Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive??

[marty_the_westie]

I posted a thread a little while ago about a Boss pedal vs. a Digitech pedal. But now I think I'll just spend the extra $$ and get a top of the line pedal. I've heard that the Sparkle drive is the best. Is this true?? Does anybody play one of these?

 

[MikeRocker]

Re: Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive??

Opinion around here seems to be mixed, but I have one and I love it. It's not good for a ton of distortion, definitely an overdrive pedal, good for dialing in Keith Richards type of grind. Plus it's true bypass. I like a nice punchy sound with a lot of sustain without buzzy distortion, and the Sparkle Drive is great for that.

 

[JimiHWannaBe]

Re: Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive??

you could also consider getting a SD-1 modded by stratdeluxer everyone seems to love his mods.

 

[Hot _Grits]

Re: Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive??

I'm in the negative camp. I played one a/bed next to a couple of tubescreamers, two G2D pedals and a Crowther hotcake and it was the most disappointing sounding pedal of the bunch. Seeing as Crowther or G2D may be hard for you to find, I suggest looking at Keeley modded stuff.

 

[sgstrat]

Re: Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive??

I don't have one but it is on my wish list. If you like the Tube Screamer you'll probably like the Sparkle Drive, plus you will be able to mix in a boosted clean sound as well. I think they're great.

 

[Mac-P]

Re: Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive??

The sparkle drive is one of my all time favorite OD pedals. It is NOT a metal crunch machine. It is a tube screamer type box, with true bypass, that has a "clean" control where you can blend in your direct clean sound with the overdriven sound. So it sounds like two guitars sort of.

The clean part really allows some serious note definition. Great for an SRV sort of thing.

No other box does what it does (that I know of).

 

[hacker]

Re: Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive??

Mac-P turned me on to the sparkle drive and I use it alot. Compared to other TS types, the Sparkle Drive has more bottom end becuase it doesn't compress the tone as much. The OD it adds may be considered a little bright or "fizzy"- and this can be heard when you are mixing the clean sound in, but I think it also adds a certain 3-dimensional quality to the tone. It can get this cool mix of clean and distorted tones, with the distortion seemingly "behind" the clean tone that reminds me of guitars with a piezo pickup that gives electric and acoustic tones simultaneously. It also has a bit more drive than either of my tubescreamers.

 

[HamerPlyr]

Re: Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive??

I agree with those that have applauded the Sparkle Drive. I think that the really cool thing about it is the ability to dial in the clean tone to add definition and bandwidth to a good overdriven tone. It's not for the metalheads, it's not that kind of distortion. If you're looking for more of the traditional overdriven tones, I think that you should definitely give it a serious listen.

 

[Biu]

Re: Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive??

DOH! Didn't know there was already a thread on this :smack:

 

[Naps]

Re: Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive??

I find that no matter what the setting of the amp (clean, distortion, whatever) I can almost always make it sound better by switching on the sparkle drive. I love it, but I don't really use it that much. The sparkle drive and my vox wah are about the only pedals I use with any consistancy.

It really adds definition and punch IMO.