Crate V5 Tube Amp Combo

Product Features
5 Watts RMS
Single ended, Class A
1 x 10-inch speaker
1 x EL84 output tube
Tone, and Master Volume controls

The tone control sucks. It's weird and hard to dial in a good sound.

As is, the speaker sucks and it sounds like there is a loose piece of metal rattling around inside, but it is just how the speaker sounds. I plugged in to a 12" Eminence and it sounded better, but it cost $90, as much as the whole amp. Then I changed the tubes to JJs and it made it sound a little better. Rating as is "1", upgraded with $130 extra speaker and tubes, I'll give it a "7" but a VOX AC4TV8 stock for $199 sounded better.

Can't fault it here. Still works fine, and looks bult OK

As is, it is terrible. Give it a "1", but modded for an extra $130 I'll give it a "7"

Made in 2007 in China but designed in USA. It has a tone and volume knob that also acts as a gain knob as you crank it up. It is very simple as far as tube amps go but at least it has a tone knob. Even though it doesn't have a lot of features those were not what I was looking for in tube amp. Good tone and the ability to distort/overdrive at lower volumes were what I was looking for and the Crate won hands down. I compared this to the Fender Champion 600 and the Epiphone Valve Junior, both of which stayed cleaner at higher volumes but didn't distort at the same level as the Crate V5. I could have gotten the Valveking Royal 8 by Peavey but I didn't want to pay for shipping and plus this one was in store and they don't make them anymore, making it even more valuable, thus being the reason I bought this on trade-in.

Like I said before it distorts at lower volumes than its competitor's amps. I can crank halfway on the volume knob and it picks up a slight overdriven sound and turned all the way up it is full distortion. It is good for rock, blues and some metal but for the more heavier stuff you need a pedal. Personally, I use only a Danelectro Milkshake chorus pedal for off board effects but I prefer to play using natural overdrive/distortion.

On my way home on the public bus I bumped it a couple of times and when i got home to plug and play it, it sounded as if nothing happened. The owner of the store I bought this from told me that Crate products were pretty good, depending on which product you get and this one holds true to his word. If they reissued the Palomino V8 or the original V5 with a gain knob I would buy it in a heartbeat. My only beef is that the tube are put in a spot where you can't get to them to change them easily. Other than that, it is a very good product.

I don't know, for I never dealt with Crate before and this product is no longer in production.

This is the second all tube amp I bought and I doubt that I will get rid of it anytime soon. If I want distortion I can just crank it up to max and use my chorus pedal for chorus sounds. I may add Danelectro Octave fuzz pedal later on depending my mood, but for right now I'll just crank it up overdriven sounds. The only complaint is that the tube are located behind the amp interior where you can't get to them without taking the amp apart. That factor alone probably would keep me from this amp a perfect ten but in terms of reliability and sound there probably is no equal except the Valveking Royal 8 and there is no comparison there either because the Peavey has a separate gain knob. Other than that it is a fantastic value.

As simple as it can be. Enough to be a good practice amp. Don't expect anything else for that amount of money;)

Sound quality...First was a raw amp from the factory. No modes. Sound quite harsh and unpleasant. Just hard to say it's a valve amp. Because i am an audio junkie, but not a technician, i've replaced the loudspeaker cable. My choice was that from my current hifi system, Cable Talk 3 and Neutrik mono jack. After that sound was much more acceptable. The high freq was a bit less nasty ,even on 12 o'clock, and wow! There came a bass! Without any capacitors replacing as suggests one guy (thanks anyway for that). The sound started to be creamy. But it wasn't enough. Celestion Greenback 10" changes everything. Ok, i know, it was more expensive that amp itself, but the final effect...Now it sounds like 5 times more expensive and at least twice as big. I wanted to use my favourite Celestion Vintage, but in 10" version Greenback has better bass response, and you probably agree that this factor is really important. So before modes:2, after:8

So far play too short to give any opinion.

I've been playing for nearly 20 years. My main guitars are Fender Ameican deluxe and old Ibanez RT650 with DiMarzio. Play everything i like, what means everything. No country, ok?:) This amp for purpose i bought it is a perfect choice. Cheaper than everything on market (was i lucky to find it brand new for 80E?). It's solid. I don't think it would be broken, not only because i play on low volume levels. I like that have nothing else to replace in it. The valves are ok (Sovtek), not chinese crap, its virtually silent, no hum when operates. Can be good for recordings (will try this way soon). Nice piece of equipment. And i'd not risk take it for gig.:)

Simple amp with one tone control, one volume, that's it. Has a 12AX7. Also has really cheap plastic speaker that sounds awful. It is a single-channel. Suits rock/blues.

