What Happened to Crate Amplifiers?
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- Опубликовано: 12 сен 2024
- Hello Everyone in this video I talked about what happened to Crate Amplification and We also do a little bit of research on what and where Crate as a Guitar Brand of amplifiers became one of the most biggest and infamous amplifiers of 90s and 2000s.
From right here in St Louis! I still have an original G40C that is My practice amplifier and I use it at church, also.
The Lee Jackson designed Crate stealth 100 and 50 were there best amplifiers even though Crate skimped on the components to cut costs .
Great video! I worked at a Crate dealer in the 90's and sold a ton of them!
Ignore the people about the cant hear or understand shit. You're doing great. I enjoyed the video my guy
Thank you 🙏
So people give him constructive criticism and he should just ignore that? 🤦🏻♂
Right!?! We can’t ALL shoot with RedSeven cameras and have boom mics with paparazzi.
Ive been playing crates since the 90s🍻🍻🍻
Me too. They're the best solid-states ever produced and I say this as a college educated electrical-electronics engineer. I have a couple tube heads and 5 solid-states, 4 of which are Crates.
As long as the amp has a Midrange control on the lead distortion, they are in a league of their own. *If it doesn't though, they are condemned as garbage and this is what led to Crate going bankrupt. Mismanagement who got their hands into the key features of the model lines.*
For 25 cents I can install a 500 Ohm pot and give those models their midrange EQ back and then you can scoop out mids for the most dominant thrash and death metal tones ever possible!
For people that can't mod, a shelving EQ on the effects loop does the same thing and in some ways, a lot more and a lot better.
I'm even putting the Crate OEM distortion over the legendary Ampeg H140C which I own a model with. The Crate overall is superior and I say this as an elite shred and sweep style player. They have some clarity issues for very bassy and clustered arpeggios but there's ways around it and overall, even Randalls are outclassed.
*Ideally, someone will buy up the Crate designs and patents to bring them back.*
@@JonDethThat's awesome thanks for sharing! What do you think of the G•20C? I got one back in the late 80's and still have it in storage. I always loved that little practice amp.
@@DirtySouthConnection803 contrary to what some claim, Crate has never produced junk, not even when they sent manufacturing over to China. *Lee Jackson is the engineer behind most of what Crate built and his name is one of the most thoroughly known having designed many of Fenders most popular amps, Ampeg, his own Lee Jackson name brand tube amps and many others.*
All of my Crate's are built extremely well, sound great and 3 are about 30 years old. I've read people claiming they were always fixing this or that from Crate where they lived, but some people just do incredibly stupid things to low cost amps and take them to get serviced with whatever cover story. As one guy said, his Crate survived beers poured in them, fires at gigs and all sorts of road wear on tour.
*If you spot anything from them for a steal of a price, buy it.* All of a sudden, every metal guitarist over the last 15 years wants their solid states because they produce the most brutal of all death metal grind and tonal range, especially scooped. Of the models that sound mediocre, it's usually the GX lines that had the midrange control removed from the lead distortion and all you get is the shape control, but you can add the midrange control with a 50 cent potentiometer used to replace a resistor. This is what gives them the ultimate in metal brutality.
Within the next 5 years due to their aftermarket popularity, I suspect either St. Louis Music will manufacture their designs under a new brand header or someone will step up to replace them with an equivalent.
@@JonDeth Yes. Lee Jackson is a trailblazer. He and Rivera did some great work. I am a huge fan of all the old Fender amps. Well, really Fender in general. You have a wealth of knowledge. I have been kind of going back an studying the history of the great amp builders.Thank you for sharing!👍
@@DirtySouthConnection803 you know, the industry could use some documentaries on the history of the technology and the names from the 80's and 90's that are still widely unknown. Just in terms of what came out of the 70's from Europe, Britain, the USA and Canada onward into the 80's with valve amps is a rich and complex history with heaps of interesting names and stories.
There's a historical video on youtube about Dumble and how many of the Dumble amps came to exist. His process for them and the fame of their owners. I'm not one to get swept up in the mysticism of their performance, but they sure make for an interesting history lesson with countless associated stories.
