Crate VC508

the line out thing is a good thing. plugged into my 002 digi rack also sounds wonderful. Who needs a microfone to record your guitars?

growls. It has a solid looking speaker so the growling does not appear to be the speaker falling apart

we'll see. because of how this crap reacts to moisture, particle board anything gets poor marks, IMHO. And it crumbles. So the crappy cab is a flag. but it is chunky feeling . we'll just have to see.

If I ever find somethiong lioke this with spring reverb also it gets the 10. but this gets a solid 9. I got it at used music store for 100$. I didnn't even go n google it first. It just looked staright away to be worth it.

Very basic little 5W tube amp with single input channel into TL072 op amp, 12AX7 tube preamp, EL84 tube power amp , solid state recitifer, , effects loop (line-out), volume, tone, gain, with 8" Celestion speaker.
But this is a hidden little gem!! These 5 watts are actually quite loud and with mods probably pushing towards 8 watts.
Little extra features (which are un-needed anyway at this price imho, but give a 6 rating to be fair...

Am using an Epiphone Alleykat semi-hollow with '57 humbucker on bridge and NY humbucker on neck, mostly classic blues, light rock classics etc. I bought this amp used and modified it similar to the mods at guitarnuts.com, although I've made a couple of additional changes which work well for me. I now have excellent clean headroom blooming into that creamy distortion tone that most blues and classic rock artists crave. With the added 'Master' volume mod added between the second pre-amp stage and the EL85 PA; along with changing the bias resistors in the preamp etc. I find the amp is now fully adjustable for either or both pre-amp or that all-important power amp distortion and by swapping out the slightly harsh 12AX7 preamp tube for a 5751 and swapping out the TL072 for an OPA2604 I feel that this amp is equal to any similar boutique amp selling for upwards of $600... Will be adding a speaker out soon and plan to use this for smaller venue gigs.
10+++

Have had no problems with playing every night at home. As stated above I will try gigging with the amp into a 1X12 cab, as I just love the tone. Will find out if it's hardy enough to take a night out on the town...

VERY basic, tone gain and volume. when the amp comes stock, the gain and tone nob arent very usefull, but pop in a 12at7 to replace the stock preamp and they take on a whole new role!

would give a 10 if only it had reverb and a 3 band eq.

this amp like i said needs a 12at7 to unlock its full potential, but once thats done this amp rocks. the amp take a while to warm up but once it does the tone nob is a really nice feature. 5and down give u a more "marshall" type of distortion and 5and up gives u a more "mesa dual rectifier" sound and the cleans are great for clapton, but it doesnt break up too smoothly with just the volume nob, the preamp need alittle coaxing from the distortion knob.

with patience this amp can be very classic rock, that vintage sound is right ther


bad side, natural and pinch harmonics dont ring out too well

third owner, still goin.

5 year transferable warrenty? its all good

i have owned 5 amps this is my 6th abd favorite. been playin almost 3years and would buy it again.

i give it an eight because of it needing an upgrade to "unleash the beast" (and u have to tke the whole chasis off to do it)


also because of its basicness (would gladly pay 100$more for reverb and an eq.)

all in all a great amp,

a 30watt eq and reverb version would be superb

Bought in 2000, I think. I posted a review a few years ago. I let the amp gather dust for a few years shortly after. We had to make some room in the den this week, so I decided to do some things I had wanted to for a while. I took the chassis out of the cab and mounted it in my cheesy Park amp case. It fit fine, but is a little skinnier, so there are some, uh, airholes. Right away the amp sounded infinitely better. The Park speaker (8") is WAY better, and the cab is tighter. I tossed the Crate cab. Then, last night I followed another poster's idea of switching the pre and post volume pots. You have to take the pc board out to do any soldering, but no problem. I put it back together, and.... It now does exactly as it should!! The pre-amp gain is much lower, while the post is much higher. I can set the post to 10, and use the pre as it was intended. Since I am no electrician, however, I cannot vouch for the safety and security of this mod. It's working great for now, though!

I play crunchy blue soul rawk with a tele. The amp tone is more musical, now. It won't fuzz out now since the pre gain is so low. You can turn the pre gain all the way up and it hardly distorts the front end. But you can dime the master and just use the pre as an actual volume control, like a real amp. Plus, the distortion feels much more output tube-like, and you actually have to turn it up in order to get it. I guess I sacrificed some of the bedroom playability, but it's worth it. The amp's gots tubes. They should be used the way the gods intended them to be.

Even with all my tinkering, the amp still works ok. I have never changed the tubes. I doubt I would ever get seriously giggy with it. I don't play any gigs right now anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter.

I love that I only paid around 70 dollars for it new, and have spent nothing to date on maintenance or modifications. I think these things are perfect for projects, but little else, and that's ok. I haven't had much luck recording it in the past, but I'm sure it's better after the mods. However, it now has to be turned up to sound good, so you might as well get an old Champ, which would sound way better. The rating is Fun Factor, not exactly usability.

Small practice amp, two tubes 12AX7 in the preamp and EL84 on the power section, 5W, speaker designed in conjunction with Celestion, line out that works as a effect loop, volume, special tone control (turn clockwise enchances treble and bass, anticlockwise enchances midrange, and drive, boosting the gain of a built in opamp overdrive.

Loud amp, dont pass above volume level 1. I like to use it with the gain at max, sometimes use with Boss GE7 for solo boost. This amp is very flexible, can play from country to metal, the sound is warm, and when fully distorted becames fuzzy. Ideal for practicing or recording. I bought it because I wanted a tube amp, this was my first tube amp, and I still love it.

I experienced some problems with this amplifier, but I fixed it. Sometimes it starts to hum heavily and the volume control dont affect the sound, I discovered that the problem is in the line out jack making bad electrical contact, so I removed the line out jack, because I dont use it and shunted the preamp section that goes from the volume control to the input of the second half of the 12AX7 tube, and the problem was solved. Aside from that it is built like a tank.

This was my first tube amp, and use it for practicing and plan to record with it using sm57 mic. It is a tube amp with a built in "tube screamer", the difference is that the gain of the built in opamp is higher than the TS9 so you can shred with it. If stolen or lost I would be very sad and try to buy another.

tubes !! 2 of them, 1 preamp tube a 12**7 , 1 el84 power tube. gain, tone and volume, 1X8 inch celestion speaker. one channel. 5 watts. very sparse. no reverb. awesome gain. low volume power tube saturation is killer. very vox-ish.

for classic rock, this small thing is the size of a bread box and has very good overdrive and tube saturation in volumes that are actually tolerable. good clean tone. i use a mic on it and play clubs. a small rp7 pedal and / or a ts9 into the tube tone is all you need if you can mic it. and who wants to carry a 4x12 cab when this will do? gibson night hawk, 3 pickup config. and i can get clean fender with the single coil and gibson bucker with awesome over drive for the 70-80's stuff. tone control has good scoop and accents. i did a little wood work on the cab and replaced the stock 8" speaker with a VOX/celestion 10". the one they use for the 4x10 config. 35$ and what a cheap price for this tone!!!!!!!!

never had a problem, but get two they are cheap , 99$, used on web. box is sawdust board. but it is way sturdier than needed.

n/a

been playing since '67. for the size and weight, and cost , i would buy 5. as a matter of fact i am looking for the next one right now......

Bought used on ebay - fairly new. This is my first amp and I went tubes (mostly, apparently not the rectifier/gain)) and new rather than vintage. I play harp exclusively using a green bullet, and almost always mic to PA. Also switched tubes according to web recommendation for harp players. The interaction of volume, gain and tone is somewhat of a mystery but I find 5+ vol., 5+ gain., and 5- tone gives a good sound for most songs when mic'd. I play harp with church band that does contemporary, originals and will play locally as non-church band. We rock as everything from sweet to crunchy! As I become more comfortable with this amp, I'll push it for overdrive. This is a lightweight (under 20 lb), semi-durable, versatile, no-frills, mostly tube, little amp. Wish it had more power to be played without PA mic, and a reverb would be fun.

I've played on this amp for over 1.5 years. The amp can go from clean to crunchy by adjusting volume, gain and tone. Sounds best at higher gain and volume - for anything but smooth and sweet. Not sure about the gain, it sounds forced at higher end. Inadequate for playing without mic'd PA. Does a good job for an 8" speaker - but makes me yearn for a single or double 10" full tube set up (played through a 2x 10" Working Dog and was blown away by sound - and price).

Bought at least 2nd hand. Replaced tubes just for sound, originals still worked. "On" indicator works only sometimes. It gets dragged around a lot and always works well. It has a steel grill that can take some punishment, however, the cabinet is particle board without any protection of corners - seems like a contradiction. I think crate made a winner with this amp. Makes me want to look at other Crate "vintage club" amps (VC 20, VC 210). I'd rather play on than work on my amp and appreciate the tubes w/o being an old amp.

Bought used and never brought in for service.

I've played harp for at least 30 years and this is my first amp (late bloomer). The crate has been a good performer and I keep finding new versatility by playing with the knobs. This is a great value (apx $120) for a harp player, and I'd buy another if this one was stolen.

Basic

Too much solid state gain.

good

na

The gain in the solid state section is too high for my taste. The gain in the tube section is very low. I've modded mine to bypass the tone and solid state portion completely. On the the way there, I did find a decent sound, (if you like solid state preamps). Switch the gain pot (P3,250k) with the volume pot(P1,10k) on the pc board. This increases the tube section gain and decreases the TL072 solid state gain. Sounds better in my opinion.

class A tube 5 watt
Plus wimpy speaker, questionable preamp, but did I mention class A tube 5 watt..???

I`m not really anal about my lead tone- basic B.Gibbons/E.Johnson/J.Satriani/SRV type tone will do. Plenty of distortion,musicallity, jumping harmonics, sustain,etc. And VC508 delivers- that`s all. Use distortion box. You buying this to play late at nigth right? Well, if you crank this little amp it`ll get lous as hell. And may not sound good. Don`t. Set the volume on 10, preamp on 2 or 3 and use distortion box. I don`t know about clean/blues/jazz/whatever tone... but zz top/ac dc/jimmy page is definitely here. I just connected my recto 2/12 cab (8 ohm)- holy smoke!, I wish I did that 3 years ago...
You could use external preamp by sending signal to Line Out jack.
I use Mesa Formula Pre, works great. I like setting it on 10, and with my Mesa all tube 50 watt its impossible to stand closer than 25 feet from my recto cabs. Painfull? Yes. Sound? O, I get the sound, all right... @ 180 lbs of weight...
So aside from speakers pushing the air, I can get close to that sound in my bedroom by using VC 508 plus separate 2/12" cab. And maybe separate preamp.
I`m sure you can get clean/pure/jazz/whatever sound as well, just need a little tweaking. My amp is 3 years old, has worn out tubes, wires hanging out, and sounds great. Put a little love in it and you get your pure sounds...

no problems

You know the features. 5 watts class A tube through a celestion 8 ohm 15 watt speaker. Gain, tone, and volume controls. Comes with 12AX7 and EL84.

I found this amp on sale, brand new, for only 120 dollars, so I decided to buy it. I figured that because it was all tube, that it would sound better than my solid state amp. After a few months playing it stock, I really wasn't too impressed. Then I went to the crate website and printed out the manual(I didn't get one). I found that the line out jack can double as an effects loop because it is a stereo jack. I thought this was pretty cool because I like to use chorus and such. Then I went to guitarnuts.com, and they have a mod posted. They said the reason that this amp doesn't get amazing sound is because the power tube isn't getting enough volume into it to achieve power tube distortion. After I read this, I realized that I could boost the volume through the effects loop and get the tone I was looking for. I used a little beringer mixer(has a TMB tone stack too), and wow. That tube sound I have always longed for was at my finger tips. It was the best tube sound I have ever played through. Guitarnuts.com also suggested to put a 12AT7 preamp tube instead of a 12AX7 because you would get more head room and a smoother distortion. I put the 12AT7 tube, and I was amazed again. With these two simple mods I get great distortion from both tubes, and an amzing blues guitar sound when I run both tubes on the brink of distortion. This amp also drives my mesa 2X12 cab with vintage 30s loud enough that I got the cops called on me the other day. I love my tone now!

