Crate BT-220 Combo

Guessing this amp was made about three years ago; I bought new old stock July 2008. Couldn't be happier, especially value for the buck. Good looking exterior, plastic grab handles on each side, but the unit is heavy at about 65-lbs, as it should be with that 15-incher holding down the fort behind 220-watts. Slots for casters but mine did not come with them, all black trim and metal grill. Low octave and distortion channel via foot-switch. On-off switch on the front where you can see it, mute, passive/active buttons on the front too. Far more convenient for me than guessing where buttons are on the rear. RCA inputs on the front for CD player. External speaker, XLR port and effects loop on the rear panel. Coolness factor: built-in tuner on the top with red arrows and green note letters is convenient, holds up to my handheld Korg and is always there. Stacking things atop the cabinet can block the tuner and a heat grate on the rear deck so beware.

This 220-watt bass amp with 15-inch speaker weighs about 65 lbs and is framed with particle board or MDF on the interior, with large rear dual-ports for the big speaker and trimmed in black tolex with the afore-mentioned black metal grill and a black amplifier face. It looks baaaad as in good. Overdrive light available but rarely lights up in my world. On a recent gig at a community center we measured 95 decibles from the wall where the amp was to the middle of the room...and the amp's Master level was on '2' so it's capable of pushing some sound. Used a passive Fender American Jazz bass and turned volumes almost all the way up on the bass guitar for this output. The guitar player, drummer and harpist made me turn the amp down from '3' at 102 decibles so they could get their sound out too. This strong amp regularly shakes the windows and pictures in my house. Tone shaping via Level, Low, Low Mid, Hi Mid, High, Master and Octave. Separate Effects controls for distortion.

Reliable amp as far as I can tell. I've gigged twice at the community center and used it during practice on a regular basis. On arrival one of the grab handles had a crack in the flat surface that sits on the cabinet's side but could've been caused by the freight company. I just glued it and it's fine; I made sure the exterior philips head screws were tight all the way around too.

Have not called for tech service but the instruction manual spells out some common sound settings and should be available online. There is an authorized service center near me that handles many musical amps.

I've been playing bass for a little more than a year with a Fender MIM Precision, Fender Zone Deluxe active bass and Fender American Jazz bass. The passive basses sound as good as the active bass with this amp and vice versa, it just depends on the tone you want. I am not sure if Crate has a tone of their own and this amp does not model anything. However, the sound is full, the thumps are in the right spots and the tone suits me fine. The power and the 15-inch speaker move some sound; the octaver feature is an interesting bonus. The BT-220 combo amp sounds and feels more like a real bass amp than others using electronics for mirroring. (I have one of those too!) For pure bass sound this combo amp delivers, especially for its price and power. Like I said I'm still learning, but folks in the audience commented favorably on the bass sound coming from the Crate 220 combo.

Further to the review I posted a few years ago, my opinion of this amp has greatly changed. A few months after I bought it, the speaker broke, so i replaced it. A few months after this the amp set on fire (literally), and nearly burnt our guitarists shed down.

DO NOT EVER BUY THIS AMP.

Piece of crap, rubbish.

None existant.

Rubbish

Not sure when it was made (ex-demo model), but it works well for my musical style (metal/rock) and can really pump out the juice when turned up. It comes with the usual stuff on this range of Crate bass amps, ie distortion channel (with shape control that Behringer quite nicely copied), tuner, octave effect and a 4 band EQ. Comes with a 2 button footswitch for the distort and octave, phone jack and effects loop, line out, the usual. A compressor would be nice, though, have to use a pedal instead which is quite noisy. Never really use the distortion channel, i use a pedal instead, it sounds better, but as a backup, its ok i guess.

Other than that its just a bass amp with a large power output.

My bass is a Vintage Metal Axxe with some custom wiring on it. The amp copes nicely with even this. Dont have to use the -15dB pad even tho the pickups are high ish output passiaves. Gives the very nice bassy low end that i need for my band's songs and my playing style, fingerstyle metal a la Cliff Burton (RIP). Never really piss about with the settings, theres no real need to, but it can get a nice slap tone out of it, even with the 15" speaker. Stays very clean even at fairly high volumes, theres a limiter that kicks in when you over do it, but that rarely happens. The distortion channel is what it says, distorted, madly brutal. Not much variety in it, and even if i do use it, the gains on full and its just for a little high end shred half way through a song. The octave effect is really nice on top of mellow stuff though.

When i got it i found the speaker had a hole in the cone :/. But with a little superglue that was fixed. Thought it was overheating at first, but then we found that problem, easy enough to fix. Had it about 7 months since then and it's performed flawlessly all the time. Quite well made, and i would most certainly depend on it at a gig. It can stand being thrown in the back of a car and chucked around/jumped off on stage, so in that area its sorted really. Cant dock it much for reliability.

Never dealth with them, so i can't comment really.

Been playing about 2 years give or take, also play a little guitar (through this amp), which it handles very nicely, giving a very punchy midrange, great for drop-tuned palm mute metal. The guitar is a modded Jackson superstrat, very nice guitar. If someone stole this, they would be hunted down to the ends of the earth and be steaked upon with a trusty medieval crossbow, then sent to the bottom of the mariana's trench (thats under 9 miles of sea for those who dont know). I just love the way it keeps on working and can take a crap load of abuse at our practices and just keep on working well. Tried a variety of bass amps, including the smaller version of this, which just isnt as loud. This was just good for the money, so tis mine now. Getting an extention cab for it (2 x 15 :p) so thatll be a nice 3 x 15 rig with a 220w amp, very nice.