Zero experience with Crate speakers...

[MrCoolGuy]

Are these Crate SLM speakers as terrible as I imagine they are?
I haven't had a chance to try them...
I typically don't work on SS amps, but I think I know what's wrong with this one and just want to help the owner out. But just curious if anyone has experience with these speakers...

 

[Deeve]

I dunno about THAT spkr, but my problem w/ the Crate 2x12 I owned almost 40 years ago had nothing to do w/ the spkr but w/ that absurd "cascading sequential gain" was what gobbed me up.
More experienced folks can weigh in to correct me, but I think the cabinet can go from ss to vacuum tube just fine (so long as ohm setting is correct)
Peace - Deeve

 

[Jakedog]

That’s from back in the SLM made in USA days. I’m pretty sure their speakers were made by eminence. I could be wrong, of course. I used to sell Crate stuff back then, but back in those days nobody cared about the speaker or discussed them much. We either liked the way an amp sounded or we didn’t. The SS crates weren’t special or costly, they were kiddie amps. But they were tough and reliable, and I thought then, and still think now, that they sounded a lot better than a lot of SS student level amps available at the time. What model is the amp, and how many speakers is it running?

 

[uriah1]

I had a crate that had labeled JBL on them.
STL probably like a Weber or EMI

 

[scottser]

i had a crate vc20 that had a rebranded eminence legend in it - that was a great little amp.

 

[scottser]

tdpri proves there is nothing new under the sun:
https://www.tdpri.com/threads/old-crate-slm-12-speaker-what-is-it.324035/

 

[MrCoolGuy]

That’s from back in the SLM made in USA days. I’m pretty sure their speakers were made by eminence. I could be wrong, of course. I used to sell Crate stuff back then, but back in those days nobody cared about the speaker or discussed them much. We either liked the way an amp sounded or we didn’t. The SS crates weren’t special or costly, they were kiddie amps. But they were tough and reliable, and I thought then, and still think now, that they sounded a lot better than a lot of SS student level amps available at the time. What model is the amp, and how many speakers is it running?

It's a Crate G130C XL 2x12.
And fittingly belongs to a kid. He came to me to fix it... I couldn't say no.

 

[Jakedog]

It's a Crate G130C XL 2x12.
And fittingly belongs to a kid. He came to me to fix it... I couldn't say no.

That’s kind of a flagship model. Might have been the biggest combo offered in that lineup.

I liked the later (Black with grey pinstripe) “GX130C” iteration of that amp better. But the XL wasn’t bad. Those had a great stereo chorus. 65 watts RMS per side was good power, too. These were very popular with top 40 country and Tejano band guys in the 80’s and early 90’s. We sold a ton of them.

I’m not surprised there are still some around. SS Crate amps from that time period are pretty bullet proof. They’re only starting to crop up broken now (I’ve been seeing quite a few on CL lately) because they’re 30+ years old. And the fixes are usually simple and minor.

When a GX130C is healthy, it’s a great poor man’s Jazz Chorus substitute.

 

[Ringo]

I think they were made by Eminence, I have owned a few of the Crate Vintage Club series tube amps, the cabinets with the Crate labeled speakers sounded fine to me. A friend of mine had a SS Crate amp with a tube in the preamp section, it had a factory Celestion speaker.

 

[MrCoolGuy]

That’s kind of a flagship model. Might have been the biggest combo offered in that lineup.

I liked the later (Black with grey pinstripe) “GX130C” iteration of that amp better. But the XL wasn’t bad. Those had a great stereo chorus. 65 watts RMS per side was good power, too. These were very popular with top 40 country and Tejano band guys in the 80’s and early 90’s. We sold a ton of them.

I’m not surprised there are still some around. SS Crate amps from that time period are pretty bullet proof. They’re only starting to crop up broken now (I’ve been seeing quite a few on CL lately) because they’re 30+ years old. And the fixes are usually simple and minor.

When a GX130C is healthy, it’s a great poor man’s Jazz Chorus substitute.

