Crate Palomino V32 112 Combo

You know the featues, I really like the boost switch. When I hit it the whole band knows it, cuts thru well for leads. As to the looks, everyone comments on it, they've never seen anything like it, that works for me.
I bought it at guitar center. I was going to purchase a Fender Blues Delux. The sales rep said try out this Crate over in the corner. I plugged in an SG and started to wail. The rep stood by the amp and twisted the knobs, (I always hate cranking an amp in the store). He turned it up and the store shook. Much fatter sound than the Fender.

I'm giving it an 8 because the overdrive hasn't blown me away but what amp is perfect? I have been cranking up the clean channel and it breaks up nicely for bluesy/rock sounds. Humbuckers distort sooner, My single coil strat stays clean with a lot more headroom. As others posts mention this amp accents your guitar very well. I'd love to hear a Rick 12 string thru it!
I play an Epi Elitist LP, stock pickups sounds phenominal using the clean channel. I play rock originals. I find the clean channel perfect, it is very responsive to pick action and chimes like old Who songs. My strat sounds great with the middle p/u selector and the s-1 switch pushed in. This creates a separate bass sound for the 3 top strings and a trebley chime on the other strings.
I'm not yet impressed with the overdrive channel. It is good but I still need a stomp in front. I plugged my line6 pod xt live in the front of the amp and loved it. I know that's not true tube sound but I still have great response from the amp and the boost switch is awesome for solos.
As mentioned before it is LOUD.

It does get hot on the top, the placement of the vent may attribute to this. I did get a rattle at mid volumes when I pulled it out of the box. After it heated up the rattle stopped. We'll just have to see what happens. I hope it doesn't overheat on a hot summer night. As to a backup I don't have one. Guess I'd plug into the PA.

I trust Guitar Center, I've bought so much crap there. They cut me such a good deal on this amp. If I have a problem they'll swap it out.

I've been playing off and on for 20 years, writing my own music mostly. I'm not an expert but I do like this amp. It fits into the trunk of my sports car nicely!

It has enough features for me. Only wish the footswitch had a presence switch, but so far I haven't really needed it.

I use Les Pauls ( my main guitar) and Strats. Fits my music styles to a T. This amp is a tone monster.Very soulful sound. Most responsive amp I've ever played.The notes coming out of this amp can either be sweet and mellow or they can slap you upside the head if you need it.
I was amazed at how LOUD this amp seems to be.
I use no effects pedals with this amp. I doesn't need'em.

So far , so good.
Would never use it( or any tube amp) without a backup amp at a paying gig. You never know what might happen. And I want to get paid ;)

Never had to contact the manufacturer, although the boost on the footswitch doesn't work, so I may give'em a holler ( haven't really needed the boost yet. I just turn the amp up loud and back off on my guitar volume knobs, and turn'em up when I need the boost )
Only wish there was info on the Palominos at Crates website. They don't even list'em.

Been playing for 30+years. Would buy this amp again. I may purchase another one anyway. Maybe the 15 watt version for smaller venues.
I like the way the amp looks. Looks classy.
When I tried out this amp, I was actually looking toward buying a Fender amp. Wanted a Twin reverb but couldn't see spending that much money, so I was checking out the Hot rods and Fender's other variations. Decided to check out the Palomino. I'd play the Fenders for about 5 minutes and then go to the Crate and stay there for 30 or more minutes. Nothing wrong with the Fenders, but the Pal was more unique sounding. Didn't buy the amp the first day.Thought about the sound for a week. Went back to the store to see if it was all in my head, tried out all the amps again (Twin and Super Reverb included), and brought the Crate home. Been terrifying the wife and kids ever since.

As others have stated, 2 channel all tube Class A made in 2006, uses EL84 power tubes and 12ax7's for the preamp and has the effects loop and floor switch for clean/OD and boost.

