Positive Grid Spark MINI Vai review – the perfect practice amp for shredders?
$229/£210, positivegrid.com
We here at Guitar.com have been consistently impressed by Positive Grid’s many Spark offerings – the first mainline Spark showed promise, but then the brand just kept on making tiny amplifiers that sound like they’re ten times their size, all controlled by an app that actually works. These amps have drastically raised the bar for portable, battery-powered smartphone-driven practice amps – so, let’s just say it’s fairly intriguing when such a brand collaborates with none other than Steve Vai for its first signature amp.
READ MORE: Best practice amp solutions for all styles and budgets – from combos to headphone amps
So what do you get with the MINI Vai over a regular Spark MINI? Well, there’s that Mandala front grille design, which is rather fetching even if it does make the cube-shaped amp somewhat resemble the Hellraiser puzzle-box. More importantly, you have all of the same modelling functionality as a regular Spark MINI, but the four presets accessible via the front panel have been designed by Mr Vai himself – and seemingly named after his hot sauce collection: Fresh, Mild, Hot and Fire. The rest is as standard – the incredibly impressive hardware and software is all still here, so let’s examine those presets a little closer.
Image: Press
Fresh
Fresh is a fairly standard approach to a clean sound – you’ve got a compressor running into a JC-120-style amplifier, followed by a little chorus, delay and reverb. It’s as sparkly and pristine as you’d expect. But the inclusion of a compressor here is good as it makes sure there’s still punch to your playing.
Mild
Mild is a rather lovely low-gain overdrive sound – there’s a Klon-style drive going into a Tweed-style amplifier, with a little bit of tape delay on the end for good measure. It’s quite a midrange-forward tone, which I’m a big fan of – it makes some bluesy lead playing very vocal and expressive. Good stuff!
Hot
With hot we leap into fairly high-gain territory – there’s a dimed overdrive running into a vintage tube amp. It’s a controlled sound, and pretty good for rhythm – or… it would be, but once again a heavy-handed smattering of delay and reverb has been applied at the end of the signal chain. Sounds good for lead, but given that Fire is also soaked in reverb and delay, it would have perhaps been prudent to reserve at least one hardware slot for a dryer sound. But overwriting the preset with a version without ‘verb and delay is easy in the app, as we’ll explore, so it’s not exactly a dealbreaker.
Fire
And yes, as you’d expect, Fire is indeed super saturated and super-soaked in expansive reverb and an almost full-wet plate delay. It’s absolutely great fun to noodle about on this sound, even if it is completely and tastelessly overwrought. You don’t switch to a sound like this for subtlety!
And if none of these four presets tickle your tastebuds, you can always edit them, make your own patch or download someone else’s sounds with…
The App
It’s worth noting some context here as I dive into the app that I have a rather testy relationship with any piece of gear that requires you to get your phone out. For me a smartphone screen is the last thing I want anywhere near my guitar playing experience, and great gear makers can still be less-than-great app developers. Some great products have been left with buggy, inconsistent and unintuitive apps to control them.
But, the Spark MINI has effectively no controls on the amp itself, beyond volume and the preset selector. And Positive Grid is therefore well aware that the app has to function as smoothly as possible, otherwise they might as well ship you a paperweight. The app is free, takes up a small amount of space on your phone, and, most importantly, functions exactly how you’d expect. Presets save and load quickly. You can search user-made patches without any fuss. You can also play YouTube videos right from the app, with auto-generated chord charts and suggested tone presets. And it all just works. The suite of practice tools are handy, the amp and the effects models all sound like they’re supposed to – it’s an app that totally gets out of your way and just lets you play.
Connectivity-wise, my phone managed to keep a very sturdy connection to the amp once paired. On the rare occasions that it disconnected (normally when I left the room or did something else on my phone for a good while), reconnecting was always a one-press action. Additionally, the app gives you a clear indication of your connection status, including separate indicators for whether you just have a media-playing connection or an amp-controlling connection. This level of insight into what’s actually the problem if there does happen to be one is great, and reflects a generally thorough approach to the whole ecosystem.
AI-generated illustration of Brad Pitt playing a saxophone in the app
AI, AI, oh
Yes, much like the Lament Configuration it so resembles, the Spark MINI Vai has the ability to summon an evil demonic presence from a torturous hell-realm. Or as people keep on insisting we call it, “AI.”
AI and creatives may have gotten off on the wrong foot (you know, thanks to all of the issues), but here it’s a relatively harmless application. Type a prompt, get a preset. The model’s clearly been trained on a batch of “good” presets, as prompting it with complete nonsense still gets you a selection of usable sounds. But ask it for a metal tone and it’ll give you one, ask it for a light overdrive and it’ll give you one.
You also get a reassuring reminder that AI isn’t going to replace actual artists anytime soon, at least not ones with taste. For each prompt the app generates an AI illustration which will be without fail completely and brilliantly hideous. I’m not sure what Brad Pitt playing the saxophone has to do with a clean guitar tone, but if there’s a hint of metal to your prompt, expect something really badass like a demon or a skeleton or like, a demon skeleton thing. With a sword and a guitar. And a gun.
But, this is obviously just a small aspect of the app’s featureset (even if it now takes centre-stage on the control bar) – the core functionality that we’ve already explored and liked with other Spark amplifiers is still here, and still just as good.
AI-generated illustration of metal skeletons in the app
Who is the Spark MINI Vai for?
The obvious answer is basically any Steve Vai fan who wants a practice amp – the Spark MINI is already an exemplary piece of kit, and here the four presets are great fun in themselves, and good starting points for your own shreddy sounds. Additionally, if you just like the stylings, it’s a pretty cool variant of the original Spark MINI – I personally would love to see Positive Grid do some more interesting custom designs!
Spark MINI Vai alternatives
Well, if you don’t like Steve Vai or his visual/tonal sensibilities, the original Spark MINI is still an excellent practice amplifier. Alternatively, there are the other entries into the Spark range – including the second generation of the full-sized Spark.
If you’d rather something else entirely, then perhaps explore the Fender Mustang Micro or the Boss Katana GO for portable practice solutions – or, at the other end of the scale, grab something like a full-sized Boss Katana and a Bluetooth adaptor for smartphone-controlled digital modelling fun, but at giggable volumes!
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