Crate GFX212

These reviews make me cry. I cannot BELEIVE sooo many people would bash this amp. I am going on 10 years with this amp, and let me tell you my honest opinion on everything.

This amp has 3 channels: 1 clean, 1 mild distortion, 1 heavy distortion. It is 120 watts. It comes with slap-back echo, normal echo (VERY good echo), chorus, flange, and reverb. It is very easy to use, with a footswitch too.

I play modern rock, alternative rock, metal, death metal, technical metal, progressive metal/rock, pop/mainstream rock, and blues.

***This amp has the best distortion I have ever heard.***
***This amp can do it all.***

Distortion 2, the one that everyone is bashing, is by far the best distortion I will ever find, and I have looked long and hard. Of course everything is subjective and this totally depends on what kind of music you like. Let me explain.

I mainly listen to and play modern rock and metal. I don't listen to or play much classic rock. But, even if I did, Distortion 1 would suit perfectly. Its a crisper, lighter distortion that I use all the time as well, and sounds perfect for classic rock or blues. But for modern rock and metal, for example: 311, Incubus, Deftones, Staind, Paramore, Lamb of God, you know, Im talking 90s and above. Then this amp is perfect for you. And the Distortion 2, although it is thick, you can have whatever setting you want. If you want it to be super thick and get the BEST pinch harmonics for metal or have a good clean shred, distortion 2 is perfect, and clean. It is NOT muddy, or dirty. I play guitar every day for at least 1-2 hours a day, and I have NEVER gotten sick of how it sounds, nor am I interested in any other kind of distortion. Its 100% perfect in my honest opinion.

The clean is great, there are no complaints. The effects are great, mainly the chorus, and the delay. The delay is actually spectacular sounding, even with distortion, I use it for solos all the time. Reverb is great too.

Okay this is where its a little iffy. Ive had it repaired 3 times, and each time it gets more expensive. Ive had electronic problems and speaker problems. But you know what, its totally worth the hassle for the distortion I get out of it (Distortion 2.)

Meh. Theyre not the greatest. 2 Year warrenty isnt much.

BEST AMP EVER, BEST DISTORTION EVER (for modern rock players) IF YOU LIKE METAL, YOU MUST HAVE THIS AMP!!!!!

The digital effects circuit is passable, but lack of a footswitch control for it means you'll probably never use the onboard effects at a gig. Otherwise this amp has the features you'd expect with no glaring omissions but nothing that impresses you either. It makes for a decent practice amp, but tends to cut out abruptly when the volume drops below about 1.5, which is about the level of a somewhat loud conversation.

The clean channel is pretty respectable (doesn't amost every amp review say that?), but as others have noted since the amp is solid state it would break up to give you a nice, subtle grind as volume increases. On the bright side I found the clean channel takes some pedals well, in particular an MXR Distortion+ with an Ibanez destroyer loaded with Seymour Duncan PAFs. The first gain channel is passable, but I almost never used it since I got 99% of what I needed from the clean channel with pedals. Forget the second gain channel, it's just mush.

Never had a lick of trouble, but I never abused it either.

Never had to deal with Crate.

This is a farewell review, since I just replace the amp with a Marshall combo the other day. If you can find one of these for about $150 USD or less, it could make a decent practice amp, but in the few sessions I used it I had trouble competing with the other guitarist in terms of lead tone. OK, ok, and talent too. For a while I thought about replacing the speakers with Celestions, but didn't like the idea of spending $200 on speakers for an amp that probably would sell for less than that on craigslist. My overall rating would be higher if the amp had at least one good gain channel.

I bought this amp new around 1998. 3 channels plus fx with 120 watts seems like a real good deal to a budding guitarist. However, for a mature player it falls a little short of great.

No switch for the onboard effects limits their usefulness. You can't overdrive the clean channel as well as a tube amp, so no "edge of breakup" sounds are available. Dirty channels have somewhat limited EQ and gain range. Super-clean and super-dirty are easily done, but it's really hard to get a good "clean-ish" tone with this amp, and the second distortion channel is mushy and useless in a live band setting.

