Crate GX15R

Basic two channel amp with reverb (spring reverb I might add, not the digital stuff), shared EQs between the channel, volume controls for either channel and a gain control on second channel. All the basics and nothing else. No effects loop, but has a headphone jack and a external speaker out jack on the front. If you need any more info just check out the million other reviews, pictures, descriptions, etc scattered all over the web. I give it a good rating because it has what you need and nothing you don't. It could have an independent EQ for each channel, but for under fifty bucks I can't complain at all.

I use a fender strat with a Duncan little '59 at the bridge and a custom wiring job. The clean channel on this amp is pretty good, nice and bright with the strat and the distortion is very good for a classic rock sound. I don't think the metal-heads would like it a whole lot, the gain is not really excessive and its more mid-voiced anyway. If you like the sounds of the '80s and '90s hard rock bands you'll probably like this also. The reverb is pretty good, a little bit more 'springy' than you might like but that's not to noticable once you get going. I've also found that if I crank the reverb all the way I can get some feedback going on in the springs themselves (could be useful but mostly just annoying). This is an older version of this amp, still the FlexWave 5 preamp but before the GFX series. I've owned a GFX-15 and I went back to this one. It seemed to me that the digital-ness of the GFX series just killed the smoothness of the tone. This amp gets admirably close to a tube sound, very smooth and warm, where the GFX-15 had a graininess, a spikey sound, right in that area where the tubes start to break up. By itself I'd only be able to give the amp about a 7 in the sound category but...

HERE IS THE KEY TO GETTING THIS LITTLE MONSTER TO SOUND GREAT!!! ---

Forget the little 8-inch piece of garbage in the box and plug this bad boy into an external cab (2x12 or 4x12). The difference is astounding. I know its only 12 watts but through my 2x12 Madison cab this thing can rattle the windows. The stock speaker just doesn't do the pre- and power amp justice on this thing. The tone controls acutally make a difference with a good speaker setup and the Celestions in the cab smooth out the sound to the point that I actually prefer this sound to the modern Marshall TSL heads (although that may be a heresy to some of you tube snobs out there!). I've played a lot of amps and this little thing driving a quality cab is one of the best I've ever heard. The only problem is that I can hardly stand the sound of the stock speaker now! Crate's FlexWave 5 technology actually does sound good when you couple it with a good quality speaker (at least the earlier versions did).

It's never broken down on me yet and it's built like a tank. I could probably drop it out of a third story window and it still work just fine. Its solid state so I don't see too much that could go wrong with it anytime soon.

I bought it used and its way past the warranty anyway. Besides I've never had a reason to contact Crate. Should be pretty easy to get fixed though since everybody sells them.

I'm getting tired of writing so I'll be brief here. Basically this is a little beginner's amp with a crappy 8-inch speaker and a spring reverb until you plug it into an external cab. After that it can be a firebreathing monster or a smooth crunch machine. Aparently the electronics here are very good and very limited by the speaker and cab. So if you are a beginner and want a good amp to start with you'll do alright with this one. When you get to the point where you need something more, spend you money on a good cab instead of another amp and see a side of this one you haven't before.

2 channels, reverb, headphone and speaker jack. pretty basic, just sucks when you want to switch channels quickly and move the volume knob by accident.

for the size and money, this amp really delivers. gets loud enough to play with others unless there's drums. as you would probably expect, distortion seriously lacks crunch, but setting low and high to 10 and mid to 2 gets a great sound for such a modest practice amp. actually recorded my band's first cd in my bedroom with this thing

never given me problems. even after cranking it up to 10 for 2 years while in a band the sound isn't bad. even played a bass through it in that band for a while. kind of amazing, really.

in the 4 years i've owned this amp, i've never had a problem

couldn't imagine a practice amp much better. reliable, light, cheap, and decent sound. what more could you really expect?

This is an amp I use for practicing. Anything louder would get the parents mad. My brother who has been playing for ten years gave me this along with an Ibanez guitar. I really don't see many features. There is an over-drive and head phone jack on it though. Nothing to fancy

Good for lower volumes. Don't try blasting down the house with this cause it's not gonna happen.

