Crate BV120RH Red Voodoo Amp Head

This has all been covered.Crate tech support told me that this head is a little different from the Blue Voodoos because it was made with Sammys specs and for his needs.I use one in my studio and one live.This amp Is great for my needs.I do however use E34L power amp tubes and ECC84s in the preamp.I changed to these tubes years ago and it turned this amp into a different animal.Try it.Just be sure to bias the amp.I would not trade my Red Voodoo heads for any others even if you tryed to pay me.......

This amp does it all.I only use Dean MLs with Dimarzio pickups.I play all styles of Heavy Metal.No cover tunes.It has one of the best clean channels I have ever heard.The overdrive channel came to life after the E34Ls and ECC83s.

These amps can and have seen it all.They have never let me down.

Crate tech support is great.They have never been repaired.I do all my own tubes and bias.

I would buy 20 of them if I could find them.I have been playing for 26 years.I love these amps.

I feel the features have been well coverd so far so I will not go into great detail. The features are the same as the Blue Voodoo. I talked to Crate's Tech support (SLM Electronics Tech support)and they told me that despite the cosmetic changes this is the same circuit.

I use strats and a variety of basic effects to a small degree. The amp is probably not exacly made for a more classic music style ( classic rock blues etc ) however it has great clean and volume with a clear tone transmition so thats all I need. The gain channel is not my style maybe if I do a punk number one day. The camp can get a bit to high end sometimes but tameable with eq. I did do some work on it because the previous owner had el34s in it in an attempt to get some kind of marshall tone out of it. Hey its not a marshall its not gonna work man and the amp isnt made for it so why push it. I put some TAD 6l6 short bottles in it and EH preamps and biassed the power tubes at 70% dissipation. The sound is great. Nice round clear cleans with tons of headroom a great base for any guitar tone.
I just use a clean to crunchy tone out of my amp so ch1 getts all the use and it does a great job. Ch2 is not so much my thing so I dont use it much and feel the almost fuzz like distortion with screach gain is ok for the old rock rip guitar or can be used for punk. The reverb kind of sucks but seperate controls for ch1 and ch2 are cool. I use an outboard fender reverb tank that gives much better sound so I dont use the amp reverb.

OK I know this thing has taken a huge beating and is still ticking. Sure the previous owner blew some fuses in a missguided attempt to use the el34 tubes with a messed up biass. But a small tune up and we are off with no problems. I do however carry spare everything with any amp I play. There is limited repairablity due to the amount of pcb board mounted stuff and it is not all top quality materials. But pretty good for what I paid for and good value for the money.

Tech support is easy to get a hold of and can tell you about component specs like what fuses go in it and the such however they are not amp techs and are very limited in the help they can give. Crate does however look like it attemts to take care of the custommer so thats good. I will not give a score however since I have not had much dealings with them.

Good value for the money. I like the good clean to crunchy ( lots of headroom to work in ch1 and its easy of use. If I could I would simplify it. make it single channel with annother pair of 6l6s for more power and get rid of the reverb also get a pre and master volume on the channel. But hey it works for me now so not bad for the price. Just remember to use good tubes and bias them to give the sound you like.

2 channels blah blah fx loop blah blah red tolex blah blah looks cool blah blah...

I'm using this with a Gibson LP studio plus, a schecter s-1 elite, jackson soloist (USA), warmoth custom soloist, etc. I play metal, hardcore, etc. This amp kicks ass. It's slightly noisy, but my rack will take care of that ;). Sound excellent. Very heavy distortion. A lot of people try to compare amps to other amps, and that's not fair. Take it for what it is. It doesn't sound like a mesa. It doesn't sound like a 5150. It sounds like a red voodoo. It sounds very good for metal. The clean channel is fantastic. With the reverb, and good eq/pickup combo, you can get very usable tones.