No controls of any sort on the effects insert means that you can NOT use it with certain effects, particularly those with hot outputs. Unbearable hum may result. I had to return 2 effects because they wouldn't work with the amp.

Speakers/cab sounds pretty good, and the open back disperses sound well in small to medium rooms. Decent bass and clarity, but somewhat lacking in midrange response, and as with most open-back cabs, it sounds much smaller outdoors or in large spaces.

I give it a 6 here because while it may impress new guitarists, it's only real virtue for experienced players is as a clean power amp.

Good variety of sounds but the sounds are only okay, not good. I use it with a Gibson Blueshawk with P-90s and a Washburn Idol series with 2 coil-tapped humbuckers. Both have mahogany necks, mahogany bodies, and maple tops. The clean channel is fine, the first overdrive is usable, but the second overdrive is very brutal-but not in a good way. Kills dynamics and masks the tone of your particular guitar. Mid cut "scoop" knob makes it unintelligible past halfway.

Effects sound okay, but with only an effects level knob, you're limited to their presets.

Some noise, not unbearable, except in 2nd overdrive channel.

This is why I wrote a review. I had the exact same problems as another reviewer. No problems for about a year or so, then intermittent channel switching/cutting out and finally no power. First culprit was the jack on the footswitch. I took it apart and the jack they used is a cheapo switched stereo jack (Marshall-style). Second problem was the 2nd footswitch (for selecting which overdrive) which broke internally, leaving it always on.

I had the same thing happen where the amp would switch channels without my help, and be fixed by whacking it a couple times. My guess is that the switching jack on the amp side is to blame.

I actually had it start crapping out during a performance, so I bought a Crate Powerblock as a replacement. I unbolted the amp from the cab and let it sit for a couple years, and have used the cab with the Powerblock in the meantime. Strangely, like the other reviewer, when I fired it up again recently it seems to work fine. The footswitch is still crap, but the amp is not behaving weirdly anymore.

Never called them.

The amp is currently in 2 pieces. I like the cab, so I used some scrap wood to convert it to semi-closed back, cover the hole in the front from when I removed the amp, and fabricated a speaker jack plate from scrap metal. Finally, I rewired the speakers (in series) for 16 ohm operation so it's safe for the Powerblock.

I have some background in electronics so my plans for the amp itself are to wire up an effects on/off switch, install a speaker out jack and build a frame for it for use as a head unit. If I'm really cool I'll even take pics and put the whole process online for the DIY community. (Search for Earth Tones Audio... maybe I'll get around to it)

If you take it apart (ONLY if you know what you're doing and won't electrocute yourself), you can adjust a trimpot that affects the sound of the first overdrive channel somewhat. It's very subtle, but you can change it to your liking (just mark where it was set by the factory in case you want to revert to stock).

I will add shielding, since there is no shielding other than the chassis on the bottom.

Overall I give it a 6 because I ended up with a very useful speaker cab and an amp for experimenting with. Some assembly required.

Solid State. The amp gets great tone with both gain channels up and the shape on 10. It has good power, I usually practice with it on about 2, but it seems that past 5 the volume doesn't jump as much between numbers like it did 1-5. It has an insert jack for effects and a jack for an external cabinet. The only problem i have with the effects is that with the effects on 10 it still doesn't seem to come through as much as I would want it too. The effects, are good, though. I use the flange and chorus often.

Right now I'm using 2 guitars on it, one is an Ibanez RG-370dx, my main guiatr, and a B.C. Rich Bronze Warlock, which i only use for Drop D. Both have humbucking pickups, and suprisingly even the warlock sounds good. I get great pinch harmonics. The distortion is great too.

Yes its pretty reliable, but it seems to lose power, as in volume, as it ages. Never broken down.

N/A

if it was stolen I probably wouldn't get it again just considering it's old design so really you can only get them used now. I would definitely ghet another crate though, I've palyed 3 crates and 1 fender now and the Crates' dominated. Onw thing i wish it had was a Wah setting in the on boards effects.

