Crate CR-165B

It's a good amp, but there's no features. Gain, Bass, Treble,"Limiter" and Master are the only controls. Just 5 knobs.

It's a very loud amp. I've played it on an Ibanez 200 bass and a Schecter custom4. Sounds really good.

I just bought this used today at Guiitar Center and I'e only played bass for about 3-4 weeks (I'm a drummer).

Hey, it's well used, very old, and not made anymore.

I've been playing it for about an hour and a half so far, and it's good considering how little money I paid for it. I'm satisfied so far.

my particular amp was made in 1985. It has every thing all the other people who have posted. My amp has an awsome sound and i wouldn trade it for the world. I play acoustic guitar with a ton of compression and a tube screamer, yeah i know, it sounds cheesy but you wouldn't think so if you heard this baby cranked up. I know it's a bass amp but acoustic amps are costly and usually sound "too" acoustic. If your going to get an acoustic amp, at least fork the dough for a trace elliot. Any how, this amp sounds incredibly good for acoustic and i would love to get another one of the amps. Then technically i would have a 2 15" speaker amp/

My acoustic is an alvarez yairi dy62c from the late 19 80's. It sounds great for that fussion virtuoso rock music. if your a hardcore acoustic rocker, this is your map. The gain is smooth and creamy and gives you a warm and cozy feeling but can hall ass when motivated to.
I havte still never cranked it past 4 on the volume because it is an extremely loud amp the way it is.

Have no worrys, this amp is built to last. also, it will give you a consitant sound from gig to gig

can't say

iv'e been playing for a long time and i most definetly know what i like. Other people would like it two. To put it plane and simple, this amps sound with an acoustic guitar would put the tones of stevie ray vaughn and hendrix to shame. Really, not kidding. I know it's hard to believe but it's the truth man. This sounds almost as good as the trace elliots, if not, it's definietly better

This is a 1984 solid state amp, with a 15" speaker. It has 2 channels, lo and high gain, along with a switch for normal and "brite". I use the amp with a Korg 707 synthesizer, so effects aren't very important to me.

I play at church with 2 guitars, electric bass, piano, drums, and my other synth through a different amp. Our church is about 2,500 square feet, with about a 20 foot ceiling, and I can fill the place using just the amp without tying into the system.

We play mostly contemporary music, along with a touch of "country-like" sounds. Though it is a bass amp, it does a great job of cranking out some of the higher pitched effects from my synth.

The only time noise has been noticeable is a hum when I tried fooling with the "brite" switch. I thought it might be due to a clash between the synth and amp, but the sounds on normal are great, so I don't worry about it. As I mentioned before, clear sounds at high volume are no problem.

As far as reliability goes, I would not worry about using it without a backup. The electronics portion is simple and well protected. The case is almost overkill. It's a heavy beast to transport, but the strap is sturdy, and the rhythm player sometimes uses it for a seat (with my permission!)

However, I have had to repair a broken input jack that got bumped and snapped while a cord was plugged in. The input jacks are plastic units soldered to a circuit board, so I superglued rather than replaced it to keep things simple. I really feel that metal units would have been more in keeping with the ruggedness of the rest of the unit. A change to metal jacks wired to the board are probably in my future.

The company doesn't have this model's manual online, but they state that they will supply one if emailed. I haven't had a real need for it, because the controls, etc. are simple and straight forward.

I've been playing electric keyboards of some kind for about 37 years. My opinion is that they need heavy cabinets and big speakers to sound full. That is why I'm using a bass amp. I've had the oppotunity to play through some great guitar amps, but most made my units sound like a "toy" organ.

I've had this amp almost 2 years, and would try to find another like it if I needed a replacement. I say "like" it, because I'm not that tied to this particular model, but would definitely start my search with Crate units because of my favorable experience.

This amp was made in 1984. I use it in a punk band, the single channel and lack of any effects do not hold me back. I keep the bright switch on to help stand out of the texture a little bit. Keeping up with a fender bandmaster and half-stack, drums, and a 50 watt pevey amp along with vocals seems to be about this amps limit.

I use this amp with a peavey forum bass. With the bright switch on it gives a little hum. At high volume levels the sound becomes gainy and almost distorted, however, I like this.

This amp seems nearly indestructable, its been dropped, banged around and exposed to alot of heat. I play on it almost every day, use it in gigs and have never had any problems.

