Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Crate V30H and V212T
One of the lines my store deals pretty heavily with is Crate. I was pretty excited when I heard that they were coming out with a head and cab version of the V3112 which I think is a fantastic amp. I am currently playing through a Vintage Club 30 and really dig it's tone once you get it ramped up on the clean channel. Very british with more sparkle...great tone in a cheap amp.
Anyhow, today we got the aforementioned amp in. I eagerly ripped it open and though about how it would be my first ever review. Anyhow, the head is equipped with 2 channels and has boost and presence buttons (not footswitchable functions). The boost adds gain as you might expect and the presence button adds some higher than highs to the sound. Pretty subtle changes but nice features. The 2 channels share the same tone controls and reverb mix. A spring reverb tank provides the effect. An effects loop is provided and the heads output is for 8ohms only. Groove Tubes el84r's provide the grindy, chimy sound of this amp. I will admit I was hoping for the el84s' as I understand they are the rebranded JJ's.
To the sounds. For testing I used an Anderson Classic. I also cranked the amp up to about 4 on master volume and attenuated with a Marshall Powerbreak. First the clean channel. Immediately I noticed the amp has a lot of top end...not really in an ice picky sort of way but just a lot of different frequencies up there. I tried some subtle adjustments to the EQ but couldn't really dial it out. It wasn't untill I rolled the tone pot of the Anderson half off that I got a sound I was happy with. I found this odd and on most guitars this would have sounded pretty bad given they don't have great, useable tone pots like Andersons do. Next I flicked over to the gain channel. Again I noticed the sound was a bit toppy and thin. Rolling off the treble control or rolling up the bass instantly made the sound too boomy. I am wondering if this is a function of the new tone tubby speakers they are using in this cab? I don't recall the v3112 being like this with the Celestion 70/80 speaker.
All in all this was kind of dissapointing. The amp gets high marks for cosmetic appeal but not so high marks for sound. At $1550 CND + taxes this is not a cheap alternative to other amps either. I mean, one could almost get any of the Fender RI's or some of the Marshall tube offerings for this price. I had high hopes for this, especially with some of the hyoe that surrounds the tone tubbys. This one simply didn't do it for me. Too bad!
Anyhow, today we got the aforementioned amp in. I eagerly ripped it open and though about how it would be my first ever review. Anyhow, the head is equipped with 2 channels and has boost and presence buttons (not footswitchable functions). The boost adds gain as you might expect and the presence button adds some higher than highs to the sound. Pretty subtle changes but nice features. The 2 channels share the same tone controls and reverb mix. A spring reverb tank provides the effect. An effects loop is provided and the heads output is for 8ohms only. Groove Tubes el84r's provide the grindy, chimy sound of this amp. I will admit I was hoping for the el84s' as I understand they are the rebranded JJ's.
To the sounds. For testing I used an Anderson Classic. I also cranked the amp up to about 4 on master volume and attenuated with a Marshall Powerbreak. First the clean channel. Immediately I noticed the amp has a lot of top end...not really in an ice picky sort of way but just a lot of different frequencies up there. I tried some subtle adjustments to the EQ but couldn't really dial it out. It wasn't untill I rolled the tone pot of the Anderson half off that I got a sound I was happy with. I found this odd and on most guitars this would have sounded pretty bad given they don't have great, useable tone pots like Andersons do. Next I flicked over to the gain channel. Again I noticed the sound was a bit toppy and thin. Rolling off the treble control or rolling up the bass instantly made the sound too boomy. I am wondering if this is a function of the new tone tubby speakers they are using in this cab? I don't recall the v3112 being like this with the Celestion 70/80 speaker.
All in all this was kind of dissapointing. The amp gets high marks for cosmetic appeal but not so high marks for sound. At $1550 CND + taxes this is not a cheap alternative to other amps either. I mean, one could almost get any of the Fender RI's or some of the Marshall tube offerings for this price. I had high hopes for this, especially with some of the hyoe that surrounds the tone tubbys. This one simply didn't do it for me. Too bad!
# posted by timheerebout @ 5:52 PM 
