Crate GFX1000 Multi-Effects

SIMPLE TO USE.. DIAL IT IN AND PRESS THE BUTTON.

I USE A CRATE BLUE VOODOO WITH A LES PAUL STUDIO.. I PUT IT THROUGH THE EFFECTS LOOP. THE EFFECTS SOUND SO PURE.. I GOT RID OF IT AWILE BACK AND TRIED OTHERS.. BUT I BROUGHT ANOTHER ONE..

NEVER HAD A PROBLEM

I BEEN PLAYING 20 YEARS AND THEY CALL ME THE EQUIPMENT FREAK.. I HAD IT JUST ABOUT ALL. I PLAY ALL MUSIC BUT LOVE ROCK..

I use this amp principally for my Hondo Model II guitar, which I reviewed earlier at this same site, if you're curious... I also use it for a Fender Bullet Deluxe, 1980 model, and my Squier P-5 Bass. The 10" and 20 watts input cannot handle my bass's 5th (B) string, but I suppose I should get a bass amp before I complain about that. After all, you don't take points off of your opinion of your own car because it doesn't go 1/4 mile in less than ten seconds, do you? The Hondo has an asian humbucker at the bridge, and I don't know who made the humbucker... I don't think it's a noisy amp at all, even when I have to volume up pretty high. But, I stand within seven feet of it at all times, as I'm a bedroom musician, so high volume to me might not be what you think of as high. However, I do get complaints aplenty, so maybe it is high? Anyway, with the level of the amp at 6 or so, I hear no hum, at least not that I can think of, and I am pleased by that. The distortion I mentioned before is not the best ever, but it does okay, but I much prefer to have my EHX Big Muff Pi for the distortion. It feeds back okay, if you're into that sort of thing, but be careful, as with my Hondo, it squeals past a certain point, but that point is high up there, and it might be the asian electronics that squeal, and not those electronics of the amp.

This amp was made sometime in the early 2000s, as I bought it about a year ago, maybe two years. The GFX-15 is versatile aplenty for my hard rock/electric blues (Can you say Led Zeppelin?)/(heavy/nu/death) metal/such styles as those. With its onboard effects, through a single 10" speaker (only 12 watts ouput, but that's enough for 86 db, as I read at the manufacturer's site), I can put in a clean or fairly fine-sounding distortion, and add to that effects including: Reverb I & II, Reverb+Chorus, Chorus I & II, Flange, Delay I & II, and plain old Bypass. I am quite pleased with the digital versatility afforded here. It has a headphone jack and a speaker jack (1/4" each), High, Mid, & Low EQ, with a level (loudness) knob, plus the distortion knobs, a gain and a seperate level knob for those two. It's compact too, 13"x13.5"x8.25", & 15 lbs.

Can I gig without a backup? I would hope so, but I don't gig... It's not broken down on me yet, and I hope it never does!

I've not dealt with the folks at Crate.

I've been axing it up for a little while now, maybe two and a half years(?), so I have a bit of a clue of what I have been writing. I love the way the voicings on the amp are subtle, but still very present, and I am especially fond of the chorus. If it were to leave my possession, I would be much grieved, and I would replace it if I didn't see something that looked a little better. I chose this amp because I walked into Woody's Sound, a music store, wanting a 12-string electric guitar, and an amp, but the fine man (the owner, nonetheless) I asked for opinions about such equipment showed me how the GFX-15 could emulate a 12-string, and I immediately bought it, and decided to get an acoustic 12-string. I have no regret whatsoever about this amp, as I got it relatively cheap, and it has always worked.

This Crate GFX1000 is my third Crate product, and one of the reasons I got it was for the simplicity of operation of my other 2 Crate products...I had it up and running within 5 minutes of plugging it in.I received a manual with my processor which is very clear and precise in explaining all functions and pertinent data for the easy operation of this unit.My unit is an upgrade, as the manual has a do-it-your self cut out chart to tape to the top showing the 99 pre-set effects...my unit has this chart embossed on the top.

