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.