Crate BV300H Head

A very versatile amp which excels mostly in the heavy distortion and clean department.

Each channel has a notch filter and there is an effects loop.

If the amp had a reverb then it would get a 10.

I mostly use Channel 3 (Lead/Metal channel). I have the mid down and the bass and treble way up + have the notch filter on 10K. When you play while palm muting the strings you will not get a heavier sound from a guitar amp! and the clarity/sustain is brilliant.

I do not use Channel 2 much because the other 2 channels seem to out shine it but you can get the Marshall sound from it.

I also have problem with picking up radio stations on it. It is not the amps fault because I only get RF signals when a jack is plugged in - but it is susceptible to the problem. I got around this buy buying a couple ferrite rings and putting them on the jack cable and now I do not have a problem.

The amp is very quiet but the fans are quite noisy.

The channel changer could be a bit better, on my one there is a small delay in-between changing channels + it is a little flimsy - otherwise it is built like a tank (but I have seen one after it was dropped and is cannot be fixed with a big crack in it!)

Not contacted

I am a sound-engineer as well as a musician and I get to see a lot of amps in action. This amp uses the same valves as Messa's but it is built to be mean with lots of options! It is a pro amp with brilliant sustain, tone and depth - i am very happy with my purchase.

Plenty of controls, but none of them seem to do anything useful whatsoever.

Played a few gigs with one with a gibson sg with a seymour duncan jb.

This amp is one of the biggest piles of crate i have ever had the displeasure of hearing.

Channel 1 is a completly solid state sounding clincal pile of badge, that doesnt offer any warmth or break up what so ever.

Channels 2 and 3 are both as awful as each other,shrill, harsh and have no bottom end at all, they have some silly knob that fucks with the mids, and for some reason even a medium ammount of gain induces howling feedback (no its not my guitar)

the light turned on when i flicked the switch, which is a good start. the foot switch is a piece of shit and broke mid set

dont plan on dealing with them

i own several amps, a mesa dual rec, diezal vh4, and bognerschall, all through matching orange cabs. i had to play this pile of shit for a competition. There is NO way of making this amp sound good, it is fucking diabolical

I picked this amp up used, it was basically in "new condition." I play mostly very aggressive metal and thought this amp would be perfect. The BV300 has 3 channels; Clean, Crunch, and Lead. Switchable series/parallel effects loop, midi footswitch, slave out, and a few other neat items. It would be nice if the amp had a boost switch, but you can run a cable in the effects loop, when you engage the loop via the footswitch, it acts as a boost. I used this amp in my home studio. The amp has an incredible amount of power 300 watts! Tons of headroom.

I use Dean, BC Rich, and Gibson LP's with humbucking pickups. This amp does well for extreme metal sounds. It actually has that "in your face" sound of a solid state amp, but with a ton of tube power.
I had a big problem with noise. The amp sounded great in the store, but when I brought it home...this thing was picking up radio signals from everywhere when the high gain was engaged. It definitly can be traced to the wiring in my building, but my other two amps are dead quiet, so go figure? The clean channel is a standout, actually the only channel that operated with no interference, tons of headroom and crystal clear. The crunch channel does the job, but no better then a decent Marshall, the high gain channel is great for extreme sounds, but don't expect organic harmonic complex distortion. this is very hard sounding, very metal, a bit sterile, but all in all very very aggressive sounding, more so then other amps I have played.

I took this amp home and the radio interference was so bad I returned it to the store 3 days later. Since my other amps did not have this problem, I don't know why this amp did this, it sounded fine in the store, but the store was wired up for sound equipment. I have heard great things about the reliability of the amp, but I had a different experience.

I called Crate and asked a bunch of questions and they were pretty helpful. Since I bought the amp used and did not have an original receipt the 5 year warranty was not honored. You need the original receipt for the warranty to be transferred.

