Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive Mod Overdrive Pedal Reviews

I didn't by this one from Sweetwater, as a friend had a used one I scarfed up. Man, this thing is SERIOUSLY underrated. First of all, like the Blessed Mother, JHS's Moonshine, and a few other overdrive pedals, this has a wet/dry mix control (they call it 'clean') which takes you from 100% overdrive to 100% clean. EVERY overdrive pedal should have this! You get to have a thick, harmonically dense and tasty sound and still retain note and pick transient detail in chords (hence the 'sparkle' in the name. I don't know if they were the first to do this, but I believe they were among the first. It's a prerequisite for me from now on ANY pedal I buy, and, for the life of me, I don't know why reverbs, delays, modulation pedals etc. have all had it for years, but only a few overdrive pedals do.

On top of that, the 4 mods are quite useful (well, 3 of the 4 are for me - the 3rd position (which is position 2, because they oddly number 'em from 0-3) sounds squashed and nasty, but I can see how it'd cut through a mix and work for things like shred-metal.

On top of that, The second position (mod position 1, LOL), has a really great shimmery/warbling quality to it. It reminds me of when I saw The Clash way back in the 80's, and their Marshalls were on the verge of melting down - a similar shimmer/warble emanated from them that I'll never forget. At any rate, I CANNOT get this sound out of my fancy, muy expensive Golden Boy (which I seriously underuse, as I mostly use it in Bluesbreaker mode). No way I can tweak that 'all in one', super-sophisticated overdrive to do what this much cheaper box does - and the Golden Boy has no wet/dry 'clean' blend either. I'm seriously thinking of buying another one of these and selling the Golden Boy.

This pedal flies under the radar, it doesn't have a serious 'boutique' vibe, and I think the graphics suck, and the tiny knobs seem silly (although the feel on them bespeaks of good quality pots), but it's a friggin' great pedal!

The Voodoo Labs Sparkle Mod overdrive has four of legendary overdrives on one pedal; all useable and all sound stellar. I'm not a pedal guy and have been playing professionally for 58 years so I've seen everything that's come down the pike. There is always a "flavor of the day" but this is something different. I currently play a Rivera Fandango through a Revsound 212 or in stereo through a 1966 Fender Pro Reverb or Vox AC10 separated with a Boss CE1 (the CE1 is always in the signal chain and although I don't use the chorus or vibrato often in a night it adds something and yes I've tried all the chorus pedals thinking something smaller and newer could be as good. Well, it can't. ) The Rivera provides everything I need on it's own but when using the Pro Reverb on it's own (or VOX) I need something to kick it for some things. The Sparkle Mod does it all: blues overdrive to Dire Straits and Steely Dan. The Mod also features something unusual. The ability to mix your clean and processed signal and with the 4 available ODs this is a game changer. It's also from Voodoo Labs and if you've ever dealt with them, like Sweetwater they have exceptional customer support. Just get one. You won't be disappointed that I am quite sure of.

I play a 64' Princeton and sometimes, for our five piece band, even that's too loud. The Sparkle Drive gives a very nice, slightly overdriven tone without adding a ton of compression or peeling off the high end. I can get a nice break up without jacking the volume. My tone is boosted but it retains that "sparkle". It's a fantastic clean boost.

I still use a Muff Pi or Park Fuzz for the heavier fuzz tones. For my mildly overdriven tones, Sparkle Drive is fantastic.

I've also used the Sparkle Drive a ton in my acoustic rig. If you want that "Nirvana Unplugged" album tone, this is the pedal for that.

I'm surprised it's nit more popular. Great pedal!

My wife bought this for me for my birthday because she liked the name and the graphics. At first I was like, what the heck is this? but after plugged it in and messed with the knobs, I realized that it was completely indispensable. This is the only pedal on my board that is pretty much always on. It makes your clean tone super punchy, adding only the amount of dirt you want. I've also found that it makes a less-than-great amp sound way better. If you favor cleaner guitar tones, this pedal is absolutely wonderful. It also works great as a boost for soloing on a distorted channel.