I use it with a Gibson Explorer. I had to modify it to make it sound better and that's why I'm writing this review-- to share my experience. I had to change the Sovtek 12AX7 out to a Jan 5751-- this immediately made distortion creamier and made the sound overall smoother, and way less noisy than the amp had been with the 12AX7. Next I took out the PLASTIC-coned Crate speaker-- really cheap quality-- and replaced it with a Warehouse Speaker 10" Veteran (based on the Celestion Vintage- with a paper cone). These two mods made everything WAY better and required no technical ability to do. I'd recommend these changes. Finally, the disortion was not great without pedals. I am using a Tech 21 American woman pedal with a BBE Freq Boost and a Boss Noise Suppressor-- though not too necessary to use that given how much quieter this now is with the 5751 in it. BTW, this is like a cool secret I figured out, the treble booster into an American Woman pedal makes that pedal come alive (think not just Guess Who but ZZ top kind of rich distortion).

It is very well built.

Overall, crappy on its own-- good with the simple mods and pedals I mentioned above. I like it now but would not recommend it. I wrote this review in case anyone who has one already is thinking of modding it and isn't sure what to do.

This is about as basic as an amp can get, one plug in one tone one volume knob, which is perfect. It even has a jack to add another speaker. And it's heavy for its size, at least twice that of a transistor amp. I bought this used off the Guitar Center used gear section for $59, didn't look like it had been used much if at all.
I'm giving it a 10 for the simplicity, although it did take me a while to figure out the tone knob, it's a more from the middle to one way or the other rather than a typical one way only.

It has a nice clean sound for almost the first half of the volume. But it was when I turned it up all the way that I got a sound I had not heard in years and it was amazing. But the speaker leaves a lot to be desired at high volume, if playing more than two strings, which I'm thinking is why it ended up as used gear. Why is it few think to fix anything anymore. This seems to be a common complaint for these and from the reviews I've read and upgrading the speaker solves this problem. I like good old solid rock and blues, and a bit of Bluegrass when the mood strikes, and this amp has that original sound I could barely find with buying more than a dozen effects boxes and a few modeling amps, not that those aren't all good in their own right. Tubes just have a different sound, almost 3 dimensional, just something you have to hear to understand. A 5 watt tube amp is half as loud as a 50 watt, so it's got plenty of volume for a smaller venue, bar, club etc. More than enough for jamming anywhere, which is what I'll use it for. I give it a 8 until I change the speaker and maybe put new tubes in it just to see if it changes anything.

I think it's built like a tank, certainly weighs like one. Too early to tell how the tubes will hold up but no tube is forever. It will probably last long enough to burn through a few sets of tubes and end up with my Grandson some year in the distant future. I would have liked it if you could change tubes without needing to take it apart, they should be right there, I can't even see the ones in this, so I give it an 8.

Since I got it used this section doesn't apply to me

I've been playing on and off since the 60's, 99% just for fun or free beer on occasion. I would probably buy another little tube amp just like this one if it got stolen or lost, and I'll fix it if something wears out. I started on a Hagstrom II, traded up [should have kept it but I got another one off eBay last year] to a Viking 1 in 1968, and I still have it, fastest necks ever, although my Parker P-44 is maybe as good, 5 Hagstroms total 2 vintage 3 new, a couple of Fenders Strats, a great Martin D18 [1974], a Harptone acoustic Bass way better than these newer ones, it's a 60's model, also 4 [ESP Ltd Viper]and 5 string [Rouge] electric basses. I've got a total of some 20 stringed instruments and a whole entire collection of percussion, Brass and Woodwind too. Amps include an old Vox Westminster, a newer Behringer V-Ampire LX 1200H, an amazing box of everything and then some it is. Small amps from Marshall MG10CD, Silvertone 10 watt, Crate GT15R, Peavey 158 Rage, etc. 14 effects boxes from various companies and 2 multi-effects boxes, even a couple of Casio keyboards, various harmonicas, PA system and all that stuff, a whole room full of instruments, great for jam sessions having enough of things for everyone to play, especially the drummer, and if he won't show I've got the Alesis SR16 and a Korg Nanopad. And recently added computer recording using Reaper a most amazing program, best is the price for a license $60 for a home user $200 if your a Pro studio, plus it does everything and then some, really, look it up, it's only limited by the computers ability and you can daisy chain computers. My newest addition is the Alesis Multimix 8 Firewire, as soon as I can get it to work with Vista, works via USB with XP just fine on the old laptop, but that defeats the reason for Firewire which gives me up to 10 separate channels onto 10 individual tracks, USB limit is 2. I also have a Fostex MR-8 for field recording, transfers nicely into reaper..

Like they say - a volume that is really a gain control, and a tone that is a dual tone with one pot.

Cheap but well set up Strat copy s-s-h. After 35 years of playing you don't really need any particular guitar.

Playing blues/blues rock to rock/and roll.

