Crate BV60H Blue Voodoo

this is the older logo blue voodo with the square small logo.

its only two channels, clean and distorted, which i like, its simple yet all you need. it has a effects loop on off switch and a -20 db boost too. another feature is global presence, which i am a big fan of. the feature on this amp that is different is the active eq. with boosts or cuts, its hard to get used too, but my previous two amps were like that so im used to it. if you get used to the active eq. its a great amp

its variety is pretty impressive. the active eq is a big part in that. the mid control really goes from scooped mesa like john sykes whitesnake tone to a realy dry randy rhoads in terms of midrange. i like the distortion, but in my opinion, it sounded best with the distortion on 7 and use a overdrive pedal. it gets really compressed and tight. the last great thing is the tubes really compress alot as you distort it, which is something i really like.

my tubes randomly stopped firing, but the control lights worked, which was lame, but other than that a plus!!!

2001 Blue voodoo 60 head. Pretty simple two channel affair, with reverb, channel switching, level selectable fx loops etc. I went for the 60 rather than the 120 because i find lower wattage heads develope a far superior tone. Its still running standard valves but i'll get these changed out for EH 12ax7s very soon

If anyone says that the drive channel on this doesnt have enough gain then theyre either a sad child who knows nothing about guitar tone or just an idiot! I play hi-gain melodic post hardcore and i have the gain set to about 4.
The sound is pretty similar to marshall DSL just a bit more bassy and with a tighter mid range response. I use it through the matching vintage 30 loaded cab and it sounds huge, it replaced the my marshall in my live set up straight away. The clean stays nice and clean up to huge volumes, the only thing i dont like is that its hard to set up a balance between the two channels, i'd rather it had a master volume control. My main guitar is a PRS 20th anniversary, but you'll also find me swinging a fender ltd edition fat strat and a musicman sub1 trem. They all sound great through this, its not the most versatile amp but its great sounding for modern rock music.

Seems fine to me!

Crate have a good dealer network in this country

Its a great amp, it has its own sound that doesnt colour the sound of your guitar too much but still leaves a decent imprint. Its got lots of volume and cuts through a band mix well. I'm comparing this to the other heads i've owned in the last two years, mesa dual rec (mk1), marshall DSL50, peavey X series, Genz benz el-diablo, marshall jcm900 50w. I'd say it beats all of those hands down, the genz is probably a better amp for recording because of its versatility but as a live amp and the core of your sound the BV60 is just great.

2 channel amp,made in 1997

using it with a fender strat through a 2x12 vintage 30 cab

had to replace a power tube and a preamp tube

want to do some mods to it,the person who posted below me,please contact me about specific modding this amp.

long enough to know diffrent tone when I hear it

J. Doe, additional comments:

Since they don't make Crate Voodoo 60's anymore, you may as well play around with a used one as they are reasonably cheap compared with newer alternatives. I don't advocate for the so-called "pro" mod companies who work on amps because they charge big bucks and offer a 50-50 chance of screwing up the tone so badly you'll want to sell the amp rather than suffer. There is nothing very complicated about changing the amp's tonal quality yourself.

The Crate BV-60 head can be made to sound like almost any amp you want - Marshall, Soldano, Mesa Boogie - if you are willing to change a few resistor and coupling capacitors values. The basic amp circuits are pretty much the same for most guitar amps; what makes the most difference in tone are the values of capacitors and resistors used in the tone control circuit. Crate has two tone control circuits, one for clean channel, and one for overdrive, and either or both can be modified to get the warmth you want.

The most common complaint with Crate BV-60 is that it sounds a little too "crunchy", too much treble, no warmth on either channel. That is easily fixed if you are good with a soldering iron and don't mind taking your amp apart.

1. Always carefully MARK with a permanent ink marker pen, every single wire that plugs into the PC board, because there's a whole lot of them and reconnecting them is much quicker if you number the board and the wire, 1, 2, 3, so wire #1 goes on terminal #1, etc.

2. Get a schematic diagram for your Crate before you take it apart.

3. If you haven't worked on high voltage equipment before, read up on the subject before zapping yourself.

Some things make a big difference in how the amp sounds and on a scale of most to least, changing tubes is one of the smallest influences, while changing component values at the tone network has one of the biggest influences on tone (obviously).

Changing coupling capacitor values makes a small difference, a little increase from .022 ufd. to .045 ufd. here can add more lows to warm up tone but not as much as changing values in the tone control circuit. The ideal is to modify both tone circuit and coupling caps so they work together. It's easy to do, except for one thing.

The Crate printed circuit board can't stand much soldering iron heat and the foil tends to lift off the board too easily, so you have to use a small soldering iron (never use a soldering gun!) and lightly touch the connection to avoid overheating. Crate should use much thicker foils and better quality boards, but if you are careful, you won't have to do any jumper wire work to repair board damage.

As manufactured, too much treble, no low end to speak of, pretty much average for the price - but as modified, it's fantastic!

Change the power supply electrolytic filter capacitors as soon as you can if the amp is over 10 years old or was used a lot. This is true with any amp, whether you paid $10,000 for it or not, they all blow filter caps eventually. Electrolytic capacitors eventually dry out or blow out, sometimes taking the circuit board and other parts with them.

Become your own tech support.
Learning electronics isn't hard to do in your spare time.
Do it yourself - cost of replacing all electrolytic and coupling caps, plus a few resistors and a new filter choke - under $60.00.

I give the Crate BV-60 a "10" once it's tailored to produce the sound you like. Great tone, good design, and relatively cheap!

In 1995 I bought a BV-60 made in the early 90's working condition. It has two channels, effects loop, reverb. It's really made for metal and hard rock/punk rock, and I play all kinds of styles with it and they sound good. The Crate is flexible enough to do just about any style. It's biased toward being more treble than bass and has a solid midrange but weak low end.

I gig with several US-made BC Rich guitars. Amp has a low hum level at high gain which is usual for tube amps, even after replacing power supply filter capacitors. I added a filter choke in place of the sag resistor in the power supply and got a huge increase in crunch and edge from higher voltage on the tubes, which went from 460 volts to about 500 volts on output tube plate supply.

If you notice the amp hum is louder than it should be, or the amp sounds weak with too much treble, you may be about to have this experience:

I was playing at low volume one day, took a break, and left the amp on standby for about 30 minutes. Turned it on and bam, smoke came out of the chassis, and it stopped working. I opened up the head and found a blown filter capacitor with waxy oil all over everything and the printed circuit board was fried at the jack where the output tube board plugs into the main board. So I scrapped off the carbon and found high voltage had shorted across the pins on the plug to ground. Cleaned off the carbon, replaced all the filter capacitors with a 500 volt rating, and it worked fine.

Here's the problems with Crate's BV-60: The high voltage power supply factory spec says it kicks out 460 volts. The filter caps are in series and rated only at 350 volts each, so if one capacitor shorts, the other will blow.

Also the plate coupling capacitors are rated only at 400 volts which is too close to the plate supply voltage for my taste, so the next thing I did was remove all coupling capacitors and upgrade to 630 volt rated capacitors in the plate supplies for each tube.

One thing the BV-60 could use is a better bias setup for tubes - the grid bias trimmer adjusts both output tube grid bias together so you can't adjust plate current for each tube separately for unmatched tubes. Some people can't tell the difference, but if the tubes are biased individually so as to draw the same plate current, amps usually produce a slightly smoother, fuller sound.