I have been playing for over 20 years. I currently own a modified Marshall and Soldano Avenger. I decided to return this amp because of a bad noise problem. I did think the extreme sounds were excellent and so was the clean, I just could not deal with the radio static I was getting and the high gain sounded a little brittle & sterile to my ears compared to my current amps. This is a cool amp, but it is 90 pounds!!! and pretty darn expensive new. For this kind of money I think there are some better choices available IMHO. Hopefully, my experience was unique, but I would make sure you have a return policy, as this amp seemed pretty sensitive with grounding.

amp made in 2004. my style of music is a lot of black/death/power metal. i need a huge non-muddy crunch. this thing delivers in a big way. 16 tubes give it the punch of solid state without giving it a "tin can" sound. far from it in fact, it's the exact perfect sound i had in my head. three channels, super loud, super heavy, no doubt about that. loses points because of the weight.

i use a bottom of the line yamaha, and i put emg's in it. kinda weird, i know. the amp has very little buzz, even at high volumes. awesome metal amp, clean channel can probably be really clean, but i sort of like a little gain to it so i haven't worked with the super clean too much. distortion is awesome, perfect. maybe not what everyone is looking for, but i'm really picky and this suits me perfectly.

i can't afford a backup because i bought this thing. like i said before, seems to be built super strong and heavy. i haven't had it long enough for the tubes to go south. i don't see any problems with this thing breaking down at all. good warranty.

i would definately buy it again, but it's pricey. not overpriced, but expensive in any event. i had to tweak it for some time to find my exact dream sound, but in doing so i went through hundreds of other possible setting that i think other people might really like. i played some randalls and peavey before i bought it, so not a whole lot else. but i fell in love with this thing right away and i had to have it. best 4 metal!

VERY versatile, VERY TONEFUL! amplifier with GOBS of POWER and AGGRESSION!
3 channels from PRISTINE CLEAN to METAL MAYHEM (and beyond!!)

Great for CLEAN
Great for CRUNCH
Great for LEAD
Goes WELL BEYOND any VHT, Diezel, Soldano amp that I have owned. Yes, not to brag, but I have been very fortunate to have owned them all.
The BV300H is BY FAR the MOST AGGRESSIVE, LOUD, GREAT SOUNDING amp of them all!

Have not had it very long BUT- it is built like a TANK- no joke!
HUGE TRANSFORMERS, METAL protective hardware, SOLID WOOD head box,
very high quality components throughout. I took it out of the chassis and the BV300 is high quality EVERYWHERE!

NOT USED, NOT NEEDED

UNBELIEVABLE VALUE for the buck!

New amp. Seems pretty versitile, but not quite my cup of tea. 3 pretty nice channels. I liked the notch filters. I didn't try the loop. 300 really loud watts from 6!!! 6550's

Let me first say that I have to use this amp for a corporate sponsored event. I'm really a VHT, Marshall, Vox user and never really concidered using a Crate amp. Some of the sounds you can get out of the amp are pretty cool. The thing I don't like about it is that it takes a lot of tweaking to make the amp sound the way I want it to. I'm more of a plug in and play type of guy, but for someone willing to take the time, it can sound killer.

The clean channel was ok, but had a weird harmonic happening. Not very pleasant.

The crunch channel was by far my favorite. By using the Ugh and Eek controls, you can go from close to a Marhsall to solid state mud. Pretty unique feature.

The gain channel has everything from Rectifier to modded "Moshall". Would be great for you heavy, down tuned players.

I used a humbucker loaded ESP Horizon for the test.

I'll let you know how it does at stage volumes in another post. So far it's seems like a decent workhorse amp.

This is the new BIG BV300H 300 watt all tube, Blue Voodoo head from Crate. 3 chanels, 1 clean 2 distorted, clean chanel has a mid frequency select, 2nd chanel has mid boost, and channel 3 has high frequency select(5 settings each for amazing tonal variation), switchable effects loop with in and out volume controls(nice for picky effects or just to run a cable out and in for extra volume for solos and what not), 4 button footswitch, "EEK" and "UGG" knobs for high and low presence(very cool). I play a variety of rock and some blues. This amp is all could ever hope for, sparkling clean and every kind of distortion sound there is. 300watts is more than enough for anyone, and it sounds great at any volume. the only thing that would make this amp better would be reverb, but it makes up for it everywhere else.

