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.