About Positive Grid
Positive Grid was founded in 2011 by a team of musicians and engineers who set out to answer a simple question: how could technology make playing guitar simpler, smarter, and more inspiring? The company is headquartered in San Diego, California, with a second office in Taipei, Taiwan handling much of its hardware and software engineering, and it has grown from a small mobile-app team into one of the best-known names in smart amp modeling.
The company's first product was JamUp, a mobile amp-modeling app, and its BIAS line of tone-shaping software followed in 2014, moving into hardware with the BIAS Head and BIAS Rack amps in 2016. Positive Grid's flagship Spark smart amp launched in late 2019 and had reached more than 150,000 players worldwide within a year, going on to win MusicRadar's Best Guitar Amp of NAMM award in 2020. The Spark 2 and Spark GO featured below carry that same app-driven design forward, and both were reviewed favorably by Guitar World and MusicRadar for their tone quality and practice features.
Brand website: positivegrid.com
What Positive Grid makes
Positive Grid's catalog runs wider than the gear we review. The lines we know best from our own testing are marked with a star:
Spark Series
App-driven smart practice amps including the Spark 2 and Spark GO, with real-time chord detection, AI backing tracks, and ToneCloud tone sharing — featured on House of Octave
BIAS FX / BIAS X
Amp and effects modeling software for recording and live tone shaping, including an AI-powered tone creation platform
REACTOR Amplifiers
Modeling amplifier line built for stage and studio use
Spark NEO
Wireless headphones with built-in amp modeling for silent practice
ToneCloud
Community platform for sharing and downloading guitar tones across the Spark and BIAS product lines
Why we recognized Positive Grid
The House of Octave Top Brand recognition isn't paid for and can't be applied for. We award it to the brands whose gear consistently stands out in our player-tested category guides. Positive Grid earned it on the strength of the products below, judged the same way every product on this site is: assessed on build, tone, and playability, weighed against what players actually report over years of use, and ranked on merit.
Positive Grid gear we rated highly
Positive Grid Spark 2
The Spark 2 is the best learning and practice companion in our guitar amp lineup -- the companion app listens to a song and generates chords in real time, builds jam-along backing tracks in any style, and loops your playing, so it actively helps you improve rather than just amplifying you. Its fifty-plus amp models and dozens of effects expand into thousands of shared tones through ToneCloud, and its stereo speaker design doubles as a genuinely good Bluetooth speaker for the room.
Read the 9 Best Guitar Amps of 2026 (Every Budget, Practice to Gigging) guide →
Positive Grid Spark GO
The Spark GO fits in a bag and runs on a rechargeable battery, yet it carries the same smart amp models and app features as its larger siblings -- real-time chord detection, AI-generated backing tracks, and access to the ToneCloud tone library travel with you anywhere. It doubles as a headphone amp for silent practice and a Bluetooth speaker for music, backed by thousands of owner ratings at a strong average.
Read the 9 Best Guitar Amps of 2026 (Every Budget, Practice to Gigging) guide →What earned Positive Grid the recognition
- Founded in 2011 and headquartered in San Diego, California, with a Taipei, Taiwan office handling much of its hardware and software engineering
- The original Spark smart amp won MusicRadar's Best Guitar Amp of NAMM award in 2020 and reached more than 150,000 players worldwide within a year of launch
- Two Positive Grid amps earned places among our top picks in our guitar amp testing: the Spark 2 and the ultra-portable Spark GO
- The Spark app's real-time chord detection, AI-generated backing tracks, and ToneCloud tone-sharing library set it apart from other practice amps we tested
- Guitar World and MusicRadar both reviewed the Spark 2 favorably, praising its tone quality and feature set