I play on an Ibanez RG guitar that I made out of and Ibanez RG 170 and an RG 270, I primarily use the bridge humbucker. Chanel one can be super sparkling clean, and then can be over driven to some nice vintage style distortion. Channel 2 is picks up where chanel one leaves off and is very Marshall-like. Channel 3 pushes deep into heavy metal territory, very distorted. Each channel has a very wide variety of sound possibilitys, and all are consistant at low and high volumes. I thought it hummed a bit when i first turned it on, but that was just the two cooling fans(the sound was not coming from the speakers). This amp is great for anything. If I saw someone using a distortion pedal with this amp I would smack them with my guitar. I've never heard so many different good sounds come from the same amp, and the only effect on board is distortion. I am very impressed. This amp will chew up and spit out any Marshall, Mesa, Fender, or for that matter, any amp in its way period.

I've only had it for a short while, so I can't say much about it, but I have owned quite a few Crate amps in the past, and they've all taken a pretty harsh beating, and rarely cause any trouble. Tube amps are a bit more fragile than solid state of course, and they need to be well maintained, but this thing is pretty beefy, and I think it could take a pretty good beating before it broke, although I'm not going to be the one to try it.

Crate is Awesome, enough said.

This is the greatest amp ever period. I've played lots of crappy solid state amps, and of those I preffered Crate, and I played one of the 120 watt Blue Voodoo heads for a while, and I liked it better than any Marshall or Mesa. This one take them all though, it can sound any way you want it too. I wouldn't have bought it yet if I didn't get such a great deal on it (almost half off>>>factory refurb) but it was too good to pass up, and since I playing it, I would gladly pay the normal full price to replace it if this one got ripped off. The only problem with this amp is it's weight, 80 pounds is a lot for one amp, I can handle it though, and if I get worn out, my good friend and drummer Matt can bench a good 315 so I'll let him carry it for me :) other than that, it would be cool if this had reverb, but when I'm playing it, I seem forget about that because I'm so amazed at the great sounds that I am getting.

This amp was made a year ago, 2002. It has 3 channels and trendous tonal options. The amp can do anything. I play whatever style they are paying me to play. It has channel switching and a switchable effects loop.
it has 10 preamp tubes and 6 powertubes. It's the heaviest amp ever at 80lbs. It has side handles which are great and allow two people to load it on stage for me.

This amp is the best sounding amp I've ever used. It killed the VHT UL and the Diezel VH4 I had, plus all the Mesas and Marshalls and HiWatts, and Soldanos, etc.,etc. I have ever used on stage or in the studio.
The distortion is incredibly beautiful and msuical and the clean channel is superb. This is probably the best amp ever made commercially.

It's a real tank. It's heavy as heck and you can hurt yourself if you don't ait for yuor roadies to carrying it for you and try to move it yourself. It's hasn't broken in the 46 shows I've used it on.

Crate is one of the most helpful companies in the entire music business.

I've been playing profesionally for 30 years. I've had all the best gear. I've obtained most of it through endorsements and from my various producers who are always trying to get me the latest and greatest stuff to use on tour and in the studio. This is the one amp I would actually pay for with my own pocket money. It has only one drawback. It's very heavy. I would not suggest any non-professional get this amp. It's not made for the layman. There is a huge market of boutique amps that are suited to that crowd of pseudo-musicians and they would probably not be into an amp made for professional music because it won't help them sound like their favorite records when they are doing their covers and imitations. For those types, I recommend a plain old Marshall, or if you need to spend the money to boost your ego, a Bogner, Roccaforte or Diezel or some other high priced hobby amp. This one is for the pros, leave it alone kids.