I compared the circuit schematics of Crate with other manufacturers, and found that Crate pushes their 6L6 tubes a bit harder with higher voltage than most others, so reliability is vastly increased by replacing lower voltage rated capacitors with higher voltage ratings, and replace any low wattage resistors in the power supply with higher wattage wire-wound resistors. It doesn't matter what amp brand you buy, you still have to replace electrolitic capacitors about every 6 to 10 years in the power supplies because they dry out, short out, or just begin leaking. It's very easy to do if you know how to use a soldering iron.

I got a list of local service centers near my home from Crate's website, started calling them one by one, and nobody answered the phone at any of them, so I assume if you want service, it will have to be Crate that does it. I gave up and fixed it myself and am glad I did because I discovered some things about it - the basic design of the BV-60 is excellent and once it's upgraded with a few part replacements, it's a great little amp.

Crate sent me a copy of their schematic diagram for about $16.00 very promptly with a phone call and credit card, so I can't complain about that. But other manufacturers, such as Fender, post their schematics on the internet.

I've been playing about 35 years and own Mesa Boogie and Carvin amps, and if the Crate was stolen, I'd buy another one, used of course, and do the same upgrades again.

Two channels, sep EQ, reverb, effects loop blah blah, what more do you need?

I cant believe this is nt rated higher, fek me this head screams and cuts through like no other and its very quiet at high gains, yes it is, if you think this is noisy you best buy a tranny buzzy-chainsaw offering from marshall or whoever. Find your volume/tone controls and do a bit of work finding different sounds with the same gain level, try it its how the classic guitarists did it and they cant be wrong.
Find a better amp for $1000 and I'll eat my tadger.

I'm looking for another few to add to my backline so watch out e-bay.
I own/owned Soldano/Marshall/Laney/Boogie/Peavey/Refridgerator Racks etc etc, this IS THE BEST.

I mostly play extreme metal (black metal, death metal vs) which requires more gainiac tones. I prefer this distortion machine because of its hi-gain overdrive channel and its awesome color :).
it has to channels one for a crispy and fat clean, and one for distortion for headbangers. It comes with its original footswith that controls only channels, It works with both 8-16 ohms. I use it at my home studio and for recording my bands songs. this machine is powerfull like a lion. you can get hi driven tones with low levels without feedback. But with a little noise.

I have two jacksons, One SL1 custom shop pile o skulls with seymour duncan TB4 on the bridge and a PS4 with also seymour duncan pickups loaded into it. It works great with low tuned guitar. Gain channel gives you a variety of different stylish guitar sounds that suites nearly all kind of hard stuff. A little problem with noising but it doesnt matter much. Reverb for both channels make this amp superior.
clean channel distorts at very high levels so it doesnt bother you much.

I am waiting to have a big gig in turkey cause I will have the chance to test it in higher volumes to learn that how many hours it goes well. It has some small scratches over it. but that doesnt affect to the amazing sound comes from cabinets :)

never dealt. bought it used

I've been playing for 6 years, I have zoom gfx-8 processor that fits well with it. If it were stolen I will buy BV120H, It looks awesome and color is great. You can see those funny tubes inside it and it looks great like that. I tried some kinds of marshalls but I was never satisfied with those. Cause I didnt like their OD channels.

same features as everyone else posted - 2 channels with reverb, presence control, etc. its got 4 12ax7a's and 2 6l6's to power this bad boy, not to mention an awesome grill displaying the tubes inside (with lights, looks awesome on stage). i have no reral complaints here, the amp does what it needs to do.

i play this amp with an esp ltd h-202 and and an esp ltd f-200 and this amp destorys! i don't understand what most people on here are talking about, maybe they are deaf. alot of them are probably kids who've bought their first tube amp and don't understand that at lower volumes, its not going to sound huge and in your face. you've got to work with an amp and use your presence control!

anyways, i play hard rock/metal (ex. lacuna coil/evanescence) and this amp fits my style perfectly. its not very noisy at all, but can be if driven to the point. but honestly, i don't see why anyone will take the gain past 7 anyways, it starts getting alittle too saturated and fuzzy like all high gain amplifers. of the two channels, i perfer the dirty channe, it rocks. it takes alittle time to dial in the right tone, but when you do - watch out, it will blow you away. the clean channel doesn't impress me much though, but i'm sure with more tinkering it will do its job. it distorts at high volumes because (obviously) its a tube amp. i came from a marshall to this amp and i must say i'm much happier with the crate, it gives me what my marshall couldn't.

i've not had any problems with it yet. i've read so many horror stories on here, but i've yet to experience any of the ones mentioned. maybe i'm lucky, but it seems to be a very dependable amp.

same as above, i've had no problems to contact them over.

i've been playing for about 5 years now, and have owned countless amps in my time. i'd never been happy with my tone and always felt like there was something lacking, until i bought this amp. if it were lost or stolen, i'd have to get another. easy way to put it: this amp is the best thing you'll get thats not a mesa, vht or a bogner. try it out and see what you've been missing!

Everyone knows the drill with these amps, so I will not get elaborate or anything. It has a bunch of good stuff.

I play alot of metal, and I prefer the head distortion over any pedal I own. I have alot of boss pedals, eq shit, comp/sustainer..i really do not need any pedals for the gain channel. The clean channel is awesome! I am not going to say , bell like, buttery, phat,fat etc..I will say that it sounds the way a tube amp should.

So far so good, Crate has always answered my e-mails. Good enough for me. i am not hard on my equipment. In fact I only get to use this once a week as I leave it at my bandmates house so I do not have to take anything there on practice night.

I like to be different. My cousin has a JCM 800 and he gets pissed when my amp sounds better than his:) I just like it that is it.

The Blue Voodoo is a great amp. It has a good clean channel and a good overdrive channel as well. I believe they should have put a chorus effect on this amp so you didn't have to buy a chorus pedal. I'm not sure on how to use effect loops so I can't comment on that but it does have one. There is no headphone jack, which sucks. Use with a metal zone pedal and you'll be set to kill. Grunge and mega distortion have more bottom end but feedback more. A Tubescreamer works good as well. Use a noise suppressor and set the gain on three. Do not use distortion on the clean channel because you'll lose all your bottom end and it sounds like crap.

I play metal and use a metal zone to make it crunch. The overdrive on it cranked up sounds like AC/DC. Use a metal zone to get Metallica/Slayer sounds or a grunge to get a lower, Pantera-sound. I use a B.C. Rich Warlock, Les Paul, and a peavey Vandenburg.

Replace the tubes when needed and you'll never have a problem with it.

I would defiently buy it again if I had the chance

1995 Crate Blue Voodoo 60watt Head and matching 4x12 slant cabinet.
2 Channel operation: clean & lead, dual reverb controls, effects loop.
I purchased this half stack in 2001 and haven't given up on it yet. The clean channel is very crisp and clear - one of the better clean channels I've played on/with. The lead channel could be a little bit better. The low frequencies (bass, low end, etc.) are a bit mushy/loose. You just have to tweak things and learn how to make little changes to get the sound you want. Not very hard. Besides, no tube amp is totally perfect.

