Crate GX15

Heres a plan and simple review from metal guitarists standpoint. I bought it from a friend who took up guitar, but soon quit afterwards, and sold it to me basically brand new.

As far as a simple amp goes it has what it should have. 2 channels, clean, and OD, with EQ's and a headphone jack etc.. so lets move on.

Using it with a Jackson RR-5, with stock pickups.. blah blah. I play metal, the likes of Hacride, Meshuggah, Gojira, Opeth, Psycroptic, Textures, etc..

Like everyone is saying, it sounds very muddy. I honestly cant believe anyone gave the sound quality higher than a 4. As far as the clean channel goes its super bassy, you cant get even close to a clear sound. So basically its going to suck with pedals.. I've tried it with a Boss Metal-Zone, and a digitech RP2000. Basically what will happen is you will get used to the ****** sound and start to think its decent, until you actually play a different amp and you start to remember, oh yes, its awful. The OD is just muddy also, cant get a nice high gain sound, very muffled, and poor.

As far as Crate goes I own this amp, and a Crate cab. Both have been beaten pretty hard over the years, but the sound quality never gets any worse (or better, sadly). I must say Crates stuff just doesnt break, so Ive never had to deal with customer service.

Refer to reliability.

OK amp for a starter maybe.. as long as they can find it cheap. I wouldnt recommend it though, because they will get used to a terrible tone and things just wont sound right. So playing along will basically just suck.

It's just has clean level, OD level, OD gain, Low, high, and mids. Nothing special, theres no reverb or effects. It doesnt come with a foot switch in fact you cant even use a foot switch with it.

Dark dark dark dark muddy muddy muddy. If it wasnt so muddy it wouldn't be bad, and it has a decent amount of gain. The cleans are actually pretty good it doesn't distort until around 6. I play metalcore, hardcore, metal, thrash, and melodic metal. I have a Ibanez grx20L with humbucker pickups and a digi deathmetal. Even my deathmetal sound muddy through the clean channel.

It's never broken down or anything pretty reliable, and i have had it since late january. I wouldn't gig with it because it says 30 watt max on the back.

never dealt with it.

I dont own but i've been using it since january and over all its probably a 5.5 all together.

Well, I didn't expect much when I was buying it, so I was a bit suprise. It has two channels (clean/overdrive) with a button used for switching between them, 3-position equalizer, volume knob, two knobs for overdrive (gain, level). It has a power but rather for use in home. It's made for versatile styles of music but in my opinion it's rather for rock and metal, than clean music.

I play rock with it on my Cort Z-42 and I'm satisfied with the sound. It's has very good basses, but not such good high noises, so getting them with bad guitar could be very frustrating. Distored channel is very dirty and I don't like it, very brutal and it can be used only for metal.

No problems with him so far (First owner used him for 2 years and now I'm using it first year).

Never heard of them

I play with some effects: digitech rp80, chorus koda, digitech hod rod and I'm satisfied, but it's pitty that it hasn't got even reverb. But for this price you can't get anything better for home use and beginners.

Pretty basic features but for a practice amp this seems to work fine.
Gain knob, Volume knob, Treble knob and Bass knob. Input, Output and Phone jacks. Powerking 15" speaker.
Single Channel but can be great if used with a distortion pedal.

This is my setup; Squire stratocaster, big muff pi (Russian), Boston GX-15.
When playing clean, this amp has a warm tone which is suitable for jazz or softer rock. With the gain knob maxed out it produces a fuzzy distortion which is pretty cool. I find my big muff pi works fine through this amp but I would only ever use this amp for playing at home. I would never gig with it. When the volume knob starts to get past 3 o clock it starts making an ugly distorted sound, but for playing at home it goes as loud as you need it to go before it starts distorting. Put it this way. I've never turned volume to full in the 3 years that i've owned it.

