Crate VC508

Single channel, 8 inch speaker tube amp. Gain, volume and tone controls. Simple and nice just the way I like it.

A good sound if you want distortion at relatively low levels. Turn it up and it gets really harsh. The total lack of clean headroom is a problem, espescially since the little clean sound yoy can get is very good. I got bored of it after a while and sold it to someone who wants all that screaming.

No problems.

A good thought but finally a little dissapointing. Not much of agood sound in there after all.

We probably don't need a 45th review, do we? So, here I go anyway.
I wanted a tube amp, not a "tube amp". I put a jumper past the stupid distortion box in the front end, and a jumper past the tone circuit. Now it is just a solid state rectified one knob tube amp. The Celestion is cool, and the particle board bites.

I use it with a Dano DC-3. It just lives turned all the way up. Good old tube distortion.

Hasn't broken down. Who knows the future?

I may have blown the warranty.

I need a small amp, and if not this one, then another 6BQ5 single ened amp... I would surely trade it in a minute for a Kalamazoo or a Skylark!

Not much to say here. Has volume, tone, and gain controls. The other reviews pretty much sum it up. Its about as simple as you can get. I'm giving it a 6 based on the fact that it just doesn't have many features. That is in no way a negative on its part though. Sometimes simple is better. It has everything I want it to have. No, its not all tube, but for less then $200 it gets darn close.

I'm playing a Carvin DC127 (dual humbuckers) straight into the amp. It sounds great for what it is. No, it doesn't sound anywhere near as good as the Mesa Heartbreaker I once had, but then it didn't cost $2000 either. The tone control is great, giving a wide range of really good sounds, and the distortion is excellent for rock and blues. When talking about how this amp sounds, you have to remember its a sub $200 tube amp, and compared to other amps in this price range, it really can't be beat IMO.

Havn't had it long enough to tell.

Never dealt with them.

I have been playing for 6 years or so, but stopped for a while in between. A few years ago when I was playing a lot, I had a Mesa Heartbreaker and then a Dual Recto with a 2x12 Mesa cab. Well, college came and it had to go and I got out of playing for a while. I just recently got the bug to play again and I still had my guitar, but I was without an amp. Since I'm living in a small apartment I wanted something small, cheap, and that sounded good. After talking to someone at a local guitar store, this is what he recomended. I love it. For $189 I got a tube amp that is small and sounds good at lower volume. I tried other amps in that price range (solid states) and none compared to this one. For the money you pay, you can't beat this deal. No, it isn't the best sounding amp and it doesn't give you a lot of features. But it does give you great tone in a small package for very little money.

Effects loop is really nice and the amp is really small, 18 lbs, tote along size is cool. Tone control sounds good in maybe one quarter of the positions mostly in the 10 to 2 o'clock region. The active gain control is part of the overall loudness factor so this along with the volume controls the sound levels. There are no channels on this amp, (mono amp) so bring your stomp boxes. I would also like to add that not having a headphone jack really hurts this amp. Yes 5 watts is too loud for my wife, my infant's hearing and since all I really do is just toy around in the bedroom with this amp also too loud there if you want your power tube distortion take it out to the garage. But the volume knob helps bring down the levels for pre-amp distortion at any level. Once the old lady goes shopping with the baby I can easily get power tube distortion! I am also playing with a VARIAC to get things going at lower volume levels as well as soaking the speaker with power resistors and 16 ohm 12" speakers.
As noted by others this tube amp has a dual op-amp in the pre-amp section. The dual op-amp is a modern TL-072 or similar. I replaced it with a JRC4558D and socket. I also replaced both the 12AX7 and EL84 Solvtec tubes for better-made ones, Telefunken and RCA. Also note this amp has solid-state rectifier NOT tube.
I left the 8" Celection alone. The cabinet at first rattled so I added sticky felt padding to the seams and rubber washers for the screws everywhere else to quiet things down.

