Crate MX15R Combo

Well, for a twelve watt practice amp, the volume on this thing is worthy. It can easily fill a living room, but don't expect to take this thing to any gigs, its not meant for it. For a practice amp, it pushes out a good number of sounds; a bit of gain on the overdrive channel makes this amp a pretty good blues amp, and the clean will let you use any pedal effect quite nicely. It's a good semi-distorted rock amp, but don't expect to get a smooth metal sound out of this (Tones like satriani are just ridiculous to think of anyway for an amp in this price range). If you're using this in a home studio setting, nothing professional, its pretty good, as it will work with pedals quite nicely. The Spring Reverb sounds great for a little amp like this, and can dial into a lot of different settings.

The clean channel, which is switchable on the unit, sounds all right with the reverb up a bit, but don't push it past 7 or 8 or you might get a bit of noise on the channel. I mainly use this amp with an Ibanez entry level S-Series, but I've plugged into it with a custom Reverend with three P-90's, and the tonal range was pretty nice. The EQ is pretty standard for the price range. The distortion sounds okay, but only with a little bit of gain, or with a lot of crunch. The sustain is pretty good, especially if you drop the tone on a neck position single coil. Give the Distortion channel a little bit of gain (bout 3 or 4), a lot of volume, and dial the reverb anywhere from 4-6 and you've got a pretty acurate Blues/Tube simulation, and sounds great with some Funk rhythms. The only problem with that is the overdrive channel barely comes out unless you crank the gain, but that's to be expected from a practice amp.

I bought this amp last summer, 2003, and it sounds just the same. I wouldn't ever gig with this thing, unless I was doing something solo for a room of like 8 to 10 people, and even then I would prefer something bigger. I still haven't had any loose pots or connections, and I don't think any will come for a while.

Crate's warranty is nice, 5 years on equipment and 2 years on speakers, but I've never had to deal with Customer service, considering the amp is pretty reliable.

What really struck me on this amp was the price. It's a lot cheaper than the Fender Frontmans and the low-end Marshalls and Peaveys. If you're considering an amp in this price range, don't be fooled into buying a Behringer or Rogue or something like that; the extra ten or so bucks will be well worth the reliability and tone. If this one was lost, now I would actually go for the Vox Brian May recording amp, but that's only because my budget is a little bigger now. I would get a new one of these probably, but I think they are now discontinued and I wouldn't want to go through the hassle of finding a used one. Great for the money, in fact, probably one of the best practice amps in this price range.

Bought it new in 2003, this amp can be dialed in for rock, blues, jazz, whatever. Has a nice clean channel, good overdrive, and reverb, plus an external speaker jack. For the money, I really like it. The only limitation is lack of footswitchable channels, but most amps in this category do not have this feature. My purpose for this amp was to go from the external speaker jack to my talk box for gigs, and also as a practice amp for home. It is great for bothl

I play a pair of Fender Eric Clapton Stratocasters, a Gibson ES335 CRS, a 68 Gibson Les Paul, a Danelectro Double-neck, a Dean resonator, a Carlo Robelli hollow body, and several others through this amp, and they all sound fine, especially since this is a 15 watt solid state practice amp. I do a variety of styles, and as with any amp, the sounds are there if you dial them in. The clean is nice and seems to hold up, nice with reverb. The overdrive is nice and raunchy.

No problems.

I have no idea, which is a good sign.

I've played over 35 years. If it were stolen, I might get another one. I was originally going to get a little Marshall of Fender, but when I compared the features and the fact they were all basically 15 watt solid state practice amps which all do about the same thing, the Crate seemed a better value for half the money. I have not been disapointed.

This amp was made in 2003 and I'm glad I bought it, it's great for at home. I play rock and blues and this amp is awesome, I really like the overdrive but I don't use it anymore because I got a digitech rp300a. It's your basic amp, 2 channels, headphone jack, speaker jack, blah blah. It's just a basic amp, I don't need any other features, It has a lot of power for only 12+ watts rms!