120 SolidState watts, 2x12" custom design crate speakers.

3 channels, 2 dirt, the first one is a simple dirt channel. the second one of them actually has a shape control, and is actually the useful one. The third channel is a clean channel.

This has onboard digital effects. 'verb, delay, chorus and flange. Not really tweakable. Insert effects loop, footswitch capability.

I bought this because I moved, needed a temporary amp to play, and it was powerful and inexpensive. I got this because some people said it can do a GREAT 1978 brown sound. It's kinda there, but really lacks the punch and complex upper harmonics that a real valve amp possesses. This is more like a cheap fuzz box is stuck in the front end. The contour does suck out the mids, but also your tone with it.
I tried playing with it both loud and low, and it just sounds fake and fizzy, even with the dirt 2 channel engaged with its gain around 2, and the shape knob a little more than half. I've waggled all the knobs all over the place one at a time trying to find if this thing has a sweet spot. Nada.
The onboard effects are useless. The reverb is passable, but once you turn up the effects mix past halfway, the thing starts hissing at you like crazy.

What I did is use this as a slave for my podxt bean. I take a patchcord from the one of the pod's outs to the insert jack on the crate, bypassing its preamp and using my podxt as the preamp. Ahhhhh. Much much better tone. The amp is now being used as a poweramp and speakercab only and does that job exceptionally well. Oh yeah, I set the bean to use the "studio direct" mode.

Now the drummer I've been playing with has got a tweaked kit and plays REALLY forcefully, so he's LOUD. I've got the pod's output volume a wee past halfway and it's nice tight LOUD tone with oodles of bass response. It really sounds like I've got a tight tubestack there. But then with a push of the button on my shortboard, I've got a shimmering vox ac30 or a firebreathing treadplate. It's a pretty linear response cabinet, with a little bit of hyped bottom end, and it doesn't bottom out at all. It's nice that it's an open back combo as well, so the sound disperses in front and in back of the amp. The benefit that it's no where near as directional as a sealed back cabinet, but really doesn't lose much of the lowerend. I have noticed that I've had to add a bit of high end to my patches to compensate for the lack of a tweater or highend driver in the cab. No matter, the end result is smooth and powerful.

I'm giving a rating of 1 for the stock crate sound. It's a pretty damned sad sound. The stock effects are USELESS, and put to shame by the onboard reverbs and delays on the podxt.
Now if you're smart own a good amp modeler, and want something with the flexibility of a VettaII without the pricetag, then this will help you along. It's by no means a true substitute for a 100 watt plexi, soak, and tapeecho, but it's plenty more flexible and portable and less expensive. For this, the Crate is a STEAL. I'll give this a 7.5

It's many years old, looks like it lived a hardlife by the time I got it, and hasn't crapped out on me yet. No tubes to get rattled or broken either! A great gigging machine on the cheap.

dunno

I've heard better, but then that stuff costs thousands more instead of under five hundred for a pod and crate cfx212.
When augmented with the bean, this a poorman's vetta. Never gonna whoop a 50W 2xEL34 tube amp for tone,volume and dynamics, but it's still great for gigging, heck, even recording.

Do NOT be duped into thinking that this does a good EVH brownsound on its own. It's a fizzy,hissy garbage can without some modern improvements.

Made around 2001 I believe. I loved playing on this amp back in the days of visiting Mars Music on a daily basis, and years later finally bought it. What made me buy this amp was how well it could do early Van Halen stuff, and its a 2x12 solid state! This amp has 3 channels: Clean, OD1, and OD2(a little heavier than OD1). Channel switching through all 3, has CD insert and cab out jacks. 120W of solid state power. With the volume on TWO it is very loud. As far as being versatile, it's fair at best. It does SRV and VH wonderfully for solid state; for any other style you may need to rack up some effects, noise gates, EQ's, and choruses to get this where you want. As said earlier, for VH or SRV type stuff, just plug in with no EQ or boost and you're there.

