Crate Palomino V32 112 Combo

Made in USA V32, 1 12" celestion speaker, precense switch, spring reverb, footswitch for overdrive and boost.

I use a MK patriot glory and Ibanez s470dxqm. Both guitars sound real good through this amp. Nice clean and overdriven.On clean I add some chorus and very little reverb and I get a great sound. Overdrive on this amp is also very good. Easy too cover all the classic rock and grunge music. For harder stuff I suggest a pedal. I use damage control solid metal and it sounds good with this amp.

I hear some folks complaining about the amps reverb but I must say mine had not given me any problems. Again my pal was made in the US. I owned it for two years now without a single problem. I see some folks write a good review after owning it for a few days only to write a second review and hate it? It's a $400 amp. It is what it is. I compared mine to peavy c30 and those overpriced hot rods and without making tube changes or speaker changes the pal hands down wins. Again this is my experience and opinion....

Never used it...

Cosmeticly the amp looks nice, you get a vintage vibe. Tube amps have some hum or white noise to them but during my playing the amps is quiet and only my guitar sings. Iv'e been playing for 25 years and I'm not a pedal junkie. My tone is in my playing and for me the palomino handles my palying well...

2007 palomino v32 1x12.made in vietnam
the amp sounds great for funk,blues,rock or country
it has channel switching and effects loop.no headphone jack
i wish it had seperate eq for the clean channel
i use it for recording and it has plenty of power for
playing with a band too.tube power 4-el 84's and 3-12ax7's

i use a hss highway one strat with a humbucker and 2 single coils
it suits my style perfect.very low noise.ive never turned it up real loud on the clean channel so i don't know.the distortion is the best part about this amp.its like having a half stack in a 1x12 cabinet
.i also have a crate vintage club 30 1x12 (4-el 84's and 4-12ax7's
this amp sounds the same as it did before it died.this 2 amps are the best tube amps ive ever heard before.the great part is they won't blow your ears out when practicing by yourself.plus they sound great at very low volume

i think i can depend on it.it hasn't broke yet ive only had it for 3 weeks though.it does have some rattling in the chassis somewhere
i really hope nothing breaks.it does run very hot so i plan to put a fan on it before it melts down haha.yes i would gig without a backup

they were very friendly.i emailed them when my vintage club 30 quit and asked about the v32 and if it was a similiar to the sound.they emailed me back the next day and told what i needed and where to find one close to me since they quit making them.guitar center had one left
and i went and bought it.i didn't get the extended warranty extra $35 for a year.

i have been playing for 25 years.if it were stolen i would try to find the head version or this one again.i still can't believe they quit making these.i compared it to a peavey valveking wich the guy at guitar center insisted that i try.there was no comparison the peavey was gross haha.i wish someone would make a tube amp with built in chorus.i would like to know why crate quit making these.they are the best amp they had in my opinion and a lot of others too!

Very retro looking with the basket weave grill cloth. White color provides a very tweed looking appearance. The absence of the Crate logo really throws the onlookers for a loop trying to figure out what kind of amp it is. Clever! Very attractive! Channel switching between clean and overdrive with a 10 db mid-boost switch for extra punch in the leads. No headphone jack but I probably wouldn't use it much even it had one.

This amp is a real sleeper. Unfortunately Crate has discontinued this particular model. The thing SCREAMS! The clean side is pure Class A and the overdrive wails like an injured banshee. I played it side by side with a JCM 900 twin reverb 2 12 combo and the Palomino smoked it for sound. The Marshall really sounded good but the Crate just leaped past it in sparkle and punch. I plan to replace the Crate Palomino Celestion with a Greenback 12H to really step it up a notch, but the stock speaker sounds really good.

Don't know yet. Only had it a week but GC heralded the reliability and warranty. This one was made in Vietnam so I am not sure yet. The knobs were not aligned properly but that only required pulling them off and putting back on the right way. I hope that is not an indicator of quality control but we will see.

Haven't needed it yet.

I have played for about 40 years and have owned everything from Fender Twins (old type), Marshall plexi, Johnson, custom built twin to rack stuff. Currently, my working rig is Boss GT-8, Roland GR-33, Roland Ready Strat (custom made neck by Greg Reszel), Charvel/Jackson Model 6 with GK2 pickup, the Crate Palomino 32 and necessary mics.

The V32 is an all tube class A amp. It has three pre-amp tubes (12AX7) and four power tubes (EL84). The combo style amp has a foot switch that controls the channel (clean/overdrive) and boost. Both channels use the same 3-band EQ. It also has spring reverb, a switch on the amp for presence, and has an effects loop. The presence adds a few db's to the higher frequencies and makes it sound bright and crispy. The only thing I wish it had is a dial for the presence, and maybe a better reverb like on a fender amp. Over all very good features!

