c***@gmail.com
2008-09-11 02:15:34 UTC
I've been a fan of certain Crate amps for a long time. Despite their
numerous quality and repair issues, they usually manage to sound
pretty good, and a few (the VC30/V3112) have achieved a sort of cult
status. They really good ones are tone monsters, and if you got one
made in the middle of the week, you got yourself a player. I have no
idea if that will hold true for my newest acquisition, bought as a
birthday lark -the V18. MusiciansFiend is blowing them out just now
for a ridiculous $149.99, delivered. (I could spend a few paragraphs
deriding the evils of global consumerist product dumping, but that's a
post for another day.) This was too good to pass up, based on having
played one a while back, when they were going for $450.
First -fit and finish. TIn this category, they are, as LV would say,
absolute poo. Everything on them is plastic, the cab is 1/2 inch
fiberboard, the tolex ain't, and the guts are about $2.00 worth of
PCB. It is set up in the typical Crate fashion -meaning you pretty
much have to pull the chassis to get at the tubes or even see the
transformers. They are not, by the way, beefy. There is a decent
sounding (not special mind you) Chinese 12" ceramic speaker, a line
out, and a supremely honky spring reverb that sounds pretty good at 1,
and again at 7 or so, but not anywhere else. The whole thing looks a
lot better in the catalog pics than it does in person. The tubes are
Chinese made 12AX7s (3 of 'em) and 2 EL84s, again Chinese. I've heard
several reports that claim the amp improves vastly when the speaker
and tubes are upgraded.
But that's what Crate is about these days - they've shaved costs to
the minimum and while it shows when you look at it, it doesn't show
nearly so much when you listen. Crate claims a 'Brit vibe' for this
amp. Bosh. They clearly want a piece of the AC30 market, but this
ain't it at all. Maybe the analogous Laney -a far ballsier sounding
amp imnsho. The amp has a darkish sound, wherever you set the
minimally responsive three band EQ. It never does get bright and
chirpy or shimmery. On the other hand, it produces a quite credibly
bluesy roar when you dial it up a bit. It handles single rail power
chords with some real class. The notes arrive well defined and evenly
balanced from my ASAT Thinline. When pushed into a neck pickup all out
lead, it truly sings. Absolutely righteous tone with lotsa volume.
When dialed back to moderate levels it retains most of its character,
again producing articulate full and partial chord response that
reminds me quite a bit of the old Blues Deluxe. The most entertasining
feature on this amp mayt be its gain knob. Whatever they did, they
managed to get that right. You can set gain from 0 to 10 and hear a
very different sound at each turn of the knob. When you give it lots
of gain, you get a very deep and dark overdrive that somehow still
manages to cut like it ought to.
That's about all I intend to say about the amp. I like how it sounds,
and will probably even gig it a couple of times -but that isn't why I
bought it. I don't trust the construction enough to subject it to a
lot of banging around. This time it was price that got me, and I don't
regret it one bit. If the amp survives for five years I'll be able to
sell it for twice what I paid. One other positive note: according to
my wife, it's WAY too loud. I call that a pretty good start.
Chuck
numerous quality and repair issues, they usually manage to sound
pretty good, and a few (the VC30/V3112) have achieved a sort of cult
status. They really good ones are tone monsters, and if you got one
made in the middle of the week, you got yourself a player. I have no
idea if that will hold true for my newest acquisition, bought as a
birthday lark -the V18. MusiciansFiend is blowing them out just now
for a ridiculous $149.99, delivered. (I could spend a few paragraphs
deriding the evils of global consumerist product dumping, but that's a
post for another day.) This was too good to pass up, based on having
played one a while back, when they were going for $450.
First -fit and finish. TIn this category, they are, as LV would say,
absolute poo. Everything on them is plastic, the cab is 1/2 inch
fiberboard, the tolex ain't, and the guts are about $2.00 worth of
PCB. It is set up in the typical Crate fashion -meaning you pretty
much have to pull the chassis to get at the tubes or even see the
transformers. They are not, by the way, beefy. There is a decent
sounding (not special mind you) Chinese 12" ceramic speaker, a line
out, and a supremely honky spring reverb that sounds pretty good at 1,
and again at 7 or so, but not anywhere else. The whole thing looks a
lot better in the catalog pics than it does in person. The tubes are
Chinese made 12AX7s (3 of 'em) and 2 EL84s, again Chinese. I've heard
several reports that claim the amp improves vastly when the speaker
and tubes are upgraded.
But that's what Crate is about these days - they've shaved costs to
the minimum and while it shows when you look at it, it doesn't show
nearly so much when you listen. Crate claims a 'Brit vibe' for this
amp. Bosh. They clearly want a piece of the AC30 market, but this
ain't it at all. Maybe the analogous Laney -a far ballsier sounding
amp imnsho. The amp has a darkish sound, wherever you set the
minimally responsive three band EQ. It never does get bright and
chirpy or shimmery. On the other hand, it produces a quite credibly
bluesy roar when you dial it up a bit. It handles single rail power
chords with some real class. The notes arrive well defined and evenly
balanced from my ASAT Thinline. When pushed into a neck pickup all out
lead, it truly sings. Absolutely righteous tone with lotsa volume.
When dialed back to moderate levels it retains most of its character,
again producing articulate full and partial chord response that
reminds me quite a bit of the old Blues Deluxe. The most entertasining
feature on this amp mayt be its gain knob. Whatever they did, they
managed to get that right. You can set gain from 0 to 10 and hear a
very different sound at each turn of the knob. When you give it lots
of gain, you get a very deep and dark overdrive that somehow still
manages to cut like it ought to.
That's about all I intend to say about the amp. I like how it sounds,
and will probably even gig it a couple of times -but that isn't why I
bought it. I don't trust the construction enough to subject it to a
lot of banging around. This time it was price that got me, and I don't
regret it one bit. If the amp survives for five years I'll be able to
sell it for twice what I paid. One other positive note: according to
my wife, it's WAY too loud. I call that a pretty good start.
Chuck