The clean blend knob is the kind of thing you didn't know you needed but can never go back to not having. All drive pedals should have this knob. Awesome drive pedal. Love the sound.

Believe it or not, I bought this a couple of years ago for an acoustic unplugged thing we were doing. It worked out nicely for copying Nirvana’s Unplugged album tones and getting that hard-to-find acoustic crunch. It saw a lot of use that summer in the local brewpubs. I recommend it as an effective acoustic guitar stomp-box. Actually, because of the clean mix, it’s one of the only drive pedals that won’t destroy your acoustic tone.

The acoustic project ended when our singer left for an established tribute act and the pedal got stored. Fast forward 18 months or so and I just picked up a Twin Reverb Tone Master from Carson at Sweetwater. I bought the Twin for the clean tones and didn’t want to just drop a tube screamer in the front end and call it a day. I wanted something more subtle. I wanted clean but with a little more sustain and just a touch of dirt. I remembered the VL Sparkle Drive Mod, dug it out and threw it on the front of my small pedal board.

Within a minute or two I was able to dial up the perfect, full, semi clean, crunchy sparkly overdrive tone I had in my head. I matched the volumes, set the tone and that was it. You can barely tell when it kicks in but when it dies, it’s good! I have every Tube Screamer, Fulltone OCD, EH Fuzz, Muff Pi and yellow Boss overdrive ever made. I can tell you, without hesitation, the Sparkle Drive is different but in a very good way. It totally deserves to be in the ranks of the best p, most used overdrives made.

The "Clean" blend feature is what this pedal is all about. It is truly amazing. Why don't other dirt boxes have this feature? High quality pedal, solidly built, look better in person than in the pics. Sounds amazing!

This is the most versatile overdrive I"ve ever played. I play mostly on Sunday mornings and have always struggled to get the right amount of dirt without drowning out my cleans. This pedal solves that problem. It"s super responsive to volume adjustments as well. I highly recommend this pedal for anybody playing any style. It"s amazing and easy on the wallet.

thank you dontae and all you wonderful brothers and sisters at sweetwater got this baby in the mail in 2 days free shipping AWESOME plugged in and wow it adds sparkle to my stratacaster stevie rae vaughn all day grand funk railroad in the bag if your looking for classic rock with some sparkle on the high end this pedal is for you and works awesome as a tube screamer on my tube amps overdrive i dont care for 2 and 3 settings a little fizzy for me but the #1 and #2 settings are more than enough price pretty darn good i give this pedal 5 stars because it adds clarity to my tone and makes my blackstar ht20 studio head sound amazing thanks agagin guys

I play in a Church band so it's important that my clean sound be warm and pristine.
I use a tele and I am able to have a large clean sound and mix in a moderate amount of raging distortion in the background which really makes me happy and doesn't alarm the church folk. Sounds great. Exactly what I was looking for.

I don't understand why this pedal is not much more popular. After the price drop, it's an insane bargain. I bought mine over two years ago at the original price and I feel like it was a steal.
Made In The U.S.A. and still affordable!
I love the versatility of this pedal, it goes from 808 to ds1 with two stops in between and sounds as good as or better than the originals.
I will say it has a midhumped voice that lends itself better to live gigging and practicing than playing alone, in other words, it cuts through a mix well.
The clean blend is of course, a great feature. There are other overdrive pedals that have this feature as well nowadays, even though I think the original Sparkle Drive was the first. But they are all more expensive that the SPD and many are not Made In The U.S.A.
Voodoo Labs has also proven to be a great company to deal with should the need arise. My daughter used the registration card as a coloring book so I sent an email asking for a new card and they responded the very next morning informing me that they had taken my information from the email and that my product was registered. They have a 5 year warranty to boot
Excellent company, excellent product. I don't think I bought it from Sweetwater, but if I was buying it today I would.

The most important thing I can say is versatility. This is my first voodoo lab effect, but if they are all built to this quality it definitely will not be my last. Pedal is built like a tank and sounds great through my hot rod deluxe. It doesn't take away from the tone of your guitar like some overdrive pedals I've owned, it enhances it. With the switchable mods, you should be able to find that sound your looking for. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a overdrive. Thank you again sweetwater for the excellent service.

