Crate BV120H Blue Voodoo

Made in 1996. 2 seperated channels, silent footswitching on them as well as the effects loop, which has a 12dB boost button. All tube - comes with Groove Tube 6l6s and 12AX7s but it is of course able to take other types, with the appropriate adjustments. I don't recommend doing this. With this amp, any old Sovteks or whatever will be fine. This amp has seperate reverb for each channel, and the footswitch jack is stereo 1/4" phone type, which is nice if you're replacing the factory one or building one yourself. All in all it has the usual amount of features, maybe a lil' above average. Oh and it has cool orange lights behind the tubes that light up when they're activated, making it glow from inside which is nice aesthetically, and also good if your amp is on the brink of death and you need to know if one of your tubes is about to die. This is an issue with mine, which is currently barely being kept alive by this little hamster that runs in a wheel mounted to the chassis.

Jackson, Charvel, Epiphone guitars. Jackson, Epiphone, and passive EMG pickups. Thrash, progressive metal, progressive rock, classical, folk. Influences are many.

This amp has a really good sound - don't trust them when they tell you it isn't a great amp or worth the money. It is worth the money, take it from one who knows --- but only if you are the sort that is dedicated to tube amps, and the kind that likes to turn yours up around 10. This amp really brings out the tones produced by the tubes, you can hear it clearly throughout all the volume and gain settings. It doesn't have a chokehold on the gain like Marshalls, and it doesn't have monster gain like a 5150. It has a nice, even keeled distribution of gain levels. If you want to sound brutal, you can turn the gain up to 10 and stand back. If you want fuzz, turn the the gain to 1 or 2. It isn't one of those amps that you have hit an extra switch to change to low gain or high gain, or set the gain on 3 to get blasted, or set the gain on 7 just to crunch. It covers the spectrum.

The clean channel is nice - voiced brightly like the other channel but easily cleaned up by turning the treble knob down. When you give the clean channel a little volume, it really warms up to you and feels full and clear. The lead channel is the same, but warms up at higher volumes than the clean channel.

This amp brings out your fingerwork nicely. You may have noticed that a lot of amps that have killer tones for specific things, like chugs or split harmonics, don't let more subtle things through. This amp does. Also, it quickly presents resonances in high squeals. This brings out tone and expression in your high-end noodley work.

This is amp is reliable. There isn't another way to say that; this amp is just plain reliable. Assuming it isn't struck by lightning, hit by a missile, or in mine's case assuming the hamster doesn't stop running in the little wheel, this amp will not break down. Most amps are fussy about things like electricity quality, input signal current, or being tossed about the stage by drunk techs. This one isn't. However, do not defeat the ground on this amp. It needs it. If you need to be told this however, you may also need to know that it's also a bad idea to defeat either of the other two prongs on the pluggy-thing. Just put it down, junior.

N/A. Find someone who knows Crates if you must find anyone at all. I haven't had the best of luck with techs.

I've been playing for 12 years, and I'm usually the better player in any group I sit in with. I spend about 10-15 hours a week practicing, used to be 20-30, and I'm a quick study with musical instruments. I've got a good ear - done some soundtech work and recording, always praised. Other gear - I use a Fender 15watt Frontman for quiet practicing, it's very tight sounding and helps me work out tiny errors in distorted guitarwork. My main rig is now a 5150II, modded tighter and with added control. The Crate served faithfully on and off stage for 4 years, I never needed another amp for any setting. My Blue Voodoo is shot to hell though, specifically from numerous accidents and meddling amateur amp-modder-wannabes. Thus it is now my back-up rig, and I don't dare sell it for the petty cash I would get for its old, worn out carcass. It's much more valuable as a back-up rig. If it were stolen, I would find the person who stole it and try to fit the chassis in his rectum. Then I'd turn it up to ten and watch 'em fry while I play "The Simpsons" show opening theme. But if I never found 'em, I'd go to a guitarshop and smash a new Blue Voodoo against the wall a few times, so I could buy it at a discount. Then it's off to the pet store for a new hamster.

My overall rating is: If you want to spend less than $1500 on a tube half stack, get this tube half stack. It doesn't matter if you play metal, rock, blues, country, jazz, or martian monster mash music. For that money, it is an excellent choice, and definitely my choice for that price range. Exceptions: death metal, black metal, classical, folk.