I use a Ibanez RG series double humbucker configuration and play blues, hard rock to 80's metal stuff. The clean headroom is hardly there. This means the amp is not very loud when played clean, I try setting the gain around 2-3'ish o'clock and the volume dimed and this is about all the amp can due clean. Anymore gain and we start getting too dirty and overdriving. The volume levels at these settings are maybe good for singing along with the amp but not much louder. Maybe a volume pedal or something in the effects loop might help get more drive out of EL84s? I tried an alnico 12" Jenson extension cab. and noticed better low end frequency response versus the 8" plus the sound appears to penetrate the room better. Not sure of the efficiency of the Jenson's or Celestions but most likely very close. The speaker swap help the clean head only if the new one swapped in is more efficient and I'm don't have anything better then the 8" celestion Crate supplied. So try your JBLs or Electro Voices.
To get the 80's metal sound I use stomp boxes. The amp itself seems better suited to classic rock/blues sounds just plugged directly in. The tube feel is pretty touch sensitive. However the solid-state rectifier circuit takes away some vintage compressed feeling which I think sounds better for blues style music using my Alnico Jensen. On the other hand the solid-state rectifier does seem to assist in high gain modern tube performance for 80's metal stuff.
For the money the amp costs I can't complain and the 1/2 tube sounds and feeling don't hurt. But please keep in mind the dual op-amp supplied is relatively transparent but still replaces a tube gain stack! With JRC4558D in its place I notice the amp sound more Tube Screamer "like" in tone but everything else appears the same. The better tubes make the break up of the distortion more smooth and the transitions from soft playing to hard playing sound better too. The 12" speaker might make this amp less of a toy but the no headroom issue hurts.

I do not gig with this amp. I may take it outside one day and attempt it. I have owned the amp for almost 2 years and did all kinds of terrible mods. and changes to it. Swapped tubes some bad, bypassed op-amps, swapped op-amps, hooked up 16-ohm speakers with then another 4 ohms for 20 ohms load. Accidentally turned on the amp without the speaker connected once, the speaker wire fell off because I was temporarily hooking up a test speaker, oops. I have powered it with old 2 prong VARIACS not used the ground plug and dropped the voltage down to 0 and all the way up to 140 volts and everywhere in between! It has had numerous old stomp boxes plugged into the front end, effect loops, sometimes more then one distortion pedal at a time to load the thing up. This thing is a battle ship electronically!

5 year transferable warranty. I have modified my amp so who knows but I take that responsibility. I have called Tech. Support for schem. assistance and they were excellent and helped answer all my questions. Yes the phone was answered by a real techie who worked in the amp draft room cool!

I wish the amp had a headphone jack. Fat switchable or boost switchable effect would be nice. All tube pre-amp section would rule and then of course so would a 12" speaker. Reverb? The amp is very fun tinkering with...I think because of its simple plug in and play aspects.

Gain, tone, volume, and a single effects loop/line-out jack (you have to use a stereo y-splitter to use it as an effects loop). The tone control is unusual - turning it down boosts mids and decreases treble and bass, turning it up "scoops" the sound. Probably more useful than a normal-style single tone control, though. All the features you need or expect in an amp of this class, though a headphone jack would've been nice.

I play through this with an epiphone Les Paul and a Squire strat with a bridge humbucker. I play mostly blues and hard classic rock. Sounds great for the price. It's not an all-tube amp; the first gain stage is solid state, as noted by another reviewer. Very little clean headroom, but it's only a 5 watt amp in the first place. Will go from a decent-sounding crunch to a pretty high-gain scream at usable volumes. Definitely a real step up in sound from most small, solid-state practice amps. The tube warmth is there, regardless of the price and solid state first gain stage. Definitely a buzzy little guy when cranked, but it's liveable.

This isn't a gigging amp (I suppose you could mic it, but it's still only an 8" speaker). It seems well made enough (considering the price point). Cabinet is painted particle board, knobs are plastic. It wouldn't survive a lot of abuse, but I expect that most users will set it down in a bedroom or something and not move it around a whole lot.

Warranty is great: 5 years transferrable. I've heard good things about Crate/St. Louis Music Supply's warranty service, but haven't had to use them myself. Rating reflects the generous warranty.

I've been playing off and on for a few years. I've heard many real amps owned by friends (Matchless, Victoria, Fender vintage and modern). This amp doesn't compare to any of those, but it'd be crazy if it did. It certainly sounds better than the solid state practice amps I have owned (crate, peavey, and fender). If I were more concerned with a clean sound, I wouldn't be so happy, as the clean headroom is pretty much not there.

Anybody thinking about getting one of these might want to check digibid.com. They seem to sell one every few days over there, and the going price is around $70 (+$20 shipping). Some even go as low as $55, which is really a steal for an amp this good ($75 shipped won't even get you a solid state practice amp). My rating in this category reflects value for money. These things sell for $150 at musician's friend; I think it would still be a pretty decent buy at that price.

Overall, a very good way to get into some tube sound for someone who is not a professional musician.

Two tube screamer. 1 X 8" speaker. Metal speaker grill. Black painted particle board box. Light as a lunchbox!
Killer little practice amp to replace your Champ for about half the money.
A bedroom blazer!
Excellent rock sounds. Easy midrangey AC/DC type sounds at levels that won't get you evicted.
FUN toy.
No channel switching. Just turn up the guitar, like the old days.
I give it a 4 for being just what it is. Versatile no. Limited yes, but it's not supposed to compete with expensive amps that have all the bells and whistles.
Bit more bass response and it would be too neat to be true.

