Product: Crate CR-19 Combo
Price Paid: US $41.62
Submitted
05/20/2006
at
07:04pm
by
Matt
Features
:
6
Tiny little amp from the 80's, the golden era of hair metal and EVH.
Has the old "paint-spray" Crate logo.
Bought it used last year.
Pretty basic: Volume, 3-band EQ, overdrive switch (called an SCG switch or something like that on this amp), and a drive control.
8 inch speaker being driven by probably 19 watts, 4 ohm. The speaker's only rated for 12 watts, so don't drive it too hard unless you have a cab to run this through.
Has a footswitch pedal input for the OD.
Pretty loud for what it is.
Sound Quality
:
8
I play through this with my 80's strat copy, H-S-S configuration.I mainly use this amp as my practice amp, although running through a cab it could be used for small gigs. I play mainly alternative rock and some jazz, and this amp handles all well, from Wilco to Zeppelin to Django Reinhardt. The sound is really decent through the stock speaker, and even better through a nice 2x12.
The clean only distorts when it's maxed out, and only if you're running it through the stock speaker. Not so when you run it through the cab. This amp doesn't have an external speaker jack, though, so you may have to wire one up yourself, like I did.
Distortion is somewhat tubey for a solid state amp, and really starts to fuzz out when the distortion is maxed at 10.
EQ on the amp isn't all that great. I highly reccomend getting some sort of equalizer, pedal or rackmount, to go between the amp and guitar.
The amp sounds decent, but with an EQ pedal, you can really open up new sound possibilities. I couldn't ask more from a tiny practice amp, and would take this over a fender practice amp or even a marshall.
Reliability
:
10
I can rely on this little monster totally. Never broken down on me.
The volume control is a little fuzzy, but that's probably because it was used in a smoke filled home, judging from the scents that erupted into my nostrils when I opened the box that it came in.
Other than that, no problems at all. Pretty good for a 20+ year old practice amp.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Never had to deal with Crate, plus this model is an SLM era crate, so Crate probably doesn't have any info on it anymore.
Overall Rating
:
9
Great little practice amp. Nothing else I would expect from it. If you find one, buy it. They are rather rare, but one or two pop up on eBay regularly, so if you want a good practice amp, keep your eyes open. They go for roughly $40-50 bucks.
