Crate PowerBlock Head

The usual Fender-type options on the front panel plus a fair amount of hook-up options on the rear. See the other reviews or the net for deatiils; I prefer to write about its tone.

I've written for guitar magazines for years and am a working pro blues musician.

Simply remarkable if you're not a heavy-metalhead. If you are, you'll have to experiment to see if it fits the bill. For pop, blues, country, jazz, etc. it's quite good. For dedicated blues it superb. Put the gain on 11 or 12 o-clock for some fairly clean crunch and fatness.
KNow this: With a good cab, it's the greaest value ever--not to emtion the fact that it's a big as a small loaf of bread and weighs under 5-lbs. It abisoltely murders the DrZ Mini-Z and the Orange Tiny Terror. I sold my JCM900 the day after I bought this.

With Humbuckers, go up to 12 o'clock on the gain. With single-coils, try 1:00. It's quite loud.

Perfect so far and I now gig with it leaving a basement full of other amps at home. It sounds great and weighs nothing so it's wonderful for working pros.

Note that if you use two 4-ohm cabs, she might cycle on and off due to the variability of impedance in the real word; some 4-ohm cabs will drop to 2-ohms at certain frequencies. This is the protection circuit at work warning you to change the load. Do not bridge (for the 150 watt max) into anything less than 8 ohms.

I've tried to contact Crate repeatedly. Even when I told them in writing who I was and the magazines I write for, they chose to ignore me so I'm giving them a very poor rating for service. I even tried US mail! I only wanted clarification of a few things in the manual and could reach no one by phone (nasty receptionist) and they never answered my emails. I shudder to think what would happen if I were about to gig and needed advice. You are on your own with Crate.

It's a little miracle so as long as it works, I'm in love!

Features are few. Just a basic head with equilization, pre and post volume. I do like the options on the rear of the amp, like stereo speaker outputs and the bridge to double the power in mono. It's got an MXR out. Wish it had two MXR outs for stereo to go right to a PA mixer. Love it's compactness. Been having the Crate for about 2 years but never used it, until my Bandmaster broke. I normally play with a 1967 silverface Fender Bandmaster head going into an old Peavy Blackwidow 15" speaker and just took the Powerblock along in case the Bandmaster would go belly up at a job.

After divorce, I don't need the headphone jack anymore. I can crank it up. Yeah! But it was nice to have when I was still married.

Way more than enough power. Can be extremely loud.

By itself as a straight amp I would give it about an 8. It is not quite as clean as my Fender. Reasently the Fender developed some rumbling sounds (it's 42 years old). I play through a Digitech GNX4. After learning to tweak GNX4, it turned out to be the best multieffects unit I tried. I have used the output of the GNX4 into a number of amps; Line6, Peavey, other Crate amps and various Fender amps. I loved it plugged into the BandMaster. I started using the Crate PowerBlock while the Bandmaster is getting repaired..WOW. I was blown away by the full and open sound I was getting. I can't believe I am getting that kind of sound of of the GNX4/PowerBlock combination. I am going to compare it with the Bandmaster side by side when I get it back. I may have found my new sound. As of right now I am very happy with it for Blues and R&B.

By itself, I would give the PowerBlock about an 8 for sound. It does everything a simple amp should. It is clean, but not Fender clean. It is very full and warm with the right speaker attached, and it is plenty loud and full enough for up to 200 or 300 people event without being mic'd. Dare I say tube like?

With all that said, I am not using it by itself and never do. In combination with the GNX4, I give it about a 9.5. A lot of the credit goes to the PowerBlock. I have tried the GNX4 in front of quite a few amps. I was a little disgusted with it until I plugged into the Bandmaster and now the Powerblock. It is rich sounding. I am a tone freak. I am always looking for good tone but I keep coming back to this setup. Most other guitarist look at it in disbelief and can't believe the sound that is coming out of this unlikely looking setup.

Feels like a brick. I've dropped it a few times. No problems with it so far. Runs cool to the touch no matter how much I crank it up. I don't think I can hurt it the way I gig with it.

Never had a problem or needed to call on any Crate equipment that I ever owned.

I have been playing semi-professional for about 50 years (gasp!) I like Powerblck / GNXa setup so much I don't want to risk being without the combination of gear. I only paid $78 bucks for this thing. At that price, they are probably throw aways (if it ever broke). I am going to buy a couple more off ebay or where ever I can find them. I am so impressed with the sound in live gigging situaltions that I may just keeping using it even after my Bandmaster comes back from the shop. But I also have to give some credit to the GNX4 I am using it with. I may buy a backup for that as well. I don't give a damn how much or how little something costs. If it sounds good, I want it.

Very nice amp, but all it has is a gain nob, middle, bass and treble, with the necessary level.

People just don't know how to tweak the settings on this thing. I have the crappiest distortion pedal, yet this amp, with some tweaking, turned it into a very thick and brutal distortion.

Without even changing the settings from the distortion settings, If I turn off distortion, the clean sounds nice and rich. Using the bridge pickup, I can get a nice country, twangy kind of sound. If I switch to neck, I get a really thick and rich clean sound that is absolutely magnificent!

Only problem I have ever had is that the level know has a short in it. Other than that this amp is RUGGED!

I have owned this amp for 2 years now, and I have never had a problem with it. I love it to pieces. It's rugged, sounds great, and is amazing for recording, since it has an extra XLR jack for a line out to a mixer, with a seperate level for it. So you can be hooked up to your mixer and be hooked up to the power block cabinet. Wonderful!

Most of the other reviews have captured the few features of this amp. I am a casual player that does not want to invest a ton in a rig, but wants to crank it up with buddies from time to time. This amp is LOUD!

I use this amp with an Ibanez SA-i60 with S-S-H pickups. By itself the amp adds nothing much to sound, but is perfect with my POD 2.0. The POD creates all my tones, and the Power Block cranks out the sounds through my Fender 1x12" cabinet. You need some effects box or pedals to make this Block reach its full potential.

Works fine everytime. I use it mostly in my home setup, and occaisionally drag it over a buddies house. The size/weight make it a pleasure to carry around, unlike most equipment.

Never needed support. The small instruction manual was all I needed.

This amp is perfect for a guitarist with a POD, or similar, effects box, or some pedals. Save some major money and find a used one. Don't know why Crate discontinued thi sline.

This amp was made in 2006 and purchased new by our rhythm guitarist. Our band plays nu-rock as in Chevelle, Seether, Godsmack, etc. This is a one channel amp, which was fine as he uses a Digitech metal pedal for distortion. This amp was used for practice and a couple gigs. The I/O on this little thing is quite extensive and practical. Plenty of power amp output for any situation. The combo stereo line ins/effects loop send/return jacks are nice, don't understand the comments about being speaker emulated because that is not where that is used, it's used on line outputs for DI. I give it an 8 in this category for practicality, fun, and the extensive I/O.

I have owned a Crate GX15 with effects, and a GX120 with effects, and marveled at the gain structure of both, awesome practice amps and the 120 sounded great through a JCM900 cab. THIS AMP SOUNDS ABSOLUTELY AWFUL!! If you are looking for the Flexwave distortion of the GX's, you have no hope here. A light blues drive is all you get, which personally I don't understand. This amp would've been a killer with the gain from the GX series. As far as people commenting about it being close to a tube amp, I completely disagree and here's why. We fiddled and fiddled for an hour trying to get the honk out of this thing(Jackson w/EMG 81,85, Digitech metal pedal, 5150 cab) to no avail. I was sure it was the pedal until, as a last resort, we substituted one of my old VTM120's running as clean as possible for the power amp, going in through the low input. PROBLEM SOLVED!!! 1000% more detail, fullness, and no more honk. COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SOUND. Stop comparing this toy to a tube amp which is not a toy!! This thing is unusable for any kind of heavy rock without pedals, and it's a lottery there 'cause the digitech sounds AWESOME thru the VTM, and CRAP through the powerblock. Sorry, 2 for sound quality.

We've never had any problems with this amp. Tore into it to try to jack up the gain, the construction is average, very thin boards in there but a fairly rugged casing. If I dropped it, I wouldn't be scared of it quitting.

Never had to deal with SLM, the GX120 went down but got stolen by some idiot right afterwards so I've never had to contact them.

I've been playing guitar 36 of my 40 years, and don't play country or jazz, why bother. Jackson dinky reverse no trem w/81,85 wired 18v, Washburn Nuno N4 Padauk, '62 Tele with little '59, Ovation Balladeer, ART SGX2000, 3 Peavey VTM 120's, Peavey Duel, 5150 cabinets, have owned Crate GX15 and 120, Mesa Dual Rectifier, Marshall micro stack and JCM900 standard/vintage cabs, original Danelectro stomps, Digi milk box compressor. Indianapolis is about the deadest town you could imagine for music.
If this amp were stolen, I'd have to replace it because it's not mine. T is a block mason, so I could probably just send him after whoever stole it lol. I'd not own one of these amps, it's tubes or nothing for me. Only one short life, too short to spend using inferior equipment. Like the I/O, would be an ok practice amp if you play blues or standards, possibly alright for some experimental/clean recorded tracks, unless you can find the dist pedal that this amp likes to work with. Great utility piece as others noted, just super crappy sound on its own, though YES I have heard worse. I just don't dig solid state amps, except the Marshall AVT which sounds great but I still wouldn't own that either. I'm going to try as soon as I find my compressor pedal to see what happens when you hit the front end hard. This amp is a good product and a good value, but like I said before, to get pro sound you got to have pro gear. I can't even practice with this thing. Sorry to the guy who dropped $1800 on the Mesa, should've bought a peavey classic 50 and been done with it.
Fun and features=8/gain/sound quality=2= 4 overall

The features have been well covered by earlier submissions. It's simple and straight forward and lets my sound come from my pedals. That's mainly what I bought it for.

Also, I sometimes play in a band or as solo act. This is real easy to schlep around. That's what I'm talking about!

I play an Ibanez 8 string. I like progressive rock, pop and some jam band stuff. That's right, I'm an 8 string player who doesn't really dig metal. I'm running this through two matching Crate 1x12 cabs. For effects I got wah-dist-chorus-delay-reverb.

This amp sounds really cool and surprisingly clean. Tons of volume with no noticeable breakup. I think its one of the best solid states I've owned / played. I like having the two 1x12 cabs. I can take just one cab with me if I'm doing a solo gig or both cabs when jamming with the guys.

I've had it for about 5 months now. No problems at all. Its built very well as many before me have documented.

I had a new Fender Supersonic head and cab before buying the Crate. After replacing a couple expensive tubes in a very short time, I cut my losses and got rid of it. Glad I did and never looked back. Considering the marginal difference in tone, I'll stick with solid state from here on out.

never dealt with them.

I would buy another one if something happened to it down the road. For the price, you can't beat it.

This is your nice, basic amp head. It has more features that one would think first looking at it. Most folks have gone over the basics, 3-band EQ, Effects loop/amp insert, cd in's, line out and headphone jack. It's not channel switching, but that can be gotten around. The size is what's so cool. I assume this is a class D design but don't hold me too that. Look for a lot of class D stuff in future. Especially bass amps.

This area is so different for so many people. I have come to my personal conclusion. If you look at the block diagram in the manual, it seems that everything runs through the speaker simulator all the way to the speaker jacks. No plugged into a cabinet, that sounds a little lifeless. That's a little curious, but there is a solution. The cd inputs go straight into the power amp. With a TRS y-adaptor, you can hook a cable from the ring side of the adaptor, and insert the other (RCA) side into the left cd input. With the speaker simulator bypassed, you have a very useable stand-alone amp. The sound is lively and great and the distortion is around AC/DC territory. With nothing but a simple booster like a LPB or treble booster, you can get some solid metal sounds out of it. I use a MXR Zakk Wyld overdrive and it can really scream. Pod folks could also benifit from using the cd inputs if you can control the master volume from the pod. If I hadn't got this worked out I would have been a little harder on the sound quality score. I use humbuckers and a Les Paul Classic with the 500 ceramics (is that right?) and an SG with Duncans. I'm mainly out for a good crunch and a heavy lead tone. Even with a pretty fair amount of distortion, it's still pretty quiet too.

I would say this thing is pretty bullet proof as long as you observe the speaker impedances. Modern solid state stuff seems very intolerant of this. If you have one cab, use the bridge mode. I'm not quite sure how it would be possible to hurt it otherwise.

Never dealt with Crate/SLM whomever they are now.

Overall this is a neat little amp in a small package. I would most surely troll Ebay for another if it was stolen. I've been though a lot of amps, and this little guy can hang with some pretty nice tube amps I have.

Just as some background I'm 27, been playing for 15 years and teaching for 7, have played on a multitude of amps ranging from cheeeeepo combo's to high-end tube amps.

First off, I bought this for $150 and like it better than any head I've ever played. Do the math... :)

This amp is wonderfully simple, gain, 3 band EQ and level, THAT'S IT. Very simple tone controls, don't really let you mess up the sound. The BEST feature of this amp is just the way it sounds, best emulation I've ever used honestly. I can't seem to get a bad sound out of this thing, I've tried, it always sounds good no matter what I do to the controls.

Also has some very useful back panel and under the hood features. Such as: XLR out and headphone jack both with speaker simulator, a mono 8ohm speaker out and also stereo 4ohm speaker outs, it functions as a 150w power amp (great if you're using a line 6 pod or similar preamp) and has stereo RCA inputs for a mixer or CD player etc. And of course an FX loop (useful for this amp as it comes with no FX) personally tho I like to use it dry. One of my favorite features of this amp is the fact that it's SMALL and LIGHT. Fits nicely in it's little shoulder strap bag, easy to lug around.

I use this with several guitars, but mostly with my Washburn HB35. I play Punk, Blues and hard Rock N' Roll.

The sound is phenomenal in my opinion. Warm, smooth and full tube emulation without the worry of tube maintenance and the weight and size of more expensive heads. The only other amps for me that have compared in sound are heads costing over $1000. I've never played an amp I like BETTER however, for my taste this matches up to anything else I've tried, including the JCM 800 or Crate's more expensive tube heads.

This is not for most metal players to use on it's own, people who expect a really high gain would have to use a distortion pedal. It does get quite heavy tho when you crank the gain, in my opinion it's brutal enough for metal, but I know most would want more. Also the more gain you give it from your guitar or preamp the more it distorts.

The clean sound is nice, if I max the Level and use the gain to reach my peak volume for shows I find this amp stays perfectly clean at a volume loud enough to play over drums. It seems Crate have balanced the gain and level perfectly for all applications. It breaks up around half way which gives me a lot of room for the sound I like which is a crunchy, bluesy, hard rock overdrive, it does this sound amazingly. So if you like hard rock, punk, blues, classic rock etc. this is definitely the head for you.

Also, VERY low noise, nice and quiet even when cranked.

I've had it for a couple years, it's never given me any trouble of any sort at all. I gig all the time with a couple bands, I kick it around at gigs, it's built like a brick and because of it's size it actually does resemble a little futuristic looking brick. All the controls and parts seem really sturdy and not plastic/cheep AT ALL.

Never had to deal with them, once I wrote Crate about the head tho asking why they discontinued it and if they were planning a PowerBlock II. I got a prompt, polite and informative response.

Again, for me it was $150 (with case) for an awesome sounding 150 watt head... can't beat that value.

I love everything about this head, period. If it was lost or stolen I'd replace it right away. In fact I am currently looking for a secondary one to keep at my practice space for guest guitarists and to have as a backup. If you're low on cash but need something loud good and worry free, if you want something that sounds good straight away without the need to "find" your tone, if you need a backup head, if you're tired of carrying your big heavy one, or if you need something to use with a preamp or as a simple 150w power amp... you should buy this head.

really,all of the "features" on this amp are state of the art...and it's LOUD


AND SMALL

this amp only sounds decent when it's played cleanly,but if you want to get REALLY,REALLY heavy metal sounds you'd need a pretty nice distortion or overdrive pedal....which i don't have

i haven't really gone through hell and back with this amp(because i can't get my sound),but because of it's "slim-lined" design i'd say it's pretty sturdy

i haven't had to deal with the customer support,but because this amp has been discontinued(and it'd be hard to get),you can go on crateamps.com and print the user's manual...which is pretty handy

this is a nice amp for traveling(if you prefer cleaner tones),and it's got alot of useful featurs on it...so yeah

it's ok if you're not looking for HEAVY distortion sounds

This is a 150W Solid State power amp designed by SLM Eletronics in St. Louis, MO and manufactured in China.
On the front: Input jack, headphone jack, 5 knobs: Gain, High, Mid, Low, Level
On the back: Mono & R&L Stereo speaker outputs 75W RMS per side -4ohms. w/ a "Bridge Mono" @150W - 8ohms. button. Cd RCA inputs, Output level knob, Line Out XLR jack, Line in stereo or mono/effects loop snd/rtn, power button, AC Line in for the power cord.

The whole thing is smaller than a lunch box, under 5 pounds, and less than a foot wide and 4 inches high.

I think the reviews(and ratings) have been misleading on this piece of equipment so I want to state up-front the purpose for this amp. No it's not for jumping your car, no it's not for powering your auto-body shop welder, no it's not a PA system or a pirate radio staion transmitter, and no it's not a bass amp.

It IS a 150 Watt Stereo Guitar Amplifier. It also has an even more specific design purpose which I will discuss later. I will rate it as such.

Crate built this amp primarily for the "POD Heads". The POD line of electronics by Line 6 is(in case you have been exiled to a 3rd world country) a very cool multi-setting guitar amp modeler and guitar effects box among other things. The Crate Power Block gets the input from POD(or other effects boxes) and boosts it out any one of a hundred different speaker cabinets. This was and is it's primary design function and it does this VERY well. Yes I know it has a lot of other holes for allowing some flexibility. You CAN play a Marshall Stack on the clean channel at a 1 setting all the time too. But it's not it's intended purpose!!! you get my point...

Considering the purpose, the Crate Power Block can be configured to really adds nothing of it's own to the sound being amplified. Great! Excelent! Outstanding! If you are using cabinet/microphone modeling and dial in a Marshall?? 1968 Variac Plexi miked through a Shure?? SM-57 Off Axis with some Big Muff Pi?? and Arbiter?? Cry Baby Wah mixed in, what you don't need is adding another whole set of amplifier characteristics on top of it. The Power Block does a good job of just passing this setup through my Peavey 6505 4x12 cabinet without much else. Yes of course whatever you play it through is going to add some character of it's own but for me this is a great match. The perfect match actually.

I also have a single 12" fender extension cabinet that I use with the Power Block for jamming instead of lugging around the big cabinet. The Fender doesn't do quite as well being transparent. It seems to like the Fender models and is fine with the VOX stuff but it lacks some of the very defined highs needed to cut through when doing metal.
The Power Block runs it like a champ.

The Crate PB does have gain and some EQ and these are great for helping to match up a speaker cabinet with the modeling desired. It is not meant to be "the ultimate tube overdrive amp" or anything of the sort. I use some gain to add a little extra punch over the top of the POD effects sometimes which actually lends itself to some amazing overtones.

The bottom line on sound is that the CPB does an outstanding job of doing it's job, making my POD and effects boxes really, really LOUD.

What you put in to it is exactly what you get out of it, times 150.

It is dependable, seems solid as a couple bricks wrapped together with an aluminum heat sink. I never gig without a backup. Runs cool, even with driven hard, has never clipped on me during performances or gigs.

Firstly I hate most of Crate's products. I have played with several hundred guitarists over the years and I don't know any of them that said "Wow I can't wait to get a Crate amp" For the most part I think they make junk. BUT the Power Block and the newest tube Crate amps in the "V" series seem to exceed expectations. I have tried the "V" series V-33 twin and I love it. It's an entirely different tool than the Power Block I will use both as intended...

I've been playing professionally since I was 13. I am now after 25 years still playing and I love where technology has taken things as much as I love old school tubes. The Power Block is a great amplifier in it's own right for a specific purpose. If you're going to buy one(used since they are out of production) then know what it's good at doing at least. No I'm not going to sell my Fender Twin or my M-80 or my JCM2000, but I love the Crate Power Block and none of these does what it will do. Boost the signal I am putting in it without influencing it. They also don't fit under the seat of your F-150 if you go to the bar after practice... The Power Block does. For $150 you can't ask for more.

I bought my PowerBlock in '05, so it was manufactured then or in'04.
I am submitting another review because the XLR output fizzled. This feature was "the" tipping factor when I decided to purchase this product. The XLR sounded like utter crap for guitar, but was absolutely the best sounding D.I. for bass, and that's what I used it for, uh, like twice, then it died. (The amp itself still works fine.)
I should mention that I've been at this a "long time" and have many choices for bass D.I., but to my ear this sounded the best. The PB150 amp thru one 10" Eminence bass speaker both mic'd and direct-injected was perfect in the studio. (And yes, I can trouble shoot...the problem is not my cables.)

The XLR sounded great for bass, while it was working. It simply stopped working for no apparent reason. The amp has never been played out, and has never suffered any damage. The "very basic" guitar sound can be decent when mic'd through the right speaker - I prefer a 10" Eminence Ramrod - single 10's are easiest to deal with in my small project studio. The effects loop is configured in kind of a ridiculous manner, it could have been simpler without raising manufacturing costs.
I run an old Boss "half rack" unit for reverb (not on bass, duh).

Obviously the XLR out is not reliable. I have probably only used it a total of 5 times. This amp has never been abused or dropped.
Otherwise, I love this amp.
I have not opened it up to seek out the likely cold solder joint - because the thing is so miniature, I find the prospect of self servicing it to be rather daunting - but what am I gonna do, send it back to China? I'll grind my teeth and crack the "little b*st*rd" open eventually.

I have not contacted Crate about this problem - the amp is three years old so it is no doubt long out of warranty. Since my PB150 was only $80 (new!), it simply isn't worth paying to have it serviced.
It's a "disposable product," like all the other "made in China" stuff that globalization has subjected us to. So, I'll try to find another one cheap on Craig's or somewhere.

These amps had great potential. The PB150 filled a void left after Gallien Krueger gave up on small portable guitar heads. It's shame that Crate did not refine the design. This isn't an "overbuilt vintage style tube amp," but it could have been an effective amp for recording or small gigs. (If you're carrying enough gear to play a stadium, you wouldn't be worrying about the size or weight of an amp head.)
That said, I'm bummed about the direct out...

This small digital head for guitar and more is a real value. At it's original price of $300 it was a steal - at the closeout prices around of $100 - it is a rare deal!!

This is a two channel output or summed output - 75 x 2 or 150 x 1. It has a line level input set but bypasses the volume control [wish it didn't]. It features a volume control plus a gain control along with tone controls. The amp runs very cool.

I have used this with a 10" bottom, a 12" and a 15" bottom as well as with several multi-driver rigs. It performs well under all circumstances. With the gain set at 11:00 and the volume where you might need it - it sounds very good. I sold my Bedrock 1600 combo and replaced it with this... It is superb.