This is a great amp for the value. With the tips I give, this amp has that great tube tone that only power tube saturation can give you. This is inexpensive, and you get great tone. Every guitarist should visit guitarnuts.com. They have great info and tube amps.

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.

Features are very simple and straight forward. I really can't add anything to what others have already said. When you are buying this, you know you are buying a simple little amp. However, my one big complaint is that having one EQ is inadequate. There should be separate tone controls for treble, bass, and even one for midrange.

SPEAKER ISSUES: The stock speaker excels at mediocrity. It makes the amp sound like a shallow and tinny plastic toy. I rigged a simple 1/4 female end plug that allows me to run straight to an external speaker. I think this is a MUST with this amp. (The amp comes with a five year warranty, so I would be concerned that some of the other mods people have suggested would void the warranty.) I have experimented a lot with different speakers including Celestion blue alnicos, Celestion greenbacks, and an Eminence Legend 125. I was a bit disappointed that the tone did not improve more when I used some top quality speakers. It still retained a lot of that shallow, tinny, plastic kind of tone. This amp delivers a usable tone for practice, but I would only use it live on stage if it was all I had left.

TUBES: I experimented extensively here, too. I have read all of the reviews. In the pre-amp, I tried a Shuguang 12AX7, a JJ ECC83S, the stock SOVTEK 7025, NOS GE 5751, NOS JAN Philips 12AT7, NOS Sylvania 12AY7, NOS GE 6072A (12AY7 equivalent) and a Mullard 4003 12AU7 equivalent. I found that the 12AT7, 5751 and 12AX7 types (gain factors of approximately 60, 70 and 100, respectively) all had too much gain. They left the amp with very little headroom. With the 12AX7 types, the signal would start to overdrive with the gain not even yet at 4. With the others, it would be overdriving around 5. I wanted more clean headroom. I also noted that these higher gain tubes tended to make the amp sound muddy as you to got louder.

The Mullard 4003, a 12AU7 equivalent (gain factor around 19) gave lots of clean headroom and really sounded good, but it left you with very little in the way of an overdrive option. I found the GE 6072A (fain factor around 44) to be the best pre-amp tube for this amp. It gave me a clearer, less muddy signal than all others except the Mullard. It would not start to overdrive until the gain was on about 6, so it gave me a reasonably good clean range along with enough punch to get some overdrive going.

POWER TUBE: I replaced the SOVTEK/GROOVE TUBE EL-84 with a JJ. The SOVTEK tended to get muddy too soon when pushed. It lost highs very easily. The JJ was clearer.

Stock, I would give this a 5 or 6. With the minor modifications in tubes, I give it an 8. It averages out to a final rating of 7.

I have only owned mine about three months. No problems at all. And this amp is so simple that I would shocked if it gave much in the way of problems. I use it for fun, low volume bedroom practice or when I am jamming with a friend but still need to keep the volume at a level that will not offend the wife or the neighbors. Based on its track record to date, I have to give it a 10 here.

I have several Crate amps. Their customer service has been the best I have experienced in the musical instrument field.

I've been playing now about 25 years, and I have accumulated enough gear over the years to show for it. My other amps are Fender Hot Rod Deluxes, a Fender Deluxe 112 Plus, Sunn T50 combos, Crate VC 50 heads, Crate GFX 1200 head, Crate GX 140D, and a bass amp. It is all modest gear that I have tweaked to get to sound good.
If this amp is the best tone you've got, then you've got a problem. This VC508 is a good little practice amp. That is all it is! I absolutely would not use it as a main to slave others off of. Just have fun playing it in your bedroom or doing low volume jams with friends.

As it comes from Crate this amp is a fair entry level into tube tone. Vol, gain & tone controls, no reverb. It's main feature is that it's a tinkerers dream, 1 pwr. & 1 preamp tube, 1 spkr. My review, like many others will be of a modified amp.

My best results with this amp are with a H-S-H Ibanez as far as versatality goes. Humbuckers being quieter than single coils run better thru this amp as it does get noisy with the amp's vol. & gain cranked, in the 4-3-2posistions it will clean up and 5-1 will throw it into high gain. My guitars range from H-H, H-S-H to S-S-S.

3 yrs. no problem.

With all the mods I've made the 5 yr warranty is void, never dealt with co.

Been playing 30 yrs., if stolen I'd buy again. Now for MODS.
Recabbed with 12" Eminence
Retubed 5751 preamp (lowered noise and gain)
Focus ring installed between cab. & spkr. This lil tidbit came from an interview with the Dr. Z guy, it's a ring you make of 2 pcs. of 3/4 plywood glued together to make a 1-1/2" spacer.
I'd done the recab w/12" and still was not impressed with this amp. Did the preamptube and focus ring @ same time so I do'nt know which was the major contributor but this baby kicks butt. The tube knocked the gain down & the ring made it sound better. Except for the tube & spkr. the mods were made with recycled plywood & particle board @ no cost,$70 total which brings it into the $300 zone so I guess you could buy a blues jr. I wish I knew how to add a reverb to put the icing on the cake.

This is an important update to my post below. This is me eating my words. Read on!

I initially gave this amp a poor review, but since I had already bought it, decided to try one of the recommended mods and replaced the 12AX7 preamp tube with a $5.00 12AU7 I bought on the net.

Oh ... my ... it's a different amp! Instead of the gain knob being useless from about 3 onwards, the knob became totally useful and musical virtually everywhere I dialed it. Suddenly I was capable of a range of cranked tones from sweet blues to dirty blues to full on rock. Only heavy metal and grunge were out of reach and on an amp with 2 tubes like this, that really requires a pedal anyway. Even that weird tone knob took on a new life and while previously it was impossible to find a tone I liked, now I can't find a sound I don't like! To be sure, that 8" speaker is still incapable of the kind of punch and sizzle that would make this amp great, but before you take an axe to your VC508, take it to a tube amp repair shop and ask if you can audition some different tubes. You might just find that magic tone. What a difference!

See my post below.

See my post below.

If you get a good deal on one of these, buy it and experiment!

Pretty basic 5-watt tube amp with gain, tone and volume control plus a line-out (insert) jack. I bought this because I needed a bluesy amp for low volume practice and recording in my home studio. Pretty loud ... in fact, too loud for my needs. For the price, the features would be okay. The best feature is the line out/insert feature (more on that later).

I've tried this amp with a custom Fender Strat copy with Active EMG pickups and a stock Ibanez S540. As mentioned by others here the amp rattles and buzzes liek a chainsaw. It's really because the dinky little cabinet can't handle the high volumes this amp generates. I modded the amp to include a speaker out jack that kills the internal speaker so I could run it into a larger cab or DI box. While better than the internal speaker the limitations of the cheesy preamp section became apparent. The preamp saturation was quite unmusical and exhibited very little usable gain before becoming ratty. It is possible to drive the power tubes to saturation, but by then, the preamp's spotty character reduced the sound to a loud drone. Maybe it was that speaker? So I then ran the speaker out into a larger cab: different sound, but not much better. DI'd through a Behringer with 4x12 simulation tamed down the rattiness, but still no magic tone.

Bypassing the preamp and plugging a gitar cable partly into the lineout yielded some better results, but saturation was limited. No has mentioned this to much detail, but you can use an insert cable (stereo phone jack to two mono jacks) plugged in all the way to patch an effect in; i.e., it has a full fledged effects loop. This allowed me to use a variety of pedals to control the sound. Here is where I found some useful combinations. I plugged a Digitech RP100 with amp and cab simulation turned off and was able to use the pedal's reverb and EQ to process the preamp sound a bit better. Also, setting the amp to a clean sound and putting the RP100 between the guitar and amp input allowed me to use more of the features of the RP100. The thing is, I can get the same results by doing the same with a solid state amp. The Crate added minimal warmth and IMHO the trouble and extra noise wasn't worth the effort; I'd rather just plug straight into the console.

I haven't had the amp long enough to have an opinion here.

Ditto, I haven't had the amp long enough to have an opinion here.

I would not buy this amp again. Sure, maybe an accumulation of the mods mentioned below might result in a better sounding box, but that's too much trouble, if you ask me. There are amps out there that have more useful sounds.

Brand new. Bought from AmericanMusical.com. One channel, tone, gain and volume knobs. Has a line out which is a stereo socket. The tip of the stereo is a power-amp in, the shaft is a pre-amp out. Using a stereo Y cable lets you use it as an effect in/out. Or you can use a mono cable plugged half way into the line out to hear both amps. If you plug a mono cable all the way into the line out, it mutes the VC508 speaker. This amp has only 5 watts but it is plenty loud. It's easily twice as loud as my solid state 20 Watt Pignose Hog 20. It uses a 12AX7 pre amp tube and an EL84 power amp tube. It has a rubberized looking vinyl covering and weighs 18 lbs. Also has an on/off toggle switch and purple jewel that lights up when the amp is on. No reverb or standby, nice long cord that fits in a slot in the otherwise sealed back.

I have only had this a week and played in my room. I play a Vaccaro guitar with two single coils and a humbucker in the bridge position. This amp does not have alot of sounds, but it does have some good ones. I bought this amp because I recently realized I want a tube sound. I also have a Fender Super Sixty tube amp and I got to the point where a solid state sound just doesn't have the guitar vibe I want. I play 60's rock and use a little but of distortion (ala the Stones). This amp satisfies the limited palatte of tones I want, basic guitar sounds with tube over tones and a bit of distortion when needed. I don't use any pedals anymore, so I want an out of the box sound I like, and this amp has a few I like and am happy with.
One thing that is a real bonus with this amp is that if I use it as a pre amp to the Fender Super Sixty, it makes the Fender sound enormous. It really brings out the reverb and presence on the Fender much more than I have ever heard in the ten years I owned it. That said, after using it like that, I still play it by itself, to get it's own sound. However, I don't think I'd play the Fender without the Crate after hearing how it enhances it.

Only had it a week, but looks as solid as a car battery. I plan to gig with it without a backup, slaving it into a Roland K300 mixing amp that belongs to the keyboard player. (I can always plug direct into the Roland if it fails).

N/A. The 4 page manual is on Crate's website.

I have been playing since the 60's. I have a Fender Super Sixty sixty, an ART 80 Watt combo, a few Pignose and Prime amps. I researched the web and forums for several days before buying. I needed a light weight tube amp that was reasonably priced. This is the ONLY ony I found at less than $250 and weighing under 20 lbs. (I can't carry the Fender around any more without throwing my back out.)So far I am very happy with my purchase. I don't plan to upgrade the tubes until I need to. Then I'll try the JJ Teslas. I don't plan to mod the speaker because plugging this into the Fender power amp-in (with the 12" Fender speaker) doesn't improve the tone. Of course plugging this into the Fender low Z guitar input turns the Fender into a beast. If there is a better sounding new tube amp that sounds like an amp, that is this light and this cheap, let me know and I'll buy it too, and keep this one as well.

Its a simple no frills low wattage tube amp.
Very loud, I giged with it, barely kept up, the Crate VC2110 keeps up!

Rockabilly/Blues machine for recording and practice.

Cool, no probs.

N/A

Over 30 years playing, good deal for $100 or under. Other people always gotta make there little mods, switch out speakers etc. If you got a good guitar and pedal you don't need jack. This amp rocks!

Here's a bit of an update on a previous review. You can get some
decent sounds out of this amp with a little pursuasion. In stock
configuration the amp is quite midrangy, weak and lacks a good clean
sound. You will need a Boss Equalizer Pedal and a 12AU7 tube. Substitute
the 12AX7 tube for the 12AU7. Hook the equalizer up to the guitar.
Plug the output of the equalizer 3/4 of the way into the effects loop
jack. This will bypass the preamp (The gain and tone controls won't work).
Turn the volume to 10. Adjust the equalizer for scooped mids (The 400, 800 and 1.6K
tones near -15db) Enjoy the tube clean tone.

With the above setup, the amps finally sounds like what a tube amp
should. The amp can do some mild overdriven tones, not much clipping.
If you want more distortion, leave the 12AX7 tube in. The EQ can hammer
enough bass and highs into the amp to be nausingly loud.