Using a '60 Les Paul Special with P90's and it ROCKS !! Sounds great on both the clean channel and OD, almost as good as a Fender Twin and very close to a Marshall.

This amp can get LOUD quickly when adjusting the volume at it's hard to believe it's only 30 watts, seems like a bit more to me. The clean channel has nice break up starting at 12 noon and the OD sounds fantastic, great overtones and sustain, especially for a sub $1000 amp. The OD is not enough for shred or metal but this amp can easily cover every other genre with no problem. With a Tube Screamer on the OD channel your in metal heaven.

Seems reliable so far after a month of consistent use.

I did notice the same problem with the floor switch as others that goind from OD to Clean there is a slight delay but there is no delay going the other direction. Not a big issue for me as I don't routinely switch between them that much during one song.

I also have noticed that the knobs do get very hot after 15 mins, especially if titled back, not sure if it would affect reliability but it will probably reduce the power tube lifespan. The vent hole could be larger, I think it's too small. I had a 12v dc fan laying around so I threw in the back and set the fan speed very slow (4v) and that was enough to keep her cool. It doesn't seem to take very much additional air flow to cool it down so possibly removing the vent cover might help enough, I'll try that later.

With a 5 yr warranty, that I've heard they stand behind, it should help easy worries if anything did go bad.

Have not dealt with them personally bit made a few calls to get specs and general info and they were very helpful.

This is a great amp for the price with the features I need. Separate controls for treble,mid and bass would have been great on both channels and a little better air flow would have made this a 10 but as it stands I'll give it a 9. I would not hestitate getting another one !!!

The Crate Palomino suits my style of music, from sparkling cleans for country, to a wide variety of smooth, warm, solid overdriven distortions. Couple the sound with the wet or cavern deep reverb and you should find your sound too. There are two channels, and plenty of versatility in both the volume and tone knob configurations. Headphone jack, Line out, effects loop, footswitch are all part of the package. The look of the amp is a "vintage modern" an eye-catching presentation done up in cream tolex and gold hardware.

The amp provides "clas A" power to stand out any where and anytime I've played out. I mainly use strats and teles. The amp shines. Phrasing and notes are crisp to chunky. I've yet to experiment with my semi-hollow or other humbuckers but I feel this amp will stand up to anyone's preferences. If there's one area of concern it's extranneous noise, but that could be tube break-in, grounding, or just the nature of the amp. I've not tried to tame the noise yet but I plan to investigate ways to eliminate it if possible.

Just too early to tell.

I'd expect support to be solid. Especially on any new issue amp.

So far so good. My friends raved about this amp. I have a good variety of other amps I use them for power or music style. I bought The Crat Palomino especially due to the fact that The Palomino has a unique and excellent sound quality for it's price range. I reccomend you find one and put it on your auditions list.

Made in 2005, has an overdrive and a clean channel, with some standard features like reverb. Two cool features are the presence button(no need for it to be a knob like others have said, it sounds fine and i would put the knob at 10 to get the tone), and a boost button, but i don't use the boost at all, i think it sounds really bad(But i tend to not like mids at all, and it's a mid booster). I use it in my basement and it has plenty of power, if not too much. At 1 on the volume it's already really loud, can definitely play with drums and probably drown them out with volume too. I give it a 9 because it would be nice to have separate eq's for each channel.

Right now i'm just using a squier strat and even with THAT it sounds amazing. I play mostly blues/bluesy rock and occasionaly(sp?) metal. It works great for all of those, and if you put a tubescreamer in front of overdrive channel you can get great metal tones with still being able to hear every note you produce. It can be a bit noisy, when turned up loud you have to make sure you don't have too much bass, or you sometimes can't hear the notes. The clean channel sounds great, really clean, and at high volumes, especially with the presence button on, you can get really great bluesy tones with the classic tube warmth. I think sometimes the distortion can sound thin at lower volumes, but a tubescreamer is all you need with it. I know that paragraph didn't have much structure but i'm just rambling everything that pops into my head first. It's really got an amazing sound, great lead tones, great cleans, I can't recommend it more, it's just great.