I'm critiquing this amp only for a VH "Brown Sound" style. The guitar I use is an OLP MM1FR (Floyd Rose) with stock pickups for now. This amp covers the style I want exactly. For the money, you really can't beat it. Not really noisy at all, which is good because my Behringer Vampire is nothing but noise and hiss. Distortion is brutal when dimed. But that's just it; it's distortion. Not clean and crisp like overdrive is. At lower gains it is a nice and somewhat warm overdrive. The Flexwave 5 preamp sounds killer. For the tone and style I'm after, I give it a 10.

Solid as a rock as far as I can judge. Well constructed 2x12 combo. No crappy spring reverb tank to bang around since all the effects are digital, so all you have to worry about is frying some circuits if you submerge the amp in liquids.

N/A

Been playing for about 9 years now. I own several guitars and 2 other amps (all solid state). Would definately buy another if it were lost or stolen, no question. Compared to my Behringer 120W 1x12 combo; its kind of like apples to oranges. The Behringer is built to do any and every style via digital modeling. Digital circuitry (for now) lacks warmth and clarity that analog circuitry provides. For a Van Halen modeling standpoint, the Crate wins hands down

What this amp lacks, however, is multi effects mixing. Phaser effect would be usefull, and it would be nice to combine the delay and reverb. Also, a tap function for delay, but then again, the newer model Crates have all these features. Again, best bang for the buck for early Van Halen stuff IMO.

No idea what year was made it in, but the "versatility" was one of the more appealing aspects about it. Sadly, Crate lies. They may call them other things, but here are the channels you get: awful sounding distortion, louder, more hideously awful sounding distortion and a clean channel. I play heavy metal, mostly, though there is plenty of punk and blues in there also and I knew going in that the onboard distortion was unsuitable for anything beyond getting pissed at the amp and tossing it down several flights of stairs. I will get into why I bought it later, but the amp I have does not have the attached footswitch, most likely because it is broken because they break rather easily (think shredded wheat breakfast squares). The clean channel with the onboard effects sounds decent, though the XT is actually a bit better. The effects and EQ take a great deal of time to tweak to get them to work together in a good-sounding manner. That clean channel is the only one I use and the entire reason I bought the amp. It is not lush enough to my taste, but if I get more time, I can probably dick with it enough to get there. The flanger may as well not be there at all, along with the two distortion channels. I can't believe anyone seriously thought those sounded good. At all. The Chorus is no competition for the battery-munching DOD Ice Box that I normally use, so that is also not very suitable. Chorus+Reverb does put a nice dimension on it, though it is hard to find a good balance using both at once. Reverb is very decent. The amp is loud enough for what I desire, however, which was part of my consideration when buying it. I will get to that later.

I use a stock Ibanez RG470XL through this, which I reviewed once but which I don't see any longer. No matter, as far as stock sounds go, this sounds decent on the clean channel with the aforementioned chorus+reverb setting. It makes zero noise. It is unbelievably clean when not playing, actually. I think you probably could play around with this and get more sounds if you had more patience than I, but I rapidly lost interest in trying. The clean channel was about as loud as I needed it at 5. I didn't check to see it distort, but Crates are usually decent on clean up at the higher levels. The distortion is a joke. In fact, this is almost two completely different amplifiers, a boomy, good-sounding one on the clean setting and a cheap, hackish pile of horsehit on the distortion side.

This is the main reason I bought it. Crates are, along with the Peavey solid state amps, workhorses beyond compare. I grow weary of electronics techs that do shoddy work on my Fender Roc Pro 1000 and while that is and will continue to be my main amp, I needed a reliable backup and you can't get any more reliable than these things. I basically bought 120 watts of power for $200, but I also bought the knowledge it would never fail, even if the Roc Pro did (and sometimes does if it gets too hot. Apparently, once I had a problem with it, now I can expect recurring ones, at least given the techs involved). As a working musician, I cannot tolerate failure of my equipment, ever. This one will be my crutch when I need it and I know it won't fail me.

I have never had to deal with Crate, but again, their warranties are the best in the business. I don't anticipate any difficulties here.