Meanwhile, the solid-state branch has no relative historic media generated about it when it's so greatly deserved and needed. In the world of modern metal, whether it's valves, digital, solid-state analog or blends of the 3, the solid-state analog amps of the 90's are what all current technologies are being modeled to sound like. I love my valve gear but pinch harmonics out of pure valve distortion sound like they're made of glitter. Pinch harmonics through a solid-state amp sound like the devil himself is snarling at you!
They've done far more to shape the current sound and path of metal than valves ever have.
Great to find this video about Crate amps! I’ve got the NAMM display Marty Friedman Blue Voodoo with blue lights, reflective foil and black skull with the rig number on paper stuck to the back. It still sounds awesome and it can even get a modern medal tone going when boosted.
Well done and well explained. Your channel will be successful because you do your research and share the information so well. Thank you!
Thank you so much 🙏
The Blue Voodoo is a MONSTER amp. I had that crate in the crate. Very informative.
I picked up a bv150h and matching cabinet here,on Vancouver island last week I paid 370 usd for it. I only played it once because it is far too loud. I bought it because I’m a gear addict. The price was ok,as it works fine
I'll play Crates 'till I die. GX120C and
120W Blue Voodoo 1/2 stack.
I've been hearing people shit on them for 35 years, but they're weapons.
I've owned 8 or 9 total. Totally slept on, which works out for me, people practically were paying you to take them. Mine have been pretty much indestructible gigging with them in shitty metal/hardcore venues.
Ampeg VL-503 is another overlooked gem.
I only heard the crate solid state heads. Sounded great and you can play low volume with good sound if you have an apartment or have other people in the house.
I had a Blue VooDoo 120 in the early 2000s, I miss that amp.
For some reason, I've always been able to easily dial in a good recording tone with Crate amps. I once owned a Crate GFX 35, the built in chorus and shape knob for the overdrive channel are very usable. Ended up blowing it up during a practice with Summer Section Drowning circa 2003ish while trying to get loud enough to compete with a huge drum sound.
I have had several of them during the 80's and 90's, and I remember going to the music store and seeing these ugly things that looked like they were made from pallets.
That's actually the best one, from what I understand.
Had the 120W head and 4X12 cabinet-traded the head for a guitar and used the cab with all kinds of other stuff for years, but it was WAY heavy, and finally stopped using it.
Can't remember what I did with it, though-that was 30 years ago.
Kind of harsh sounding, but if it blew up, you could always get another one at a pawn shop for 50-100 bucks.
SLM put out some killer stuff, I always wondered what happened to them.
Great video.
You should do one on it's main competitor, the infamous Peavey Bandit, the greatest cheesy amp of all time, and totally nuclear weapons proof-you CANNOT kill that amp, I have tried.
Thanks for the comment. Actually a Peavey video is coming soon !
I still love crate amps I still rock a crate gx40c 210 combo
got to love the SG of Devilry Honor
ohhh i see you there my beloved Black Custom SG Vampiric Beauty
The only trouble I ever had with a crate amp was the input on a cheap fifteen watt practice amp and a big ass 115 bass amp I picked up and threw at another band I hated that was bitching about us not getting off the stage fast enough wasn't a good night my girlfriend I had broken up with a week before was with one of the members of the other band as well so I figured I'd scare the shit out of him and I think it worked but then I needed to get a new bass amp afterwards
Input jacks are usually bad quality in low budget amos no matter Amo brand specially if the inputs are made if plastic. Thanks for the comment
I still own 3 Crates. Always wanted a head and cabs, but never achieved it. Got a 10 , 60 , and 120 watt combos. I revisit them every once in a while. I'll probably always keep them. Although, I like my new amps better
I bought a gfx15 in the early 90s new for $100. About 10 years ago I bought a gfx212 and a Bx 100 bass amp for $100 each. Still have them but they don't get as much play as they used to.
The older cr ones are good had a cr-120. Nice classic rock sound and easy to carry.