Just turn it the hell up and be amazed. Do not judge this amp on what it does at volumes below 5, on either channel, as you would have to when playing in your bedroom or at the guitar shop. Have them put you in the sound room, and crank it. It's like the tubes take control of the amp in some kind of hostile take over and start raping the peasant women in the villages.

Nothing anyone has not mentioned before. The lack of a Line in to use the amps power section is a strike against the amp.

The amp sounded good in the store but later after we got it home, it just didn't sound like a tube amp. Personally I don't care for the 16-8 ohm config, as most american amps use the 8-4 ohm, which meant we could only use it with one cab. For being 120 watts, it is pretty quiet, even being blowen away by my Line 6 Spyder 2 x 12 combo. The distortion channel has no real defined edge, instead being muddy and buzzy. The clean channel seemed a little better. It just doesn't have the testis you would expect from an all tube amp. It didn't sound very good running a Line 6 POD 2 through the clean channel as well. I don't think its the big "metal" monster that everyone thinks it is. The sound is too messy, buzzy, and undefined to be able to double pick.

It never broke down so I've never had to deal with it.

Again, bever had to deal with it.

Its a Crate, so what do we expect? My band made a pact to not buy any Crate amps ever again, but we made an exception in this case because it sounded good in the store, and was all tube. It just does not have the defined sound needed to play tight articulated speed metal riffs. Maybe it would fair better having some other gear hooked up with it, but in this day and age, you should be able to just plug into an amp and get the sound you're looking for...not with this amp..or most amps these days (unless you spend thousands). I think the Line 6 amps blow most amps away. I know most purists hate these digital modeling amps, but I was impressed with their sound and versitility.

I think this is about a 1996-7 model. The features are well known, so I'll skip it.

Classic rock, blues/rock. This head is well known for it's chainsaw like drive channel, for most, I think, it is excessive. There is a way to compensate this back out to a great extent. It is thought of as a metal amp because of the above, but I think it can be used for more if tube are changed and bias is proper with a new set of good tubes.

I haven't had it long enough to say, but it had all original tubes in it yet and worked OK, so it must be somewhat rugged.

I have dealt with Crate (SLM) on another amp and they were great.

Been playing off and on over 30 years, have 2 other tube and 2 other SS amps. I like this amp for the power and distortion and it seems to be built like a brick outhouse. Mine was biased way too high, I thought. 41 mA is too much. I took it down to 31 mA (maybe still too high). The 12AX7s pump up the drive, especially the drive channel preamp. Put some nice vintage USA 12AT7s in this baby, and you will think you got a completely different amp. I would like to try to Svetlana 6L6's in it too. Currently running a matched quad of Groove Tube 6L6s hardness 6 at 31 mA bias. Get a bias tool and check the bias, I think this problem may be more common than just my amp. BTW, as you probably know, but if you don't, too high a bias will wear out your 6L6s in a hurry and is hard on transformers, so check it out.

basic features, nothing speacial, but enough for me. very versatile, i play mainly metal, also rock, classical, and blues.

I use mostly seymore duncans with this amp(invarder, SD, 57's)definatly fits my style of music. very brutal distorion.

I use this amp with out back up and it has never failed me.

iv been playing for 7 years and iv found this amp has the perfict tone for me. when i bought this amp it was bettween this amp and the crate bv150hb i would have spent the extra cash on the 150 if it wernt for the fact it was lacking reverb. if this amp was stolen i would definatly buy another, though if the bv150 or bv300 start coming with reverb i would probably buy one instead.

pretty typical amp layout, nothing super fancy, just the basic things that you need. standard EQ knobs, FX loop, 2 channals that are switchable, as well as the loop.comes with 6L6 power tubes and 12ax7 preamps tubes. reverb.

first off, the amp stock is pretty much garbage. right now i'm using a carvin DC127 guitar (which is a great instrument) and an esp with emg pickups. the distortion is super harsh and fuzzy, and the gain channel just makes immense amounts of noise. the only time i have found that the distortion channel sounds decent is when you add your own external OD/dist and then add some compression to it. then its useable, but only that. its also not very well defined and clear sounding, pretty muddy, even though the bass controls on the amp are weak. the clean channel isnt too bad, but lacks headroom big time....you cant turn most guitar volumes past 2 before the channel distorts and gets ugly. in order to make the clean sound decent on this amp, you really need to have low output pickups. not to mention this amp is really quiet too, it doesnt even seem like its 120 watts, seems its more like 50. the FX loop is also a little noisy, but the noise doesnt become noticable at higher volumes. the only postive thing i can say about it is that its an affordable and reliable amp and that these amps have the potential to be a killer with some basic mods. other then that, dont bother buying one.