The additional cost of the tube and EQ can add 100 bucks to the cost of
the amp. Too bad the tone control and preamp in this amp is so cheesy.
It's never going to be a classic with a high resale value so feel free
to mod it.

it's all pretty much been said

had it for a while and messed around with it some. right now it is looking a bit different! I removed the amp and made a 8' extention speaker cable. the amp sits upside down (tubes facing up) on the table. removed all hardware on the cab except the grille (that handle rattles like mad) and mounted the speaker on the inside of the cab. swapped out the tubes for some JJ's. plug the strat half way in to the line out jack and turn the volume up almost all the way. man I love this thing now...

still goes

have fun with this one...once the amp was out of the cab the rattles left and the speaker could breathe more. It can really go. I don't use the regular input any more.

The basics of three what is realy needed

All those solid state virtual amps were a waste of time this is the shit for the price or na wear near the price. This amp can make you feel good for this low price. All that digital is nice for the pros or whatever that goal is but for the guy woho wnats to play at homw and exlperience the seperation from real life and melt into his won realm why not and pay this little price it is the bomb and the groove and the way.

It's gotta go as grampa would say.

don't know who cares?

If you got a small budget why not experience the true tone for a small price. You can always add some of those pedals laying around you eliminated for that lame digital amp. I Like it. I wish I had known sooner on my budget that I could get there>

I hate the the single tone knob. All they needed to is add a few extra
cheap passive components to get a seperate bass and treble controls.
Crate did everything they could to get the component count in this amp
to the bare miniumum. The cabinet of the amp is painted particle board.
If that isn't cheap enough, in order to save money by using less particle
board they mounted a low profile speaker on the front of the amp. The
beancounters designed this amp.

The main problem with this amp is an uneven frequency response. It is
sounds quite notchy. Almost as if a wah pedal is hooked up to it and
put in a semi-neutral position. This amp would be great for someone
who likes lots of warm sounding mids and highs. There isn't much bass
and the tone control really do much to change it. The E and A strings
of the guitar completly lacks any punch. This might be great for country
players who like the trebly twang of a telecaster, but not to my tastes.
5 watts is still too loud in an apartment for power tube distortion. The
amp can do preamp distortion, but that sounds just the same as any old
solid state amp. This amp produces a noticable hiss and background
hum even without any instrument connected to it. It becomes much much
worse if their are any effects that generate a background hiss as well.

People have gone to various lenghts to modify this amp. A 1x12
extension cab is expensive and most come with high power speakers.
A custom 1x12 cab will run about $200-300 dollars and a 15W 1x12 will
set you back up to $100.

The crate is not worth a purchase of a extension cab, or any serious
modifications for that manner. The money spent on upgrading the crate
can be spent buying an amp that is already much better.

Great cheap new tube amp. I would gladly pay a little more for a tube rectifier though! Features limited but functional- they all affect tone like they should.

I am 1st and foremost a harp player (blue) for many years. I can get a pretty good variety of tones from it.Does the overdrive thing pretty good, but w/a 8inch speaker & SMALL cab can sound a little boxy. Very nice w/guitar-especially if you like a fuzzy slightly british o/d tone. It can do zz top & ac/dc too. I had to replace the 12ax7 w/a 12at7 for more control over the gain. helped enormously for this. BEWARE of people who call this the holy grail (I've read 1 harp players reviews for several amps and he calls them all "his favorite amp"!? It aint the holy grail, but is a descent sounding and fairly versatile little amp. I give a 6 1/2 for harp & 7-7 1/2 for guitar for a round 7

Brand new, heavy and built bullet proof tough. I've not had it long enough to boast about the reliability. I'll let you know in 3-5 years!

Never dealt w/crate.

I've owned tons of vintage stuff (old alamo's, nationals, tweed champs, gibsons, silvertones, etc.) It would rank in the middle somewhere. Overall I enjoy its tone & portability, but if lost I would buy a old Kalamazoo or similar amp w/a 10". Very good for both harp & guitar, but not great for either. Snap 'em up at $80-$110.Much more than that and I would go vintage. Very usable amp, not the Holy Grail of tone - but a far,far cry from junk. A solid 6 1/2 - 7.

Simple single channel tube amp. Gain, volume, and tone knobs. Effects via Y-cable. 8" speaker.

I play anything from country to nu-metal (which has gotten old) and now I am going retro to get those 60's tones...

I can depend on it. Gigged with it, actually hooked up to a little mixer and used it as a PA with an acoustic/electric Martin guitar and an AXG790 mic! Amp has never broken down. Bought it without the little jewel thingy that covers the amp light.. never missed it.

Never had to contact customer support.

I've had this amp for over a year. I own a brownsville 15R which is also an 8" combo. I use a fernandez strat guitar and a fender fat strat. They sound awesome through this amp. To get the most out of this amp, I run it as my pre-amp into a Crate b200xl bass head, which is effects out routed through a dbx266xl compressor/exciter/noisegate, and a 24bit effects processor(behringer) into a 4 speaker cab (which is actually a bass cab).

The clean sound you get using the volume boost on the dbx266xl is AWESOME through the cab.... Switching over to 10 on the gain and 10 on the tone you get a monstor thick and smooth overdrive... which is quiet between picks when you use the noise gate function on the dbx266xl... setting the threshhold above the constant buzz so you don't hear it. Want nuclear rumble? Just turn up the low end on the exciter (kind of like the bbe sonic maximizer) and you get sonic destruction!

Anyways, as you can tell, this amp is a lot of fun. Get it for less than $100 and you've just ripped off a great value.

I bought this simple class A, 5 watt tuber in 2000 so that I could get back into playing intimately volume-wise without sacrificing tube tone and depth. The features are pretty straight forward; 3 controls (gain, tone, volume, an on/off toggle switch, input jack, line out jack and a lighted jewel bezel comprise the panel, solidly constructed cabinet with a thick perforated metal grill cover. and getting out the amp chassis is simple too for an occasional peek inside; the amp panel can be removed as well to get a look-see at the modern circuit board, the power tube is held in place with one large U clamp is easy to get to when the amp chassis is removed; the pre amp tube didn't need a clamp and is about 2" away from the power tube. The specially designed celestion speaker, adequate at best, had to be designed with a very small diameter light magnet, not because of front loading into the cabinet; clearance of the magnet from the tubes when all was in place inside of the crowded enclosure was the design issue. If the cabinet was made 1 inch taller...you'll understand, kind reader, as you continue to read on.

As it was, the sound was squawky, toy-like, and uninspiring, it rattled way too much at any volume and inspecting the amp revealed that little to no attention was given to this. The stock sovteks were replaced with an Electro-Harmonix 12AX7EH pre amp tube and a Groove Tube power tube El84 (really a JJ Tesla with Groove tube logo) a little better sound and less prone to feedbacking and micro-phonically popping uncontrollably since these are fantastic tubes; over-all there was a lot more to be desired. After about a year of not warming to it I finally took the plunge to cut up the cabinet a bit with a jig saw so that the amp chassis could be moved and remounted straight up, about a half inch and flush to the top and back of the cabinet in order that a larger clearance can be realized for a proven and great 8" speaker. Enter the Eminence 875 speaker with it's solid dB handling range and wide bass to treble Hz's. With these changes and thorough vibration proofing taken care of, I'm now getting a world class sound from this thing with my Gibson Landmark Nighthawk and a customized Yamaha AEX-1500 Jazz Hollowbody; both of these guitars have powerful alnico mini humbuckers and the AEX also has a piezo bridge pick up.
I also use a monster Jazz cable. For thick and clear jazz tones low gain is a needed setting, tone and volume adjustments are fun to fiddle with now since the speaker really delivers! Rock sounds are really good too and super over driven and heavy distortion effects are best used to help the lone EL84 along those lines. Bluesier rock is good with the gain at about 5 and depending on your axe, all of the controls have to be fiddled with. My customized Crate VC-508 receives a '9' for sound, the stock version really deserved no more than a '5', poor to adequate at best.

Reliabilty is a solid 10 and I found out just how sturdy the construction was when I customized my cab. As it was stock and now customized, start-up never failed once in the 2 years I've owned it.
I would like to have an even more enhanced back up version just for the sake of having one if it were possible.

Crate is good peeps if you an get them on the phone; it was a good experiencing dealing with them.

I understand that I bought this small amp well under its set price tag when a number of them were available through the digibid auction site so I wasn't preparing myself to be completely bowled over in either direction. By virtue of its solid and reliable construction and sound amp chassis, I kept it regardless of the disappointing speaker. The guitars I play have demanding pick ups and I knew with a good speaker in place of the stockie, I would get the truth out of it, whether or not out this 5 watter can have the quality of a good small combo essentially since it is tube driven has to be a potental factor an owner has to take seriously. You might be similarly pressed and/or inspired to do something with yours and it is highly recommend with the Eminence 875 8"! You do not need a 10" speaker in this thing and the conversion is pretty easy and neat looking; if you can disassemble things, drill and jig-saw a bit to refit the chassis as I described it before, you can have a great sounding little btute to play with that will be worthy of attention and respect too.

I bought mine about 3 1/2 years ago. Heavy use. Pretty simole. class A - 2 tubes - 8" speaker. Plenty of power for practice with band.

12 year old EC Strat with 40 year old pickups replacement <<< Carl Martin compressor ( yippeeee ) <<<< TS-10 <<<<< EQ pedal <<<<<< tape echo <<<<< amp. Styles - rockabilly, pop-rock, 60's rock, r+b, etc. I use it with volume full up then gai used to set level. I keep it clean and use the TS-10 for distortion. Wonderful class A compressed tone. It SCREAMS with the TS - 10.

mine is all beat up - lots of using - no breaking.

donno

I've played guitar for a thousand years ( or maybe 35 ) I own EVERYTHING and hope to buy more. I would love to hear this with a 10 or 12 inch speaker. In fact I went out and got a Gibson 6 watt Goldtone and that about nails it but this Crate is less tame. It's just plain cool.

I've had this amp for about three years. Please stand back as I climb onto my soapbox. YOU ARE HELPING NOBODY WHEN YOU POST A REVIEW OF A PRODUCT YOU HAVE BOUGHT IN THE LAST TWO WEEKS. YOU CANNOT HAVE ANY IDEA OF WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT.

I play blues/rock style stuff.

I bought the amp new. Volume, tone, and gain controls are all you've got. Five tube-powered watts. One channel. It really doesn't sound as if these limited features would be very versatile, but they are if you know what you're doing.

The amp doesn't have any heavy preferences between single coil and humbuckers to me. It does have the rattle everybody gripes about. If you are looking for pristine clean, go somewhere else. To me, the best tones come from the gain being about halfway up. Just like any other tube amp, the best tones are achieved at volumes over 1/3 of the volume knob's range. If you are a decent player, you'll be able to get a lot out of this thing. It takes some experimenting, but I think that good players will really appreciate this amp. If you haven't been playing very long, this amp will be a source of frustration. Some tools of the guitar trade can sound wonderful only after you've gotten some experience. The high gain tones are not bad, but most people who play with that much gain will be looking for a bass-heavy tone that you can't get from a small amp. I really like the tones for what I do, though.

It's solid. I've never had to have it serviced. I will say that I've done business with the St. Louis Music company and they are pretty darn good at taking care of you.

Read reliability section

I'd want to replace it if it were lost. Nothing in it's price range compares. Even the fender pro junior that everybody is so in love with. Sorry fender--I love you guys anyway.

nothing special

this amp is big bang for the $ sound wise except for 2 things: 1.- the rattles are in the chassis. i built my own cab (i'm a cabinetmaker) and replaced the speaker and it still rattles. 2.- real tube distotion on the pedal board = hiss city, stick to digital.

no problems over 2 yrs.

been playing 30 yrs, blues &70"s rock. hate the rattle love the tone, just don't put another ax7 in front of it. i replaced the speaker w/1-12 for my taste 2-10's would give it more bark

My 508 was made in 2001 and will do anything but thrash(after mods mentioned elsewhere).Nice and simple.I wish it had pre-out and speaker cab jack,but that's all trivial on an amp of this variety.Could also use a 3-way EQ;but after the mods mentioned by others,the single tone knob is extremely versatile and all positions have a useful tone.

I use strat style guitars and a Washburn N-4,which all sound great on this little monster!It's very quiet for a tube amp.The distortion will almost make it to a Metallica type crunch.

I'm sure I've voided the waranty,but who cares when the trade off is this wonderfull tone and singing sustain?

Crate is very helpful.

It sounds unrealistic,but this amp went from pretty descent(before mods)to awesome(after mods).It sounds like a boutique amp and I know what the hell I'm talkin' about(been at it for almost 20 years.

