Crate BV6212 Blue Voodoo

Features are well-described in other reviews. I mostly use the amp at home with occassional get=togethers with friends in a rehearsa studio. ALthough I generally only need the single input, it would be nice to have a second input. I find the channel switching and boost quite versatile.

I use a '62 Reissue Strat. Styles: 60's rock, country and jazz/fake book standards. This is probably the most versatile sounding amp I've owned. I love the sounds for what I play. But (there's always a but), it is has a buzzy noise - could be the single coil pickups, but I suspect it's tubes or circuit. Given that I am not recording or playing professionally, I can "live with it" and haven't rushed to get it fixed. I will probably do so in the next few months and wil update the reviw.

I bought the amp used. I had bought a used Peavy 400 (something) solid state amp that sounded OK in the shop, but had something wrong with a speaker. The shop agreed to take it back and I bought the Crate from their limited selection of used tube amps. I can't comment on the quality or reliability of the Crate because it isn't used that much, but it seems OK - certainly better than my 73 Twin that I owned for 12 years (albeit in Clubs). Apart from the noise referred to previously, I think it's OK. But roadworthy, can't comment.

Can't comment. I was able to download an owners' manual from Crate's website.

I've been playing about 35 years, of which 15 were porfessional. I have previoulsy owned a 71 Super, 73 Twin, mid-70's Roland JC 60 and a Traynor Bloc 100G. The Roalnd and Traynor were intended for home use only. I needed someting with more volume than the Traynor. Of the choices available to me in the circumtsances of an exchange, the Crate was the best of a limited choice. Overall, I very much like the amp for the purposes that I put it to. Would I buy another? Probably not, given the other reviews on reliability. But it brought me back to tubes . . . a good thing.

Your basic mid-to-high-end combo amp. 2 channels, reverb, effects loop, presence knob that controls the upper harmonics (really only noticable when the amp's cranked). 60watts all-tube, 2 12" speakers. Both channels have a mid range boost (called "bright" on clean, "boost" on dirty).

I have used this with both my bands, former and current. My former band played metal/alternative, current band plays alt/pop rock. Pretty versatile with its sound, though more suited for a grungy, poppy distortion than a metal type.
The clean channel really shines, though I found it sounded like I was going to blow my amp at about 4-5. REALLY loud. Louder than the dirty channel on 6.
The dirty channel can acheive a great sound, but you have to find it and let the amp warm up. I found the "sweet spot" on my amp, with the gain on about 7-8, and the master volume on 5 1/2 - 6. That's when the tubes really spit the stuff out. Crazy feedback that you can control...I've been able to make sounds comparable to an e-bow. You really have to make the tubes overdrive to get that killer sound. Once achieved, you'll never want to go back to a crappy solid state amp again! I have been able to get a bottom-end, meatier crunch that can kick the crap out of a tinny-sounding Marshall.

One word: TERRIBLE.
This amp has broken down on me too many times. Right after I bought it I had to send it for service due to a buzzing sound. They had to replace a power tube right away. Since then, I have replaced my power tubes three or four times, (which is normal for the amount I play) but have had to service it many more times due to soldering, transistor, etc problems.
The big problem I have is that I live in Nova Scotia, Canada (most of you probably don't even know where the heck that is....by the way it's right next to Maine) and there are virtually no Crate dealers around here. So I have had to wait for up to two months to get my amp fixed numerous times. In the four years I've owned the amp, it has been sitting in a shop for well over six months of that time. Just crappy. St Louis Music appears to be in no hurry to send the parts here. I guess us beaver-owning, beer drinking fisherman Canadians don't matter....

I've dealt with the company a few times on Support issues. As I said before, I live in Nova Scotia, and I don't think that Crate knows where that is. (I suggest they buy a map that doesn't have the US as the centre of the universe) I brought my amp to the store that I bought it from, only to have it sit there for TWO or THREE MONTHS, waiting for parts. I waited and waited, but the service dept. of the store kept telling me that St Louis Music was in no hurry to send them the parts. I emailed Crate to express my unhappiness but (surprise!) they didn't reply. Due to that I doubt that I'd buy another Crate product, just because if it breaks I don't want to wait for months and spend hundreds of dollars to fix it.