crates in my opinion are very reliable. i have never had a problem with it and have owned it for 2 years. i have also used other crate amps without problems as well. i dont think i would need a back up.

never dealt with the customer service, but if you try and email them, they just tell you to call about anything and everything. i never got a warranty with the amp, but i dont think i would need or use one anyway.

i've been playing for 6 years now, and i'm a total tone freak. although its not really a matter of how long you've been playing, its more of an issue on having an ear for sound. i can tell that this amp stock is crap, but since i'm having mine modded by voodoo amps, i'll post a review of it in the voodoo mods section here and give a review of it then. if you are still persistent on getting one, you should shoot for an older used one (which should be relatively cheap) and then have it modded without worries of having the warranty become voided. the newer redesigned voodoos are much better, but still not worthy of an incredible amp.

Not many complicated features, overall very easy to use. Master volume...distortion..etc etc the usual. Has some nice reverb. The only thing i dont like about it is that it only has two channels. Three would be a bit better, but hey, its great. In my experience, the effects loop is kind of crap, i could never get good sounds out of it, but then again, i really dont ever use the effects loop.

I play shred/metal. Stuff like Children of bodom, Sonata Arctica, then some dimmu borgir, yngwie, etc etc. I use a jackson DK-1. At first, i used the stock emg's- 81 and 85. But then i came to my senses and realized EMG'S SUCK! Yea, i used to be like you :-) I thought emg's were the best p-ups on god's green earth, then, after comparing them to some much better pickups, i realized the tone potential from both my guitar and my amp. So i replaced them with a dimarzio super distortion in the bridge, and a PAF pro in the neck. WOW! The sound is amazing. Gets quite heavy to my liking. I dont need to turn the distortion up and create all that extra noise, because the right pickups take care of the boost allready. The distortion, like I said, gets downright heavy. I orignally had this on some shitty crate cabs, but before you buy this head, remember that its best to put it on something with some good celestions, i use marshall 1960 leads. Nice warm distortion that cuts through nicely. The clean is out of this world. Its channel is definitely louder than the distortion, but thats not saying that the distortion is quiet :-D If you dont tweak it right, it tends to break up, but when tweaked right, its so full and wonderous, I love it. Extremely clear, and when the reverb is on...haunting. But enough of my yap in this area...

Never blown a tube, never had any problems ever with it.

Like I said above, never had any problems whatsoever.

Overall, great amp, great sound. Perfect for my purpose. Dont be put off by those dicks out there with their expensive marshalls and shit. This does the job cheap, reliably, and well. Did I mention it sounds like god? :-D Any specific questions, just shoot me an email, id be happy to help you out.

Made - Any year, some dirt EQ tweaks in later units. Best for metal.

1966 bastardized Strat (it was already chunked when I got it in 1982) Pearly Gates and 2 Fender lace. High gain amps are noisy-period. If you don't want the chainsaw sound that seems to be selling a butt load of records, crank the master 3/4ish on the OD side and come up slow on the gain, you can achieve a nice bluesy tone this way. Like a couple of reviews I read, I've heard crappy amps come totally alive with someone who knows how to work the guitar with his/her hands, and you can WORK this amp to sound good in different styles. It can sound good clean, but it is a little to high endy for me, that's why god invented EQ's. Dial to taste. People stuff different speakers in cabs, so no one EQ section is going to work for every speaker config. no matter how much money you throw at your rig. One writer rambles about the Flex wave in the BV-120 trying to mimic a tube yada yada, the only solid state tone wise (besides the power supply) is the silicone for the channel switching and reverb drive. I'd prefer a nice high volt/current capacity relay myself, but people cry if they hear the slightest pop when changing channels. This amp should in no way be confused with the BV-300, or the BV-150, the circuits are totally different with the exception of the third channel, which is much more versatile than the BV-120. If you know someone at a Crate dealer or service center, maybe you can get them to send a schemo in PDF format and see for yourself.