Right now I have 2 Schecter guitars. A C-1 Classic with Seymour Duncans (JB, '59) and a Terry Corso Signature Model with Seymour Duncans (JB, '59). I also have an Ibanez RG7321 with stock pickups that will be changed soon. All 3 sound very good through this amp. The best I can describe my style is Iced Earth + old Metallica + any Megadeth + Iron Maiden. So all in all, your typical heavy metal. The clean channel on this amp shimmers. With the reverb set about halfway up and in coil-tap mode - throw in some chorus and you get a very "Master Of Puppets" type of clean tone. I do however plan on putting EL34 power tubes into this bad boy to tighten up the low end on the distortion channel, also hoping to add more compression with that change.

This amp has everything I need. I can definitely depend on it, but would never go long term gigging without a backup. You can't with tube amps.

I have contacted Crate about several minor, non-problematic issues with the amp. Mainly tech questions about tube models. Their representatives are very fast and friendly with the information you need.

I've been playing a little over 7 years now and have owned other amps by Crate, mainly their solid state amps. If this amp were lost or stolen, I'd find another one. I've tried and purchased other amps (Mesa Dual & Triple Rectos, Marshall JCM 2000 DSL, Peavey 5150, Peavey Triple X, Randall Warhead, Line 6 Vetta) while owning the Blue Voodoo and I always end up going back to it. Right now, I also own a Peavey 5150 (1992 model) which is a good amp in itself, but it is quite sizzly (scratchy) sounding. While recording this past fall (2003) I used both amps and the Voodoo sounded much better than the 5150. So I think you know which one I'm gonna stick with, right? Yep, the Blue Voodoo.

i have a 1995 Crate BV60H, matching 4 speaker cabinet, a BV120H and another matching cabinet (also a 1995) The BV60 JUST needed tubes, after ALOT of use, including multiple stage performance, transport, practice etc... I have a Fender Telecaster with lace sensors, and it has alyways sounded GREAT on this amp. With the correct strings on my matching Fender strat, you get precicely the same sound as Steavy Ray Vaughn. This amp has served and withstood abuse with no problems or complaints. After 8 years, i expect to have to replace tubes. No other failures. Crate made themselves one hell of an amp with tis one.

At less the price of a Fender Twin, and the same sound, its well worth it. I even got 2 extra speakers out of the deal. This amp is ALWAYS loud enough, and has an amazing punch

Pretty featureless, which is how I like'em. Just straight forward volume, tone controls, channel switching, reverb. Fifty watt head, nice and loud

I use a 68 Epiphone Casino with Duncans, a strat with active EMG's and a Les Paul with Dimarzio SUPER DISTORTION HUMBUCKERS!!!! As far as suiting my style, I can pretty much get whatever I need from this amp. Turn the gain down on the drive channel, you get early to mid seventies crunch. Turn it up and shake the walls. I'm not gonna say it sounds like this or that--it just sounds good to me. The clean channel has that sharp "snappy" crunch when you turn it up like a non master volume Marshall or Vox. I dig The Alarm and can come close to Dave Sharp's sound using the clean channel turned up using the Epiphone. I rate an eight because the only "10" I can remember was a VHT Pittbull CL/50. Records great and mixes nicely with other amps. I've got a Blue Voodoo 4x12 loaded with Eminence Legend V12's and an Avatar G212H with a Celestion Vintage 30 & Celestion G12H30. I play mostly in my basement and usually stand around two feet from the amp. The feedback I get is mostly musical except with the hollow body which you would expect anyway. With the solid bodies I can stand next to it on 8 and it won't feedback. The usual noise for a tube amp--I don't think you'll ever get away from that!

Had it about a month with no problems at all. I play it every day for at least an hour, sometimes hours on end. Big and meaty, I'd expect it to take normal travel abuse.

Never had to deal with.

For the sound I get out of it, I'd have paid a lot more. I have a Crate Stealth that I thought was a "10" until I got this amp. Was looking for a VHT but you know what? I can live with the sound difference for the $1500 less I paid. Been playing for 25 years and have had them all. The plexis were great, but who can live in a house and use a plexi unless you're out in the sticks! My 1962 Fender Twin had a better clean (no surprise there, huh?) and my Marshalls were...well, Marshalls. I put this whole rig together for under $900.00 thanks to Avatar speakers and it sounds great. Looks real cool too. If it were stolen or lost I would definitely buy another one, and quick too. I really don't hate anything about it but as a guitar player, no sound really satisfies for long, right? Got a Morley AB switch and a Brian May amp on the way. This aughta be fun. 10 watts VS. 50.

I've tested the amp I'm about to review in every possible situations. I?ve used and abused the BV60H for 5 years now. I?ve compared this Blue Voodoo to a lot of other amps over my ten years of guitar playing. I decided to write a review because I was disappointed by the way other users reviewed this amp. Check this out, this one is going to be quite different from what you've read before!
The Crate Blue Voodoo was awarded Most Innovative Amplifier of the Year in January of 1996 by Music and Sound Retailer magazine and played a big part in winning Amp Line of the Year during 1996. This is the year where the BV60H was born. There are two distinct switch-able channels on the BV60H. It has a switch-able effect loop that contains two different settings: one for rack unit, the other for stomp boxes. The BV60H has 2 different reverb controls, one for each channel. There is no headphone jack, but you won?t find any on most high gain tube amp. The controls are the following: power switch, standby switch, master presence (I would appreciate to have one for each channel instead), reverb 2, reverb 1, (Channel 2: volume, low, mid, high, gain), (channel 1: low, mid, high, volume). Although it is named BV60H, it is a 50 Watt RMS tube head. The pre-amp section contains three 12AX7 and the power section contains one 12AX7 and two 6L6. The rectifier is solid state. Other than that, it is an all tube head. Even the reverb is tube-driven. The footswitch has 2 switches, one for channel switching, and the other for effect loop switching. I wish it had a third switch for reverb, but since the amp has two different reverb controls (one for each channel), I don't mind too much. A third channel would be a good improvement, but anyway most of high gain tube amp doesn?t have it.
I've used this amp at home for practicing, for home recording, and for playing in a band. It has enough power to play in a band. I play mostly metal music with this amp. It is versatile enough to get any metal tone I will ever need. So it is worth a 10 here: very versatile for what I use it for (and what it was born to sound like!) When I want to play another style of music, I play through another amp. If you want to play blues, country, funk, jazz, or old school rock, get something adapted to your needs, not a Blue Voodoo!

I run the BV60H through the BV412R 120 Watt mono/stereo 4x12s cabinet. Basically, I'm using two Jackson Professional series guitars with this BV60H: a Kelly with custom design Godin humbucker bridge pickup and stock neck pickup, and a Randy Road with stock pickups. These guitars perfectly suit my music style, as well as my BV60H. It seams that Jackson guitars and Blue Voodoo series Crate amp were designed to work hand-in-hand.
How about the noise? It is not noisier than any other high gain tube amp. If you get a descent guitar equipped with good quality humbucking pickups, and you are not sitting in front of your amp, you will not get excessive noise. At high gain setting with single coil pickups; witch I don't need to use with this amp, that's another story... but again, you must play with a guitar that fits your playing, music style, and your amp! With this setting, just one of my Jackson plugged directly into my Blue Voodoo, I can easily get any metal guitar tone I can imagine. It is quite impossible not to bring a great metal sound out of this setup; witch is really simple, and not too expensive. The equalizers section is very effective on both channels. The channel 1 is not distorted at all at any level or setting, just plain sparkling clean. The channel 2, witch I bought the amp for, gives one of the best distortions I ever heard. There is more than enough gain in this tone machine to melt your mind into pure metal! As I said earlier, any metal tone with really tight bottom end and screaming harmonics! This amp also sounds great with dropped tuning and seven string guitar. It always stays tight and this is what I love so much. I've tried a lot of different high gain amp, but believe me, if you play metal, you just can't find a better sound vs price amp! It?s worth a 10 here!