Sound Quality is why I bought this amp. I play with a Yamaha AES 620. Two Humbuckers by Seymour Duncan, mahogany body and set neck, solid bridge. The V32 takes the guitar great.
Versatility was the main feature I was looking for when shopping for this amp. I didn???t want to buy any pedals if I didn???t have to, but this amp took care of all my needs. I play many different styles; blues, jazz, funk, vintage rock, modern rock, heavy rock, and if you want you can even get this amp to do metal sounds. The distortion is very controllable. When I play live, I pretty much leave my OD gain at 50% or 60% and I can control the level of distortion with the volume on the guitar. On the clean channel, the response and feel is smooth at low levels, and then gets snappy and bright at higher levels. There is headroom galore on all settings.
The EQ is very dynamic. There are lots of tones to be found here.
The Boost switch is good for increasing the total volume but it also changes the sound. The sound is like a vintage amp you would hear in the 60???s. The boost also seems to override the EQ to a degree, especially when the EQ is dialed down.
Like I said; lots of variety, lots of headroom, and lots of sounds. It gets a 10 in my book. I like to refer to this amp as ???The Amp of the Gods!???

My amp was the floor model and I have had it for about 6 months. There are a few undesired noises that can be heard at very low levels, but when played at anything more, they all go away. I am just now looking into new tubes. In short, the amp is pretty robust. The amp is self-biasing, which makes changing the tubes easy.

Never had to go there, lets hope not.

I love this amp. If it were lost or stolen, I would by this one again. I compared it to every major brand that the store carried (Fender, Marshall, Vox, B-52???) and I always came back to this one.

Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions or comments.
spazbarnum@yahoo.com

See my other review from a few days ago.

i have to post a few changes since I reviewed this amp a few days ago. I decided to take it back after playing with it for a while. I noticed that I was getting a lot of "ghost notes" when playing lead in the upper frets - I would play a note and could hear 2 notes come out of the amp - the note I played and a note of a higher pitch. It was like having a chorus pedal going all the time I couldn't shut off. I also got a reverb pedal and it helped out a great deal since as I previously said the reverb SUCKS on this amp - all it does is make it hum. There was also an audible vibration/knocking sound coming from the cabinet at higher volumes. This is something I had read about in other reviews. If you put a hand on the back of the cabinet it would stop but wouls reappear when the hand was removed. For all these reasons I decided to take it back. I returned it and got a VOX AD50 hybrid amp and man does it sould better. It's not all tube but it suits my playing style much better. The Palomino has some very good qualities for the price and I may have just gotten a bad amp and others might not have these problems. Just be aware of the potential for cabinet buzz, the reverb SUCKS and make sure to listen carefully for "ghost notes" when trying the amp out.

As above.

No Idea.

As Above. If my amp didn't have those problems I would still give it a 7.5 to 8 out of 10. The cleam channel sounds amazing and the overdrive is very good also. Plus it's very loud and was really too loud for my needs. If you're going to use it for mostly bedroom/home use you better think twine. I couldn't turn it up above about 2 on the main volume and certainly not enough to push the tubes.

Great overdrive and a boost feature for leads. Effects loop. Great reverb.

This amp has a great tone. The clean sparkles. The amp looks classic, but it can get dirty if you want it to. The overdrive breaks up amazingly. You can get a really cool sound out of this amp, which in my opinion sounds as good as a most fenders I have ever heard. and for a couple hundred dollars less, its a great deal, besides the fact that tube amps are getting more and more expensive.

Well, I've only had it for a week. So far so good. No manufacture defects.

Never thought crate would make something that sounded so good.

Just like all the other reviews. Clean channel, gain channel even though they are not truly 2 separate channels they get the job done. Spring reverb. Boost button, presence button. all the usual eq stuff

the quality is decent out of the gate. Its no Matchless but then again its also not 3-5 thousand dollars or whatever they are going for now. But dont get me wrong. This is a real Class A tube amp. I play through a Samick Ultramatic with a Dimarzio Fred Special(John Petrucci) on the bridge and an Evolution(Vai) on the neck. CTS pots, all internals replaced...basically this guitar is a tone monster. The palomino reflects it very well. Like the review below says, its a little muffled from the get go so I leave the presence button on.(why a button and not a knob? I dont get it)anyways. I took out that piece of crap, so called celestion and replaced it with the real deal. A Celestion Classic Lead. Excellent speaker by the way. Perfect for this amp because it really brightens it up. I have heard of people putting greenbacks in the palominos, im sure that sounds good too. whatever your taste is. The gain on this amp is really good for a class a. Most are very clean amps but you can really get some good sounds out of it. I play progressive rock/metal. Think dream theater meets opeth meets the mars volta. I need versatility and this amp seems to be able to handle it. The reverb is kind of weak. Im waiting on a classic 50 reverb chamber to put into it. That is some of the best onboard spring reverb around...or you could just buy a high end lexicon...whatever

I have only had it for a few days. Im about to play my first gig with it. I usually play through either a peavy classic 50(heavily modded) or a peavy XXX. Im not a peavy freak, they are just more affordable than most amps and perform quite well with a minimal amount of tweaking. The only problem I have run into is that after a while the amp starts to hiss because it runs EXTREMELY HOT. Take off the grate cover for the tubes and blow a fan on it and everything will be fine. Easy fix but still, Crate should have known this would happen. Class A amps run hot. Its in their nature and the design of this amp could have been better knowing this. I will give it an 8, but thats a shaky 8

dunno, we will see

Overall this is a decent amp. Its very easy to be critical but you also have to keep in mind that this amp is a class a that only cost 400 dollars. There are two ways you could look at that but im a glass half full kind of guy. Its nice and loud, the tone gets very sweet at high volumes and despite what others say, you can play metal on this amp. No you will not get that half open wah, flat as a pancake tone that a lot of metal players seem to go for, ive never understood why. I play metal and this thing gives me good distortion, very rich harmonics and it feeds back better than any of my other amps. Time will tell the tale about this thing but is it worth 400 bucks... you bet your sweet ass it is.