Can be clean at very low volumes (but still lacks bass), but that's not the point.
Turn up the gain, as well as the volume, set the tone knob either way to find a sweet spot or straight up for an opened up treble sound, and blast away!
I use a telecaster type guitar (Washburn USA model). Makes it sound nasty and rock city!
Nice and touch sensitive turned down a bit at the guitar or with less gain than volume.
Really buzzy with gain set higher than volume.
It can do searing, singing, lightweight grinding, and harsh chainsaw sounds.
NOT a jazz amp (unless Mike Stern is your guy).

It takes a beating and keeps on tweeting, BUT I AM concerned about heat getting to the circuit board mounted tube sockets.
I plan to ventilate it better.
As is there's no place for the heat to go. It just collects in the box. Needs a fan, some holes, something!
It's never given me any trouble (yet), but I think it should have more air flowing past the tubes.

St Louis Music (the manufacturer) has always been good to me about it's other line (Ampeg), when needing warranty work or exchange. This one has been kicked around and abused at the store I got it from for at least a year.
I've had it about a month. It's been rung out and has not died in infancy.

5 year (less on tubes and speaker)
Like I said above, St Louis Music has always been responsive to me: quickly repairing one, and then exchanging an Ampeg amp I had for one that never EVER had a problem.
Keep the receipt.

42+ years experience.
My main amp is a Tech 21 Trademark 60.
Usually use a Tele for all styles.

I also had the little Tech 21 (Trademark 10), which was cool too, and had reverb and an XLR out, but was twice as expensive.

This has a line out, is simpler (if that's possible), and a much wider touch sensitive range, though the Tech 21 is more versatile, especially for some clean sounds.

I love this thing!
It's got a great fun factor.
You can recreate lots of primitive sounds like on old R&B records, then crank it up and blast distortion like your Champ only wishes it could do.

It's easy to dissassemble, just Phillips screws. You can even take two out, loosen another two, and flip the chassis around to access the tubes quickly (I put in NOS tubes, which VERY slightly improved the sound and volume over the stock Sovteks, which weren't bad sounding to begin with).
You don't HAVE to do it this way, the tubes can be reached if you're in a hurry, but there's a bail over the EL-84 that needs unscrewing first.

I'd replace it with the same model if I lost it.

Every other week I've grabbed it to use just to get my electric up to "acoustic guitar" levels for church service song leading. It's great for that. Besides, real acoustic guitars are boring!

One input, Gain, Tone and Volume Controls. Line out, 8 inch Celestion speaker. Black, painted, particle board cabinet. One 12AX7, one 6BQ5 (EL84), silicon diode recitfication. On/Off switch and purple jewel light. I give it a "2" because of it's lack of features, but I don't really want any more than it has. Actually, I could get by easily without the Master volume. 5 watts output

Fender Nashville Telecaster with Vintage Noiseless pickups, Heritage H535 jazzbox with Humbuckers. My musical style runs mostly to classic rock, but I do tend to cover the entire musical spectrum at one time or another. The amp is not noisy unless the gain is up too high. Not much clean headroom, but I didn't buy it for that. From about "3" on the gain knob and up, just sweet power tube overdrive. The clean sounds are very good at low gain and volume, just not very loud. Once again, that's not what this amp was designed to do. The "preamp" distortion can be reasonbly good sounding with the right tweaking, but I hardly ever use it in this mode. Typical of 6BQ5 powered amps, quite mid-rangey with very toothy treble and a bit shy on the bass end.

I've had this amp for about a year, and have had no problems, but I have made some minor modifications. As one responder did, I mounted the speaker inside the cabinet. This improved the sound immensly, much more bass and a fuller overall sound. This modification necessitated the removal of the power tube retaining strap and it's chunk of foam rubber. The power tube is now approximately 1/2 inch away from the speaker, but I've had no resulting problems from the mod. Next, I lined all opposing surfaces of the cabinet with electrical contact tape, (the kind that is kind of sticky on both sides). I even lined between the metal speaker grill and the front of the cabinet. This tightened everything up immensly. Although I doubt that a single 6BQ5 can create enough heat to cause problems, I removed the handle and drilled four 1/4 inch holes in the top of the cabinet, (underneath the strap so they're not visible)to vent heat. (it was suprising how much heat came out of these)! After replacing the handle, my last mod was to replace the Groove Tubes 12AX7 with an RCA 12AY7 and the Groove Tubes EL84 with a JAN Phiilips 6BQ5. The results of these small mods made this amp into a much smoother, tighter sounding amp than it was at first. No rattles, buzzes or other nasty noises coming out of it.
While this amp would not be my first choice for a gig, I think I could get by with a small desk-type fan behind it and a Shure SM 57 to the board. (And be sure to put it through the monitors)! While I have debated replacing the speaker, I came to the conclusion that it would be more hassel than it's worth. The 8" Celestion does a pretty good job, much better since it's mounted inside the cabinet. Besides, I have a Mesa Blue Angel for bigger tones.