I have used both of these that I purchased and have had zero problems with these.

Love the sound, portability and performance. Wish they still made these and even expanded the line.

Why the hell did they stop making this amp, and why have no other amp manufacturers tried to copy it?! It is a brilliant design in my opinion.

A single channel amp with no reverb is obviously not for everyone, but this amp has a very clever set of features. Because of the inputs and outputs I've managed to use it as an emergency PA before, it's very flexible in that sense. It's incredibly small and incredibly light - if I'm playing a gig and know that there'll be a cabinet there, I simply need to take my guitar, pedal bag and powerblock, so I can do it all in one trip, making life very easy.

I'm regularly gigging in two bands and this is the only amp I have right now. I had a Dr Z valve amp head which I sold, mainly for financial reasons but also because the powerblock nearly does the same job. I've had a few sound engineers compliment me on how good my guitar sounds and then look confused when I show them what I'm using. They find it difficult yo believe such a small box can make such a convincing sound.

As others have said, this has a very transparent sound. I have a nice set of pedals that produce the range of sounds I want, and the powerblock simply does a superb job of amplifying it. I put it through a custom cabinet with a 15" eminence speaker, and it sounds full, rounded and fat.

I normally push up the middle control to around 3pm which fattens the sound and adds presence. The EQ controls are very well voiced.

This obviously does not sound as good as a boutique valve amp head. To me though, through a decent cabinet it can sound 90% as good. I think the main thing it lacks in comparison to a valve amp is the ability to cut through a band. It doesn't quite have enough bite to do it, but it's not far off.

I've been using mine for about 18 months and it's been solid as a rock so far. Obviously not having any tubes makes it much more reliable than a valve amp, and you avoid a major expense of having to get it retubed every year or two.

To be honest the build quality is a bit cheap, but in it's padded bag you can still throw it in the bag of the car knowing that it will be ok.

Not had to deal with them.

I bought this cheap when they were selling them off after they were discontinued. It was so cheap that I picked it up just to use as a little practise amp. I then tried it at rehearsal and discovered that it was nearly as good as the valve amp which cost me 20 times as much.

I would be first in the queue if Crate released the Powerblock II. I would absolutely love to see a new version of the powerblock with higher build quality and an improved sound, but essentially the same features. If Crate aren't going to do this would some other amp manufacturers PLEASE rip it off! We're not all so obsessed with valve amps that guitarists don't need this sort of product.

There's a massive range of small, portable solid state bass amps on the market. Why can't the same be true for guitarists? There is far too much snobbery in guitar equipment, the technology is now there to produce good, simple alternatives to valves.

Features: see other reviews

Power 150watts=LOUD

Cool Features: Effects loop, RCA Aux in, XLR out

SMALL, TOUGH CONSTRUCTION!!

CONSIDERING WHAT IT IS, COMPARED TO LIKE POWER AMPS FEATURES ARE GREAT!

I'm writing this in response to a few reviews that gave it 1's (like mortuusspecter). After reading their poorly conceived reviews I had to respond after using this great little piece of equipment for over a year now.

YOU HAVE TO REMEMBER IT"S A POWER AMP: AKA GREAT BEHIND A MODELER ETC.

Behind your favorite pedals etc. this little puppy just shines. Because it's made to NOT COLOR YOUR SOUND. It will simply take your sound and make it louder. That's why it's great.

The on-board distortion is not great by itself because basically its a power circuit simply overdriven but as others have said it sounds great with pedals like the bluesdriver or my favorite with it a mesa-boogie v-twin or sometimes I use a Tubescreamer type (the barber direct drive is GREAT)

The EQ shapes very well.

Mortuusspecter's review said it wasn't loud enough for his bedroom well unless his bedroom is in the boiler room of a world war 2 aircraft carrier then he either had a faulty unit or set it up wrong, because mine is LOUD! I've paired it with 4x10", 4x12", 2x12" and even a 1x15" cabs and they were all LOUD.

Great, transparent sound that simply amplifies YOUR SOUND-genius...
Unless your sound sucks. But then hey with the price of this amp you'll have alot of chedder left to customize your sound after you get the amp.

Well made, tough little amp. Never had a prob in over a year of solid use.

I use it as a backup to my tube amp. I like to combine it with my johnson J-station amp modeler. In this role it really shines. I also team it up with a tube preamp/ distortion pedal (mesa v-twin) which also kicks ass.

THINK ABOUT IT AN AMP THE SIZE OF A LUNCHBOX WITH YOUR FAVORITE PEDAL AND A CAB OF YOUR CHOICE!-

--You could have a 150watt set up that fits in a small back pack-SWEET!

I use it for practice all the time with a 1x10" cab I made in my little wood shop. PERFECT PRACTICE SETUP!

A $100 power amp that rivals some $300 poer amps I've heard over the years.

No idea when it was made. Suppose it doesn't matter much. I like most of the features but I wish it had a reverb on it. Effects loop is a nice feature. I have Line 6 Pod 2.0 that plugs works really well with this amp.

Sound quality is good if not great. It won't give you that deep dark distortion you crave if you're into metal or modern style music. With the gain turned most of the way up, you can get a convincing ac/dc type sound with it wich is pretty cool. But as far as deep dark tear your face off distortion, it just doesnt have it. Clean tones are also good not great. Turning the treble all the way up gives a tinny jangly kind of sound. Mids and lows are quite tight though.

Mine has been gigged, left on overnight, used as a make-shift P. A. system and generally miss-treated. I have had no trouble with this amp at all I turn it on and it works. I bought it as a back up, tried it gigging one night and now its my main amp. I have that much faith in it.

I bought it brand new out of the box and I was instantly impressed. For such a small piece it has plenty of headroom to keep up with and surpass even the most aggressive drummers. On its own it is not a special sounding amp. It sounds like what it is. A very loud, solid state amp. Adding effects to it as I and most users of this product have, opens up a world of choices. The Line 6 Pod 2.0 is a good choice as they are rock solid reliable and since Line 6 has released a new version of this, Used ones on Ebay are popping up all over the place.

Pretty light on the front-panel features. No reverb. No effects. Just gain, treble, mid, bass, and volume controls.

Has some great features on the back though, including effects loop, stereo CD/line input, XLR out, and powered-outs of either stereo @ 4ohms each, or mono at 8ohms.

I LOVE this little powerhouse! And this is coming from a guy who's been using 100 watt tube heads live for years. I have been using Hughes & Kettner Triamp Mk I and a Traynor YCS-100H for my live classic rock and country gigs.

I play a G&L Tribute Legacy strat, G&L Tribute Asat tele, and three ESP Ltd EC-400's at gigs. All of them sound great through my tube heads. And they all sound great through the Power Block.

I purchased the Power Block used for $100 off of Ebay a couple of weeks ago. What a deal! I got it to have as a backup so I didn't have to haul multiple tube amps around to gigs. But I've been using it as my daily practice rig every day since I got it. I don't like having to warm-up and cool-down tubes and having wear and tear on them just for practice. So I have the Power Block plugged-into my two JCM 900 1960 cabs (A and B) and it rocks!

Plenty of volume for sure. And it sounds great for clean country on my tele if I roll-off the gain back to about "3" and use my Visual Sound Route 66 compressor for that Brad Paisley sound. Or I roll the gain up to "10" and kick in my "Ultimate Mod" TS-9 Tube Screamer for rock and metal. Maxed-out the Crate has roughly Marshall JCM800 level gain on-tap. With the addition of any decent OD or distortion pedal to the chain there's plenty of gain on-tap.

I'm impressed with the tube emulation in this little beast. It does a decent job. To my ears a LOT better-sounding than the Line 6 Duoverb or the Behringer Vampire heads that I used to use for backup and/or practice. And I even like the fact that it's got no reverb or anything fancy on-board, as my good quality effects pedals do what I need in those areas. I will still gig with tube amps because I've learned over the years that NO solid state or modeling amp can match tube amps for clean headroom, or that musical quality that power tubes being driven hard have (they're "ALIVE"). But I feel more than confident throwing the Power Block in its soft bag and hauling it to gigs as my only backup to the tube head. It sounds good enough that the rest of my night wouldn't be ruined if I had to use it. That's saying a LOT!

Dunno what kind of reliability it has long-term. Hope it holds up. But may eventually buy another just to have around since they don't make 'em anymore.

Dunno. Hope I don't have to find-out.

I've been playing since 1984 and been gigging since 1986. I've played thousands of gigs with just about every piece of gear out there over the years. Found a lot of good stuff and a lot of junk. So far I am very impressed with this little beasty.

The only way this thing could be any better for my tastes is if they somehow squeezed 4-El34 power tubes in there! But then I'd still have to have a backup for that... so this thing rules "as-is" and is perfect.

The Crate Powerblock 150 watt solid state amp. It has all the "back to basic" amp controls. I'm begining to learn that this is something that allows you to build from it's basic design to get the final sound your looking for. The option that I wish it had was a dual channel. I'm of the opinion that when using this amp you have the basic necessities to build from and with that the most valuable "feature" on this amp is realized when you go to grab your equipment and load it into your car. I have finally learned how to grow the sound from this amp. Of course it would be nice to have that Marshall, Fender and Ampeg sound right out of the box which I have done for many years but I'm willing to learn how to grow my sound off this thing. Dollars and weight are by far the best feature on this amp. Enough said!

I play exclusively through an American made Stratocaster and Gibson SG. Most of the time I'm playing through the neck pickup and sometimes through neck and middle. I mostly play Blues of all sorts and some Rock from 60's 70's and 80's. If I were to quote my favorite artist the top five would be first and foremost Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan and then Derek Trucks, Robin Trower and Duane Alman. Yes, the tube sound is what I prefer by far. I finally found the sound I was hoping for out of this amp yesterday. When I first purchased the amp I plugged straight into the amp with my guitar and played with tone a little and finally begin to work on the level and gain controls. I must admit that I wasn't very pleased with the sound at this time and wanted to dismiss it very quickly as only a backup amp. Although it could produce some ok sounds that could get you out of a bind when you need a amp or go home it just didn't cut if for me. I experminted even further and found when using my Blues Driver pedal I could easily grow the quality of sound but it still couldn't produce what I was looking for. That soon changed. Read on.

I must tell you that I've had no problems with this amp as of yet and I'm very pleased. Additionally, the sound I like is playing with the level in highest position possible and this is where others are having problems supposedly. Even though I have discovered the sound with this amp that I enjoy, I still would not use it without a backup in public simply because of the reports of the amps failure in some cases. I would use it in public as I love the sound but never would I pack it alone.

No Opinion

Alright, this is the nitty gritty of it all isnt it. I've been playing for little over 30 years now. Through the years I have developed a love affair with all types of amps and at the very top of my list are two special amps of mine; The Ampeg VT 40 and many different Marshall head/4x12 combinations. The most recent Marshall head in the stable is the JCM 2000 3 channel. They are both great sounds but the truth of the matter is this simple fact. Every time I set them up to deliver that sweet sound I love, an argument almost always breaks out between my wife and I. It was sometime during one of these discussions with her that I began to study these little amps that were supposed to produce that sweet delicious sound but at a lower level. (My Marshall when playing through the lower watt option just does not due the amp justice either) I have played, purchased, sold and kept some I liked but the bottom line is I don't believe they can be reproduced completely at lower levels. Although some amps come close I feel they just don't compare so I turned my focus on trying to get a great sound out of one of these small light weight amps that I kept. Several just couldn't cut the mustard but when I hooked up this Power Block to my Marshall 4x10 cabinet (yes they did make them) and with the level on full out and gain at 10 o'clock or more with the Blues Driver pedal level at 10 or 12 O'clock and gain half way up, this little amp began to sing for me like the VT 40. I couln't believe what I was hearing and thank goodness I was home alone at the time. Whoever said these amps are weak don't have a clue or like me didn't experment with them enough in the beggining. After reading the previous review I've decided to try some other devices with this amp to get more of the tube sound through. I'll tell you straight up, I'm no Crate fan but they have caused my eybrow to raise slightly with this one. What baffles me is why they discontinued the thing. If modifications were neceessary on the amp for reliability purposes I would have them done on this one and would buy another one in a heartbeat if stolen. I'm going to do some research on this one to see what kind of mods if any are available. I wish Crate would see this concept through and bring it to a standard for all amps. If some young techie figures out a way to make these things cream of the crop, people will be spending thousands on them. Musicians are young only so many years and then they hate carrying all that weight around.

This review is an update focused on a few features I didn't sufficiently appreciate when I started using this amp. The most important are the collection of I/O on the back panel. The amp has an effects loop plus CD in, XLR out, and two 1/4" auxiliary ins, stereo or mono. It took me a while to realize that I could run a guitar modeller into an auxiliary in, controlling volume and tone from the modeller, and use the input for a microphone. In other words it's like a powered mixer. That realisation saved me from buying a dedicated combo for solo work.

It's not the best sounding amp I ever heard as a standalone, pretty bland. But it does a good job of amplifying the sound of a modeller, and modellers/multi FX are the core of my rig (I travel with a guitar and modeller, and use a modeller when I sit in). No, modellers don't sound like the originals, but they can sound very good, and the convenience of practicing, gigging and sitting in with the same rig is priceless. I use the PB with a Zoom G2.1u (see my review) and Digitech RP200. Sounds better with the RP200 but either box can be tweaked to get a very good sound with the amp.

It's working fine.

Never called 'em.

Look, at $99 for a device that weighs 4 pounds, comes with a carry bag, runs on either 110 or 220 volts, and can function as a PA system and power amp for solo gigs, this thing is unique. I'm a light gear freak. My preferred amp is a Kustom Tube 12A (see my review), another light (10 lb) cheap device, because it has inbuilt tube sound and the line out means I can use it as a preamp through PAs as well as a practice amp. So I put the PB aside until I started looking for a keyboard combo to use with mike, guitar and maybe drumbox... and then realized the PB's inputs solved my problem. I'll be experimenting with different speakers to see which gives me the best sound. Meanwhile, I'm glad I got one of these before they were discontinued. I don't know why these weren't bigger hits when they were introduced -- maybe because soundwise, they take some work to get good sound. I think Crate was ahead of its time here.

gain. level. highs. mids. lows. one channel. poorly devised effects loop. 150w solid state.

this thing is pretty bland.

at 150w, it has no power to it. i wouldnt dare take it out of my house, but even sitting in my room, practicing, its still too quiet.

it has one sound. the gain knob and level knob work together to make volume. you cant make it distort or make it clean. its in the middle, where it has no life.

im using an ibanez xiphos with a seymour duncan invader. i mostly play metal.

without a pedal, its useless. even with a pedal, the pedal is all you can hear.

im sure its reliable, as long as you dont accidentally hit one of the knobs out of place (which is easy to do, considering they stick out a good inch).

i had an issue with the power cord. it shorted out, but i dont blame crate for that one.

n/a

ive been playing long enough to know better than to spend $100 on this thing. if i lost it, i wouldnt care a bit.

new early 2007. Basic stuff: Gain, Volume, bass, mid, treb. It's a basic amp. As that it's good.

This amp sounds great to my ears and I have been playing tube amps for a very long time. Still have 6 vintage tube amps. I bought this for a back up and have started to use it lately at the gig. It is clean but can have a little grit or rasp to it. Love the deep clear lows with an edge to them. The highs can be a little spikey but not too bad actually for a SS amp. It's a one trick pony to my ears. Run the gain at 11-1 oclock and the volume in the same range and it sounds great...and loud. I've been running the volume at just past 12 oclock and the gain about the same. This gives a semi-clean sound but with just enough hair in it to satisfy me. It takes to pedals pretty well. Bass and Mids are near cranked and the treble about 2 oclock on the dial.

I've heard they fail often.. or shut themselves down, but I haven't seen it yet. Maybe if you crak it allthe way it overheats or something?

havent tried.

Played 40 years. love tube amps. Trying to use this to tone down the volume. However..... it's loud as hell! Now I'm really starting to like it! ARGHH...it's sacriledge...playing a SS amp...But with the gain, I can tweek it in at little lower volume. for $99 buck it's afantastic value... if it keeps woking.

I got this amp liek a month ago, and I've played on it every single day + one gig-
I wish it had two channels, nothing else, for this price and lightweigt, IMO this is the best you can get.
I'm using the effect loop all the time, ad when I get another cab, I am going to use both, I got a pedalboard of 2 multi-fxs, a wah, a dist & a noise gate.. so i got all the fxs to tweak, (I must have more than one knob).. well.. power is not a problem. i play with the control round 7-8 .. and it is enough for normal practise (with one 100W speaker that is.) turn it up past 12 and it ERUPTS.. the whole house shakes. I play With EMGs' and started out with gain at 11, ,now I play halfway distorted clean-tones with gain at 3 + a full out jackhammer in front, it is a beautiful combination, for only clean w/EMGs this is a maybe.. haha.. this or a veery expensive tube amp I say.. It is tube- emulating, but I compared it with a vintage tube peavey and the dynamics ARE TH SAME, It knocked me on my back. I give it a nine cos' it would have been really fun with another channel and stuff. the rest kicks ass

K' This amp is not good for "suuper scooping" the mids cos' the middle tone control got a little too large bandwith to make that sound, I use my dist. pedal to do that, then boost them at the amp a litle bit. It haves a tiny, tiny bit of noise there is cos' it has 150 watts of power.
Now, I took it for a test ride to see what it was good for, the kurt kobain "clean sound" on the song "about a girl" from the album bleach. It IS THE SAME, and kobain uses a MESA!. I got stunned.. the distortion is kinda guns & roses on full,, slash-ish, but with a decent dist-pedal in front it is a reaper. go harvest som souls:D think of it as a tube amp with invisible tubes. flexvawe 6 works awesome

this is the most rugged amp head I have ever seen, no sh't.

didnt deal with them,, but 5 yrs guarantee for the head.

I got this, the 112 cab to it with celestion. a marshall jackhammer, boss pw-10, yamaha magicstomp v2.10, boss ns-2, zoom g1x. My guitar is a n over-modded strat with EMGs' 81, SV & 89(85 w/split) a PA2 & SPC, sperzel locking tuners.

If I lost this I would mourn over it as if my girlfriend had died then proclaimed a Vendetta upon the person that stole it. and buy a new.

I love mostly everything about it, some things could be more fun like two channels and stuff, but for the price it is unbeatable..

I bought it after I had heard a different crate amp with flexwave 3 in it, after I got it I discovered that with a bit of tweaking on the knobs (& some of my fxs) I could get any sound out of it.

It is now my main amp and will be until I'm payed for using something else.

150 Watts/ 3 knob EQ/ drive & volume/ 8 ohm or stereo speaker imputs.
carrying case.

The sound quality of the Crate Power Block is very good. It will also
depend on what speaker(s) your using with it. An old Silvertone with
Jensens sound great/ a Epiphone cab with a Lady Luck speaker is pretty good. Great for carrying in you effects bag; just lug a speaker cabinet. Set it clean and use a good processor. Use it for a back up. It's a good product but I don't see them offered in magazines or stores anymore at all. Careful tweaking gives a sound you can jam to all day long. Not too clippy with the gain cranked.
I wish the circuitry of the Power Block was used in some solid state
amps I've tried.

I would be confident using this amp head without a back-up. So far very reliable.

I've played about 40 yrs. I own 3 tube amps & 3 solid states. There are some great solid state amps. Amps are about the last thing in electronics hanging on to tubes. Playing in a band I mostly used a solid state, occasionally bringing out my tube amps. Many good solid states are great "work horses" that never "cough" or hiccup or any problems whatsoever, admit it. The speaker(s) used with this amp head
factors into your results. This amp head is not a dud.

Well described already in other reviews, but this is a one-channel, solid-state head with 150 watts mono into 8 ohms, with a capability for 4 ohm stereo. This amp, run through a 2x12 Avatar cabinet with Celestion Vintage 30 and a Celestion Classic Lead 80 has plenty of power for me to gig clubs with a 4 piece band including a loud (aren't they all!)rock drummer, but remember,its not 150 TUBE watts. Still, I keep the volume at about 3/4 and the gain at about 1/2. The line out XLR is a nice feature, as is the CD line-in RCA inputs. The features on the back are nice, though I don't love the split 1/4 stereo cable for the effects loop, but there are limited features on the front of the head (i.e.: reverb, a second channel), so I give this head a 3.

This amp, as described elsewhere in other reviews, has limited flavor of its own. I play classic rock covers in a gigging band; I don't use modeling pedals, but I do use a lot of stomp boxes, and I can always know that this head will just amplify the sound I create with my stomp boxes, and not impart any flavor of its own. That said, I find it really hard to get a convincing distortion out of this head...sorry solid-state lovers, but even with a Big Muff going full bore, this head still doesn't growl like a Hughes and Kettner or other tube head. On its own, even with the gain at full bore this amp cannot produce a distorted sound, but rather just a mild overdrive sound that might be similar to a Boss Blues Driver or a Tube Screamer dialed in about half-way. That said, this amp makes nice sounds when tweaked correctly, and is quite versatile due to its lack of fixed tone. I don't find this amp too noisy, though I use a Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor as well. I do find that I can make this amp feedback easily, but that is often my own stupidity. I'm giving this head a 6; I don't love the sterile sounds and I would like more onboard distortion, but it does the trick for now, and will make a great backup head once I upgrade to a tube head.

I gig with this head currently, and have never had any problems. I will use this amp as a backup head once I get a new tube head, and have used it as a bass head before in a pinch. Plus, you gotta love the portability.

N/A

I've been playing on and off for about 13 years or so, seriously for about 5, and gigging for about 1 year. I think this head was perfect for me for the purposes I bought it for--it was a cheap, loud temporary amp for me to gig with until I could afford something better. With that in mind, this has been a great head...it's loud, easily transportable, and doesn't sound bad. I would like an amp with more individual characteristics, but I know that isn't what this amp was designed to do. I would buy another one if it were stolen because it is a really versatile backup amp, and because it's really easy to transport for practice purposes. All in all, I give this head a 7.

The XLR Direct out is great. I use it instead of a direct box. The speaker out is excellent. I have not used the effects loop but it is definately a nice add on.

I have gotten a great blues sound direct to PA. Just add some effects and your good to go. Awesome for its portability. I do not understand the previous review for head room issue. Price point this is one of the best units out there. It is plenty loud and versatile. If you want a tube amp and have the money go spend it. If you have limited funds and need something portable to plug direct and into a speaker cab then this is the ticket.

Never had a problem and have been using it for over 1 1/2 years.

Did not need.

For reasons above anyone who plays live and direct into a PA and has their own pedal board should have one as a back up system. You can't beat it for the price - $100 used on EBAY.

As many have posted here, the back panel of this unit is where the versatility is at. I use it on the mono 150-watt setting.

I bought mine for use as a small back-up amp in case my '65 Bandmaster were to go down. I had been hauling along a solid-state 1-12 combo amp for that purpose and wasn't thrilled to be doing so.

