Crate VC508

General info for all that own this. there is a great website Guitar nuts where mods to guitars and amps are the purpose of the site.
http://www.guitarnuts.com/amps/vc508/index.php
The owner of the site gives a great modification to this amp to make it more fully functional.

A definite must see!!

Basic tube preamp and power section. Gain is IC based which means that white noise is added to the carrier to create distortion. No reverb and basic Crate tone control setup.Graet potential but needs tweeking to get that overdriven tube sound.

I like that tube overdriven sound which is the sound wave clipped at the top and bottom. This amp has that potential but not stock. I modified it by bypassing the IC chip by adding a wire to bypass the gain control. WHAT A difference!!! Now I have a all tube amp that overdrives to a milky smooth texture without breaking the windows.

The outside is just painted black with a metal screen attacked so you have to tighten it up off an on and touch up the paint but no big deal.I put felt pads between the speaker and chasis and each screw to chasis and that made the chasis buzz free.Electronics is solid.

These guys were great! It was a used amp not under warrenty and they not only talked to me but sent me schmatics for it.

Basic small tube amp out of box but with some minor tweeking you have a great little tube amp that has that natural overdriven sound that does not make your family mad. If you email me I will tell you how to by pass the IC, Its easy 10 minute job and makes a world of difference.It it only had reverb and a covering it would be perfect!

This is a two channel, 50 watt tube amp. I has a really nice clean, creamy channel "|A", and a pretty dirty channel "B". There is a foot switch and a button on the top to go from one to the other. Channel A has the master volume, a treble, and a bass knob. Channel B has Gain, Treble, Hi, Bass, Level. Both channels have independent reverb.

I play a Strat and an old hollow body through it, and I think the sound one either one is true and quite pleasing. I play mostly good fashioned rock and roll, and it comes through well. It is somewhat noisy, but are'nt all Tubes? It is loud, and I rarely get it over 4, never higher than 5. I have gigged with it and have been happy. It is however, heavy.

There is an issue with the channel switching. The button doesn't always work, but the footswitch always does.

I think it is about 7 years old. I have had it for one year, and have had no cause to seek a repair.

I have been playing for so long I should be much better. I had a Marshall 2x8 combo of some sort, and this Crate is far superior to it. I wish it were lighter, but then it wouldn't kick ass like it does. I has a great blonde finish.

see prev. reviews

I'm a blues player w/single & hum guitars, I've tried everything to make this thing sound good-tube preamps, speakers etc. Tube preamps did'nt do it for me, speaker change gave it a little improvement, lower gain in the preamp stage gave a little improvement but the main weakness of this amp is the ss rectifier and the chassis rattle. If you disconnect the speaker leads and dismount the amp/chassis you can shake the amp and hear the rattles, only solution is to build it as a head and isolate it from the speaker cab.

no problem

I'm 30 yrs in the biz, anal about my tone, was looking for a tube amp for home use/practice to match my stage rig and dial in my pedal board, really wanted to get this thing to work but I'm not going to sink another $200 to do it, something about that ss rectifier blows it, the chassis rattle is annoying. As a previous reviewer stated the rec. circuit is a fuzz box.

first off this amp is much more versatile than yuo would think. you can get that paradise city type of ratty overdrive easily,and go to an eagles barely driven sound also.the volume and gain are self explaining,howevr the tone control that everyone talks about is not my favorite.That is not to say that I dont like it ,I would just prefer a treble cut type of tone control.At 12:00 it is preety much even frequency response,turn the knob to the leftit boosts the mids, to the right it boosts the bass and cuts tthe mids. Turn the tone knob hard left or hard right and you get mud....but that can also be cool at times.

THe vc 508 is not a 10 ! I own two amps that are 10s,a SF priceton and a 50s sherwood master,BUT.....this thing is VERY FUN!!I play rock mostly and like a big warm round tones with perusive bass notes,turn the volume to 10 and the gain to 4 and you are there.I would not recomend any mods though as some have said.I have tried a homebuilt pine cab, a 10 in celetion vintage 30,and dozens of diferent tubes........all of which only wasted my time.I put the aMP back to stock, crappy cab,cheap speaker ,original tubes,etc.....it still sounds good.I own both a tweed and BF champ and i can say this..the BF champ has more warmth,and more sparkle,and quite a bit more bottom end BUT..When i grab my guitar,9 times out of 10 I plug into the 508! GO FIGURE.When you crank the volume on the champ the bottom farts out,not so on the crate.(by the way neither of the champs are a 10 either)the treble on the crate is not offensive at all,I used to own a blues jr and I realy hated the treble on that thing. AS for the tweed,it has more mids and nicer high end roll of than the 508 but once again I play the crate MUCH more than the tweed.I would not say the crates tone is complex at all,,but there is something very comfortable about it. KInd of a woody tone in a cheap sort of way.Prior to buying mine I would visit our local music store and they had a 508 . I would find myself sitting in a pile of ampegs and $800.00 grove tube solos,and playing this litle crate.there was nothing in the store that i liked better. It sounds good for jazz with a les paul believe it or not. I am a genuine tone snob and i find myself scratching my head sometimes as to why i like this amp in the first place....BUT I DO!!!! I have quite a few amps that sound much better than my 508 but for some reason they are colecting dust.