I really like this amp, however I may have to get something more powerful to keep up with the rest of the instruments in my band as soon as both of our guitarists have half stacks. It could use another 40 watts.

this amp is good for punk and rock and stuff butdont recomend it for jazz 1 channel, effects loop, external speaker jack, has been giged with 15 timesjust i did not do the giging . itis preatty old, greatfor 100.not many controls for the tone

IT FARTS!!!!!!!!!!! the contacts neeed cleaned but i am toolazy

never depend on this if it didnt fart it is great the contacts need cleaned

ihave been playingfor well3weeks now i am in apunk bandand my bass has to blend witha marshal half stack andit does i have a squier p-bass email me if u have ?'s

This solid state combo bass amp was made in 1984. I picked it up eight months ago because the little coffeehouse gigs I'd been playing with my double bass were growing into small clubs with the upright and bass guitars. I mostly play old rock (Zep/Jimi/Cream/Floyd/Moodies/Crimson/Yes) and some dinner music in upscale restaurants.
Single channel, 60 watts to a Crate 80-watt 15" w/38 oz. magnet, 4 ohms. Cabinet is front ported, sealed back. Amp is rated down to 2 ohms at same power output.
Control lineup: Gain, Bass (+/- 15dB @40 hz), Treble (+/- 15dB @ 4 Khz), "Bright" switch (+15dB @2 Khz, +6db@250 hz), Limiter w/indicator lamr, and Master volume.
Top-mounted strap is solid, but if I weren't 6'6" I probably wouldn't be able to life this 65 pound box high enough to keep from dragging it on the ground. First thing I did was to put casters on the bottom and a strap handle on one side, bumper feet on the opposite side. NOTE to Fender Twin Reverb owners: no more whining about how unwieldly your amp is to lug around :)
2 inputs, with a -6dB "Lo" jack for active basses.
There's a pre-amp out jack and a power amp input on the rear, OK for use as an effects loop or for playing CDs through it. 1/4" jacks for the internal speaker and an extension. NOTE: any external speaker above 4ohms is OK to use along with the internal one. Internal speaker's part of cab is separate from the "box/shelf" where the amp lives at the top.

I have a Barcus-Berry piezo bridge pickup and buffer preamp on the upright, an Ibanez Roadstar II with roundwounds & humbuckers, and a classy old 30" scale Sekova ripoff of a Guild Starfire (well, kinda -- has a trapeze tailpiece) with flatwounds and a huge 9.1Kohm single coil. As long as I don't push the Master past 8 with the Gain up to about 7 (of 10), this righ sounds like a small thunderstorm. It ain't no SVT, but it fits in my trunk with room for gig box, stands, etc.
If you dime the Gain and flip the Bright switch on, you can get pretty cool sustain by diddling the Limiter pot towards the high end. A nice surprise for an amp of this vintage.
There's hardly any noticeable hum unless the Bright switch is on; dunno if one side of the op-amp is bad, or just a leaky capacitor. Even with the high-pitched hum it makes (kinda like frying-egg tube noise) it's covered up by "real" signal as soon as you start to play. Since this is the only one of these amps I've ever seen, this noise may be unique to this single specimen.
I wish there were a mid-range EQ pot so I could bring out more of the upright bass's character; I can't always get what I want with just the Bass & Treble pots. When I leave the Bass pot flat and turn up the Treble just a little, with 5+ Gain setting and some limiter, I can slap & pop nicely on this, assuming i'm using the right bass (the Ibanez in this case). Playing the upright along with a 200-watt lame country guitarist/vocalist with a pretty good drum machine, I can keep clear tones coming out that cut through OK.
When I've needed a whole lot more volume than this can give, I've miked the cab through the mains rather than change to a beefier amp -- I like the tones too much.

The proverbial brick sh*thouse -- nothing seems to hurt this thing, as long as I keep track of where the cloth grill is in relation to my knees, car trunk contents, etc. Cabinet is 3/4" plywood or particle board, with another 3/4" baffle. This thing hasn't even hiccupped yet. Works right out of a -25degF. trunk (mebbe makes the transistors into superconductors?) :)

Soon after I got this thing I emailed Crate (SLM, the same folks who make Ampegs now) about a service manual. I'm a professional communications & audio repair tech, and I try to always have docs on anything I own. Nice gentleman there photocopied a shop manual and snailmailed it to me gratis. I've been able to score spare power transistors for less than $5 apiece, since they have a regular industry nomenclature and are commonly available. I feel confident that I or any competent tech could troubleshoot any problems easily and inexpensively -- nice simple design and accessibility to innards. Although, for purists, the amp is built on a couple of PCBs instead of PTP wiring. For me, that just makes it easier to work on :)

I've been playing for 35 years, both upright & bass guitar. I've owned an SVT <whimper!> (I want another one), a Vox Foundation Bass amp, a Sound bass amp in the 60s (but not a Sound City), and other homebrew stuff, all in the past. If this were lost, I'd probably opt for a Fender BXR 200C or Ampeg B100R as a replacement, but I'd hope to find another one of these (not very likely, though.)
I've put in another line out jack that isn't affected by the Master Volume pot, so I can send a fixed level to the mains or recording board withoug freaking everyone else out every time I wanna change the stage volume, but that and a better carrying system are the only things this seemed to lack. Well, maybe a true compressor instead of just a pre-gain and limiter, too.