No problems

Don't know

23 years +/-. I'm a combo player (Crate VFX-5212 with Vintage 30's), but know the BV-120 unit as a couple of my friends use them. This amp is good for metal and that?s all I would personally use it for. I play geezer rock and blues and I am to lazy to tote my 1/2 or full stack unless it is an outdoor event and warrants it . I have the BV-300 in my studio, and the middle channel is awesome, in the clean channel, it is the most responsive amp I have ever played. The notes come out the nanosecond their picked. Check it out for yourself. Downside, I am allergic to gravity which the BV-300 is very prone to, hence I mainly use the Crate VFX-combo. I wish Crate made a fifty watt version of the BV-150 and BV-300 amp. The BV-120 is light enough but does not deliver the goods like its fellow BV's. I like the feel of a fifty watt power section getting ready to meltdown, all knobs on proverbial 11, party on. And no matter what anyone thinks about any amp, there is always a player that can get a good tone out of it, and rest assured, theirs always a player that can make it sound like crap as well.

I play punk so all I really need is a good distortion channel. I've never felt like I couldn't get the right tone out of it no matter what cab I was running it through. I've gigged with it and it gives me plenty of sound. I don't use clean much, but it still sounds nice when I do.

I play a fender standard strat through this and there is a little noise in the background, but I'm repolacing my bridge pickup with a seymour Duncan hot rails stacked humbucker which is a very low noise pickup. Like I said I only play punk so I just use the distortion channel which is very powerful and still full of tone. It is so crisp and clean, especially for palm muting and it doesn't lose any tone when cranked all the way. So as far as my style of music goes, this is the amp for me.

I have never had a problem with this amp. I bought it used and it's an older model, so I'm sure it's very reliable. I plugged it in right out of the box and played a show with it that night with no problem.

I'ev never had to deal with the company.

I've been playing this for a few months now and I love it. Before this I played out of a marshall solid state abomination and this is so much better I can't even begin to describe how great it sounds. I've been playing for about 7 years and this is the best amp I've ever owned. I chose this amp because it's far more affordable than a jcm 800 or 900, and it still has a beautiful all tube tone. I've read some really bad reviews on it, but I love it. I guess what it really comes down to is what style of music you play. Since I only play punk, I just need an amp that has a great lead channel which this does.

Ok let me set the guy straight about the rectifier thing. First let me state that I like and own many QUALITY amps, so I am not biased.
First off let me inform this 17 year old kid what a rectifier does since he is telling us all how it is. Every amp has a rectifier, most have solid state rectifier's. All a rectifier does is convert AC current into DC current because power tubes can only run off of DC current. ( no biggy kid I didnt know what one was when I was 17 either). Tube rectifier's usually the 5UG4 tube type on guitar amplifier give your sound a more warm feel and give a "sag" type of sound. But they also reduce your power rating and your sound is not as tight as a solid state rectifier. That said I do prefer solid state rectifier's because I play fast and I need a tight bottom end. And as far as a Mesa Dual Rectifier being silcone diode driven is totally false it is driven by 5 12AX7 preamp tubes feed into the pentode power tube of your choice. The switch in the back is for silcone diodes, or 5UG4 tubes is for the rectifier. The way your current is regulated does not make it solid state or tube. Are Marshall TSL 100, & JCM 800 ( which I also own ) solid state because they dont have tube rectifier's, of course not. The difference between the 2 ways to convert your current are not very noticable. Now when people say crate blue voodoo's are silcone diode driven they are correct. They incoperate crate's flex wave preamp chip that imulates the way 12ax7 preamps tubes sound when pushed hard. These flex wave preamp chips are in all crate solid state amps as well, GFX65 & GX80 etc... thats what the X stand for in GX of GFX model names is fleX wave (preamp). So what does this do to your sound, it takes the most important part of your amp (preamp) and it adds FUZZY distortion, poor articulation, lack of depth or warmth, and a overall cold, sterile, thin sounding amp. Why buy an amp that incorpartes circuitry that simulates the way tube sounds when pushed hard, when you can buy the real deal that does not simulate it just is. The flex wave chip is really only part of the problem with these budget amps, they are not hand made, they do not have any point to point wiring, the circuit boards are only single sided. I could go on & on about the corner's they cut. I mean common do you want your signal from your guitar being passed through 12 gauge insulated wires, or single strand noninsulated wires that are on a circuit board that looks like it belongs on a nintendo gameboy. Then the argument is oh well I can add EQ, compressers, and what not to get it sound like a quality amp like a VHT Ultralead, or Mesa Recto. But when you add this to your signal line you get farther away from a tube sound. I mean what do you think happens when you add those same effects to a Diezel herbert or Tripple Recto, it sounds a whole lot better than they do on a blue voodoo. Lets face it a marshall TSL 100 without any effects sound heavier and has way more tone than a blue voodoo does with any of the best EQ's, procesors, etc... Let alone boutique amps like Mesa, VHT, or Bogner WITHOUT effects. Bottom line if it takes effects and EQ's to get a some what decent sound out of an amp, the amp was never really that good in the first place. And please dont get me started about the Peavy 5150, they suck too sound like one big transistor with no gain, Edie Van Halen actually used a Marshall Plexi and later a Marshall JCM 800 with variac, he just indorses peavy so he can make a bunch of money.