I live in the coldest place in the country, Fairbanks AK.this amp has spent monthes in my shed at temp as low as -40 degrees.It has been torn apart,bastardized,and put bak together again. I have NEVER had a problem. It is bulletproof,and i am not kidding.

I would not know.

I love this thing!!I would record with it although,I havent yet.I have been playing for 14 years ,have one album to my credit and have played on one other.I have lots of very sought after vintage gear,but find myself drawn to this amp constantly.The vc 508 is NOT the last word in tone,but there is definetly something to this amp.I have read reviews where people bash the fact it is not 100% tube amp (evidently having an op amp in the pre amp )and to this I say,who cares!those reviewers need to put down their multi-meter and pick up their guitar for a change.Now for the down side ,in the store they cost around $300.00 new and that is too much as far as im concerned.For $300 you could buy a princeton w/o reverb and have a 10. Take my advice get one on ebay for about 130.00 including shipping,at that price they are WELL WORTH THE MONEY........OH by the way for 5 watts they are real loud!!!

I bought this amp at Guitar Center a couple of years ago, as a display model for cheap. It was missing the jeweled light cover, and replaced it for cheap also. It's as basic as you can get, no frills, straight forward and perfect for my musical tastes. The only thing it needs is an external cabinet plug.

I use an SG with old Dimarzio S.D. PU's. This amp in its originality still sounds better than ANY solid state amp, in or near its price range... But there was something missing. That PURE "A" class brilliance at high tube saturation. I read all these mods and such that are posted, but there's a simple solution. Go out and get an ART tube preamp for around $50, Buy a 1/4" stereo to a double 1/4" mono "Y" cable and run it into the effects loop. Set the preamps input gain all the way up(+40), 20db gain switch OFF, output gain anywhere from +5 to +10. Set the 508's gain no higher than 9 oclock, tone and volume at 12 noon, turn the ART preamp and 508 on. Wait 20-30 for the tubes to warm, plug your guitar in and ROCK! This setup for the most part bypasses the P.O.S. sound the stock Crate preamp stages produce, and give you that beautiful, FAT, tube saturation without replacing the tubes, speakers, cabinet, etc. There's no a transistor buzzzzzzzzzz. The rattling sound related to the microphonics of the 12ax7 tube (not the cabinet!) in the combo's preamp, is all but eliminated, due to isolating the preamp tube outside of the amp's cabinet. The touch sensitivity and articulation of the strings is 1000% better at high gain settings than stock, and when I back the guitar's volume down, it cleans up rather nicely, even with the Super Distortion PU's. I'd give the Crate a "10" for sound quality, but my Old Marshall 50W JMP with "Blackback" Celestions are a "10", and sounds better than the Crate.

No problems so far

NA

I've been playing since 1976, and have owned MANY amps, some good, some not. I've learned after all these years, transistor amps sound "ok", till ya turn em' up, then they go downhill fast. Even the new transistor and trans-tube hybrid amps out that emulate tubes, still don't cut it at any cost. PAY A BIT MORE AND BUY A TUBE AMP! Why buy trans-amps that are advertised to sound "like" a tube amp when you can REALLY sound like a tube amp... with a tube amp. Just wait till the tubes cool off before you move the amp, properly BIAS the valves, and they'll last a long time. For my style of music (60's-80's rock), I prefer Marshall tube amps 1st,(pre 800 series), then all other TUBE amps after that. The Crate VC508 fits the bill as a recording/practice amp, or in a pinch, mic'd at a gig. I might install a vent under the Crates handle to allow some of the heat out of the cabinet, and add a 1/4" switched female plug so I can run the amp thru an external cabinet. Get one of these valve amps and have good, clean fun!!!!

All you need for a small straight forward class A tube amp. Volume, gain, tone, line out.

I play a American Standard Strat and I play around a lot with delays and reverbs. When pushing the power amp section this amp sounds incredible. Nice class A cut and the EL84 in the power amp section gives it a nice glassy tone when pushed hard--great dynamic. Was a little turned off by the gain feature. It's a hybrid solid state/tube preamp--this is why the preamp gain on this amp tends to sound a bit tinny or cold. My favorite setting for this amp would be vol @ 10, gain between 2-3, and tone around 5-7. When running the amp this way I find that it really sings--surprisingly well for an amp its size--and it also responds incredibly well to the attack of the guitar. In fact I've never heard an amp this small sound so good. Since I pretty much only run the amp this way it isn't very versitle--I really don't care much for the gain. Past 5 the amp doesn't seem to be able to handle it very well--kind of farts out. For what I play though it does the trick. I'm usually in search of a way to get that sweet, chimy, glassy overdriven voxy tone without having to pay thousands of dollars--damn this poor college life. To sum up though, I give the sound a 9 because I think if an amp this size can sound as good as this one does, then there is hope for those of us without thousands of dollars to spend on botique gear.

no problems yet--and I've had it for almost 6 years!!