I can depend on it. I've played at a couple of gig without a backup and never had trouble. Now, I would get a backup, just for safety. The amp never broke down except for the time I had to repair the input jack, because I crushed it. If the amp had to be broken, it would have bean by now, trust me! The BV60H is almost a tank. I?ll give it a 9.

I never had to deal with the company. One of my friends is an electronic technician. Other than that, I had to change the tubes every 6-12 months depending on how much time I had it on, but I do this myself. I know the warranty last 5 years but I just can't rate something I had no experience with.

I've been playing for ten years now and I've owned much other gear: Peavey Envoy 110, Peavey Bandit 112 Transtube, Marshall Valvestate 8080 combo, Marshall 30th Anniversary combo, Marshall DSL401 combo, Marshall 4x12s 1960A/B cabinet, Rocktron Chameleon On-line, Rocktron Velocity 250, Tech 21 Sans Amp, Crate BV120HR, and BV412RVR. Now, I own my BV60H, the BV412R, and my GX15 (for ultra low volume practices). If it would be stolen, I would buy the Blue Voodoo again. I have compared it to a lot of other high gain tube amps. There are others that sound great too, but you can't beat the Blue Voodoo for the price, especially if you get it used! I wished it had a third channel and an independent presence for each channel but it's not too bad!
I will give it a 10. The sound is so good, and so addicting! I don't dislike any of its features. I've owned two other Blue Voodoos in my life, and when I sold them it was because I moved to an apartment or I was in need of money. I was quite depressed and unsatisfied with my tone. Now, I'll stick with the Blue Voodoo BV60H! <Blue Voodoo forever! >

im not sure when this peice was made. its a 2 channel (clean and lead) with dual reverb and 3 band eq per channel. basicly your average run of the mill head. the channels are footswitchable, theres an effects loops, impedence select (8 or 16 ohm) and 2 speaker out (main and secondary). i mainly used this thing for practice, as it sounded underpowered. i later found out the the lead channel is not routed through the pre amp tubes, rather a transister circuit. i wish it was all tube, and i wish it were stereo. oh yeah, the transformers inside are fuckin huge and the head weighs a ton

this was mainly used with single coil american strats. it suited my style, which is pretty much rock. its kinda noisy when in single coil, but only on distortion. the reverb sucks ape dick. couldnt tell you about the effects loop, cus i never use it. the clean channel is ok, sounds kinda thin. as does the distortion, but not of a magnitude that makes you want to light the head on fire and shit on the ashes. the distortion reminds me of peavey distortion, just not as thick. its like cutting a quarter of the sound out of a peavey head. since its only 60 watt, you have to turn it up to around 8 to get decent sound out of it. the only reason i bought this head is i was tight on money and i needed what i thought was a tube head. turns out, i should have done more hw before buying what i knew was a peice of shit to begin with. im selling this soon and buying a marshall dsl 100, cus i want all tube and at least 100 watts.

ok. crate? are you listening? FUCK YOU FOR MAKING SUCH A PEICE OF SHIT. iv owned it 2 months , and suddenly the power circuit decides it wants to short out costing almost 200$ (4/5 of what i paid)to fix. i needed to replace fuses, power tubes, re-bias, and some other shit iv never heard of before i could even think about selling it. if i had the money, i wouldnt even sell it id throw it off a highrise building and watch it explode as it hit the ground.

since i live in an area where sam ash, and guitar center are both 15 minutes away, it wasnt hard to find a good tech. how imbarrassing it was to bring this peice of crap into the shop though. iv never dealt with crate directly, but if their customer service is anyhting like this head, they all deserve to be publicly executed.

iv been playing 7 years, and i know gear as iv been through many many amps and guitars.the only real important stuff you need to know that pertains to this amp is the cab, cables, effects, and guitars. i use a marshall 1960a slant cab, monster cable wires, heavy gage speaker cables for head to cab connection, boss phaser (the shit), fender american strats, jackson dinkys, esp's. if your in a band and you rely on amps for you sound, and u use this thing, i hope you have another guitar player with you cus this simply will not cut it for anyhting besides practice. if it were lost or stolen, id be laughing all the way home because what a waste of my money this was. i should have bought a marshall dsl or a mesa road king( about 2 months pay). take my advice, spend the extra money, and get something good. please do not waste you money on a budget peice of shit such as this. in the end, youll regret it, as you get what you pay for...

2 channels, seperate reverb for each channel, prescence, effects loop, auto bias

i play a 1980 fender american strat with dimarzio hs2 pickups, A Fender 62 reissue strat, with stock pickups, an epiphone les paul extreme, with Dimarzio tone zone in the bridge, and a Evolution in the neck, A Charvel 3a with emg 81s, and a Fender mexican tele, with Emg T pickups. I play straight into the amp, because anyone with a brain knows that every pedal you put in the input path, costs you gain and tone. I use a sansamp pedal in the effects loop however. I play blues, classic rock, and neoclassical metal. The amp overall i would say, sounds great. but you gotta do some tweaking to get good tone. I mainly use the clean channel. I have EL34s in it right now, and it gets killer tone, but i occasionally switch back to 6l6s for a while. on my strats, i usually set the tone knobs 3, and 4, otherwise, its way too bright.and its normally in the neck position for blues. on the amp, i keep the highs almost all the way down, low all the way up, and mids about half way and reverb at about 7. I play through a crate 412xs Cabinet, and a custom built closed back 2x12 cabinet, loaded with nothing other than celestions. I really get some good tones out of this setup. i love cranking the shit out of the clean channel and getting that warm el34 breakup.The distorted channel is not bad either. it really dosent have as much bottom end as i would like it to, with the 6l6s but with some el34s it definitely gave me the deeper tone i wanted out of the distorted channel. i get some really good harmoincs wiht the presence cranked too. Bottom line, This amp is by no means a silver face super reverb, or a plexi. but for what it is, its definitely a killer amp. Especially for what i paid..

haha.. heres the dilemma. Crate mass produces everything. so its all about the allmighty dollar. So the use cheap parts to make their stuff. I bought this amp from a local repair shop for $75 because it was not passing signal, and he didnt feel like screwing with it. (pc boards are a bitch to work on) After i looked at it, i noticed that he took out a capicator, and 2 plate resistors, so i bought those, put them in, and still no signal. no big deal. so i got out the oscilloscope.. and there was no grid voltage on the first preamp tube. so my first instinct was "blown power supply" and sure enough. one of their cheapo resistors was open. a 150ohm 5watt resistor.. something that simple. so i replaced it with a nice wire wound resistor, and life is good. If you want to own a crate.. make sure you have some experience in electronics and amp repair.. you just might need it some day

They are very good. i ordered the schematic, and it was here in 4 days. but, i think its stupid how they feel the need to charge $15 for the schematic, and dont allow them to be posted on teh internet. like sombodys gonna steal their design...lol

its a great amp for the money. loud as hell, and sounds great.. but a little bit of knowledge in tube amps goes a long way with crates products. ive seen 3 amps besides this where they had proiblems wiht power resistors... cheap bastards.. lol

I believe this model was made sometime in 1997. It features 2 channels with reverb for both. The amp boasts 50 watts power and can get descently loud when coupled with a 412 cabinet. Both channels have tone shaping abilities. There is a prescence nob but it just doesn't seem too active, you can't really tell the difference when it's at 1 or 5, or 5 to 10. *shrugs*

I think these amps were specifically made for Hard Rock and Metal tones, judging by the distortion types. Hell, Marty Friedman of Megadeth fame used to endorse these.