Overall, it's like a moody girlfriend....sometimes it's sweet and loveable, and right then it'll turn on you and stab you in the back. I dig the sounds the amp makes, it really has an appealing tube overdrive, but the reliability and support for the product makes it NOT worthwhile.

2 channels, foot switching, etc. The other reviews here have covered the features pretty well. This was the first big guitar amp I ever bought (purchased around 1996).

I thought I was just a novice, but I couldn't get a decent tone out of this amp to save my life. At the time I was playing an Ibanez Talman with lipstick pickups that also sucked, but I have tried other guitars in this amp and didn't like any of them.

It stopped working just as my warranty ran out. It's still sitting in my old bedroom at my parents' house. I never really had time to get it fixed, especially since I was doing mostly acoustic stuff for a while after that. I would NEVER buy a Crate again and I wish I had been able to read the reviews here before I plunked down my hard earned cash in high school.

Hopefully Crate has fired all the chimpanzees from the factory and hired competent workers. This amp was poorly made and didn't sound that great even when it did work.

It has a basic Tube amp setup. Clean, Distortion, Reverb.

I've beem playing 12 years and have a Epiphone Les Paul, USA Strat, Ibanez RX320 and 270, Raven RP 350, Krammer Strat Copy, and a Talor 914ce.

NONE of these guitars sounded good no matter what I tried. As far as tube amps go this is by far the absolute worst one I have ever heard. The clean is OK but the Distortion just plain sucks. I bought this off Ebay because I wanted an offordable Tube amp.

My other amps are: Line 6 Flextone II XL, Fender Ultimate Chorus DSP, Marshall AVT275, and Peavey stereo Chorus 212.

I brought my Blue voodoo over to a friends house that has a nice little studio with Protools and a Mackie 32/8 Board. I used my crate for one song and wanted to vomit when I heard the play back.

Used my Fender and Line 6 for the rest of the recording session!

Reverb knob didn't work and I got a real loud hiss with the clean channel... Distortion was actually quiet. Had a tech look it over and he said the PC board was phuced.

Nuff said

Answered all my questions fast and were very polite.

This amp brand new may a good first amp for someone starting out and may actually last if treated with excellent care but if your looking for a good tube sound or have been playing a long time don't buy one.

I care not what others have said about commending the sound, play this next to a Fender or Marshall Tube amp and you'll laugh.

But if you insist on buying a Crate Tube amp GET A VINTAGE CLUB SERIES! Those are nice! Great all around amps! Stay away from the Blue Voodoo! BAD!

90's i got this amp at a store .i traded in my marshall jcm 900 for
it. my marshall died on me it lost all it;s godness.yes i had a tec look at it . tubes changed etc. the bv6212 combo .. is ok for blues.zepplin pink floyd.need more power

i use a custom washburn/ and a jackson randy rhoads/and for toys i use metal zone/ roland rp200 / boss digital delay ..etc.it;s ok sound
but.i perfer the marshall''' .the sound is ok not enough edge'' the metal zone pedal go's well with the marshall //like made 4 each other
distortion needs more edge .. with out saying.

right now it has a problem with the power switch.. it go;s off and on ;; u got to flick it hard to stay on ,,,i run it through a marshall 4x12 cab...but i got good news going tomorow to guitar center and get my marshall head .i think this baby is going in the closet ....

don't know i hear from the rest of the peps that there really cool.

i 've been playing for 10 years... been there seen that ... i think that crate should do more work on there stuff...i would not buy this amp again if it got stolen ...i think over all this amp is ok for blues and zepplin stuff...not good for death metal yngwie leads//
or any sick leads;;; but like i said it;s good for the bluesssss....

Same as all the other reviews. The internal circuitry has way too much going on for what this amp does. Far to many opto-coupler switching networks and fet's in the signal pathes. The auto bias circuit design is an absolute disaster and contributes to a lot of the premature failure problems with these amps. Very low quality PC board and connections. Decent quality caps and transformers (surprisingly).

Mediocre at best. poorly voiced tone controls. To many switching circuits in and around the cathode circuitry and poor quality pots. Tone tends to be very harsh. Tends to break into oscillations at higher volumes. Hey, at least it's loud.