Haven't had it for too long. But it seems very rugged. Hasn't failed me yet. I gig every weekend.

no opinion

I've been playing for 8 years. I own a Dual Recto, a Triple XXX, a 5150, a Mig-60, several tube combos, and this. I own 7 guitars. All of which are pretty nice (a couple imports, but most are USA). All of the guitars use dimarzio, EMG, or Seymour Duncan pickups. I wish this amp had a crunch channel and a lead channel as opposed to 1 dist. channel. But for the tone....I'll live.

i believe this amp was made in 99 or 2000. I got it used on ebay. i have a blue cab with it so it looks real bro's. I don't use any effects, i just strait up play. i'm in two bands, one is an emo-core band called on the mark and the other is just a rock band with heavy influences of punk called in it to win it. this amp has 120 watts and IS DIFFERENT than the blue voodoo head unlike others will say below. the red voodoo has a different preamp i understand than the blue voodoo, and the result is more tone. so yeah, it has a clean and distorted channels, and you can use effects with it, but i don't so i really can't rate this part.

i have a epiphone les paul standard and a 1976 fender bronco with a single coil seymour duncan. when i am playing with my emo core band, i could not ask for a more perfect sound. for those of you who may not know, emo core is very similar to metal. it has lots of crunch and juice. i had a kid walk up to me and say, what petal were you using that souded stankin awesome. i said kid, that was no petal, that was the red voodoo that tickled your ears.

BUT, in my rock band, called in it to win it, (we sound kinda like taking back sunday, all american retards oops rejects, get up kids, and the ataris) the bite is a little much. So if your not into heavier rock, don't buy this amp. If you like metal and emocore and hardcore punk, i would prefer this amp over a mesa boogie dual rectifier (my friend has a recto and i have played it alot).

This amp has LOTS of tone. Honestly, i'm not an expert at rating how cleam channels sound, but i know this one does sound good. I am going to give the sound a 7, just because sometimes it has too much bite. but if the only kind of music that existed was metal, shew laws this amp would get a 10.5.

i've had it for 7 months and had band practices and played out about 10 times so far with it and have had no problems.

havn't had problems so haven't done this know what i'm sayin dawg

i've been playin around two years and have heard many a half stacks out in public. this one like i said can have too much bite and i have to turn the distortion down wich i don't like to do. because of this i am going to give it a 7 because it is unsatisfactory to me. but you, yes you, you like mall metal ya say. oh my this is the amp for your butt. in your case you would give this amp a stankin 10. But for me and the rest of the pop rock punk kids, this amp gets a 7. it is a good amp overall. but i will probably sell it and get a marshall jcm 2000 head or mesa dual recto soon.

This amp has all the features of the blue voodoo head, with the added benefit of it's unique color. I find it to be very versatile, and can produce a wide variety of tones for any given music genre. The transition from channel to channel is incredibly smooth unlike many multi pedal units which often have a noticable delay. One of the first features i took notice to was the fact that channel 1 and 2 both had independent tone controlls. I previously used the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe from 1998-2001, and althogh fender makes fine products, i could not get used to sharing tones between channels. My only complaint about the red voodoo when comparing it to other amps is that it only has the two channels and not a third...but in retrospect id rather have full tone controlls on two channels, than sharing tones between three.

Im currently playing on a Fender American Strat equiped with blue, silver, and red lace pickups. I was told that a crate half stack was not the amp for me if that was the guitar i planned on using. I proved them wrong. The sound is killer...I cant beleave how responsive the tone controlls are. On most amps, i cant tell a difference between 5 or 6 on bass or 4 and 5 on trebble. But with the BV120RH, every notch has its own sound so you can really tweek untill you find the sound desired. The distortion is pretty much a set deal, and can best be regulated with the trebble. If you want more of a smooth "dusty" distortion turn the trebble down and distortion up. For a sharp "Harsh" distortion the trebble goes up with the distortion. I personally keep the trebble down. The clean channel is a little more tricky to find the right sound... but its there. The problem is tring to make it clear so its not muddy, but isnt sharp. I havnt turned the clean up verry high so i'm not sure if it'll distort...but i gotta feeling it will at high enough of a volume. The sound on this amp is also verry dependant on the room it is in. When i first purchased the amp in late Nov. 2001, i had it set up in the main entrance of my home. The tall ceilings and tiled floors provided an amazing natural reverb, and showed no reason to turn the volume past 2. However since my parnets did not want a half stack in the middle of their home, i was told to move it to the basement which has carpeted floors and is now in a very "Dead" room. It take's a little more to achieve a desired volume, but non the less the Amp can hold its own. I have yet to test it outdoors, buti have faith in my red rocker and am sure it'll hold up more than fine