Seems pretty sturdy, yeah i'd use it without a back-up, because i have no backup. But if i did have a backup, i'd bring it, because you should always do that no matter how sturdy an amp is, you might just blow a tube who knows. It hasn't broken down, one time it didn't make noise, but i think it was either plugged in to a bad electrical socket, or my cable wasn't working right. It tends to get very hot on the metal parts, that kind of worries me, but if it becomes a huge problem, i'm just gonna take out the ventilation port alltogether.

Haven't dealt with them. I have a 1 year warranty.

I love this amp, i don't think i'll ever need another, all i need is a better guitar, and i will have the greatest tone to pass my ears, it's amazing for it's price range, no, for an amp overall. It sounds so good, i can't believe i was actually thinking between this and the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, that amp had NO good overdrive tones, they were horrible. If it was lost or stolen, i'd DEFINITELY get another one. If you have the money, and want a good tone, BUY THIS AMP NOW!

This amp is a 30 watt class A tube combo with a 1x12 configuration. It features 2 channel operation, clean and overdrive. There is reverb and presence control in the form of a button. I would like to see the presence controlled by a knob instead. It features a tolex finish that is blonde, I don't personally care that much for the look, this amp has an air of class with the gold logo and I think that a tweed type covering would have put this amp at "10" for me. Line in and line out make up the effects loop and there is a speaker out that is rated at 8 ohms, the internal speaker has a lead off of it that feeds this output. Hey Crate, next time can we make it a little easier to change the tubes? You have to remove the chassis to do this! The boost fuction is nice and can be accessed with the supplied footswitch.

This category is so subjective but I will give it a go: This amp rocks! I tested it in the store using a Peavey Wolfgang that I brought with me. I used this guitar because I use humbuckers almost exclusively live and the wolfgang kind of represents all of the humbucker equipped guitars that I own. I also have a strat and this amp really came alive when I plugged it in. I think I might be going back to strats for the majority of my playing!! The tone was that good! The amp was very dynamic and responsive to my strat and I think this amp really shines with single coil pick-ups. Both clean and overdrive. In my opinion, you can't get much better for the money.

No issues yet.

No dealings with them yet.

I have played one instrument or another all my life and I have been through a lot of gear to achieve a tone that I have heard in my head since I started playing guitar. This amp honestly comes the closest and the more I plat through it, the more I think I found it. Would I buy it again? no doubt! I actually would like to get another and set up a stereo rig.

Features have been covered already. I'm not going to waste anyone's time here.

Here is where this amp shines and also fails miserably. Speaking in terms of tone, I think this amp is amazing in the under $1000 category and even holds its own against some really expensive amps. I prefer the clean channel at about 5-6, amount of breakup controlled by the guitar volume. The OD channel is good too but I just prefer the tone of powertube breakup. GREAT blues tone and with the boost it sounds fantastic for solo's.

Here's the problem: This amp is NOISY! Am I the only one who has this problem? At first I thought it was a defective model so I returned it for another one but it behaved exactly the same. For starters there is a lot more hum, (even on the clean channel), than any other tube amp I have owned or used. I bought this amp for recording as well as small to medium gigs. Don't think I am an idiot for not noticing it when I bought it. Have you ever been in a Guitar Center on a Saturday afternoon? It's LOUD in there. Anyway, when I got it home and heard the hum I figured I would just deal with it and get a different amp for recording but THIS AMP PICKS UP AM RADIO!!! No kidding! Both of them! And it wasn't just like a mild signal in the background, it was very obvious and annoying. I am not going to bring an amp on stage that is going to broadcast Art Bell to the audience, lol. Also, when the volume on my guitar is at zero, there is more noise than if it was at 10 and not playing any notes. Again, I am not basing this off a single experince. I play a newer fender deluxe strat which originally had the noiseless pickups and S-1 switching. I tried to like these pickups but they really don't make a strat sound the way it is supposed to, plus I found the S-1 switching useless. When I heard all the noise and radio that this amp produced, I figured that there had to be ground loops in the S-1 wiring. I changed the pickups to Van Zandt's and also rewired the guitar to the modern stock configuration (minus the ridiculous ground loops on the tone pots). Plug the guitar in and, "Good evening lady's and gentlemen and welcome to Coast to Coast AM"... Same problem when guitar volume is on zero... Buzzzzzzz! Long story short, I took this amp back and am saving my money towards something that can produce similiar great tone without the noise. If this amp produced even an average amount of noise, I would give it a 9 in this price bracket, about an 8 for any price bracket. With the noise it is not even usable for me.