I called the company to check on the biasing of the amp. They were very friendly and helpful. The warranty is five years as long as you have the original receipt.

I've been playing guitar since 1963, (god that hurts) and have played a variety of rigs over the years. If this little bugger were lost or stolen, I would seriously consider another one, although I think I still prefer the sound of a 6V6 amp with a tube rectifier. There are many SF Fender champs available for roughly the same price so I might try one of them. But if I couldn't find what I wanted, I wouldn't be scared to buy another VC 508. I like the amp's styling, I like it's features, and it's weight. I would prefer a 6V6 (or 6AQ5) version with tube rectification over it's current incarnation, but at 139.00 brand spankin' new, you can't beat it's price to performance ratio.
A standby switch would be nice, although if it had a tube recitfier not necessary (due to the slow voltage rise of a tube rectifier). This is my living room amp, always available to plug in and have a low-volume jam, and my "grab-and go" amp, ready at a moment's notice.
The particle board cabinet was acutally a good idea. A black felt-tip marker will take care of any dings you can put into it, and it really does seem quite solid. While other responders have expressed reservations about the long-term viability of this amp, I have none.

Very simple design, which I prefer. Input, gain, tone, volume, speaker or line output, one 12AX7, and one EL84. Cabinet and speaker are cheesy at best. The best feature - you guessed it - is the line out. I view it as a low wattage class A amp, that just happens to come packaged in speaker cabinet. For what I believe is the best use for the amp I would prefer it to have no speaker or gain knob. In that case I would give it a 10.

I use a stock Mexican Tele. I play rock, soul, and blues. I prefer one pure and simple tone for all of them, and I'm very picky. I I bought the amp on a web bid site, and paid around $75 after shipping! I agree with others that the speaker and cab are the amp's tone downfall. The amp has horrible bass response, and the tone sucks at bedroom levels when you have to rely on the gain knob. Tried to close mic it for recording, but was disapointed with the result. The overall amp sound is tubey, but seriously lacks definition. Hums quite a bit, too. However, I hooked it up to another source via the line out, and Mr. Hyde suddenly appeared. I ran it through my other practice amp - cheesy Park solid state, on a relatively clean setting - and then put the vc508 gain on 3-4, tone on 4, and the volume on 8. I was completely blown away by the tone. Simple, beautiful, vintage, ballsy crunch, which is exactly what I like. Excellent definition - the almost tangible kind. Helped remind me why I play a Tele. Not quite an old Champ, but a reasonable, $75 facsimile thereof, and at a bedroom volume! No hum, either. Hooked it up to my Sansamp GT2 and PA and was again surprised. I didn't give it a 10 because I want that same sound to come out of the amp speaker, as well.

Don't know how reliable it is. Innards is all PC-like, but for the price I can't complain. I don't think it will stand up to a Who-like concert finale, but with care, it will last a while.

Have not dealt with yet. Hope I don't have to.

Been playing for 11 years. I bought the amp mainly for practice and recording. After goofing with the line out, however, I think the vc508 is a real guitar preamp contender - like a cheap V-Twin, but with an actual output tube. Perfect for crunching up old non master-volume amps. Or better yet, giving the nice big sounding "normal" channel some usable distortion, so you don't have to deal with the stupid, thin, and constipated sounding drive channel anymore (folks with 70's and 80's master volume Fenders and Marshall two-channels take note). Although I have not tried this yet, the experience I had with my trans amp tells me that it oughta be good. I'm actually considering building a small enclosure for the chassis and tubes that would lay the chassis down, so that the panel faces front, and making the spkr out wires adaptable for 1/4 inch so I can plug in a small cabinet when I need a speaker. Then I would toss the original cab and speaker. Otherwise, it would just be used as a preamp via the line out. Next to my tele, this is best thing I have come across for my music in a long time. For this, combined with the price, I gave it a 10.

Have no problem with features really, line out very nice for a low cost 5 watt one power tube(EL84), one preamp, and solid state rectifier amp. Hard to access tubes. Cool looking, vintage box.

