• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Whatever happened to Crate amps?

#121
Analogeezer said:
EXACTLY

By the time Crate came along I was far along in my musical career and was using an Acoustic amp with JBL speakers.

But if I was a young guy then, no doubt I would have started out with Crate or Peavey. Like I said, Peavey was the target and allowed a young player to "not have a Peavey" LOL.

If I had taken a 100 watt Crate bass amp with a 15" in a time machine back to when I first started playing I can guarantee you it would blow away the Kustom 100 I started with.

People seem to have forgotten the cheap Fender combos back then kinda really sucked as well.

IIRC Ampeg didn't even start making the entry level BA series stuff until the mid 1990's, maybe even later in the decade.

Analogeezer
Click to expand...

Even in the days Crate was awfull. We had Hartke or Peavey or budget Ampeg B series. IME the damned machine could suddenly stop working. If it worked it sounded like a barking chained dog in winter. Twisting the e.q. did nothing. And it was heavy with only one strap a top. I was relieved when smoke occured from the back as it rightfully committed suicide.
 
#122
'Way back about '79 when I was designing coil-winding machinery at Bose, I recall the director of pro equipment sales being totally baffled by the original Crate. He couldn't imagine how something looking like a pile of 2x4s was selling well when the Bose stuff which looked exactly like everybody else's was hardly moving. Obviously he'd never walked into a showroom. In those days it was solid wall-to-wall black . . . except for the Crate. No wonder they were attracting attention. Later on of course the Crates started to look like everything else, but in the early days they were hard to ignore, and getting noticed is the first step in getting sales.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BasturdBlaster, vid1900 and Riff Ranger
#123
I dug out an equally old Fender cab. It is nasty because it has been stored for nearly 20 years. After hooking everything up - surprise! It still works.

Crate-Fender.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: rickwebb, TomB, Oren Hudson and 3 others
#124
On a whim, I ran a VT Bass into an MXR M-81 preamp and sent that into the effects return. According to the diagram in the manual, this completely bypasses the preamp section. It actually sounds pretty good, maybe even great!

Of course, that is just using the head as a dumb power amp, so sounding good should be pretty easy.

However, it makes me glad that I never trashed it as it will make nice practice amp (except heavy and bulky).
 
  • Like
Reactions: BasturdBlaster and Riff Ranger
#126
My memory on this is way fuzzy, but something tells me that the Crate BT-350 shared the same power amp with the Ampeg SVTIII, which would make sense.

If I recall (and maybe I don't...), I remember comparing schematics many years ago. Or maybe the power amp schematic had both the SVTIII and BT-350 listed? I don't remember the details, and maybe I've got it altogether wrong.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BasturdBlaster
#128
When I first started playing in 1992, a local guy had a Crate BX-160 for sale with a 1973 Jazz Bass. He wanted $700 for the pair. My father and I went and tried it out, but didn't buy: in dad's eyes, a 70's Jazz was "CBS junk" at the time. Although I was bummed later to have missed out on that deal, dad eventually gave me his original (refinished) 1962 Precision. Still have it!
I ended up buying a Crate amp a year or so later. Pretty forgettable (I hadn't thought of it in decades until I saw this thread. :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Leo R and Riff Ranger
#129
lowfreqgeek said:
My memory on this is way fuzzy, but something tells me that the Crate BT-350 shared the same power amp with the Ampeg SVTIII, which would make sense.

If I recall (and maybe I don't...), I remember comparing schematics many years ago. Or maybe the power amp schematic had both the SVTIII and BT-350 listed? I don't remember the details, and maybe I've got it altogether wrong.
Click to expand...


Interesting. That made me take a closer look at the schematic I have for the BT-350:

Crate_BT-350_Sch_Excerpt.png
 
  • Like
Reactions: BasturdBlaster and lowfreqgeek
#133
I always kind of liked Crate. I do remember the early ones that actually looked like Crates. The next series just had a wood panel below the knobs, and eventually they dropped the wood altogether. I have a small "wood panel" Crate acoustic amp and a later BX-50, both made in USA. I really like the sound of the BX, but it's right in the sweet spot where I don't use it much any more: not loud enough for stage and I have a smaller practice amp I can take to "sit around and sing" sessions. Maybe I should try recording with it...

I've heard of Crate having reliability issues, but that wasn't my experience and I've owned three. Sometimes I think brands just get a rep and it sticks with them forever. There are fewer brands overall than there used to be. Consolidation in the industry killed so many. I'm still surprised Traynor came back.
 
#134
I had a Crate speaker cab (4x10) in the early 90's. It didn't sound bad, but it wasn't amazing, either. I used it with a Carvin 15" cab with a Hartke 3500.

My guitarist at the time had a full stack of Crate gear. I think he used that rig for quite a few years.
 
#135
Never cared for their amps, but we still use one of their PA's for smaller gigs. It was a great design where the amp and mixer fit into the speakers. It puts out a lot of juice for the size, and as a little jazz 3 piece--it really is all we need for now. I heard their amps used to "Crater", and that was often a funny nickname for them at the time. This damned PA, however, is over 40 years old and still killing it!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Riff Ranger and knadles
#138
I have a little Crate BX-40 somebody gave me around 2000.
Had to take it to a shop to get it running, but still works ever since.

Fire it up every once in a while. Kind of nasal sounding, but like the way the control panel is laid out: gain, pre-shape rotary; bass boost push button, four rotary EQ , treble boost button; master. They all work well and color the tone well, but just can't quite dial in a really good sound. Has a 15" and is portable. Would use it for small room jazz gigs sometimes years ago.

But i have a room full of Sunns and GKs, so it doesn't really get any use - just a lark.

A guitar player friend has a Crate guitar stack in the corner of his rehearsal space, but I have never heard it fired up. His main is an '80s Marshall stack.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Riff Ranger
#139
I bought a Crate BX-100 in the late 90's. 100 watts at 4 ohms, speaker rated at 150 watts (2" vc); 67 lbs. I needed something smaller than a 215, and it was priced considerably lower than the "better" alternatives, so I went for it. For its time, it was fine as a "medium" size rehearsal amp. The features actually were pretty good: gain and master volume, 4-band EQ sliders, a contour knob, fx loop, di with level, etc.

I ended up sawing off the amp portion of the enclosure, to create a 115 cabinet, and I built a little enclosure for the amp. I ended up using the cabinet more than the amp, and it wasn't bad. Way heavier than we are used to today.

Overall verdict: I would never buy it today. But it was my little buddy back in the day, so I would pat it on the head and say "well done."
 
  • Like
Reactions: Riff Ranger
#140
I remember knowing a guy who knew his stuff, and on one of their models of amps, he suggested a mod that would have improved reliability... at only about a nickle more in production costs. It was shot down because it broke the price point... and as to the reliability... that's why they had a budget for warranties. What a shame. Makes me wonder if Ampeg suffered the same thing under SLM ownership.

But yes... last I heard Loud acquired at least Crate... then the brand seemed to go away.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back