I have 5 guitars that I play through my 60 watt all tube Crate Blue VooDoo. My main squeeze is an Ibanez Art Star AS120 semi hollow body ( think Gibson 335)and it's so beautiful, both physically and audibly, that it will make you cry. I also have 2 Fender Squiers, a Telecaster, and a Stratocaster, both of which I purchased after reading their reviews here on Harmony Central(check 'em out they are a wonderful value and very good guitars). I have an Alvarez AC40SC classical, and a Takemine 12 string Acou-elec.I especially like #38 effect on the list of pre-sets, which is "in a huge room with chorus, delay, and reverb".WOW...I can do the complete Ray Charles thing on "I can't stop loving you" There are a couple of presets that have a little extraneous noise (maybe my amp?)so i'll rate this category an *

I would rely on this digital unit, yes, however I don't gig...soooo who knows ?

I have dealt with the company before on my other units.Not for repairs, but to get manuals for them. The co. (ST. Louis Music Co,)sent them next day...How can you improve on that ?

I play about a toss-up between country-western and Gospel music.I sing and play solo.This digital unit fills in incredibly, and rids you of the thin sound of a solo voice and guitar.I am not ashamed to tell you that my sound has improved A LOT.I have been playing 2 years, and when I plugged into this processor, I gained about another 2 years in sound!I have 2 Crate amps, 5 guitars, a Morley Bad Horsie wah, and this GFX 1000.I wish I had known about digital sound processors before...if you want to give your sound a huge leap forward, look into one.I got this one on E-Bay with power supply and manual...such a deal

EASY AS PIE .NO PROGRAMMING REQUIRED.CANT EDIT PATCHES EXCEPT 2 FUNCTIONS PER PRESET(DELAY REPEAT ,EFFECT LEVEL,ETC. MANUAL IS LAID OUT IN LAYMAN'S TERMS.IF IT WERE A DIGITECH,DIGITECH WOULD HAVE 3 PAGES ON HOW TO TURN IT ON AND OFF!!!!!!

I RUN THIS IN MY RACK ALONG W/ AN ADA MP-1 PREAMP,ART SGE PROCESSOR,MIDI OCTOPUS,BOSS GUITAR DRIVER,AND 2 CRATE G-80XL'S.IBANEZ RG-565,KRAMER STRIKER AND RHOADS V GUITAR.ITS NOT NOISY AND IT HAS CLIPPING LED'S WHICH IS COOL.FLANGER KINDA SUCKS ON THIS UNIT.YOU CANT DIAL IN A SOUND WITH THIS ,JUST USE THE ONES THEY GAVE YOU.

NO PROBLEMS .I HAVE HAD THIS A VERY LONG TIME.

N/A

I PLAY METAL(OZZY ,METALLICA,MEGADETH ,ALICE IN CHAINS,ETC.)BEEN PLAYING SINCE 88,IF IT WERE STOLEN I WOULD BURN THE GUY'S HOUSE DOWN.THE BEST FEATURE WOULD BE THE ABILITY TO JUST PLUG IN AND PLAY.I WISH IT WAS MIDI SO I COULD RUN IT TO MY MIDI CONTROLLER.I ONLY USE IT AFTER IVE HAD A FEW BUDWEISERS AND PUT IT ON THE REVERB AND THINK IM RANDY RHOADS,IT JUST SEEMS TO SOUND EERILY LIKE TRIBUTE CD.

The layout is pretty simple, there are 4 knobs for input and outputlevels, mix, and preset select, 4 preset buttons and a edit button. Basically all ya do is set the levels then go though the presets till you find a few you like, then assign them to the preset buttons.

Ive had it for a few years and i really like it. Its got reverb, chorus, mono and stereo delay, as well as a couple flanger presets. You cant really tweak the presets too much, by the way there are 100, you can only tweak 1 of the existing paramaters such as delay time etc...so you cant build a preset from the ground up. But with 100 presets you probably wont have any trouble finding something very usable. I mostly use the multi-effect presets that have chorus, delay, and reverb. You cant do any heavy editing to the presets but it sounds decent, and its gotta lot to pick from.

Looks to be built pretty tough, i wouldnt wanna drop it down a flight of stairs though.

I havent had to deal with them

Overall its a its a good multi purpose unit.

Really simple. Turn the knob to change the patch. Three knobs for tone color (input, mix, and output). The manual is very good. Explains every detail, and even offers some extras, like a cutout chart you can tape to the unit and a couple wiring diagrams for running it through your rig.