The sparkle MOD pedal is a high quality, sturdy pedal with a variety of tones. You may find yourself wanting another one for your pedal board just to tap into more sweet tones! The clean function is what makes this pedal stand out from other overdrives. If you just give the pedal a tiny turn on the 'clean' knob, you will get the SRV tone with ease, even if you are playing with humbuckers. SRV ran a few amps at a time to get that clarity to his tone. This pedal will do that job perfectly without having to run a multi amp setup. This is the holy grail of overdrive tones.

I purchased this pedal to add overdrive/distortion to my Takemine acoustic at gigs. I know, overdrive on acoustics is a matter of personal preference, but my situation requires it. The pedal came highly recommended, and it doesn't disappoint. Various levels of distortion are available via a quick knob turn, as are other tones. It's not overly expensive, and does the job intended quite nicely.

I was ready for a "meh" moment when I plugged in the new Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive Mod that arrived just two days after placing my order with Jeremy. A Tube Screamer design with a blendable Clean Boost could win fans in a hurry, but respected friends had suggested it was a great idea that never paid off.

I dropped it into my pedal chain, after the modded Dyna Comp, before the Boss RE20. Flipped the switch on the Egnater Rebel 20, put the 5 position switch on my '98 Telecaster Plus in the middle and started to play. Dialed in some dirt...hmm, sounds nice...good bite, not mushy, decent definition. Aha, let's try the Tone control...brightens up nicely...actually ripping pretty good! OK, what's up with this Clean Boost? YES!!! Varying the amount of boost even in tiny amounts delivered a multitude of tonal diversity. Just a slight clockwise twist and the nasty rip fattened up...keep turning and the dirt takes a back seat to a huge fat tone just perfect for a mellow blues riff.

It wasn't until the next day that I even considered the 4 position MOD switch. I found myself gravitating toward the mid scoop setting, position 3. On my Tele, through my Egnater (and with my ears of course), it sounded really rich and full, no hint of thin tone one might fear.

This is a keeper for me! I'll continue to experiment with the location in the pedal chain, particularly once I get my Radial Tonebone back onboard. Even if I hadn't dug the pedal, with Sweetwater's 30 day return policy, Jeremy would have taken good care of me, suggesting another pedal for me to try!

How can you go wrong with a policy like that?

A friend had the Sparkle Drive and I fell in love. Months later I bought this and I'm using it primarily with a Rhodes Piano, it really brings a lot to the table with its versatility. Im a fan

On paper this pedal has some great features, especially with being able to blend clean and overdriven tones and even use the clean side as a clean boost. I've used this pedal for about two years now, and I rely heavily on the volumes of my boosts, overdrives and distortions, as well as a volume pedal and my guitar's volume knob, to keep my 100 watt Mesa Boogie under control in a practice setting. However, since there is practically nothing on the Boogie's master volume between zero and 100, I'm stuck at either too loud or not loud enough for my distortions to get enough gain because the Sparkle Drive Mod can't compete in volume with my JHS Pack Rat mod or my Wampler Pinnacle Deluxe. There's no headroom at full volume and my Xotic RC Booster right before the Sparkle Drive can't give it any additional output. The RC Booster isn't an overdrive, but sounds better pushing the front end of the amp by itself. I gave a friend my Analogman tube screamer mod, but I wish I had it back, because it smokes the Sparkle Drive.

The TS-9 sounds are decent, but others do it better. The clean/dirty mix I've found isn't as useful to me as I thought it would be. It does start having some nice gritty breakup when I push it with the RC Booster. The stock TS-9 setting sounds too thin, but there are three more settings, each with increasing amounts of "modern" low end. The first bass boost is best, and you can forget the next two if you're not into that chunka chunka thing.

So yeah, maybe it's good for you, but it just doesn't play well in my rig. I would urge you to try it out first in conjunction with your other pedals and guitar or a close approximation. I have to wonder what some of the reviewers think about it down the road after they've lived with it a while and the new has worn off. I dunno, maybe it's me, or maybe it's you, Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive Mod, but I feel like I don't even know you anymore. I thinks it's time to break up.