This amp has never stopped working. It is incredibly reliable

never dealt with them

I mainly use this with the speaker output into a pair of quality 2X12 Peavey Black Widows. I never use the dirty switch. Since I use multi-effects I put the EQ mids on ten, the high on zero and Bass in between. this is a little secret if you have multi-effects.

I tried a Crate amp 10 yrs ago in a studio and I was intantly addicted to the sound. I play classic rock/rhythm/blues. I use this as a practice amp, but it sounds like the real deal with the flex wave. I have 120 Watt Tubes on my Peavey, but for practicing I prefer to use this amp. It crunches tone. I use this with Boss ME 50, Aphex Exciter, Rocktron Nitro and Bad Monkey/Screaming Blues. I don't use the little speaker, except once in a blue moon. This amp has enough volume that I never turn it over half the way in my living room.

Rather dependable. No gigging with this little practice amp. Although who knows, Neil Young gets his sound from a 15W Fender pumped throgh a PA.

After 4 1/2 years the amp crapped out. I brought it in for repairs with the 5 year warrenty within the last week and had it fixed at Sound Check, Nashville. I didn't pay a nickle. That to me is a gift. The price for repairs was more than half the value of the amp.

I like Crate's tone. I also use this with Boss Amp Machine and I can live vicariously through Marshall, Fender, Vox, 5150, and Mesa tones. I just don't know about it's overall reliabilty, you get what you pay for.

Really nothing special. Non-reverb model.

Best one word to describe it 'Muddy'. Just not very exiciting. Can make some pretty good blues sounds, what it's probably best for probably. Haven't played many different amps, but this amp just seems a bit biased on the bass.
Overdrive Channel: Never left me wanting more gain.
Clean Channel: OK. Basically all I can say.
Speaker out has some hope in it, maybe it's the speaker responsible for the loss of brightness?
Seems pretty loud for a 12watt but what do I know?

Seems pretty tough. Had it for a few years now. One thing I just noticed recently was I had it on the overdriven channel and it would sort just lose some of the volume/drive, like the gain knob had been turned down. Pretty strange, happened a couple of times randomly. I'm not worried about it though.

You should easly get this for less than the $120 that was for at the time. I wouldn't recommend it unless you can find it very cheap (under $50) and you are just looking for a clean bluesy sound to practice on. It's not very bad and not very good, just an O.K. amp.

two channels, no footswitch (unfortunately), two of the useless jacks you usually find at the right in amps. Volume in the clean channel, volume and gain in the OD channel. High, bass and mid. made in 2001 or 2002.

2004 squier strat copy, single coils, and a les paul copy. Play mostly blues, prog rock, symphonic rock and a bit of everything.

Clean channel is muddy. Very unfenderish, even more dull than a marshall's clean channel - note that the owner's manual says 'crystal clear'. Not very usable - i usually just use the OD channel and turn the volume down on the guitar if i want clean sound, due to the fact that there is no footswitch jack. Distorts at about 6 - unusable.

From the OD you can eventually get a decent sound if you play around with the knobs, but just one that will get you through. It is plain dull, no spark, no passion. Just sounds mediocre. It doesn't allow much tonal variation, does not respond to different pick attacks or changes in playing strength. It has only one sound and it's crap. Just boring, sounds like shit at over volume 5. Absolute crud. Maybe i am a bit harsh in judging or my playing is still shitty but i've played with 15W solid state amps sounding loads better. This doesn't sound like anything - no wonder i got it new for $85.


Sounds quite loud for only 15W. Still not enough for rehearsals. Not noisy at all, even with single coils - there are amps far more noisy. You can get a quite decent sustain if you stand near the amp when it is facing slightly upwards - just find the exact point.

I suppose the amp is quite reliable, as it is simple. I can't see anything that could possibly go wrong, as it is just plain solid state. And if it did it would be cheaper to buy a better amp than to repair this i guess. Anyway, i've had this amp exposed to sunlight, rain, temperature changes, falls, humidity, lack of affection, everything. I even painted it white with regular wall paint - looks ridiculous. Hasn't suffered any damage. Sounds just as bad as the day i bought it.

