SS Crate Connoisseurs

This may be the true"Rodney Dangerfield" (I get NO respect) of the amp world. I own a few & played lots more including one with a factory Fane speaker:shock: .. Most sound better than they get credit for & are a real budget alternative (I've never paid more than $100 for one..most were less than $50)
The current crop..
FW 15
GTD15r (12" speaker")
Taxi 15

What have you..

Well, I’ve done this before, in Rangercaster’s thread “Crate Amplifier Owners Club.”
http://www.tdpri.com/forum/amp-owners-clubs/166068-crate-amplifier-owners-club.html
But I don’t mind posting about my gear in another thread, particularly one dedicated to SS Crates, which is what I have.

I have a couple of SS Crates, the TX30 & TX50, i.e., the “Taxi” and the “Limo.” These amps are the best for busking situations. They also work well for small venues where space is limited and running a power cord is a hassle. They are small, but they’re loud! And their wedge-shaped cabs with rubber feet on three different sides allows for setting them up either as a low angle monitor, a high angle monitor or as an upright speaker. And the battery in both of them lasts the whole gig and then some.

I had the “Taxi” (solid wood cabinet, “safety yellow” Tolex) for 7+ years before I got the “Limo,” and it served me well. I used it almost exclusively for my acoustic/electric guitar and a mic. Late last year, the battery gave up the ghost (but again, that’s after 7+ years of gigging, so I can’t complain about the durability and longevity). I’m going to get a replacement battery and put it in the Taxi, though, and keep it for acoustic guitar and/or backup.

So after years of driving my sound through a little yellow Taxi I went exclusively with the Limo. And it’s a workhorse too. More features, improvements over the Taxi. There are a few on board digital effects that are usable to me. All in all, I’m happy with both of them, though lately I’ve been going with Peavey amps for my Tele and the Limo for acoustic and vocals.

Here are the pics. On the left in the first pic is my Taxi, on the right is my Limo up on my speaker stand, and in the middle are a few of my guitars. (BTW, my wife has come to accept that normal, day-to-day living room décor involves guitars on their stands, cases in the corner and amps set up.)

http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/My_Gear_-_Living_Room_shot.jpg

The next is a close-up of my “little yellow Taxi” with “Mini me” seated atop the amp.

http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/Closeup_of_Mini-me_My_Little_Yellow_Taxi.jpg

This shot of me with my Breedlove AD25SM acoustic/electric is just to show you how the stuffed Jerry Garcia likeness came to be known as “Mini me.”

http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/500/medium/My_Guitars_-_September_2008_-_Breedlove.jpg

While I'm no tube snob, in fact love solid state amps...I'm not a fan of Crates for 2 reasons. Take my opinions with a grain of salt as its been a few years since I've played one, hopefully they've cleaned up their act...

1. They grossly over rate their amps. I had a 100 watt stereo (likely dual 50 watt) amp years ago which couldn't hang with a drummer even when maxed out. In comparison to solid state amps from Tech 21, Peavey and even Fender this was extremely disappointing.

2. Poor reliability. I've owned 3 Crate amps (the last of which was the 100 watter) and all 3 gave me problems within a short amount of time.

Well, Will, I'm not sure why you felt compelled to post a negative comment to a thread dedicated to "connoisseurs" of the brand. You had the option of just saying nothing, but you chose instead to voice your negative comments.

Well, no matter. Of course you have the right to your opinion, and I'm sure your experiences were as you say. I'm sorry that you had that experience.

As for your first complaint, I have nothing to say. I've never played through my Crates in a band setting, and so mine might not keep up with a drummer either. But they've always been more than loud enough for my applications.

As for your second complaint, again, I'm sorry you had that experience, but it doesn't track with Crate's reputation in general or my experience in particular. I recently had to replace the 12v rechargeable battery in my Taxi, but that was after 7+ years of good service. My Limo had a problem with the battery shortly after I got it, but customer support was great. They were prompt in their replies to my emails, and a replacement battery was promptly sent. I installed it and have not had a problem since.

