Crate Powerblock review

[JohnnyCrash]

I've had it for a while, so now it's time to give another review...

For a solid state amp BOTH the Clean and Dirty sounds that you can dial in are pretty decent.

The speaker simulation (kicks in on headphones or the DI output) sucks really badly.

Through a few different speakers it was pleasant.

The cleans are a little warmer than MOST solid state amps I've tried. Still very bright and clear with a lot less warmth than a tube amp has. Some Country pickers not so interested in "warmth" and more interested in clarity and brightness (Tele players that may even use bass amps for twangin') might even like this amp for "normal" use.

The dirties were nice and mean with sustain and crunch. There was a little bit of dynamics to be found, but not much (to be expected for a solid state amp). Dialing in less gain had a nice midrangey "brashness" to it, but it also lacked the sustain and complexity of a tube amp.

Hopefully. I will soon be bypassing the PB's preamp and will be trying out some tube preamps directly into the power amp (via the effects loop)... this may make it more useable as a guitar amp.

For bass it was surprising (as Tim here already pointed out). The sound was a little warmer than I expected (could be the FlexWave tube simulation technology). I could dial in some very nice bass tones with my '51 RI P-Bass and a few different speakers.

BOTTOM LINE
As a backup amp weighing less than 5 lbs, it is a great "insurance policy" for BOTH Bass and Guitar giggers.

LIVE
Live I would easily use the DI with a Bass (with the bass cab being the onstage monitor, like Tim uses it for)... even as a main bass amp (a "non-backup" bass amp).

Live as a guitar amp, I would NOT use the DI, but would prefer to have a cab mic'ed up. Through speakers the amp sounded pretty dang good for a solid state amp! I'd still not use it as a main guitar amp though, prefering any of my other tube amps for this.

I'd even go as far as saying, if you played hard rock/metal with little complexity to your dirty tones, this could even be a decent main amp!

RECORDING
I would NEVER use it for recording guitar tones (except maybe for some metal or industrial).

I would easily add it to the L.R. Baggs Para Acoustic DI, tube DI, mixing board, and two or three bass amp setups I have when recording bass.

--

For $99 it can't be beat as a backup for BOTH the band's Bassist AND Guitarist. For home recording, it can be usefull for some bass stuff - but absolutely useless for guitar (except maybe DI'ed scratch tracks late at night).

Best $99 I've ever spent on music gear... a 5 lbs 150 watt backup amp could fit in any gigging musicians road gear.

[Tim Bowen]

Thanks for the review. I'm considering picking up one of these bad boys for meself.

I speak with a buddy in Los Angeles once a week or so as to gear, music, life, art, food, and demented humor... the guy does this for a living, and has worked with folks such as Jimmy Haslip, Nels Cline, and Robben Ford... anyway, he picked up this unit as an emergency backup about a month back, and for grins, finally gigged it at a small club over the past week. He was fairly impressed, and this guy's pretty discerning. He did say that it's not a good choice for folks that are really dependent upon clean headroom, but went on to say that it does interact quite well with guitar volume knobs, as to cleanup. He ran a few gain peds in front of it and said that it handled them quite well (there's a huge resurgence of use of solid state amps with analog stomps by LA players these days, as an interesting aside). Mostly, he felt that the unit's calling card was how well it delivered convincing tones at low volumes. For anybody that works a lot, and is often unsure of venue size and volume considerations, this is not a moot point. He doesn't feel that it will replace his Fenders, Dr. Z's, Tone Kings, and other tubers, but says that he could make it work for most any gig situation that he's faced with, if need be. Encouraging words from a pro.

[JohnnyCrash]

Originally Posted by Tim Bowen

...but says that he could make it work for most any gig situation that he's faced with, if need be. Encouraging words from a pro.

That's how I felt. If my amp fried on any given gig - of any type, I could chug along fine with the PB... and I play both bass and guitar :)

Thanks for that perspective. Doh! I completely forgot to try my Tubescreamer in front of it!

In the next few weeks I'll be laying down some bass for a project... I'll be back with my results with this as a DI box for bass recording.

[johnreardon]

Great little amp for the money. Even at the £129 I paid for it, it's a superb backup amp. We also tried it as a bass amp a few gigs ago. Fabulous, better than the amp the bass player normally uses

[Rob DiStefano]

IMHO, the $99 PB is stupid good and I use it as a bass amp through a 1x15 for jams and testing out bass guitars for customers. The EQ section works really well for tone shaping a bass.

Would it work at a gig? Well, sure - depending on the venue and the type of music. Small bar/club for bluez, jazz, rock, pop? Heck yeah. Wedding/large party/outdoors? Heck no (unless yer mic'ing through the PA).

Use it for guitar? I guess, as a back up. But I'm spoiled rotten by really good tube amps to say anything wonderful about any s/s amp. However, it does a pretty good job of amplifying acoustics tranducers and piezos.

[huw]

I have one of these & I love it. As folks have said, for the price & weight what's not to love?

Another use is as a power amp for any pre-amp/amp-modeler you fancy. I've used it on a couple of gigs with a PODv2 in the front through a Marshall cab & had seriously good results. It easily balanced with the other guitar players Marshall amps.

[Big Tony]

Thanks for the review, Johnny C!

I've recieved my Powerblock, but haven't had time to try it out yet.