For me, this amp is wonderful. It does just what I want it to do surprisingly well for an amp its size. Nice classic rock overdrive--you know, the kind of overdrive before they had pedals. Just crank it up and let the EL84 soak. The celestion 8" speaker is a good match I think too. The only impovements I would make on this amp would be to give it separate treble, mid, and bass pots, give it a nice spring reverb--not necessary though--and get rid of the hybrid pre-amp. All tube is the way to go; they just sound so much warmer. The only other way this amp could be better is if it were bigger. So for its size I give it a 9. I guess there's always room for improvement.

very basic small "tube" combo
8" speaker, volume ,gain and tone controls

sounds like what it is , a small, overpriced piece of shit.
8" speaker, tube/ss hybrid= no bottom and crappy gain, nothing good
in a word ....pitiful

would be a great foot stool or door stop or boat anchor if nothing else

Crate needs to trash this amp. it sucks bad, really

Tried this thing today just for the hell of it and it sucked so bad I laughed at the sales guy when he said "its really great little box"
Wrongo! Right next to it was a Roland Cube 30 which blew the doors off this piece of crap. If you are considering this amp , don`t go out of your way to hunt down this dog. It sucks. My little Behringer GM110 is far better than this junk.

Read below for the basic features of this guitar. The most important thing to note about this amp is that is has a hybrid solid state/tube preamp section. You can see the schematic of this amp at http://www.stlouismusic.com/downloads/division_logos/Schematics/Crate_Schematics/VC-508/25101H2_.PDF.

This is not necessarily a bad thing as I'll discuss later, but you should note that for any hi-gain stuff, you're hearing mostly solid state distortion in the preamp. The solid state section provides most of the drive to the preamp tubes which are split by the tone stack and effects loop. The first tube preamp stage can be overdriven by the 2 solid state stages but with the tone control after it, it loses much of its ability to drive the second tube preamp stage hard, therefore any hi-gain distortion you'll be hearing is most likely from the solid state side.

The best feature is the FX loop.

As noted below by some observers, the stock 12AX7 is too harsh-sounding. The solid state gain stages seem to be driving the first gain stage too heavily that it "farts out". This is evidenced by the fact that when you take the line out of the amp into a mixer or another amp, it still sounds farty when the volume is at 5 or higher. Remember, the line out sits BETWEEN the 2 12AX7 stages, so you're only hearing one half of the preamp tube. You can subsitute a lower gain preamp tube such as a 12AT7, 12AY7 or 12AU7, but you're really just hearing an IC at this point. If you like the sound of a solid state fuzzbox into a clean tube amp, then you'll be okay.

The good news is that you can drive the power amp section (an EL84) to distort and here is where you can get some of the magic. Even better, plug an all-tube preamp into the effects loop, completely bypassing the VC508's 3 initial stages, and you'll get some really good sounds. This method is also useful for warming up a tube modeling box or multi-FX preamp like a POD or Digitech RP1. I noticed greatly enhanced sweetness with a sansamp Tri-A.C. this way.

The little 8" speaker ain't bad. It's better than some 10" Jensens I've used, but this amp would've been better with a 10" Celestion or Eminence speaker.

These things have been aroudn a while and no one seems to complain about them, so ...

Also, Crate has a good reputation as a decent amp maker.

n/a

If you're thinking about getting one of these, then don't spend too much on one. About $100 is fair. It doesn't have all the mojo of a real all-tube amp. If you want THAT, look for a used vintage tube amp like a Champ or Silvertone. You can always put a pedal in front of those for more hi-gain sounds.

Simple set up. Although the amp isn't all tube like the ads say it is. There is a TL072 Op amp in the 1st stage that gives it that solid state tone.

The amp has a built in solid state boost to overdrive the 12AX7. I'd have to scope it to see if the OP amp is distorting before it gets to the tube. The power amp section is decent. You can mod the OP amp to get a less tinny sound. The only decent sound I can get is volume on 10, gain on 7 or 8, tone on 6 or 7.

It seems reliable. Although I've experimented with it alot, no meltdowns yet.

Don't need 'em.

All tube? No. Hybrid? Yes. Hook a fuzz box to a Champ. You'll get better tone. Been playing for 20 years. Fender Strat, Tele, Carvin parts guitar with EMG-81 Pro system, Samick 450SA.