Crate = Sh1t

Just look at the Harmony Central reviews.

their only good amp was the Blue Voodoo.

 

I used to know a guy who played a stealth. Absolute crap. I would seriously look elsewhere.

 

Check out the Laney combos like an LC50 Mk II..

 

The Stealth was a Lee Jackson designed amp, I haven't played one but I have owned a VL-1002 Ampeg which was also a Lee Jackson amp and it rocked. You can probably get one of the VL series Ampegs for a similar price >$400. Peavey Ultra is another heavey amp in that price range. The VTX Peavey are one channel but can be brutal depending on how you set it up.
Laney Aor's are a bit more JCM800ish in the same price range & Carvin MTS heads may also do the trick in that price range.
Good Luck

 

I keep hearing they have loads of gain and stuff. I can get one shipped for 400 canadian. All I care about is loads of distortion. I dont care if its warm or harsh, so long as it doesnt sound like a fart. Now harsh would be like some Ensalved songs in my opinion. Mesa being warm. Still, is it a good buy for that much considering it is a tube amp and what I have?

 

It doesn't matter how much gain you have, if you have no bottom end, like all crates lack, your gonna sound like ****..

 

Im putting a 31 band graphic EQ through the effects loop.

 

31? tis a bit much

 

The Stealth is a big giant ice-pick in the forehead. It is bright to the point of being harsh.

I actually prefer Crate's solid state amps to the Stealth and Blue Voodoo, and I've owned both of them at one tim or another.

 

31 is for perfectionists. That's what I am. Im going to down the treble and up the bass to the point of normalizing. I've never owned an amp with an effects loop so that's gonna be fun too. Toshiro, do you have any clips of you playing the amp?

 

31 is for perfectionists. That's what I am. Im going to down the treble and up the bass to the point of normalizing. I've never owned an amp with an effects loop so that's gonna be fun too. Toshiro, do you have any clips of you playing the amp?

Nope, never recorded it. Good luck with that.

 

Well can anyone recommend a good price to bargin this thing down to? It was just in the shop too. The offer was 325 before the shop and 375 after. He has to ship it to me so I can get it so that's why its 400. Can anyone suggest a good haggle point?

 

you can EQ your signal all you want, its the amp that has no low end, and the speaker. this amp is a rip off even at $325. you should look into a used all tube Traynor or Laney. Heck even a Marshall Valvestate's better.

 

I have a house full of highend amps and honestly crates are junk. With an exception, I do have a Stealth 50 head and for what it was designed to do it does well. If you like the 80's metal sounds of like Ratt, Dokken etc this amp can nail it. The whole no bottom end is crap. I have a mesa recto half stack right next to this amp and the crate has all the bottom end you could ever need. But know that the crate cab is good for hmmmmmm maybe firewood. The cab blows I run mine through an old 16 ohm marshall 4-12 and it kills that metal sound. I have never gigged with it but I have practiced with it and it was good. Lee Jackson designed the amp so although it says crate on it it was definately not their design and therefore ...thank god sounds nothing like a crate.It sounds more like the 80's marshalls or really like the metaltronix line that Paul Gilbert and some of the other 80's slingers used to play on. It has its uses but is not a one amp do all kind of thing. For the money versus solid state amps I would take the tubes of the crate any day. But this is all just my opinion so take from it what you will.
Sully

 

The guy sold it last week. I got a V-Amp 2 and a 31 band EQ for 100 bucks. It will tide me over for now. What about the B-52 amps? They seem kinda low priced for new tube amps. I love chunky gain. Good for that?

 

Don't let other people tell you what to think sounds good. Use your ears. If you think it sounds good compared to other amps you've heard, then guess what? What you think sounds good *does* sound good. By definition. You are the final arbiter when it comes to your sound.

That being said, there is a difference between what sounds good by itself, and what sounds good in a mix, and that's something that can be a bit hard to get a handle on.

I have a Peavey 5150, a Crate Blue voodoo, and a Crate GX212. I play the GX212 more than the other two combined. I play the Blue Voodoo least of all. It's just how my taste in sound requires me to play. I guess my taste is not similar to others. They probably think my tone sucks. They are wrong as only I can be the arbiter of what my tone is supposed to be like.

Another note... I tend to play at reasonable (not ear-melting -- some would say quiet) volumes, and this almost surely impacts my choice. It is probable that at louder volumes, my choice of amps would change, as I know the 5150 can kick the GX212's ass at higher volumes, for instance.

Also, the cab makes a big difference. For instance, the Blue Voodoo head through the 5150 cab sounds remarkably like, surprise, surprise, a 5150.

 

ive played out of a Crate GT3500H and it treated me pretty good.

 

Don't assume ALL Crates suck. I'm so tired of the blind followers. I have a 90 watt Crate Excalibur head, solid state no less, I run it through an 80s-era Laney cab, and I can get PLENTY of good tones out of it. I recently got the bug, and decided to look around, and see if I could improve my tone, so I tried a TON of amps, most of them tube, even. My conclusion was that I was fine where I was at, for now. I thought the Krankenstein was the worst. I didn't even care for the Triple Rectifier. Thought the B52 sounded awful, and couldn't get a clear tone out of it, to save my life. Hell, even a Marshall AVT50 head sounded better than most of them. Only ones I REALLY liked better than mine, was the Peaveys.
When it comes down to it, don't listen to a friggin thing others talk **** on. Turst your OWN ears. It's gonna be YOU that's playing it, and it's gonna be YOU paying for the friggin thing!

 

ive played out of a Crate GT3500H and it treated me pretty good.

Ah the Shockwave. A friend of mine wants one of those pretty bad.

I always go with my ears and thats why I wanted sound clips. I wasn't going to hear the amp unless I bought it since it was around 250K away. A Dual Recto would be nice to have. Lots of chunk.

 

I had a crate stealth head for a brief period and it was ok. The cleans were actually really great, thick, warm, round and bouncy. But the distortion was VERY harsh even with the treble/presence down. I found that it didn't sound too bad with a dark guitar though.

mJ