly use this pedal with 2 different amps, a 50 watt Marshall 2x12 combo, and a Carvin X60B 1/2 stack.
For guitars, I use a Strat, a Gibson SG, and a couple of old '80s Kramers, and it sounds great with all of them.
It is not a high gain distortion pedal at all, but it's a nice overdrive pedal. With my strat, I can pretty much nail Stevie Ray Vaughans sound (but not his technique).

As far as I can see, it's built pretty well, I have only had it a couple of weeks, so who knows.

Never dealt with Voodoolabs.....

I play blues and hard rock, and this pedal suits these styles pretty well, although I do have other pedals on my board.
I have to agree with the others who say the knobs are too close together, but it's not a big problem.
I compared it to the Ibanez TS9 tube screamer and I think it is a much better pedal.

Bog standard operation, can you turn knobs?, then you can use this pedal. It gets only 9 'cos the knobs are too close together

I run Peavey Wolfgangs into a recently purchased Heartbreaker Combo. Set-up as follows: Guitar>Akai Vari-wah>Sparkle drive>MXR Phase 100>Boss LS2>Boss Pedal tuner>Boss CE2>Boss BF2>BossDD3>Boss NS2>Amp.
I brought the Sparkle drive to beef up Heavy sounds on the amp but without changing the Amps superb tone. Suffice to say, it does this and then some.This is surely one of the most organic sounding OD units out there, it will not colour your sound but it will enhance it.Do not buy pedals to make you sound like other players as they will not. Use your imagination and try to sound like YOU!

At one hundred english pounds it had better be reliable, but based on Voodoo Labs rep, I would be suprised to have any Problems

Never dealt with them

I play in a Rock/Blues Covers band, and we try to to put our own slant on songs rather than reproduce them exactly. I have been playing for 20 years and have a great many influences but I have always tried to sound like ME!.I believe that this pedal is one of the best ever, but decry people talking about the SRV Tone, by all means try one and buy one but please do not think it will make you sound like any of the well known TS9 users 'cos it will not.Be happy,be intuitive and BE YOURSELF, that is how great music is made.

It's an easy pedal to figure out, and the one-sheet instructions explain it all; the gain only affects the OD amp, etc. Once I got the concept down in my head, the controls made perfect sense. Other reviews go over the control functions so I won't bother. I do agree that the small knobs are a bit unwieldy, but only compared to other Voodoo Labs pedals--definitely less so than a Boss or Ibanez pedal

My setup:
Guitars: G&L ASAT Z3, EB/MM hardtail Silhouette w/HSS EMGs, old Steinberger GL w/HH and TransTrem.
Amp: I've ditched them all except for my 1X12 Boogie Mark I reissue combo.

The Sparkle Drive is very quiet in operation and in bypass. While I agree with another reviewer that this effect cannot be "true" bypass, it is a pristine bypass and shouldn't be overlooked on this technicality.

The overdrive effect is excellent. I don't worship at the temple of Tubescreamer, so I can't compare. I would describe the overdrive tone as ranging from "a little dirty" to "hot." Yes, there are no metal tones, but I know enough from reading about Tubescreamers that when a pedal advertises its sound to be similar to a TS, I should not expect metal tones.

Here's my take on the clean control: I am a one-amp player, but I played for over a decade in a band where the other guitarist always went stereo. He could have one amp running with low gain and another with high gain; the sonic characteristics of his guitar and his picking came through. THIS is what the Sparkle Drive does for me--it gives me one of the benefits of playing with two amps while only using one.

After searching for my perfect tone for many years, I've finally settled on a formula: I set the Mark I on "Tweed" and keep it clean so I have instant access to a clean tone (It is not a channel-switching amp, but none that are have come close to matching the Mark I's tone). I got out from my guitar into a Teese RMC-1, a vintage Dyna Comp modded with a 3PDT, a Tech 21 XXL (for more extreme distortion tones), the Sparkle Drive, a Voodoo Labs Micro Vibe and an Ernie Ball Volume Pedal. Power is from a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power. Depending on the song I'm playing, I'll tweak the Sparkle Drive to either use it to dirty up my sound (say, for a rock song with arpeggios), give me a bluesy distortion, or to boost the XXL.

The Sparkle Drive matches up best with single coils in any position. The "twang" of my Z3 can be preserved and give me a great country sound with just a little bit of dirt.

I also use a Boss VF-1 for headphone practice and the Sparkle Drive works great in this capacity as well.

I must stress again that this is not an all-in-one pedal--the amount and type of distortion is not suitable for styles where a Wes Borland or Kirk Hammett type of sound is required.

I've owned a bunch of Voodoo Labs gear (Pedal Power, Proctavia, Micro Vibe, Sparkle Drive) and have played with others who have owned Voodoo gear, including the Ground Control system. Neither they nor I have ever had any problems. My only beef is that the battery isn't held securely enough in the housing, but since I don't use batteries, it's not going to be an issue for me.

Voodoo pedals seem designed for players who mount their effects on a pedal board. There are no rubber feet, just a sheet of thin rubber stuck on the bottom. I DO use a board, so I just take of the rubber and put on the Velcro. If I were just putting this pedal on the floor, I don't think the rubber would last long.

I have dealt with Voodoo Labs via e-mail and they were very responsive and polite. I bought this and all my other Voodoo Labs gear through musictoyz and that guy has been great, too.

I play many styles of music, including punk, metal, country, lounge, pop, disco, and polka. The Sparkle Drive is already proving to be the most valuable effect in my arsenal, whether as a solo boost in a metal song or to give a pop song just a little bit of edge.

I've been playing for around 21 years and have owned an embarassing amount of gear, including solid state, digital, and tube amps and effects.

If some bastard stole this or if I was stupid enough to loose it, I would buy another in a heartbeat--this one is a keeper for sure!