30 watts of all tube power. The EQ section is versitile and works well. The clean sound is great - smooth and creamy. The overdrive is equally impressive and has a very overdriven quality with the gain turned up - even at low volumes. It's nice that it has 2 footswitchable channels and the footswitch is included. The thing also looks striking - very retro and vintage looking. It is a very loud amp for it's size! Don't be fooled by the look. It may look like a Fender Blues Jr. but it sounds better - and much heavier. Also, it is a straightforward, powerful, rich amp - if you want a bunch of stuff in your amp get a Line 6.

The sound quality is very high and the overdrive compares to a Vox or similar - not quite Marchall though. The only bad thing I have to say is the reverb SUCKS on this amp. The only thing the reverb control does is make the amp hum - hardly any change in the overall sound. I bought a Digiverb pedal off Ebay the day after I got it home. I'm still waiting on the pedal but I think when it comes it's going to make the amp really sing. I haven't had the chance to play it at high volumes yet but at low volume it still sounds really good. The amp is really loud for it's size. I turned it up halfway and played an E chord and it really rattled the windows. I really want to take it somewhere where I can open it up to see what it will really do. It also made my distortion pedal sound totally different - much crunchier now. I thought it hummed a lot when sitting idle and not on standby but it was because I had the reverb turned all the way up - when it turned the reverb control down it was totally quiet. The reverb control is this amp biggest weakness. I really think they shouldn't have even put reverb on this amp if they could do a better job of it.

Don't know - just got it last week.

No idea.

I'm a hobbyist and have been playing for about 15 years. I haven't owned many amps. I just sold my Johnson JM60. It was very versitile with modeling and such but this amp beats the pants off of it for raw sound and power. Overall, I give this amp a 8 out of 10. If it had a good reverb I would give it a 8.5 to 8.75 out of 10 but it's not that big a deal since all you need is a reverb pedal. A 10 for me would be like a Rivera or Mesa so I have pretty high standards but I'm a poor S.O.B. so I can't afford those amps. FOR THE MONEY, I give it a 9.5 out of 10. I think this is a kick ass amp. I got the floor model at Guitar Center in Tallahassee and only paid $359.00 + tax for it because they were having a sale on the Palominos. I almost got the V16 but it doesn't have 2 channels. If you want tube power and sound at a low cost - this is it. Just beware that you will have to get a reverb pedal or get a tech to upgrade the stock reverb somehow. If you strictly play clean they you might be fine as is.

This is a revisit to my earlier review. After playing the amp a while I noticed the lower quality construction. When I retubed the amp it was very difficult to get the chasis out. The internal layout causes the heat from the tubes to heat up the circuit board. Leaving the amp off atandby for a long period will actually degrade the sound.

As I said before the amp is not very bright. As a matter of fact its down right dull. The open back cabinet has most of the sound going out the back. Setting the amp in the middle of a non carpeted room helps but the amp is still very dark and muffled. Any guitar with humbuckers sounds like the amp has a blanket over it. To get any clarity you have to roll the bass to zero and push the treble to 2 oclock. As I mentioned earlier the heat will degrade the sound to a noticable degree. I don't know if this was only my amp or not. I suspect that the caps for the tone stack were off spec cause I cant imagine this being the way its supposed to sound. As I said earlier the 16 sounds awsome compared to the 32.

It never actually broke but the sound was all over the place wit the heat issue.

I called the support line to get a schematic. I was going to mod the tone stack to brighten it up. When I broached the subject, they wanted to blame the guitar. I tryed four different ones that all sound fine with my other amps. I dont get thrilled when companys instantly start making excuses instead of discussing possible solution.

I originally thought these were awsome amps. But they need retubing, they run excessively hot(cant put your hand on the metal parts). The overall quality is not good when you live with one for a while. I bought a peavey which I currently am impressed with. All my guitars sound good again. The Kinman tele was the only one that sounded good on this amp. It may be possible to get a good sounding one but I gave up. I own a BV120 which I have had a while in stock form and am still impressed with, so crate crate can build a good amp.

2007 palomino v32 112, Has boost gain channel, eq, reverb foot switch

I play a CmA custom Telecaster mostly. Kinman single coils. This amp is a great amp for country, Has that Paisley growl. I had a 16 which was brighter. Probably the smaller speaker. The 16 and the 32 had an anoying boiling sound. I took the 16 back for this reason and got the 32. Same thing. after a week I ordered JJ's from Eurotube. The amp is now church quiet and is more responsive. Eurotubes is great by the way. The foot switch works great. the boost channel removes some of that bassy sound. The amp is very boomy with humbuckers. Had to dial down the bass and up the mid and treb. Probably a 10" speaker would have been brighter. The 12 is perfect however with my CmA cg Tele. I love the sound of this amp. DO consider the tube swap however.

