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Whatever happened to Crate amps?
- Thread starter Analogeezer
- Start date
That’s the case with all solid state gear.
As for me, I have a Crate BX100. With its EQ and contour it’s a very good bass amp for lower volume ensembles like a jazz quartet or something. With loud rock music, you hear it but not quite enough. What it does great? Jazz guitar! An archtop played thru it can conjure memories of the old Polytone amps. Not exact by any means, but it’s a nice tone. It’s got that ‘thickness’ in its character. It’s a big heavy amp though.
I don’t think I have ever seen a stand-alone Crate bass head before.
I checked with the buddy I traded it to decades ago and he confirmed it was in fact an EV. He poached that driver for his dad’s B-15!
I wasn’t overly enamored of their sound when I was seeing them around. But it may just have been the lower end garden variety of their product line I was hearing.
And it’s funny but true how sometimes you have an amp that just doesn’t sound great for live performance. But it works extremely well in a studio setting or for a low volume ensemble. For example, one recording I heard recently had a gnarly guitar solo that floored me. I assumed it was some boutique dirt pedal into a plex type amp. But it turns out it was a Les Paul into a cranked 70s era battery powered Pignose miked with a mix between an SM58 and a cheap mic that came with an old Sony cassette tape recorder. And the result was gorgeous! Sounded like dragons mating in a bed of black roses.
So never rule out the ugly ducklings.
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This thread got me thinking a little philosphically, and I thought, So, crates.
Their club series tube heads and combos for guitar sound nice.
I had a pair of Powerblocks that I used with my "who cares? the rig is loud and cost squat" setup. They did ok for bass.
I used a b150 head to push the 10s in my 3620 cab when I biamped in the 80s/90s. As a kickaround the b150 head wasn't so bad. Worked when I sold it. So did the powerblocks.
I think JBL, EV and Eminence went in their bass cabs. SLM had speakers in the mix too. I want to say the Blackheart connection is something I heard too.
I had a pair of Powerblocks that I used with my "who cares? the rig is loud and cost squat" setup. They did ok for bass.
I used a b150 head to push the 10s in my 3620 cab when I biamped in the 80s/90s. As a kickaround the b150 head wasn't so bad. Worked when I sold it. So did the powerblocks.
I think JBL, EV and Eminence went in their bass cabs. SLM had speakers in the mix too. I want to say the Blackheart connection is something I heard too.
Ain’t it funny… I had one of those for three days and returned it when I was looking to retire my Marshall Major. Yeah the Voodoo is a good amp if you rely on gain-staged distortion, but even when playing heavy rock guitar I used to keep the sound relatively clean. And heavy-but-clean is something Blue Voodoo just does not do well.
I loved my BX100. It finally started having weird problems earlier this year, so I replaced it with class D head and neo 1x15 cab. While the weight difference is huge, the sound isn’t dramatically different, which I guess was the point.
Yeah, this is when I was a teenager definitely looking for lots of crunch and distortion, which it did very well. I don’t remember using it clean much, if at all!
I had a BX215E in my wilder days that I bought used. Both handles broke off. I painted silver, then gave it to my brother who painted it plaid. Still works! Definitely cheap gear, but it did get the job done relatively well with my Hartke HA4000. I don’t think I have any photos of it, at least it digital form.
What happened to Crate amps?
My guess is they all stopped working. Ha! I saw a LOT of Crates come through the shop for repair. Funny, it was almost always 1 of 2 things. And neither was a major issue. Bad solder joints on the low voltage dropping resistors and on the input jack's. Cheap and easy fix.
My guess is they all stopped working. Ha! I saw a LOT of Crates come through the shop for repair. Funny, it was almost always 1 of 2 things. And neither was a major issue. Bad solder joints on the low voltage dropping resistors and on the input jack's. Cheap and easy fix.
My experience was with a 115 combo that had a toasted amp.
The drummer found it on the curb.
I opened it, looked at the charred mess, thin board and the odds of saving it...
before pulling the chassis and running a wire to a jack from the speaker.
Shortly after that the guitar player scored a PV Century head for 20 bux.
Didn't need it, just too good of a deal to pass.
After both head and cab ended up in the guitar player's garage, I decided to play through them together on a break just to see what happened.
It sounded fine for band practice in the garage. Suprisingly loud and clear.
I think the head was 120 watts into 4 ohms, so it must have been more like 60 into what I think was an Eminence 15 in a small ported box.
I used it to save moving an amp.
The drummer found it on the curb.
I opened it, looked at the charred mess, thin board and the odds of saving it...
before pulling the chassis and running a wire to a jack from the speaker.
Shortly after that the guitar player scored a PV Century head for 20 bux.
Didn't need it, just too good of a deal to pass.
After both head and cab ended up in the guitar player's garage, I decided to play through them together on a break just to see what happened.
It sounded fine for band practice in the garage. Suprisingly loud and clear.
I think the head was 120 watts into 4 ohms, so it must have been more like 60 into what I think was an Eminence 15 in a small ported box.
I used it to save moving an amp.
Always seemed like a requirement of most crate amps is that they had to be stolen at least once....
My first amp was a BX100 in 1993. Later I had a BX10. Unloaded both a long time ago when I needed bigger iron.