After purchasing the Crate used at a pawn shop, I checked it out once through my cabinet for about five minutes and then it went back into it's bag until our bass player's giganto-rack system went kablooey at a gig and he didn't have time to drive home and get a spare head. I offered up the Crate, he hooked it up through his SVT cab and the whole band let out a collective "Holy s***!" It sounded absolutely ferocious, ballsy and LOUD! Needless to say, he is now looking for a Powerblock of his own for a backup.

I decided to give it a whirl when we were rained out of an outdoor gig and we wound up playing in a bar the size of my living room. I needed to use as little space as possible and the Powerblock fit the bill. I was very pleasantly surprised by the Powerblock, it sounded very good, and as many have posted here, it worked excellent with multi-effects. To be perfectly honest, that was the best that my multi-effects have sounded, even better than through my Bandmaster. Unlike others who have had issues with the sound of the Powerblock, I was very impressed with the tone. None of the buzz or fizziness that has been described, and I was able to get a very comfortable stage volume (comfortable=pretty darn loud). Yes, I noticed differences in tone between my blackface Bandmaster and the Powerblock..duh!..but I still sounded like me. I was so impressed that I plan on using the Powerblock for gigging this weekend at another sardine-can of a venue. I'm sold.

Boy, the power issues I read about here scare me, kiddies. Haven't had any problems yet and I've had mine for about 4 months. Heck, out bass player used mine again at a benefit gig last weekend without any problems..perhaps (knock on mahogany) I have a reliable one. Thanks for the heads-up on the design flaw, though.

If I did call Crate, I'd just say "Did the logo have to be so damn HUGE?"

Been playing about 24 years now, have had lots of amps and I think I may have found the ultimate back-up amp. It's light, portable, versatile and sounds great through my rig. I usually run my '65 Bandmaster through a 4-10 Peavey cab loaded with reissue Jensens with a couple dirt pedals and my multi-effects. Guitars are usually Strats. The Powerblock works perfect for any of the smaller gigs I may play and I don't feel I am compromising on my tone too much when I use it. Although I could hear the minor differences, the rest of the guys in the band couldn't hear any real difference in my tone with the Powerblock. I'm a working weekend warrior musician, not a cork-sniffing tone snob and what matters to me is tone AND the viability of the device. A piece of gear must work well and be able to take the rigors of gigging instead of being a bedroom showpiece. The Powerblock is a welcome tool in the arsenal of the working musician. I love it. The ultimate back-up amp for the working musician.

features are ok, kinda standard.

Ok, I'll make clear here that I'm one of the "tube tone snob" and that I usually play in all tube non master volume amps, without reverb and with flat tone settings.
Said this, when I considered the powerblock it was not because I was looking for the tone of my life, but because I found interesting the idea to have a small, portable, cheap and hopefully just decent sounding amp to play live in some non optimal situations (most of time...).
Basically I expected an average transistor quality sound, packaged in a smaller and ligther box. Crate itself has done some transistor amps decent for the bucks in the past and I presumed this should more or less be the same quality.
More than this, an absolute point of powerful transistor amps is that they are cleaner than tube amps and, if you want to carry two amps, they permits you to have a powerful clean tone togheter with expressive tube distortion. I thougth that at least the powerblock would have been useful for clean tones.
To make a long story short, after trying the powerblock I must admit I was completely wrong.
First, this "wanna be an amp" has no clean headroom! The manufacturer credits it for a 150W when bridged but it has no more CLEAN headromm than a 10W practice amp: disappointing at least (and useless...)!
Then the amp by itsel extremely dark a deadly sounding. No dynamics, no touch sensitivity and no "euphonic" distortion.
I've tried it with tube preamps, boutique overdrives, full range speakers and digital simulation but I've not been able to obtain a decent sound out of it.
Ok, it is really cheap and it is not fair to pretend great things of it, however reputation of crate is really meant to go destroyed if they continue to produce and sell items like this.

New out of the package, ther'was some rust. I would not bet it will stand any abuse.

Toy amp, dead sounding and without clean headroom. If you are not critical about size and weight and you don't want to spend money, buy an used all transistor amp instead. IMO the powerblock is a waste of money.

Can be used as a single channel guitar amp or bypass the pre-amp section with line in and use it as a power amp for amp modelers and multi-effects. There is an effects loop, rca and 1/4" line level inputs, as well as support for 4 Ohm stereo or 8 Ohm mono speakers. For what it is, I give it an 11.

No it doesn't have digital effects, amp modeling or a built in tuner but there are several vendors that make these and don't andd power amp tho their producs. This is a dual purpose solid state guitar pre-amp, combined with a very light weight class D power amp.

This gets confusing since you can use this thing for more than one use.

As a single channel guitar amp head, the sound is OK. With the gain around 10:00 o-clock, the clean is clear with just the hint of buzz (it is a class D amp after all,... 10% THD). With a clean output the signal is a little weak, but as you increase the gain you get a decent pre-amp crunch sound with lots of volume. Does the tone equal a boutique amp,.... absolutely not, but it is more than good enough for most situations.

As a power amp for an amp modeling rig, this thing is GREAT!!! I use it with a Boss GT-6 and an M-Audio Black Box (my favourite modeler at the moment) through the stereo line-in on the back. The amp adds no additional colouring to the signal from the modeler so you get the sound that you programmed in the first place, and not some hybrid of the modeler and your guitar amp.

You need to match this to a fairly flat response cabinet. The Crate GT112SL seems to be a good match and is very inexpensive. A Traynor YCX12BLUE is also a good match but will set you back some more coin.

Here it is a little questionable. I purchased mine second hand and there doean't appear to be any problems. I've heard of people using these things for a long time without any problems BUT there is a known issue that seems to effect some units. Once the blue light on the front starts to fade in and out, you've got problems and unfortunately these are discontinued so good luck getting service. It's a shame because I'me sure that with some minor design changes this could be made to be rock solid. Oh well, for $99 buck,...

Haven't used it.

In this price range, there is nothing out there that will touch it. I knocked a point off for the potential reliability problems. I've use mine with a variety of guitars (Ibanes SA, Godin Freeway and a Lado Elite) direct into the pre-amp as well as through a couple of different amp modelers/effects units and it has performermed well in all cases.

These have been discontinued but worth looking at if you use amp modeling and can find one on the used market in good condition.

Features have been mentioned.

The idea for this amp is a very good one. Build a small, solid state, Class D amplifier that can put out 150 watts in mono. 75 per side in stereo. Give it some decent basic EQ, and an ok distortion sound.

Sound quality isn't really that bad. It doesn't have enough headroom for cleaner sounds (mainly because you need the preamp volume up about half way to get any volume).

With the preamp up high, the amp gets an ok distortion sound. Certainly nowhere near the sound of a decent tube amp, but fine for a cheaper amp that is very small.

OK, here's the main reason why I'm writing this review.

THE RELIABILITY OF THIS AMP IS TERRIBLE. You couldn't find cheaper components if you wanted to. Well, cheap components are one thing, but THIS AMP HAS A DESIGN FLAW. The amp can become unstable when it heats up. What you will notice is that the blue power 'on' light will start flashing, the volume will rise and fall (from total silence to just low volume).

What is happening is that the transistor labeled IC101 is unstable. This is a known problem (Crate's owner, St Louis Music knows this and had to send out a tech service bulletin on how to fix it).

The fix is to solder a 1 meg resistor across the two front legs of IC101. This usually fixes it, but not always. Don't try this yourself. Take it to a repair facility. I'm just letting you know that a fix is usually possible.

This is the main reason that the Power Blocks were discounted so cheaply, then discontinued. It's not made well, and has a desing flaw.

Went beyond the warranty period. Fixed my own and it lasted for a little while. Now the volume knob only works about two thirds of its travel. Yep, what a piece of junk.

I'm giving the overall rating a 3.

The idea behind this was great, and it certainly seems that enough of these are still working that their not all bad.
Still, the amp was built so cheaply, there's no way these are going to still be working many years from now.

To really sum it up, the idea behind this appears to be:
Lets come up with a great design, then build it in China as cheap as possible, then find out there are problems with it, blow them out for huge discounts, then discontinue making them.

As stated in an earlier review, it's humorous, if not downright idiotic how obtuse people can be in their lack of desire to understand what a product is specifically designed to do. I know. In my past, having been a Pro-Audio Department manager for a major music retailer for over 6 years, I worked with all manner of musicians. My favorite example is the guy who would purchase a piece of gear like a guitar processor or a synthesizer that intrinsically have slightly higher learning curves than a stomp box. The inevitable phone call would follow the sale with the customer asking how to get his new piece to do this, that or the other thing. While as sales professionals we would always be more than happy to provide support after the sale and would typically ask "Have you taken a look at the manual?". OK, now to the good part....the answer....."Uh....I don't like to read manuals".

The moral of the story (as if you couldn't tell), this Crate CPB150 Powerblock Head was first and foremost designed as an bandwidth neutral (read: flat frequency response) amplifier to use with one of the many different modelling processors currently on the market.

This thing does just what it supposed to. Provide lots of clean, neutral power with quite a bit of headroom. As far as versatility, it can be as versatile as whichever modelling preamp you are currently using!! Also as noted previously the correct hookup with a modeller is to use the Line In jacks on the back panel.

As stated above, depends upon what you are using. I've recently moved from a Line 6 PodXT Live to the Boss GT-8 and had been struggling to use these with my Traynor YCV-80 combo amp and get all the tones that the GT-8 can produce. While I love the Traynor for it's incredible tube tone and it's reliability, once I tried out the CPB150 with a reasonably flat response speaker cabinet, I was blown away by what a huge difference this made. My GT-8 came alive and even the Hi-Gain models finally sounded darn close to the real thing. It sounded so good, I went back to the music store and bought a second CPB150 and am now running 2 in stereo with 150 watts per side.

The technology of Class D amplifiers has been proven in many different musical arenas and is pretty much bullet-proof. Light-weight, simple AND it's got the happenin' blue LED. I love it!!

5 year warranty. I've only had these for a short time but don't expect to be dealing with Crate given the reputation these have for reliability. I did email their tech guys with a question about speaker cab ohm loads and got a fast, friendly response within 24 hours. Outstanding!!

Been playing professionally for over 30 years and have owned more amps than I can remember, but now I really feel like I need look no further. When modellers first started surfacing, it seemed like such a great idea. It's taken some time for some of the manufacturers to fine tune this technology and coupled with a amplifier like the Crate CPB150, all I can say is "WHOOPEE!!! For $99.00, that's a "DOUBLE WHOOPEE!!

I don't mean to be so stand-off-ish from the beginning but lets face it... there are very few features to this amp. But the features it DOES have are VERY nice. You get a basic 3 band eq, a volume and gain control and that's about it on the front.

Where our little friend stands out is what he's hiding in the back. You've got 4 ohm stereo outs at 75 watts and 8 ohm mono out at 150 watts. You've got an FX-loop if you use a stereo "Y" cable (a common setup in crate amps) or you can bypass everything and straight into the poweramp. This is how I run it. I use a PODxt live and I have found that this yields amazing results.

The best feature has to be the size. The rest of my band uses heavy amps and cabs. I have a nice 212 Avatar G212H. So I can easily throw the powerblock over my shoulder and not have to break my back hauling gear.

If you are looking for a 4 channel amp with tons of built in effects take a look at something else. Maybe the new Flexwave or the new Marshall JVM series are nice too. If you have a nice array of equipment (like the PODs, digitech guitar stations, zoom, etc) this amp is the way to go. It add almost no color to your tone and you can hear your models come through.

I took some time to play directly into the amp without my POD just to see how well it sounded on its own. While you do lack much of the versatility of larger amps with built in DSP you do get a nice sound with plenty of crunch. The amp uses crates cascading gain circuit to help emulate a tube amp sound. A very nice technology.

I turned the gain down and played with a lot of volume but no gain on the amp. Even a relatively high volumes it stayed nice and clean. The EQ is very responsive and it wasn't hard to get a nice sound out of this amp. If you are looking for a nice crunchy amp and don't care if you can't switch back to clean without adjusting knobs I'd say go for it.

I also took the time to run a reissue big muff i had laying around into it for some extra fuzz... it was very nice and the big muff came through nicely. So there are a lot of options to what you can do with this amp if you have the equipment for it. I'd like to run one of the new Boss/Fender Deluxe Reverb pedals.

I am an active musician and I have been gigging for years. Lets be honest with ourselves... nothing is foolproof. But I have had this amp for nearly a year and I have never had a problem with it. I don't have any type of backup and I don't ever worry. One of the best things about it being so small is that its easy to carry and doesn't get banged into walls by people helping haul your gear.

I've never had to deal with crate since I bought it.

The beauty of this thing is not in what's on the front, but rather what's on the back. Two 1/4" line level inputs and stereo 4 ohm 1/4" outputs. Two RCA inputs, and a line level XLR output. This thing is perfect. It serves as an ideal power amp for a multi-effects pedal and eliminates the need for a separate direct box. It's a deal more powerful than some of the more expensive "made for guitar" power amps and is significantly lighter weight.

This amp sounds like nothing. This amp is supposed to sound like nothing. If you want an amp that sounds like anything except nothing, this is not the amp for you. If you do, however, want an amp that sounds like nothing, this amp does the job extremely well. If you have even the slightest expectations of tone from this thing, you will be disappointed. There's great beauty in this though.

Let's presume you have a multi-effects pedal with a variety of amp models, let's presume you don't like the way most of these models sound through your tube amp. It seems natural to presume that you can be more expressive with the tones in your pedal if you don't have to compensate for a preexisting tone in the tube amp. This is why the Powerblock is was created.

Keeps going, and going, and going, and going, (etc)

Never spoken with them.

Playing seriously for about 7 years. I use a PodXT Live run stereo into the line level inputs on the back of this thing in order to bypass the preamp altogether. I'd buy another one in a second (and can on account of the price) if anything happened to the current one.

This amp was designed to serve a very distinct purpose and it fulfills that purpose amazingly well. It depresses me when I see people disappointed in a product when they try to use it for something it wasn't designed to do, regardless of whether that something is within it's capacity. That being said, this amp is not a traditional amp is shouldn't be expected to perform as such. It's hard to color a tone to this amp with traditional stompboxes as it was designed to not have tone. This amp was designed to be a slave to external digital amp models.

Now if only Crate would make a rackmount version...

Solid State, One channel

If it had a dedicated clean channel, and they got rid of the "buzz" (see next section) on the clean channel, I would use this thing on all my gigs and I'd rate it a 10.

As it is, it still has quite a few good features and the size and weight alone give it extra points.

I leave it in the trunk of my car so it's always available as a backup no matter what gig I'm at. And I use it at many of my rehearsals just cause it's so EASY to carry around.

The Crunch is pretty good. The clean is pretty good for most gigs, however not nearly the volume available as when you have it distorted. The gain can't go much past 11 o'clock or you start to break up. This is expected I guess, as it's a single channel amp.

If you set it for a purely clean sound, there is a "buzz" sound in the background on all the notes. It almost sounds like a fuzz pedal added onto the top of your clean tone but put way way in the background volume wise in relation to the clean signal and it's more noticable as the note trails away.

For many gigs, this won't be an issue. You probably won't even notice it except during quiet sections of the music. For super clean country or jazz tones, it's going to be a little bit of a compromise in the tone. For blues or rock, it's more acceptable.

It would never work for recording if you're expecting a pure clean sound out of it. The "buzz" is always there in the background and you'll definitely notice it.

But I do like the convience factor with the light weight and small size. It's got plenty of volume to get you thru most rehearsals and many gigs. I use it at rehearsals mostly but also sometimes at gigs if a perfect clean tone is not necessary. The overall tone when heard with a band is actually pretty good, so don't think I hate the way it sounds cause I keep mentioning the buzzing thing. But it is something to consider if you're going to need REALLY clean tones out of this thing.

So far it seems very reliable, but I've only had it for a few months.

Most important features for me are light weight (4 pounds), gain and volume controls. No reverb, unfortunately, but at the price I paid ($99 incl shipping from Musicians Friend) I don't mind. It's got a very good manual, which one should read. Has outs for two speaker cabs or mono. VERY powerful. For what it is it's incredible. But NOT very versatile. Also has automatic electricity switching from 110 to 220, a key feature for me.

Crate says this thing is made to use with multi FX units, and guess what? That's how I use it. Over the past few years I got into multi FX so I could travel with my sound in my backpack, and that's why I bought this, for when I'm using my own gear. I plug a Zoom G2.1u or Digitech RP (50 to 200) in the single input, run the output into a Laney 112 cab with Celestion, adjust EQ, and bang. I am knocked out by how good the sounds are when used this way. If gain is raised past 2 o'clock there's some hiss, but below that it still fattens the sound. I'm running it with Reverend (Rocco), Curlee with Dimarzio Super Distortions, Washburn SS80 with Trembuckers. All the guitars have their own sound with this rig; I'd love to hear it with a Tech 21 Sansamp. My guess is this thing was designed for a flat response, hence the nice tone with multi FX. I wouldn't run it as a platform for regular pedals. BTW, those who complain about weak output probably ran in mono without reading the manual; if you don't push the mono button the output goes blah (happpened to me before... I read the manual!). I'm taking off a point only because it won't sound great without a front end.

Haven't gigged with it yet. I will say that my wife dropped it on the tile floor and it still works fine. I doubt a tube amp would withstand that.

Never dealt with them.

I've been playing ovver 40 years, solo and in bands, studio and live, mainly semi-pro (I get paid when I play but I don't want to live from it). I have pro guitars (see above) kept performance ready, and several amps ranging from Microcube to Bassman 100 Export (the big tube job, which weighs 66 pounds, ai yi). I needed a powerful head that wouldn't break my back or wallet, and tube amps are too expensive here in Europe (with the exception of my little Kustom Tube 12A, see my review, dynamite box but not for clubs). I may buy another just for backup. I love the weight, the way it works with the multi FX I practice on, the power, the versatile way it's thought out. Compare it to what? At this price and specs, there is NOTHING to compare it to. Tube purists won't like it; as a stand alone its sound is nothing special. But use it the way it was designed to be used, and you will be very happy.

OK the features have been well described so far. There are many good features built in to this amp.

OK so for the price what do you expect.I got this becuase it was inexpensive and I entended to use it as a backup head. Well This is totaly not possible. It works well as a clean amp if you put the gain around 9 or 10 and feed a beafy medium signal to it and put the level at almost max. You will have to play with the EQ to get a flat sound and at this point is makes a good amp to put a set of pedals into and try to get a decent last ditch sound if all fails. I howerver would consider getting a lower wattage tube head it will sound almost as lound and you can mic it. The tone will have nothing to do with this thing, well the price will also be a bit different I guess. Well to sum it up...if you have no other choise use this as a backup and be prepared to experiment at home with pedals and EQ well in advance to have a setting that you can get away with. I would not use this as a main amp at all unless you can't help it, save up and get a decnt amp even if it is lower wattage. NOT A TONE WINNER

I have no idea

???

Well for the price it is nice to just have in the collection and take allong in case all goes wrong. Other than that I wouldn't blink if it blew up. I guess this is one of those why not if it's on sale for 60 bucks.

As already described.
It is important to note that when using the CD or line in inputs, the front panel controls have no effect on this input (although they do add to the noise, so best turn all controls down if using back panel inputs)

The guitar input sound is very good for the price, quite chunky and VERY loud (I placed the amp on top of a 2x 12, and the ensuing vibrations caused the amp to jump off the amp onto the floor, even at 1/2 volume). Even with a clean sound, there is a little highish frequency superimposed fizzy noise, but not too bad in a live situation. There is definitely a little compression going on, and a noise gate (you can hear that HF noise turning off as the note dies away),but, considering the price, this is perfectly acceptable.
I also note that with my guitar (PRS SE with soapbar PUs), the noise floor is pretty quiet with the guitar volume at 10, but there is some hum when the guitar volume is backed off to about 8. However, this hum goes completely when backed off to 6 or less - weird.
The clean sound through rear panel IPs is nowhere near so loud, but probably just about loud enough for a small gig. Good quality through line in, not so good through CD inputs for some reason.

Not known. Seems VERY solidly built, but for ??50 it MUST be made to a price.

NK

I bought this for use mainly as a stereo amp for my live guitar rig (OP from mixer into line inputs). Too loud for bedroom (have to have mixer outputs turned right down), but may not be quite loud enough for a gig situation, we'll have to see.
EXCELLENT VALUE

Made in 2005 I think
Good for jazz, blues, rock
1 channel
good for practice, jamms, small gigs.
150 watts mono, or 2*75 stereo, solid state.
effects loop
xlr output
cd inputs
Headphones out.

The amp cleans up until gain reaches 12 o'clock, then starts to crunch. With the gain all the way up, you get ac/dc like distortion.
I'm using it with a Washburn X40 pro. 2 splittable humbuckers.
With this amp, you can play a variety of music styles, except for hi-gain music such as metal.
There's a bit of noise then the gain is cranked all the way, just like on most amps.
The amp is pretty responsive, on clean settings as well as with maximum distortion. The tone reminds me of Marshall amps.
The only thing I do not like about it is the headphones output. It doesn't sound great through headphones, kinda fizzy, even though there is a built in speaker simulator.

so far I have had no problems with the amp.

I never had to deal with the company.

I have been playing for 15 years.
If it was stolen, I would certainly buy a new one because this amp is very affordable.
I like that it is so small and simple. It's a little bit limited, for it doesn't do high gain and it doesn't have a reverb. However, you can by-pass the preamp and use it only the power amp section, and it handles effects pedals, multi-fx units, modellers, and external preamps very well, making it a very versatile device.
I have a short video of the amp on youtube if you want to hear it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7uO9oO6pOI

I give it a 9 here mainly because of all of the features on the rear panel and the headphone jack on the front. At 150 watts in mono at 8 ohms or 75 watts per side in side at 4 ohms, how could I go wrong? It's important to stick to the ohm rating as I'll go into later.

I'm a bass player primarily(progressive and classic rock) so I don't know what guitar players expect out of this amp, but the sound is very transparent and reminds me a bit of my old Gallien-Krueger. Overdrive is easy to induce by turning the gain knob higher than the level control.

I just got it so I can't say how reliable it is but it's built like a tank.

Never had to call them.

I've been playing bass for 30 years and like to play guitar once in awhile just to see how the other half lives. If this were stolen, I'd find another(if I could since these are now discontinued). One thing about this amp that I'd like to mention, and that the instructions really don't tell you, concerns speaker use and ohm rating. In stereo, if I try to run an 8 ohm speaker out of each channel, it cuts out when I hit it hard. Normally, you can go to a higher ohm rating on and amp but not lower, but not with this amp. I then ran the amp into two Ampeg PortaBass 212 cabs at 4 ohms per side(like it says on the rear panel) and it absolutely kicked! This amp had no problem reproducing the frequencies of my 5 string bass at volumes that I couldn't even go to without the neighbors banging on the walls. This amp is made in China by the same company that makes my Ampeg PortaBass amps and I suspect that there are some very similar things going on in the design of the circuitry. PowerBlock..PortaBass..hmmm.