I play on an Epiphone Les Paul Goldtop w/P90 pickups. I played this head through an Avatar G412 Enclosure (GREAT cabinets, at great prices IMO) I play mostly Hard Rock, Blues, and Metal. The clean channel on this amp is great for blues when pickups are in the neck position. However, when in the bridge position, the amp is simply much too bright, and is actually why I really don't like this amp a whole lot.

In addition, the amp can be noisy, even when standing a good distance away with your back facing the cabinet. This can also get annoying; along with the brightness. The distortion channel is your run-of-the-mill distortion types, it basically sounds just like any other Crate distortion channel, only with more bass and just sounds more "fuller". In the distortion mode, you can get a pretty good crunch, but the eternal hissing of the amp really gets frustrating. And no, it's not my cabinet.

I haven't had any real problems with the amp thus far. However, seeing how it is a tube amp you'll have to replace the tubes every year or so. I could probably gig with this, even though I really wouldn't want to.

Never had to deal with Crate.

Like most tube amps, the this thing weighs a ton and isn't exactly a lot of fun to drag around to practices. I've been playing for 8 years now, and being one of my first tube amp experiences, I must say I'm disappointed. The clean channel is great for blues, and the reverb is great for both channels.

However, I didn't like the response and the overall "sluggish" feel the amp gave off. Perhaps that's what tubes amps are? Furthermore, the distortion channel seemed to lack a bit. I wouldn't say the distortion is "brutal" by any means, but it can get the job done.

If you're going to buy a tube amp, save your money and get a nice JCM 800 or a 5150. Skip the blue voodoo.

ok this amp was made around 99 or so. it has 2 channels and reverb for each channel. 60 watts. effects loop. the stuff most amps have

OK here we go. i run a ESP KH-3 straight into the amp. the distortion is very twangy soundin. not very thick at all. pretty noisy. does fit some sabbath though. the clean sound is nice though. even with my emg 81's its very clear and i crank some reverb in and sounds awsome. i really wish it would have sounded better for the money i paid for it back in the day. i have played it at loud volumes. the distortion really thinnned out. like i said i dont like this amp but it might be right for you. palm mutes aint chunky either. dont buy this if ur lookin for serious crunch and distortion. if u want some twang distortion then this is ur amp or if u want alot of noise

ok reliability wasnt a factor until a few months ago. my amp decided to fry literally. the entire circuit board went out. i gigged with it once and i did move it around a little to practice or jam with some buds. its gonna cost 280 bucks to fix it and im not payin that. im gonna sell it to the music store. oh well things dont last forever

never delt with them and dont plan on it

i have been playin for about 4 years or so. im just now seriously starting to play and im getting to be a beginning shredder. if this thing was stolen i wouldnt miss the damn thing. i hate this amp. im selling it anyway back to the guitar store. the only thing good about it is its clean channel. i wish this thing had ALOT more "thick and wet" distortion. i really liked the boogie sounds and thats what im gettin. a mesa dual rect or triple rect triple channel. but u cant compare that to those b/c of price and quality. if u need a boat anchor this would work fine. if u want brutal tone and crunch go for a mesa. save up the extra couple hundred. well worth it.

The features are pretty standard.2 channels... equalizer...volume...presence...and reverbs for each channel. it has an effects loop but i never used it because i like to run my boxes through the input. no headphone jack. 2 power tubes and 4 preamp tubes. i mainly use it in my room till i go to gigs or somewhere i need loudness at.

i use a parker p-38 with a seymour duncan invader in the bridge...a jackson dx10d and a very old eterna by yamaha. it doesnt seem to have a punch to it. it is very buzzy at high gain but when u put the gain at 5-6 it sounds good. the clean is great. very bell-like. it doesnt distort till about 6-7 on the voluume. the overdrive channel sounds like crap though. no matter how high u put the low end...the sound still sound like a twang. the tone is good but not good enough for a tube amp. i have a marshall valvestate vs265 2x12 that is discontinued. it got taken over by avt's. that combo smokes my crate like a pothead does to weed on broadway. the only way to make this amp a monster it if u run a metalzone with the boss equalizer through it. now that sounds good. but otehr than that. they worst thing bout the sound is the distortion channel.

reliabilty...hahahaha. it sux. 2nd day i bought it..the reverb stopped workin. on both channels!!! i didnt bother to fix it cuz i dont use revrb that much. but still...junk. i bought it new...not used. the power tubes dimmed out and sounded like crap 3 months after i got it. that pissed me off. it is built solid though.

pretty good. they gave me advice on a question i asked them the same day i e mailed them the ques.

i have been playing for 4 years. i used and heard marshalls, mesa boogies, and fender. this amp doesnt seem to cut the cake for me after using these amps. it sounds too much like a low punch solid state amp. if it were stolen i would be mad cuz someone had the stupid idea of doin it and that i lose 400 dollars. i wouldnt miss the amp. i would get a marshall avt150h to start over with or wait and get a plexi. i wish it had just more ballz.

I tour with 2 tribute acts, Mr.Crowley and Ozzy tribute, and Paradise City a guns & roses tribute. I use a multi-effects in the loop on the head and get a great tone.

I use pauls and strats with emg's. I have a whisper quiet rig when it's cranked up to 8 1/2. After that the low end gets a little mushy.
I rarely use the clean channel, I just use the guitar volume knob. I run the gain on about 3 1/2 to 4 and it just KILLS. Great tone, plenty of sustain. I only use a pinch of reverb and some delay on my multi-effects. I also use a 4 band parametric that is on the multi-effect also.

I use it every weekend without a back up. I change tubes about every 6 months because I play VERY loud 3 or 4 nights a week on the road. The only time it broke was when a "sound man" knocked my whole rig over and fried my effects loop. Other than tha it is a real trooper.

I've e-mailed them twice and never heard from them... ASSHOLES.
But they make a great amp.

I bought the head and 2 blue cabinets for $800. It was used , but mint. Since I've had it on the road for over two years almost evey single weekend it has gotten pretty beat up but still sounds GREAT. If I had to I would definately buy another one. I've played many heads over the years and it truly is the best all around head I ever owned. I've never had a head where I didn't have to turn the gain almost all the way up to get a good distortion. I've never had mine past 4 and it's almost too much.

