Crate BV120HB

its got your basic set up. two channels plus reverb. all tube etc....
i would give it a ten if it had a boost or extra channel.

this thing is my wett dream come true. i play alot of classic, southern rock stuff and this amp cant get the tones i need. the feed back on this thing is awsome. hold a note and it just goes to singing feedback. SWEET! i play through a peavy genaration s1 with active pickups. they work really well together. my other guitarist in the band hates his amp now that he has heard mine! lol

its a crate. they are build like tanks. so enough said about that

i doubt ill ever know the answer to this question. like i said they are built like tanks.

if this amp was stolen i would track down the bastard that stoled it and beat him with this amp. the amp will be find but he would be pretty fucked up after lol

My amp was made probably in 2004. It has two channels, dual reverb controls, has 4 beam type octal power tubes and 4 triodes. It has a tremendous range of voices by way of it's tone controls, and gets loud enough to rattle your innards through 4x12 cab.

It sounds great. Very sweet harmonic overtones and produces stunningly beautiful feedback on sustained notes. It has excellent transient response, but the power supply isn't quite ample enough to produce a dramatic dynamic range in relation to the note attack, but the splendid musical quality of the tone out of the speakers makes up for it.

It has great definition and chords are lush and the clarity even at full gain settings render clearly the sound of every note in the chords.

The clean channel is excellent as well.

It's a Crate. It will last forever if properly maintained and at least 20-30 years without it.
It's also very well built with chassis mounted powertube sockets and top quality potentiometers.

Crate has great CS

27 years stage and studio
Yes.
Great amp for way cheap.

I don't miss my Mesas, Marshalls, Soldanos, VHT combos, or any of the other amps I have performed with-well the VHT UL was better playing, but no better sounding.

Brand new 2006 model, came with Groove Tube 6L6s. 120 watts and 2 channels, it's set up pretty well. Has seperate EQs for each channel, which is usually a given unless you buy a 5150/6505. The amp does come with a footswitch for switching between the two channels as well as switching the effects loop on or off. There's also a decibel pad for the effects loop as well, which is pretty nice. I don't really feel this amp needs a 3rd channel, although it would be nice and my only real complaint is that the reverb section isn't switchable. It's nice having a reverb control for each channel, but sometime's it's nice to be able to switch it on or off on the fly (in the case of a solo). This is one thing the AT-100 has the hold very high. Maybe a treble boost for the clean too.

This thing is a monster! It has gain but not too much gain. You can saturate but still not overdo it if you pay attention. It's not like an AT-100 or XXX where you may experience too much gain. Also, unlike the XXX, the tone isn't very buzzy on the top end. I like the XXX, but the top end is a little to buzzy for my liking. Same with the AT-100. It has a a good low end punch, good mids and good highs. You can go from a light crunch to full blast metal in no time. I tested it with both my Les Pauls (one with the 490r/498T combo and another with EMGs) and my Silhouette and my Strat. The single coils retain their clarity and glassy sound (roll back the gain and the tone knob just a bit) and the humbuckers sound thick and right on point.

The clean surprised me. It's a very good balanced clean and very workable. The reverb section helps out very nicely here and I recommend it highly. The only drawback I can see is a treble boost (like the AT-100) but that can be worked around easily. The AT still has a better clean channel (more Fenderish), but this one is very versatile and takes a lot to start distorting out. This is my new main amplifier and I'm having a ball with it.

I really can't rate this part because I haven't had it that long. However, based on other Blue Voodoos that I've messed around with (friends' amps) these things tend to hold up very well. I would gig with it, religiously. I always recommend having a backup because you never know when you're going to need it. On the whole though, It's great!

Haven't had to deal with St. Louis Music yet, but a 5 year transferrable warranty sure is nice.

On the whole, this thing kicks some ass. It's versatile enough and has enough features to keep on satisfied for a while. The tone's damn good and holds up great at low and high volumes. There's only a few small things I wish it had (footswitchable reverb, boost for clean) but other than that, it's a great amp. Well worth the buy.