Single-channel amp, with gain, hi, mid, low and master controls from left to right. Tiny light-weight in a cute, handy little transport bag.
Has a line out to go directly into a mixing desk (with a level control pot), a CD-input for music playback, also an effects loop. Can be used as a poweramp via a line-in input for maybe digital preamps. Has a headphone output jack.
150 watts mono when bridged (switchable) at 8 Ohms min. or 2 x 75 watts stereo at two 4 ohm cabs.
Most versatile single-channel amp I`ve ever owned.

Sounds terrific! The closest to a tube amp sound I`ve ever heard from a solid state. Decent clean sound with single coils up towards gain at about 11 o`clock. Warm sounding crunch at higher gain settings, but surely not enough distortion for endless sustain.
I use a TAD "Range King" gain/treble booster to overdrive the Powerblock a little more and get a marvelous lead distortion.

I`ve got it new - can`t tell ...

-

Great sound for little money.
During the past few weeks, I left my beloved all-tube heads at home, took the little block with me in that handbag it was shipped with to every gig or rehearsal. It`s pleasure and comfort, fantastic !

Effects loop, Headphone Jack, stero, overdrive and clean channel... more overdrive would be nice ;) Great for preamps.. which im trying to get my hands on!

i bought with a schecter black hawk bundle for ??200!!

Sounds pretty thick, if it had full on distortion i would be very happy, its more crunch than anything else..

clean sounds superb.. i still cant believe how much i got for..

its built pretty solid... i havent had long enough to judge though..

dont use them!

VERSITILE, RELIABLE, SOUNDS GREAT, INCREDIBLE LOW PRICE, what more could you ask for!

you've read the specs already somewhere else... Decent amount of control of the sound, presence and reverb would be nice but this unit is ok without.

Very loud!!It keeps the neighbors awake for sure. If you have a really nice pedal, nice cab, but no amp, this amp is for you! I'm not a huge fan of the sound going straight into but preproccess and be easy with the gain and it is has as much crunch as my friends marshall hybrid.

I play punk/thrash/metallish type stuff and run an Agile LP-2500->Digitech RP-80(for the expression pedal)->Digitech Distortion Factory->Powerblock's main in->'78 Peavy 4x12. My bass setup is a no name bass->Digitech Main Squeeze compression pedal->Powerblock fx in->'78 Peavy 4x12. both can jam at the same time so when i got a friend over, the powerblock gets a threesome. Giving it a 9 because feels like it could use just alittle higher range on the thresholds of the controls.

As long as it doesnt break in 5 years im in good shape. Seems stable.

Not dealth with yet, hopefully wont have too unless its intentionally damaged to get a new one just before the warranty expires.

Been playing about 10 years, 4 seriously but now that i have this, its a reason to play everyday. This little amp has the tenacity of a much larger amp(or 2). The versatility to be able to run anything, not just guitar, makes it an even greater value.

New Powerblock head.. single channel, Gain/High/Mid/Low/Volume. Output section has many uses from mono out to stereo and FX in/out.

Doesn't sound like much, but it is deceptively useful. Set the front panel right, and it has more than enough clean power.

Use the FX in for running a POD etc.. and use the tone controls on the POD for a noiseless power amp. If you use the front end, you won't be happy, but don't blame the amp, it's not what it was design for. All the modeling pedals are designed to be used as direct boxes, preferably in stereo. Don't blame the amp for your laziness.

The clean tone from the front end is very "spanky" sounding. I like the clean tone, though other say it's not clean enough. At what volume? You can't have big volume and clean tone. Not even my old Twin Reverb or Deluxe gave crystal clear clean at gig volume with humbuckers. Back off the volume knob on the guitar and use the neck pickup and it's as clean as about any amp I've ever played through. There is a slight "fizz" however, on the trailing end of clean notes. It's exceptable though and live you'd never notice it.

The gain at full is more an OD tone than distortion, but I think most folks buying tis amp are doing so for the clean, and using pedals. My Line 6 DM4 shines with this head. very fluid and articulate, alot like a Fender deluxe reverb clean channel with a good Distortion pedal. Notes are very pronounced.

I tried this amp with everything from my LP, to a Strat. I like it better with a hubucker, but I feel that way about most amps. I think with the right setup for you clean tone, and a good set of pedals, the front end is way useful. POD, GT-8, RP and GNX users will be better served using the line-in and making sure their models are setup properly on the processors.

I don't know how reliable it is yet, but I will try to use it at practice first before taking it to a gig instead of my Mesa.

It is built pretty f'in sturdy though....

Also, to the guy before me that complained about the amp "turning on/off" like a tremelo... I experimented with mine and found if you plug the 8 ohm out into a 4 ohm cab it will do that. It must be some kind of internal protection circuit on the output stage. When plugged into either stereo 4 ohm out, it never did it.

n/a

When Guitar Center was blowing these out for $70 I couldn't resist geting one. I had looked at them before and thought it would be good for the 2nd channel of a stereo rig instead off hauling around a whole other head etc.... But, it was way over priced initially. At $70 who cares if it is the be all end all amp! After getting it home, I found it works great through the line-in with my RP2000 and works even better with my pedal board going thru the front end.

One thing that would have made it an even better amp, would be an on/off switch for the gain knob. Most people buying this head will be using it with somekind of effects board (thats how they marketed it), and will want it loud and clean.

Single channel, 150 watt stereo head.
Weighs 5lbs
Fits in a superb dedicated gig bag.
Effects loop
CD Input
Headphone jack
Line out xlr
Level control for effects loop
Gain, High, Mid,Low tone controls and Level (Volume) control.
WAY cool blue on off LED in the A of CRATE which shines like a beacon on a dark stage. It's shallow but when I plugged it in at rehearsal the other guitarist in one of my bands said, "That's a cool gadget before you plug it in , but now it's beyond cool..."

I've used this amp in 2 different ways:-

1 With headphones as a practice amp.
2 Plugged into a Marshall 2x 12 cab in mono.

Rounded clean, tubey in character. Good as a "flat" power amp for V-amp, POD etc

With the Gain wound up to about halfyou can get a really nice "crunch" very Marshally in character.

With Full Gain on it is also Marshall like in tone, not massive gain but more than sufficient for Classic rock tones.

In band rehearsal I've used it with the following set up:-
Tokai Love Rock>Morley Classic Wah>Marshall Chorus>Marshall Bluesbreaker>Crate
With the Bluesbreaker set to "boost" it really does sing. Plenty of volume (the other guitarist is using a Marshall TSL 100 watt head and 1960B 4 x 12 cab and couldn't be heard!)
Not a great deal of variation in the tone controls but sufficient.
Give plenty of "clunk" when you hit the strings hard and sounds very similar to my Marshall 50 watt JMP Combo. responds to playing dynamics well. Not quite as warm as a real Valve amp but very very close.
Simple to use and get a good sound immediately

Some noise inevitably when you wind it up but not obtrusive.

The band play classic rock to 90's punk and beyond e.g: Green day, Thin Lizzy , Audioslave, Velvet Revolver, RHCP etc

Not gigged yet but am looking forward to not lugging loads of gear around.
I'd use without a back up.

Playing for 31 years.

I play in 2 bands.

Band 1 is a girl fronted Corporate rock band playing from the Beatles to Dusty Springfield to Guns N Roses
Band 2 is all bloke punk/rock band playing Clutch to green Day to Lizzy etc

I use a genuine Marshall JMP 50 watt 2 x 12 comobo for Band 1, The Crate for Band 2

Not yet used my Fender Strat through it but Tokai Flying V sounds pretty damn good.

At ??49.99 it's criminal, I've already got one for my son.

Any body who uses a Valve head should buy one immediately

2006 model (no changes since inception)
Small, powerful, good tones for the price.
A superb amp for jobbing & when the bass player/keyboardist blow their rig. It's my default amp (with a Mesa 1-12" EVL cab) for jobbing. Solid state but had a respectful amount of tone. But be aware: you have to use a stereo y-cord in order to use the FX loop.

Pretty clean w/ a decent distortion. Shredders & metal players: you will have to use a stomper or some sort of pedal to get to your sound. Works with singles or humbuckers, active or passive pu's. Surprisingly low noise & hiss too. Many jobbers use this amp for keys & guitar here in Chicago.

Seems to be reliable; solid but the knobs protrude a bit. Comes in a rugged little bag that you can carry or sling over your shoulder (there's a pocket of the power cord on the side).

Here's the snag: you can wait forever on the phone when you call. Or wait a few days (if you're lucky) to get a response to your e-mails.
A woman wrote me back to ask the model & serial number: and she seemed to not know anything about the actual product. All I wanted to know if the various y-cords they talk about in their owner's manual are available at a store or via some other means. She never wrote me back. Pretty lame for a big company that sells zillions of these little things.

Playing for many years, and own Boogie, Fuchs, Bogner, Yamaha, et al. This little item will save your back when you have a tux gig, and will help anybody else if another amp fails. Light, compact, and has deceptively good sounds. Get a decent multi-use pedal and you're set for those small gigs or in the studio.

For what it is the features are not bad. Single channel mono and stereo out, XLR out, headphone out, effects loop, line input, cd input. 3 band EQ, gain & master volume. Nice small form factor, metal case. Solid state. 150 watts RMS @ 8 ohms mono. Can go from clean (more on that later) to crunch.

Here's where this amp comes up short in my opinion. Even at low volume with the gain set low, around the 9 or 10 o'clock position there is a noticeable and annoying distortion (rattle/fizz sound.) At first I thought my speaker cabinet had some sort of vibration or the speakers were blown. To be fair if you turn the gain way down you can get the rattle/fizz down to tolerable levels but then it's too low for a practice or gig. Looking at the specs on the amp it does show amp is rated at 150 watts mono @ 10% total harmonic distortion so this shouldn't be a surprise I guess.

If you play only high gain this shouldn't be a big problem but I bought this to run with a POD or other floor amp/effects modeler and I'd prefer to have a cleaner "clean" sound.

Also as mentioned in an earlier review, the stereo output is an issue. I plugged this into a Behringer 4x12 stereo cabinet and at low volume it cut out a lot. At higher volume settings you just get a clicking sound, no guitar sound. Mono output works great. Going into two separate speaker cabs eliminates the problem. Could be a grounding issue as mentioned earlier. The Behringer cab input jacks seem to be on a plastic mounting though so not sure if that is it.

The case is metal. Knobs are not recessed and could break off if you don't treat your stuff carefully. Only had this for a week so hard to say if it will hold up but mechanically it seems sturdy enough.

I called them on the stereo output issue. Very polite, but not as helpful as I'd hoped. The support rep said he'd never heard of this problem and it should work fine but if I couldn't get it to work feel free to call back and they'd get me an RMA to send it in for service.

Been playing 35 years or so and owned a fair amount of gear over the years. Guitar Center was selling these for $69.95 so it was an impulse buy. For the price this isn't a bad amp. If you need pristine clean, keep looking. For a knockaround backup amp to keep in the gig bag, this fits the bill.

Solid state rail switching tech. One of the best new techs in my opinion. Light, small, powerful, clean, low power consumption.
8 ohm minimum @ 150 watts in mono mode which can be a problem.
4 ohm minimum @ 75 watts in stereo mode which is still plenty of power

I like it. The effect in on the back bypasses the preamp and gives max headroom with no noticable distortion, great for pods and tonelabs. The preamp distortion is smooth and very usable. Real tube emulation is coming, folks! Put a tube screamer ahead of this baby and say it's not! The only problem is the eq. Not enough presence, kinda dark overall with a spanky strat. Not particularly unique.

I have hammered it, no prob so far. Aluminama case, solid constuction.
The knobs poke out, so I guess you could break one. Built like a brick restroom.

no experience. Crate has been around a long time.

Been playing out since 1980. Road hard put away wet. Own vox, fender, top hat, yamaha, mackie, peavey, jbl ect. For 100 bucks, everybody (everybody) should have one. You could use it on your T.V. for cryin out loud.

The Crate Power Block solid state amp head: single channel, 3 eq's
vol & gain. Effects loop, 4,8,16 ohm imputs, mono/stereo capabilities
jack imput for headphones. A very usable, versatile amp head for many types of music.

The amp goes from a soft,clean to a (slightly clippy) overdrive to a smooth distortion. I have only used with with a Schecter with EMGs
How it reacts to single coil or passive pus I don't know.
It has O noise!! I use it with a cabinet with 2 vintage Jensen speakers.I would give the sound quality rating a 10; but the slight clipping on the od I give it a 9 (maybe 9 1/2)The warmness of it is
great. I wish Crate would have put this in their GFX amps. I have a 120 with 3 channels. 2 of the channels are unusable. Maybe their evolution 5 is now 6 and is closing in on what we want.

Having the power block head even for backups is a smart tool to own.
I like the sound better than my tube amps. I wish it was a 2 channel
head.

All the features are well known by now.

I replaced my Carvin sx200 2x12 100 watt combo with this little amp. My Carvin had something wrong with the power section and now I just use it as a cab for my Crate Power Block. This amp sounds pretty good. It has a mature "burnished" tone. Warmer and less "clanky" than the Carvin. It helps tame that ice pick in the ear sound I sometimes get from my Strat or Tele ( with p90's) when using the bridge pickup. I have to adjust the bass control on the amp pretty low so I dont get some booming overtones. I like the sound, maybe humbucker users will feel different.

Time will tell

I grabbed one of these babys up for $99 at Musicians Friend. I almost bought one a few months ago for $199 but I held off. This is a super deal folks. Gets a 9 rating at $99. Gets an 8 at $199

This is a really compact, powerful, all-round instrument amp with plenty of tone control and enough versatility to be used for guitar, bass, keyboard, as a PA auxiliary, monitor amp... you name it. A great utility infielder. No effects, but everything else you need in an amp. Perfect companion to a POD

Nice distorion- with the tone controls, you can get a fair amount of amp flavors. I prefer it in the clean mode, where the distortion is more of a tube-like soft clipping.

In full overdrive mode it's pretty noisy; you wouldn't want to record with it. But for live sound it's fine.

No idea, but Crate gear has a good rep.

At the current blow-out price, every guitar and bass player should buy one as a backup and spare for their amp, or as a PA slave, or just a portable stereo they can use with an iPod and a pair of cabinets.

Just a quick comment - I had the same thing happen as the last review says when I rewired a mono 4x12 cabinet into stereo. I changed the metal plate holding the original input jacks to a plywood one and I was able to run the powerblock no problem. I seems that this amp can't run in stereo with a common ground or if there is a metal plate for the input jacks in stereo - possibly some kind of signal leak or ground situation that causes this amp to act as described. I drove myself nuts trying to figure this thing out until I eliminated all possibilities except that metal jack plate. Works and sounds wonderful since then.

Not as much volume as I expected (see reliability section!) from my LTD EC-1000 w/EMGs and a handmade 4x12 loaded with Eminence. Ran my Jekyll & Hyde, Shredmaster, H20, thru the main input, but I preferred the pedals tone without the preamp, using the Line input (AKA Send/Return) on the back. The preamp sounds nice on it's own, just not clean AND loud. Clean sounded good. Dirty sounded good. Clean won't get too loud, though thru the preamp. The Line input is very clean and sounded great with my pedals.

None of the front knobs function when you use the line inputs.

Although I'm sending mine back for another unit, I really like the sound. Not edgy like my other solid state. I was glad not to get the shrill "ice" sounds mentioned before. I would compare to vintage Marshall sound.

People have said this sounds "tube like." The best way I could explain it is slightly compressed (not distortion, just compression) with very smooth midrange with EQ settings at 12:00. Bass can be there if you crank it, but it's not overpowering.

Ouch. Yes, my PowerBlock delivered by FedEX this afternoon is being returned to Musician's Friend in the morning.

Everything was fine until I pegged the gain & the level, you know, because that's what you do when you get a new toy, right?

At that point the amp shuts off...turns on...off...on... with about a second pause in between (imagine a tremolo pedal set for a square wave). It continues this until I back the level to under 3:00. I grabbed my Washburn P2 with passive pickups and got the same problem. I tried with and without pedals, but anything past 3:00 started the power cycling problem. I even switched the "Bridge Mono" off and on with no fix.

I couldn't replicate this problem using the Line input on the back.

I have the Left output connected to two 8ohm Eminence 12" in parallel, and the Right output connected to the other two 8ohm Eminence 12" in parallel. The amp says 4ohm load for Left and/or Right, with a separate 8ohm mono output. I didn't get the problem when I connected EITHER left OR right, just when BOTH were connected.

I didn't try the 8ohm mono output.

I'm returning to Musician's Friend, so not sure about CRATE.

Single channel solid state guitar amp with stereo power section.
75W/Channel (bridge to 150W mono)
Effects loop (doubles as stereo line in)
CD Input
DI Output

Bought this to power a talk box, so it only needed to be a one-trick pony. Plenty of power for this application (i.e., I can rattle my own teeth with it).

Clean sound is OK. Not a lot of life too it, but passable. Distortion is good, but not super high gain (think JCM-800). If you want more gain, you'll need some type of stomp box in front of it. With the gain at about 3:00, you get a real nice AC/DC crunch that cleans up nicely when you back your guitar down a bit.

The midrange control is very effective. Bass and treble controls are good.

Worked out of the box. Has gigged with me twice so far. No problems.

Haven't had to call anyone.

For the price, you can't beat it. It's replaced a 40 pound Peavey head from the 70's that I've been carrying around. I also love the fact that I've got a backup guitar amp that rides in the bottom drawer of my work box.

I can also see using this animal with my GNX4 workstation in a live situation.

I think the hand-written graphics on it are a little cheesy, and the blue power LED (while very cool looking) is almost overbearing (in a smokey club, you can actually see a beam coming from it).

Major points to Crate for including a great padded big with the deal (instead of charging another $20 for it like some companies).

Great feature set. That's why I bought it. I needed something to gig with that was lighter than my monstrous LANEY 120w head from the 80s.
Really useful as a power amp too. I use it as a power amp for a keyboard rig and its really good as a power amp for my sansamp bass rig too. Best 160 euros you could spend. Only one channel though... you need to have disto pedals...

Fabulously loud. Destroys the sound of the nasty (expensive) digital 150watt marshall head in the practice room. The tone is pretty dark, not much high end at all. I have the high knob at full but it alters frequencies that are a little too high. The mid knob frequency is too low! I way prefer it to a harsh marshall sound because I prefer the duller more tube like sound. It can't be mistaken for a tube amp but it is not far off. The gain structure is pretty bluesy but not saturated enough for real rock. It sound great with both my tele and my SG, although only the Tele has enough treble to pierce the mix. I strongly recommend pedals and especially, a EQ pedal.

The first time I turned it on it turned itself on and off loads of time and made a strange electrical buzz. I didn't return and it has worked fine ever since. Bizarre. I'm not the first to experience these quirks either. Maybe it's a weakness in the amp technology. Anyway, I'm scared it'll happen again one day...

I am considering buying another one to dedicate to keyboards. Imagine how cool it is turning up at a concert and your amp is tiny and it destroys the sound of the competition! This product is really revolutionary. It's changing the way we think about amplification. Can't get better than that!

I don't write these unless a piece of equipment impresses me. All the features you could ask for and more in a head less than 5 pounds. No FX, but an FX loop. Here I wish it was not "speaker simulated", or could be switched.

Reminds me of a MESA. Some say Marshall, but most would agree it's a very vintage sound. I am using it as a power amp for a Rocktron rig, and it is much better than a straight power amp for this. It will take a ton of voltage up front, 8 volts, and overdrives nicely. It adds very useful harmonics that help with that good controlled feedback. Reminds me of a MosValve Power Amp I had once in this regard. I do wish the FX loop could be switched to not be routed through the speaker simulation, or that it had 1/4" power amp inputs. I am using the CD/phono plug inputs because it's the only way to bypass the speaker sim. I started using it as a fill in while my power amp was being serviced, but I'm sold on it, I won't be going back.
If I were using it as a guitar amp, I would prefer the addition of a high mid, frequency sweepable knob. The treble is centered at 10khz. That's a bit high to tweak your sound properly. In fact 2 sweepable mid controlls would be ideal... Low Mid & High Mid.

good so far...

Multi-use box. It will be my spare guitar amp and my main power amp for my rig. I sincerely wish Crate would come out with a rack mount, power amp version of this thing... 75 watts X 2 and a 150 watts X 2. I'd buy one tomorrow. Go Crate, you have a winner here.

2006 model. This amp suits all that I play which is rock, metal and blues. One channel. Effects loop, headphone jack. Lots of different things you can do with this product due to all of the connection choices on the back. Can be used as a stereo power amp only, Single channel head, or used to power other audio gear. also a headphone practice amp which is very cool. I will be using it for all of these applications at one time or another. It actually completes my third guitar rig. Plenty of power, very loud. Warm sounding and transparent solid state circuitry. Very tube like. Basic and simple.

This amp really reminds me of a single channel Marshall JCM 800 head. Fairly clean distortion and the same kind of bottom end thump. Very surprising. Great clean sound is there when you want it. With the gain cranked you get basic hard rock distortion that cleans up with your volume knob. Alot like a basic JCM. Does not sound exactly tube like, but really close. Really close. Tone controls work well. Treble is a little weird at higher settings but can be tamed. Is very dependant on the type of cab used. A 4-12 is best. 8 ohms for full output. This sounds good. Loud enough for any gig you might have. Hearing damage loud. Easily competes with a 100 watt Marshall because of the 150 watt solid state rating. The extra 50 watts makes it equal to 100 tube watts. I like the tone. Can be built upon with the right effects to sound really good. I have turned it into a two channel rock head by using my Rocktron zombie distortion pedal. Sounds really chunky and fat with that. Great for hard rock and full on metal. Just back off the volume for clean. I really don't miss reverb as other reviewers do as I never use reverb. I prefer a dry sound. It cuts better and is fuller sounding when dry so lack of verb is not a problem for me.