Haven't had it long enough to tell.

Don't know

Great amp specially for the price. Will get plenty loud.

features have all been covered,this amp is able to do great clean tones,crunch, and nice aggressive distortion.sound great for jazzy stuff too!I wish you were able to hook up a extension speaker and still have the amp speaker on too, right now it;s one or the other.I do not like the boost feature as in my opinion this messes up the great tone i have going.I use this in small to medium club gigs and it has mucho volume!

I'm using a Parker Nite fly with Dimarzio pickups, Two single coils and a humbucker in the bridge position.I play classic rock and mowtown,and this amp is great at these sounds.It loves single coils, and has a beautiful glassy,chimey Vox like clean sound,but with some of it's own sound also, VERY NICE,the distortion is very aggressive when cranked,and no pedals are needed. the reverb is pretty nice but not the ultimate, but very usable.this amp is not any noisier than others when reved up, not a problem at all.the clean channel has lots of headroom before it starts to add some grind.This amp is LOUD, and the more you turn it up the better it sounds. the distortion is heavy, but not a metal type sound, more classic rock.

no opinion

With a 5 year warranty I,m happy

Been playing 36 yrs,own a ton of equipment, I,d buy it again in a heart beat.Ilove the great classy sounds from this amp, Ilove It,s sexy looks,low price $399, and small size.wishit had ext speaker jack.The FX loop is very handy also.I played every small tube combo I could before buying this,rivera,vox,fender,line6,and mesa boogie,From a pure tone standpoint this amp beat them all!Iplayed amps costing $1000 more than this one,and some that had cool features, but this tone Rules!I never even considered buying a Crate amp before, never even thought about it .saw this sitting at GC and played it ,couldn,t believe the sound comming out, with all tone on about 5,I knew if it sounds this good in the store I could tweak it at home.My best friend plays a boogie lone star,he couln,t believe the sound of this amp, and about crapped when I told him it costs $399 He said he thought it sounded as good as his $1400 mesa lonestar,and better than the mesa express amps we checked out earlier.

This amp is a two channel all tube amp with reverb,an fx loop, a 12in celestion speaker and a foot switchable boost.It,s pretty straight forward with not a lot of bells and whistles.I use it at practice and all my gigs. Plenty of power and clean head room.I play classic rock, mowtown,and some blues, this amp covers them all.

I play a Parker Nitefly guitar, with two single coils and a humbucker in the bridge position.It covers my style perfectly.There is a little noise when the amp is turned up, but nothing I wouldn,t expect from any amp when it;s turned up.This amp has a great clean sound that;s rich and full,and responsive to my attack.Good low end thats tite and focused, punchy mids, and nice glassy highs, that are not harsh.the clean starts to break up a little at high volumes, but has plenty of clean headroom before this happens.The distortion is very niceand covers classic rock, blues,and some heavier stuff, but not metal.It has a nice growl to it.

have never had any dealings with Crate or it;s service dept.no problems with the amp so far.

been playing 36 yrs. and have owned a ton of equipment over the years.I tried all the small tube combo;s and this one won me over based on it;s tone ,price ,features,and great sexy looks.none of the other amps could give me what this one doesThe reverb is good, but not the ultimate, and that;s great tone without having to search and tweak, and tweak..Iplugged into this amp, put all the tone controls at 5 and it was in the ball park right now, slight adjustments were all that was needed.The reverb is good but not the ultimate.It beat out fenders, mesa boogie express, DR. Z and others ,some costing $800 more.Ilove this great sounding classy looking amp.

Ok..I'll start right off by saying this V32 IS NOT MADE IN USA. It is an evil "Made In Vietnam" model.

It has everything I need in an amp, all class A tube, and is simple and straightforward to operate. Single 12", single input, controls left to right: clean volume, clean/overdrive switch (also footpedal switchable), overdive gain, treble, boost swithch (also footpedal switchable), mid, bass, presence switch, overdrive level, reverb, on/standby switch, on/off switch. Rear panel has effects loop(also use as direct out)..the one drawback is no control on loop level..and footswitch input..and..it actually comes with a footswitch

White tolex with gold trim, nice

30 huge watts of power, enough to drown out an entire loud band if you want

Here's where it gets really good. Despite obvious doubts and reservations by the reviewers before me..there is absolutely no difference in sound or quality that I can hear or see in the V32 models "Made in USA" or "Designed in USA and Built in Vietnam". Don't let that discourage or scare you, get one of these before they're gone! I have played both and have owned this one for 2 months now. The tone is absolutely phenominal for an amp in this price range..and rivals ANY blackface or earlier Fender amp that I have ever owned. These include very early BF Pro, Pro Reverb, Twin, 62 Vibrolux, Bassman, Deluxe Reverb and Super Reverb. And this is with factory supplied tubes..will great tubes make it even better..probably, but for now I'm more than happy with the sound

The 12" Celestion sounds fine but I play it through a custom built 2X12 with one Celestion 75w G12T and one 75w Eminence Red Coat Wizard. The combination produces outstanding highs and lows. There is no need for any additional power..headroom is excellent..sustain is forever.