THIS AMP CAN BE REALLY LOUD FOR ITS SIZE!!!!!!! Right now I'm using a Fender Standard Strat (Soon to be a Gibson SG!!) that runs through a digitech rp300a, it sounds great. I play mainly rock and blues with some other stuff mixed in. It has spring reverb which surprised me for the price, if the reverb is all the way up, BAM feedback that will blow your ear drums ( no joke, gets annoying lol). When I play Hendrix songs, I get up to the amp and position my Dimarzio Super Distortion Single Coil right at it and i get nice controllable feedback. It's really great for that. I never really use the clean channel but it sounds pretty good when I do use it. The Overdrive is pretty good for the price on this baby.

I've had this for about 7 months and it's great. I would use it on a gig if it were louder, It's only 12+ watts. I've never had any problem with this amp so it's been reliable.

I've never had to deal with them, I don't think I will, It's cheap, I would just by another if I had to.

I've been playing for a little over a year and this is my only amp. I'm planning on buying a marshall half stack once I get some money but this is a pretty good amp for the price. If your just beginning or if you want a practice amp, this is the amp for you, it sounds good, looks good, and is reliable. If it were stolen or lost I would probably just save up and get a bigger amp, I'm planning on gigging but it's impossible with this amp. It was either this or a 10 watt marshall and this is worth the price. Very Loud for it's size.

I bought this amp strictly as an amp to play through in my livingroom, primarily late at night through headphones. 12W/RMS through an 8" speaker. 3-way EQ. I play mostly blues and the clean channel on this amp is VERY clean. The reverb, set at about 5.5, sounds really good. The overdrive channel, activated with a pushbutton (wish it had a jack for a footswitch!), really drives with the right combo of gain and volume. Better than the Crate GX15 and most of the other "practice amps" out there. It's not a Marshall Stack or a Fender Super Reverb or any of that, but hey, that's comparing apples and oranges. As a "practice amp", you can't go wrong with this baby. It weighs next to nothing and can be carried anywhere. I've played through amps costing a lot more than this that didn't sound anywhere near as good.

My main guitar is a Jay Turser JT-134TS, a cross between a Les Paul and a 335. I also use an Austin strat copy. Playing the blues with either guitar through this amp, I can get all the sounds I want, with all the subtleties inherent to both single and double-coil pickups. Typical of solid-state amps, it gets a bit thin in the upper registers, but at low to medium volumes, the amp is super-clean on the clean channel and yet "dirties" up very nicely on the drive channel once you determine the proper gain and volume settings. I'm talking "singing overdrive" here. I'm not into trashy distortion. If that's what you want, well, maybe tear the cone in the speaker??? (Heresy!) The reverb, at the right setting, gives you that "big room" sound. It ain't the sound of an Accutronics full-size swanky swishy reverb tank found on the old Fender amps, but hey, you ain't paying hundreds of bucks for this amp either! My Dan-O BLT slap-echo sounds real good through the clean channel when I want a bit more retro echo "surfing" sound out of this baby.

I've only had the amp for a month so I don't know about its reliability. It seems to be built really well, though. I don't anticipate any problems.

I bought the amp used off ebay and have no idea as to customer support. I live in Canada and don't know what-all I would have to do to get it serviced. Obviously, having bought the amp "used", warranties do not apply. But as stated above, the amp seems to be well-built so I don't anticipate having to get it serviced.

I've been playing for about 38 years. I've gone through a lot of gear in that time. A host of tube and solid-state amps. I stopped playing professionally about 8 years ago. What I wanted was a small light-weight very portable amp with a head-phone jack and reverb that would give me pretty well the same kind of sound I used to get from much bigger heavier "wattier" amps I used to own. A tall order. And it had to be light on the pocketbook too! Well, for under $100, after trying out a lot of other small amps, I don't think I could have found anything better. And from what I've read, if you plug this amp (via its external speaker jack) into a 4X10 or 2X12 cab, you can get a really big sound out of it. But for me that would be overkill because my ears are the worse for wear and tear after all those years of playing at "stage" volumes. Anything over 90db WILL cause irrevocable damage to one's hearing! (Sure wish the amp had a footswitch jack for channel switching, though...)

This is your standard 15-watt practice amp, but what takes it out of the standard realm is the spring reverb.

Basic controls, two channels, clean and over drive. Gain and volume on the overdrive channel. Volume on the clean channel. Three band EQ over all.