This amp is as simple as it gets.I'm going to add a 3-way tone control soon.It gets by pretty well on the single tone control,but I've already made enough progress with mods(explained later)to believe this little monster is worthy of the effort.

I use a Washburn N1,Yamaha Pacifica,and an Ibanez Voyager.This is just what I've been looking for;gets great tone and is small enough to push hard without deffening everyone on the block!I play Blues,Vintage Rock,and Metal and this little amp does it all.It has negligible hum.The tone was a little "growly" sounding at first,so I replaced the tubes with an oldSylvania"6BQ5",and GE"12AX7".I also replaced the "TL072"IC with a "4558P" and put a "470K" resistor input in place of the input resistor(which acording to my meter was almost 2MEG and was the cause of the "growly" distortion).It's a different animal now!Want vintage tone?this baby has it in spades;and if I wanna play some serious distortion I use a pedal,that's what they make 'em for.The factory setup fell a little short of "Metal Drive" anyway.I've also done all of the other worthwile mods I read on here (including a 12"Celestion") and this amp has improved by leaps and bounds!It sounds kinda' like a Vox "AC15" with top boost and a "TS-9".I have plenty of amps that have a good metal crunch or descent Vintage tube tone,but this has "LUSH" tone and I only see it improving even more with a 3-way tone!

I dont think the printed circuitboard was a good idea for a tube amp,but it's been done sucessfully before.It seems well thought-out and built though.

Yhey have been helpful before.I know they have a lot of info on the net.

I've been playing for 15 years and tinkering with electronics for two or three years as a goof.I have a few other Crate amps(Gx40c,GX15,GX208),a Peavey(bandit 112),and an old Fender(Champ).If it were stolen,I'd hunt them down and slowly kill them!It has undescribable tone with all of the mods and even had me briefly considering modding my champ.LOL!I hate that it isn't all tube(but you wouldn't know it by listening).Gobs'a vintage"violin-like sustain" and tone.

One switch to turn it on, gain, tone, volume knobs. As simple as it gets. 5 class A all-tube watts.

Using an Ibanez JS100, Danelectro U2, and American Standard Strat. It's easy to get a nice, thick blues tone. A little tougher to get sweet clean sounds. Probably due to the Celestion speaker. Nice for Tom Petty crunch. I'm not too into the metal thing, but I don't think it would do that well for it--with a name like "Vintage Club", you'd be foolish to expect it to. It's nice for the classic stuff, though.

Built like a 50's era tank. I've had it for a year and have played it at amp-cooking volumes without any problems.

5 year warranty. I've dealt with crate on another amp (a well-meaning lead singer plugged the line out from my little gx15 into the speaker out of a powered monitor--sparks and smoke ensued and crate fixed it without even asking what happened)

I got this thing when the local music store was wanting to get rid of it very badly. It needs a different speaker. Maybe I'll get around to it someday, but not too soon. It's not like this is a gigging amp. It would make killer recordings and does a good job jamming around the house. It gets into the sweet zone at lower volumes and makes the other guys sound bad because they've got to run their 5150 at around 1/2 and are STILL TOO LOUD TO PLAY IN MY WIFE'S HOUSE.

I'd buy another one at this price. It'll be a steal for anybody who can pick up a decent used one.

This is a practice amp, and as such it does OK with its single channel, gain, tone and volume controls only. It'd be nice if it had a "Standby" switch, but that's no big deal.

I haven't yet solved the buzzing/rattling problem with mine. I've thought it was coming from around the speaker and grille, but tightening the screws has only produced limited and temporary improvement. It's limited in that the distortion kicks in too early and too fast as the gain's turned up, rapidly turning into a very harsh metal tone. I've read that it uses an op amp input stage, and I wonder if that's the stage the gain knob adjusts. It sounds solid-statish at higher levels. Using an overdrive pedal with it just makes the harsh clipping start sooner. I don't understand why Crate thought it needed a solid state input stage; it seems to me that a single 12AX7 preamp and an EL84 output stage should be able to amp a guitar to 5 watts without it. But back to the sound, aside from the buzzing it makes nice clean tones and soft pleasant distortion in the lower ranges of the gain. I wouldn't turn that knob past 11:00 o' clock for anything, though! The gain control is often misunderstood; straight up it's in a neutral, midrange-predominant position. Turning it left or right doesn't simultaneously increase and decrease the bass and treble, but rather it emphasizes the bass to the left and the treble to the right. I keep it way over to the left, rarely past 9:00 o' clock, as it sounds harsh and solid-statish to me when the treble comes up. I'm disappointed in this. But it's acceptable when adjusted as I've said. No better than the little Squier Champ 15 next to it in my basement, though.

N/A

N/A

It's a decent little practice amp. Doesn't have as much "tube tone" as I thought it would. I'm not going to sell it, but if something happened to it I'd save up my money for a better tube amp. Too bad, because the concept of a little, low-powered, affordable tube amp with great tone is just what I'm after! I don't think there's anything comparable around, and Crate's discontinued this one now. There are a slew of cheap solid state practice amps out there that sound as good for less money, though they lack the "tube mystique."

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.

This is a mod I made to my VC508H (hardwood cab) but would work exactly the same for the flakeboard cab model.

I had swapped out the anemic 8" Jenson for the much better 8" Weber C8SS, and although this improved headroom, tone and bass, I'd always wanted to try a 10" speaker without going to an outboard cab. Well I did, and with great results ...

I removed the amp chassis (four side screws), popped the speaker grill, unscrewed and removed the speaker. I used a very old re-coned 10", 8 ohm, Oxford that I had pulled from my '64 Princeton (having replaced that with a Weber P10Q), centered it inside of the VC508's baffle board and screwed it in carefully using 6 screws (you won't be able to get screws into the bottom 3 speaker mount holes due to the cab's bottom support - not necessary).

The amp chassis will NOT go back in it's original position, but there are a few different ways to stick it in without too much fuss. I put the chassis back into the cab with the controls facing out towards the back and the tubes and transformers facing down, as far in as it could go while allowing the tube holder to remain a good 1/2" away from the speaker magnet. Now the control panel sticks out about 2-1/2" past the rear of the cab, so you need to be careful about transporting the amp. A metal cage, or wood cab extension could be fairly easily fashioned for protection if the amp was regularly transported. Not needed in my case.

I drilled 4 new holes either cab side, right into the sheet metal sides of the chassis and used 1-1/4" deep thread (like for sheet metal) round head brass screws to secure. I used 1/2" round head brass screws to plug up the old chassis mount holes on the cab sides for a neater look. I'd use black sheet metal screws on the flakeboard cab.

Popped on the speaker leads and plugged in - whoa! - Serious Tone. I also had swapped out the Groove Tubes for JJ/Telsa 12AX7/ECC83 and EL84 tubes. MUCH nicer. Give it a try!

SIMPLE CHEAP TUBE AMP !

SOUNDED LIKE CRAP UNTIL I CHANGED THE STOCK PREAMP TUBE TO A 12AX7(ECC83)
WIZ BANG!!!
GREAT TONE!!!! (could use a little more low end though but hey it's only 5 watts! )

GOOD QUESTION?? HAD IT ONE YEAR STILL KICKIN!

??????????????????????????????????????????????

I WOULD SAY THAT I HAVE OWNED MANY AMPS AND FOR THE MONEY OR EVEN TWICE THE MONEY THIS IS A GREAT AMP!!!
( IF YOU CHANGE THE PRE-AMP TUBE TO AN (ECC83--12AX7)-

Has what you need to have fun.

I'm using Fender strat sounds great for crunch and blues. Clean channel is good but you can't get much volume it is only 5 watts. This amp is great good rock tone keeps my wife off my back cause you get a good sound at low volume. I did change the tubes (i had grove tubes laying around) and i took the speaker wich is mounted in the front of the cab and i mounted in side the cab this to me did wonders for the sound it opened it up and gave it a little more bass and sustain i think this is somthing for people to try it only takes about 10 min to do and you can change it back anytime and it cost nothing.

To soon to tell.

Playing for 25 yrs have had all kinds of equipment right now just bought a single rectifiyer combo i like this one alot. also have 5150,marshall slash head, mesa DC5,Fender twin,blues jr (the blues jr sucks I must have gotten a shitty one,line 6 pod, AX2 (forget this line 6 stuff for playing out the sound just dies is dose not carry it's just dead,mesa Triaxis pre ,yada yada yada gold top 56 lespaul fender strat mexican and it sounds way better than my custom shop 54 strat what a waste of money also prs mcarty, parker fly yada yada yada

bought new 5/00, and very satisfied with amps tone switch.

Tried it with a strat, 335 and was once again vey pleased with the amp's cool tones, many combinations available. Good wide variety of blending, blues, tones.

They returned my call quickly, and were helpful.

na

Over 35 yrs experince with the music industry, and this amp is a great idea. I wish they had more features with speaker&headphone jack, but for the price -I am smiling. Sounds great with a strat, 335, or the used epiphone we've all had at one time or another=great little tube amp, and I have not done any mods at this time. Cool blues tones without the backache.

Very simple 5 watt valve amp, if you want a lot of crap on your amp go solid state.

Deluxe Nashville Telecaster, playing only blues, good sound very clean, but can be driven to "take that damn thing out to the garage!" levels,good blues overdrive. Best amp you will ever spend $170 on!

Bulletproof, if you know how to treat tubes with a little respect it will not let you down.

wish it had a headphone jack, get an older one if you can, as I think the newer models don't have the celestion that I got. Also I have not experienced the rattle from the cab that others have, just bad luck or a bad bump on their part ? You can get a bigger amp for the money but there is nothing like driving a valve into distortion.

Input and first gain stage is a simple Tube-Screamer-like Op-Amp circuit(this accounts for the hair-trigger gain which sounds fuzzy :( when fully opened up).

This is coupled to a 1/2 12AX7 gain stage with a single tone and volume circuit straight into the FX-loop.

From there (bypassed) it goes into the second 1/2 12AX7 gain stage

This is driving the single EL84 in class A through a single-ended output transformer with only one (8 Ohm) tap.

So basically all those guys that use it to run into a larger amp are going through a very expensive Tube Screamer. Nothing but an Op-Amp.
(and a single tube gain stage -admitted). Sounds good for solid-state, mind you - but that's exactly what it is.

A real pity they didn't put a second 12AX7 in there for two additional tube gain stages and left out the Op-Amp. Would have made a world of differnce in sound and feel and a minimal increase in production cost. If I don't sell it that's what I'm gonna do.

Basically I feel a bit cheated because this amp sells as an all-tube amp. This is simply NOT TRUE.

I tried this guy in a music store after a succession of small about 20W solid state Marshalls, Soltons etc... Next to them it sounded awesome. So full and warm. I had discovered tube sound. I bought it on the spot for approx. 269 US$ (Europe is expensive).
Of course next to a real tube amp (I played it next to a Boogie .50 cal.) it sounds small, rattly and solid-state. (And that's what it is --- greetings to St. Louis)

It is so simple that it should be all right. At high volumes it rattles though but it seems that this is a known bug which can easily be self fixed.

Terrible!
There is no way to contact Crate/St. Louis Music from Europe except write them an old snail-mail letter. They have no customer support for Europe, no e_mail address on their web site and only a 1-800 Number which cannot be dialled from abroad. A good way to say "F*CK YOU customer!". (I would settle for a mailto: on their website - but no. <shrug>)

I have been playing Stratocasters for 20 years. First I went through tube radios (that was not exactly the sound I wanted) and then (because of cost mainly I never considered tubes) through solid-state crap. This baby amp was fabulous next to it's all-solid.state brethren but doesn't play in the all-tube league. I wouldn't buy it again.
The good thing is it got me interested in tube amps and by now I am building my own design 50 Watts ALL-TUBE.

The line out feature and tone control are my personal favorites. I would strongly advise harp players to swap the preamp tube for a 12AU7 as others on the web have recommended. For harp it gives much smoother and easier to control distortion. It's a 10 minute operation for the technically impaired (me)and the only tool needed is a phillips screwdriver.