We play original music in a trippy instrumental style. What some probably call a jam band, but with more of a Pink Floyd influence. Structured by rhythm but free form in content. Very little singing if any. Very quiet and mellow to powerful and pounding. Lots of dynamics.
This amp never and I mean never gets shrill or unpleasant in any way, the reverb is very good, the drive is exceptional and the tone is..hate to use the word..awesome. No noise at all, cleans are Fender good, apply some of the drive in correct quantities and the woman tones come out. I will probably never put a drive pedal of any sort in front of this amp, it would be a waste.

My setup is: '77 Gibson LP Custom or usually a radically customized EPI Special with Seth Lover and Fralin PAF PUs, upgraded electronics, tuners and bridge etc, (a truly great guitar), Zoom 507 through the effects loop (a real sleeper with nice Gilmour like effects), guitar plugged into Boss AC3 acoustic simulator and Ibanez AD9 delay then to amp. I use the supplied footswitch to control the gain and boost.

I can't emphasize enough how good the tone is from this amp. I understand it is being replace with a "new" model. It might be good..but I KNOW this one is better than good. Get one before they're gone!

I haven't had a single problem with this amp in 2 months. It runs very hot because that is the nature of Class A amps. I'm thinking tube life might be a little shorter because of this, but no problems so far. Construction seems to be excellent.

Don't know

Yes..I'm one of the old guys. Been there, heard that, played that, blah blah blah etc etc etc. I feel as if I should buy another one of these amps, not because I don't trust it, but because if something happened to it I'm afraid I couldn't get another soon enough. My local Guitar Center doesn't have any in stock. The new version looks different, probably sounds different but I haven't tried it. Very very hard to believe that it's "improved". I find myself turning to look at it while I'm playing because I can't believe it's a Crate, although you have to look at the back to see "Crate" printed anywhere. It's nothing like the sound sucking, lifeless, devoid of tone amps of theirs I have owned, and quickly deposed of, in the past. It's like comparing a top of the line Lexus to a Yugo. Better comparison to that incredibly expensive boutique amp you own or have considered, or a vintage Fender, Hiwatt, Vox etc. It's the company it belongs in.

The real thing..and less than $400..damn.

Made in US but I don't have any way of dating it, but I bought it new, floor model, so I didn't get the footswitch or manual. Mine is the white tolex V32 with gold logo and wicker grill. Very classy. I think the rest of the features are covered below Baffle is plywood, rest looks like particle board to me. Speaker is a Celestion 70/80 clone which sounds good enough for me. 30 watts? yeah right. I set mine on 1 with a strat! When it is cranked it sounds even better, nice Class A breakup.

Listen up tube snobs, I won a 63 Vibroverb original, considered one of the best amps of all time, plus a 64 Princton, and a 62 Bassman, so I know what good tone is. This amp has very good tone. Very warm, deep bass, decent mids and enough high end for single coils. Perfect for strat or tele. I use an Eric Clapton strat, and a hollow body with piezo also. I don't use the Les Paul with this because the strat sounds sooo good. I don't use the mid-boost on the strat unless I use the second channel, then i dial in about half the mid boost for that woman-like Clapton tone. I have a Jekyll & Hyde (TS-808 clone) and the overdrive channel sounds neary identical to the Jekyll side (TS-808) with the gain cranked and bass boost on. So i wasted $150 on the pedal, I like the V32's overdrive better! Overall, the V32 is very quiet, but man she runs hot! I can feel the heat through the vent. I may use it as a cup warmer as it gets older. The overdrive is creamy smooth, but not brutal like metal or fizzy like tranny amps. The hollow body and strat love this amp, even with stock speaker, but I have a 2x12 cab with V30's if I ever need it. The tone that comes out of this think is amazing, and looks cooler than, well I don't have an analogy for it. I sit 2 feet in front of mine in practice, and I have yet to get the ice-pick-in-your-ears harshness I expected. I keep the Clapton TBX control dead center and the tone controls on halfway on the amp. Volume about 1-2 for practice. Gain = dimed. Sweet. Reverb about 3-4. Presense switch off, boost switch off.

Class A runs full throttle, so I am a little concerned about the hot-enough-to-fry-an-egg-on chassis temperature, but yeah, I would love to gig with this amp. I haven't had it long enough to tell, so I can't rate it.

Five year warrenty, 2 years on tubes. I bought the extra 2 year warrenty that Guitar Center scares you into buying because of Crate's past reputation. It surpises me that you can not find these on Crate's website. The new owners amy want to distance themselves from these, but I don't know why. This series could be Crate's first collectable series amps. Go figure.

Been playing 8 years, and own a few vinatge amps, modern guitars, and 3 or 4 pedals. This is one amp that seems to have it all: Warm, deep, smooth clean. Nice smooth overdrive, Spring reverb (not the most lush, but good enough) and a decent 12" Celestion speaker in a large, well made, vented cabinet. I don't just collect amps, I use them every night, and I can't stop using this thing. If you own a strat or tele, you need to buy one, right now! Crate has discontinued these, but I have no idea why. Crate finally makes an amp that I love, sell it for half of what it is worth, has no issues with reliability, then stops making it? Just get one while they are out there. It has plenty of power loud enough to gig with in small-medium gigs, and costs WAY less than the overrated Vox AC30. You could buy two of these and have about $250 left over for pedals.

