Lunchbox amps 2023

[Bent out of shape]

My katana Air has lasted over 3 years, and been fantastic,  however showing signs of wear. Just wondering what alternatives there might be now, the spark was the first thought that came to mind.

any suggestions welcome!

[Dinosaur David B]

What's the use case? What do you need it to do?

[Bent out of shape]

Killing high gain sounds at low volumes, delay,  reverb in  particular. Understand the spark has drum bass accompaniment options, unsure how this works, but sounds good. Wireless ideally, that's it really 

[Dinosaur David B]

Killing high gain sounds at low volumes, delay, reverb in particular. Understand the spark has drum bass accompaniment options, unsure how this works, but sounds good. Wireless ideally, that's it really
 

Given above, I assume you mean for bedroom practice rather than live or recording. 

The Spark's not wireless, but you can run wireless to it just fine if you have a set of Xvive's or similar. Can't really go wrong with a Spark (and they have multiple sizes now). Thousands of amps/effects etc, play along with anything from your phone. Backing tracks are pretty simple, but don't expect brilliance. It's not hard to use, and they update the software frequently. 

I have the Spark but, I use my Boss WAZA Air headphones more. They're great for practice or whatever and have some freaky cool surround sound features (that I don't really use). They probably have the same Roland engine as the Katana (they put the same shit in everything), so you'd have some familiarity there. 

[Bent out of shape]

Thanks David,  yes bedroom practice.  Spark sounds interesting,  presumably adequate gain levels at low volumes?

I may have this wrong but think I read  there's a function  where you can add bass and drums accompaniment to any given riff you might play?

[Dinosaur David B]

The Spark is not ONE amp it's basically the amplification and speaker box and tone controls (you can use it as a nice bluetooth speaker for streaming music). The actual amps and effects come from your phone or tablet. So if you want very high gain, you dial up a very high gain amp. 

There's hundreds of videos on the Spark on YouTube. I suggest you watch some of them. 

[Bent out of shape]

Thanks will do

[Stitsel]

I have a few small practice amps, the Spark Mini is great. It's 4 guitar rigs in one, the way I have mine set up, and I can make it do whatever else.....

Plenty loud for practice & gets the sound at lower volumes too. It sounds pretty damn good & is half the size of an old Pignose. 

The WAZA headphones are pretty cool too, you can't go wrong with either.

[Bent out of shape]

Thanks,  checked videos.  Seems great, will get im sure....the smart jam in particular is a real draw for me. Couple of small concerns.  Appears non wireless, secondly I'm not overly technical and would prefer an option with fairly simple 'point and drive' features, , such as was case with the katana air. 

[Stitsel]

The Spark Mini I have is completely wireless if you have the mini wireless setup like my NU>X B-2 or DDave's Xvive....battery powered & the Spark Control foot switch is wireless bluetooth, a must really. Battery powered, as in plug them in ( both the Spark & FS ) & charge them. The bigger original Spark you need to plug in. This is exactly why I waited for the Mini to come out, I needed something truly portable. You do need your phone handy to open the App & then get the amp to pair with the FS.