Crate GFX212

This amp was made in 2001. Mine was one of the first in the line. I have used it for a ton of different types of music and has performed well. It has 3 channels. One channel clean, one classic rock gain channel, and one rectified channel with lots of compression. I have used it in an oldies cover band, a classic rock bar band, a ska punk band, a country/rockabilly band, a Celtic Rock band, and my Alternative Metal band. It has fit the bill fairly well in all of those and is essentially an all around good amplifier. The effects would be better if their perameters were more adjustable but I really have no complaints about them. It has always had sufficient power for my needs.... the thing gets really damn loud for solid state, and I havn't noticed any tone fallouts..... but I'd never had to turn it up past 7 either.....
All in all, probably one of the coolest solid state amps you can get for the money. Lots of power and lots of versatility if you know how to use it.

I play a BC Rich Acrylic Warlock, Fender 50's Stratocaster, Dean Chaffin Boca, DeArmond S-65, Danelectro Hodad, and a multitude of other guitars through this amp and havn't had an issue with tone.... IT IS DIGITAL PEOPLE...... NO TUBES..... If you expect tube tone GO BUY A FRIGGIN' TUBE AMP!! The tones are not as transparent as tube amps.... one guitar is likely to sound very similar to another through this amplifier. One of the downfalls of solid state digital modeling. I also own a MESA/BOOGIE Studio Preamp and Strategy 500 Stadium concert rig that powers 8 4x12 cabs. ALL TUBE. ahem.... the Crate doesn't sound a thing like it. Why? Because it is a Crate!! Not a MESA/BOOGIE!! But I like the Crate for its reliability and portability. My only issue with it is they needed to design the cab with a closed back. That's where all the crappy rumbling and odd harmonics are coming from. I stick a pillow in the back of the cab and it improves the sound 100%. Plus adds a little bit more volume out the front.

Never broken on me. Never gig without some kind of back up. Idiots do that.

Never dealt with them.

I have been playing professionally for 6 years and this is a phenominal amp for the price. If you need power and fairly good tone (the audience usually can't tell the difference between a MESA/BOOGIE or Soldano, or a Peavey or a Crate) then this is the amp for you. I own tons of gear. Too much to list here, but I am glad to have this amp in my arsenal.

Theres alot of stuff on this amp and i use it to play with my band. I have never had a volume problem. I've played for 165 people and havent had trouble with being louder then the hard hitting drummer. But I'll make this simple...buy a tube amp. If your considering buying this amp, you would probaly like a carvin mts or a marshall, but I wouldn't buy this amp unless this is all you can afford.

I play hard rock like guns n roses, metallica, and medadeth and i dont use too much gain, so i figured out how to set it up without it getting to muddy. I use a epiphone les paul on the rhythm pickup. The clean is ok but nothing to brag about.

no problems after one year!

they are great when you email them. I've never called but when i emalied them, they answered quickly and gave in depth answers.

Buy a tube amp, Im getting the carvin mts. I would check that amp out!

Has the usual GFX-212 feature, 3 channels, 2 dirty and 1 clean. It has a few effects but they all pretty much suck except reverb and chorus, the delay and flange are not worth using. The footswitch is cheap and has broke already, but I had my bass player resolder the connection. It has an insert but I have yet to use it. It also has a Ext. Speaker jack which I have connected to a Crate 4x12 cab. It's 120Watt, but it lacks in volume, even with the cab. My band practices in a small room, and the amp plus cab has trouble competing with our loud drummer, unless the volume is cranked to like 5.

I use the GFX-212 with my PRS Custom 22 and Dragon II pickups. The distortion is great and fits my hard rock, metal style fine. It's not the greatest sounding distortion, but I would argue that there's not too many solid state amps with a better sound. However, lack of volume is a problem. When the amp is past like 4, tone drops dramatically, so basically it has to be mic'ed for gigs. Clean tone sounds great but also suffers at high volumes. The amp is very noisy on the heavy distortion channel, but I have a Boss NS-2 to cut out the noise, therefore it isn't a problem.

Amp is pretty reliable and is built very sturdy. The footpedal is pretty weak though, already had it fixed once.

Never talked to them.

The GFX-212 is a good amp for the price. I've been playing in bands for about 2 years, and it has served me well. Compared with amps of similar prices, I couldn't find something that suited me as well. I really enjoy to sound of the distortion and the look of the amp, but the weak volume and speakers disappoint me. I would definately replace it with a more expensive tube amp when I have the money. I think my PRS helps make up for the GFX-212's lack of sound; I've been pretty content with my setup up to the present.