Single input, with headphone out and speaker out. I have not tested this to see if it is like a line out, but it's there.

Channels switched by a button.

The clean channel with a Strat type of guitar plugged into is sounds very good. It has a nice warm sound, clean reverb, and good lows and highs.

I play this at a very low volume so I can't say how it will work cranked up. But for what I do, it's not bad.

The over drive channel leaves a lot to be desired. Not a really good sounding distortion. It really breaks up the signal and shoots it off into stray tangents all over the place.

So far so good.

I purchased this amp to go along with my "beater" guitar that I keep in the office. It is a Squire Bullet Strat with three pickups, and a top loading bridge.

Great sound for this environment. The reverb is really good, and I like how it echoes when you kick the thing.

My daughter has an MX-10 and this is a much nicer amp. If you are considering the MX-10, you should spend the extra few dollars and the MX-15R. The reverb really adds a lot to the sound.

Got it in 2002 brand new as my first amp. Clean and distorted channels, but you have to press a button on the amp to switch channels. I play mainly punk music and it handels it ok, but when I say this I am taking into account that this a review of a practice amp.

The clean on this amp is a little to sharp and punchy. I would prefer to have a little more gain than it does, seeing as how it has none. The distortion is the hard part about this amp. Too much gain and you can barely tell when you've changed chords, too little and it sounds terrible. If you get it just right, around 6 or 7, then it really does not sound that bad at low volumes. Getting up around 7 on it for clean or distorted at the speaker starts to flub when you play low notes. While palm muting it flubs at even lower volumes. This is the reason I gave sound such a low score, even for a practice amp!

Never had a problem with it.

Never delt with Crate. Although the people at the Guitar Center are very freindly.

If you just want to practice with it its not that bad, I might try some others around the same cost first though.

It's a 15-watt solid state combo with one 8" speaker, two channels, clean and distorted. The clean channel is pretty good for all the clean stuff I play (mostly Collective Soul and Days of the New-type music) but the distortion doesn't really work for anything. Well, maybe if you're looking for a low-gain bluesy sound, but I don't swing that way. It has reverb which I use a lot, and I'm glad it doesn't have any other built-in effects because in my opinion pedals and processors are much better and worth every penny. This is NOT a loud amp; it's great as a lightweight practice amp, but you can't hear it over drums. And besides, if you turn the clean volume up beyond 6 or 7 it gets all scratchy and gross. At lower volumes, though, the clean channel can handle almost any style.

I play an Ibanez GAX-70 (I'm cheap) with twin Powersound humbuckers. As I said, on clean this amp does pretty well. The 3-band EQ isn't great but it definitely gives you a wide tonal range. As for noise, I rarely turn the level above 4 or 5, which is fine for practice but not when I'm playing with drums. I already mentioned the noise you get past 6 or 7. It's a good low-priced amp for practicing but it'd never do the job for even a small gig. The distortion is pretty horrendous. I play lots of alternative rock, as well as Metallica-style crunch metal. For that I use a DOD distortion pedal, which I love to death. It's the only distortion I need. In addition, I have a DOD chorus, an Ibanez Delay/Echo, and the amp's reverb. Between these effects, I can get a pretty broad sound. All I'm missing is a wah and maybe a more mellow distortion.

Can't say I've ever gigged with it, but I've done a couple auditions (in small rooms, of course) and played in living rooms and all that. If by some miracle I had a gig that didn't require much volume, I'd be comfortable without a backup. It's a simple solid state amp; what could go wrong? It's never broken down, never shown any changes in performance.

Never dealt with them.