I'm a harpster and for my taste this is the best sounding low volume amp that I've tried. Admittedly, there are many vintage models I haven't had the opportunity to play but we're talking about chump change here compared to the "good" stuff. For the money you can't go wrong with this amp and a dynamic shaker mic. Screwing around with the gain, tone & volume combinations gives alot of tone variations. The Dan Echo pedal I played with at the store will probably be my next purchase to add some reverb when not playing it through another amp. When run through my Vibrolux Reverb it maintains that outrageous tube distortion at conversation volume levels with the reverb- real cool. As mentioned earlier, you're not going to play out without running through the PA or another amp.It does have a slight hum that I didn't notice in the store but showed up when I got it home. I haven't heard a guitar played through it.

I've only had it two weeks but that hum isn't a good sign, although it could be a minor problem.

I was told by the dealer that a local repair guy does Crate warranty work. The 5 year transferable warranty sounds good but we'll see when I take it in to get the hum checked out.

I've been playing harp for 20 years and this is the affordable tone I've been searching for. Too soon to give it an overall rating just because reliablity is unknown at this point but I'd buy another one if it lasts for a while.

1998 Model. Hey for a $200 there isn't much needed to make me happy.
It has volume, a very limited tone (a weakness in my view) and a master volume. The tone is kinda like an inside-out, outside-in thing. It swings between boosting mids or boosting bass/treble.

This thing competes well with a basher of a drummer. They say it's "A-class" and it's a sweetie. No club gigs though unless there's no stage volume to compete with it. Sounds great recorded. I use a AT4050.

Tubes: Single 12AX7, single EL84.

I'm a "plug-n-play" type - I use an electric/acoustic 12-string (Carvin's AE185-12), Hamer USA Archtop with Seymore Duncans, a couple of Strat copies by Carvin.

I do very straightforward pop (ELO, Badfinger, Beatles, a lot of J-Pop).

Use it regularly - Never a problem. I'm careful with my gear and wouldn't want to bump this painted wood cabinet.

Never needed assistance.

I know how much the parts cost, I wish they'd discounted it more.

I think $125 would've been more fair.

You've heard the features from everyone else. An effect like Chorus or reverb would be cool, but it is a very small inexpensive amp.

I have to admit, I don't think it burns, but I was extremely surprised on how much range the tone knob had. Very cool. Too bad they don't have a another of those parametric type knobs. Tone would be endless then. I play everything from Classical guitar to full on Pantera type tone. Those I rate this amp high, I have to admit, I can't get either a good clean tone or a Pantera CHUG-CHUG tone. It breaks up too fast for clean (though I plan on trying different tubes)& and it just can't quite get the full on metal sound I need for what I do. It get's good ROCK tone. Right in the middle. And when I say good rock tone, I should point out that most amps can't get that. Have you every heard a Marshall get great tone straight into the amp? I'm talking abour Metal tone. I know a lot will argue, but I've been a guitar tech for a long time and I say, don't be fooled. Those amps were tweaked by someone. NOBODY GET'S GREAT METAL TONE WITHOUT A TECH. Because of that, think this amp is pretty cool. Also, everyones talking about using it as a preamp or slave. Has anyone tried it as a power amp? Take a normal guitar cord and plug it into a preamp. Plug the other end into the line out, but only half way in. Some tube snobs argue preamp tubes are junk and that Power tubes is where the TONE is. This will bypass the preamp section and just use the power tube section. Results? If your not keen with the tone & gain knob, but have a good preamp, you have just entered the world of MONSTER TONE with only 5 watts. I have a Marshall 1X12 cab. I unplugged the speaker and used the Marshall 12" speaker. If you want to use this amp in pieces, this will give you the 10 in tone.

Haven't had it long enough to say.

Haven't had it long enough

The amp itself is cool. I enjoy the fact that I can change the preamp tubes and power tube with out messing with the bias. It's self-biasing. Awesome! Too many tones to list when you change the tubes. If you use this amp as a slave, it's pretty cool too. I did that out of a yamaha solid state 100 and it riped. If you use it as a power amp, that's pretty cool too. My idea of tone is metal tone (Accept's Wolf Hoffman), so please take that for thought. Blues, Jazz, and etc. I'd have to say you could probably get a cool blues tone too (depending on your wants). Jazz and clean sounds will need different tubes. It breaks up at about 3.

Gain, tone, volume, line out. (1) 12ax7 in the pre-amp section and
(1) EL84 running the power amp. Solid state rectifier. No reverb, no
channel switching. Oh yeah, the tone knob actually adjusts THE TONE!!!!! I've been playing my whole life and this is the first amp I've
ever owned that has a tone knob that actually works. Very cool.

I am using a Jackson JRS2 Pro with a DiMarzio Super 3 in the bridge position (no neck pickup) and let me tell you, this little mutha puts out some of this most insanely satisfying Class A overdrive you will ever hear in your whole life! So good, in fact, that I had the guys at Weber
Vst (www.webervst.com) build me one of their Blue Dog 12" speakers
with an optional 50 ounce ceramic magnet (to make it super efficient,
only 5 watts ya' know) and now .......(oh ya, had to build a cab for the speaker) have plenty of power to keep up with the Marshall combo and ex-heavy metal drummer on jam night. On the downside, this amp offers VERY LITTLE in the way of clean headroom. I guess a tube change would rectify the situation but since I play mostly hard/classic ROCK!!!!, I guess I'll never know!!!. Additionally, playing at these gain and volume levels may require that you have your pickups professionally potted (waxed) as squealing may become a problem.

I've had the amp for about six months now and it seems to be fine. Owned Crate in the past (solid state) with no problems. I always use it without a backup.

I think someone in the previous reviews mentioned that Crate has a transferable 5 year warranty. Haven't has to call them yet.

If this little monster was stolen, I'd run out tomorrow and buy another one.

I know a lot of people out there are running the line out into a larger combo amp and believe me, it does sound good!! But, nothing beats the sound you get with this amp by running it through a high quality, super efficient 12"......just plain nuts!!!!!!! Good luck!!!!

Other reviews spell out what little there is to be spelled out. Cut to chase time: If you are sufficiently interested in a baby tube amp to even bother to read the reviews, just go out and buyt this amp. Don't spend more than $180,preferable $150. It's a good amp for the money. kinda brite but tubey and affordable. Get two, they're small.Just do it.

SIMPLE IS BETTER!! Three knobs,Volume,Tone and Gain.
The only complaint I really have in this catogory is that there is no reverb,thats not much of a problem, though it would help the tone a bit.If it wasn't for the reverb issue I would give it a 10.
The problem is that the tone on this amp is better than the tone on my reverb amp, so when I want reverb it kills my tone but I'll just buy a pedal for that. As far as it only being 5 watts, its the loudest 5 watts I've ever heard, plus you can run it into a bigger amp for more wattage if needed.

It sounds great! I've been playing for 5 yrs and its one of the best tones I've ever heard.I play a '57 reissue strat, and play blues.The The gain knob sounds like a naturally distorting tube amp, even at low volumes. The tone knob is kind of weird at first but very usable once you get the hang of it.This amp is able to go from jazzy to raunchy blues with one knob turn.The gain gets kind of crazy at 10, still usable though.

This amp looks pretty sturdy, it should be good as long as you don't drop it.I would use it at a gig without a backup.

Never delt with em, although I will be getting in touch with them to see if I can get the warranty card, since I bought the amp used without it.

I LOVE this amp! I would buy another if it was stolen, I may buy another one anyway:) Like I said before I wish it had reverb, but thats no big deal. For as cheap as this amp is, everybody should own one.

I entered a review of the VC508 in the "amps" section, because it's widely perceived as only a practice amp. When the "line out" jack is used, however, this little 5 watt / all tube, class A guy acts as a preprocessor for a performance amp. You set how much of a driven power tube tone you want on the 508, and that's the tone that's passed to your performance amp -- which can be solid state, if you like; it gives a great tube tone regardless. The really cool thing is that you get this tone no matter what volume you've got your performance amp set at. And you get a ton of dynamics to play with.
As for actual ease of use, there are three knobs, gain, tone, and volume. Tone and volume are easy to use, but gain is hard to set, as there's an extremely small area on the "dial" where it's hot enough to feed the power tube, but low enough to avoid pre distortion, which is to be avoided at any cost cuz it's just a crappy buzz. I've heard you can replace the 12AX7 (with a 12AU7 ??) and get around the hair-trigger gain problem.
The 508 is only 18 pounds; that's a big plus for me in the "ease of use" category.

The "line out" is unbalanced which makes me think it could be a little noisy to record with which I haven't done. I say this only to justify a score of 9, considering what I'm about to say. The 508 has revolutinized my play. I've got huge, wet, driven-power-tube sound and terrific dynamics that people can stand next to and talk *low* over. It makes playing quietly fun for everyone, and that opens up a whole range of previously unconsidered, new venues (galleries, restaurants, others). Playing loud, I sound huge, flashy and expressive. (I run the "line out" to a 150w solid state G-K, 1-12" bass amp.) I play blues and early R&B, and my sound turns heads since I started playing through the 508.

It'll go where you take it, but the '508 is not designed for touring. It's in a particle board box. I don't know what could go wrong with it, but it's not built anything like the G-K amp I use. It's got tubes, so there goes another point or two. I plan to get another for jamming guests to use at home. I don't play do-or-die gigs yet, so I doubt I'll be taking the second '508 with me.

no opinion; got it two months ago.

I made the switch to electric guitar only a couple of years ago. My wife (on electric bass) and I play as a duo: blues, early R&B, and music from Texas. The '508 has made us a significantly more interesting and employable act. It gives me confidence and makes me play better because my sound is inspiring. I play a Yamaha SA2100 (an ES335 "be" -- not wannabe). I used to play through a Blues Junior only, and the difference is night and day. Don't make a mistake and see this thing as only a practice amp. It makes a lot more sence seeing it mainly as an effect (singular intended) unit.

The VC508 can be a practice amp or a pre processor for a performance amp; that's pretty darn versatile. The single tone control has more usable settings than all three tone controls on my Blues Jr. put together. The gain knob, though, has one usable setting. A millimeter too high and you've got pre distortion which you do *not* want with this amp. A millimeter too low and the pre won't drive the power section enough. When used as a pratice amp, the volume knob controls ...ta-da, volume. When used as a preprocessor, via the "line out," the volume knob controls the amount of power tube breakup, and the amount of dynamic sensitivity. With the volume past 6 or so, the tone gets monsterously brighter and edgier with a more aggresive right hand. This is a feature that no other amp has to my knowledge, but, since this "preprocessor" setup requires a second amp, I really can't attribute the feature solely to the VC508.
The "line out" jack is also wired to be used as an insert. I use this option with an Nanoverb--there's no built-in reverb. When using it with a second amp, the 508's speaker is diconnected if your tip-sleeve plug is plugged in all the way. A partial plug-in allows both to work simultaneously.

The VC508's sound quality is severely degraded by both the size and quality of its speaker; it's unreasonable to expect otherwise in a $159 unit. I discovered Weber VST (a very cool family-owned speaker company)in another review of the VC508. I got a P8R from them as a replacement. It didn't come close to fitting in the box, so I "made room" by re-installing the chassis backwards so that the tubes and transformer protrude out the back. I constructed a chicken wire cage around the back to protect the exposed components. It sounds a *lot* better, but 1) it's still just an 8" speaker, and 2) the box is so small, there's really not much of a sound cavity to help the Weber make the sounds it's capable of. That said, though, the Weber raised the 508 to a level far above that of "practice amp." It's now makes a very funky, very driven, plenty loud, but basically "little" sound. Kind of a juke joint / country blues thing. The chicken wire is a visual compliment to the sound.
The 508's got rattles when I use it as a stand-alone, but they compliment the overall effect of the amp too.
By the way, I would not have felt so free to drill holes in this baby and turn it inside out if it cost 350 bucks. The $159 price kind of made this mod possible.
Now for the heart of the matter. When I use the 508 as a power tube-driving preprocessor (into another amp) its sound is viseral, and huge. And the whole rig is as loud, or quiet as I want -- *independent* of the level of power tube drive I've set. I've run an instrument cable from the 508's line out to a Blues Jr. and it's great, but I play rhythm and want a driving sound rather than a biting sound. (and the 508 with the volume past 6 adds a *lot* of right hand-controlled bite) I run the 508 out to a solid state, G-K single 12" 150w. bass amp. I'm not an great guitarist, but my groove is pretty deep and the tones I'm getting now make my group sound flashier, more powerful, and more fun to dance to.
I Play a Yamaha SA2100 (an ES335-style axe) into an always-on Fulltone Supra-Trem with the mix all the way down. (for cool sweetening; read my review. I'm considering not using the Supra Trem, though, cuz of the tone of my new rig.)
In case you missed it in the Features section, the gain knob is like a hair-pin trigger; it requires finesse. The pre distortion of the 508 is unusable in my opinon.
Sometimes, especially when I'm using the Nanoverb on the insert, the 508 gets noisy and has been known to pull in radio stations pretty well. That's *not* funky; I prefer the rattles. Changing rooms, Nanoverb orientation and time of day help this situation. It's been quiet lately, but I don't feel I understand how to control it. Maybe I'll try a better insert cable.