It has the traditional crate features but with effects and gain 2. Power-wise it's beefy. Insert jack is good. The wattage is there but thats about it. Good for beginners.

My other guitarist uses this amp. I know it well enough to make an honest review. Hope it helps someone decide. Okay here we go...the grill cloth is way too tight. It always made a bassy farting noise. So we removed it and put the metal diagnal stuff with lots of air to escape. The gain is good ol' crate gain which to me is tinny as hell. The major complaint is the noise! You stop playing but the thing keeps on buzzing. If you mute your strings it should be silent. The power is the only good thing. We have a Line6 POD going right to the insert jack every knob turned off - put it on clean channel. Guess what with pod as the pre-amp takeover its beautiful. No more noise and the rectified patch is sweet sounding even with crate speakers. Got an xtra $250 for the pod and turn this into a monster.

Crates are reliable. Had many in the past never a problem.

Never dealt with them.

I play Line6 so I made him try the pod. Needless to say he got his own he loved it with it in font of this amp. 375 + 250 (pod) = look for a better amp kids!

basic 3 channel amp. Not very versatile. It comes with a footswitch and has a couple of shity effects

I use a Jackson DXMG with EMG 81's. I play metal and only metal. With a good distortion peddle this amp is useless for metal. The amps distortion is very muddy and sucks really bad. I use a metal zone witch sounds good on low volume but once you turn it up it gets extreamly bassy and is almost not useable. The clean channel is not very good but is good enough for me with the reverb it sounds decent.

nothin wrong yet

not a great amp but its good to start with for the money

I think everyone has covered this....

I have two guitars, Ibanez RG-470, all stock, and a RG-7421 (7string), bridge hum has been replaced with DiMarzio Blaze hummers.
Three channels, Clean is clean, sounds good with the built in effects. Gain 1 is good for blues sounds, and when cranked, can get a Marshall like sound (not quite there but close enough)
Gain2 is good for Marshallish tones to Mesa sounds - the combination of the shape knob, eq, and gain gives an extreme range.
With either guitar, it doesn't fart, until I replaced the speakers with Celestion G12T-75's - now it farts a bit when the volume is over 6...

Never, NEVER had any problems. I replaced the speakers becuase I have heard everyone raving about Celestion, and I actually ended up buying an empty ext. cab from www.avatarspeakers.com and putting the crate speakers in that.
I would not hesitate to gig without a backup with this amp. Matter of fact, it will be my backup once I get my Marshall JCM 2000 TSL setup completed.

I have emailed them before with questions on how things are wired for the ext. cab and other questions related to thier higher end amps, and they have been very helpful, and have usually responded within 12-24 hours.

This is an excellent amp for the musician that is jamming and starting to do minor shows. It is loud enough to keep up with a moderate to heavy playing drummer. I am getting a Marshall only becuase I want a tube amp...
Small word of advice, reload it with Vintage 30's - it will get louder...
The only bad part about this, is that my other guitarist has a Crate TurboValve 6212, a 60watt tube 2x12 combo, and that amp is way louder than what this amp can handle, even though it is 120w.
This the difference between tube and solid state...

This amp has alright features considering the built in fx, even though they aren't that great.

I don't know what I was thinking when I bought this amp. I hadn't compared it to many other amps, and it was inexpensive, so I bought it. After playing it a while I realised that it sounds like a little practice amp, but loud. I now have a Line 6 spider 212 which is more expensive, but better in every aspect than the crate.

It's solid state and has a 5 year warranty, so I wouldn't be worried about reliability.

Never dealt with them.

If you are really strapped for cash and can't possibly scrounge up more than 600 bucks, then maybe you would have an excuse to purchase this amp. Otherwise, I would recomend saving up for a line 6, they are the most versatile and best sounding amps in their price range.

All stated before, 3 channels, dig. effects, effects loop jack, ext. speaker jack, 120 watts rms. A lot of nice features.

I gotta admit, for the price, its a pretty good amp. It can get pretty loud. But the clean channel sounds a little weak, and the distortions are okay but there is a very bad difference in volumes when switching between them. The built in effects are not too great. For the money, its an alright deal. You get what you pay for.

This amp is built like a tank. I've dropped it and banged it soooo many times. I've broken things and made holes WITH it and the amp stays tightly together unaffected by it.

never had to call crate support.