I checked out everything inside the chasis and it looks pretty decent, especially in this price range. The transformers aren't the best, but I would worry about the cabinet getting chewed up before any mechanical issues presented themselve. EL-84's die fast in class A combo's. Ask any AC-30 owner. This would probably be the biggest reliability sore spot. Carry some spares to a gig.

I didn't keep it long enough to find out.

I've been playing for around 12 years and have owned lots of gear in the past. I am over that phase now and try to keep my music gear to a minimum as I find that too many toys takes away from just playing the friggin' guitar. This was not my first Crate amp, however I am sad to say that it was my last. I owned a Vintage Club 6210 (60 watt 2x10 tube combo) which produced some annoying crossover distortion on the clean channel. I called up Crate and was informed that this was the nature of the beast. I also owned a VFX5212 (V Series 50 watt 2x12 tube combo) which worked flawlessly. This was a great amp but was way too powerful to use anywhere but a decent sized gig. I was hoping this 30 watter would be the one but unfortunately my search continues.

All the typical Features of a Combo amp but it does have a cool "Boost" feature that really brings out the mid-range for my SG Standard which is nice when trying to play some back-up to the lead guitar. Other than that this is the first really nice amp I have owned so im not 100% sure what constitutes a 10....hence the 9 as all the basics are there and they look really sharp on the amp. Hey....showmanship is part of the experience :)

I surrently use a Gibson SG Standard with all the regular features and the only thing in my path right now its a Boss TU-2 tuner. The Sound is incredible. Very meaty on the distortion when playing power chords to really rock. Kinda shakes me and my friends when im playing with them because of the nice low-end bass tone that is brought out with the SG. The clean is also very nice and really "CLEAN" but even when you turn it up, as with all tubes, it gets a little gritty for rocking hard while still being able to hear each note you play. The style of music I play suits this amp quite well playing mostly classic rock, metal, current rock, alt rock and even a little blues with those nice bass and mid-range tones accompanied by an almost seperate high-range that sounds great on the clean channel.

Havent had any problems so far but I have only been playing it for a week now. Havent noticed, however, the "hot knobs" issue that a few others have commented on. Seems pretty rock solid to me.

havent dealt with them, thankfully, and I hope I wont (knock on wood)

Ive been playing since about the 6th grade (so...roughly 11yrs) and finally decided to step it up after owning a fernandes POS but playing my 1986 Alvarez Acoustic for most of those 11yrs. I went out to GC and bought a complete setup with a Gibson SG, TU-2, and this amp (with cables, etc...) and compared this amp literally side by side with the Fender Hot Rod Delux, Marshall JCM2000 DSL-401, VOX AC-30, Mesa-Boogie Double Rec. with 4x12 cab (we can dream cant we?) and a Crate Voodoo half stack.

For the money, you cannot buy a better amp stright out of the box that will sound as nice. The problem with the other amps, with the exception of the Mesa, is that even clean they sounded gritty and are really meant as rock amps. This is all fine and good and no knock on the other amps becuase as rock amps they do a great job but for versatility and playability the Crate V32 is the best amp for the money you will find.