Over about a month I liked the sound less n less, compared to a one 6v6 five watt amp(57 Gibson GA5), that I was temporarily using. No comparison. I play harp, and purchased this amp after reading recommendations by harp heads. The amp was buzzy. I put in a 12A7Y preamp tube to reduce gain, get that compressed overdrive quicker.

I only kept the amp for 4-6 weeks, no opinion.

No opinion.

Been playing about 28 years. Play blues mostly, though am also playing harp(amped, and through PA) in Methodist church band. I have a 62 Tweed Champ, and 63 Ampeg Reverberocket.

The VC 508 is an affordable, decent amp to get low volume tube compression. I probably have to do over would have gone ahead and bought my tweed champ. I believe I have learned on low wattage tube amps is stick with 6v6 power tubes, with tube rectifyers.

This is about as straight forward as it gets. One volume, one tone, one gain(premap), input, stereo out, and an 8" Celestion speaker. A nice, cheap tube amp for practicing, or playing around with friends. Not a lot of frills, but I'm a no frills sort of guy. In fact, I'm just plugging straight in with an Epiphone Casino. What I wanted was a small basic amp that I could carry around instead of my Marshall half-stack. I don't recall the weight, but it isn't much. For what I was looking for, this pretty much fit the bill. Cheap, light, tube based.

Ok, here we have a mixed bag. I've been playing guitar for 16 or 17 years. In that timespan I've played a variety of styles. Everything from speed/thrash/death metal styles, to folk/bluegrass, jazz, classical/flamenco, classic rock, etc. I've used a variety of amps, my first being an old Eico tube stereo amp, a plethora of solid state peaveys, an old Laney AOR, and my Marshall JCM 900. These have been both combo and stack style configurations. Additionally, I've played through about every amp you can think of (boogie, vox, ampeg, George Dennis, Seymour Duncan, Fender, you get the idea). Point here being that I play varied styles, and have a fair amount of experience with amps. Here is the skinny:

Jazz: If you are playing jazz, or are wanting a clean sound, you are somewhat limited. Big band, clean sounds are hard to get. Playing through my Epiphone Casino, neck pickup (stock), tone on 8, volume between 6-8 on the guitar. Amp, keep the gain around 2-3, tone around 6, master volume where you can hear it.

Country: see above. It is hard to get a quality clean sound (say, like a Roland JC120 (the god of clean tone)). However, you can get a nice vintage tone.

Classic Rock, rockabilly, vintage tone: Ok, the vintage club name is a farce. This thing can get classic tones, but with work. Don't use high output pickups! Put the gain around 6 and the tone around 6-7. You can barely get a pseudo early Marshall sound, but I'd say that this thing is a bit too touchy to get much more. You can keep some nice sounds, with a real tube feal with these settings, though. Push the gain up to around 8, and back off the guitar volume and you can have some fun.

Metal: Punk/alternative/raunch you can hit pretty easily. With the small speaker, open backed cabinet, bastardized pre amp section, and cheaper components you really can't get a tight metal sound. Anything over 8 on gain gets a real distorted sound. However, it sounds more like a crappy recording of a Fender Roctec or whatever they call those amps. However, I bought this as a cheap drag around amp. If I spent $100 bucks on an amp that sounded as good as my Marshall, I'd be upset about spending what I spent on the Marshall. Keeping it in perspective, for a $100 amp, this thing rocks. Lots of snarl, good tube tones hiding in there, and it definately sounds bigger than it is. I'm thinking through a closed back extension cabinet with decent speakers, and maybe a small amount of reverb, this thing could pull off some time in a studio. It is relatively quiet if you keep the power stage turned down. This may sound funny, but with the Laney, for example, it was always noisy. Turn the preamp down, power amp up, a bit of noise. This is to be expected in a cheaper amp. Cheaper components, it can get microphonic and pick up interference. Still, my Marshall is worse!

I haven't owned it long enough to know. It couldn't be any worse than a modern Marshall.....

Everyone sells crate. 5 year transferable warranty. Crate may be cheap amps, but they seem like they put together a nice warranty package.

I've been playing guitar for 16 or 17 years. I play several instruments (guitar, banjo, mandolin, flute, etc.). I have a few acoustics and a couple of electrics (Epiphone Sheraton, reworked strat). Amp-wise, I also own a Marshall half stack.
The main reason I bought this was so I could have an easily transportable amp when I get together with friends. I would definately replace the amp if it was stolen. Would I get the same amp? Maybe. If I still wanted to stay in the price range, probably. Also may look at what Vox has, they have a smaller tube amp that seems interesting. Of course, if I wanted to spend more there is no question that it would be one of the new class A Orange combos.