I bought this head/cab in summer of '96. The usuall, 2 channels, distortion, and clean. Dual channel reverb, effects loop, yadda, yadda

Ok, here's my setup.
BV60....Fender Strat with Duncan Hot Rail in the bridge....Boos GE-7, DOD Grunge.......Boss CH-1....Ibanez Swell Flanger (early 80's)...Ibanez Digital Flanger (same one Tom Morello has)......Boss DD-5.....Big Muff....535 Crybaby. I play alot of different things, from pumpkins, nirvana, rage, radiohead, creed, taht whole bag. I mainly just use the clean channel which is fine, and my pedals for other sounds. I do have it set to get a nice 60's blues tone, Hendrixish kinda sound. Its pretty loud,which is why i bought it. The distortion isn't very thick, or brutal. Not bad blues sound, but tahts about it.

Ive had it almost 5 years, never had to replace tubes yet, no problems with electronics, the cab is fine and hasn't blown. I've been kinda rough with this amp, and it hasn't disapointed me at all. I bought it so i could be alot louder. I was in a band using a little 60watt Crate combo, it don't cut it. So i went for the half stack. For the price, you can't beat it. I'd buy Crate again, ive had 3 of them and never any probs.

Never had to deal with them.

I've been playing 7 years now, and feel i know a decent amount about guitar gear. If i moved up to differnt amp, probly be the generic Rectifier, or Jcm900. If it was stolen, i'd see about a used one again. I love it can be loud, and that ive had no problems. I didn't compare it with anything, i wanted a half stack, this is what they had, i bought it. I do wish it had better distortion, but thats the fun of eq's and pedals. Crate is a great brand, don't let it fool you.

60 watts, two independant channels. dual reverb (WHOA!). two AX7 tubes, 4 6L6 preamp tubes. Bad ass distortion. Descent clean channel. Blue cosmetics with gold corners. very loud!

I use seymour duncan distortion in a Ibanez RG470, It sounds good,but hums. My freind used his BC Rich with a Duncan Live Wire pick-up and it tore the damn house down! The amp gets feed back at high levels, but crate's has a reputation to do that. I play heavy music (Pantera,Metallica,Slayer) and this amp can handle it.

It's pretty reliable, but I don't abuse that much because of the tubes. I have never had a problem with it.

Never needed any. I would assume it to be descent.

For somebody who wants a half stack and not spend a ton of cash this could be the one for you. I might be interested in selling it soon with a Ampeg cab, for around $500. If interested E-mail me. Any question's would be well welcome also.

I just bought this amp used, with the BV412 cab. Its alright, but i have one thing i can bitch about... the reverb leaves something to be desired, its flat, and its lame, turned all the way up it is barely noticeable (although i upgraded from a Fender Priceton Chorus(so i may be a little spoiled)) but the reverb isnt that great, but i bought it for "punk/ska" not blues so i shouldnt dwell on it. it could also use a headphone jack (i just got it an hour ago and i didnt see one(there;s a slight possibility it might be there)) It has nice distortion though and even enough power for live performance.

Im using a Fender American Standard tele (primarily the bridge p/u) it works out pretty well, im sure itd sound better with my ibanez RG570 but ill see when i resting it. As i said i bought it for punk/ska and it works great for that. Its pretty frikin loud i got it for live performance with my band and its doing the job, clean channel is clean right up to the 10 mark, it may not for you though, im using a cab rated at 120watts. but the only reason its a 7 is because of the GD reverb.

hasnt failed me, but the GD handle broke the day i got it, but i do atmit to fucking with it a little before it broke.

I called them to get a replacement handle, they were nice about it, the transferable warenty was nice too!

my black ass has been playin bout 5 years, im not a real gear-head, i bought a Zoom 505 once (biggest mistake of my life(well the taking my pants off in public thing didnt go down to well either?)) after it broke i never bought one again, only effects i need are 1good distortion 2REVERB!!! 3chorus/flange

The amp seems to have pretty good features, WHEN IT IS WORKING, that is. Most of the time, it isn't. The features for the functioning amp are listed below by the other reviewers, you know what they are by now.

I reviewed this amplifier before, the only reason you're hearing from me again is that I've got a great horror story to share with everyone. SLM electronics is probably going to send out a hit man, but I've got to let the cat out of the bag.
It sounds great, I think better than most Marshalls (not the old ones!) that is not my problem.
It is an 8 because nothing is perfect, I have a Boogie which gets the 9, and this amp gets the 8. It has a good crunch, but gets muddy and unclear with that high-mid 'mud-slinging' Marshallesque distortion.

Time for the story. Once upon a time, there was a guitar player and a drummer, and they played together, pretty well I might add. The guitar player one day discovered the wonders of tube amplification, and returned with the Crate Blue-VooDoo 60 watt head. They played together for awhile, until the tubes blew. The guitarist had them changed, to Sovtek EL34s. In another 3 months, those blew. The guitarist had heard enough about tubes to know that Sovteks suck ass, and he had the Groove Tube EL34s put in and his tone was great. However, it was time for the guitarist to go to college, and he never really pushed his new Groove Tubes.
When the guitar player returned from college, he found his old friend, the drummer, and they began to play again. They only jammed for a few days when one day, the guitar player turned on his amplifier...
AND NO SOUND CAME OUT.
The fuse hadn't blown, but it wasn't working, so the guitarist assumed, "Those unreliable tubes. Oh well, it has been awhile, I've played a whole lot at college but very quietly, maybe they just got old and suddenly blew just as I turned on the amp." Naive, but the guitarist had yet to experience the true horrors of Crate tube amps.
The guitarist lives way out in the swampland of Maryland, and drives the 2 hours to the nearest music shop. The people there know him well, he is a regular, he goes to the repair guy, his friend who has been fixing amps for more than 20 years. He hands his amp over again. "The usual tubes, I guess they blew."
The next week, he returns to the shop to retrieve his head. It's all ready, and strangely, not only had two power tubes blown, but some sort of capacitor and one preamp tube. "No matter, it wasn't an expensive repair" said the guitarist, now out $90 on this occasion and about $210 on amp servicing and parts in his short lifetime.
The guitarist returns to the drummer, and begins to lay down some really brutal riffs. He's been practicing a lot lately, and finally got his downstroke speed above 128 bpm. The dou jam for about 30 minutes that night, and then the next day, begin a monster session after the dry week.
There are four seperate jams, each 30-90 minutes in duration, and seperated by breaks. The guitarist never claims to be kind to amps, but he figures, these are Groove Tubes, and the amp has just been serviced by a very experienced man who is also my friend. The amp ought to be able to take it.
8:00 p.m. rolls around. The pair prepare for the final jam of the day, since at 9:00 the cops will show up and end it for them. (They really do, every time!) The guitarist plugs into his rig, turns it on, and...
NOTHING. NOT A WHISPER. In fact, the amp is behaving just as it did the week before when it went down.
There was a lot of cursing that night.
I am that guitarist, am I doing something wrong? I plug straight in, use a microgate in the effects loop, and a surge protector that hasn't blown a fuse or anything. MY ONLY REMAINING RATIONAL EXPLANATION?
Crate amps suck major ass.

The warranty just pays the guy who fixes your amp. You've still got to pay for tubes, but they cover labor and other parts that might have broken. My repair guy is awesome, he is with me 100% in trying to get the big company to pay for the repair instead of the broke musician. He's always done a great job with my amps.