My chicken wire mod isn't the greatest. If something broke it would probably be related to the peril I've put the tubes in; and I'd play directly through the G-K bass amp (which is at the other end of the reliability spectrum). That'd be no fun, but I bet I'd get paid.
As far as the stock amp goes, I've still got vague reliability concerns--mainly having to do with the particle board (not plywood) box. It looks and feels like it won't take hits as well as I'd like. But at $159 or less, it almost qualifies as a supply item. I plan to get another and not do the speaker swap.

no opinion

I've learned a lot from reading the excellent online discussions on guitar tone (do a search on "guitar tone"). They got me hip to driving low-power power tubes. The VC508's line out option lets me scale that good tone to any volume level. I can play a quiet art gallery and sing unreinforeced, or I can play a noisy bar; either way, the sound is thick, juicy and I've got tons of right hand dynamics. It's revolutionized my sound almost as much as my decision a while ago to go electric.

The separate gain setting is real nice to have. Volume is more of a "master volume" deal. Tone control is kinda cool- unusual tone shaping full clockwise, maybe useful. Not much else in the way of features, but that's OK by me.

Basically, the amp is designed to "break up" at low sound power levels. It does just that, and it's *perfect* for playing in your living room without getting complaints from next door. It could use a better/larger speaker, and it hums a bit, but it's about what you'd expect, for what you pay. The mild-overdrive sounds are best (nice and bluesy), the hard-overdrive settings are not a real useful sound (to me)- sort of buzzy. Not a lot of bass output, but what can you expect from that small speaker?

This *IS* the backup amp. How stupid am I?

Wow- transferable 5-year warranty, made and serviced in the U.S, mfr stil in business.... Does it get any better than this?

Good little box, good value for the bucks, just don't pay tooooo much for it. I use it from a stereo output of a Korg G3 processor (the other channel goes to an Elliott Velocette), it really rounds out the Velocette tone by adding 3-D "space".

this amp was made in 1998. i use it to record on my 4 track. it features a single channel, 5 watt tube amp with a volume, gain, and tone control as well as a line out. i wanted an old fender champ but this was cheaper and i was suprised by the sound.

i use this with a ibanez roadstar with a single coil and a humbucker. i would like to hear this with a single coil bridge pick up. the humbucker sounds pretty heavy. for a 5 watt amp, the clean channel is pretty clean. but when you crank the gain up, the dirty is a little too processed sounding. it sounds like a crate if you know what i mean

i'm a bass player but i let my guitar players check it out and they love it. if you're looking for an inexpensive yet nice sounding practice amp. buy it. it's all tube, as compared to all the other solidstate alternatives

Lets not go into all that again - all the info in the other reviews...

I was using it for a practice amp until I picked up my VibroChamp. I then traded it to Alex of Zachary Guitars. His opinion was (and I quote):

"This is the worst amp I've ever heard, but I like it in some strange way. It sounds like crap, but cool crap. I think it was designed by the janitor at Crate."

I don't think anyone else is likely to sum it up better than that :-)

This amp was made in 98. I've checked out the info on the net from the Harpheads and picked it up for $150 bucks. The deal went down after I priced a Fender Super Champ at $350 to $400 bucks. I think Fender could sell Corn Flakes in a Black Faced box for $35.00 a pop. For what I paid I cant complain. Ive swapped the AX7 out for an AU and really like the harp sounds I get. I use a Danecho pedal or a Alesis Nanoverb and it sounds cool, even with my Telecaster. Ive taken it to Open Mic jams and used a 57 to the pa and it gets the job done for harp.

Sounds like a small tuber should, cant complain. Ive been playing an old American made Fender Bullet Tele thru it with different effects and its really cool. With some tweeking you can get about any sound youre looking for at a nice volume.

Cant say , but it appears to be well made.The tube location is a pain as has been mentioned.

Never called them.

Been playing a long time, I think its a better value than the solid state amps in this price range. For a practice amp, if you care how you sound this amp is a good value. I think its a good way for beginners to learn the tube thing, do some swaping and hear the difference.

this is a five watt tube amp with an eight inch celestion speaker. It has gain, tone, and volume knobs. There is a headphone out that can also function as an effects loop and a line out. no standbye switch or speaker extension jack. the tone knob is actually well thought out. instead of being like the tone knob on a guitar, it boosts mids towards one end, and cuts mids at the other end.

I play(ed) this amp with a Heritage H-535 semi-hollowbody guitar with humbucking pickups. My main styles are rock and blues. One word desctibes the sounds that you can get from this amp, CRAP!!! the clean sounds makes my guitar sound like it coming out of an antique phonograph. it has a a decent rhythm sound, but it sounds weak and thin. the distored sound is worse. i don't know how this could possibly be a tube amp. even when I had the amp on full volume, which is where the magic is supposed to happen, it sounded bad. it was just unusable. it gave my leads a really harsh, almost ocave-up sound that was very unpleasant. chords sounded thin and blatty. If a trashy sound is what you want, then this is where you'll find it.

I had it for two weeks before I sent it back. It worked.

I've played guitar for 5 years through several different amps, none of which were very expensive. The reason I bought it was that it was a tube amp and it was the least expensive one out there for it's size. I really should have tried it out before I bought it, but I figured that it would be good, because all of the reviews here were positive. I guess that I learned my lesson. In my opinion, this amp is worthless. It's cheaply made (the cabinet is painted plywood, the pot shafts are flimsly plastic, and the knobs are chome colored plastic as well), is sounds bad, and it's not very versatile. I bought it to replace my Squier 15 practice amp which I bought for 30 bucks. Sadly, my squier amp sounds better than it. I also play through a carvin belair, and a mesa/boogie studio .22+. I knew that it definitly wouldn't sound as good or as big as either of these amps, but I didn't think that it would make my solid state p.o.s. squier sound halfway decent. the lesson to be learned here is: try an amp before you buy it, and don't buy this amp. I sent it back after two weeks and got a full refund. maybe I got a dud? I hope so, because I don't see how crate can sell these amps.

This is a brand new 5 watt tube combo with an 8" Celestion speaker. It has Gain, Tone and Volume controls.

I play an American Standard Stratocaster loaded with EMG SA pickups through this amp. For what it is - a low cost no frills low power tube amp - this little amp really gives you some great sounds. On the clean side, you can't get much volume without it breaking up, but miking it up produces some very nice results. Nothing to really brag about here, but I like it for what it is. On the dirty side, this little amp really earns its keep. If you crank the gain, crank the volume and crank your guitar, you will get the creamiest, most satisfying overdrive that you can imagine. I am blown away by the sheer "about to explode" tube cooking overdrive that this little monster puts out. Once again, mike it up with a 57 and you really have something to play with.

Probably. I push it hard every time, so I think it'll melt down one day. Until then... who cares?

I have to keep qualifying all of this with "for what it is" because if you put it in perspective that this is a low cost no frills amp, the satisfaction level with respect this amp's tone is very high. I wouldn't trade this amp for anything (within reason) and if it melted down or disappeared, I would have to replace it. Simply put, it's a cranked up in your face tone machine in a 5 watt black box.

With all the talk about changing the tubes, I changed the speaker to a Webers 15 watt C12R in use with Crates VC508 5 watt amp, I just unconnected the 8 inch speaker and ran the wire out to connect to the 1x12 speaker cab straight to C12R speaker. And brothers I've seen the light!! The 5 watt Crate had no problem at all pushing the 15 watt C12R speaker, in fact I've backed off all the amp settings in half, and now I have plenty of volume and tone to play with, I can work very clean to overdirve just from the guitars pickup volume easily. Even my tone settings on the guitar I have backed off.. Mean I have beautiful sounding bass,, bass,, bass,, all I want at the touch of my guitars tone settings. In which I couldn't get from the 8 inch speaker, even with all the guitar settings open full. Conclusion the 15 watt C12R speaker is loud, very full sound with out the over kill in bass, the highs and lows are very clear. With clean tone clarity and all the crunch just waiting to kick in at the touch of the guitars volume. In use with the VC-508 this setup is a winner and I still can just reconnect the amps 8 inch speaker if I want to travel around with it.

I just want to add my remedy to solving the rattle sound coming out from the amp. I realized that the chasis cover was vibrating against the metal chasis. I noticed when the rattle was going, and as I pressed my hands out against the chasis cover the rattle went away.
Remedy: Very simple. I took out the chasis cover and put black duct tape on the edge of the cover (facing the chasis) but left the screw holes there. I did the same on the top and bottom (facing the chasis cover) of the chasis.
After trying that out, I tested out the amp and the rattle from the chasis was solved. There's still a very slight rattle coming out from the speaker though, but it's pretty normal so I left it be.

Discussed in depth in other reviews, but as one below states, the Line Out is this amp's most critical feature, and Crate scores big points for having the foresight to include it. Other than that, you get a bare-bones tube amp, but I also think that the Tone knob is especially cool because it does far more than just increase the treble or add bass - it's almost like having a variety of tone presets, which is better than it sounds because they're all useable. I'm only giving it a 6 because compared to other multi-channel amps with reverb and effects built-in, it's pretty sparse.

I use an Am. Strat (don't know the exact model) with HS-3's, which make it less bright than a standard strat with SC's. On it's own, I think the 508 sounds very good - pretty much what you'd expect from an 8" speaker: not much bass response, and it's pretty midrangey, but in a good way. The tone control, as mentioned above, provides a nice range of useful sounds. Also, this amp is plenty loud for a practice amp - I live in an apartment, so I generally don't get above 1.5 on the volume, and it does very well at lower volumes.
This is a pretty high-gain rig, as others have mentioned, but the clean sounds are very nice as well. My favorites are the mildly-dirty blues tones that this thing produces - very dynamic and responsive. Max out the gain, and the distortion is too buzzy for my tastes, but I fixed that with a tube change.
Following the lead of others, I asked around, and someone turned me on to JJ tubes (www.eurotubes.com), so I replaced the original Sovtec's with a JJ EL84 and 12ax7 with tremendous results. The amp now sounds much rounder and sweeter, and the distortion is much smoother. I still don't use the thing with the gain cranked, but that's more a matter of personal taste.
Now, as others have also mentioned, the real beauty of this amp comes from slaving it through something bigger. I also have a 2x10 Epiphone solid state stereo chorus amp (decent sounding for SS, and the chorus is fantastic). I give the sound a 10 using it in this fashion. Basically this gives me added tonal flexibility, reverb, chorus, and really sweet tube tone at low volumes. I haven't had this much fun playing guitar in a long time! I really couldn't be happier.

I bought it used, and it was a year old when I bought it. The guy I bought it from seemed to have taken very good care of it, so I think that goes a long way toward making gear last (it seems obvious, but we've all seen how some people treat their stuff). I've only had it a few months, but no problems yet. Seems well built, though, and I actually like the look and feel of the painted particle-board cabinet - seems tough enough.

Haven't had to deal with them, but I like the fact that I have 4 years of the warranty left on the thing. It's a nice deal that Crate allows it to transfer with ownership.

The vc508 is a nice way to get your tube tone fix without shelling out tons of money. Sure, you can buy better amps, but not without paying for it. My only gripe, really, is the difficult tube access - but it's a 15 minute process, and I don't plan on changing them very often.
If it was stolen, I'd definitely look into getting another one. I've been playing for 15 years or so, and currently I'm not playing in a band, so this fits my needs perfectly - great for the living room and definitely loud enough for jams (especially if you slave it). My Strat has never sounded better.
If you're looking for a cheap, simple tube amp, I think that this is is hard to beat. Again, it is what it is, and it's not really fair to compare this to low-wattage boutique amps, as some have done. It's good on it's own, but great through a larger amp. I'm completely satisfied.