Garbage. I got this for free from someone who'd had enough of it. You get what you pay for. Actually, I took it just to use the transformers and chassis, etc. to build a project amp from the ground up.

Crate has schematics available for $17. Parts department was very polite & friendly.

Through away the cabinet. Cave the two 12" speakers to my son for his amp project, used the chassis, transformers and some misc. parts for my own design/build (no this wasn't my first amp project, I do it for a living). The point is that this is about all the amp is good for. The guys who made this should be ashamed of themselves.

Just a little update from my last review (10/23/2001), I 've been tweaking here and there, cranking the amp more often, etc... I've discovered two things:

1.I like the overdrive on this thing more than any pedal, a lot of people have to realize that TUBE overdrive is the real thing (it sounds different than any pedal) and that pedals are just trying to emulate it(why compare the amps disto whit the pedals disto when you should be doing it the other way around?)... been playing more gigs too, and the amps dirty eats the metal zone alive. Plenty of chunk and crunch.

2.The revberb knob has a fundamental part in good tone...I didnt notice this before, because I used to set the knob on zero most of the time, yes, the revberb may be a little distant, but it acts as kind of a presence 2 control, just try it, (may be some mod the amp suffered before me, or may be a lucky bad wiring), putting the revberb at 12 o clock adds more prescence, with the revberb all the way off it sounds kinda sterile, I havent had this results on anyother amp I tried...weird, so I can crank the reverb and get a very nice tone without exageratted reverb.

I GUESS this amp was made in the 1996-1998 period, not sure. Is very basic on its features, 2 channels, bright switch on the clean channel, boost switch on the overdrive channel, all tube 60 watt 2x12 combo, reverb, presence knob, volume, bass, trebble and mid control on both channels, master volume knob on the OD channel, 4 12ax7's and one 12au7(???, dont remember)in the preamp section, and 2 6L6's in the poweramp (swithcable to el34's with autobiasing), effects loop, several speaker outputs in the back for the different ohm combinations, footswitch capabilities for both channels and boost, bright and reverb. I play mostly 80's and early 90's heavy metal, Megadeth, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Iced Earth, Hallows Eve, Flotsam and Jetsam, Anthrax, etc... I wish the OD channel had a little more volume, but I'll discuss that later, as you may know, 60 watts TUBE are pretty loud, good for bedroom practice, band practice and gigging, I mostly use the P.A. for the bigger situations, but this thing is LOUD, and HEAVY!!!(like 65 lbs), casters would really help, o rside handles like a 4x12

My main axe is a jackson kelly fitted with an EMG 81 in the bridge and a EMG 60 in the neck position. This amp is very good for hard rock, and AC/DCish tone, good for early maiden records, the clean channel is bright and sparkling, no twin but good and loud. this amp is not noisy in any way, maybe because of the pu's and a decent cable, the presence knob really shines on this blue fucker, the reverb is ok, some say it is practically absent, but I use it on leads and I am not a reverb freak, leave that to the venue... It can go from a sweet blues tone (with the boost out), clear distorted chords, to a good crunch somewhat marshallesque, the clean breaks up nicely and earlier than a 100 watt head (maybe because of its 60 watts) and you can get cranked tone with a little lower volume, the distortion is not brutal, this amp can really sing, for the heavy tone I use pedals, not the best option but one has to work with what I have. It can do a scooped mids sound, but with the mids present it sounds more natural and warm, good lead tone, where you cant hear but a little of the attack on the individual notes with the proper settings. The only reason of why Im giving this an 8.5 is because the OD channel lacks volume IMO compared with the ballsy clean channel (maybe a technical difficulty), thats not much of a problem because the pedal running on the clean can get a nice cranked tone. sometimes it produces a loud POP when switching from dirty to clean, but it disapeared afer the repairs.

A little after I bought it some circuit burned but it was a total accident, my fault, now it has been repaired and its ok.
I never gig without backup, but I would.

When it got screwed I took it to an authorized crate repair shop, wich I founf rather easily, and they were cool and comprehensive. I had no warranty because I bougth it used and I wanted to accelerate the repairing, so I didnt ask for warranty, because it would take a little paperwork.
I think all crate products have a 5 year transferable warranty.