My go to for small gigs is still my Crate V32 with a Marshall vertical 2X12" cabinet
I have an early 90's Crate XT 120. It's a 2X12 Combo amplifier 120 watts with 3 very functional channels, Clean, Rhythm and Solo. It also has built in Spring Reverb which rivals Fender's reverb, and a three channel foot switch with LED lights. This amplifier is very loud, the Rhythm channel sounds very Marshall like, and The Solo channel with it's Shape circuit resembles a Rectified Mesa Boogie all scooped out. It also has an extension speaker jack, which back in the day there was a 2x12 extension cabinet available. I wish I would have bought it! This amp will drive any kind of 4x12 cabinet with no problems whatsoever. I have never had any issues with this amp since the day I bought it. I've used it in the Studio and at live gigs where it was up against a Marshall half stack and it kept up just fine. It's very hard to find such a quality amp these days at such a good price, which back then was around $299. Come back Crate please and bring these amps with you!
I think i had the 1x12 version. It took a crap in the middle of a recording session. i took it back to the store and left it there
That's crazy--so James Hetfield's first flying V was a Crate-branded import. My first amp was a Crate 15 watt, the non-fx one. GX15? That was Y2K. My last Crate was a Palomino 32 watt head and piggyback that I got for cheap while working at GC around 2007. I think it was about 2005 or 6 when I became aware of a what a tube amp was, and that's fully because of the Blue Voodoo and how you could see through the front panel. No other amp at the time had the same visibility. They would display that amp in the middle of the guitar floor like it was the holy fucking grail.
Still have my blue voodoo and my combo. Crate tube amps used to be like nothing else
For the record.. SLM also made Ampeg
I love my Crate GX.
I had the fuzzy crate half stack. Never knew the model number. Was $600 brand new. Lasted me years until the volume drops couldn’t be fixed with a whack from a drumstick anymore. Got a Triple rectifier out of necessity (got lucky on the price too, boss paid for half of it) and it was a revelation. The solid state crate always sounded great by myself but it never could quite cut through a mix very well. The rectifier was a beast. No problems cutting through anything after that. Still love crate though, they served a purpose at the time. I wouldn’t have known what to do with the boogie without experience I gained using my crate
My g212 crate usa made blew away the competition
I just dug my GT80S (stock with a Celestion speaker) out of my storage bldg. Smells moldy & all the pots crackled. Cleaned the pots up good. Pulled off the fabric cabinet covering & threw it in the washer. Threw away the particle board cabinet. I’m going to make a new cabinet for it. The amp operates good as new, & very loud. It just can’t compete with modern amps. A good back up though. I’ll store it better this time.
My Crate V18 is about seven feet away from where I'm typing this right now - that little amp gets extremely loud! I think I got it for only $150 when they were on a clearance sale about twenty years ago.
I’ll tell you what happened: I own the BV 300 and the BV 150. They are so damn heavy, once I put them down, they haven’t moved since lol.
🤣🤣🤣
As he plays through a peavey lol..love it!!
I was playing the Crate Turbo Valve.
3:42 my first amp christmas 77 i just turned 14
Love my G40C XL I rescued from being discarded.
Crate amps can be found on the used market for a song and a dance. I got a GTX100 (solid-state 4×10 combo) that was found on the side of the road. I built a new cabinet to house the working amp and Celestion drivers (on OEM baffle), but didn't really like it much, so traded it off.
*currently using a Katana 50 mk2 and Cadine Tantrum distortion/boost ($29.00 brand new)
2013 B.C. Rich Warlock 1
I didn't have any problems understanding because of the mic
Thanks still gonna get the Best resolution possible. Just want to make sure i buy the right thing. Thanks for the comment
I've got 2 crate all tube amps! V series 18w&33w nice amps! 🤘
Rock on! 😀 lml
I got a v58 5 watter and v1512 15 watter, great sounding amps, real vox-y...and only cost $200!
The Blue Voodoo like you have, the 120h with the blue tolex , THATS the one to have, they also have a 300 watt version… those were good amps! IDGAF what anyone says… if you know how to dial the tone in you’re golden!
The Crate FlexWave 120 is also a good cheap solid state and the clean channel on that model is nice in addition to the OD channel.