It was relatively painless to get an acceptable clean sound dialed in on this machine, about 30 minutes, which, considering how fussy I am, is somewhat of an achievement. The "dirty" sound I am still working on, however, partly due to refusal to do things the right way, it has taken me 3X as long and counting. This amp is both bigger and heavier than the Roc Pro and does a very good job of kicking out low tones you can feel, which will no doubt drive my bassist to drink. I have been playing on and off for 15+ years. My main amp, as noted above, is the Fender Roc Pro 1000 and will always be that amp, mainly because I have yet to ever hear anything sound better. If it was stolen, I would probably look for another one, but actually, probably any loud, dependable, solid-state amp would suit my purposes. As I said, this is to be my crutch if ever I need one, along with the Boss Metal Zone pedal I bought for the distortion simply because it won't fail me. As for comparison, I didn't bother. I saw this one at Guitar Center and bought it, partially because of onboard effects, which would enable me to keep the simple setup I insist upon, partially because of price, but mainly because I know I can count on it to do what it does, inherent limitations and all. It is what it is.

I don't know what year this amp was made. I can play any style of music with this amp. This amp has 2 channel, your choice between to overdrives and one clean channel. It has delay,flange, chorus, chorus and reverb and reverb. I use this amp for practicing alone but I'm sure it would sound great in a band situation. This amp has plenty of power.

I use two Gibson Les Paul customs and one Gibson Les Paul standard. I mainly play classic rock and heavey metal. The amp sounds really good if you tweak it just right. The amp has all the distortion you will ever need. The distortion is really good for a solid state amp. This amp is really great for what it is a solid state 2x12 open back combo.

I feel the amp is very reliableand would gig without a back up.

I have been playing for 17 years. I just own my 3 Gibson Les pauls, a fender 4x12 cab with celestion vintage 30's and this Crate GFX-212. I sold all of my other gear since I do not play out anymore

I got this amp bout 5 years ago new, its versitle for a practice amp its 120 watts rms what also translates to bout 95-100 watts i would not play a show with it, the first 3 years had no problems but then the crappy channel swith pedal broke that it came with but anyway.

im using a fender mexican strat with custom shop fat 50's single coil pickups and a shecter s1 Ok first off this amp is good for practice by yourself or for band practice and mybe a small gig like at a small party at one of your friends house or somthing, like many people before have said this amp sounds good until you get past 4 or 5 but after that forget the tone its just loud, the clean is alright i guess the distortion gets staticy and the feed back around 7 is damn near unbareable even when standing away from it, the effects r ok for a practice amp. I did put some celestion modern lead 70's in it and definitly improved sound by at least 50% the speakers it comes with r pure shit they fart really bad especially if u like to palm mute alot i play taking back sunday, saves the day, that type of music its good for, but of coarse only on lower volumes oh and the front grill is definitly to tight thats prolly alot of the farting problem right there but im gonna purchase a bv 120 or marshall dsl or mybe a bv 150 idk still undecided gotta see how my paychecks r coming in

the footswitch pedal HELL NO thats a piece the amp itself its reliable for bout 4-5 years ive had some problems recently with it cutting completely off then switching over to the clean channel without me touching anything idk some wierd shit

never had to deal with crate

ive been playing for bout 7 years and this amp was good for bout the first 4 years until i started actually playing bout anything u could throw at me solo's, rythem i play both from the free bird solo to weezer. like i said this amp is good if your just getting started or have been wanting to get a bigger amp than that 30 watt practice amp youve been playin the first year or two of your playing career but go ahead and save up your money and get a bv 120 or a used marshall if u want a amp to gig with

You should know the features

I use an Ibanez RG going though a Tech 21 Tri Amp AC and it sounds beautiful! I play heavey metal with a very loud drummer and have no problem being heard. I liked the gain on the amp when I bought it but I have matured since then and think it's good for practice, Thats it. With the Tech 21 I can get any sound I want.

Hasn't broke yet and I've had it for 4 years but the footswitch stoped working last month but I never used it.

Have a 5 year warrenty just incase.

With a good distortion pedal this amp kicks it. The only way you can't get a good sound out of it is if you don't know what the fuck your doing. I don't know why people complain about feedback. It's going to happen! Even Zakk Wylde has to turn down his guitar between beats so he doesn't feedback.