I have been playing the electric for like 3 and a half years, I own another guitar, a dinky reverse, a 4x12 Blue Voodoo cab, some pedals (metalzone, ds1, an eq, a chorus, not much) I will probably buy the head version later, but a combo is pretty functional for my current situation, I compared this one with a peavey classic 50, and a hotrod deluxe, I liked this better because some of the features and because I liked the OD channel, the classic 50 was a close competitor, but this one was priced ok and I saved some of the money for other things. I wish it had a shape knob, maybe another OD channel, but its ok. oh yeah CASTERS!!!! I love the clean channel. I hate the fact it has no casters, I would like independent reverb controls for both channels. love the blue tolex and the gold cosmetics.

I mainly play rock and metal, and for these styles, the amp is very good. Both channels have much power and variety. On the back of the amp there is all you can wish for when it comes to loops, rec-out, ext. cabinet, etc. The only thing I miss is a switching unit between the channels, boost and reverb. It was not included, and it seems hard to get hold of! The 60 watts are more than enough for my use, both in the rehersal-room and on stage. For recording, the 60 watts are almost to much, as the amp sounds best when the tubes are working hard!! This amp has everything most rock-guitarists need!

I have 2 Carvin guitars,a Dc 127 and an Ultra V. These guitars have high-output humbuckers, so there is no problem whatsoever to make the voodoo sound like a metal monster, even with lower gain settings. I really like the overdrive sounds this amp makes, and for my taste in rock and metal, it rules!! The clean channel also convinces me. It sounds very clear, with good detail, even at high volume. The reverb doesn't sound that good though. It's not horrible, but I think it sounds kinda muddy and messy, to long!! It doesn't really keep up with the rest of the amp! If the reverb was better, I would have given it a 10.

I've had this amp for 5 years, and so far, the amp has been a good companion. I had to change the on/off/standby switches once, but that's it!! Except from the power-tubes, but power-tubes are "ment" to break down!! As for gigging, my experience shows that this amp can fight the battle without backup. I must add that I treat my amp with love and respect. I take good care of it. Tube amps are like humans, if you treat them nice, they will stay with you!(not women though)

Never dealt with them; NEVER HAD TO!

I've been playing for 6 years. Over the time I've tried several other amps, both on stage, in the rehersal-room, in the studio and in stores. For my taste in music, this amp is among the best I've tried. Carvin amps are the only ones that sound as good for the money as my voodoo. Other rivals cost MUCH more!
My first amp was a Marshall Valvstate, and it sounds like "reborn dog-shit" compared to the voodoo. I recently sold my Mesa Subway Blues. For this amp I payed nearly as much as for the voodoo, and it's only 20 watts with 1x10 and one channel!! I didn't sound very good either. I still can't figure out why I bought that Mesa. When it comes to guitar amps, the voodoo is my best friend!!

You know the features... 2 channels, clean and distorted with a footswitchable boost for each. I think this is a blues/rock type amp, but I had no trouble pushing it to a metal sound. The boost is really nice. Footswitchable reverb and a presence knob to tweak yer sound. I use both. Its 60 watts and uses 7 tubes. Powerful enough to gig, but I really need more than 60. ITS BLUE!!!!

I use a peavey wolfgang with the bridge pickup. I play in a punk band so I really look for that metal sound. Lemme tell you, this amp delivers. It is perfect for rock... any rock. The only problem is, it sounds perfect at 6 or so, but at 9 or 10 it looses all of its character. The sound isnt as distorted. This amp is a favorite of mine for recording because of the excellent sound it delivers. Somtimes tehre is a loud pop when switching from dirty to clean, but I rarely use clean anyway. Turning up the reverb makes the amp much warmer, and cranking the presence gives me an orgasm.... seriously.

This amp is very reliable. I have had it retubed once just because I nboticed it was sounding a little weak. Has excellent speakers in it. But I did and ive used at several gigs without backup.

I know crate isn't generally regarded as a professional quality company, and I think I know why. This is the only thing about the amp that has ever bothered me. I tried to find a footswitch for it for months before i did. I got no help from their online database.

I love this amp. It is an incredible amp for this little money. I guess if it got stolen I would replace it with something better, but thats only because I have more money to spend now. I love the way it looks too.