I've been playing for 3 years, had this amp for exactly one year now. If it were lost or stolen, I'd be upset initially but there's no way in Heck that I'd buy another one. I'd get a more powerful Behringer or Peavey, but for now it's doing pretty well. I basically bought it because it was cheap, and for good reason. It's really simple and not very loud. I love how portable it is, and it's open-backed so I can stash my pedals and cords in there. I wish it had more punch, so I could at least compete with my drummer friend, Dan. In comparison to the Fender Frontman 15, I like the Crate's sound quality more (not as fuzzy) but the Frontman is louder for the price so it's a tossup. If you're as miserly as I am and are looking for a small, portable amp that can compete with a drummer, go with the Fender.

i dont know what year it was when it was built. had it for like a year now. Very versitile, i could go from death metal to driven blues to anything. This amp is way too quiet for a gig (15w), but its a killer practice amp, allthough im not that much into solid state anymore, but if s.s. is your thing for a practice amp, go forit

Ive gone from and epiphone les paul to an ibanez rg220, both humbuckers, and it sounded ok for distorted, not too good for blues. the newest addition to my rig is a tex-mex fender strat, and it sounds way to thin. rarely use my strat with this

Its never broken down, ever, so id get it again

never had to deal with it

playing for 4 years, have the strat i mentioed and a epiphone les paul. I have a mesa boogie studio caliber (oh my god the thing is god like)vox wah, dano flanger, if it was stolen id get another one. Bottom line-the things the best choice for a practice amp and at $100, you cant go wrong

Two channels - clean and distort. Low/mid/high knobs for clean. Reverb. 15watts makes for a great practice amp.

I bought this amp new at a Guitar Center when I was just starting out. I had a Fender Squier that I bought used. This amp is what I used for the last 6 months or so and have never had any problems. I play mostly rock, though lately I've been into the most low-key "jam band" stuff you hear from Phish and related bands; this amp handles just fine for both genres. Generally, this seems to be a good "all-around" amp, handling everything from heavy metal (Deftones-type stuff) to the Phish stuff I just mentioned. Great sounds, nice distort, and the clean doesn't break up even at high volumes.

Although I can definatly depend on it, I probably wouldn't use it on a gig (15watts and doesn't look too impressive). However, I would definatly use one of its bigger cousins (like the MX120R) on a gig. If they're as reliable as this one, I wouldn't have a backup. I've never had a problem with this one - sounds great all the time.

Never had a problem where I've needed customer support or a technician.

I've been playing for about a year now, and have had this amp for about 6 months. I now own a nice new Schecter S1Plus and it sounds great through this amp. I was originally planning on selling this along with my Squier, but I've reconsidered - I'm keeping this amp and selling just the Squier! I highly recommend this amp for anyone just getting into guitar or that needs a good practice amp. You'll probably want something else for gigs, but on your own or with another guitar player, you'll be all set.

2001 Crate MX15R 15 watt combo practice amp. Clean and "Overdrive" dirt channel. Clean has level control. Dirt has level and gain. Bass, Mid, and Treble equalizer works on both channels. Built in reverb, with out petal or other remote activation. 1 guitar level input, headphones and speaker output. 1X 15 watt 8" speaker.

I am using it mostly for rock... Humbucker on a Strat. Clean channel is a bit to crisp, overdrive is nice, but a bit rough. The clean channel can go up to 90% with out any trouble.

I have only had it for a year but it has never had any problems.

I havent had to have it repaired yet...

It would make a great first amp. I got it as a backup for my gig amp, and it has worked fine every time I have needed it.

Don't know or remember all the features, but one can find them on various sites. It had two channels, headphones, speaker outs, reverb, equalizer, but no footswitch. Enough stuff to get along with. Doesn't have a built in wah wah pedal or anything, don't expect too much.

Okay, "Sounds" is where I had a problem. I was trying one of these out in a music store and it hardly worked. I plugged the guitar in and nothing came out. I figured the volume on the guitar was turned down so I turned it but nothing changed. I adjusted the cord in the amp and the guitar ends and got sound for about a second. Then I turned the knobs around, to see if something wasn't set right, and upon turning the mid EQ a horrible screeching noise not entirely unlike feedback was emitted. This I found peculiar because the amp wouldn't play sounds from the guitar strings and pickups but it could feedback. I tried another one (same model) because the small amount of noise I got out of it wasn't too bad and I figured that it was a problem with the individual unit. But alas no. The other one did exactly the same thing, right down to the wierd input cord jack. Maybe the problem is with just those two units; maybe some guy was screwing around with all of the MX-15R units on the floor, but be careful. Not sure what to rate it because it didn't sound too bad for the one singular second that it worked but it made equal amounts of feedback and spent vastly superior amounts of time making no noise whatsoever. If you like feedback at low volumes, this amp's for you!