If it were lost or stolen...I would most likely go on some sort of vigilante hunt for the purp and hang them upside down by their toes and take it back, if that didnt work then YES, I would get another one if it were lost or stolen.

Everyone has probably gone over these. So I wont.

One feature the last guy missed, however, was the overdrive level. A little tinkering and getting it set up right will make the clean/overdrive transition with no loss of volume.

A line out would be nice, but other then that it has the features I want in an amp. So I give it a 9.

I am using a John Mayer sig strat with mine, and I have been able to get an excellent tone out of it. Its a little noisy when just using one pickup, but its a strat and is to be expected.

I pretty much play rock, blues, and the such. This amp is one of the best in its pricerange for there genres. Fender's cleans are great, but the overdrive is really lacking. The cleans on this Crate are very good, but the overdrive is where this amp really shines.

In the short time I have had this amp i've been able to dial in many artist's sounds, as well as making my own. As long as its not metal, you should be able to find a tone you like. Try it out.

There are better amps than this, but not in this pricerange. I would give it a 10 if the rating was for amps under $1000.

I have only used it extensively for a few days, so I have no clue.

One thing that really struck me when I first played it was that it was a crate. Every one I had played before the V series was nothing special...at all.

Never dealt with them.

I have been playing for 2 years now, but most of that was exclusively acoustic. About six months ago I decided to take my playing to a new level so I purchased a Taylor 712ce.

I did my homework on this, and found this was the amp for me. As with nearly everything, try it out first to make sure you like it.

I cant wait until the summer when I have this amp and my guitar paid off and I can invest in some Keeley pedals :)

To conclude: In its pricerange it is hard to beat, very hard. Again, if I was rating amps under $1000 it would be a 10, cause I have yet to find an amp that I like better.

See CRATE site for features. This beauty was made in the USA in 2005. No rattles or hums and don't mind any 'Drop off's' from the 'Boost' switch(although I haven't noticed that on mine)and I do not use it anyway, I use an Ibanez Tube Screamer...turn it up and just slam. I play mostly blues and classic rock, some hand picking slow stuff to impress the ladies late at night but that's it. I gig in small to mid size clubs and my Palomino cuts through the mix and then some. No issues. I was contemplating replcing the speaker with a tone tubby hemp but haven't decided yet. Have faith in this amp on stage, believe me! it's great for Rock, Blues, Alternative, Country...probably not Heavy or Death Metal although the Overdrive kicks but...otherwise you can dial in your sound with not much effort if you know what you are doing. This blows fenders away and the reverb is awesome, it also has a very clean glassy sound I love. A great class A amp with boutique amp looks.

I play an American Fender Stratocaster with dual humbuckers, a Seymour Duncan 59 and a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates Plus in the bridge position. Suits my playing great. Again Classic Rock, Blues, Blues rock...Ok Ok Country. The single coil position sounds distinctive and clear vintage sweet through the Palomino so I can only imagine how much nicer say a Fender 57 reissue would sound thhough it. The distortion can get close to some Marshall's but...it's not a Marshall of course. I'm sure with the right stomp box you can get your sound. This amp gets a lot of compliments on stage. Crate Should make a Blond V50 212.

This amp is built well. The cardboard backing worried me a bit but it has held up nicely. The rattan front grill is sweet although a bit loose but again no issues with it. Never has broken doen on me, I have a 5 year warranty anyway. For the bucks pick up a backup just like it.

Never had to deal with Crate. Knock on wood.

I've been playing long enough to know that I should be better by now and the sound of a great amp. If it were stolen I would kill that person. Take his money and buy another.
I love that the Palomino V32 is a compact amp, straight forward in design and delivers the goods. I have compared it with many amps of this type and not of this type-you'll be hard pressed to get these tones from another amp at this price ($550.00 I think, bought it in Los Angeles). Gigs like a mo fo' no problems playing at clubs.