I bought this because I was going to build an EL84 SE amp. Decent looking cab with a hole for a 10" speaker, some extra components for my project. can't go wrong. Thought I might just put a new eyelet board in with a skylark kind of circuit. plenty of room for it.

The easiest mod around is the most recommended- replace the tubes and speaker. I bought jj's for both and a jensen c10R. After an hour or so of playing- like they say its a new creature. The C10R is much maligned. some snobbery and lemming syndrome there possibly. Fender only used them for like 350 years.
For 30 or 40 more bucks certain Eminence speakers would offer better bass. More crisp perhaps. With the C10R Its very blackface sounding.
I would try a Red Fang for absolute volume and great sound perhaps.
with such a 100+ db speaker you can definitely get thrown out of small clubs with 5 watts. Been there-done that.
Do you REALLY want the sound of a 5 watt amp through a 50-75 watt speaker?. Well the output transformer is simply massive for 5 watts.

I think I made a good choice with the 95db speaker.

Anyways - clean at high volume ain't gonna happen. best high distortion to me is about 8. after that it makes the second overdrive jump. where you can hang a note forever, but an open E chord. 6-7 is real sweet for like Cream-Ten Years After - Santana kinda stuff. 4-6 for cleaner BB King kind a thing. But if someone is sleeping in the next room, 2 might be loud.
muds up a bit.

I'm guessing it will go forever.
biggest problem might be vibration lifting a printed circuit.
I don't know what the PT would handle, but that output tranformer should be good for 20 watts or so with that much iron.....

Haven't dealt with them. I wouldn't bother.

I've got $160 into it with the speaker and new tubes. It's more than good enough for practice now. More than I expected definitely.
in that light, I say 9 overall.

If I had bought expecting a pleasant practice session out of the box,
I woulda been very unhappy.
I REALLY hope Crate reads all these reviews and gets it right.
If they would have started with a better speaker - they would have sold a lot more. HEY CRATE - the chinese can build turret boards ya know. Think champ-skylark. The simplest circuits sound the best!!

This is a 5 stage design consisting of a dual Op Amp, a dual Triode, and a Pentode. The volume control is in the local feedback loop of stage 2. The passive tone circuit is between the Triodes (12AX7). The Pentode (EL84) is transformer coupled to a 10" speaker. The speaker connection uses a 1/4" phono jack and plug.

The passive Power Supply uses full wave solid state rectifiers and a choke for the plate supply. The capacitor values are larger than typical of early designs.

The cabinet is compact but heavy. Access to the tubes requires disassembly.

This is a single tube Class A design (not to be confused with Vox complementary Class A design). So expect similarity to early versions of the Fender Champ or Princeton.

As delivered; the bass is rolled off below 268 Hz (C4). The tone circuit is flat full CCW. It acts as a treble boost up to 12 O'clock; then it begins to scoop the mids.

I changed C24 from .022 to .1 microFarad to restore the bass. I replaced the speaker with an Eminence Legend because I could. In this condition; it has good clean tone and very low noise.

I see no use in changing the Op Amp stages as have some reviewers. They have the linearity and headroom to be invisible tonewise.

The component and build quality is good. However, servicing the tubes at a gig is not recommended. Given the cost and size; bring two.

I got the schematic with no hassle. However it's not quite complete. (The Op Amp has no power connection and the 12AX7 heater connection is unspecified).

Warranty and repair are irrelevant. It is to cheap to bother fixing and I voided the Warranty by customizing it

It was an interesting project; but I will go back to using my Polytone.

It is an incredible value if you compare the discount price to what you would pay for comparable magnetics to build your own.

By itself, it is rather limited; but may well make sense as a component in your pedal chain. (Precede it with a compressor/limiter and DI it into your board).

It's value to you depends on if you can make artistic use of single tube Class A distortion.

I just got this amp today and it shows much promise. Single channel, class A, single volume, single tone... Single 12AX7 pre-amp tube, single EL84 power amp tube, and a few solid-state devices thrown into the mix. All feeding into a Crate 10" speaker. About as simple an amp to operate as you can get.
One complaint - the tubes are impossible to get at without removing the chassis from the cab! Might be a different story it it were a bigger cab (it is not too much larger than my Kustom Tube 12A) and you could get your hand in there, but ya can't!
I wish that it had an effects loop and maybe a Celestion speaker, but we can't have everything we want, now can we! Overall, not bad for the price.

Ok, I notice alot of the review here are kinda negative. The major complaint is that it is too "bright," "harsh," etc., I too, thought the same thing after playing it a couple of times. I really wanted a "fully" tube amp and had major budget constraints (missing that extra $700 to throw around! LOL) For those who have it and are thinking about selling it, or those of you that want an all tube amp, I suggest that you play with the tone control a little, it is not a standard "trebble-cut" tone control.

I will do the best that I can to describe how it sounds to me:

In the fully counter-clockwise position it gives a reduced trebble with a medium mid response with a slightly reduced bass response.