Well it wasn't very reliable in terms of working, but it could have been designed or put together wrong such that it exhibits the aforementioned symptoms of a broken amp. In this case, it would be reliably producing an absence of sound punctuated by brief moments of feedback. But I don't know what had happened to this thing before I use it, so I don't know.

I've played guitar for nearly a year, piano for about 4 years so guitar is a piece of cake. I have a Fender acoustic which I play classical music on (best way to learn guitar, but requires more patience than punk rock or summit evvy like dat.) I also have an Ibanez (well . . . basicly) GRX-20 which has been modified slighty. Two Seymour Duncan '59 pickups (I play classic rock and blues), blocked up tremolo (increases the vibration), push-pull pot for coil splitting (sound like a Strat).

Well, this amp was not too good. I am aware that the store's demo models are not always in the best condition, but for both of them to do the same thing . . .?
Try things out in stores, or else you might end up with a feedback machine :)

Made in 2001. 2 channel Solid State.Headphone jack.Reverb.It doesn't have a channel switching jack (only thing it needs).I use it to practice with my band.We play clean music with some wah & distortion leads.

I use a Mex Std Strat.I use both channels, and the overdrive is awesome for leads and power chords.It rocks.It's very loud.I practice with a bass,drums,keyboards,additional percussion, and it still projects well.

Bought it new.It has a 2/5 warranty so I'm not worried.I would buy another Crate practice amp if it broke down after the warranty period.

Never dealt with Co.

I've been playing for 6 years.I have a Fender Princeton 65, and I use this amp to practice.Sometimes I use a Vox wah,super chorus,and an eq.This amp is a good buy.I compared it to the Fender Frontman 15G, and this amp rocks the house.The reverb is crisp and the dynamic range is excellent.I love playing it as much as my Fender.

I think my amp was made in 2001, I'm not sure. It has two channels which are amazing, 3 band EQ, and reverb. There is an external speaker outlet which is very usefl if you play out of a cab. It's your basic 12 whatt practice amp. I would've sprung for a 15 whatt but this baby is a total exception. I use all of the features on this puppy, they're very easy to use. If I had to improve anything,it would come with a footswitch outlet.

I use a Musician's Friend Rogue ST-4 with a humbucker like a fat strat. I play hard core punk, anything that wold fit ito that category. I remember when i got this at Guitar Center, I wanted to get a GX-15. I testd both out and this amp was SO much better. I rarely play without distortion but it can crank out tone either way. I usually play with a great amount of bass when distorted which usually sounds real crappy with the clean channel. That wuld be the only downpoint on sound. Crates are known for amazing tone. The sound is so amazing for a practice amp. I would never regret paying 20 extra dollars for an amp this good!

Hey, I've nver had any problems with this amp, i just bought it and it looks like it won't go into he shop for a LONG time.

Although this is my only ampliier, i can tell you that this one is the best practice amplifier if you are looking for hard distortion. I've spnt 6 hours at the local guitar center and this sounds better than some of the fender amps they hav there. This s an amazing amp, comparable to mesa triple rectifiers. They are that good.

This was to be my first amp, however I had a budget, and after looking through the 8" Speaker practice amps, this one seemed the best at the time. This is a simple practice amp, 8" speaker, 12W of power, two-channels. Built in reverb, has external speaker out and a headphone out. Solid state.

I'm using a Ibanez GAX-70 combined with this to learn electric at this point, I mainly lean towards Blues and early Metal/Hard Rock. This is a great AMP (from my experience) compared to other amps similiarly priced and sized (such as Squire/Rogue Amps). I've been able to get some really good combinations using the reverb and gain channel.

As a new practice amp, this doesn't really apply, I've only owned it for about a month.

5 year warrenty, No direct experience with this, but the warrenty makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

I've been playing electric now for only about a month (accoustic for a few years on and off) and this amp seems to be a great learner for getting into the swing of things. Compared to other practice/beginner amps (such as Rogue, Squire, etc.), this one is great. I'd recommend this to a beginner on a budget not looking for something bigger to start with. I plan on going with something bigger (probably a 12 inch Tube) when I can afford it, but untill then I'll use this every day.