Not had it long enough to tell

not talked to them

26 years of playing. all music. I don't know if I would buy it again. For the price I got it for it is a fantastic piece of gear. I love the weight and sound quality. Very cool amp

i guess this year 2006 it was made.Dont know how to date this equipment. The pb is good for the music i play which is blues,R&b,classic rock(with pedals).just one channel.simple solid state.I dont use the effects loop with my pedals ,no problems in sound.
i did wish it had reverb but for the size & cost i would prefer to use my line 6 verbzilla (as a really good reverb installed in the pb would change the cost and perhaps the sound performance)..SO far the volume hasnt been cranked pass 12 o'clock,plenty loud for the places i play..i work in small & medium size rooms on the average and bigger venues have sound anyway so i think i could use this in that situation also (as i havent yet,i really cant say).But with the proper tech & pa system i dont think there would be a problem.

i ues a warmouth hollow body swamp ash strat/with harmonis design pick ups...a 69 tele thinline with duncan vintage pick ups.. and a parker nightfly m when im feeling lazy..the power block is good for the music i play,which is blues,r&b,as i said before...in fact my mesa lonestar special took a back seat to this tiny amp....the mesa stays at home(cost me 1800 and this 99 dollar pb sounds almost as good). ive had alot of trouble with the mesa,which could be a whole chapter that doesnt pertain to this subject.there is some hum when it gets up to 12 but it may be the single coils and that 's not a problem with drums and bass going on. the pb does sound close to a tube amp and reacts to your picking very well...it's amazing..if cheap stuff like this sounds this good ,why are maufactures chargeing so much(to make money of course).who ever disigned this knows his/her shit.SORRY TO ALL THE TUBE GUYS BUT THIS IS CLOSE..Close enough to fool some good musicans( all of them pros here in st.louis) who have sat in on my sunday night jam session 's at a club i play..i hid the pb behind the speaker cab(the cab that goes with this by stl music, with the one 12 celestian)and every one of them commented on it's tone...and how good it was..then when they saw it was a little crate box,all of them were taken aback....now you must tweak this thing to what your after and use what ever pedal to go to different tones for what ever your playing..for blues i have the gain on 2'o'clock ( any higher i dont care for the distortion it gives,but some one will i suppose) treble at 12 or 1 or 2(depending on the room accoustics) mids 2 and bass at 9o'clock( i find the bass to not be as tight as i would like,so i dont crank it)..Then from there i use my guitar tone to change things to my preference....the amp responds to picking dynamics very well for a solid state..as far as pedals for the blues i either play straight through the pb with a fulltone fat boost(this really helps to get even closer to my sound) for clean ,if i want a litte break up i step on a xotic bb and for more i use a fulltone ocd..also use a chorus but not much unless we are mixing the set list..i always keep that fat boost on with the pb..just makes it sound bigger..NOW HERE IS THE BIG TRICK I FOUND...I TOOK A(STEREO) CABLE FROM THE SEND AND THE CD INTO THE LEFT MONO LINE IN..GUESS WHAT? THE STEREO JACK INTO THE MONO LINE IN "MUST NOT GO ALL THE WAY IN"..IT MUST JUST GO IN THE INPUT TILL THE FIRST CLICK(RING).NOT ALL THE WAY TO THE SECOND RING .THE RING MEANING THE LITTLE CIRCLE AROUND THE MALE JACK END AND NOT THE SECOND RING(WHICH WOULD PUT THE WHOLE JACK ALL THE WAY IN AND YOU WONT GET ANY SOUND). sounds like a hassel but it's simple and the sound and volume difference is alot...but if i didnt use that cable, the pb still sounds good.... but the way i am doing it sounds better to me ,thats all...and that ladies & gentlemen is the big trick to this thing(for me,lol). If any one out there has other ways to get a cool sound please e-mail me....

this is my concern as i havent had it long,made in china,was cheap..but hey 5 year warrenty..i dont care as i just bought another one as a back up and they both fit into the open back crate cab that its made for ...so if one goes out i ll have a brand new one to pull out ..this cut out me haveing to carry a spare amp (always have a back up)and saved my back from lugging that lonestar around with it's tempermental tube thing always going on...i just heard that some company bought out stl so i would think they would still back up the product..time will tell....

havent had long enough but i did have trouble contacting & talking by phone to a tech as i had questions about the pb..wish i could talk to who ever designed this thing....5 year warenty

been playing music along time ...1963....and after being in top 40 ,show bands ,rock bands ,backing up famous acts,and being on the road for 22 years..ive settled down and just play with my own blues band for a living here in st.louis...have had almost every amp out there at one time or another ..if lost i would use the back up and get another one...i like the tone of this pb and the power and the size..you wont believe the volume you can get from this..there is nothing to hate about the pb as it hasnt caused me any trouble yet...if it does go out on me at a gig or fries,it's so light weight. i could probably throw it a good distance into the mississippi..ill give it an 8 for what it is...and i have to say it's better sounding than any solid ive tried(vox ,line 6, all that crap)...and very close to a tube sound ...

An update... I've had the pb150 almost a year and learned a bit about it by experimenting.

For what it is, it's a 10. Compared to fine tube amp, it's not more than somewhere between 8-9 but that is fine enough! There has been some debate as to whether the speaker simulator circuit is applied when you have real speaker cabs hooked up. The diagram in the owner's manual makes you think it is. But blind test says it is not. You can verify this by testing the exact same effects loop combo and running the return to the amp either into the loop or into the cd phono inputs. NO difference. The diagram appears to be in error. All this hoo-hah because us pb owners often feel the sound is a bit dull and lifeless.

There are several things that will liven the sound of the powerblock up.

1) drive the input hard. It will take a big signal well. I've compared going straight in from singles and hums with going thru a clean preamp (i used the preamp in the yamaha magic stomp, which is pretty darn good). No comparison. A higher input level gives you more output (duh) but more importantly more clean and lively output.

2) don't be afraid to dial the treble and mid way up, and the bass down. the last bit on the treble adds a lot of sparkle... 9.5 is a long way from 10. obviously only applies if you need some brightness in your sound.

3) don't use dark speaker cabs unless you want a really dark sound. it's easy to get a dark tone from the block. getting something with "sparkle" is trickier but doable. the crate gt112sl that's meant to go with the block is a bit dark but works great for a heavy sound.

4) you may or may not like this, but you might find that putting a bbe sonic maximizer in the loop opens up the sound. I really like it but I'm lazy so I usually just do steps 1-3.

5) an outboard reverb in the loop works great for some dimension or splash.

I hope everyone who's experimented with the block will pitch in what they've learned. there is a LOT of potential in this lightweight wonder. I have some great tube amps (rivera, fuchs, musicman) but I find for practice I often run through the block. I always take it as a backup to gigs and would not hesitate to use it. It has a nice clean, handles gain well and takes effects well. set it up right and it will give you some great controlled feedback to wail with.

i've never had an issue with mine. for the manufacturing cost, you have to expect that corners were cut and i guess some folks have been bit. hopefully if it's going to crap out it will happen in warranty - so use it hard right away!

With the $99 blowout running now I don't see how anyone could go wrong, especially if you gig and don't already have a decent backup amp. this thing may surprise you.

I bought this amp new,recently, and was amazed at what it can do.I'm no kid, and have been working as a musician since 66'...... my real gear would piss all of you off, I don't have alot but my guitar gear is the dream team.....I'll play the game and let you kids cream.
Gibson GA 19 RVT amp(59-62?) all original
Gibson 2x10 stereo amp cab(mid 60s)
62' cream Strat
68 Martin 0018, added thinline pickup
mid 60s scandinavian jazz box,blonde single cut 1 p/u
What I'm using right now, with real basic effects,echoplex wah dist flanger



I know what sounds good for me. I haven't plugged a guitar into this cigarbox,only because I do studio work and about 50 gigs a year on guitar, and why would I bother.......I looked at this little rodent from the other side of the fence.......I make the real doughnuts singing and playing bass......You can look around and find my band The Staynz......we are in here.....myspace, etc......garage/surf......
When I tried this amp out in guitar center, I had the kid plug it into an svt 8x10 cab.......it pushed that cab like a shopping cart.....I'm using it with a 1x15 ported cab with a 300w 1X15 electrovoice.........40 gigs so far and no problem........I don't use it to hold my drink, or as a stepstool, I take it out of the bag and use it as an amp.......It makes a great bass amp.....Crate mimarketed this thing.....kids want quanity..........real guys want quality......And the little girls worrying about having the logo too big......give me a break! If it said Marshall you little twerps would be lovin it........ Little boys, live with a stripper for a year and learn a lesson.......a wallmart thong will rock your world as much as one by Lily St. Cyr.......its not the product, its how its used......Don't knock it learn how to rock it!

Like any amp, it says what you speak......try playing out of a different amp every night when you are on tour overseas.......you aren't carrying anything over there, oh, well maybe all of you with big record deals.....I use it high on the master and tweak in the volume......nice and clean with s/c bass pickups......

I've only used it on gigs.......no problem....I gamble, and thats all I'm carrying....if it blows out, I know our tech can grab another one...but it hasn't happened yet......my gear gets handled like it should........are you going to piss on your laptop?!?!?!?

No idea......runs great......

I think I went through all of this in the other catagories.....Anything I wish I had? Yeah, Danni Ashe as my housegirl!

HERE'S A HEADS UP: Do not waste your money on this product! It is build to break! Features already covered. Single-channel, solid-state, low priced piece of chinese junk. Size and weight is awesome though.

Sound quality was surprizingly good. Low noise, clean single. Pretty good for a cheap toy.

Owned 5 months when it crapped out. Opened it up, be careful, high voltage. The hot-lead contact inside the input jack had broken off, so, no signal. The metal was not much thicker than thick foil. Destined to break. You can count on other parts being close behind. At this price I had hoped it would last a year or two. If it had I would not be complaining. After all, you get what you pay for!

Did not contact.

P.O.S. Sounded decent, but died too young.

Its like a single channel tube head without the tubes. Gets pretty clean, or fairly dirty depending on the gain setting and your guitar's volume knob. Mostly useless effects loop (except for its big trick). Very compact size, awful huge CRATE logo on the front.

This works very well for all sorts of rock music, but is probably not as good right out of the box for super heavy music. It does respond well to pedals, so you could probably chunk it up a bit that way.

It is fairly versatile, though it has some limitations. Obviously you can use it as a single channel amp, and it likes pedals well enough. You can use it as a poweramp or as a DI box. It gets loud enough to use at most gigs.

Here's a trick: the speaker simulator is on all the time, even if you're hooked to a speaker cabinet. This is bad because it makes everything sound lifeless- even tube preamps, or tube amp slave outs. The trick is to loop out of the FX send and back into the CD input. I was both disappointed that I had to do this, but relieved that I could. This is one of those things that doesn't bother me on a $100 amp, but would on a $500 amp.

If I was using something like a POD into this, I expect that it might sound better routed through the CD inputs than the line ins. Just as you'd most likely disable the POD cabinet sims when running through a real cabinet, I don't know you wouldn't want to do it for the powerblock... or why they made it on all the outputs instead of just the non-speaker outputs.

I wish it had a switch for the speaker sim, I wish it had a level control that worked with the line-inputs (or was post-fx loop). I might be unhappy if it was $500, but it was $99. I really couldn't be happier with it.

No rating because it is tough to give a features rating for something that is a no-frills device. The features that it has are executed tolerably.

Honestly, I'm surprised at how good this sounds- after you bypass the speaker simulation. With the speaker simulator engaged and playing through a guitar cabinet, it sounds amazingly bland. Nothing bad, just no sparkle at all- dead sounding. Like a modelling amp, perhaps. Bypassing the speaker simulator as mentioned above wakes it right up. Its like a different amp.

It gets fairly dirty. Not dual-recto dirty, but more than just overdrive. It cleans up if you pick light and especially if you roll the volume knob back. It really retains its volume when you roll the guitar volume knob back. How'd they do that?

It responds well to pedals, so if you need some extra distortion, a boost pedal works well. Likewise, an EQ pedal set up for a loss works well to give you a faux "clean channel"

It is capable of pretty nice clean tones that grit up a little when you dig in hard. I like some harmonic sparkle on my cleans as opposed to completely clean tones. This will do pretty darned clean sounds, but the inbetween sounds are actually workable.

Its not a tube amp, but it is workable for a backup- and easily better than some of the modelling amps I've played. I think it compares very favorably against the Sansamp Trademark too. The response is probably better, but at least as good.

I play various styles of rock music, but nothing hardcore. If you need something with brutal amounts of gain, this amp will need some help, but it covers most non-brutal rock music pretty well.

I've played my samick RL/3 semi-hollobody (with humbuckers) and the av3 (tele-paul style humbucker guitar) into this amp with good results.

Noise is managable. There is a little bit of hum present, but its tolerable.

I've gotta give this an 8- If it cost $500, I still think the tone would be good, but obviously the lack of features would play into the buying decision.

This is my backup. :)

It looks to be pretty rugged, but its undoubtably cheap chinese junk. It would be a very bad idea to rely on one piece of cheap gear exclusively.

Try as I might, I don't see a customer service email on their website. That stinks. There is a phone number though.

I wonder if the build quality has improved after SLM was acquired by Loud Designs.

I've been playing rock music since about 1987- in bands and for pay since about the mid-90's. I don't make a living playing music, but I've played in front of a few thousand people a few times and played in front of less than a hundred people plenty of times.

My main rig is a 2xEL34 amp with a removable preamp that I built. I've been playing amps that I've built since 2000 or so and have never looked back. I've tried commercial amps here and there and while there are aspects that I like about some of them, I end up preferring my own gear because it just suits me better. A good amp just feels like an extension of the guitar and commercial amps often fall short in this department. The powerblock isn't a magic device, but for what it costs, its worth owning.

I've seen the powerblock in the catalogs for a few years and I thought it was a joke. When I saw that they were $99, I figured "there must be something I can use that for. Maybe it could be tolerable as a backup". I played a whole rehearsal with it a couple of weeks ago after intending to just warm up with it. Its more than tolerable. Its highly tolerable. :) I think you can do a lot worse if you're just looking for a straight-ahead single-channel rock and roll amp.

For the record, I end up hating a LOT of gear. I send back about 90% of what I order because things always seem to end up sounding like garbage. Some things would be acceptable if they cost less, some things aren't worth a dime. This is a rare item that is worth more than I paid for it.

If it were $500, I'd still think it sounded pretty good, even in comparison to $500+ amps. No, its not as good as a nice tube amp, but its highly tolerable. If it were $500, I'd be more irked by its limitations. What limitations? OK, here goes:

The speaker simulator is on all the time. This makes anything running through it sound slightly dead. Theres no sparkle at all. Fortunately, this is easily solved by looping out of the FX send and back into the CD input. Try it. It really brings the amp alive.

The FX loop seems mostly useless as a loop. The master volume is before the loop, so if you're trying to play loud, the loop may have too much signal for whatever is connected to it. I don't usually play with reverb so this isn't a big deal to me. A good amp that is playing with me has a way of making a lot of effects unnecessary. For me, anyway.

The loop and line ins share jacks and it requires external cabling magic to get at the loop. Space saving, but irksome.

The line-ins bypass all of the controls, which means you've got to have controls on whatever plugs into this. That's not necessarily a huge problem, but I sorta hoped that at least the level control would work. I also hoped that the line-ins might still encounter some sort of tube power amp simulation, but no such luck. All of the tube faking is in the preamp.

The GIANT C R A T E logo on the front is OBNOXIOUS! :)

With all this said, it works pretty darned good as a single-channel backup rig, or for someone who doesn't want to spend a bunch of money. If I had to play a gig using this, a modelling combo, or a POD, I think I'd use this. It's almost like a real amp. almost.

At $100 it is an unquestionable fantastic value.
At $200 it is a solid value
At $300 it would be a good buy
At $500 it would be a feature-poor amp that had good tones.

you know...

greatttttttttttttttt when works... later on that

Well this is where i am dissapointed with the amp. I has 4 of them, all second hand, with receipts of purchase (for warranty purposes), and less than 6 months old. This is a great idea done wrong. First one that i had did turn on but then after 1 month of usage did not sound, sent to crate and supposally they reapir it, after 2 months get back to going dead again...get a couple more because i love his product , but all of them after 10+ gigs the level control goes intermitent after position 12 oclock , or i will say scratchy, used the anti scratchy spray(thats how i call it) and does not help it.
I think crate should improve the quaility of parts of this product and raise maybe $ 50.00 on the price ( i hope the new version is an improved one)... And not give a 5 years warranty instead. I will pay the xtra money to not have to deal with warranty issues...

When sent to repir the first time was ok, but it seems the tech did not fix the problem completely...

I love this product hope they fix it...

You already know. The one thing I'll mention is that the stereo inputs on the back are after the volume control (as well as gain and EQ)in the chain. So if you plug in a POD or something you must control the volume with the POD. None of the controls on the front of the amp work if you use the stereo inputs on the back.

I'm embarrassed to say how much I like this thing considering the number of $1000+ amps I own or have owned (I just bought this for kicks since it was only $99 on sale at GC, I have pedals that cost twice as much as this head). Just plug into a Marshall 1960 4x12, crank the gain and bass, mids at about 5, highs at about 4, with volume about 5-6 (very loud). Perfect rock distortion when you dig in. Back off the guitar volume and a great semi-clean sound. The distortion is perfect for blues or rock type soloing but shredders will want more gain. It is a total misconception that this is made primarily as a power amp for effects. It sounds perfect plugging straight in. It does a perfect AC/DC (which is way less distorted than many people think). Keep in mind also that it will sound way different using a cheap 1x12 than it does with the Marshall 4x12 cab.

Too early to say.

Purchase date sept. 29, 06
Price paid 99.95 (new)
You know all the features. What a great product for 99.95! Still a bargain at twice that much. I bought this as a back-up in case my main rigs ever go down (I work in two bands with two independent set-ups;pretty much the same rig, though. I do utilize a Vox modeling pedalboard (which I love!) and run it through the effect return of the amps. I do the same with this as well. It has more than enough juice for me to hear myself so it doesn't matter whether it's "as loud as a tube amp" or whatever that old argument is.

Using it as just a power amp is great. Nice transparent power. As a guitar amp through the front it does an adequate job and would get you through the night (with your overdrive pedals and delay units, etc) in a fairly convincing manner. I wouldn't make it my first choice but it could save my ass.
I generally use fender and gibson style guitars for playing classic rock (a pretty wide variety) and original stuff, as well.
It's no more noisy than the signal your'e feeding into it; shit in..shit out.

It is my back - up.
Just got it so I can't remark about its reliability.

Never dealt with the company before.

Been playing since '75. I've owned more gear than I can remember. I pretty much refuse to sell any of it any more, too! (I've sold some Les Pauls in the past and could kick myself in the ass!)

I won 18 guitars at last count; 8 of which I've built in the past couple of years. Much more economical and just as good as the shit that major manufacturers are asking you to spend 4-5 times the amount of money on. I've always been a tube amp man.. until the past several years when modeling took a big step forward. Of course I am still running them through the back of tube amps which doesn't hurt, but quite frankly I don't hear any difference with my vox going through this bad boy (crate)

I Like the size, weight, balanced line out, sends-returns, line level adjustment, etc. I don't need bells and whistles and don't use pedals. Good power (150W mono or 75W stereo). I currently play in two blues bands and when we do an outdoor or big stage job I wasn't getting the stage coverage or presence that I wanted from a 40W, 1-12 tube amp. The PB150 with a Celestion loaded 2-12 cabinet took care of that.

I'm using Strats, standard Teles and an HB loaded Tele. If you turn the gain up (8-10) high with too much high band it makes some very offensive noises. Too much of any one thing (gain, high, mid, low, level)can/will alter the tone drastically. If you "massage" each band and the gain/level to match the guitar in hand you can get anything from a Tweed Bassman to a JTM45 to a modded Band Master with smooth break up or really punchy, clean tones. The amp itself is pretty quiet considering that I use mostly alnico single pu's.

I've been working it pretty hard since June and haven't had a problem yet. I gig 2-3 nights a week. If I'm travelling further than 20 miles from home, I always carry a back up.

Good Warranty (5 yrs). I've had other Crate/SLM products and always found the support to be very good when needed.

Been playing professionally for 37 yrs. Current amps include Line6 Flextone, Yamaha JX65, 64 Fender Deluxe, 67 Fender Super Reverb, Musicman HD130, Laney and Crate. I would (and probably will) buy another Crate PB150. I don't want to have to depend on "vintage gear" out on the road. Some DSP reverb might be nice on a future model. If you place it on top of a speaker cabinet with a top mounted handle, the head tends to rock back and forth because the rubber feet are too short. Not a big deal but an annoyance anyway. People that cannot play without effects will not like this amp. I think it's pretty cool.

No reverb and not enough mojo to pull it off. A Champ doesn't have reverb either, but come on, does it really handicap it? This thing is so dead and dry without some reverb or delay. Sure, it's very small, but that goes out the window when you have to take along a reverb or delay effect.

This does not sound like a tube amp. It really kills me reading all these reviews that say "this thing had me fooled". B.S. If you have a 100 watt tube amp that you can only play on 2 (I have a 50 watt crate VC5212 that I can only play on 3 or 4 in most cases) then you are not driving it hard enough to get tube sound and any solid state amp will give you the same sound, duh! Get your hands on the aforementioned 6 watt Champ, put it on 10 and then tell me how close the powerblock comes. It ain't even the same thing. Ain't no f**kin ballpark neither.

Seems well built. Didn't own it long enough to find out.

I read the reviews and bought into all the hype and now, a few weeks later, in's gone on the bay. It is probably ok for what it was designed to do. It will probably be ok to run as a poweramp for a POD, but for real men (and ladies) who can create their own sound with an amp, a guitar and a few choice effects instead of by pushing a button and choosing an amp sound, this thing is better left to the teenagers who equate high volume with good tone. For the $200 this sells for, plus whatever you would spend on a cabinet, get yourself a nice 5 to 15 watt all tube combo that would kick ass. Then when you've saved more money, get yourself a Super Reverb or Bassman, or, if metal is your thing, just sell your guitar and go away, there are enough of you. We don't need any more.

Features are very handy: cd input, mono effects loop/stereo line input, output to mono or stereo speakers. 150 or 2x75 watts. Impressive for this size. Speaker emulation on line output (for direct recording) and headphones output.

I use it conecting into effects loop with with my Zoom G2 and Boss Flanger and then mono balanced into Edirol UA 25 soundcard.

To bad there is no balanced output for stereo, but you can do this from headphones with the stereo-to-mono cable.

And yes, it is a single channel amp head.

Sound is quite warm for a d class amp. Distorsion is useful, maybe to polite, but I use it from the effects loop anyway.

I have G&L Tribute ASAT guitar with two large single-coils, and my it translates really well through my rig. Beautiful clean sound of G&L stays that way, distorsion and fuzz is convincing.

Mind you, I didn't try this head through the speakers, as a home producer this is no neccesity to me (yet).

Its light, but sturdy feeling. I don't gig so it won't break.

Not needed and not applicable (Croatia).

This is very useful peace of kit for practicing and recording guitar. As a home producer I really don't need more for my set-up, and soundwise, I also couldn't ask for much more.

I maybe miss one more channel with a switch, and a stereo XLR output, but there are workarounds.

The price is almost double the one in USA, but still increadible value.

Very Nice Little Amp 150 watts of power. I really love it a lot. Very simple.

I use it with a 4x12 Mesa Boogie Cab. Sounds really good. I use the Line6 AM4, DL4, and MM4. It sounds good even without the pedals. I had to sell my 3 Channel Mesa Head, I wish i never would have but I tried this little power block out and it's really cool. Pushes the cab really well. It's no Mesa or Marshall but it's well worth the price and sound quality is really good. If you miss your tube amp and are poor like me, get it you'll like it.

