Ibanez JEM Forum banner
54K views 60 replies 32 participants last post by  Captain Ron 
#1 ·
Why is it that everyone is always stomping on the Quality of Crate amps......
Have they spent time with one in the last 10 yrs????
Do they realize that for 7 yrs running Crate was the most sold amp in the World....not USA "WORLD".
I just don't get it............every model they make isn't GREAT but there has been some nice Crate STUFF over the yrs..
 
#48 ·
I hav a small 15 watt Crate amp and I get an amazing tone off of it! I love it but soon enough it may not be used as I'm getting myself a Peavey Bandit 112 because I love them to! I know there not the best amps in the world but they give me the tone I want and thats what it's all about right?
 
#51 ·
Well,here's how much I love my old Crate G60XL......I've had it since like 1990,,,learned how to play on it,,,and at LOW volume levels, it still puts out some great sounds. I don't go anywhere near the bright switch, and keep the shape control almost completely counterclockwise...otherwise, it is a box of bees. But for quiet living room volumes,,,I still love it. I would never try and use it with a drummer, etc, as the tone goes out the window as you raise the volume. My main amp is a Soldano SLO100, but at VERY quiet , late night practice levels, the Crate actually excels! But any situation where any sort of volume is needed, of course, the Crate stays in the bedroom. So I'd recommend one to anybody as a "play it at a conversation level or lower" amp.
 
#52 ·
Okay, obviously this is an OLD post, "BUT", in case anyone is also trying to find out why Crate has such a low end name, here's why;

In 1978 St.Louis Music Inc released Crate Amps, and St. Louis Music Inc ALSO owned Ampeg (bought out of Bankruptcy) Crate amps were built around the platform of Ampegs electronics, but never really sold well to the "professional consumer" because by the early 80's Fender, Marshall, Peavey, and Randall for Metal.

Crate is an EXCELLENT BRAND, now since Loud technologies bought out St. Louis in 2007 the brand Crate lost even more notoriety and remains to be an entry level amp to the general population of musicians. I myself have owned, and will continue to own USA Crate Amps because the tone, I have found, stands alone. I have a 212T DSP Combo amp. The effects are genuinely Crate and sound great, even though I do use a rack mount effects/pre-amp processor, and I cannot complain.

I have owned MANY Solid State Amps; such as Peavey, Line 6, Marshall, Fender, VOX, Hughs & Ketner, Randall, Ibanez, Ampeg (Bass) Roland, and a few others. I have bought and sold a Crate 21T DSP 3 times, and the fourth ne I bought I have now had for 4 years, and will not part with it! It is USA made of course, and that there is the major difference with Crate. All of their import products are less than favorable, and unreliable. This has been Crates MAJOR Problem. If Loud Technologies would reverse the Import production with USA Production (over 90% of Crate products are imported, not USA made) and were to promo USA made products to new talents, and change a few minds of other metal bands from the past 20 years, they would see a better professional market share.

Another thing I would like to see Loud Tech do is buy out the Washburn Name and sell guitars in sync with Crate Amplification! Washburn is one of the oldest names in Guitars. Yes, older than both Fender, and Gibson. Owned now by U.S. Music Corp, and in my opinion has destroyed the Washburn Name. A phenomenal Instrument for shredders, blues, and rock that needs to be returned to its glory and rise even further.

Go play a $700 Washburn and you'll put down that $2,500 Fender or Les Paul if you're into shredding/metal. No real shredder will ever admit it in fear of being made fun of! Grow a pair and let it rip!! I own several MG series (one Chicago, and one import from the early 90's) and a parallaxe series from 2010. They waste my ESP KH 602, my U.S. Masters Super Strat, along with my Ibanez RG1570 Prestige. None of which are beginner guitars at all.

So, to wrap this up, if you're looking for a Crate (2-12) amp or half stack set up, look to the back of the amp before even trying it out to make sure it is indeed U.S.A. made, pick up a $400-$700 Washburn if available at your music store and see for yourself! I highly recommend any shredder to buy!!
 
#56 ·
Okay, obviously this is an OLD post, "BUT", in case anyone is also trying to find out why Crate has such a low end name, here's why;

In 1978 St.Louis Music Inc released Crate Amps, and St. Louis Music Inc ALSO owned Ampeg (bought out of Bankruptcy) Crate amps were built around the platform of Ampegs electronics, but never really sold well to the "professional consumer" because by the early 80's Fender, Marshall, Peavey, and Randall for Metal.

Crate is an EXCELLENT BRAND, now since Loud technologies bought out St. Louis in 2007 the brand Crate lost even more notoriety and remains to be an entry level amp to the general population of musicians. I myself have owned, and will continue to own USA Crate Amps because the tone, I have found, stands alone. I have a 212T DSP Combo amp. The effects are genuinely Crate and sound great, even though I do use a rack mount effects/pre-amp processor, and I cannot complain.