Yes, it really didn't need that much work.
Just a good cleaning and some work on the cliff jacks. It's actually really fun to play. And I have determined that these Crate SLM marked speakers are in fact Eminence and are pretty close to the ones in the Fender Hot Rod series amps.
Thanks for your help.

 

[posttoastie]

tdpri proves there is nothing new under the sun:
https://www.tdpri.com/threads/old-crate-slm-12-speaker-what-is-it.324035/

Its deja vu all over again

 

[soundchaser59]

That’s from back in the SLM made in USA days. I’m pretty sure their speakers were made by eminence. I could be wrong, of course. I used to sell Crate stuff back then, but back in those days nobody cared about the speaker or discussed them much. We either liked the way an amp sounded or we didn’t. The SS crates weren’t special or costly, they were kiddie amps. But they were tough and reliable, and I thought then, and still think now, that they sounded a lot better than a lot of SS student level amps available at the time. What model is the amp, and how many speakers is it running?

Every used Crate cab I've ever had I'm positive it had Eminence made speakers in it.

 

[jvin248]

.

I have a Crate GX65 that is very competitive with my Peavey Bandit of era.

They were all rebranded parts, subbed out to contract manufacturers, like 90% of the music market today continues to be.
The problem back then was "tube" vs "solid state" and reviews were all about the distortion channels. Loud cleans were not important.

Now with so many players using canoe-sized pedal boards or modelers those old clean solid state amps are very useful. A player just needs the amp to be louder. There's a J Macsis video on how he stacks his pedals for the wall of sound he uses in Dinosaur Jr and he says "here's my amp, it's set depressingly clean" and then goes through his pedal tone layers.

I picked up two 4x12 cabinets a while back, one of them is Crate, that I plan on making 1x12 cabinets using the speakers (can't remember what ones are in there).

Crate was bought by Ampeg at some point to be their lower price point models and St Louis Music was involved somewhere in the mix before or after.

.

 

[MrCoolGuy]

Its deja vu all over again

I looked... I didn't find that one.

 

[Jakedog]

.

I have a Crate GX65 that is very competitive with my Peavey Bandit of era.

They were all rebranded parts, subbed out to contract manufacturers, like 90% of the music market today continues to be.
The problem back then was "tube" vs "solid state" and reviews were all about the distortion channels. Loud cleans were not important.

Now with so many players using canoe-sized pedal boards or modelers those old clean solid state amps are very useful. A player just needs the amp to be louder. There's a J Macsis video on how he stacks his pedals for the wall of sound he uses in Dinosaur Jr and he says "here's my amp, it's set depressingly clean" and then goes through his pedal tone layers.

I picked up two 4x12 cabinets a while back, one of them is Crate, that I plan on making 1x12 cabinets using the speakers (can't remember what ones are in there).

Crate was bought by Ampeg at some point to be their lower price point models and St Louis Music was involved somewhere in the mix before or after.

.

SLM owned both the Crate and Ampeg nameplates until they sold out to Loud Technologies in the ‘00s.

Other SLM brands were Alvarez, Yairi, Series 10, Westone, and Audio Centron.

The all time beast of a Crate 1x12 combo was the GX160. 160 watts RMS in a 1x12 combo. It was brutally loud. More clean head room/power than possibly any other 1x12 combo amp ever made.

I remember selling one to a guy back in the day who asked “does it have an extension speaker jack?” My boss called from the back room “what the hell for?!?”.

 

[posttoastie]

ZZ Top in 2007

 

[posttoastie]

Crate Palomino V16 tube amp. Guitar Denter exclusive, i paid 229.00 on close out around 2010. 12 " speaker with spring reverb. Made in USA

(image removed)

 

[Wrighty]

Are these Crate SLM speakers as terrible as I imagine they are?
I haven't had a chance to try them...
I typically don't work on SS amps, but I think I know what's wrong with this one and just want to help the owner out. But just curious if anyone has experience with these speakers...View attachment 826747

My first amp was a Crate 50w. All I remember was it was insanely loud.