This is an update of my previous review. Just wanted to mention a couple observations, the first of which being recording with this amp close miked. Despite it's lack of bass, the little 8" speaker miked up great and sounded AMAZING on tape! Big bottom and all! I didn't have to add any additional bass on the board, just get the mike in the right spot on the speaker. I was pleasantly surprised. I may be using this to record a CD. The other thing that I wanted to mention (or warn you about) is taking the line out straight into the PA. IT DOESN'T WORK! Oh it works, but sounds HORRIBLE! On the other hand, I sent the line out into my Peavey XR600C PA head, and from there into my guitar speaker cabinet with excellent results. I've been reading everywhere about these amps, yet almost no one mentions anything about using the line out to go into a bigger amp. Everyone seems to want to add an external speaker jack, one guy asked about putting a mike on the Crate, and running the mike into his bigger transistor guitar amp. It doesn't seem to dawn on anyone that you can use the line out to go into a more powerful amp. I haven't tried lining in direct to the recorder, and after trying it into a PA with bad results, I don't think that it'll work well like that. Then again, you never know until you try. Up until yesterday, I'd been doing all of my home recording with a SansAmp GT2. Although it's noisier, the basic tone of the amp was so much better when miked up for recording. Also, in regards to getting to the tubes, just unscrew the top screws, on the side of the amp, leaving the bottom screws semi-tight. That way, the chassis will just flop down, but remain connected, and will rest, albeit at an angle, for easier tube replacement. I removed the 12AX7 and replaced it with a 12AT7. That smoothed out the distortion somewhat, and just made it blusier. I may try a 12AY7 next. I can't say enough good things about this amp.

Features? What features? Actually, this amp has all that I'd require for a small tube amp. As they say, the more junk in the signal path, the more it eats your tone. The most important feature, and not many people comment on this, is the line out. I've been complaining for years that no one would make a small tube amp with a line out for going into a bigger amp. I've always had to make my own line outs.

I'm using a Telecaster mainly, and occasionally a Strat. On it's own, the Crate sounds pretty good considering the small cabinet size, and questionable speaker (even though it say's "Celestion" on the speaker - that doesn't necessarily save it). I like the tone control, although some don't. But, the real surprise, as pointed out below, is when you plug a guitar cord into the line out, and plug the other end into a bigger amp - EVEN A SOLID STATE AMP, as long as it's set for maximum clean, and crank the VC508's volume all the way up, and set the gain, and tone to taste. You get a beautiful output stage distortion, which can be turned down by turning the bigger amps volume down, without sacrificing the tone. FAR better than using attenuators, overdrive pedals, etc.

I can't say at this point, as I just bought it. I opened it up to find out how to get to the tubes, which is a REAL hassle, and thought that it looked pretty ruggedly built. Tubes are PC mounted, which you can expect at this price point. I may run a fan behind the amp onstage for extra ventilation.

I can't say about this either.

I've been using a Peavey Classic 20, with my homemade line out, to send into my stage amp (Sovtek Mig-50 head into a 4X10 cab). Upon trying the Crate out in the music store, and also trying it out through a big amp (I tried it through the clean channel of a transistor 2X12 Crate combo), I decided to buy this and put my Peavey up for sale. This is EXACTLY what I've been looking for in a small tube combo. My next experiment will be trying a 12AT7 in place of the 12AX7.

(1) EL84 power tube, (1) 12AX7 preamp, solid state recitifer, single input channel, effects loop input, volume, tone, gain - thank god there's no stupid-ass reverb! A basic 5watt RMS tube amp, with strong 8" speaker, that's a bundle of good tone in a small, compact, lightweight (18#) package. Perfect for practice, fine for the club scene if miked. The modern answer to the vintage Champ.

Used for everything from fingerstyle jazz to picked hard rock, and whatever in between. It's got that vintage tube tone. I plug in my own custom Strat copy that's loaded with Duncan Vintage Rails, or an old Alvarez cutaway dreadnaught with a passive piezo bridge p/u, and now lately a Heritage H575 Custom hollow body with Duncan '59s. I can coax mellow, articulate, clean jazz tones or easily get a raspy blues voice by tweaking the volume, level and tone pots. It's a pretty versatile, realtively quiet, little workhorse amp.

I've not subjected this amp to gigging or road travel, so, dunno. Suspect it should hold up okay and long as it's not dropped off a van onto the concrete road. :-(

5 year warranty. Not needed yet, after a year.

Been playing for over 4 decades. Ownd LOTS of amps and guitars. My current main amp is a Holland, which is superb but a bit too powerful for in-house practice and jamming - and that's where the VC508 shines. If it were to get stolen or crap out I'd buy another in a flash (actually, I did buy a 2nd as a backup and to leave in the "studio").

I give this a low features rating only because it very limited (see other reviews for specs), but this is in no way a bad thing! This amp is modeled after the old small-wattage 50's style Champs, but with a few modern features. Suffice it to say that the configuration they came up with is just about perfect for what this amp is designed to do: get 1 or 2 GREAT sounds, and get them RIGHT. For the money, I can't argue with them. Can you do better for an amp this size? Of course. Victoria's version is beatiful, but get ready to leave with a much lighter wallet!

I'm playing a couple of G&L's (ASAT Classic, and a Legacy) for my tele and strat fix, and a couple older Ibanez's (1978 335 style box and a '84 Artist "LP" style solidbody). ALL of these sound great with this amp.
Since I'm primarily a blues player, this amp gets that sweaty, class-A tone that I like for blues. Unfortunately, at 5 watts, it's too light for most gigs. Now, here's the cool thing: my main amp is a '74 "blackfaced" Super Reverb that's got gorgeous tone -- it's just too bloody loud by the time I reach it! Well, I now plug into the 508, and take the line out to the main input on the S/R and voila! Class-A tube tone at a beefier volume (and with that nice S/R bottom end), plus all the other features of my Super (drippy reverb, vibrato, extra warmth from the Super's tubes). Now, I can dial in that "just right" warm, power tube distortion, without taking off any heads!
If you haven't tried this yet, and you don't require a channel switching situation, you might find this remedy to be the ticket to getting great tone at a sane volume level.

I've only had it for a couple days, and I bought it used, so we'll see. I popped it open though, and I was very impressed with their work inside. Don't care for how hard it is to get to the tubes, though. You have to take the damn thing apart to get to 'em! Makes tube "tasting" not so easy. Anyway, seems rugged enough, as far as I can tell.

Can't answer to this, as I've never had to deal with them. I have heard that they strive to be very customer service oriented, though.

I would definitely buy another one if this were lost of stolen. For the money you pay, you're getting some nice, juicy, USABLE blues and roots tones. Metal-heads can get that "scooped mids" sound too, but I can't comment too much here, as that stuff doesn't really float my boat. They probably wouldn't like it that much.
There isn't much I don't like, except maybe the goofy way you have to access the tubes, and the pained particle board, but that's just nit-picking. Some will disagree, but I for one am GLAD it does not have reverb! It would just suck the tone, and that's what this amp was made for: TONE. Just take the line-out, and go into your main amp's input, and use the reverb there.

New 5 watt tube amp with essentially no features except a tone knob and an annoying rattle. If you want a lot of features, you will not want this amp. On the other hand, if you want tube tone at non-deafening volumes, you might want this amp.

The VC508 has a very thin sound, even for a 5-watter. I was looking for a small tube amp the could overdrive without killing the cat, but I found the Crate to be too small. While its overdrive does sound "tubey," it lacks depth and somehow seemed artificial. Others might like it, but it doesn't suit my tastes. It also came with a severe rattle right out of the box, which seems to be a common complaint with these amps (apparently, it's not hard to fix, but I don't want to have to fix rattles). The VC508 has essentially no clean headroom, but I think the amp handles effects reasonably well. On full overdrive, the amp had a pretty timid crunch to it. Pantera lovers would wince and whine. The amp is fairly transparent, and the differences between my '80 Les Paul Custom and my '97 American Standard Strat were readily apparent, unlike on a lot of solid state amps.

I "tried out" the amp for a month before returning it to Musician's Friend. As noted, it rattled. Otherwise, it seemed sturdy. However, I never dropped it off any cliffs.

I returned the VC508, saved for a while and bought a TopHat Club Royale, an 18-watter all-tube sweetheart that is slightly too loud for my purposes but absolutely destroys the Crate in tone. The volume problem is difficult for folks like me who want to have an amp for the living room. I've decided the 5 watt amps sound too thin for my purposes, even the Fender Champs. But for those who like 5-watters with rattles, the Crate VC508 may be for you, particularly since old Champs are often priced out of this world. The tone of the VC508 is decent for the price.

This is a follow up to my 2/15/99 review regarding a cabinet and speaker modification.
I just completed the new box. It sounds awesome and much better than the original.
I feel perhaps I should have tried the vintage style Celestion, Eminence or Jensen speaker since they are super stiff but the little amp probably would not be able drive those as well at saturation/full volume on the amp side. This new speaker is much smoother and less heavy in the mid tones and thus a quite successful project all in all.
The original 8" speaker sounds pretty good for what it is. Remember the price and cabinet size is what Crate wanted to achieve. I am really anal about this stuff. I love to take stuff apart and make it as good as you can get it and I feel I have almost accomplished this with the amp. I went to the extreme of making it look forties Vintage with wood speaker grill, used "chicken head" knobs, and diamond checkered speaker cloth. I am now searching for the right handle... as you can see I am a kook for this stuff!
To answer most buyers questions: 1-Buy the amp and love it, 2-build the box or buy a 12" or 2x12" 8 ohm cabinet someday when your cash rich or have time. Or you could just buy the Fender Blues Junior (in tweed!) and get it over with!! I found the BJ on the net for $262 plus shipping once. Its an awesome amp except for the reverb, its heavy, too loud for practice and not loud enough against most drummers. The Crate VC508 is better only due to price, size, WEIGHT and fact its much lower power lets you turn up and saturate the power amp section with out the police and /or divorce attorneys involvement, to get "that Tone".

Its a little noisy but its always being driven to get "that tone"!

See the other reviews. Tone, volume, gain, Y-line out, cheesy particle board cabinet and a very cool purple jewel light! All you need except reverb. Mine came shipped with Solvtec tubes AX7 and a El 84. I replaced them - see below. Mine was also a Factory Second with cosmetic flaw and full 5 year warranty. I never saw any flaw and it was a killer deal from Lentines.

Great!! Superb small amp. Loud for 5 watts. I replaced the the tubes with NOS RCA AY7 and a JAN Phillips 6BQ5 as advised by Mike at KOS Amps. A great mod as it is much smoother and sweeter and Fender-like. I found the gain came on too fast and the power amp was not "sweet" "creamy" or what ever you want to call it prior to this mod. I stole this amp so a $35 mod was not an issue. I am a bedroom shemp so this suits my blues and 70's rock too the T. It has lots of tones and I add what ever I want with a Korg Pandora for extra racket as needed. Eight inch speaker sucks but is perfest for the little box. I am building a larger (Blues Junior size) more rigid cabinet and loading the guts to this in it with a 12 Eminence. I am a tweak geek and should practice more and tweak less but I'll post results someday.

Great so far - 3 months. Cabinet will not take pounding but perfect for a usually stationary practise amp.

Called Crate and they got right back to me re: notorious cabinet buzz. They offered no known fix but the Jan. review guy has the twenty five cent remedy.

Buy this amp if you can get it under $185 and don't need to use it as more than your practice/recording amp. It rocks and will make a great Harp amp if miked. Actually, it would look really funny but miked you could use this little amp at a gig!!! It has a superb vintage sound. I'd give it a tens all the way down except for the kinda whimpy speaker. Its actually a OK for an 8 inch but people (me) try to compare it to a Blues Jr. or Pro Jr. so its not fair. If I had more money, a larger house, more sympathetic wife and needed a amp to play out with I'd get the over priced Blues Jr. For my needs the VC 508 is awesome as it came, even better with tube mod and maybe mind blowing with a bigger speaker, I hope.

Basic, all-tube amp: gain, tone, volume, single-channel, line-out, no reverb, no stand-by switch. Line-out doubles as an effects loop, but requires a Y-connector (1/4" stereo male to two 1/4" mono males).
I wish it had a reverb...