Super Strong.

Have not used Customer support.

Go get one if you cannot afford a good tube amp at the time. It will work just fine.

alot of in/out options,Gain,3-band EQ, Master Vol, CD input - you'll know all the features. Nice small box fits in the back of an open cabinet (with carrying bag)

woow - this small tiny box rocks!!! its loud enough to rock with a full band and brings out a nice, dirty Rock n Roll Sound - maybe a Tubescramer or any other Distortion for more heavier sound needed....
Tried it with my POD XT in front and in CD-Input but thats what really disappointed me - this is (X)tra(T)hin Sound. Compared with the basic sound of the Powerblock !!! -> sent it back to my dealer NO Good for PODs!!!
But as standalone with a cabinet - give it a try

built like a tank - cool softbag included

3 Years Warranty.

i wanted to use it with my Line6 POD - that didnt work so i returned the thing - if i was in need of an amp only i kept it

I bought it on eBay, apparently used, but effectively brand new new - the guy said he was broke and needed the money. I guess it was probably made sometime in 2005...
If you're reading this, I guess you know what this amp is about and what it offers in the way of features.
Having said that, this tiny little amp is pretty much feature-packed. What?s missing?
I generally use single-channel, non-switching amps, so the lack of channel changing is not a problem - not only that, but this is the most responsive solid state amps I've ever used, so riding the guitar's volume control and/or using pick attack is all I need.
Someone else complained about the use of a stereo jack for the effects send/return and yes, it would be better to have dedicated send and return jacks, but given the size of this box, I?m not sure where you?d put ?em!
The size, the weight, the general design, the price - and the fact that that dinky little gig-bag is included in the price - are all huge plus-points.

I play blues, using a variety of guitars, but mainly Strats and Teles and I must say I am very impressed by the Powerblock.
I bought this amp because I was intrigued by the look of it, its general concept and the fact that it was so small and so cheap. My thought was that I would carry it as a spare amp (it fits underneath the passenger seat of my car) for use with guitar, bass, PA monitors or whatever.
I usually hate solid state amps, so I wasn?t expecting too much.
The reviews were the clincher, but I doubted it would live up to the hype. Believe me - it does!
This amp sounds better than some tube guitar amps I?ve played through. The sound is remarkably transparent and ?valvey? - responsive to volume and pick attack and generally quite ?organic? sounding.
The tone controls are very responsive and really do allow you to shape the sound to a degree which is perhaps a bit alien to those of us wedded to tube amps. Very impressive.
Running it up through an 8-ohm Celestion-loaded 2x12 cab, it was reasonably loud. It delivers its full load into 4 ohms, and my guess is it was probably punching our about 120 watts. Everyone knows that 120 solid state watts is nowhere near as loud as 120 tube watts - a FenderTwin would wipe the floor with this for clean volume, but this amp is plenty loud enough to gig with, especially when you wind in a bit of gain. And in many ways, the Powerblock actually sounded sweeter than most Twins I've used.

Obviously, it sounds rather dry without effects, but then so does your average old Marshall head or Fender Bassman! I tried the Powerblock with my trusty Peavey Valverb (1u rackmount tube-driven reverb and tremolo unit) and it really came to life. I also tried it with a couple of digital fx units and it seemed to cope pretty well with those, too. All in all, it's a superbly well-thought-out and brilliantly executed piece of engineering on a budget that?s hard to believe.

I also plugged it into a 4ohm 8x10 bass cab and gave it to my bass player to use at a rehearsal. When he?d stopped falling about with helpless laughter at the sight of this tiny little box, perched atop a monster cab, he plugged in and was astonished at what a good bass amp it made. It needed a surprising amount of front-end gain to get it working (still running pretty clean, with an active bass, I hasten to add), but once we?d tweaked that, It sounded great, with plenty of volume and no shortage of range in the tone controls. In fact he loved it so much, he now wants to buy one and use it with a small cab for home practice and small gigs!

I wonder if Crate have any plans to market something similar, but with twice the power, specifically for bass? If they did, they?d surely clean up and put Mark Bass and the like out of business!

I?ve not yet tried it as a PA amp, but I have no reason to doubt it will do this job admirably if I ever need it.

Not sure about this, since it?s too soon to say for sure.
After all, this is a cheap amp that?s packed with features. Logic dictates corners must have been cut somewhere, though it?s hard to see where, looking at the amp. It?s very solidly built and the fact that it will spend its travelling life in a padded bag suggests it probably can?t come to too much physical harm.
The switch-mode power supply makes it very light and compact, but it?s technology that has yet to prove itself completely in guitar amps, so that must be my main worry.

One point about switch-mode power supplies...
Am I right in thinking they?ll operate on any voltage, within the normal range of worldwide mains supplies (ie 110-240v) without adjustment?
If so, this would make the amp even more useful.

One more query:
The handbook refers to the fact you can use the balanced line out to turn the amp into a recording preamp. What it doesn't stipulate is whether you need to have headphones, or a speaker load connected to stop the power amp blowing up. I'm assuming not, since the manual is otherwise fairly comprehensive, but I'm not sure I'd want to take a chance!

Nothing to report - never dealt with them.

This is a totally incredible piece of equipment.
It looks great, sounds very good (probably too good to keep as a spare amp, to be honest), weighs next to nothing, costs very little and is extremely versatile.

Crate deserve to have a huge worldwide hit on their hands this with amp. It is truly amazing.

I bought this new a couple of months ago. My main reason to buy this amp was that it's an easy package to carry to the gigs. It seemed perfect as a backup amp because of it's size and it's still very powerful (150 w mono / 75 per channel stereo). It has only one preamp channel but the amp cleans up enough when I turn down my guitar volume, I have no need for the second channel. I think it has all the features I really need, just a basic amp with gain, eq and volume. I like this simple setup but I think that for most of todays young players the preamp section of Power Block gives just too little choices. Anyway if I want something more I get that with the stompboxes.

Unlike the previous reviewer said that there is no usable effects loop in Power Block - well, there is effects loop but how usable it is I can't say 'cause I haven't used it. But I guess it does the job. There's even possible to use stereo effects in that loop if needed.

This amp can be very loud, far louder than I ever need. Even if my band have a loud drummer there's not a question if I'm heard. I use the amp in mono mode (150 watts into 8 ohms) with a Marshall 4 x 12" cabinet. My main amp is a Marshall Jubilee 50 watt tube head from the 80's. Maybe I don't have to mention that Marshall does it better, but this little amp comes not so far behind. Especially, if we talk about price, size and weight, power and sound the Power Block is an excellent value for the money.

I play loud rock'n'roll and punk-style stuff. I mainly use Gibson Les Paul Special with P-90 pickups, and sometimes also Tokai Stratocaster with stock singlecoils. Power Block and the P-90 pickups are a very good combination together to my taste - it gives grit enough to the sound but still doesn' get muddy. If I want more briht sound with less distortion I get it with the stratocaster. Both guitars works fine with this amp. I also use Ibanez Tube Screamer TS10 if I want more sustain and punch.

For a solid state amp it responds well to dynamics. I use gain in about 3 o'clock and eq to taste. If I want less gain I turn my guitar's volume lower. If I want more gain I kick in the tube scremer. Power Block seems to like stompboxes, at least the ones I have. The amp's eq really works well too.

My setup gives not a big variety of sounds but it gives me the thing I need. The amp has plenty of overdrive on it's own if the gain is full up but maybe not enough for metalheads. Clean sound is the territory where this amp ain't on it's strongest at the high volume.

I don't find this thing too noisy. Of course there is some hum when you have the gain and volume turned up but that's normal with any amp. That doesn't disturb me.

I've tried Power Block with Behringer V-Amp2 -modeller connected to the loop's return, but that wasn't my thing. The V-Amp gives a nasty digital touch to the sound and the dynamics get lost. So the problem is in the V-Amp, not in Power Block. Maybe some better modeller sounds better with the Power Block, but I like to keep it simple. I'm not interested to play with those digital toys anyway.

Until now after a few gigs and rehearsals it may be too early to condemn. This was supposed to be as a backup amp for me, but I've used it as main amp on few gigs now without backup and it's been working well without any kind of problems. So far so good, you should never trust blindly on these things. Anyway this one seems to be well made.

I haven't had need to deal with the company.

I've been playing guitar for about 19 years. I've had / have a few amps after I've started playing. The first amp was a solid state Marshall 5210 combo, then came Marshall Jubilee 2553 head, Ampeg VT-60 head, Fender Blues Deluxe combo, Koch Twintone combo and now this Crate Power Block. It is quite funny looking setup as you have Power Block in the top of a big 4x12 cabinet, but the sound and power kicks ass for everyone who's mocking on it.
I could say this amp is a very good change for the money. If you need a basic, healthy sounding rock'n'roll amp for a little money, this is it.

I wish that is had an out of the box, useable effects loop. Other than that the features are OK

Sounded OK in the store. Not good, not bad.

The thing never really turned on. It would just cycle on and off, the led flashing slowly. I got sound for about a second, then nothing for another three seconds. Any product that has problems like this brand new is not going to go on stage or even to practice with me.

How can people give this a good rating for reliability when they had to return two or three?

The manual is 4 small pages. No real information, no help at all.

I was really dissapointed, although not surprised. When I bought it, they had to unbox one because the floor model didnt work. I wanted an amp to practice with until my Mesa comes in. I only needed a loud clean sound. I was going to keep it for backup, maybe a stereo rig using its poweramp. I love the concept, the portability would be great. Unfortunatley it is a 200 paperweight.

I'm 44 and at 4 pounds (!!!) it's hard to beat. I play classic rock into an Eminence loaded Avatar stereo cab, and I have no problems keeping up with the band in small rooms.
I have two negatives:
1) This amp begs to have a modeler run into it, as it has nothing but gain, level, and three band tone. So I run a GNX-2 floor modeler into Effects Loop/Line In, stereo. But unfortunately, the PowerBlock has no level control after the Line In. I have to control the level by bending down to my GNX-2, which is a REALLY inconvenient way to make level adjustments while gigging. So I had some guy on ebay build me a small box with a ganged (stereo) pot that I sit on my cab to control level.
2 The PowerBlock can not drive a 2 speaker stereo cab, whose jacks are grounded together on a common shield. The first PowerBlock manual did not warn against this, and after returning 2 (sorry Guitar Center) amps that actually worked, I finally contacted Crate and described my setup. After about three days, they emailed me the new manual warning against this. So I had to install a plastic jack on one of the channels of my Avatar Cab.

Since I model, running into the Line In gives me clean power with very little coloring. It is easy to get controlled feedback with my Strat, modeler, and this amp at about any volume. The sound is repeatable day in and out, and I think I like it better than my Peavey Bravo (two EL-84s).

Excluding the operator error connecting this to a stereo cab I mentioned above, it has worked every time. Barely gets warm. Class-D amps like this don't have big caps, so I expect this amp to last a long time.

Even though I clearly spelled out my setup to Crate the first time, it took a couple of email exchanges for Crate to figure out my setup problem.

I've had a variety of tube combos and heads, and I'm going to stick with this for performing, and possibly recording.
I would replace it if stolen.
I wish it had a level control following the Line In.

Everything you need if you have something musical to say.
Fantastic features that number more than I have time to write about.

Sounds somewhere between a 40 watt Fender bassman head and a 50 watt Marshall 800.
It sounds like a great tube head and cleans up as such when you know
how to use your guitar volume.

5 year take it back policy. Its my main head now and I have no fear playing anywhere with it. They don't write that stuff to lose money.
They expect to last much longer.

Not needed.

If you can play the guitar this amp will make you happy. It has all the basic sounds to build from. I make a living recording songs and touring and you just kind of know when something is solid. I can play any amp I want and I say for the next 3-4 years this powerblock will be perfect as my live head.

I was greatly suprised at the number of features the PowerBlock had for it's small size.
It's a single channel 150W mono amp (or 75W/Side stereo). It has an XLR line out which lets me easily hook into a mixer for anything from recording to amping out a PA. Has a headphone output, but it doesn't cut off the amped outputs when you plug headphones in. You have to unplug them first. Also has RCA tape inputs and 1/4" L/R inputs. If you buy an insert cable the Left 1/4" in also doubles as an effects loop.

Don't let size deceive you!
I was probably like everyone who first sees this head, I couldn't build myself to believe it could compete with big Marshall's and other Crate heads in terms of power and volume.
I was terribly wrong!
I play everything from rock/alternative/hardcore/acoustic, etc. If you setup the EQ right and maybe pair it up with an external effects unit or preamp then the PowerBlock is capable of anything you may play through it.
Putting the gain to about half way still keeps it very warm and clean sounding allowing you to crank the level to deafening volumes. If you crank the gain all the way up and keep the level down, you'll get a nice warm overdriven sound. When the gain is at full there is a bit of hum, but that is typical with every single amp head out there.

It's solid state so there's no tubes to worry about failing or needing replacing. I'd gig it without a backup, and I do, it's my main and only amp head.
Works excellent as your main head, or for those who have something expensive already it's definitely a recommended inexpensive backup. Small and easy to carry.

Haven't had to deal with them yet - that's a good thing!

I've been playing for over 8 years and I've jumped around and owned/used many amps in my time. The crate is finally something I know I'll be using for a long time to come. It packs more volume than I'll ever need to use and I love it for the portability. Every feature on this thing is useful! I just wish they'd put reverb though, that's my only disappointment.

Very no BS type of head. Gain, Volume, Treble, Mid, and Bass on the front. Effects loop, balanced line out on the back. It's stereo and can be bridged to mono. But the best feature is it's size, weight and power. It's little and loud. Draw your own comparisons ;)......

As far as the loud part, It really ain't as loud as 75 watt stereo/150watts bridged implies. It's about like a twin. It is nothing like as loud as a Super Lead or a V4. However, I am running it into a 16ohm 2x10 (portability, baby.) If you run it into 4 or 8 ohm's it will be louder because it's solid state.

In short it weighs next to nothing, is very small, and comes with a gig bag. Just what you always wanted.

I could first tell you that for a solid state amp, it sounds really tube like, but this really dosn't make any sense. All tube amps sound different and this Solid State Amp sounds better to me than most current production tube amps. Why, tone center and touch sensitivity. This amp wants to sound like a bassman or JTM-45. If you ask for something else your not going to get it. Pegging the gain will give you more grind but it gets a little harsh for me. However if you want more grist in the will, it takes to pedals very well. As far as sensitivity it, compresses quite nicely and responds well to your picking dynamics with that bounce we all love. Volume knob reduction yeilds nice, controllable cleanup.

Having sang the praises of the Power Block, I have to say it does not sound or feel as good as my modded JTM-45. But when you factor in the features listed above, mainly size and weight, it is great. I give it an eight and I usually don't like anything.

Built like a tank, but I havn't had it long enough to form an opinion.
Oh, and by the way it is real cheap, so if it breaks out of warrenty, just get another one. It's cheaper than getting most stuff fixed.

This is a great portable head for that small, light rig you always wanted, and it could quite possibly be the worlds greatest back-up amp.
And, most of all like I said before, it's cheap.

The features are pretty much covered by others i.e. single channel, no reverb, etc., etc., light weight, "fun".
One notable thing I would like to say is that the tone and volume controls are very linear, inthat when you rotate the control knob thru it's rotational travel, you actually get a graduated change in that particular tone....nice.
As far as power, it is about equivelant to a 60 watt tube amp in terms of volume and headroom. I can easily compare it to my Reverend Hellhound in the volume department, AND....I wish it have just a tad more of the clean headroom. But don't get me wrong, the amp has some snort to it! And the tone controls are very active and useful.

I play a home made strat, comprised of a Carvin neck (love'em!!) Lace Transensor Pups, a Torres Engineering control package, and a green strat body I found on Ebay, Ash wood, I think. I also have about 13 other guitars.
The distortion is very even and nice for my tastes......I'm not a trasher. It is not noisy...that is until I hook up my Boss ME-33 multi-effects board to it.........grrrrrrrr. And like other observations, you can run the Gain up to 12 o'clock and still be clean. Between 12 and 2 you can get some very controlable overdrive...nice.

Too new for me to tell how reliable it will be. I do know that Crate made 10,000 of these units, so I would think the manufactoring standards would be sufficiantly high, therefore reliability.

I called them and actually spoke with a real humanoid.....asked a few questions.....blah blah. OH!! One question I DID ask of the Tech Support guy; Will the speaker output tolerate a 4 ohn load in the Bridged setting???? (Some guy here stated that he runs a 4 ohn load and that it runs OK without a problem) The Tech guy said that it WILL NOT function properly for long if you do this, and that eventually it is bound to fail or malfuncition. IN my experaince, TUBE amps will tolerate lower than spec impedance levels, but solid state amps are not so forgiving.........

I have been playing for about 35 years. I played in the service clubs here on Oahu during the peak of the Viet Nam era. I was 14. I've built Heathkit amps, etc,. etc., ....Currently I have 2 Reverend Hellhounds, a Fender Prosonic (Green snake), a Carvin Belair, an Ampeg Reverberocket,a Yamaha G100II, a Roland Cube 60 (newer version),and a 1950's Valco Chicago 51 (Funnnn)
If lost, I might replace it. I just bought it out of curiosity, really. Would be very interested to see what follow-up products utilizing the Class D power are brought onto the market. By the way, the chipset that makes the Class D power possible for us consumers are made by various manufactureres, and as a set they are very cheap....about $2.70 per set..It's that chipset that makes the Class D power possible.
I like the amp, as it is a new and refreshing item for the guitarists in general. FOR ME, I wish it had about 50 more solid state watts. THAT would really be a fine amp..MORE clean headroom. BUT, overall, this is a great value for the money. They are Wayyyyyyy affordable, quite loud, and they sound very good. Not maybe as good as a decent tube amp, but very very close, IMHO.
Email me if you like; Gary. kissingeg001@hawaii.rr.com

what we have here is crate's newest toy... features are actually somewhat plenty for such a small chassis...single chanel preamp, stereo effects loop, aux in, xlr - cab simulated outputs, the ability to run stereo or mono and 4.5 pounds. A nice padded carrying bag is included. If the preamp section had more features ( channel switching, seperate eq's) it would definitley earn a 10.....

I use this with various double humbucker guitars ( gibson, musicman, jackson, etc.) and single coils (stratocaster)... It sounds surprisingly awesome...probobly the most responsive " tubelike" solid state amp I have ever tried...Clean tones sounds top notch with a nice chorus and the dirt sounds are more classic rock...you want to play ac/dc riffs without cranking a plexi in your bedroom?.this is probobly your best bet... It sounds really good with a digitech bad monkey ( another budget item) overdrive infront of it...that will push the gain into a great metal territory...think of this amp as a light, compact , JCM 800 sound.. I bought it to run my podxt live through the effects return ( in mono mode through a 2x12 8 ohm cab for maximum punch and volume) it sounds real good...but...I actually enjoy playing though the front of the crate "barebones" much better..I really dig the responsivness of this little amp that the modeller falls short of....that and my stylings are leaning more towards classic rock/blues tones these days...

I have not taken it out of my home yet but it seems reliable...the chassis is metal, and the pots have a nice smooth feel...I will definitley bring this to all my gigs as a backup amp....

never dealt...but I owned a crate 2x10 amp back inthe 80's and it is proboby still ticking somewhere....

I have been playing for 20 years....I have owned Marshalls, fenders, and currnently mesas...I don't feel I am comprimising anything by using this amp as a "home jamming" rig... I was never the type to bring my halfstack into my living room and crank it to ten anyways.... I bought this as a lightweight backup amp and poweramp for my pod....I was pleasantly surprised at how good it sounds and now just enjoy it as a straight up barebones amp and "utility " vehicle! Crate has been hitting homeruns lately...there v-series , class A tube amps are great sounding , well built amps as well ( I have had a v15...killer little tube amp!)

The best match for this amp is a modeller or guitar workstation on the front end. I use a Digitech GNx3. This amp was made for it. On it's own, the features of the amp are serviceable as a backup or maybe better (see below about using a BBE unit). I've played it straight in with single coil and humbucker guitars and it is about as touch sensitive a front end as you'll find solid state. Crate thought carefully about the features and put in everything you need, except that the effect loop seems to be mono. If the loop was stereo and more intuitive I'd give this thing a 10. As is, it's a 9 for what it was intended for.

I play a lot of styles, blues, rock, jazz-rock (steely dan material, originals, some latin-influenced, country-rock (danny gatton!), crossover originals influenced by Edgar Meyer, and in my band, a bunch of old surf tunes to boot. This amp handles everything well. No apologies needed for the sound. I'm not going to compare it to my Fuchs Overdrive Supreme, that's not fair! But on it's own merits, it's very solid. Cleans are nice and the overdrive is usable.

NOW, how to make this thing a beast you don't want to stop playing! First, use a good modeller or workstation in front. I use a GNX3 and it really comes alive through the Powerblock.. the closest to the recording quality sound I get out of it, or through stereo headphones. This is a match made in heaven. I won't use the GNX3 live in front of a gainy tube amp like my Fuchs, it sounds harsh no matter how its EQ'd... i play pretty much straight in on tube amps. Different story with the PB, it's input circuitry works great. I've tried it both using the stereo line inputs and mono in the input jack. You won't get as much volume out of the line-in configuration because the gnx doesn't drive the power stage as hard as the internal PB preamp. I love some of the stereo sounds but for live use, you're better going in through the preamp mono and adjusting level and gain to suit. You can actually use a bit of the PB's gain with the gnx and it's very nice. LOUD in this config. No drummer will match this at full tilt.

Second part of the ultimate sound quest is to use a BBE "sonic maximizer" in the loop. Unfortunately, the loop seems to be mono only. If you run mono, no biggie. If you run stereo, I think you only get the benefit in the right channel. I A-B'd with the BBE in and out and was dumbfounded by the difference. I've used BBE in other situations and it's always good, one of those can't-hurt tools... but in the PB's loop it does the most amazing tightening/cleaning/sparkling job on the sound. With the BBE in I'd play the PB anywhere, and just might. I'm kind of a tube snob so I'm really surprised to finding myself say this. All I can say is you should check it out! This is the ultimate backup or mainline amp even if you have a modeller you like working with. I'm assuming that modellers besides the Digitech will work similarly well with the PB.

I haven't used this with Crate's GT112SL speaker but plan to get one and post on it. Currently I'm using an EarCandy Buzzbomb 112 with an Avatar Hellatone in it (it's a broken-in Celestion Vintage 30, fantastic!). Sounds GREAT.

On its own, the PB sound is a solid 8. With the BBE and a modeller, it's 10. I'll give the bare rating here.

Too early to tell. Should be fine because solidstate equipment lives a long time if it survives its early days. Crate gives a 5 year warranty on it. that's plenty.

Don't know but I also have a Crate Vintage Club 20R and they've been helpful with questions.

