Crate Powerblock
SheaNC
Crate Powerblock (http://www.crateamps.com/html/series.cfm?sid=15) to use as
a bass amp. I know that Crate is not a highly respected name, but sometimes
a company gets ahold of a one-off design that turns out to be great. Reviews
on Harmony Central and Musician's Friend (assuming they're legit) seem to
indicate that it can be a pretty cool little bass head. I'm just looking for
some opinions/input on this idea. Anyone?
pTooner
"SheaNC" <n...@home.net> wrote in message
news:xbidnUyE_IFLhPTY...@comcast.com...
what your experience is with it if you try or buy one.
Gerry
SheaNC
Karmakazi
I agree that Crate doesn't have a great rep... but... I think their stuff is
pretty good and lightyears beyond Peavey's solid state stuff. (Peavey does
have some great tube gear though).
Lest we forget... Crate is owned by St. Louis Music, the same people who
resurrected Ampeg back from it's former glory days (After Magnavox ran it
into the ground)
I have a Crate BX25 practice bass amp that I just love. I brought my son a
Crate Half Stack for guitar- and it sounds great.
So be open minded and judge with your ears... not your eyes.
Benj
SheaNC wrote:
> It might be soon, 'cause I have g.a.s. for it somethin' fierce!
Yeah, Me too! (tm AOL)
But then I bought one! {I actually bought it to use with my guitars}
I pretty much agree with the reviews on Harmony Central. It has
potential as a bass amp. It has lots of power. But it's hard to get a
good bass sound out of it. I didn't try real hard, but I wasn't all
that impressed. The Crate block works MUCH better as a guitar amp. The
EQ, knobs and overall sound really is pretty nice with guitars. The
really deep lows seem missing for bass use though part of that might be
the speaker I was using. I tried both a small PA speaker with a 10" and
a larger one with a 15". Neither produced stellar tone wth bass. The
smaller speaker, however, gave really nice sounds with guitar.
And another Harmony Central thing: this amp even with guitar is NOT
going to replace your fav tube Fender amp! However it's high power and
small size make it one dynomite backup guitar amp. For class D the
guitar tone was quite surprising to me. But sonic artifacts ARE still
there so it's really a compromise amp. Which is why the "backup" thing
is what it does best.
For bass, on the other hand, I found the tone controls not at all
optimized for bass use. I didn't yet try to bypass the tone controls
and go directly into the audio in jacks. I suspect that might work
better, but that still leaves you without nice tone controls. I had
this same problem with my old Crate SS guitar amp that I used to use
with bass. It had the response and I had changed the cab and speakers
so it worked well, BUT the tone controls were for guitar and they just
never were "right' with bass.
So while this particular amp seems to sort of strike out for bass use,
the whole idea of class D giving high power in a tiny package with
reasonable if not perfect sound, has great appeal! I think there is
more work to be done here but don't be surprized if a really decent
bass version of this kind of thing doesn't appear soon.
Benj
Sammy B...
<snip>
I know that Crate is not a highly respected name, but sometimes
> a company gets ahold of a one-off design that turns out to be great.
I have a little Crate VC20 tube amp that does a fine job. Folks
snicker until they hear it. Then it's " you really got that on ebay?
Wow..." Changed out a couple of tubes, bingo.
Reviews
> on Harmony Central and Musician's Friend (assuming they're legit) seem to
> indicate that it can be a pretty cool little bass head. I'm just looking for
> some opinions/input on this idea. Anyone?
>
Give it a shot, let us know...
Sammy B
Les Cargill
Hey, I have an early '90s Crate that's still my small gig
rig. YMMV.
--
Les Cargill