Crate GX-15: Is it any good?

[ESpinella]

I dont have a limitless bugdet and this seems like a good bargain - anyone with
experience is welcoem to tell me whether its worth the $$$

Thanks

[charles copeland]

In article <199807070405...@ladder03.news.aol.com>,

Its a good little practice amp. Only 15 watts, but that is a plus
when trying to practice without bothering apartment neighbors.

The overdrive sounds decent. I got GX-15R with reverb. The
reverb sucks at low volume. May sound good at high volume
but I can't crank it up here to find out.

You can pickup a GX-15 in any pawn shop for $50.

[Kurtsdbest]

i saved a couple extra bucks and went with the crate GX 60...you can find them
for around $100 + shipping

http://www.elderly.com has one for $95

it kills the gx 15

[Stacey Lee]

It's an adequate starter amp for the money
Kurtsdbest wrote in message
<199807071600...@ladder01.news.aol.com>...

[Puffy]

On Sun, 12 Jul 1998, Stacey Lee wrote:

CRATE=garbage (and not the band, Garbage, either)

I know. I own one.

Regards,
Puff

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[Bond]

I have a Crate GX-30m, and I like it, go figure.

JJR

[Steelykate]

I've got a GX-15 that I use solely for practice. It's actually got a nice clean
tone, but the distortion is really muffled and midrangey. For $100 you can't
beat it.

"I shop at the mall because it's my dasein."

[Misfyts]

I've never heard a Crate that I liked. I'd get an equally priced Peavey
instead of a Crate.

~El

[Brian Rost]

I have a G-10 XL, predecessor to the GX-15.

Clean sound is not too bad considering what the amp is, but the
overdrive is awful.

I was VERY surprised to find Crate had used a speaker with a "whizzer
cone", which enhances high end. The last thing this amp needs is a super
bright speaker with that distortion! Roll off a lot of the highs and the
overdrive sounds better but then when you switch to clean, it's like a
blanket got tossed over he amp. Yuck.

I bought it for my 13 year old to use as her first amp, I paid $28 used
and that was probably too much. In this class of amp, Peavey or Fender
are better bets.
--

Brian Rost
3Com Corp.
978-264-1550
br...@synnet.com

*********************************************************************

Playing the bass is like dancing the limbo: how low can you go?

*********************************************************************

[Carmen Fiduccia]

I have a GX-15R. Overdrive sounds OK, clean sound is somewhat decent,
reverb works ok. Its a VERY bright amp, the 3 band tone circuit really
helps with this, though.
It doesn't have a whole lot of controls, very simple amp. The overdrive you
get from cranking the clean channel up all the way is nice, kinda bluesy. It
gets awful raunchy on the overdrive channel, but clips A LOT when cranked
all the way.

All together, its decent, not great, but sounds good to practice with.

Kev :-)

Bond wrote in message <35ab2...@oit.umass.edu>...

[Dan Briones]

I have a Crate GX-20R, cheap amp..... good sound..... can make a variety
of sounds.... sounds much better when unplugged though

[Puffy]

On Wed, 15 Jul 1998, Dan Briones wrote:

> I have a Crate GX-20R, cheap amp..... good sound..... can make a variety
> of sounds.... sounds much better when unplugged though

I'm not sure if this was meant to be funny or not, but it turned out that
way, lol!

[me]

On Mon, 13 Jul 1998 13:20:34 -0700, Puffy <n971...@cc.wwu.edu> wrote:

>On Sun, 12 Jul 1998, Stacey Lee wrote:
>
>CRATE=garbage (and not the band, Garbage, either)
>
>I know. I own one.
>

I've owned the same Crate (G-60) for over 9 years and it still sounds
great. The gain/distortion is pretty nice considering the price of
the amp ($345 at the time, which rivaled Peavy Bandits). The best
advice is to bring your guitar to the shop and test out the amp on
your own gear.

[Stacey Lee]

For years, Crate kicked Peavy's ass in the bargain amp market. But Peavy has
in the last few years taken some great leaps forward and Crate needs to kick
it into gear. Stop redesigining their amps every year. Stick with a style,
and improve on it. Instead of major changes every year. Like the Blue Voodoo
series kicked ass, but they were inconsistent, and prone to failures. Crate
jumps on band wagons as fast as they appear, but Peavy has stayed true to
their product year after year, and only changes when they have something
really good to do with the line like the Transtube stuff. And thats all I
have to say about that.
me wrote in message <35af96ff.231440380@news>...

[rnfn...@gmail.com]

It's an interesting little amp for sure, I have the gx-15r that I only payed 10 bucks for and I liked it better than the randall diavlo 1 watt head I had.
Though the 8" speaker in it is trash, nothing but fizz on the overdrive. I actually plug it into my Marshall 4x12 cab and it's infinitely better, I can crank the treble with no fizz this way.
The gain works differently than any other amp I've used yet, as you turn the gain up it brightens the amp, but still becomes more compressed and in extreme settings more muffled.
The eq is extremely powerful, the treble has 25db boost/cut I believe, the only thing I wish it had was an effects loop so it would take pedals better. It works really well for metal once an external cab is connected, nice thumpy lows, aggressive mids and searing highs all without being harsh or muffled and I don't even have an overdrive in front! It's been an interesting journey dialing it in but I think I figured it out, I don't think I'll ever get rid of it even if I get nicer amps down the road!

[#NoDAPL]

I used to have a 2x10 Crate that I absolutely loved and would still be
using if it wasn't stolen. (and if it still worked).