Sounds great! I'm playing a Guild solidbody with a "PAF" style humbuckers and coil-taps, and play blues and blues-rock.
The "gain" knob provides anything from clean to rich, thick, heavy distortion, with lots of room in between. It gets MUCH dirtier and crunchier than a Fender Pro Junior or Blues Junior, but does not get muddy. Even with gain on 8 or 9, notes still have a sharp attack and good definition.
The "tone" control is very effective. Set between 5 and 10, it progressively boosts both high and low. Going from 5 down to 1 boosts the mid-range. Setting it on 10 provides a scooped-mid sound. Going down to about 3 gives a pure, Fender-like sound. This amp produces LOTS of different sounds.
The only negative is that the 8" speaker does not produce very rich bass response, as you might guess. However, the speaker does sound well matched to the amp. And, using the "line-out" allows me to drive other speakers with it, and then it sounds even better!

I'm guessing a "7" based upon perceived build quality, and my past experience with a 20 year old Crate "CR-1" amp.

I have not used Crate's customer service, so I have not experience here.

For me, this amp is excellent. I chose it because it can sound great at home/basement volume levels. I've been playing for about 20 years, so I've used lots of different amps. This one not only sounds great, but it is amazingly versitile in terms of the wide range of DIFFERENT sounds I can get from it. Plus, it's small, inexpensive, and nice looking!
I would recommend this amp to anyone. I bet that if you go get one, you'll find yourself playing around with this little amp more than your other "real" amps...

I was loking for a low wattage tube amp and ran across the Crate VC508. A very affordable and unique little box. I contains an 8 inch Celestion speaker a 12ax7 Groove tube and a EL84 Groove tube. What more could a guy ask for?

I like the overdriven sound of the 70's. This little amp brought my guitar to life. I have been using solid state and digital stuff for decades. I can finally use my volume and tone knobs and they actually do something. The amp provides a warmth that I felt I just couldn't quite get with the solid state stuff. Although the amp lacks channel switching, patching in my RP1 through the Line Out really works well. I put my RP1 (Digital Processor) in storage 3 years ago because it always sounded so sterile. This little bugger really warms it up, and now I'm using it again. This thing can really crunch when driven and it is surprisingly loud.

Seems well built, I took it apart to see, they put a strap across the tube to hold it in place. I have read and experienced that buzzing noise at higher volumes and fixed it myself. I took black rubber faucet washers and placed them under the washers on the external screws. I also put the same washers on the screws that hold the metal grill in place, between the grill and the case. Cost of fix .$0.25. No more buzz, Crate take note.

I have owned Crate products before with no problems, I hope this will be the same.

I have been messing with the guitar for 30 years or so. This amp takes me back to the pre solid state era, without emptying my wallet. I really like this amp and would quicky replace it if something happened. I like the idea of keep it simple and the cost will follow.

This is a new tube amp. It's very versatile for the music I'm playing (rock, blues jazz-rock), although the live performance versatility is limited by the single channel nature of the amp. It has 3 controls: gain, tone, and volume. The effects loop is called "line out" and requires a male stereo 1/4" plug to 2 mono male female jacks adapter for use. It doesn't have reverb, but with my Alesis Midiverb II, it sounds unbelievable! I don't need any more power for my practice use, but I would mike it for live use.

I'm playing a Japanese strat with stock pickups through it, and I LOVE the tone! I'm running the strat through a DOD compressor into the main input, with a Midiverb II in the effects loop. I can get the best clean strat tone I've ever had with any amp, as well as insane, meaty overdriven tones. The clean sound is limited to lower volumes, which of course can be miked for volume. And there's enough gain available for distortion to a level that is most likely high enough for any reasonable person. The tone control is very useful. Counter-clockwise gives you more midrange, clockwise dials up both bass and treble. I love the way the tone sounds at the mid-point. I am truly in "tone heaven" with this amp.

No info. It's really new.

I called SLM in St. Louis and got an opinion right away on a slight buzzing sound I noticed at high volumes. This is not a hum, it's a rattle caused by something vibrating. I took the amp to guitar center, and they tightened up the screws, which seems to help. I liked the fact that I did not have to go through a "phone tree" to reach technical support, nor did I have to wait at all to speak with someone.

I've been playing for 24 years, and I've owned many amps, admittedly none were expensive (mostly Peavey, but I've had Roland also). I've played through tons of amps, including the Fender Hot Rods, which are very similar to this amp as far as tone. The main thing for me is TONE, and this amp is completely satisfying and inspiring to play through. The only thing I don't really like about this amp is that it is just particle board painted black. But I figure, for the price-tone ratio, you can't expect an expensive cabinet.

Designed to be basic and simple to use. Wish it had reverb, otherwise no complaints. The tone control takes some getting used to but is extremely versatile once you figure it out (Fender to Marshall and all points in between). This amp is strictly for practice and , lately, recording which has been a big suprise, a good suprise. If mic'd properly, a little reverb,a little delay, my Les Paul DCS: stand back, prints like a Marshall to tape. try it.

basically a practice and now a recording amp. Haven't tried using it at a gig with line out or into a bigger amp. who knows? from what I can see so far, it probably would work. One noted "characteristic": not much clean headroom above gain set on 3, master volume on 10. It would be nice if it could go a little longer before breaking up. One other thing: annoying buzz somewhere inside (I took the first one back for this same reason). I have opened it up, tightened it up, and may be about to "give up" and try one more from the store. Anyone know why this is happening?? At louder volumes, recording at high gain, etc., it is not noticeable but at lower practice volumes it is little things like this that become a major pain in the ass. Maybe Crate will do fix. Mine is one of the first production units so maybe this has already been take care of.

Too early to tell (except for already mentioned annoying internal buzz).

Been playing 30 years, partner in a vintage guitar store, played lots of stuff. For a practice combo and for the money, this is a bargain even compared to "vintage" or new "boutique" gear. It takes some getting used to the tone control and balance between gain and volume. Once done, you will probably make this a keeper considering what you paid for it. Many solid state practice amps, including Crates own products, have a tighter and louder clean channel. However, when this amp warms up, you will be pleasantly suprised at the harmonic overtones coming from the stock Celestion speaker (a real nice touch other companies should take note of) and class A EL-84. P.S.: I traditionally dislike Crate gear (Fenders rule): however, its' never to late to learn something new. This amp was an eye opener.

Gain, tone and volume knobs. On/Off switch. Single EL84 power tube running in class A, single 12ax7 preamptube, solid state rectifier. Preamp out jack. One eight inch Celestion speaker. Tone knob sounds best at 5 (12 o'clock), turing it to the left from this position boosts mids, turing it the other way boosts highs and lows, but any deviation from 5 results in a muddier sound. It's a loud five watts. For an amp of this size, power and price, features are more than adequate (after all, the old tweed champs which this is loosely based on had only a volume knob which doubled as an on/off switch as well).

Even with the master volume on 10, there was little clean headroom in this amp. Distortion starts in with the gain level at about 3, and significantly increases from there. Lots of saturation on tap once the gain level is above 4 or 5, and feedback is attainable even with an American Standard Strat's single coil pickups if gain is above 7 or 8. A Les Paul with Duncan Antiquity humbuckers results in heavier distortion and feedback. Nice if you're really into heavy distortion, but a bit much for my taste. Both my guitars started losing their character very quickly, and there was not the kind of sweetness i was hoping to find even at lower gain settings. Little difference in sounds of neck or bridge pickups once gain was above 4 or 5.

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Not a bad amp for the money, but not for my tastes. I shipped it back after about 1 to 2 hours of playing it. I considered trying to substitute a lower gain 12at7 or 12au7 for the higher gain 12ax7 preamp tube, but decided against fooling around with it as the basic sound I wanted just wasn't there. I'm still looking for a small 5 or 6 watt amp which has a tiny bit more natural gain than a blackface champ, but not nearly as much as this. Some of the tweed champ replicas by Fender-copy companies such as Victoria or Clark might fit the bill (I tried the Kendrick version, but found it too clean), but they are expensive ($600 to $700). Mark Baier of Victoria played one over the phone for me one day (with the optional reconed Jensen), and even over the phone, it sounded great. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.

The Crate VC-508 is a all tube amplifier. It is a single channel, all tube (5) watt screaming tone machine.It has one (8) inch speaker, one EL-84 and 0ne 12AX7 tube and it weighs (18) pounds. It comes with these controls, gain,tone, and volume control.I use this amp for practice in my bedroom and for gigs in small venues.It also has a line out feature.

I use this amp for playing blues and boogie style harmonica.I use a "Shaker Dynamic Harmonica Microphone" with this amp backed two clicks from full throttle. I set the amp controls as follows:gain between four and five, tone between one and two, and the volume between two and three.No kidding, this is the amp of my deams,it distorts in a very smooth and creamy way instead of too harsh or edgey.I think this the best little amp on the market,when i tried it out at the music store a old mailman came over and sais that it sounded like the old amp that like the old amps he use to hear harp players use back in the old days at Juke Joints when he was younger!It sounds as good to me as my "Matchless" considering it's size.
The only problem is the tubes are hard to access.

I only have had it one month.

I called Crate when i got home and they were helpfull very and called back two days later to make sure that i was doing ok with it !

I would definitely buy again, i compared to many other small amps and for harmonica blues,this is the one.

All-tube 5 watt (five!) practice amp, 8" Ceseltion speaker. (1) 12AX7 in the Pre-amp, (1) EL84 in the power amp. Came equiped with Sovtek tubes. Volume, Gain, Tone - Line Out/Effects insert that's it. This little amp is a flashback to the low-end tube-era practice amps. Think "old" and "cheap." The all-metal grille, "vintage" crate logo and purple (!) jewel power-on light add to it's charm. Feature rating is based on features vs price. Then think how those old, cheap amps are commanding premo prices on the "vintage" market. Painted particle board construction (I said Cheap!) and all-metal grill. I have only had a week, but since no info on this amp was available, I thought I'd do an initial post and follow up later.

I bought this as an alternative to the Fender Blues Junior or Pro Junior. I was primarily interested in a small, all-tube practice amp that sounded good at low levels. Even the 15 watts of the Fenders was a bit much. With the VC508 you get the gain control for distortion that is absent form the Pro Junior, but it lacks the reverb of the Blues Junior. But then again it's roughly 75 bucks less than the Pro junior and 180 less than the Blues junior. I play it with a Fender Am. Standard. Strat at moderate to low volumes. It absolutly sounds better than ANY small transistorized practice amp I've played. It is relatively noise-free. The distortion is so-so, but remember, I haven't cranked it up yet (Damn this apartment life!)"2" on the volume knob is plenty loud, and I have a hunch this little amp can put out a surprising amount of volume for it's wattage and size. The tone control is kinda funky- the center is neutral, the right is a boots to highs AND lows, to the left is a mid boost. This actually works pretty well, but takes a little getting used to. My rating is based on A) Low volumes and B) Price.

I had it disasembled within an hour of owning it - by choice. The PCB looks like any other practive amp, but with the inclusion of sockets for the tubes. Tube swapping should be a 15 minute job. The amp is class A and self-biasing, so you won't need proffesional service to change tubes. I would guess it will be as reliable as any practice amp - with the added variable of tube reliability in general. The painted particle board cabinet will undoubtedly ding up. Big deal. Buy a permanent marker. Rating is based on construction and warranty at this point as I haven't had it that long.

Good so far. I called Crate immediately to see if the amp needed biasing when tubes were replaced, (I wanted to put in some premium tubes), They returned my call with in an hour. 5 year warranty on the amp, 90 days on tubes.

When you consider that a crappy practice amp will easily set you back $75-125, I think 180 for a cool all-tube job it worth it. I have a long history of disliking Crate amps, primarily because my experience was limited to the cheap transistor practice amps. I am a Fender bigot. However, this little amp changed me. It's essentially 80% of a comperable Fender amp for half the price. Or more precisely, it's that exhorbitantly priced $400 used "vintage" gem in a "vintage" shop for a lot less money (and none of the "prestige".) I know the amp has been available for as low as $169 - I had the instant gratification thing going. I'll re-submit an Eval after I re-tube with premium tube and have had the sucker cranked up to it's full 5 watt (!) potential.