Never dealt with Crate. And i wouldn't do so if the amp broke down or something - simply don't care. I suppose it wouldn't be any use anyway as i live in Chile.
Warranty is 5 years - quite impressive i must say, though i doubt anyone would stay with this amp that long

Been playing for about ten years since i was seven, but i only got an electric in 2002.
Only amp i own, don't have money for a tube amp. But i am saving for a valvestate which is more decent.

If it were stolen i would do nothing.

I only got it because I didn't know a shit about amps. But I guess that for 85 dollars it does it job well, and i am thankful that it has gotten me through various situations.

Vesatile enough for rock-blues styles.
2 channel.
Good Reverb.
No footswitch.
Headphone entrance.
Output for more expand or register (but a rec on pc with this amp will have some "zzzz" not desired.
You can use it everywhere, very good for home praticing, a perfect "first amp".

Mexican Telecaster 72 custom
American Telecaster Plus '95.

Not noisy but also not so dynamic when you're playng, reverb seems not like any crash in his area.

Clean channel ok.

Distortion's very brutal and rich. Rare to search in a Marshall or in featuristic amp of any type.

Solid as small.

After 4 years little malfunction in input entrance, corrected by myself with a little bit of attenction.

I hope i'll never dealt with them.

Good amp, you can count on it for homeplayng and also for homerecording.

I would buy it again but you've always to check every amp you can every year for a calm purchase.

El ampli que me compre es del a?o 2002. Es muy versatil cuando se trata de tocar algo de Rock & Roll, Blues, etc.
Mas caracteristicas lo encontraras por internet eheheh
pero a lo que se refiere a estructura es buena, sus efectos son buenos para un amplificador de 15W

El ampli lo estoy usando con una guitarra Samick, de 3 pastillas simples, y los estilos que toco son mas METAL & Rock
Mira, el sonido en general no es muy genial, de hecho cuando aplicas mucho GAIN con distorcion el limpio muere, aun asi tiene mucha mas potencia sin distorsion, mucha mas! solamente que no es distorcionado eheheh
El sonido distorcionado lo aplico con una pedalera de efectos que neutraliza el mal grado de limpio. SUENA POTENTE PARA SER UN AMPLI DE "10W".
Si quieres tocar en una banda, no te recomiendo un crate de 15W porque el sonido de la bateria o bien del bajo se lo comera.

No se si sea muy fiable.
Muy fiable seria si empezaras a tocar en tu habitacion, pero no para conciertos o tocar en una banda.
Pero, lo que quiero destacar es su estructura eso le da puntos extras :)

no se, no la he reabilitado aun.
Ademas que lo tengo en optimas condiciones, ninguna falla :)
sobre los a?os de garantia creo que es de 5 a?os.

Muy bueno para los que empiezen a tocar guitarra con este ampli, pero no recomendable para empezar a tocar en una banda.
El ampli de casa.

well..i got this amp free which was a step up from a silvertone smart III's edition amp i had..it was like 12 watts and the most god awful thing in the world., this one was definatley better.

speaker out is always good which this has, 2 channels one clean and one overdrive which the OD sounds hella better once u play it through a cab rather than the lil speaker it has in it. everyone else has teh features so just read there. would be good if it had a foot switch but hey..its a lil practice amp....live with it...and the OD channel could have a cuple more knobs but again the price...o well. the speaker out again was a nice addition

used a bc-rich warlock (pukes) bronze series then upgraded to an ESP/LTD MH-100FM (o ya baby) used a metal zone mt-2 (sounded alright thru this amp.

the clean channel is decent as well as teh OD but tends to break up and sound crap the higher u get.

done expect to much of good sound thru this..its a cheap amp....you want good sounds dish out the extra money for it.

if kicked...dropped this lil sucker as well as banged it aorund on accident...nothign damaged....very reliable

never had to deal with em

if your new to guitar...get this....its cheap...has a distortion channel...its good enuff till ur better than the amp and need something more pro.