You cant bet your ass it will sound like shit for a long time to come!

Dont tell me these guys sell things and dont know they sound like ass.

I have been playing Heavy music for too many years to remeber and have owned & sold to much gear to keep track of. Selling my Crate blue voodoo was one of the best things I did early on in my quest for ultimate tone and heaviness. I recomend you all quit being cheap ass's and by a real TUBE amp that has TONE ( I dont think young kids know what that sounds like anymore) Research and actually TRY the following amps, Marshall Jcm 2000 series, VHT Ultalead, Bogner ubershall, Soldano hot rod 50+, SLO-100 dual overdrive head, Mesa Mark IV, any of the Rectifier series, Mark IIC+ (if you can find one) and your quest for tone finally ends at Diezel VH4 or a Herbert head, Randall's RM4 preamp aint bad either (modular tube system). Remeber the golden rule YOU GET WHAT you pay for, no matter what you are buying, hell a HUMMER H1 isnt cheap either! Oh yeah the other part of the golden rule is only use NOS type tubes, or new old stock tubes.

I agree completely with the guy before me with that long paragraph of the sound category lol. he made some of the most sense that ive seen in this review and i encourage you all to read it and just look at it.

Anyways, I play a Schecter Diamond Series Guitar Center 38th Annaversary special with sexy bat fret inlays. The pickups it came with sucked, so, I ordered Carvin classics. GREAT PICKUPS. I used a certain material and method to sheild them. Some pickups come sheilded these do not, but after I modified them, they sounded beautiful. With these pickups and that guitar body density, the tone of the Crate comes out at its prime. The point im trying to make isnt that my guitar sounds great, it is that the Crate needs a decent guitar to sound good. You are not going to get a good sound with a squier bullet, or fender telecaster. Maybe the reason why some of you people think this amp sucks is because you dont use good guitars, or just dont know how to use tube amps. You see, tube amps are very different from solid state amps. With solid state amps, you can just keep your EQ where you like it and just crank it. With a tube amp, as you play in different areas that require different volumes, you will learn that it is nessesary to tweak the EQ\presence\and gain knobs. As they amp gets louder, you can get rid of some low end and gain. I run my gain at 7 and its a monster. When I put it at 10 at loud volumes, it goes get muddy, only because when it gets to such a volume, the power amp tubes begin to distort. There we go! Solved your problem of that "muddy distortion" sound.

This amp is built like a top secret bomb shelter. I wouldnt even bring a backup with a gig, and I havent. This amp is well built; and how can I tell? It's one heavy motherfucker I tell you. And a real heavy amp means very well built with quality materials. This thing isnt going to give in without a good fight, unless theres something oddly wrong with it.

Who could ask for a better warranty? 5 years is great for a 800 dollar tube amp new. I gave it a N\A because I never had to deal with the company themselves.

I've owned a..
Mesa Boogie Single Rectofire, Marshall Mode Four, Peavey XXL, Randall Warhead and many other high gain amps. The funny thing is, I had each of these for less than a week at a time. For the marshalls and mesa's people, you're paying hundreds of more dollars for the name. Id say the only amp as good as this one for the price is a Peavey 5150, but the crate sounds similar to one, you just gotta know how to tweak your knobs. If you want something better, go buy a bogner. Props to the guy who wrote before me.