Blah blah blah. Playing a long time, sometimes semi-pro, never for 100% of my income. Always for fun. Lots of gear blah blah blah. Don't need to gloat. Listen, this amp is a must have if you gig with a tube amp. And, if you set it up with a modeller and a BBE, you may just find that you are using the PB INSTEAD of your expensive tube amp. Truly a work of engineering art, hats off to Crate, they killed this one!

No frills but has the bare minimum to get the job done. It needs to have a clean/crunch switch and either a presence knob or a bright switch. It has some nice features like balanced XLR direct out and a stereo effects toop.

I bought this to run my pedals through or use as a power amp for a modeler. The onboard pre-amp is mediocre sounding at best, somewhat dull. If it has either a cocentric presensce knob or a bright switch, that would vastly improve the clean sound. As it stands I have to turn up the treble for it to cut through the mix, but then I get this annoying transister radio ice-pick frequency. Problem solved with an EQ pedal. However, the lack of sufficient headroom is a problem. It starts to distort around 10 o-clock. I can get loud enough for a medium volume practice but anything more than that I have to crank the gain into distortion territory, which sounds like total ass on top of my pedals. The distortion circuit alone a bit on the shrill side, but is passable as a backup solution. I would give it a 5 for this feature.

As a power amp, it really shines I would give it an 8. It is virtually uncolored. For this, I'll give it an overall 7

I have experienced a problem where the power keeps clicking on and off, especially when I've had it in the car when it's cold outside for a long time. It happened at a gig. Luckily, the other band was kind enough to let us use their amp. I ended up bringing it back and exchanging it for another. So far, I haven't had any problems with this replacement unit. Knock on wood.

I went back to the seller who was an authorized Crate dealer via eBay. He made it right.

I would really like to see it have these things as push/pull pots:

* Pull Bright and/or a Cocentric Presence Knob within the Treble knob
* Pull Clean/Crunch on the Gain knob

I would also like to see this thing able to handle a 4ohm mono load.

I love being able to sling this thing over my shoulder and carry it back and forth to practice instead of my head. That in itself makes it worth getting despite it's shortcomings. For less than 200 dolars, you can't go wrong.

Everybody knows. It's light, small, cheap and loud.

I play a 25 year old Modulus Graphite Blackknife (strat) with EMGs. ...it's a Strat. I play bashy, original, alt-honky tonk, countryish stuff. (www.77eldeora.com) Mostly clean tones from light to rather aggressive. I use a Digitech multi-effect pedal between the guitar and head, primarily as a volume pedal and for reverb and occasional compression. (I'm using less compression, less often since getting this amp but that may be a changing taste thing). 12" Celestion.

This amp and pedal have replaced a 45lb, 4 space rack (ADA MP2/Microtube 200 power amp, Digitech multieffect unit, AC strip) and a midi pedal (ADA). I'm a lazy guy but I don't feel like I've had to sacrifice anything with this combination.

Play mostly bars, small clubs. Loud enough to play the clean tones with a drummer at full chat. It won't do full saturated metal distortion but I don't need that. It will still give far heavier tones than I need. I tend to use the gain between 12 and 2

I've had it a couple of months. Done 6 or 7 gigs and a couple rehearsals with it. No problems.

NA

I like it. I'd replace it.

I had to cover the obscenly oversized CRATE logo on the front with a piece of black tape. I cut a small triangle out over the power indicator.

I wish we could afford to produce amps like this in the US

This amp is simple but sounds awesome, and is super loud. I have never written a review before, but felt compelled to do so after buying this little gem. This thing is well worth the money. The clean tone is on the darker side, with a perfect hint of tube warmth. It sounds better than my Fender Twin, Peavey Triple X, and Line6. Did I mention that his thing is loud? I'm playing through two 2X12 Messa Boogie Cabs, and it's so loud it will make your ears bleed. The best part, as you turn-up the gain, it sounds similar to a JCM 800, and it blends perfectly with my modeling gear. Also this thing is deadly silient. No hum/ hiss/ or ffedback. No footswith or reverb, but who cares. I have a little Digitech Artist Series Pedal with a Vox Wah, and it sounds sick. Little hint. Put a decent EQ pedal in the FX loop, and a BBE Sonic Maximizer, and this thing is a virtual flame thrower. For 200 bucks, plus the cost of cheaper modeler, and the portability of the unit, is a godsend..Awesome.

Using Fender
Play Rock, Metal, Blues
Oriignal and Cover Bands

Its solid state. Hell buy two, and use one for a back-up. This thing will become a classic.

Not sure...

Playing for 20 years.
I generally hate CRATE products, but I would definetly buy another one. This thing is a classic.
Best value out there.
I think its perfect. Made to be used with a modeler, but holds its own when it comes to clean and dirty sounds.

If you criticize this unit for not having reverb or a foot controller I think you are being too hard on it. I could agree to a point, but really this thing does not need reverb, and I like the fact its simple, and super functional. Best of all its small, and you can bring it anywhere. It would holds its own at a club, or in a living room.

WELL DONE CRATE !!!!

pretty basic, single channel with gain, standard eq. it's got a nifty effects loop function through a trs input that i have yet to try. its not very fancy, but it does what it does well. the only thing i'd want is some on-board reverb. the size of this thing amazes me, though. it's smaller than my laptop, which is awesome because i can now put it on the floor with my pedalboard and run everything through to a cab with no mess.

i play a prs mccarty with stock humbuckers most of the time, and this amp is a pretty good match. my other amp right now is a 40 watt marshall tube combo with a clean channel and a gain channel with boost, so i'll use that as a benchmark. i tested these two back to back, putting the crate through the speakers on my friend's 2x12 marshall combo. clean, the crate sounds great at lower volumes, which is great for jazz gigs. the gain texture is very tube-like, kind of in between marshall and mesa/boogie, which i really dig. highs are very well articulated without being too piercing, and the mids are nice and creamy. however, the low end lacks clarity and there isn't alot of headroom. however, the sound is fantastic compared to the price. this amp is the most tube-like sounding solid state amp i've ever heard.

i would definitely depend on this. i used this as a backup amp at a gig after i got it and the other guitarist i was playing with had to go through the crate and direct into a keyboard amp. i was playing wit hthe aforementioned marshall combo, and the crate cut through perfectly-in fact, i think it sounded better than my marshall at some points. and the thing's built like a rock and can take different power voltages and currents. definitely a keeper.

got it off ebay, so i wouldn't know.

this amp is great. it's already proven its worth to me, and i think i might actually start using it as my main amp. i play with alot of effects and textures, so being able to manipulate my amp very easily is becoming pretty important. i would definitely buy it again. the sound could be improved, but for the price point, i'm all for this baby.

This was made in 2005. One channel, no frills head.

RCA inputs and headphones jack. I use it either with a Tonelab SE or some stompboxes (Boss DS1 + Behringer EQ700).

The headphone feature wasn't even on my mind when I bough this thing but is fantastic. I play covers and it's easy to play along to the CD, dial in the sounds with the Tonelab and then have the same sound in the rehearsal room.

My main guitar is a Fender Stratocaster Plus with Laces and a SD Quarterpounder. I play in a cover band.

Basically, you get gain good enough for AC/DC but that's all. With a little less gain, it's possible to get a slightly compressed and very inspiring funk sound. The clean is a far cry from my Bassman 50, but the price of this amp is less than the bi-annual service and tubechange for the Bassman.

Using only TS-1 stompbox model in the Tonelab I'm still shocked by the sound. Then it's close to fantastic.

I never gig without some kind of backup solution.

I left the amp in the car for a day at -3 deg C and at reharsal night it wouldn't start. After being plugged in for almost 10 minutes it woke up and then worked perfecylt normal.

That scared me a bit. Its been dead reliable otherwise.

After the incident with the cold I contacted Crate Support, they answered prompt and nice.

I stumbled on this thing by accident and bought it untried and unheard. Basically, I'm between 'real' amps - just sold a tube head and was looking for another. But I found I'm nearly falling in love with this toyish amp.

Clearly it's doesn't sound like a tube head but its soooo nice to not have to lug around 20 kg's (~40 pounds) of amphead. Its really loud. With my 4x12 it shook the floor and made the alarm go on in the room next to our rehearsal space.

I absolutely love the headhpone feature, to dial in sounds and replicate them at rehearsal. Thats perhaps the best thing, to have the same sound at home and at rehearsal.

As a companion to the Tonelab SE it's good. I think a poweramp would be useful too but I find almost always that some overall EQ is needed.

But if this was available as a 'linear' head, Tech21 Power Engine style, it would suit me better. But that's another story. If a 2-amps-into-one-cabinet switch wasnt so increadibly expensive i'd buy another to get a two-channel head!

Trying to sum-up, I own a lot of expensive gear, but this little thing is now my main amp and my opinion of Crate has taken a total turn. Well done Crate!!!

SAME AS STATED BY OTHER REVIEWRS. i AGREE IT WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE REVERB,BUT IF YOU USE PEDALS,ESPECIALLY MULTI EFFECTS UNITS LIKE A BOSS GT-8 OR SIMILAR IT REALLY IS NOT AN ISSUE. ALTHOUGH IT`S RATED AT 150 WATTS, I WISH IT HAD EVEN MORE CLEAN HEADROOM. IT COMPARES TO ABOUT A 75 WATT NORMAL AMP. AND I USE 2X10 JBL E11O SPEAKERS

I PLAY MOSTLY GIBSON`S ( ES-345.PAT MARTINO,ETC), SO I`M USING HUMBUCKERS. I REALLY LIKE THE BASIC TONE OF THE AMP, AND I`VE OWNED QUITE A FEW AMPS( HIWATT,MARSHALL,FENDER,MESA BOOGIE,CARVIN,EVEN 2 DUMLBLES). AGAIN EVEN THOUGH IT`S FAIRLY LOUD, I WOULD LIKE TO SEE A BIT MORE CLEAN HEADROOM.

THE AMP WORKS GREAT,ALTHOUGH IF SEES TO HOT OF AN INPUT IT WILL SHUT DOWN MOMENTARILY. I`VE USED THIS AMP W/OUT A BACK UP AND NO TROUBLE FOR ABOUT 3 MONTHS.

CAN`T COMMENT, SINCE I`VE NEVER DEALT W/ THEM BEFORE.

I`VE BEEN PLAYING 31 YEARS PROFFESIONALLY. AND AS I GET OLDER I`M REALLY GLAD TO SEE THE STRIDES BEING MADE IN HIGH QUALITY GEAR AT GREAT PRICES AND MORE IMPORTANTLY SMALL PORTABLE AMPS.

I think the features have been stated often enough for others to know what this amp is about. The only feature I wish it had is a some type of digital room reverb. Other than that this baby is the ultimate in conveniance. Great at Band Rehearsals, as it has RCA inputs I could plug my MP3 player into to review tunes my band covers. I run this into a 4x10 Ampeg Cabinet and it sounds great by itself, however I have started running my Pod 2.0 into the Line inputs in stereo, and now it sounds unbelievable. I also run it into the matched 1x12 Crate Cab which is also sounds nice. Really Great Product. I play Classic Rock. The amp has plenty of power but only when driven on the inputs. Not a lot of clean headroom without a volume boost.

I play a Fender Standard Ash Tele with stock PUPs mainly, also a Strat Plus with Lace Sensors and a Burns Red Special with Burns Trisonics. All sound great. Have not tried my Gibson Explorer yet. I use a Boss EQ as a lead signal boost. I am very pleased with the portability and convenience of the unit. This amp sounds outstanding just by itself. Very tubelike dirt which disolves nicely when the guitar volume is eased back. The distortion is usable for Classic rock crunch, but an external pedal is needed to get the smooth sustain required for some lead work. I mostly play single coils though it and I am sure a moderate to high output humbucking pickup would make a world of difference here to how intense it breaks up. I mostly use it as a power amp now that I am learning how to use amp modeling units for my sound. This amp is fairly quiet unless the gain is cranked and even then it is not bad compared to others, and nothing a noise gate can't mitigate.

So far so good. Comes with a nice padded Gig Bag. Does not seem to get very hot, and I run it for hours.

I own three Crates and so far no problems with any of them.

Been playing 27 years. Current gear is listed at

For a part time musician, having to come home from my day job, and run out of the house to rehearsals, this is the ultimate value. Just sling the gig bag over my shoulder, get in the car and go. Also love watching people's reactions when they see this little thing on top of a speaker cabinet and watch their expressions change as soon as the first chord is played though it!

Only thing missing is reverb although if you play into this by itself there is enough presence to make up for the lack of reverb.

You know the specs

I enjoyed the Strat into this pluged into 1 X 12" cab. Sounded great. BUT I bought it to plug the acoustic into. I plug up a pair of Carvin 810 two way speakers and plugged in the Martin and the sound sucked. Hi freq crakle and buzz. I thought the speakers where blown. Plugged Martin into Samson amp into same speakers no problems just louder acoustic.
Has any one tried Bass into horn loaded cab?

Won't work for me.

See reliability

See reliability

I had the amp for about 3 weeks. I had put maybe 20 hours on it:10 as a guitar amp, 10 as a studio monitor amp (mixer to RCA inputs, sounds the same as my Alesis RA100. To be fair, I am using 2-way 8" Jensens from 1982 for the studio monitors. Great speakers, but not near field monitors.) I was trying a different application of this "swiss army knife". I was using a Vox Tonelab into the effects loop. After playing for about 10 minutes with the Tonelab/Powerblock set up, white smoke started to flow from every orifice. Not mine, the amps. It was the smell I noticed first. You know the one. The death of an electronic gizmo smell. I quickly turned it off and unplugged the power cable. Smoke continued to come out (at a decreasing rate) for about 3 minutes. I returned it the Guitar Center for a new one. (See customer service) I have used the new one as a guitar amp, and the reference monitor, and I have used it on one 10 song jazz set. No troubles. I am a bit nervous about plugging in the modeler. If the new one fails, I will be disappointed as the amp in a terrific idea and functions well when not billowing white smoke. Maybe it's a hidden smoke machine feature...

This is about the gear behemoth, Guitar Center. They are not bad overall in my experience, but it took me about 3 weeks to get the new amp. Are you trying to tell me that GC can't call St. Louis Music and get an amp drop shipped that same day? They made me come back and pick up the replacement. They refused to ship it directly to me pro bono. In other words, "we will need to charge you extra to make you a satisfied customer. So you bought an amp from us that failed, you will have driven here 3 times to purchase what you wanted, and we will do nothing extra for you as it might add $5 to our product cost. We would rather have you vent on Harmony Central about us. We are just department managers, we lack vision. We are lemmings packed into shiny metal boxes (name that tune). Would you like to buy some strings?"
I know what you are saying: "dude, they're huge, what do you expect?" OK, maybe you don't say, "dude", but that's the idea right? I know I sound whiney. I know its pie in the sky. Sorry for that, but they will give us what we will accept. I'm weary of it.

If the new one continues to work in all its miriad ways, I will love it.
If it cooks like the last one, I will lament the near amazing product that SLM didn't quite get right. And have to make yet another trip to GC about this product.

Cool ins and outs. Basic front panel minus reverb. Purchased through Musician's Friend. Comes with the padded bag, which is good quality. Cuts down on shipping materials, too which is great. The class D power is also a very efficient choice. If you're a global warming activist, buy this amp.

Best all Solid State guitar amp I've heard yet, but still not quite there. Played (150 watts bridged mode) through an Avatar G212H cab with Eminence M12's, An EV 1X12 Cab (handmade), and an Eminence 1X15 cab (handmade). Used a '62 strat with seymour duncan vintage replacements. For pedals had a well connected board with Dunlop wah, Boss CS-2, Marshall Bluesbreaker #1, Ibanez TS-9, Danelectro tremolo, Danelectro delay, and Ibanez RC-99. The amp was much noisier with pedals than I'd expected. Lots of hiss and garbage when pedals were on. Not so much you couldn't live with it, but compared to my 50 watt Music Man head (from the RD50 112 combo) it was noisy. Pedals might be better off through the effects loop. The amp had more noise when simply turned on, with or without pedals than my MM50, also. The tones are excellent from this amp. Flat out clean is great, mid level gain is creamy, and flat out gain is cool, too. Like a Marshall Plexi. I bought it to be clean as hell with a little grit to it. It achieved that but the lows were very undefined. Powdery, in fact. I could not get it to match the definition in the lows and quiet running sounds I get from the MM50 head through the two bigger cabs. The highs sound a bit sizzly. It has a SHITE-LOAD of power, though. It's a very good amp, but I had high hopes for it to become a modern, efficient, and low maintenance replacement for my Music Man. For the money it's one hell of a good guitar amp head, but it didn't satisfy my needs. If a later revision is voiced a little better, with tighter lows and smoother highs, I'd buy it again. It's ALLLLMOST there! :-)

If my Music Man is a 9 through a quality cab like the Avatar, this is a 7 through the same cab. Fender Deluxe would be my 8. 10, where are you???!!!

I'd use this head over many.

I had to return it the first time because the input jack broke inside of 20 minutes. I think it was a fluke. Go easy though, it sits at an angle. I think it's solid.

Lots of emails to Crate techs. Very supportive. I think they are the real deal. This amp just didn't meet my needs/expectations.

It's really, really good. Better than digital. But not quite solving the solid state problem (as I see it). Very natural sound, but not the same. Not close enough for the road. Close enough for $199 and a small club though.

Submitting this to ask a question of the other owners of this amp.

My Powerblock head has developed a 60 hrtz hum that's not tied to the volume controls - that is, if the amp is on, the hum is present at the same level no matter where the controls are set. It's quite low, not intrusive yet, and doesn't come out through headphones.
****
I am disturbed because I've had this amp since June, and I've never noticed this hum before.
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I tried different outlets and surge protectors, and I compared this to two other transistor amps plugged into the same outlets, a twenty-five year old Roland Cube and a 15-ish year old Dean Markley practice amp - Both were dead silent when idling.
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I should mention that this amp has never been gigged, if fact it has never left my living room.
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Has anyone else experienced this background hum?

OK, we'll see. At this point I'm rather dubious. I really love this amp. It sounds great, and takes up very little space. I had never bought a Crate product, this was my first after 25 years of playing guitar and bass.
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I was NOT happy about buying a 'Made In China' product. I debated this for about a month, but after trying the amp and loving it, I decided to give it a shot, despite my reservations about chinese quality, their trade practices, and the fact that their labor force is basically captive. If, as I suspect, the power supply is faulty or going bad, this will be my last Chinese manufactured product for guitar (and likely my last Crate).
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Can't seem to escape the ubiquitous chinese manufactured "disposable" DVD players, which seem to fry after about a year, no matter what brand they are. The other low quality home audio/video products from China DO NOT foreshadow great future reliability for this guitar amp.:

Crate's website has been down for nearly a month...although I suppose I could call them. [I dread the feeling I'd get that all purpose
run-around answer, "they all do that," or the other one - "for the price you'll just have to live with it." ] In all fairness, I can't email their site while it's down, and I haven't contacted them by phone or snail mail.
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I sent an email regarding a different new product a few months ago, and I got no reply.

I've been playing more than 25 years. This amp is a great product, IF IT LASTS.

Features have been well described below. I just want to say that I have been playing through this for 2-months now. I really wanted to give it a Hell of a work-out before I commented on it. Anyway the Features are very usefull, lord they only other thing that would be nice would be a two-chaannel foot switch? Probly be on the next Power-Block. Lord you have to leave room for some kind of improvment.

Sounds Awsome. I never though the day would come when a Amp be produced that is THIS CLOSE to tube dynamics. I STARTED with tubes as a kid, have used them since 67. Anything solid-state. digital, anolog was ALWAYS a hard sell to me! I stopped at Guitar Center to pick-up some strings and a friend of mine who works there, said I should jam through this awhile? I just looked at him, he was serious! So I plugged a Strat in and started jamming, no effects, no-reverb! Man did this little Crate Power Block sound good with the Gain around 2o'clock with that Strat. So I picked up a Faded Les-Paul with Burstbuckers. Sounded really nice. Next a LP-DC Faded Special w/P-90's. Man that Crate sounded like it was made for P-90's. It got better and better and better! At that point I new I was buying it. So I bought the head. And [I have a few cabinates] with various speakers and speaker configurations. Now although when I got home the amp still sounded good. It didn't sound as good as with the Cab that is voiced for it from Crate with a special designed Celestion speaker. I fooled with variuos combo's and wound up goiung back to GC and buying the Cab. I got home and presto the great tone was there again. If you LIKE CLEAN TONE'S1 This amp with its matching cab sounds wonderful! In another room you wouldn't tell if it was tube or not! Daisy chaining effects in front of the amp are not as nice as noise free as I would like. The effects loop in the rear requires a few piece's and a visit to Radio-Shack. The effects loop is Stereo! So you have to set-up a 1/4 inch converter that switches from stereo to mono and adds another outlet in the process! A little to much junk added into the signal line creates NOISE! I wound up going back to the daisy-chain and switching to another OD pedal since my Tube-Screamer was to noisey with it. I wound up finding a DOD Juice-Box in a pawn shop that worked just right with it [no-noise] So that a EH Reverb and a 535Crybaby and thats it!

This is part of the reason I waited to do a review on this Amp. I really had the impression it wouldn't last. [My gut feeling] I even took out a extended warrenty for two-years from GC just in case there's a problem down the line. I feel the Switch or the input jacks will break-down with time and use. I could be wrong and this is pure speculation. As I said I could be wrong, but I doubt it!

No idea, never used them.

I love this Amp. If its any indication of where we are headed with non-tube amplifiers, I am delighted. It sounds awsome and has been very dependable to date. The clean is awsome and as lond as your not trying to reach Dual-Rectifier OD then you will like the gain. The gain is equal to what some-one below said, a JCM-900. That was a good comparison. I use to play through a JCM-900 and when I got the Crate home and really started to jam with the Gain pushed-up. That is what it reminded me of a JCM-900. I hate to give products a TEN. I believe there's always room for improvement. But I got to give this a Ten. Its the first NON-TUBE amp that I really enjoy playing through day after day. I practice at home with the Crate and take it on road as a back-up to my Fenders. I love Fender-clean. So when I say this is a nice clean sounding amp, believe me it is! Oh and remember you will need a Reverb unit with it since there is no reverb on this head! But it sounds good dry too! LOVE THIS PIECE!

It's new, obviously. The features have been outlined below/before, so I won't bother. Although it functions as an amp head, I'm using it to power my Adrenalinn into a Boogie ported 1X12" for smaller stages, and it's AWESOME in this capacity. I'd give it a 9 as a power amp and a 5 as a "real" amp, so here's a 7...

Since the Adrenalinn 9is an amp modeler (among other things), it doesn't really matter what guit I use - I've played it with my American Deluxe Fat Strat, Ibanez Jem 7VWH, Ibanez AXQM-something-or-other, Epi SG Custom, it's pretty much the same story: TONS of clean headroom in the 150w bridged mono mode, and sends a great tone to the house via the XLR line out while powering my cab for onstage monitoring. Really effective. As an amp, the distortion tones are edgy, but not over-the-top enough for what I do. Again, for clean power I'd say 9, but it's own "voice" rates about a 5. So it's a 7.