The red voodoo is very reliable and i would have no problem using it in a gig without a backup...i would just have some extra fuses laying around because so far thats the only problem ive had with it. I blew one fuse about three months ago while experimenting with effect pedals...so i think i just put more power into the amp than it was ready for. It needed no repair, just another fuse so all is well

5 year warranty...thats all i can say

I bought this amp after being offered an amazing deal from a guitar store in jersey. After tax and the store's "stack atack" instant savings, it cost me no more than $810 for the amp and 4X12 strait cab. Someone stated in another review that this amp is no fender...I'll "click" to that. This doesnt have as much of a warm tube tone as my fender does on clean. but the distortion has much more bite...so it all evens out

I did a review for the Blue voodoo a while back even though I didn't own one at the time I hade played it several times and stated that on the review. What I said about that head was true, so I went and bought the Red Voodoo. Crate said it was the same as the blue except for the color. It had all the same cool features, dual reverb, dual tone controls, and fx loop.

I really like the blue voodoo as I said in that review, but I could not get the Red Voodoo to sound like I wanted it to. It had too much gain, and it was a Fuzzy metal type gain.It sounded really thin. The louder I turned it up the the louder the thin sound got. I have the Vintage 30 Cabinet to go with it and it sounds awesome with my Marshall DSL. The clean sound on this amp is VERY bright and i couldn't get the midrangy sound out of it.

I didn't have this amp long enough to find out.

Never called them in the 4 days I had the amp.

It did have a different tone than Marshalls have, but I just didn't like it.I bought a Marshall DSL50, and had it moded, and I totally love the sound. I play stuff like fuel, three doors downand so on. The crate did not respond well to the Volume knob on my guitar either.

Well what can I say? Other than this amp is the most amazing amp I have played. I was real critical about buying a crate because people dawg on them alot. I have played for about 9 years and have played in 3 or 4 bands. I am not a metalhead by any means, but this amp just blows me away! Okay here it goes this is the sammy hagar model I think it is the same as the Blue Voodoo. It does have the red tolex on the head and the cabinet. It has 4 12ax7's and I think it has 4 6l6's so it's loaded. It had dual reverb and clean and dirty and dual eq. It's got the effects loop which I do not use at all. If you don't want to own a whole rack of distortion boxes this head is for you. My guitar professor had a mesa boogie tremoverb and it's meaner than that hands down. Crate I Salute you!

I play a Brian Moore custom guitar which has 2 seymour duncan pick ups and coil tapping. It totally compliments this amp. I play in a funk/rock band and every time we play it just is amazing at the sounds I can get out of this amp. The clean channel is no fender that is for sure but it totally kicks the peavey 5150's butt! as far as clean goes. As far as the dirty channel goes it's a different animal not like peavey,not like marshall, it's got it's own mean sound it's rich and full of harmonics. The only down fall is there is no in between as far as a crunch is concerned. It's great for clean and distortion but no in between. This amp is no country or blues at all!

Have not had any problems with it at all.

Crate is a good company I do not understand why they get such a bad rep but I will own nothing else as far as top of the line crate.

Again if you play anything heavy at all this would be a dream! This amp I would buy again no regrets.