I bought mine brand new only a couple weeks ago, so its a 2006 or maybe 2005 model. I would like a 3rd channel but I think the amps has every thing you need I run a boss blues driver and metal zone off the clean channel when needed. The only problem I noticed is if you use the effects loop the reverb is multiplied rediculously.

I have a gibson explorer and '71 Strat with fat 50's in it. The explorer has factory pickups and I have a bad feedback problem with it. The amp sounds beautiful, gotta say for the money nothing sounds better. Sounds as good as a head that costs twice as much. Totally impressed from Hendrix and SRV tones to Slayer this think is just sick. Awesome. Crate has always had the best clean tone as well and this is no exception.

Only had it for a couple weeks so I am not sure, I am going to gig it without a backup so wish me luck.

Anyone who needs a powerful tube amp that sounds great and is totally affordable I would recommend this amp no matter what style you play, except country I guess. I would problably repalce it with the same amp if it were stolen or maybe the Peavy XXX head. But that is several hundred dollars more.

i got mine used, so i dont know if the douche that previously owned mine broke something or this is how they come. my effects loop is footswitchable, and my channels are footswitchable, but i can only do one or the other.

i play metal and use jackson guitars and a gibson explorer. the clean and dirty both sound great, but to not get drowned out by my other guitar player who plays a marshall mode 4, i need to run my line 6 constrictor, boss metal zone, and dimebag crybaby to the clean channel and turn the levels up on the pedals. this works for volume, but can get a bit buzzy but it doesnt feed back as much as when the gain is past 7.

no real problems with it. i've had to replace the tubes, but other than the used wear and tear from the previous owner, its my primary stage amp and has worked well so far.

never directly dealt with crate, but my guitar shop guy had to find some tubes for me and he had a little difficulty with them, but who knows just how credible that is.

pretty good for what i want. maybe down the road if i could afford it, i'll get a diezel or something. but for now i'm really very happy with it. the thing rocks if you take the time to adjust the levels and everything.

This is the HB model which looks better than the normal BV120 which was blue in color. The dials don't have any numbers on them though, so every setting theoretically goes to infinity (Spinal Tap style).

It has two channels, that's all I need. I use a Boss Metal Zone pedal on the clean channel and can get a great Dave Mustaine and Dimebag tone out of it. It has plenty of power and can easily overcome the volume of a drumset.

The blue voodoo cab that comes with this head in the half stack really sucks. If you're going to test out this head then try it out with a Marshall 1965 cab or a Mesa Boogie cab. I use a Mesa Boogie oversize 4x12 cab which I think it is the best sounding cab on the market right now and with this head you get a massive sound almost like a full stack. One of the reasons the Mesa Boogie half stacks sound so great is because their cabs are awesome.

I use Jackson guitars with Seymour Duncan JB/59 pickups. This Blue Voodoo can be used for almost any style of music if it's set up properly.

This amp doesn't have any buzzing or anything like I experienced with some amps I owned before (B-52 AT100 for example).

The clean channel is one of the best I have ever heard. It is sparkling clean especially with the Jazz pickup in the neck on my Jackson.

I have used it on gigs and after the show I almost always get comments about how great it sounds... although it's probably the guitar playing too :-P

I haven't experienced any problems yet and I have owned this amp head for over a year now.

The selector pedal was not included when I bought this amp because it was a floor model, Crate sent me a new pedal for free after I called them.

Overall I think this is a great amplifier head and the best value. I was looking for an amp for a while before I found this one and after listening to a lot of solid state amps I cam to the conclusion that there is really no solid state amp on the market that provides the warmth and "real" sound of a tube amp. Many people are intimidated by tube amps because they are more expensive and require maintenance but something you should realize is that you are sacrificing a lot on tone and a tube amp just has a lot more balls than a solid state amplifier. A 50W tube head is usually as loud as a solid state head with twice or three times as much power. And with solid state amps you also have to worry about clipping when you turn it up to level 10, with a tube amp you just have to worry about blowing the speakers!