Too soon to tell, but it seems fairly bulletproof.

N/A...there's a warranty, I'm sure the terms have been covered already.

I've been playing for 27 years (please don't tell my label how old I am). This isn't as harmonically rich and complex as my old, OLD Mesa Simul-Class 295, but it also doesn't weigh 60 or so pounds and/or take up 4 rack spaces. My stage tech is very happy with the substitution, and I've gotta say, I picked this up just for the price/versatility/convenience but I'm really beyond thrilled with the sound of it as a power amp with my "regular" rig:

Multi amp rig - one side is a 50w Marshall JCM 900 (clean channel, everything dimed) with a TC Electronics G-Force in the effects loop, the other side is an ART SGX 2000 (on the "tube clean" distortion setting, don't knock it till you've tweaked it - but I will admit that it's the only remotely passable distortion in the unit) with an old Digitech IPS 33B pitch shifter in its effects loop - pretty much only used a a doubler, which it's awesome for if not overused - which is tempting to do) - this side used to go thru the Boogie 295 but now goes thru the Crate.

The Power Block does a reasonable job as an amp head, but you'd most likely want to put a "real" distortion/fuzz (my Z Vex Fuzz Factory is especially nice) in front of it - you'll get a better distortion tone, plus then you'd have sort of "virtual" channel switching, since the head doesn't do it. It does clean so well...

And cheap? Come on...what a value. Even if you picked it up to have a last resort backup amp - it'd more than suffice. An awesome product. I won't give it a 10, just because that seems too ass-kissy. I'm really digging this piece. Highly recommended if you need clean power, esp for an amp modeler since it sports that bitchen XLR out it also doubles as a direct box. I'm gonna give it the big 1-0 here

The specs are better outlined above: gain, master vol., bass/treble/midrange tone controls w/ input jack and headphone out on the front panel. BACK panel has stereo and bridged-mono speaker outs (up to 150 watts at 8 ohms available), TRS line inputs, one of which doubles as an effects loop, stereo RCA inputs, and balanced XLR output. This is a BRILLIANTLY designed product!

I bought this to use as sort of a 'Swiss Army Knife' backup for gigs. It weighs five pounds and takes up almost no room among the survival items I carry to gigs. However, it's a (1) great-sounding backup guitar amp, (2) a BASS amp, with the proper speaker, (3) an active direct box (patch into the line input and out the XLR), (4) a stereo-to-mono-balanced converter for either 1/4" or RCA jacks, (5) a headphone practice amp, and (6) a stand-alone guitar preamp for direct recording. It would be easier to list the reasons why one should NOT have one!

I play classic rock, variety rock, jazz and/or country, depending on the gig and band. I use a Roadhouse Strat, a Squier '51, and a couple of USA-made Peaveys built up with DiMarzio pickups. This amp seems to like single-coil pickups or humbuckers equally. The clean sounds are very useful; the distortion sounds are, as noted elsewhere here not heavy-metal-gainy, but good and sustained, with an open midrange, good for AC/DC or Bad Company-type sounds. The amp is a little hissy at very loud volumes and high gains, but what isn't?

Five year warranty. I truse Crate will take care of me, based on comments from a repairman friend of mine who's worked very successfully with St. Louis Music. I've had this for only a very few days, but have played it for several hours, both for home practice and a band rehearsal. It runs cool, is very loud. I anticipate no problems using this for my intended application(s).

I've never needed them. I've spoken to St. Louis Music about other concerns and have always found them very helpful. Again, a five year warranty. Since most products either fail right away, or never, I think is both safe and fair on their part.

I don't know if I'd use this as my ONLY guitar amp, but it's nice to know that I could! For it's intended multi-tasking, I hope to never be without one. Yes, I'd buy another. A built-in digital reverb would be neat, but would defeat the idea of having a bone-simple plug-and-play device. The effects loop works great, and the sound with a Peavey digital delay pedal in the loop is extremely good.

This amplifier I believe is a 2004 model. It is a basic, one-channel, 150 watt mono (or 75 watt stereo) solid state amplifier that weighs only 4.5 pounds. It has controls for gain, volume, bass, middle, and treble. The controls are easy to use and clearly indicated in large block lettering. This head does not have a lot as far as features go, but that is okay by me! The low rating for this category is not any negative reflection on the amp, just a truthful representation of how many features are inherent in the amplifier design.

I use an Epiphone Les Paul Custom fitted with an EMG-81 bridge pickup. It is important to note that I plug the Powerblock into an Avatar 4x12 cabinet with Eminence V12 speakers. Contrary to what others have said, metal tones are possible with just this amp alone. I can get an extremely good metal sound out of this amp by turning up the gain full. I can also get a very good clean tone by just turning the volume knob on my Les Paul from 10 to about 4. The eq knobs on this amplifier are very effective. You don't have to max out any of them to get good sounds. (On the contrary, I have found that all of the knobs on 5 produces a very good sound) The distortion characteristics I would describe as being Mesa Boogie Rectifierish, except without the annoying "fizziness" that Rectifiers seem to have inherent in their gain structure. There is plenty of low end from this tiny monster of a head. Overall, I like the sounds coming from the powerblock. Classic rock/alternative to metal tones are possible if you know how to set up your gear.

This, my friends, is where the shit hits the fan. I received my Powerblock from Zzounds.com last Friday (9-23-05). I opened it up, turned it on, and everything was fine. I was thoroughly enjoying the tones that I was getting from the head. After I stopped playing, I put the Powerblock in its accompanied gig bag. I had a gig the following day. Fast-forward to the gig: I open up the gig bag, plug the Powerblock in, and the worst thing happened: IT DIDN'T WORK PROPERLY! I turned it on, but then it suddenly turned itself off, then back on again (with the power button engaged, mind you). This pattern repeated continuously. Bear in mind, that I had only had the amplifer for one day, this being the second time I plugged it in. I had not dropped it or left it out in the rain or anything like that. I pride myself as being very careful with my equipment and taking good care of it. Myself and my other guitarist tried about 6 or 7 different outlets in the place to see if it was an electrical outlet problem, but no. I have a Shure wireless, and I tried the Powerblock both plugged in with and without the wireless, but it made no difference. (I tried out my wireless on out other guitarist's rig,and it worked fine) It is also very important to note that I plugged the Powerblock into my Furman Power Conditioner, so power issues shouldn't happen. My other equipment (Boss NS-2 and Boss TU-2 with the PSA 120T AC Adaptor)worked fine with the Furman Power Conditioner. Thankfully, another guitarist from another band let me use his head for the show. I am at wits end as to what caused this to happen. I have since contacted Zzounds, and they are sending me a new Powerblock to replace the defective one. Hopefully, I just got a lemon amp, and that this is not a problem that is inherent in the design of the amp. Has anyone else had this problem with their Powerblocks!??!!! It seriously bums me out, because I like the amp so much. I will submit another review when I get my new Powerblock, and have had it for awhile.

I have never dealt with the company, so I cannot comment on their customer support. I can, however, comment on the customer service of Zzounds. They have been very helpful and friendly regaring my fiasco with my first Powerblock, and I am getting my new Powerblock tomorrow. (9-30-05) They seemed genuinely concerned about my well-being as a customer and apologized for the fact that I got a defective product. I would hope that Crate's customer service would be just as friendly and courteous, but I don't know for sure.

I have been playing guitar for about 10 years. For, guitars, I also own an Epiphone Les Paul Studio Gothic (w/EMG-81) and a Yamaha Telecaster Copy. For amplfiers, I also own a Marshall Mode Four and a Marshall Valvestate VS100 1x12 combo. I also have a Furman PL8 Power Conditioner, Boss TU-2 Tuner and Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor, and a Shure PGX-14 Guitar wireless System. Overall, I really liked the sounds of the Crate Powerblock. In my opinion, the Powerblock is the best product Crate has ever produced. (A lot of their other amps suck big time) I liked the sound, the portability aspect and also the modest price tag. If it were lost or stolen, I would definitely buy it again. I will post another review after I get my new (hopefully defect-free) new Powerblock. Great product, just hope that reliability will not be an issue in the future.

Not really a whole lot of features, but it does have everything you basically need on an amp. It's got an FX loop, a line out (with it's own level control), choice of stereo or mono out, a CD input jack, and a headphone jack. It's one channel, one master gain, one master level, and a three band EQ.

This amp has PLENTY of power. It's LOUD. When I crank it up full while hooked up to my 4x12 cab, you can literally feel the air blasting you from the speakers. Seriously ear splitting levels.

Does anyone really need to be told that it's a solid state amp? I have no idea where they'd fit the tubes otherwise. Although I have to say, this thing honestly sounds like a tube amp.

I've been playing this amp with mainly a schecter C-1 elite that has two humbuckers which can be split to sound like single coils. If I use the neck single coil, roll the gain to slightly above the halfway mark and scoop the EQ it makes for a great Hendrix clean tone. That clean tone that breaks up when you hit the strings hard. Perfect for playing songs like Little Wing and Castles Made Of Sand.

But mainly what I play is metal and hard rock. This amp on it's own doesn't really have enough gain for those styles. If you crank the gain all the way up the best you can get is like an old AC/DC type of sound. But when I hook up my digitech rp300a, well then you can pretty much get any sound you need from it. This thing works great with my digitech, it's like a perfect marriage. I would imagine it would be the same with a POD too. Bottom line is, if you want high gain sounds you'll need an external device to provide it. A stomp box, FX processor, whatever.

Overall, for the price, I'm freakin' amazed at how great it sounds. Waaaaaaay worth the price.

I'm not going to rate this because I've only had the amp for a few days. But it sure does seem strong. It's built well, tight and compact. No tubes to replace. I've had it cranked at full and it never gets hot. Ever. Not even warm. Haven't had any problems yet, but if I do I'll come back and write another review.

Haven't needed it.

You really just can't beat this amp for the price. I bought this at guitar center, and it was literally the last one they had. They said they've been selling them like crazy, and that doesn't surprise me at all. It's great for people just starting out because it's so cheap, and it's also great for seasoned giggers who need a cheap back up amp. And lugging it to gigs is a freakin' breeze! It even comes with a padded gig bag that you can sling over your shoulder.

This Amp is a fairly new product.

It is a solid state single channel amp with straight ahead bass, mid & treble controls with an adjustable input gain and master volume. I only ever use one type of sound so its great for my needs. It has an fx loop, but you need a TRS cable to use it. It also has a headphone jack & xlr output which are both cab simulated.

One of the coolest features is it has a switching power supply so it is lightweight & can be used at any voltage worldwide without an adapter.

I haven't used the amp too much yet. So far I have just been using it for guitar through headphones & it actually sounds pretty good. I intend to try it for direct recording soon - for both guitar & bass. I did quickly try it through a 412 and it sounded very good, more on that below.

I don't see this amp being enough for "clean" tones at high volume. It does get pretty loud when the input gain is all the way up. I'd say the distortion is similar to a JCM 800. Pretty good for rock and roll and VERY tube like. If you pick lightly or back off on the volume the sound clens up nicely. Pick harder and it is a warm smooth distortion. Using it with a '77 strat, the tone of the guitar really comes through nicely.

The amp is rated 150 watts at 8 ohms. I played it through a 412 cab and compared it to my Ampeg VH150. The VH150 blew it away for depth & volume, even though they are both 150 watt amps, but the tone is - dare i say- identical... with the VH150 being able to produce a heavier distorion. The powerblock seems to be less noisey than the VH150, but that may be because the VH is old or simply due to the higher input gain of the VH.

I tried a soldano pedal in front of the powerblock & it was very beefy, but noisey (that pedal is noisey to beging with). I am going to try it with a "clean boost" type pedal and see if I can beef up the input gain without all the noise. Don't get me wrong, the distortion sounds killer, I just like MORE!!! I have not tried this thing out with my band yet, but I am guessing it will be slightly underpowered. But with PA support and monitors it probably would do just fine. I am giving it a 9 because I WANT MORE DISTORTION!!! otherwise it would be a 10.

Its brand new. I think it will last.

No need for service, but the SLM service dept is tops.

I have been playing 20+ years. I own primarily Ampeg & Marshall amps. I dig the sound of tube amps & I think the powerblock's tone pulls it off. It doesn't have the depth or volume of my nice tube amps, or even some of my solid state amps, but its a friggin' 5 lb amp. For the price, features & killer tone I think this thing is a fantastic value. But if you are looking for a super loud amp that will make your ears bleed with screaming volume levels... this isn't it. I really like the tone of this amp and was pleasantly surprised that it was coming from a Crate amp.

2005 Crate Power Block head is a great small light-weight back-up head for those using not so reliable tube amps. There are not a lot of features on the front side (not even reverb) but some nice surprises on the back panel where you'll find an effects send and receive, RCA line in, stereo and mono speaker outs. It has a headphone out on the front panel so it makes a good 2AM practice amp. It can be overdriven but I'm not a distortion expert so I won't pretend to say whether the overdrive is any good. I can say that the clean sound is excellent with plenty of low end punch and clear highs. The amp has 150 mono solid state watts which performs like 85 tube watts. It's good and loud without breaking up.

I use it with Fender guitars. I used the amp patched to 2-10 4-ohm cabinet with a loud country band and I barely missed my Twin Reverb. It is extremely noise-free. I only use occasional distortion from a stomp-box so I can't review the amp's overdrive.

Can you depend on it? I'm purdy confident that I can but I haven't had it long enough to give a confident answer.

Would you use it on a gig without a backup? It is my backup.

This amp is very rugged. It stayed very cool even when I patched it to a 4-ohm cabinet that was below the suggested 8 ohm load for 4 hours of play. It has a 5 year warranty but I don't know the fine print on that.

It's a great back-up head. I love that it is so small and light- weight and sounds so good. I never have to worry about my tube amps failing again at a gig. I only wish it had a mono 4 ohm out but because it worked so well with a 4 ohm cabinet, I won't take off a point for that.

Very basic. Tone knobs, gain, and level. But, on the back, it's got a lot of nice options. XLR line-level output, 1x8 ohm or 2x4 ohm (stereo), level control, effects loop, etc. For what it is, it's great. Wish it had reverb. But at this size it woulda been digital reverb, so no big loss.

Sounds great. Has a very spongy, warm feel to it. It has a certain "dark" quality to the sound that I find a tiny bit boomy or maybe not as "full band" as my other amp. But keep in mind, my other amp is a Tone King Comet 20, class A tube amp. This Crate is absolutely amazing for what it is. And to counteract the "darkness" I can always play with the EQ and even use a pedal if needed. Sounds great. Is rewarding even if not identical to class A tube. Close enough. I love it.

Seems rock solid. I used Crates as a kid about 15 years ago, I like them.

No clue.

It seems HIGHLY functional. Throw good speakers in front of it and I am sure it could be a serious workhorse. Get it EQ'd right and I am sure you would have a hard time telling the difference from a tube amp if you were in the audience. Come on people... this thing is a great bargain that does 95% of what a way more expensive amp does. And the size thing... it's just so cool. I hope it turns into a classic. It is a fun amp to play through and it's hard to see how they possibly made this little thing so fun. But they did.

I'm using the power block throgh the effects loop as a power amp for my Pod XT Live. I play in an oringinal pop/rock band that plays small to meduim size clubs, and the power block is more than able to handle it through my Peavey 2x12 cab.

As I stated above I play pop/rock and use 2 Raven RM 2000, my main guitar has PRS Dragon pickups and the other has a '59 Seymour Duncan in the neck and Dimarzo Super Distortion in the bridge. The power amp functions exactly as it should, no noise and lets the preamp do its job. Also the front end is usable in the event my preamp were to blow up at a show.

So far so good, eventhough it only weighs 4.6 lbs it seems to be built very solid and when not being played should stay protected w/ included paded carrying case.

N/A

I've been playing for 19 years on and off, more on over the past 7. I've owned various Fender, Peavey, Line Six, Vox amps as well as Gibson, Fender, Epiphone, and Raven guitars. If this was lost or stolen I would absolutely purchase it again as it does exactly what I need it to do in a very compact way. I paid a net of $55 for this at Guitar Center in S. Fla with trade ins of a few effects that have become obsolete since buying the Pod XT Live, and I believe the combonation of these two products are a great match.

brand new baby head. has more features on the back panel than any classic head ever did.no reverb,but like the danny gatton quote,turn it up and it doesnt need reverb.

im playing my vox phantom and a strat with single coils i think the head is the best thing since sliced bread and a bag of chips.i have bought a second one after my buddy had to trade me for no 1.if you need ac/dc or skynrd type sounds or any thing less gritty ,then this will do it and for cheap.what ever cab you have it will sound good thru it.ive personally played gigs with 2x12 vintage 30s.2x12 75s and a little cab with 15 emminence bass spkr. all sounded good.also my friend played bass with a ampeg one 15 bass cab with me on a gig with no problem keeping up.

dont know but for the money if i get a year even out of it ill be happy.

never used crate before.

been playing bar gigs since march 1981. and have used everything.

Minimal features, well covered below. Wish it had reverb, but where the heck would they put it? I'm using an el-cheapo Zoom RFX-300 for reverb, or compression, or enhanced cab simulation. The effects loop layout on the Powerblock is rather convoluted. The manual does not clearly instruct on how to return in stereo, which is silly because it is a stereo amp (when you want it to be). I figured it out. The "speaker simulation" on the headphone out could be a bit better, but it's an amp not a "modeling" device. I haven't used the XLR line out yet, but I intend to - it was a *major* selling point- ALL amps should have one IMHO. This amp is replacing a 15 year old Gallien Krueger 'MLE' which has many more features, but does not sound nearly as good without "help." The Powerblock is a wonderful small, light weight, basic amplifier for those of us who don't need multiple channels or an over-abundance of knobs or blinking lights.

I am an aging punk rocker. I play punk, and I attempt "classic rock," "blues," and "jazz" when the moods strike me.
I have a variety of guitars, all cheap, modded with replacement pickups (mostly Dimarzio Fast Tracks, Pro Tracks and some Carvin humbuckers). This amp seems very quiet - meaning there's no extraneous noise from the gain stages. The controls are all very wide ranging and well voiced. As stated below, the gain tops out at around the range of an '800' series Marshall - if I need more gain or more variety, I've got plenty of money left over for pedals - I think this amp was a bargain. Solid cleans through to a usable, basic, hard rock overdrive/distortion. This amp isn't "boutique tube amp nirvana,"(or any other ridiculous "vintage this/vintage that" bullshit) - Then again it probably cost about as much as a set of replacement tubes for an average single channel 100 watter. I think the Powerblock provides adequate power for most small/medium gigs - but, hey buddy (to the guy a few reviews below) - you've got to use the correct speaker complement - you were expecting a hell-of-a-lot from this amp and a cab with two 8" speakers.

We'll see. Ask me in 15 or 20 or 40 years. I've got a Sears tube amp from '68 that I got with the original tubes a few years ago, it's still going strong - I hope this Crate lasts as long, then all my illegitimate children can fight over this as they're settling my estate. The Powerblock seems well designed and constructed - I wouldn't have bought an amp made-in-China just because it was cheap.

No Idea about Crate's customer support - I bought the amp from Guitar Center, if something goes wrong (within a reasonable period of time) they'll hear about it first...then I'll contact Crate.

I've been playing since '79. I still suck, so it goes. I had twinges of guilt over buying a made-in-china amp, but that is diminishing as I use this amp more and more. I have "many" other amps to choose from and have owned "many' more over the last 26 years, this is my "go to" amp now. I'm not interested in impressing other guitar shitheads by lugging ridiculously large, fragile, expensive, back-breaking equipment around.
I should mention that the gig bag this amp came with is "way cool."
AND- HEY CRATE! WHERE'S THE BASS VERSION? (I play bass too, when necessary).

New incredibly small solid state head. It has 150 watts mono, volume, gain, bass, middle, and treble knowbs, an effects loop, and a headphone jack. It is crazy small, light, very powerful, and appears to be well made. Not very versatile, but it's not supposed to be.

I've played it using a strat and a prs single cut. It is capable of being very loud, and has more clean headroom than a Vibro-King or a Super Reverb. I know, because I've A/B'd them side by side. An earlier review mentioned that it didn't have a loud enough clean sound - I suggest getting an 8 ohm cab with efficient speakers and it will have more than enough clean headroom. I'm using an Avatar 2 x 12 with celestions. It does begin to distort heavily at about half way up on the gain knob.

Its voicing is fenderish for the cleans and low gain sounds and morphs into Mesa Rectifier voicing for the medium gain sounds - huge amounts of bass and rather unrefined. It never really gets into the high-gain category.

It has a clean sound that is first rate - not first rate for a cheap amp - as good as many high-end amps. I compared it to my 68 Twin Reverb with JBL's, my 66 Super Reverb, vintage Marshalls, a Vetta, and others, and it still sounded great in that company.
It has about as much gain available as a JCM-800, and it seems to take the pedals I tried it with quite well. I really like its sound with just a little bit of grit too. It can do an excellent SRV range of sounds.

This is sacrilegious, but I spent 1/2 an hour A/Bing the Powerblock through an Avatar 2x12 with Celestions to a Vibro-King. Not exactly an equal comparison, the speakers are quite different from each other, the Crate is 150 Watts, and it has a master volume. Oh yeah, the VK also costs 10 times as much.

The vibro-King has more treble- a lot more, and a more of a sparkly high end too. At drummer volume (with the VK's treble at 3) the two sound quite similar, believe it or not! The are both punchy, snappy, and have a wonderful singing quality to the notes. The VK has a bit more of a tweed sound to its break-up. It's organic, but a little ratty if you get carried away. The C sounds a little darker and more modern in its gain, and has more gain available. If you turn the treble up too high on the C it can start to sound synthetic too. The C also is capable of higher volumes than the VK. They both clean up using the volume knob equally well.

Before you think I'm an idiot, I'd rather have the VK - It looks cooler, smells like the real deal, and has great reverb too. However, if I were playing live and didn't have a roadie, it would be a tough call. The C is the size of a transistor radio (minus the speaker cab), weighs 4 pounds, seems very durable, and costs as much as a fancy cable.

I've played some very bad Crates before, and a few OK ones too. I also have a collection of amps that I can use as a reference point. I must say, I think Crate came up with something remarkable with the PowerBlock.

I would love to see some "expert" tone connoisseurs do some BLIND testing with the Crate and some high-end amps. I'm a tube snob, and other than this amp and my Vetta, all my amps are high-end tube amps, but I must admit, this little thing has me scratching my head.






Nevertheless it is remarkable for how light, small, powerful and inexpensive it is. I think its a great back-up amp, and has alot of potential for clean, low-gain, and POD applications.

I've only had it for a week - it looks indestructable.

Never dealt with them.

It is a remarkable amp, and a bargain.