But here's the bottom line, I don't care how good the 'customer service' is if the PRODUCT SUCKS MAJOR ASS!!! And this is the case with Crate amps.

Please, please do not buy this amplifier! I was planning on selling mine, but I just can't do it now, at least not to an individual. I cannot lower myself that much, no one deserves to have this head treat them like it treated me. That slutty head!
This head is not even worth $200 in mint condition, because I swear if you are a serious player, you will DESTROY it very quickly.
DO NOT BUY IT!!!!!
DO NOT EVEN ACCEPT IT FOR FREE!!!!!

I have had it with this head. When it went down on me yesterday, it went down for the LAST TIME. Now, it is at the bottom of Broad Creek. I threw the piece of shit in the river, man!

DO NOT BUY IT!!!!!

Read other submissions for features

I play an Ibanez Rg7620BK 7 string, tuned very low, the amp handles it pretty well! The clean channel is nice, but breaks up WAY too soon! The distortion is pretty good. It's great for rock-metal, but not so great for "new" metal(but it's still high-gain!). This amp gets pretty loud, and still sounds nice at the higher volumes, but if you play big clubs, get the 100watt version. The amp is pretty noisy. All things considered, this is a nice amp, you really get your $'s worth. This amp is a VERY good recording amp, the distortion is fuzz at low volumes!

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Overall this is a cheaper, quieter Marshall JCM 800. It would be nice if it had more pre-amp tubes, but it's nice as is. Try one, you will probably buy it!

I have one of the older models, made in the early 90's with the old-style cosmetics. Pretty much the features that you would expect from a 2-channel tube head, but the parallel FX loop comes without a mix control, although it can select from +4/-10 levels.

I use a customized Ibanez guitar, lpugging straight into the amp, nothing in the FX loop. Before I had this, I was using a crate excalibur 100-watt head. That is a solid-state head; it was good for solid-state, but when I heard the blue voodoo next to it I just had to trade them. The tubes are a lot noisier, but if you use tubes and crank the gain without a noise gate, you shouldn't complain about noise so much anyway. I've got a noise gate anyway, so I don't care. I've owned the amp for more than a year now, and so I know about the tones that come from it. The distortion is bad to begin with, because it is a bit flabby at high volumes, with too much low end mush. This is the fault of the 6L6 tubes. I personally do not like the sound of the 6L6 and had EL34s put in. These solved the problem that i was having and made the tone much more crunchy, clearer and more Marshall-like, which is what i wanted from the amp. The gain is clear and crunchy, but there is a bit too much treble present, so the treble control cannot be turned up past 5 with decent volume.
What crate i think is doing with this amp is mimicing the marshall. They do a good job, once those 6L6s are removed. It does sound like a marshall. It doesn't sound like a great marshall, though! Some reviewers have said that the amp can blow away marshalls... this is true only in a store, where you cannot crank the amps. Out in the world of extreme levels, and this is where i and playing musicians live, the marshall sounds far better, because marshalls exist for the sake of extreme volume. crate has made a marshall-clone that sounds good quiet but when turned up becomes a bit muddy and cannot compete with the transparent EVH-style marshall distortion. the clean sound won't bother you, it's alright i guess. i never really used it that much.

the amp is fairly old, and it has broken down on me twice. the first time it was a fuse and a resistor in the power section that would have made the amp worthless if it wasn't for the warranty. Crate paid out almost $500 in warranty labor to fix the damage from the high voltage running around wreaking havoc in the chassis. This is why my guitar is grounded!! this amp will teach you safety. the second time it went down it was a simple power tube failure. advice; never skimp on power tubes! get Groove Tubes every time, and do not be tempted by cheaper tubes. no one will appreciate your frugality when you break down after 30 seconds of high-volume playing (this did happen to me.) i am forced to use it without a backup. it has lasted through extended sessions without complaint, but now i dare not crank it up past 7. it doesn't get amy louder past there anyway, it just compresses more.

warranty is important with this amp. i will not use it outside of my practice room once the warranty expires, the power section has screwed me so. it is a large company, so don't expect boogie service.

i've been playing for 6 years, and now i've moved on to a mesa rack system (studio preamp, 50/50 poweramp). i'm satisfied with the mesa, but on occasion i have to go back to the marshall-style voodoo. i'm saving for a marshall rack system, but i won't sell the voodoo. the new owner would get screwed with the power section, and i don't want anyone else to go through what i went through with the breakdown. i like the amp enough, and it has usable gain sounds. at least until the marshall arrives! it is now my backup.

Dual channel amp. Pretty straight forward. Standard features include dist/clean channels, volume, 3 band eq on each channel, nothing too fancy.

This amp sounds truly AWESOME. I compared it to the Marshall JCM 900 sitting next to it in the music store and it totally blew it away (And about 500 bucks less too!) 4x12 configuration totally rocks. More volume than I'll ever need. This amp can make any sound imaginable, but my only bitch is the reverb (solid state, kinda cheesy and hollow sounding). Beautiful sounding clean channel, and downright lethal sounding distorted channel.

I don't do any gigging, so this amp doesn't get hauled around much, but it's built like a tank, thick high density fiber board construction. It's gotten knocked around a bit (spent about a month sitting in the bed of my truck), still works. Read all of the reviews on how bad some of these amps break down, haven't had any problems yet, and it's well over a year old now. No tubes have blown, nor have any been replaced.

Never dealt with them.

I paid $1275 (4x12cab + 60watt head) of some of the most well-spent money I've ever had. This amp is awesome, it's clean channel is sparkling, and the gain is absolutely brutal. Haven't had a single problem with the amp (stays on standby for hours at a time). In my humble opinion, it sounds better than any Marshall. This was my first tube amp, and definitely not my last Crate. It hasn't let me down yet, and something tells me it's not gonna.

60 watts tube head, Loud as hell! alot of headroom and both channels kick ass! channel changer not included! Nice look well built. this amp is good for metal, hard rock, blues and jazz. 2 channels fx loop, auto bias! 3 channel would have been good.

gain can go from zeppelin to silverchair to rammstein easily!Presence control kicks, you can go from that scooped mid sound to that fuzz like sound a la chorus of "Wish" NIN and everything in between. reverb is kinda cheesy but not bad. every sound is a usable sound on this amp. i'm running it with a marshall 1936 2x12 cab and it sounds like a 4x12. nice low end. amazing amp for its price. tried out a single recto that sounded a snidge better distortion wise, but this amp is 1. $1000 dollars less and has a better clean channel.

not yet... great amp so far.

been playing for over 3 years and i luv this amp!a must have for young players like me with limited budget looking for "that sound"!

Made circa 1995. 2 channels, clean/overdrive, plus gain boost. Effects loop, XLR out, auto-biasing (really cool--you can use either 6L6 or EL34 tubes in this without rebiasing the amp). More than enough stuff for me.

Great sounds. Can do just about anything; metal, blues, country, funk, whatever you feel like. Mine isn't noisy at all. It works really well for me because I like some scooped mids and heavy distortion in my tone. It cleans up really nicely too, and the clean channel has a Bright switch to add a little spank if you want.

I've had this amp for four years now. It doubles as a coffee table, chair, tv stand, mini bar, and lots of other furniture. It gets lugged around, too. I think it sounds like the day I bought it. Never needed service.