I turn the switch on, it works. Never had any problems what so ever. Would never, ever, ever, ever, ever, use this in a gig.....Maybe for looks. If I were to gig with it i probably wouldn't use a backup.

Never beat it up so bad i needed customer support.

I think this is a pretty descent little amp. It's good for practicing in that little corner in the house. It's a pretty good amp for a beginer on a tight budget. But beginers if you have a little bit bigger budget get a Marshall stack....No a Marshal 30 watt should be good for you. I'm giving it a 7 because it dosn't have the sounds i want and is way to quite.

Ha ha What can i say, i'm posting this just because it was my first amp, classic. it's a nice little amp, i used it for almost 3 years, period on wich i came to play live some times, with a good mic on it....nah, dosen't work. that's why i bought my marshall vs-265r (130 watts rms!!) now, that's power!

i was using a crappy samick, it was just fine for practice alone at home, in fact, i still have it for that purpose, the other amp is at my band's house...
the distortion can sound like distortion at low volumes

i would not use it on a gig ever again.
It's virtually undestructible! i have thrown it down a hill, over a wall, i have kicked it hardly and it has never ever give me a problem

n/a

i will never sell it, (basically because it is very cheap)
dont buy it as an amp, buy it just to hear your guitar when there is no amp:)

I have no clue when this amp was made. I bought it used for about $50 and it is quite possibly the best $50 I have ever spent.

This is a great amp for practicing in your room(it's got a headphone jack, so ur parents can't come in at midnight telling you to turn it down. It's got two channel's, clean and overdrive. There's 3 knobs for eq(low,mid,high), a level knob for the clean channel, and gain and level knobs for the overdrive channel. There's also reverb, though I don't use it because i really don't think it's that good.

I have a Yamaha pacifica with two single coil pickups, and a bridge humbucker. I play mostly punk, ska, and hard rock, but i've also fooled around playing older stuff like lynrd skynrd, and pink floyd. This amp(as i said before) great for practice. It's not real noisy, until u turn it up pretty loud. I don't ever really use the overdrive channel, cause the sound isn't that good. I use a Danelectro Fab tone pedal instead, and overall the setup sounds decent. I'm in a band now, and we're not doing gigs yet, but AT MOST i would use this amp for a house party, and only if it was a house party where it was going to be so loud you wouldn't need to hear anything. Turning it up to about 7-8 when we're practicing, it gets hard to hear the clean channel if i'm not using the humbucker. I can hear it fine with the distortion on, but the sound quality drops immensly when it's that loud. If your on a budget, and all u need is an amp to practice with, and occasionally jam with some friends, the sound you'll get for the price is well worth it.

I bought this amp used, and i have NEVER had any kind of problem with it. No matter what other part of my rig is malfunctioning the amp has never failed. I wouldn't gig with, unless i didn't need a whole lot of sound (i.e. just playing guitar at a quiet get-together, which i'd never do), but if needed to, this amp wouldn't need a back-up. Period.

Never dealt with the company, never hope to.

I've been playing for about 6 years. I still have the same guitar I started with, and this is only the second amp i've owned. My first was one of those Marshall MS-2 micro half stacks, 5 watts or whatever. This is basically a practice amp, but it's pretty good for it's price. I would definitely recommend it to anyone getting started. It'll serve you well for the first year or so. However, if I wasn't so broke, i would have upgraded to a larger amp. If it were lost or stolen (how do u lose an amp?) i probably would upgrade at this point because i need something larger. All in all, Crate gets a big thumbs up for this little guy.

Around 1994, sound great for what i play, blues, rock, some metal..although i need an effect pedal to get really creative. Has 2 channels clean and overdrive. The button for switching between the two is really small. Has a headphone jack. Needs and effect loop. I have used this amp for gigs, but I have to run it through a PA system to get any volume, because if this baby get cranked up to loud you can really tell what you paid for it.

