Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive Guitar Effect Pedal

The original Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive really is a classic overdrive pedal that doesn't get the appreciation now in 2016 that it probably deserves. In addition to being a solid TS-808 overdrive circuit, the major innovation of the Sparkle Drive is a "blend" knob that adds in your bypassed clean tone to the end result. So you can mix and match varying degrees of your clean signal with the overdrive. This opens up a lot of possibilities, since your clean tone is likely to be bassier and more percussive than the compressed, mid-focused sound of a Tubescreamer circuit. I love the pedal with my Vox AC10C1 - it has a great chime to its clean tone with just a bit of grit, so blending that in with a smooth overdrive really makes for a complex and beautiful sound.The "Mod" version of the Sparkle Drive adds a few different modes, and my understanding is that they basically adopted popular mods people were doing with the original Sparkle Drive. I use the original and "1" setting the most. The "1" setting is basically a fuller modded version of the original 808 overdrive. I have less experience with "2" and "3" - I recall that one of them is a more scooped overdrive and may also offer more gain. Those settings didn't sound bad, but they weren't anything I would use with regularity.My slight complaint/concern about the "Mod" version of the Sparkle Drive has to do with the knobs and durability. I think the bypass switch is fine, but the knobs have some wobble to them, especially the mod selector knob. I'm not a gigging musician, so I'm able to baby my gear, but I'm not expecting "BOSS-like" durability from this thing, and for the price, that's probably something they should have offered. I would also note that this is a not a compact pedal - it's definitely wider than a BOSS pedal, and they probably could have done a better job using the real estate on the front of the pedal, given that the knobs are quite thin. On the plus side, it has a transparent Plexiglass cover on the facing, which gives it a unique and updated look over the old model.

I received this pedal yesterday and finally had the chance to plug it... Wow... I'll be honest the reason I purchased it is because I played it through a buddy's rig and fell in love. I currently own: ibanez mini tube screamer, wampler clarksdale, voodoo labs superfuzz, and now the sparkle drive mod. The Clarksdale and the Sparkle Drive are my favorite and each have their own used - I think the Sparkle Drive is slightly more versatile and has a few more applications but the Clarksdale really nails that creamy vintage blues tone. Between the 4 different mod settings the Sparkle Drive gives you a pretty wide selection of tone. The clean blend knob is also a huge tool. I'm a professional touring musician and play a lot of gear, the sparkle drive is amazing.Gear Rundown: I have 2 Gisbon Les Paul Standards (2003 & 2016), 57' Strat limited edition Reissue, and an ibanez prestige. My 2 main amps are an EVH iii 2x12 50 combo and an Engl Powerball 100watt head w/ matching cab. I run my signal into a wampler Ego Compressor prior to the over drives and in the efx loop I have a Morley Volume, TC Arena, Wampler Tape Echo, and Isp decimator.The EVH I love for smaller gigs and it sounds amazing BUT it seems that the ENGL Powerball takes pedals better (especially over drives). Don't plug an OD into a line 6 spider and complain it sounds thin... Get a real amp.Conclusion: I'm really excited about this pedal! I play in a hard rock band but I have a huge infatuation with blues: SRV, Bonamassa, Gary Moore, Guthrie Govan, Alex Hutchings, etc. this pedal can get you that creamy smooth super clean tone that somehow is still distorted. Clean playing helps. As always see if you can demo one prior to purchase but if you know what you want this pedal is a keeper!

I like this pedal! It sounds almost like my Ibanez 808. i use this pedal with my American standard tele with dimarzio twang king neck and chopper in the bridge and into a vox ac30 c2 run slightly on the dirty side. This pedal made my vox sound like a fender amp. Very good for blues. This pedal has 4 modes and I find them all to be usable but I tend to stick with the regular mode cuz that's where it sounds the best. The rest of the modes has sort of a preset frequency and gain structure which is cool but still i like this pedal in regular mode. Because of that I should've just bought a regular sparkle drive. This pedal has the clean mix feature which is good idea for dialing the mix of distortion to clean very fast. However I can simply do practically the same thing by balancing the levels between the gain knob and output knob. Overall this is a good pedal with a few options to Dial in your desired overdrive. I still think my ts 808 sounds better though. I also have a bb preamp pedal and in my opinion is a lot more versatile than the sparkle dive mod. And that pedal doesn't have modes. Just 4 knobs to tweak and you can practically dial in any kind of overdrive pedal, i should do a review on that. Ha!

Excellent tube screamer / overdrive / distortion, yet not for heavy and trash metal rhythms, however, brilliant warm drive for both rhythms and solos, If you haven't tried before to play chords with both a driven and clean channels, you should try this feature in this pedal.You think you can't shred unless using a high gain distortion? you should try good tube screamers and overdrives, and this pedal is one of the best.I know the Zen Drive gets all the praise, but with the cool clean feature, and the 4 mods, this one for sure wins specially with it's price.Above all, It LOOKS AMAZING with the Glass Top, you'd better be careful while stepping on it with your foot.

I initially had some noise problems, but I found I had the output volumeup too much. I'm a Jazz player and was interested to hear than JonathanKreisberg uses one. I liked the idea of a tubescreamer effect I could blendwith my clean sound and it seems to work well once you've tweakedthe settings.

Great quality. Works well with my guitar.