This is without a doubt one of the most musical guitar effects I have ever played. I would love to see a future version with high-gain distortion--I'd use both!

Front-mounted jacks and LED definitely a plus. Four-knob operation; only drawback for me was that once I got the knobs where I wanted them, it was too easy to bump one out of position while tweaking its neighboring knob. Minor issue...

First of all, those of you with solid-state amps: this will work! I demo'd this on my Roland JC-77 and was pleased. I wasn't looking to overdrive my preamp here; not a good idea on solid-state. The clean boost is transparent, with plenty of gain, but what I was looking for was the "in-between" distortion sounds. I like the Larry Carlton/Robben Ford/Mike Bloomfield tones. I don't have the need for clean boost; I use a volume pedal. However, if you want to slam the front end of a tube amp, it does it very well. I tried that on my Mesa Boogie Subway Rocket...Regarding the quality of the distortion: very smooth and round. You can make it edgier (and increase the sustain) by cranking up the tone knob. Sounded much less boxy than the lead mode on the Rocket. Very nice sound. The draw for me with this box was the ability to mix clean with dirt, and capture those elusive "in-between" sounds. It didn't do that to my satisfaction: just not enough sustain...

Beautifully made. All the others reviews give this a high rating. Will give it a nine based on reputation. Yes, would use it without a backup.

No experience here...

Been playing almost 40 years. (Anybody catch the Mike Bloomfield reference?) Played professionally for twenty. Enjoy all styles, but consider myself a rock/r&b player. Use a Zion strat with Seymour Duncans (lots of switching options) and an Ibanez 335-type, also with Seymour Duncans. I am addicted to the Roland's stereo chorus. Been using it since they came out, and have gone thru a number of distortion/od pedals looking for the right one. Had the original TubeScreamer and didn't realize it would become a collector's item. Good unit. Used a ProCo Rat for a long time. Still use a Scholtz Distortion Generator occasionally. Unit of choice has been the original Hughes & Kettner Tubeman. Haven't been able to improve on that so far. Bought the Subway Rocket off Ebay on a whim. Like it a lot, but that's another review. I didn't keep Sparkle Drive. Bought it from Musictoyz.com, just to try them (him, it's a one-man operation) out. No problems with the return. Just not enought sustain for me. Wanted to submit this review as way of saying thanks to all those that have contibuted; I have spent many hours reading the critiques of effects, guitars, and amps. It's nice to have a perspective other than the magazine reviews...

Fairly simple operation.....takes a little tweaking to get it just right for personal taste(as with any product)

Im using a les paul standard and a rivera knucklehead 100.The dirty rhythm channel resembles an old marshall kind of sound and in my opinion,this pedal works perfect with that.The biggest advantage of this pedal over the "tubescreamer"is the clean knob.It really delivers notes that are very "defined".

havent had it long enough to tell but it seems like its built well.

havent needed any yet....

I play heavy new alternative and classic rock.Fits nice for what I do.

It's a "no-brainer" to get a good sound out of the Sparkle Drive. You have gain, tone, clean, and volume controls to noodle with. Go for it! A simple one page instuction form came with it - but honestly, it wasn't necessary and if you NEED one...you shouldn't be playing.

I own at present: A maple-top, goldtop PRS Standard with Dragon II pickup's, Yamaha 904 (USA made) Pacifica with custom Seymour Duncan's,
Fender Roadhouse Strat with Texas Specials and a 1987 G&L ASAT Special. My amp is a 1999 65 Twin Reissue. With each guitar there's a sweet spot for sue, but my joy is I got what I was looking for - a pedal that kicks out blues tones with clarity and tone. I'm not after my favorite artist's sounds, but my own. However, this pedal gives you the best SRV clone job out there in an instant. My number one goal was to has a fat clean tone with just an edge of OD. You can get high gain if you want it too. High marks for not sounding as "transitorized" as a Tube Screamer does.

Very rugged case and switch. I'm not worried about it breaking.

Haven't had a reason to call yet.

I play all styles and I get all the OD sound I need for jazz, blues and country styles. If I want super crunch and metal I'll use my SansAmp box. I've been playing for 36 years. I definitely want another one if this one disappears. One way they could improve on it is to have a seperate stomp button to kick in the clean boost. I'm so glad I waited out the 7 weeks it was on back order.

Just like any other OD (gain, tone, volume) except it has the clean "blend" control, which is the whole reason for this pedal's existence. Dialing in the right amount of clean can take a little tweaking, but once set, I think it works for varied levels of gain.

WOW! This thing should have been invented a long time ago. The blend control makes this thing the most useful OD pedal, IMO. I am using it with a strat and tele with a twin reverb (JBLs) and a princeton reverb. The twin is far too loud to get dirty tone at a reasonable volume. The sparkle drive allows you to get some smooth overdrive without losing the attack, snap, and feel of the guitar you're playing.

All other ODs I've tried color the guitar sound too much and give an unnatural muffled sound to the string attack. The clean control lets you add in a bit (or a lot) of uncolored guitar tone to restore bottom end and string feel. If you dime the blend, the pedal becomes a fully transparent clean boost. Plus, it is true bypass, if that matters to you. Why spend $300 for a Klon when this does the same and much more? I hate to give a 10, but its about GD time somebody made something like this!

Brand new, but looks to be built like a tank.

Never dealt with.

I play country, blues, and rock and roll with fender guitars and amps. This pedal is the holy grail for me. Never before have I purchased a new effect and knew instantly it was EXACTLY what I wanted- until now. If you want your amp to sound like it should at less than ear splitting levels, this pedal can do it, plus more. The versatility is amazing. It can be a tubescreamer, a clean boost, or anything in between. It sounds good through a cranked amp, or one turned down to 1- few ODs can do this. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

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.