/ Tony

[JohnnyCrash]

Originally Posted by Rob DiStefano

Would it work at a gig? Well, sure - depending on the venue and the type of music. Small bar/club for bluez, jazz, rock, pop? Heck yeah. Wedding/large party/outdoors? Heck no (unless yer mic'ing through the PA).

That's the beauty of it's DI output though. I can see why Tim uses this as a bass amp! DI into the house mixing board, your own cab as a stage monitor.

Originally Posted by Rob DiStefano

Use it for guitar? I guess, as a back up. But I'm spoiled rotten by really good tube amps to say anything wonderful about any s/s amp. However, it does a pretty good job of amplifying acoustics tranducers and piezos.

Same here, but I still am tempted to give it a shot for a guitar rig onstage one of these days... 150 watts and decent sound for pure rock gigs (AKA overdrive only with chord bashing and no subtelties).

[Paul G.]

Nice review.

I've got one I bought for $199 (ugh, I know) and still am happy to have it.

It goes comes with me everywhere and is just great peace of mind.

Not crazy about it for my guitar, but I've used worse, and I know I could do a full gig without wishing I was dead.

I really like the sound for bass, nice and growly.

I don't know how they figured it's 150 Watts, as it sounds more like 40 or so, still in a useful range.

P.

[Tim Armstrong]

Johnny, I'm surprised you didn't mention the most important thing...













...the cool blue light!

Tim

[reverbbb]

Originally Posted by Tim Armstrong

Johnny, I'm surprised you didn't mention the most important thing...













...the cool blue light!

Tim

Absolutely! Forget about all that tone talk, the blue light drives the girls crazy

I got mine for $99.99 a while back. I needed a portable speaker to mate it up with. I have a 2x12 Marshall cabinet that barely meets the rating - if not falling short. So, I watched for deals on the Crate matching cabinet. I was not amused to find that they were all selling for $150~199 (since I didn't "need" another speaker cabinet). But alas! One day, I walked into my local GC and they had finally marked down the last Crate speaker that was a floor model. It was marked to $99.99 - they would not accept my additional 10% off card.

I still need to investigate this more, but yesterday it seemed that the Gain and the MV were also regulating the DI output. Is this true? I can understand the Gain for the DI tone influence. But why the MV? The DI has it's own volume control.

I would say this rig (speaker + amp) is well worth $400. But at $200, I couldn't be happier with the features and the tones (let's not forget about that blue light too).

BTW, that blue light was the obvious give away to my wife that I had bought something new for my studio. The amp had been sitting out in plain view for two weeks. It wasn't until she saw that blue light turned on that she noticed it sitting there.

[Kurzman]

I've got a Power Block coming in a few days. I had planned on using it for keyboard (cheap Casio thing) or maybe occasionally with a bass.

I know it says 150 watts but I also know ss watts are "less" than tube watts.

I have an extra Weber California 15" 8 ohm (rated at 80 watts). Would this be a decent option if I get a cab for it or would it blow running a keyboard or bass through it?

Another option is a 2/12 cabinet loaded with two 75 watt Carvins (16 ohms-cab wired for 8 ohms). I sold it to a buddy but I can get it back.

Thanks for the advice.
PS..these speakers are guitar spekers.

[JohnnyCrash]

Originally Posted by Kurzman

I know it says 150 watts but I also know ss watts are "less" than tube watts.

Originally Posted by Paul G.

I don't know how they figured it's 150 Watts, as it sounds more like 40 or so, still in a useful range.

Yeah, says 150 watts, but the actual volume sounds like much less.

Originally Posted by Kurzman

I have an extra Weber California 15" 8 ohm (rated at 80 watts). Would this be a decent option if I get a cab for it or would it blow running a keyboard or bass through it?

I wouldn't recommend using that speaker with the amp. Probably would blow eventually.

Originally Posted by Kurzman

Another option is a 2/12 cabinet loaded with two 75 watt Carvins (16 ohms-cab wired for 8 ohms). I sold it to a buddy but I can get it back.

Thanks for the advice.
PS..these speakers are guitar spekers.

Two 75 watt speakers = 150 watt handling. For overdriven guitar you'd want a higher rating...

For Bass especially (as well as keys) you'd want Bass speakers. Won't sound very good and it may eventually damage the speakers.

I do run my bass through it and 2x12" Celestion Vintage 30s (60w each) pretty often, but only at bedroom "screwing around" levels.

[JohnnyCrash]

Originally Posted by reverbbb

I still need to investigate this more, but yesterday it seemed that the Gain and the MV were also regulating the DI output. Is this true? I can understand the Gain for the DI tone influence. But why the MV? The DI has it's own volume control.

I haven't played around too much with it.

I just got an Ampeg SVT4 PRO before I got this... now Ampeg is owned by the same folks who own Crate.

Anyways, the SVT's manual was very detailed. Mentions that you don't need any speakers plugged in when using the DI (which I will use for recording some tracks)... the Crate barely said anything (except the headphone jack does not defeat the speaker out, so it's safe to unplug the speakers with the headphones in).

Long story short, the manual sucks.

SOUNDS LIKE
I'm guessing the Volume will control ALL overall output (for your speaker cab monitor and DI output) and the DI is to bring the volume down or "match it" for the sound guy.

[Kurzman]

So what's it comparable to volume-wise? A Super Reverb/Old Flame?
The 15" Weber California came in my Old Flame.
Thanks.
PS..I won't be running a guitar through it. I've got plenty of nice tube amps for that.