My amp is the Palomino V32 112 combo. It is American made all tube amp. It has a clean and distortion channel. It also has drive boost, reverb, presence control, and a 3 band equalizer.

I have owned many tube amps. I have had a 5150 combo, Twin Reverb, Vox, etc. I do not right reviews ever. This is the exception. I play a Charvel Model 1 with an Evo 2. I have two 1980's MIJ strats. Great guitars by the way.

I went into Guitar Center the other day and played about 5 or 6 amps. I had that itch you get every so often, to find a better tone then what you already have. I played the Twin Reissue, Peavey classic 30, the VOX AC-30. All these amps had some things that were good about them. The last amp I played was a Crate V series tube amp(the identical amp as my Palamino, just black in color). It was off to the side. It was used, and missing about four knobs and was beat to hell. At least three people came over when I was done, and started checking out the V series I was playing. Tone has a way of speaking for itself.

These amps are going to be classics in my opinion. They have already started making the new ones in Vietnam. These American made amps, have the sweetest clean tone. The drive channel makes you not want to ever use a pedal. Think Hendrix, Nugent, EVH.

I have read reviews that say this amp is a poormans AC-30. I guess everyone has an opinion. I don't think this amp plays a second to much of anything. Especially the AC-30.

I have had this amp over a year and have not had one problem. It seems very well made to me.

I have not had any reason to contact them.

I have been playing 10 years. I have had way to many guitars and amps to list. If it were stolen, I would find an American made one the next day and buy it.

Tone really does not have a price tag. I think everyone has wasted more money then they would admit, trying to find the tone they are looking for. I would buy this amp regardless of price( within reason). I get tired of hearing "it is a good amp for the money". It is a damn great amp period.

Mine is 2006 model, this is my 3rd review and just got my second 1, sold the first 1, wish it had a speaker out, i will fix that
other features listed before

I was in my local music store recently and heard this guy ripping a bunch of old school licks, walked over there he was playing a v32 crate amp, I just sat there talking to him, he sold it to me cheap.
Dont know why i even sold the first 1 except the looks, im going to dye the tolex with a epoxy dye. Got 2 Suhr's and a anderson and just sings.
I already have a vintage 30 and preamp and power tube already lined up
You can really take these amps to a newer level by changing out v1 with a 12at7 and v3 with a 12au7,, the au will lower the gain and make it much smoother but as you turn it up, it gets sweet, I find a 12ax7 in v1 too grainy

I sure it is fine, never had a breakdown
Lil sucker gets hot, i got a small fan blowing into the vents

Dont know never used it

This is my second 1, very cool amp, speaker change and stock tubes to me are terrible, not bad at kinda normal volume and for the price i paid you cant beat it

This is a 2006 tube combo loaded with EL84's.Basically a two channel with an overdrive.I wish it had an effects loop,and it has way more than enough power.The footswitch is dependable,and the looks and design are top notch.

OK the clean on this thing is close to angelic,this isn't a heavy metal amp by any means,BUT,I have it hooked up to a Crate 412 cab and with the RP100 you can get this little beast very close to an all out metal tone.It only makes noise through a noisy pedal,the RP has a noise gate so it's quiet as a funeral home.My style of music is rock-hardrock-metal and some acoustic once in a while.This combo is extremely versatile.

I've had this for 3 months and not a whimper.It does get very hot,but I guess thats natural from what I hear about it.

Haven't had to deal with these guys on a repair,but I did contact them for info and they were great!

I've been playing two years now and I'm just now in a band,my band mates love this thing,it surprises them at practice and I have a hard time keeping them off of it.If it were stolen I'd lose sleep,I'm selling right now to make room for another stack and thats the only reason.I would stand this combo against any out there,like before I wish it had an effects loop.For the money this is hands down the best bargain out there.

You've read the features of this amp by other reviewers so I'll skip them. I wish it had an extension speaker jack so I could use another cab with the 12" it already has. I'll add that myself later. The amp is very useful for all I do which is Rock and funk.

The sound is very warm and rich in my opinion. I bought the floor model for a good price but didn't get the footswitch or manual for it at GC. I can live without the footswitch since I like to use stomp boxes for my distortion. The distortion of the amp is quite nice on it's own but I think the external boxes sound better and since I have a couple different flavors of it I only use the clean channel. I love the tone of the clean channel and haven't heard an amp that with that kind of quality in quite a while especially at this price. I have 6 rigs, Rivera KR-55, Holland Bassman clone, Fender Supersonic, Epiphone Jr. Messa Stiletto and this one.

I had to replace the tubes in my floor model because it had a microphonic power tube. I like the quality of JJ tubes and the el84's are terrific. I bought a small fan that I installed in the cab portion of my amp and it runs real cool. It seemed a bit hot when I had the original tubes in it and I hope the coolness will help with increasing the tube life. I'll take it to rehersal this week and see how it stacks up with a drummer and bass. I know it's loud because I'm playing it on 1 with a pedal board in front of it and the kids in the neighborhood sit a listen to me play with the doors shut.

This amp should set a standard that a Class A amp shouldn't have to cost a couple of thousand dollars to produce. Yes it's nice to have a hand wired amp for us geeks that like to repair them, But I don't mind printed circuit boards at cost savings and sounds that are as good as the boutique amps at a quarter of the price.

