Whatever happened to Crate amps?

[WG Plum]

In the mid-late 80s, when I joined my first band, my very first amp was a Crate B150 combo. Ratfurious Fartus Maximus.

 

[Gustopher]

I hate a Crate guitar amp when I was starting guitar back in the 90s and it sounded pretty great. It wasn’t loud enough and I upgraded to a sweet Peavey Bandit 112 and sold the Crate to my friend. I got another one in the early 2000s and it sounded perfectly fine too, built in chorus and reverb with really good distortion. Never had a Crate bass amp though.

 

[EdwardofHuncote]

I toured with one of these as a stage monitor for upright bass, bought it new, and still have it.

It is a fantastic amp.

 

[jastacey]

I had a Crate bass amp, the BT-350, it was actually a pretty good amp, used it for a long time, ended up selling it to a keyboard player

 

[brianrost]

Crate was OK, not as bulletproof as Peavey amps but they could take abuse. I still own a B10XL practice amp I bought used 35 years ago for $40. I used it in the church choir loft for years

I bought a B160 for $25 used for my daughter to take to a summer music camp about 20 years ago. About two years ago I put it up on CL asking $20, found a buyer. When he saw it he was amazed that it wasn't missing all the knobs and half the tolex...he insisted on paying me $25!!! 60 watts, 15", extension spkr jack (2 ohms safe!!!), line out, a compressor. Very midrangey so it was loud as hell. Weighed a ton.

 

[SJan3]

That was the one Marty Friedman had.
Coild be but mine had "EV" stamped on the speaker cone so no doubt about what I had.
JBL or EV, they were the speakers of choice back in the day.



That was the one I had, though I’m almost positive mine had a JBL in it. It had a good speaker, in any event.

 

[Zooberwerx]

I had a CRATE 1X15" cabinet loaded from the factory with an EV speaker. It was a small cabinet for a 15" but it was very punchy. I liked it and, for it's time, it was fairly lightweight. Cost was around $330ish.

Ha-ha...75 watts of unbridled fury: my Crate 115-B w/ Eminence speaker. Doubles as a step-stool when changing my HVAC filters.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

Bought a Crate amp as my first amp and picked it over Ampeg combo amps when I did a test drive. Think I paid like $300 for it in 1989. But it was amazing considering that prior to that I was playing my Newburg Steinberger through a boom box. Yeah, I made some poor choices early on. Eventually had to have it re-coned and that cost $60, but it was completely my fault, flexed wah pedal, distortion, delay, chorus, smiley face EQ going into the combo. My first bass solo, and then *click*. I think we were paid $60 each that night so it was even-steven. But, in the dorm room, it held my gigantic 20" Sony Trinitron TV.

 

[SJan3]

Same here. The Crate B160XL... it had chorus, 15" speaker and graphic EQ. Bought one in 1991 and played many gigs with it until '96.

Yes, but mine was just a bass cabinet. No amp.

 

[birminghambass]

I had a Crate bass amp, the BT-350, it was actually a pretty good amp, used it for a long time, ended up selling it to a keyboard playerView attachment 4491746

I lusted after this amp as a teenage. I actually tried to trade my Ampeg V4B for one in 1994. Luckily the shop owner shut me down.
There's one for sale locally on FB for $200. Seeing it really brought back memories.

 

[SJan3]

Ha-ha...75 watts of unbridled fury: my Crate 115-B w/ Eminence speaker. Doubles as a step-stool when changing my HVAC filters.

View attachment 4491790

LOL!!

 

[Zooberwerx]

LOL!!

Blue Oyster Cult must have had an endorsement twenty years ago. IIRC, the entire backline was Crate and I don't believe it was venue-provided.

I use the pic'd ensemble as a practice room rig. The only reason it's still in one piece is the termites are holding hands.

Riis

 

[SJan3]

Blue Oyster Cult must have had an endorsement twenty years ago. IIRC, the entire backline was Crate and I don't believe it was venue-provided.

I use the pic'd ensemble as a practice room rig. The only reason it's still in one piece is the termites are holding hands.

Riis

Funny!!

 

[dalkowski]

A BX160 stood me in good stead during my indie rock years. No complaints.

 

[JW56789]

That was a different world back in the days of mom and pop music stores and the Saint Louis Music that was headed by the Kornblum family. Ampeg would not have survived without their ownership. They sold everything, sting instruments, reeds, the whole nine yards for a local music store.

They also sold box guitars under the Alvarez and the Alvarez-Yairis; the Japanese Yairis were magnificent instruments, and WAY overlooked at their time and still today. SLM published a A-Y catalog with all kinds of really cool things (they offered a 'lute back', think Ovation with curved wood strips to make the bowl back) and even a double-neck box guitar (you may remember the ads for them in GUITAR PLAYER if you're old as me), and I worked for a local store where the owner went seriously drinking with the SLM Rep at Summer NAMM, and sure enough, he signed for every one-off in that catalog.

Sober weeks later he like to have s++t when they arrived (and the invoice !) and made quite a few heated phone calls to St. Louis . . . . I thought we'd NEVER get rid of that lute back.

I shudder to think what the braces were like under that double-bridge. Big enough case ?

 

[chadds]

My friend said "Crateinger."

 

[JW56789]

Competition for Pignose; anyone remember these Crate Taxi amps ?

30w, 8", rechargeable portable. Any color, as long as it's Yellow. Taxi. OK?

 

[Johnny Fingers]

I retired before Crate was a thing I think. Ugly comes to mind.

 

[Rolling Thunder]

The Vintage Club 20W with 12" speaker and spring reverb that I bought in 1996 is in my bedroom. So there's one off your list....

 

[Mechanical]

Adam Nitti posted on Instagram awhile back (back when I was on IG) that he rebuilt his 25W Crate practice amp. I still have one just like it. Perfect for what it was.