2 channels - standard clean/overdrive options
FX loop with power boost switch, sadly neither the loop nor the boost are footswitchable
Tube preamp, poweramp

I use this amp for metal - both the brit-style 80s stuff and scandinavian melodic doom metal. I'm playing Malmsteen strats through it - one is stock except for a an EMG 9v gain boost miniswitch and the other has been turned into a SSH with Seymour Duncan Live Wires (lovely pickups by the way - get the Hot/Metal 18 volt version, and they beat the hell out of EMG 81s).
There is a trick to getting a decent sound out of this amp - put bigger power tubes in! This amp tends to be very grindy. The highs are generally too piercing, and the distortion tends toward the solid state sound. On a whim I put bigger 6l6s in there (ruby tubes) and the distortion opened up a lot! It now has tight crunch but with a fullness that is fun to play with. Also, turn down the highs! The mid knob controls higher frequencies than most amps, so you can get a superior tone by simply weighing in the mids and taking the highs down to about 10 o'clock.
HOWEVER, do not think that this amp will give you the quality of the commonly more expensive amps. It lacks the searing low end of a Boogie, the boom of an Engl, the creamy texture of a Fender, or the complex harmonics of a Bogner. Oh yeah, and it sure as hell ain't a late 80s Marshall! However, it is an adequate amp that is fairly easy to find used. Again, let me reiterate that bigger tubes are key to getting a good sound out of this thing. Of course, if you can only find BVs in the 600 dollar range, go with a Crank. They're a lot more versitale, and do what the BV tries to do (and only marginally succeeds).

It hasn't broken down yet.

Fairly reliable, ok sounding amp. To be honest, in hindsight I'd have gone with a Crank amp if I were to stick in this price range. I plan on upgrading to an Engl in the near future since it is much more suited to my needs.

Its a 120 watt tube sucker with 6l6's, perfect. And its Blue, i mean come on, thats pretty fucking cool.

Brutal, fucking brutal. This amp is as good as any Marshall or Mesa ive tried and its a hell of a lot cheaper. Honestly im not a tone nerd, all i want is a loud amp for little dough that sounds good, and ill do the rest. I dont give a fuck about the "brown" tone or the "mesa" tone or any of that other happy crap, its guitar, not rocket science.

I beat on it a lot and its still going, but ive only had it 2 months, so ill leave this alone.

I dont know.

I got the last one from Musiciand Fiend on closeout. I got the matching cab for it for $350 used. Now they only have the black one and that 300 watt monster.

i buy my amp in 1998 since now i never change, it s very versatile for any kinds of music dependes of the guitar.
groove tubes --tubes

It sounds great for me i use a gt3 effects pedal for only effects for distorcion a use a mesa boogie v1 bootle rocket pedal, it sounds great whith crate, i play whith a prs custom made.

great amp, for me i not spend more money for a mesa boogie

2 channels, four 6L6/5881s, four 12ax7 preamp tubes, switchable effects loop, and a built in reverb, not too many features just basic features

I use a Gibson LP Studio,Epiphone Nuclear Extreme LP Limitied Edition, and a PRS Tremonti SE, the amp pretty much suits my style perfectly, I play Metal,like Godsmack, Metallica, 40 Below Summer, In Flames, old Creed,Alice In chains, and so on. I desire great clean just as much as I do a great distortion, and let me tell you, the clean on this amp has great character, it is crisp clear, and it has balls!!! It is a clean channel with balls, nice twangy sound too, I'd take it over a fender twin anyday, I don't know about the Mesa Lonestar clean though since I've never played through it, but have heard it's great. The distortion is out of this world, just great all round distortion, nothin else to say about it, it's just brutal, and has a nice ballsy recto tone, love it.

Don't own it yet, but have played through it many times in the local guitar store, and I'm going to buy it within the next month or so. It feels like it's very well built but u never know.

I useta nown some crates but never dealt with the company, but they do make great amps

I been playin for a lil over 2 years, I practice literally 6 hrs a day so that adds up, so i know good tone when I hear it, I just live and breathe music, The only thing I dislike is there isnt a gain knob for the clean channel to get a pushed sound, I dislike it cuz that might suck for some people, but if u dont care for that sound then I cant see what you wouldnt like except for the 2 channels instead of three, but a new 3 channel BV150 just came out cost a few more bucks but it's even better, it has much better versatility