The Palomino V32 I just purchased is a 2007 production. I traded-in a Crate Vintage 30 (older brother with 4 EL84s and 4 12AX7s but not as versatile). This baby is something else. All the controls are useful. Have not tried line in or the line out. For the style I play from clean to natural distortion without pedals, this tube amp all you need. It is loud. Overall, the feautures are useful.

I use a Strat Lonestar and the sound I get from this amp is everything I want- from big fat super clean to big fat creamy distorted sound and everything in between. I tried a Les Paul at the store and I had tears in my eyes - it was heaven. You can use this amp for jazz, country, rock, hard rock, but it won't do metal. With the amp turned up, every nuances of your picking produces colorful sounds (think Jeff Beck or Clapton during Layla days). Dig in with your pick and be ready to cry. Hate to say this but this amp sets the bar leaving many many tube amps panting behind.I always wanted the Fender Deluxe Reverb but the Crate V32 can offer more variety of sound and looks a lot sexier,too. But I would still buy the Fender Deluxe Reverb and run them in stereo.

We'll see. Time will tell.

No issues yet.

I play as a therapy. I am not that young to attend practice anymore but I gig now and then. I have a Boogie and a Traynor 80 watter. They are different.The V32 is my new workhorse - it is magical if not as magical as the THD Univalve with a THD 2x12s. I also had the Boogie Maverick 1x12 years back (also Class A with a 5AR4 rectifier) but for some reason this Crate V32 puts it to sleep.
ANYTHING YOU WISH IT HAD? My fantasy wish: I wish it had tubes that never wear out or a lifetime supply of tubes.

I tried both V32 and V16 in the store, both have great tone but the V32 has more tone options. I'm basically here to ask a question: Can you pull out 2 of the EL84s to get 15W output? I mostly play in a home studio and am looking for tone over volume.

Very impressed with the punch, clarity, and overall tone. Turn up the gain and you can forget a Fender Blues Jr. I fiddled with the Mesa Lonestar Special but despite the [too] many controls couldn't get as nice a basic set of tones out of it as with the Crate.

Awesome Single channel Tube Amp with Overdrive and Reverb. Single 3 band EQ for both channels. 8ohm speaker out, line out/in, and 2 button footswitch. White Tolex with Gold Trim. The knobs have Amber colored rhine stones!

After replaceing the original Preamp tubes with a set of JJs from Eurotubes the amp blew me away! It has a classic rock sound. The clean channel sparkles, and responds to your every touch. The gain channel really started growling with the new tubes, and is very marshally.

Had to take 2 of these back to GC because the Reverb didn't work on either. I had to settle for the display model. I have no idea how long it was sitting there, but the tubes needed to go right away and it has minor but present scratches on all the Gold trimming. It does look very well built.

The amp does sound Great! After talking with Don at Eurotubes I discovered that this amp is not True CLASS A it is a rev-ed up AB design. It picks up AM radio without a guitar plugged in. Has a bit of pleasing hum. The tubes heat up the amp pretty fast, but no biggie. The thing that really stinks on it is the Delay when channel switching. Its really bad. I am using a Marshall distortion pedal on the clean channel for songs with channel switching. I tryed this amp with a Marshall 1960A 4x12 and it was really LOUD! kept up with an AVT 150 quite well. Really thick sound from the combo and half stack even at Bedroom volume. If its on sale pick it up!!

Amp was made in 2005, I have had this for about a year. One channel which switchable pre-amp gain. Boost feature (which doesn't work from footswitch anymore for some reason). Effects loop.
A pretty basic tube amp with no extra bells or whistles.

Gear that I use with it:

2006 Fender SRV Strat --> Roger Mayer Red Lion Wah --> Retroman Sybil --> ZVex Fuzz Factory --> ZVex BoR --> Foxrox Paradox TZF --> Maxon AD-999 Delay

Just for note, this amp takes pedals very well and if you can get the right tubes in there for getting the OD right it really shines!

The clean sound on this thing is AWESOME! Very Vox-like and good amount of headroom. The OD isn't bad either with the stock tubes, but when I ordered replacement JJ tubes from www.eurotubes.com and all I can say is WOW!! Much improvement in sound. The OD is a lot crunchier now, before it was a little sterile/flat with the stock tubes. Maybe they were just worn out, but man I could notice a difference immediately. The cleans are tighter now too. If you get this amp, I would really recommend swapping them out.

only problem is the footswitch boost function which doesn't work anymore, but I really don't care since I have some dirt pedals with a clean boost. Otherwise no problems after a year of playing so far.

For the price, you really can't get a better tube amp. I would definitely buy it again if it were lost. Very unique clean sound and versatile OD with the right tubes. Works well with pedals and can get really loud! Sure you can pay more and get better construction and the vintage sounds you're looking for, but you can also pay a little less and get this great amp as well.

Having waded through the other reviews I really have nothing much to add here. I will say that since I like to play with distortion, dynamics has always been a challenge and the boost switch seems to be the solution I've been looking for. I might have wanted some flexibilty on the amount of DB gain with the boost, but I'm not unhappy with the pre-set amount you get with the V32. I also like and use the line out to run to the board. I've been using an istrument microphone with my previous amps to input to the board but so far I'm liking the sound I'm getting through the PA with the line out.

