Looking for that cranked gain tone - tc spark vs pork and pickle

I have both,
And enjoy them both.

The P&P is excellent, but takes some time to dial in. Sure, it's got 5 controls and a switch, but it's also got 4 trimpots inside that tweak the output/tone.

The TC Spark is more plug n play, and dialing in a favourable tone is much easier, IMHO.

Not to mention the price difference.
Last I checked, the P&P is about a hundred more than the Spark.

Both have no shortage of output, IME.

 

While I'm not an active musician, just a hobbyist, I don't think it loses that much low-end. And that it does lose, can easily be made up by the bass control/voice switch.

 

This is the way...

 

Drats....
Here I go again.



I don't think having both would be redundant at all. They both have their own voice, and can serve multiple functions.

Personally, I love the Spark as a sort of fat, tubey drive tone, while the P&P is mainly clean, with the drive dialed in for some harmonic content and "richness"

 

Check back in with your thoughts once you get them.

 

Without having any personal first hand experience with it, but based on having watched several YouTube videos of it and reading the praise it has received here on TalkBass, I am inclined to recommend you the regular big version of TC Electronic Spark Booster.

The Pork Loin judging from the YouTube demos I've watched doesn't do low gain slightly overdriven amp nearly as well in my opinion, and to me it sound like you are really looking for something more in the line of a tube amp pushed into breakup territory, just giving your tone a bit of extra grit and bite to it, and not really a full blown overdrive stacked into fuzz fuzz tone, which the Pork and Pickle would be (though I could be wrong in that assumption).

Personally for that purpose though I use a Joyo Orange Juice (which is a seriously sized down clone of the discontinued Tech 21 Oxford, analog Orange amp style preamp/drive, but with simplified EQ controls and without the cab sim of the original to accommodate it's miniature size) set to a low gain overdrive setting and blended with about equal amounts of clean signal via one of my Boss LS-2 pedals, and I am extremely satisfied with the result.

Even then I have actually seriously pondered on still getting a Spark Booster myself to see if it could possibly take over the job from the Orange Juice + LS-2 to safe a bit of space and simplify my setup slightly.

Edit!!: Oh, well, just read further down this thread, seems like you went and bought both, which will make you capable of both tube amp pushed into breakup and full on fuzz tone, which might be what you really was looking for, so all good, hope you will enjoy your new pedals.

 

So what do you think?