I have owned MANY Solid State Amps; such as Peavey, Line 6, Marshall, Fender, VOX, Hughs & Ketner, Randall, Ibanez, Ampeg (Bass) Roland, and a few others. I have bought and sold a Crate 21T DSP 3 times, and the fourth ne I bought I have now had for 4 years, and will not part with it! It is USA made of course, and that there is the major difference with Crate. All of their import products are less than favorable, and unreliable. This has been Crates MAJOR Problem. If Loud Technologies would reverse the Import production with USA Production (over 90% of Crate products are imported, not USA made) and were to promo USA made products to new talents, and change a few minds of other metal bands from the past 20 years, they would see a better professional market share.

Another thing I would like to see Loud Tech do is buy out the Washburn Name and sell guitars in sync with Crate Amplification! Washburn is one of the oldest names in Guitars. Yes, older than both Fender, and Gibson. Owned now by U.S. Music Corp, and in my opinion has destroyed the Washburn Name. A phenomenal Instrument for shredders, blues, and rock that needs to be returned to its glory and rise even further.

Go play a $700 Washburn and you'll put down that $2,500 Fender or Les Paul if you're into shredding/metal. No real shredder will ever admit it in fear of being made fun of! Grow a pair and let it rip!! I own several MG series (one Chicago, and one import from the early 90's) and a parallaxe series from 2010. They waste my ESP KH 602, my U.S. Masters Super Strat, along with my Ibanez RG1570 Prestige. None of which are beginner guitars at all.

So, to wrap this up, if you're looking for a Crate (2-12) amp or half stack set up, look to the back of the amp before even trying it out to make sure it is indeed U.S.A. made, pick up a $400-$700 Washburn if available at your music store and see for yourself! I highly recommend any shredder to buy!!
I remember when crates were grate! Also had a Washburn N4, I was a great guitar still miss it. Meanwhile I 27 guitars 17 I should sell HMU, lol
 
#53 ·
ALSO, just to make CLEAR; Loud Technologies IS a GREAT Company, and makes great products such as Mackie, EAW, Martin Audio (London), Alvarez, Blackheart, and more!

I will be emailing (not that it will make a change) them to suggest a Washburn Buyout, as well as Digitech (owned by US Music Corp) U.S. Music Corp also owns Marshall Amps. Ugh.
 
#54 ·
digitech got bought out harmon, which also owns jbl, akg, lexicon and others.

http://www.harman.com/lifestyle-audio

US music corp would be a terrible buy. There isn't really any growth by any of their companies. They represent a fairly small percent of the market with maybe the exception of Marshall which i didn't know they acquired. Marshall isn't making amps like the use to though. I have seen a lot of newer marshalls breakdown and we had a few break on the showroom floor at one music store i worked at.

parker was a cool company till us music got them.

washburn was putting out straight crap for a long time. Some of their stuff is nice like the NX series, and Idol series. Quite frankly your argument about fender and gibson is flawed though. Fender has put out the same guitar year after year, and while Gibson has tried to change things up, their quality control is severely lacking.

The most consistent company out for QC is probably PRS or EB MM. Ibanez is decent but i have seen some that were questionable right out of the box.

back to the point about crate. Crates are what you ship stuff in, not guitar amps. I have played a few and owned one. The one i owned i just used the clean channel and ran a pod in to it. I had just started getting in to guitar and didn't know any better. Once i figured out it sucked I sold it and get a peavey classic 50 head.

the stealth series designed by lee Jackson were ok, and the blue dookie was ok but there are better sounding amps out there for more or less the same amount of money.

I of course am giving you a hard time about a lot of this. You gotta play whatever you like. Nothing about crate, or washburn, or marshall does it for me though.(i mean marshall after the 800, the 800 and before are really great amps)
 
#58 ·
I had the white fronted TDP (Tube Driven Preamp) rack preamp around 1991 for a good few years and ran it into a Marshal 9005 power amp. It sounded godly. I also had 2 x 65 watt GX's at different times. The GX65's were ok as practice amps but the TDP really was good. Very good cleans and an excellent overdrive channel. It's one of those amps I sold but I wish I still had it. It was simple to use and never let me down. I think the overdrive channels active eq was very powerfull, you could get all sorts of sounds out of it. I remember it was easy to get really bell like clean sounds from the clean channel. It was just soo good.
 
#59 ·
It's understood that many CRATE amps weren't very good, but they produced several models over the years that are absolutely stellar. Think GT200, GX-130C, G1500, G1600XL, and don't forget the Lee Jackson designed STEALTH, to name a few. Listen to your EARS, folks. Look beyond the name plate and/or price. If the sounds make you grin, then that is your amp! ;-)
 
#60 ·
I demoed a Blue Voodoo back when they came out and was wholly uninspaired and I decided I had to spend more money if I wanted something that sounded good. I THINK I tried it because Marty Friedman endorsed them for a day or two, if I recall correctly. If you can get your tone with a Crate or anything, more power to you, but I didn't care for it.
17442
 
#61 ·
I’m surprised to hear that review from you, as our taste do coincide often

it’s no Mesa, or even soldano but I liked the Blue voodoo, maybe BECAUSE of Marty and the awesome blue light

my band mate had the full stack pictured and he wanted to trade for my Mesa stack but I passed ofc

but anyway crate are EXCELLENT cheap amps like line 6 was, nowadays I don’t know

is this necrobump?
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top