Crate CR-112

This was a two channel amplifier, one clean and one overdrive. 35 watts, and solid state. It had a headphone jack. It was not very versatile-only one sound, and even that had too much treble and too little bass. I traded it off for a decent amplifier, which I'll get too later.

I used it in combination with a Mexican fender strat, with stock parts. The clean channel will not distort at high volumes-it's a solid state amp. It wasn't noisy, as long as I used decent cables. This thing sounds like a british amp, which is fine if you like that tinny sort of sound. To me, it has never seemed like the English amps could produce a decent clean tone. This amp- and most others in its vein (marshalls, voxes etc.) never seemed to sparkle like a good Fender or Peavey. I'm an American, I want to sound like one. My new amp lets me do it. I traded the Crate off for a Fender Princeton Chorus, which I have been MUCH happier with.

It never broke down. But I kind of expect that from an amp without tubes.

It was worth what I paid for it. I would not buy another one.

Nice little two channel amp. I bought it used in 1982 when I was twelve. It has always been loud enough even playing with a drummer.

I've always used it with common electric guitars through the years. The clean channel to me has never really been clean enough to play my Takamine through. The distortion is really nasty and with the level knob can be cut down to reasonable levels for practice.

I blew it up one time because i cranked every knob up one day. (typical kid). The output transistors blew but crate provided me with an upgrade kit which fixed. That's been 16 years ago.

The transistor kit

I've been playing for about 20years and have never sold the amp because there was no need to. I have owned other amps and still don't mind playing on the old crate. No telling how old is. I'm sure it will make a good amp for my son when he's ready. (still in diapers but can wail on his ukeulele).

Need to add this to my previous review. We found the stock Crate speaker was breaking up at higher volumes so we sought a low cost fix. I found a 12" Oaktronics on Ebay for $20 delivered! Now this isn't a Celestion or similar quality speaker, and it came out of a PA system so I don't know that it is 'voiced' for guitar, but it is a BIG improvement. The sound is much clearer over the whole volume range, and it can now generate painful sound pressure without breaking up.
Driving it with a custom guitar equipped with a 498T in the bridge and a Seymour Duncan SH-6 in the neck, it still sounds muddy when generating the "Gibson Growl". The Trace Elliot Tramp, and it's Celestion get the nod for that sound, but it sounds really nice, being driven by a Fender Lace powered Strat.

2 channels, foot switch jack but we don't have it. Spring reverb tank. A really good feature is the output jack on the back which is switchable from: external speaker, to line out, to headphones. Each is an important feature, and having one at a time is fine. For a practice amp and light gig duty it is perfect. Doesn't weigh like our Trace Elliot Tramp!!

Remember the basis of comparison is to a Trace Elliot Tramp which is comparable only to a Marshall Valvestate at $500. The CR112 has kind of a sterile sound without the richness of tone. Playing an all Lace sensor equiped tele, (a dead quiet, no hum guitar) into it, I was very impressed. Having had a Crate GX-15R, (which made all kinds of hisses and pops) I expected this to be them same. It is not. Distortion is lifeless, but a Boss ME-6 handles that just fine. The Lace pickups used with it so far didn't have enuf output to really break it up. Wait till the 498 equipped custom ax it going!!
This amp does a decent job of replicating the sound put into it from a straight electric. When we tried a Fernandez with a piezo pickup, there was some odd distortion we've not heard before.

Just had it a short time, but I don't like the look of the speaker, and will buy a speaker stronger and over-rated enough that I won't have to worry about it.

My son is the player, 3 years. I love the low weight, don't hate anything about it. This was the best price I'd come across for an amp w' a 12" speaker and reverb. The line out/headfone/ext speaker jack are very important. If it had not had a line out, I would not have made the purchase. I put 2 other smaller (6" and 8") practice amps up for sale, and will likely cover my purchase price.

1982 Crate CR-112. Solid state, 20 Watts, one input for instrument, one footswitch input, one headphone/external speaker cab output. One 12" speaker (blown, since replaced with Pyle Driver, then a Peavey speaker). Two channels, normal and overdrive. Spring reverb. Not a very loud amp, cannot be used for gigs.

I've used a Les Paul copy when I was a kid, and now use a Kramer with twin coil pickups, and an Arion SD-1 Distortion. When I got this back in 82 for X-mas, I was thrilled because it was my first decent amp. Now, to my ears, it sounds harsh (transistors), and the overdrive is horrid. The spring reverb makes a terrible sound when you turn on the amp, so you have to remember to turn the reverb down before you turn on the amp. The amp is a little noisy, and is effected badly by the lighting in the room. The clean sound is not very clean.

It's always worked for me, except for when I blew the speaker out.

Not a good amp for guitar. I know someone who uses one of these for keyboards, and it works great for that purpose. I have a Fender blues Jr. and a Peavey Duece II that sound much warmer. If it were stolen, I'd be upset because I'm using it for a nightstand at the moment. ;-)

Ok practice amp...Its a 35w solidstate 1 12" amp with 3 channels. Clean: Vol., Bass, and Mid; Overdrive: Gain and Level; Bright: Treble and Reverb. Has 3 jacks; an input, a foot switch jack, and an output jack (switchable to line out, headphone out, or ext. speaker out).

Haha, HAHA. I don't even know why they make these amps. I mean what's the point of having an amp thats not loud enough to be heard over the drums? Sure, its sounds like a good idea for a practice amp, but why not just get a headphone amp? I just love to crank it and have it blowing itself apart. The only thing i use it for now is as an amplifier for my boombox by the computer. It sounds ok like that and loud!

Yeah, I guess its pretty reliable for what I use it for. I'd never jam with it again though.

I would buy another again at the same price to sell to kids as stereo amplifiers.