I applied for the warranty, and Crate sent me my card promptly (not that I've ever needed it). That's the only contact I've had with them.

This is my main amp right now. It's great. I have no complaints. All my guitars sound good through it, yet each retains its own distinctive character, which is key. Even through heavy distortion, I can hear the differences. It works especially well with my 7 string Ibanez, pushing out an amazing tone. I used to hate Crates, but I tried this one because I was in the market for an affordable tube amp. So far, this is still the only Crate amp I like, but it's a keeper.

Some of the features of this amps are excellent, one thing that I don't like is the solid state reverb. I don't use much reverb anyway, but I play very heavy music and some times when you want to switch from the heavy stuff to a more bluesy tone, you want a tube driven reverb. The BV60 combo (1x12) have tube driven reverb. another thing that I don't like about this amp is it only has 50 watts RMS as opposed to it's 'little brother' the combo. If you can ever get your hands on the schematics you'll notice that the combo uses more tubes in the preamp section. The nice thing is that you can completely interchange the 6L6's with EL34's, but you will lose the low end punch. I use this amp in my house with my BV60 1x12 combo, a leslie, and a rivera thrity-twelve. I use it all when I play gigs with my band, and I've got enough power to play anywhere.

I have a Fender strat and An Ibanez Rg570. The humbeckers on the Ibanez unleash wicked tones. Put it on the middle single coil, clean channel, and boom, you have Kirk Hammett's clean sound on Master of Puppets, Unforgiven, etc. I like the 6L6's for the low end that I need in playing my variety of styles. I have yet to hear the clean channel distort at high volumes, unless I tell my processor to do so!

I haven't had the head in real good shape long enough to decide. When I got it , it was in need of medical assistance. It had the wrong tubes and fuses in it, a short in the effect switch, but now it sounds great and I haven't had any problems with it.

Haven't had any contact with the compny but the guy who runs the service center here in Cedar Rapids, is one of the best guys I know when it comes to fixing the stuff.

For the price that I paid it is one of the better values that I have ever stumbled across. I choose crate because they deliver quality instruments, and every Marshall Amp that I have played on Was a piece of shit. I would buy another one if I could find it for a price as reasonable as this one.

This is an incredibly versatile amp. Two channels, eq+volume and gain on the gain channel (duh). Iy's not exactly the same as the combo... the 2x12 (maybe the 1x12 too) has a bright switch on the clean channel and a boost switch on the gain channel. The head doedn't, but it does have separate reverb controls for each channel, and you can get the same sounds as boost or bright by messing with the nobs. I'm not even gonna go into what I wish it had, but if it had all I want it would probably cost 4 or 5 times as much. Besides, I use pedals to get more sounds so I'm happy with it. I use this amp for practicing and playing in a band (we haven't gigged yet). Everyone always tells me to turn the damn thing down, so I guess it has enough power. I got the full stack, but I keep 1 cab at home and one at the drummer's house so all I have to carry is the head. BTW, if you didn't know, it's an all tube 60 watt head.

I play a PRS Custom with McCarty electronics in it. If your not playing a PRS, you probably should be. I play blues and classic rock and it works great. I use it with a Mesa Boogie V-Twin and a Boss BLues Driver pedal, and I can get just about any sound I want. It's only really noisy when I have an insane amount of distortion going (like both pedals and the amp). The clean channel is incredible. That's what sold me on the amp. I didn't even like the distortion in it until I got it home and played with it. Now I have it dialed in perfectly. I haven't made the vlean channel distort yet. I did on the 2x12 once, but the volume was at 10, with PRS pickups (hot) and it still didn't distort very much. The distortion is nice, but I usually use another pedal (usually the V-Twin in either clean or blues mode) to make it sound better.

My friend has had one for a while, and he's never had any problems. I haven't had mine very long, but I don't expect any.

I had a Crate GX40D that was having some problems. I had bought it used, and I called Crate and told them what was wrong. They told me the amp wasn't registered for a warranty, so technically I should have had to pay, but they fixed it for free anyways. That was one of the main reasons I bought another Crate... It sounded and looked good, but I know that if it ever dies, Crate will back me up.

This is probably the best value you will ever find on an all tube amp. What I compared with was: Marshall 6100 Anniversary ($1400 for the head)- great amp, incredible sound. Boogie Trem-O-Verb or Mark IV- ($1600 for either head) REally sweet, both are incredible amps. Crate Blue Voodoo ($1300 for the FULL STACK!!!!!!!!) 95% as good as either one. 3 channels or Tremolo would have been nice, but I wanted an amp I could afford now, not in 6 months from now. I wish it had a third channel, or MIDI switching, or something. Actually I am thinking about buyinmg it again. I'd love another stack so I could run stereo, and maybe even a third one for a dry sound out the center. Or maybe I'm just insane. Well, anyways, if your looking for a great all tube amp for cheap, this is it.

This Amp is extremely versatile. It has an incredible clean channel. I found I could get any type of clean sound I wanted. The gain channel is awesome. This amp comes stock and sounds like an amp that someone spent $$ on getting tweaked. You will love the all tube sound. I use the amp in rehersal and I gig with it. Played through the matching 4x12 I really get the sound I want. It has built in reverb and one thing I really liked about this amp is that you can crank it where your ears bleed or you can play it soft and it still gives a mean growl.

The Amp has a great clean sound and an great gain sound. The gain channel is versatile enough where you can play a blues gig or heavy grunge or metal. I havent found the amp making any unusual noises, such as buzzing or cracking.

Very reliable comes with a transferable five year warranty. 90 days on tubes. I would gig with a backup.

If you are looking for a versatile half/full stack, the Crate blue voodoo series can offer an afordable alternative to the Marshall. I tried a lot of amps and I picked the crate for it's sound, price and appearance.

This 60W tube head has two channels, clean (EQ and volume), and high gain (gain, EQ, and level), that can be switched via footswitch. Other controls include presence and reverb. The serial FX loop does not have send or receive level adjustments, but there is a PAD button to drop the level for use with pedal effects. It ships with 5881 power tubes, but will also run (and auto-bias) EL34s. There was a special deal (though it may be over now) that included a set of EL34s with purchase. The amp will drive a 4, 8, or 16 ohm load.

The clean sound is good, very bright, with a lot of headroom. The high-gain channel has more than enough gain, and a good distortion character. I liked it a little better than what I got out of a Mesa Dual Rectifier. The tone controls were active and intuitive. I tried the amp through the matching 4x12. The combo version (BV60) sounded thin to me, but the head/cabinet had a good punch. The head also has a few more controls.
I play a guitar with P-90s and a PAF humbucker, in a rock/pop/alternative group, and this amp fit the bill fairly well.

I have no experience with the reliability of the unit, but was impressed by SLM's five-year transferable warranty.

No experience with SLM, other than when I called about some older Ampeg products to see if they were covered under the five-year warranty. The individual I spoke with was very helpful.

The bottom line is, I did not end up buying this amp. It was one of around 15 I test drove, and I ended up spending a little more money for one with different features.
That said, I think the BV60H is an awesome amp. I have never been a great fan of Crate amps, until now. The BV60H sounds better and has more features than most amps in its price range. It is also a well built unit, and looks cool with its blue vinyl covering, metal front, and mirrored back panel.