Judas Priest also used the Blue Voodoo Doo amps.
Cannibal Corpse , Rob Barrett used the Crate GX-130C
So, sure, you have to be selective when using Crate, but they made some really good amps too!
Those blue voo doo cabinets with the blue tolex , those were made out of Baltic birch and loaded with Celestion Vintage 30s … heavy cabs, but they were quality cabinets.
I wish someone would make a standalone amp Sim of the blue tolex blue voo doo or at least capture it and share it on ToneNET /ToneX .
starts at 2:48
Gets the job done.
You need to mic yourself up. Very hard to understand
Im in the process of changing cameras thanks for the advice
@@solomonicdemons680 You'll need a lavalier mic or something as well.
I agree, this is garbage "content"
Don’t make videos if they aren’t worth watching
@@JohnDaubSuperfan369 That's a bit harsh man, guy just needs a good mic for his spoken bits, he's a good player.
Papa Aucas? Anyway, My dad got lucky once as he found a bass head when he was walking his dog at his apartment complex, and it sounds pretty decent. An acquaintance gave me a combo but I blew it up.
Damnnnn 💣💥. Definitely they sound Decent But QC always was an issue. Thanks for the comment Aucas Calidad 🙏.
I love my Crate GFX-1200H!!!
I had Crate a blue voodoo, it was terrible. Noisy and unreliable. Also had a solid state Crate GX900. Not the best sounding amp but it was very loud and I never had much trouble with it.
the lee jackson ones were cool and the palomino's for blues sounded great. Amps had a horrible name to be honest
Had a crate blue vudu tube head like 100 150 Watts something like that. Only got to play it through a pa speaker. Had a crate cab in pawn on layaway for it but moved and lost everything. I love Crate and i still think about and miss that head to this day. ik it was a beast, even though ppl called it the blue doodoo lol... I loved it
I own 7 crate amps
Never got into Crates. Never into Peavey either.
No time like the present, certain models from both brands are going up in price, especially the lee jackson designed crates and first-gen EVH peaveys
Your loss
@@acw2237 never got into your opinion either.
no mention of magnavox, ampeg, SLM, blackheart amps, LOUD technology. lol whatever.
Im Leaving the Blackheart Amp for another video. Ampeg was Bought by Saint Luis Music in the 80s but it wasn't originally made by SLM so even if it was on my script. I decided to leave that for another video and just focus on. Crate. Thanks for the comment.
@@solomonicdemons680haha ok
1:11 and I'm disappointed.... maybe I'll make my own vid on this subject. I'm probably more qualified anyway because back in 1990 I had quite a few of Crate amps + 412 cabinet and played live loud as fu€£ outside and inside so I think I've seen what they can do. They are pretty much crap and I can prove it lol.
Shit music, schellos, Shaint Louis, Shopping? 😂
The only thing a crate is good for is carrying milk...
Enjoy your line6
*promo sm*
gx900h
Who names a guitar amp brand Crate? Come on! 'here's a wooden crate from which you can emit amplified guitars'. Yeah...but can you put a little more effort into a decent name? lol
They sucked
😂
Wrong.. you never used one
@@acw2237 ok dad
@@jturquoise here's a rainbow pop...
@@acw2237 give it to your mom
@@jturquoise here's another, sparkle phartz
Crate makes the best solid-state metal amps in history even better than Ampeg whose legendary H140C lead distoriton was used for some Crate models, but their stock distortion as long as the solo distortion has the Midrange control for scooping is untouchable.
*They produced the GX and a few other lines where you have a shape control, but no midrange! They sound horrid until you mod them and return that control to it, or you run a shelving EQ on the effects loop and deeply scoop the mids.*
I have 2 all tube heads and 5 solid-state heads, and the solid-state are just so much easier to get good distortion out of than the valves and one is a high performance Carvin V3. *I also am a formally educated electrical/electronics engineer which is one of the most complex and difficult sciences on earth.*
I love valves but they're overrated, and Crate solid-states are unjustly condemned.
The Blue Voodoo is a MONSTER amp. I had that crate in the crate. Very informative.