I use an old Stage CS-327 Strat Copy S-S-S pickups, 2 tone, 1 volume 5 way switch I have had this guitar 15 years, also I use an Ibanez RG270 occasionaly. Works great for me, althouh most of my sounds come from my ZOOM 505, and 505II which I link together. As I said before I play mostly blues and rock. The amp is only noisy if you turn it up too loud, but at lower volumes it sound good..I occasionaly record with this amp, turned up to less than 1 just enough to make a low sound and it works great. No variety in the amps sound hence the pedals, but before the pedals this amp worked great... a really good practice amp. the clean channel can be noisy if cranked up to high... the distortion is great a low volumes

no problems in almost 8 years... it have moved from Texas to Cali with no problems, even been in storage for a little while....works great.

I haven't even contacted them...Don't know

I have been playing roughly 13 years, and i still suck. I also own a Carlo Robelli 7 string that sound really great for a guitar that cost less than $200.. Really rich sound.I have a Roque bass amp that sucks, and a 3/4 Carlo Robelli bass I bought for my wife that she never plays...when i need to record a bass track I use my Crate gx15r and just run it a the same low volume and it works great. I would buy this again if I didn't have the money for a Fender or Marshall practice amp...So overall not a bad amp, reliable.

This Amp has great features,all together this is a good amp.This amp has good power great for the music i play,which is heavy meatal.

The sounds of this dude is bad!!!(i mean that in a good way)The distortion is butal enough to fit my needs.

Very Reliable,no trouble here.

Never messed with them.

If this amp was stolen or lost i would most likely buy another,or the same,it depends,but all together this is a good amp,fits the needs of practicing.

2 channels, headphone and speaker jacks, 3 band EQ, reverb, etc. Nothing fantastic, but adequate for its size and price

My main guitars are Ibanez Jems and Universes, as I am into Vai, Satch, Dream Theater, etc. And truth be told, this little amp sounds pretty good. I just bought it as a travel amp, and it works very well for that purpose.

On the overdrive channel, it isn't really noisy, even though I have loud pickups and I leave the gain all the way up and scoop the mids. In fact, at low volumes, it sounds great. As you increase the volume level, it sounds worse and worse. By 10 you've got a mess of inarticulate buzz and grating feedback. The clean channel is perfectly respectable until about 7. Then things get ugly fast. On the other hand, you shouldn't really buy an amp like this with the expectation that it will sound great at high volumes.

Bottom line--it won't replace your Mesa/Boogie MkIIC+, but it will do a solid job as a practice amp.

Never broken, even when I travel with it. I treat all my gear nicely, so it's rare that something breaks. This amp is no exception.

Never dealt with Crate.

Solid, dependable, and good at low volumes. Don't expect too much. It's certainly better than the Peavey and Fender amps of comparable price, so be happy with it.

Features "Clean" and "Overdrive" channels. 12-15 watts pumped through adequate 8" speaker. Relatively lightweight and compact for easy transport. Solid enough to stand on :)

Overdrive channel is fairly useless. Sounds more like a glorified fart box. I used a Boss MetalZone pedal through the clean channel, and it sounded fine. The GX15R can get fairly loud for as small as it is -- good for solo practice or songwriting sessions with one or two other people (and NO drummer).

Decent reverb, but nothing spectacular for a 15-watt practice amp.

While fairly rugged during transport, the GX15R can qualify as a "disposable" practice amp. Mine died quite suddenly, and given the purchase price of $115, it would have been more cost effective to simply replace the amp instead of repairing it.

N/A

Overall, a decent amp for staying indoors. I selected this particular model because I have had decent luck with Crate amps for in-home usage. Compared to its slightly stripped-down twin, the GX15 (no reverb), the extra $20 for reverb seemed a better value.

While the breakdown of my particular amplifier was likely a fluke, the cost for repair is usually not worth the price of the amp if it ever breaks down. In other words, don't grow too attached to the GX15 or 15R! :)

Decent price for a decent piece of equipment.

Mine has a reverb and some equalizers, nothing great, but its ok for practicing, i feel this amp a little dull.

If you want to practice with it, its ok. You can`t get it into high volumes and distortion is bad, people should not buy this amp if they want something serious.

Its been ok since i bought it, i once forgot to get it into the house, it stayed in my garden, and that night, it rained cats and dogs, nothing happened (unfurtunatly), hehe.

Well, i wish i had changed amp. I don't like this amp at all.