You get what you pay for. Back when I bought it, it was the best deal out there, and I've played it at gigs and it has treated me nicely. The built in effects could have been at least decent but they lack feeling. I like the effects loop option and the sturdy footswitch. If you have 400 bucks and you want something loud, but this. If you have more, go and get yourself a Vox. They're worth it.

Three channels, Effects loop, Extension speaker jack, Effects ect. Read everyone elses reviews. I wish it had a head phone jack though.

This amp sucks so bad. The sound on the clean channel is really thin and does not sound good at all. The Gain 2 isnt that bad but it isnt to good. I had to buy a distortion pedal because the cheap plastic foot switch broke. I didnt buy another one because it would probably brake again. Dont try plugging in a regular distortion pedal because at the 4 volume it starts to lose tone and only gets worst from there. Also the spealers are really trash. They sound like they are gonna blow at any time. One more thing, the cabinet shakes like crazy when ever you play. It is really annoying

I would definitly try to get a back up amp because it sounds like the speakers are gonna blow. I have to mic the amp whenever I play with my band!

Haent complained or asked for help yet.

I dont think this is a good amp at all. You should defintly sve your money and buy a better amp.

I believe this amp was made in 2000. It is versatile enough for the styles of music I play which is thrash, power metal, death metal, black metal, and goth metal. It has 3 channels, clean, overdrive 1, and overdrive 2. It came with a 3 button footswitch or you can switch channels manually. It has built in effects (chorus, flange, delay, reverb) but they are nothing to brag about. I wish the effects were adjustable but they are preset to factory settings. I use this combo for gigs at small clubs. For medium to larger clubs I connect it to a 4x12 cab and it suffices. It is supposed to emulate tube distortion but I personally don't feel it sounds as great as a Mesa Triple X or a Peavey XXX but it wasn't made to compete with those amps. It's a great bang for the buck (under 400 bucks). But I'm not too crazy about the distortion no matter how I set it up, but hey for under 400 what do you expect?...

I use an Epiphone Les Paul Standard, Ibanez RG-220, Jackson PS-4, and a Squier Tele with this amp. For power metal and thrash it sounds OK but not great. The distortion is very "tinny" even when the treble and mid are turned down. I recommend using a separate distortion pedal such as the Metal Zone with it to get the distortion to your particular tastes, but hey if you like the tinny type of distortion then you're all set. The amp gets very noisy. The feedback is tremendous when gain is set on 10 and volume on 4, but I like tons of gain. You can compensate by lowering gain to around 6 and can have a higher volume of about 6 before the amp will have a stroke. The clean is OK but rather thin. Better to turn on chorus on the clean channel but clean goes bad when past volume 4. But for my purposes I don't need the volume past 4. At shows I put the volume at 4 and let the sound guy mic up the amp.

This amp is pretty reliable. I've had it for about a year now. But the knobs are loose now. I've banged this amp plenty of times and it is still ticking. The speakers got loose from its bracing and I just tightened it myself. Just the normal type of wear and tear that happens when you play a show almost every weekend. I think this amp will last me another good year before it needs a triple bypass. Let's be realistic, if you get 2 good years out of an amp in this price range, you've gotten your money's worth.

I haven't had a need to deal with customer support yet. I can fix most things myself especially the obvious visible problems, but when it comes to the electronic wiring on the circuit board, I will send it to a pro. I haven't had the need to go there yet. The warranty is for 5 years I believe.

I've been playing guitar for about 12 years. I own an Ibanez RG-220, Jackson PS-4, Epiphone Les Paul Standard, and Squier Tele copy and an Ampeg cab. If this amp were lost or stolen I would really be pissed because it has mostly the things I need in an amp for practice and gigging without the big bulk of a full stack. I would buy it again but it is now discontinued. I would buy another one used if it was in mint condition. For the price, I don't think you can find a better combo. 120 watts, 2x12, effects, speaker out so you can connect to a cab, foot switch. The only things I don't like about this amp is that the effects are not adjustable. They are factory preset and you're stuck with them. Also, the footswitch is very weak, made of cheap plastic. I had to buy a replacement for 30 bucks. The footswitch shorts out easily if you step on it too hard. Be gentle with it. I'm not too crazy about the distortion but it is good enough and I use the metal zone with it. Overall, I recommend this amp if you are on a tight budget. Considering its features and portability and its price it is a great value. But like all things you generally get what you pay for so be reasonable and look at the amp in that perspective.