I've owned a long succession of various twins over the 35 years I've been playing guitar from Vox to Fenders, an early Yamaha, and lately a Crate GFX212 and I never thought I'd ever buy a single speaker amp, but the V32 has changed all of that. I never drove the twins at their full capacity anyway, so why did I ever think I needed all of that racket in the first place?

My current stable of guitars that I'm using with the V32 are a Les Paul Classic, which in my main gig guitar, an Ovation Breadwinner solid body, matching Ovation Deacon and an Ovation UK II (also a solid body). The LP is a match made in heaven with the class A sound of the V32. I haven't yet found a set-up with the guitar and amp that doesn't sound wonderful, whether I'm running clear and clean or down and dirty. The matchup with the UK is similar to the LP but the UK has never had the full rich sound and warmth that the Les Paul has. That is no different with the V32, but that said the UK has never sounded better than with this amplifier either.

The Breadwinner and Deacon are rather problematic with this amp, though. Both guitars have active electronics in them in the form of a small 18v FET pre-amp. In fact they were the very first production guitars ever to employ this feature. Another reviewer here mentioned the class A noise of the Palomino and my LP and UK with their humbuckers hold the annoyance of that down to a bare minimum. The Deacon also has Ovation humbuckers but is noticably noisier than the LP and UK (which is passive like the LP), presumably due to the FET pre-amp. The Breadwinner is nearly unusable with this amp due to the noise. The guitar is notorious for being noisy anyway since it has the unique wide flat bar-type pickups that Ovation made for this guitar. The pre-amp adds to this noise and a noise gate cuts but does not eliminate the problem, but adds the inherant problems that come with using a noise gate in the first place (dropped notes at low volume and extended holds). From that I might infer that other instruments that have active electronics might also be more likely to have problems with noise

Like many other reviewers here I haven't had the V32 long enough to notice.

I live in St. Louis where Crate was based until recently. They were purchased by Loud Electronics and are now based in Washington state. While they were here in the Gateway City it was very easy to get service, and Crate being what Crate has been, that was a good thing. We have several Crates in the family and all of them have had to be either repaired or replaced, my wife's bass amp has been replaced under warrantee FOUR TIMES. That said I think that Crate has been good and timely with its support and with the latest uproar of the bass amp saga they have really gone out of their way to help us. I really miss the local aspect of Crate and the shipping delay between here and Washington has been a PITA.

Interstingly, I heard about the V32 from an owner of a local Crate service center where we took the bass amp for warrantee work. The owner used to work for Crate in the design department. In fact the Palomino is his design. I wasn't in the market for a new amp, but he was proud of his baby and told me I should check it out at the local Guitar Center. I took the amp home inteding to take advantage of the GC's no questions asked return policy. I did not return the amp.

I've been playing guitar for 35 years and play mostly what I lovingly refer to as Geezer Rock and Blues. I'm not a full-time musician but we play out 2 or 3 times a month.

I like the looks of the amp. It's looks reminds me of the borrowed Fender Tweed amp (with the ripped grille cloth and the cigarette burns) I learned on all those years ago and I think that's the effect that Crate was looking for in the cosmetics of the amp. I like that it is smaller and lighter than the twins I played through for 3 and a half decades.

Typical features, good sounding Reverb, boost and prescence.

Sounds from Clapton to Zep, Love it !

Gigged and practice-no problems

Never needed it so far, I also own the 16 watter

Playing since 1969, had all the the Fender,Mesa's, stacks and combo's
this amp gets all my sounds for classic rock and blues..
I would buy again and again..white tolex is classy..

It's a basic quasi-2 channel amp with clean/overdrive levels and common tone controls. Comes with a footswitch for clean/overdrive and boost function.

I'm using a fairly bright Strat with vintage S/Cs and a HB. This is a LOUD amp with good clean headroom. The reverb is decent, and the mostly-preamp distortion you get with the overdrive channel is OK. The model I'm using is a loaner from GC until a new one comes in. It has constant static and crackling, which is probably a bad V1 preamp tube, so no points off there. My main objection to this amp is its overall sound character. I'm getting thumpy lows and spiky highs, with very little midrange warmth. The treble and bass are at 10 o'clock. The mid control seems to affect higher frequencies, leaving the 200-800Hz range untouched. Using the same guitar and pedals through other amps, including a Fender Blues Jr, gives me much greater warmth. On the plus side, acoustic/electric guitars sound very clean and sparkly through this amp. This is not my amp but belongs to the church I play at. I'm considering bringing an amp to use. If this were my amp I would install JJ tubes and probably go with a Weber Alnico Blue or Celestion Blue, but then I'd be close to the $1000 price range where there are other choices.

Couldn't say. All tube amps have issues, class A moreso.

With my tone control backed off, I get a good Fendery clean sound, and my OD and fuzz pedals sound OK after I change their EQ. A warm jazz sound is almost impossible without losing 1/2 the signal by rolling off all the highs. It's a decent amp, but just voiced a little odd for my taste. If it were my bucks, I would get a Blues Jr., since I mostly use pedals for distortion anyway.