Crate BX440 Bass Head

With the line level bi-amping I can at least get a really good sound from my recordings at home without having any nice microphones. It's got all sorts of useful little nobs and faders on the front that it sound vaguely appropriate for whatever style your after.

I'm playing it with an old aluminum neck kramer with active pickups, and running the head into a Peavy BW 1x18 and 2x10 cab. I play very guitar like bass parts in an insturmental prog context mostly, and it sounds pretty decent for that. I like the natural overdrive sound of the amp when you get the gain up and play hard, but it can get pretty damn loud without overdriving if you want it to.

I bought it used from a guitar center for cheap because it wasn't making any sound and they couldn't figure out what was wrong. It turned out to just be a problem with the input jack, which was fixed relatively easily. I've taken it on a couple tours since then and played lots of gigs with out a hint of a problem for a couple years, but then the input jack broke again recently. Judging from the other reviews of this amp, I think the input jack problem may be a more consistent issue with this model, but not difficult to deal with.

Innitially I did search out a dealer to fix it, but they were difficult to deal with and were prepared to brutally overcharge for and very simple procedure. This could be 100% the local dealer issues though, so I don't think rating the company on it is appropriate.

For the price I paid, it has been a dream. It has twice as much power and sound control as any other amp I've tried in this price range, but I may have gotten lucky with my purchase. I've never actually seen another one in my life, so I don't know if buying another to replace it is even an option.

This amp has a headphone out that can be used with a tuner, 8 band eq, a countour knob with an off-on switch, one input jack with a 15 db cut switch for active basses, effects loop, balanced line out with a level control and pre / post switch, solid state 440 watts @ 4ohms, 250 @ 8. Biampable with a powered spaeker or another amp (i don't quite get this part) I'll give it a 7 because the expensive amps seem to have more eq'ing and some other things, but this seems to have everything I need.

Sounds great. Use it with a Warwick Corvette Standard for blues, reggae, funky stuff, and rock. Good deep warm sound to bright and crisp. Very flexible, loud, and clear. Basically covers a lot of ground. It's not noisy. I like it just fine. I'll give it a nine, because a 10 seems like it should be unattainable.

I bought this used. It mustbe at least 6 or 8 years old. Some parts seem very cheap, but no problems with it. The input jack loosens up once in a while, and I tighten it by hand.

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I've been playing for two years. This is my first amp (not combo), so I don't have a lot to compare it to. I think from this piece of gear that Crate might have a bad rap, based on smaller combo amps. But what do I know? For the money though, I've got a very nice sounding, flexible and loud amp.

I got this nice lil amp (ok, it's not little, considering it's a HEAD that weighs 40 pounds!) used, so the lowest frequency slider bar is broken off, and the input jack is just hanging loosely right in the amp. Other than that, it's ok. Oh yeah, it has... alot of watts. 440@4 ohms. and I believe 250@8 ohms. It seems that you could bi-amp this thing because there are two jacks on the back that says "Bi-Amp), but it doesnt seem to work. Ok, on to the controls of this thing. 8 band graphic EQ, gain, master volume, a trio of VERY pretty gain LEDs that put up a very entertaining show when you play slap on bass... and a few other knobs that I really dont know what they are. I'm not a complete idoit though; i could prolly figure out what they do and what they're for, but honestly, I really dont give a rat's ass about em. Simplicity is the way to go.

I'm using this thing with an Ibanez SR400 and a pair of nice Workingman's 2x10 cabs. I could usually get any sound I want if I try hard enough. Nice and versatile. I'm very pleased with the sound of this amp. I'm only giving it a 9 cuz um.. it seems right.

LOL. Let's see, I bought used and I've been waiting for this thing to fail for 3 months, but so far, it's doing pretty DAMN good of holding together. The input jack only broke cuz I was an idoit and it's all my fault for that. So, my point in all this babble is : yes, it'd dependable and I would feel fine without a backup.

I've been playing bass for 22 months now. This is my first head I've ever owned, and I really dont think I'll need to replace this one for a while. If it were stolen, I'd find that idoit who broke into my house and went into my basement to steal a 40 pound bass head and go psychomotherfucker on his ass! And if there would be no trace of it, I'd sit in my basement and cry alot like my g/f of 14 months ditched me (and that was alot of crying). Point is, I love this head, and I will continue to love it till it breaks down to it's tragic death! :)