At the 12-o'clock position it has a very, very pronounced (excessive?) trebble boost with a mid and upper mid boost (think Marshall), and about the same bass response as fully counter-clockwise.

Fully clockwise, it provides a trebble cut, with enhanced bass response, simular to the counter-clockwise setting, but much fuller bass response.

I hope that I have given some idea of how the tone control seems to work. For those of you that have not bought or tried this amp because of the reviews here, give it another try (and get the tone control off the middle -straight up 12-o'clock- position!). By the way, this amp does not suffer the same "bass muddieness" that most of the Crate practice amps that I have tried. The sound it tight and articulate. Also worthy of note, I have not turned this amp up to max on the volume, nor have I put any of my pedals in front of it (yet).

Seems built very solid and heavy (for its size), have not owned it long enough. It is just a practice amp for crying out loud! Gig with it? I don't think so, not loud enough, but it does have an external (8 ohm) speaker output, so if you have a cab you can plug into, that might just work for a gig.
Also, I am NOT looking forward to replacing the tubes!

We all know (and love?) Crate... See them everywhere! Never had to deal with their customer support.

As I mentioned earlier, I have a Kustom Tube 12A, I also have a Fender Champion 600, a Crate GE604S mini-speaker cab (cool little cab with 4 6" speakers at 4 ohms, I use it with the Champ), a Dean EVO Special Select, Epi Les Paul Jr, and A Squier Affinity Strat (upgraded with Alnico pickups). I also own a few stomp-boxes (7 different distortions/fuzzes/overdrives), Flanger, Phaser, Echo, etc. I don't buy expensive stuff 'cause I can't afford it and my playing isn't good enough to justify it (not fit for human consumption). So far, I like the amp... we shall see what the future brings. I thought about an Epi Valve Jr, but the price on this thing could not be beat - $80 at GC, plus they sent me a $15 customer appreciation gift card so it was $71 "out the door"! How can you beat that? I hope that you read this and give the amp another shot, I think that it deserves at least that much.

1 input, 1 volume and 1 tone control, 10" speaker, tube pre amp(12ax7) and tube power amp(el84) 5 watts thru a very solidly built cabinet

I bought this for $50 as a practice and recording amp for CLEAN and I must emphasize CLEAN sound....at low volume with a boss delay or reverb pedal in front of it I love the clean sound with my(heavily copper shielded) fender strat with single coils....all pickup settings sound great...just what I wanted ..10" speaker sounds good...I play it before the point of any breakup or distortion and love it.....I would have had to go to a princeton to get this nice of a sound

on the other hand...the driven/cranked up sound is horrible....to get dirt I put my tubescreamer before the delay/reverb and still run it at low volume(9:30) and can get nice recorded sound.....sorry but to my ear they really blew if this amps purpose was to make it something you could play all cranked up and sound good

to me the clean is good enough(especially for $50) that I gave it a 10

seems very dependable and solidly built

not used

for me, for the price, for the 10" speaker, for the tubes and tube sound, for it's solid construction...hell maybe they designed it only to play clean at low volume(although I doubt it)I love it with my strat for clean sound...a 10

Features: The stock features that stand out are: an op-amp gain control, an odd tone control and a very low quality speaker. However still in the mix is a 12AX7 EL84 SE 5 watt amp.

The stock sound is thin, at best. The cleans are OK, but the op-amp gain control (labeled as volume) gives a really horrible distortion if turned up very much at all. The tone control is "normal" at "5" below "5" it works like a standard tone control cutting the treble (and higher mids) above "5" it works as sort of a mid boost treble cut. Stock sound quality = 2

OK, I've modded two of these, and a friend bought a Rocketfire modded one. With the op-amp circuitry bypassed, the tone stack replaced with a standard simple one-knob tone control and a bit of tweeking this is a decent low wattage tube amp. The Rocketfire modded amp with Weber Sig C10 speaker and Marshall-like gain is a full-on rock-n-roll machine (a bit too much gain for me). The amps I've modded have less gain than the Rocketfire mod, so they have some clean headroom and have a fuller sound. Modded sound quality = 7

Overall I'll give it a 4 for sound quality because it has the capability of being a decent amp.

OK, who's had one long enough to say????

Crate consumer support was pretty good, I don't know how things are now. (may 2009)

Overall a Crate V5 can be transformed into a decent low wattage tube amp with a few mods, I've routed around the op-amp circuitry and putting in a more standard tone/volume control and replaced the stock speaker.

Just for reference, I have two Epiphone Valve Junior heads that have been modified (both have Hammond 125ESE output transformers) using the same "circuit" my Valve Junior has more power and better tone than the Crate v5. But if you didn't have the two amps side by side you wouldn't realize the difference, and also I have quite a bit more money into the Valve Junior.