The unit does have a bit of noise. I run it through the effects loop of a Mesa/Boogie Mark IV, and use a PRS Standard Guitar. There's always noise on the lead channel, none on the clean, and a little, depending on the gain, for the Rh.2 channel. The effects combinations are good, although some of the "special effects" are quite useless. The stereo effects are adequate, offering two effects, one through each amp. The reverb effects are a little overkill sometimes. I like mine on a low enough setting where it doesn't sound like I'm playing in a cathedral, but just enough to thicken the sound (my vocalist likes it as a voice effect though). The delays are alright. My tastes on delays vary, depending on my mood, but I like to have something with a little echo or an infinite, spacy feel. This doesn't offer that much flexibility. The chorus effects are decent. Other things such as flange, are used too sparingly, and aren't adjustable, so they kinda suck.

Well, besides that the face to the wall wort fell off, this unit seems fairly reliable. Nothing a little duct tape can't fix.

Never dealt with Crate.

Well, this unit is a one trick pony. It's really a 5 effect unit (chorus, delay, flange, reverb, and "special") that goes under the guise of having 99 presets. And that's all they are...presets. There is no flexibility of sound or tonal characteristics in this unit. And for patches that offer 2 or more effects, only one of them is adjustable. Not much room for sound shaping here. It's not a bad unit for a budding guitar player looking to liven up the sound of his strat-copy guitar and 10 watt peavey amp, but beyond that its a toy. This unit was bought as a replacement of a Zoom 9000 that I burned out, and to accompany a Jim Dunlop Wah. It was bought on a whim with only sparse in-store playing. I wish I would've played it more. I probably would've gone with a DOD or DigiTech or something.

I just got mine last week. Easy to use the presets, tweaking your own sounds is a bit more cerebral. This is not a major drawback as the presets all sound pretty good. One of the previous posts said something about the distortion, and that makes me wonder if he actually has the same unit. Mine is compact a reverb/delay/chorus unit. It does not have distortion. I also has a built in 6 string guitar tuner, but I'm using it for pedal steel so that's a uselss feature for me.

I am using it in the effects loop of a Peavey Session 400. It sounds nice on steel, and on my Strat it imparts an almost Metheny-esque flavor to the sound (Offramp, Watercolors, etc.) I was looking to get a digital reverb for guitar when I stumbled upon this thing. At $35, I think I got a great deal (it listed at $275!). OTOH, it's only 16 bits, so it's not as rich sounding as 24 bit processors. In the studio, this is a drawback, but for live applications, it's not a big deal.

I've dealt with Crate before. Their people were decent, but getting bounced around by their automated answering system really sucks.

For $35 bucks, you won't do better. If it were more than $100 bucks, I'd have to seriously consider something with a 24 bit processor. It's not a studio piece, but the rackmountable size makes it look really hi-tech ;-) For a guitar toy, it's pretty cool.

Over 100 different pre-set sounds including reverb, chorus, flange, and delay. Each sound's specific variables can be manipulated to get the perfect sound one desires. Built in metronone and tuner. Maual is perfect, goes into specific examples, just in case your drunk at the time.

Great sounds for a simple FX processor, especially the trippy effects everyone loves to play around with. Hard "Heavy Metal" distortion is adequate, but has a very "full" effect. Diffucult to get a good Acoustic sound from it. Input and output can be easily controlled.

Very reliable so far, (I've only had it a few weeks).

5 year warranty.

Perfect for an intermediate guitarist who doesn't want to pay a bundle for the killer sounds. Many good sounds are included although the acoustic sounds could be better, but if that's what you want, you can't get better than the real thing! It gives me a much fuller, aggressive and harder effect to my music. You don't need the killer amp to get the fuller distortion with the CRATE. This puppy should last me a long time.

Very easy to use with a good manual. As someone who uses a 60W combo and a few effect pedals, this was a great entry into rack technology. The GFX1000 comes with a slant "L" stand that allows you to slide it under the handle of your combo amp for easy operation. Plus if I ever get a rack, it''s sized to take up 1/2 a slot. Great packaging on Crate''s (SLM''s) part. Has 4 programmable preset buttons on the front OR up to 16 presets using footswitches (in combination with footswitching y