I have two Crate Poweblocks. I keep them as back-ups, although they sound ok.

i have a Crate DXB112 ... these were first generation modellers ... not the loudest amp around at 30 watts but very versatile ...the amp only weighs 20 lbs !!! 16 digital tone effects including: Bypass/Compressor, Tremolo, Vibrato, Chorus, Flanger, Delay, Echo, Rotating Speaker, Chorus/Delay, Flange/Delay, Compressor/Vibrato/Delay, Compressor/Chorus/Delay, Compressor/Flange/Delay, Compressor/Chorus, Compressor/Delay, Touch-Wah

16 amp voices including: Brit Class A, Brit Hi Gain, Small Tweed, Black Face, Large Tweed, 60's Era UK, 70's Era UK, Fuzzbox, Rectified, California Mod, Ampeg VL, FlexWave, Vintage Club, Blue Voodoo, Acoustic, Clean
http://cachepe.zzounds.com/media/quality,85/brand,zzounds/p13766b-b4ed6507c070d0be9c6b7c030b1116a5.jpg

i'll join this--main amp is a polytone Mini Brute III.

100 watts, i think, of pure clean thru a 15" speaker. never have to turn it up past 5 to play with any drummer, and it weighs 28lbs. what's not to love?

i've also been hyping the zt amplifiers lunchbox, so i will again. on it's own, it's fine for practice or an impromptu jam session, but thru a good speaker, it's a viable professional tool. i've been putting it thru a redstone audio 8" cab, and the sound is huge an powerful...gonna gig that rig soon, methinks (next group gig, i like the 15" too damn much for solo gigs)

i also own a cube 60 that i think is a fine amp. nothing against tubes, they just don't provide the sound i personally want.

But do you own a Crate?:lol:

well, i definitely read this as "solid state conoisseurs" and left out the crate...please disregard my previous post...

sorry, i get excited when i hear other people around here who don;t think that a tweed champ is the holy grail of tone--cuz to me, it ain't, not by a longshot...but really and truly, that's why i love the tdpri--different strokes for different folks but we all get along...:mrgreen:

Yeah, I don't have a solid state crate, either, but I do like to hit the solid state threads because that seems to be my thing lately. Definitely going to have to check these guys out next time I'm in a shop. Come to think of it, though, my very first amp was a tiny solid state Crate. Fine little amp.

Anyway, seems like solid states might be gaining some ground here, judging by the number of responses in threads about how surprised people are by them these days.

NBD, Crates are Cheep & Cheerful everyone shoud have a few!

Well, Will, I'm not sure why you felt compelled to post a negative comment to a thread dedicated to "connoisseurs" of the brand. You had the option of just saying nothing, but you chose instead to voice your negative comments.

Well, no matter. Of course you have the right to your opinion, and I'm sure your experiences were as you say. I'm sorry that you had that experience.

As for your first complaint, I have nothing to say. I've never played through my Crates in a band setting, and so mine might not keep up with a drummer either. But they've always been more than loud enough for my applications.

As for your second complaint, again, I'm sorry you had that experience, but it doesn't track with Crate's reputation in general or my experience in particular. I recently had to replace the 12v rechargeable battery in my Taxi, but that was after 7+ years of good service. My Limo had a problem with the battery shortly after I got it, but customer support was great. They were prompt in their replies to my emails, and a replacement battery was promptly sent. I installed it and have not had a problem since.

My taxi needs a new battery whats the web site where you got yours?
thanks

I've had a couple of small Crate SS practice amps in the past that were good for their purpose, but recently someone gave me a GX40M that I am very happy with - the clean channel sounds great and it only weighs 27 lbs. The Crate on the right in this picture is a tube model - Stealth 50, aka GT-50, sounds good but is a hefty 47 lbs. Both of these are from the late 90's.

http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee29/ElBrewski/Amps/CrateGX40MandStealth50.jpg

I had a 65GFX I think. It got plenty loud. 3 channels, lots of effects which were not too good but I could get very useable clean/distorted sounds out of it. I also think the stock speaker was pretty good once broken in. Wish I still had it around sometimes, I sold it to finance other stuff I'm not very good at playing. I've been thinking about one of the smaller practice amps-I think it's the FR15?-just so I have something to run a line in for jamming.

The FW15r is a nice amp, the 12" speaker really gives it some ooph, & there is a jack for a extention speaker, if you ever need a bit more ( Crate has done well to offer this feature on the whole FW line) sounds good & it's light and inexpensive, &carring a 12" opens up a whole wold of speakder upgrades for the combo it'self..