I believe this amp was introduced last year by CRATE. Just in time for Sammy Hagar's "Marching to Mars" tour. This amp was supposedly designed by CRATE to Sammy Hagar's specs. Actually, I think it's just a Blue Vooodoo amp with red tolex on it, and two more power tubes added to it. But that's just my opinion. The Red Voodoo is an all Tube 120 watt monster. It has four pre-amp tubes, and four power tubes. These tubes also have a really neet kind of orange back lighting, with a reflective foil on the back wall of the amp. It really gives the appearance that the tubes are glowing red hot. This is purely for effect. The orange lights have no other purpose. This amp has two channels. Channel #1 is the clean channel. It has your typical EQ adjustments. Bass, Mid, Treble, and Volume. One thing that I noticed about the controls on this amp is that the range is from -5, to a half way point of 0, to a full on position of +5. Just a way to be different I guess. This amp also has a Presense control, but it is shared with channel #2. So what ever your setting is for channel #1, will be the same for channel #2. I don't really see this as a big problem myself. It does however,(and I liked this) have two Reverb controls. One for each channel. This makes it kinda nice , since I usually like more reverb on the clean channel than I do on the dirty (gain) channel. Channel two is the "Gain", or "Dirty" channel. It has the usual EQ adjustments. Bass, Mid, Treble, Gain and Volume. There is no Master Volume on this amp. Just a volume control for each channel. Again, no big deal. It has low line level inputs in the back for any rack mount effects you may want to use. There is a switch that lets you enable a 12db signal increase on the effects loop. I've used it, but I'm really not sure what it does. I didn't hear any difference. The amp comes with a foot switch that lets you switch between channels #1 and #2, and also switch on and off any effects that you have run through the effects loop. I thought this was a cool feature. Because this is an all tube amp, there is a power switch, which is used to power up the amp, and then there is a Standby switch, which is used to turn on the tubes. this was a new concept to me since I was a Randall "solid state" user for 13 years (I'll never go back to solid state). I am strictly a bedroom player, and this Red Voodoo half stack has plenty of power for what ever your needs, let alone a 14 x 16 bedroom. As far as features are concerned, this amp is not lacking in any way. I test drove all of the big name amps out there, (Marshall, Peavy, Boogie, etc.)and with money being no object, this amp beats em all. I would have to give this amp a 10 on features.

I am using a strat style guitar, with a very hot single humbucker style Seymour Duncan pick-up. Let me tell you, this amp has more stock tone right out of the box than a dozen Mesa Boogies. I test drove a "Rectifier" series amp for an hour, and after playing the CRATE, no comparison. I am able to get this amp to emulate the sounds of CREED, as well as Metallica. Yes, I said Metallica, using only a Parametric EQ run through the effects loop. If this amp was not named "Red Voodoo" it would have been called "The Tone Monster". I can only imagine what kinda sounds someone could get out of this amp if they had it professionally modified. Don't get me wrong, this amp DOES NOT need to be modified to get a great sound out of it.

As far as reliability and dependability is concerned. I have not had the amp long enough to to give an accurate opinion. If the way this amp is constructed is any indication of it's reliability, it should last forever, providing years of reliable service. But what would I know, I'm just a bedroom player.

My only experience with CRATE's customer support was a good one. I called to get the schematics for the amp, and they where very helpful, and got them right out to me. They where however very quick to point out that any modifications to the amp would void the warranty(One year parts and labor). With that said, I would have to say that CRATE's customer support was very helpful.

I've been playing for 23 years. For the past 13 of those, I've been using a Randall full stack, while the Randall is a very well built amplifier, and has a great sound for what it is, I had to use too many other effects to get it to sound the way I wanted it to. There was only one noteable thing about the Red Voodoo amp that I would have to say was not very desireable, and that is that the clean channel #1 was a little too bright for me. When used with a parametric EQ at the settings that I like, I have to back off all of the EQ settings to -5. But if that's all I can say bad about it, that's pretty damn good don't ya think? In my over-all opinion, with money being no factor here, this amplifier, for a lack of a better terms, kicks some series ass. If you haven't test driven this amp yet......WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? ***I have to add one thing before I go, for all of you Sammy Hagar fans out there. I marked this amplifier above as used for a good reason. This amplifier was USED and SIGNED(both the amp and the cabinet)by the "Red Rocker", Sammy Hagar himself, at the San Francisco Hard Rock Cafe' on March 23rd, during his brief nation wide Red Voodoo promotional tour. And it's all mine! :-) You can see pictures from this tour on Sammy's web site. I think it's www.redrocker.com. Please feel free to email me with any questions or comments you may have. Till then, Keep on rocken!!!