I've been playing the 120 watt combo version for 26 years through a late 80's Randall cab.Never given me problems. Traded a $15 bag of weed for it. Best deal on gear of my life. It's a filthy death metal weapon.
I worked there from '94 until the St Louis facility closed in '03. I can tell you that this, and every, Crate amp that came as a head and a combo were exactly the same, just mounted upside-down. Your combo is electronically identical to the head. Same goes for all of the Ampeg stuff (built in the same factory). As I recall, what killed the VH140C and the GX130C was the sudden lack of availability of the chip that drove that incredible built-in chorus. We couldn't find anyone else to make it at a reasonable cost, so they got dropped from the product lines. Shame, as both were really good amps.
The Stealth Series were from the Lee Jackson era, which was before I was there. We were still building his Ampeg VL-502 and VL-1002 amps when I started, but only for a short while. As for the XLs, I don't know that there was any real difference. The specs are the same from the manuals, and the XL manual even has a graphic inside showing the 130C front panel. As far as I know, they're the same amp, only with different graphics on the chassis. There are other examples of that, too. All of the GX and MX series are the same, with the MX having a different name and different chassis graphics made specifically for Guitar Center. I think the MXs may have had different Tolex as well. Electronically, though, they are all the same. Most of the Audio Centron PA equipment was rebranded as Crate Pro Audio products for the South American market that recognized the Crate name but not AC. Same stuff, different name. There was some other intermingling, too. The Audio Centron RMA-1600, Crate SPA-1600, and Ampeg SVP-1600 were all the same amplifier, just with different graphics.
@@pauljsmith2113 I bought a combo amp of the gx130c for £25 of ebay. And I love it. A lot of ppl would say crate were not that great, but the gx130c was perhaps the only one that gave crate justice.
I had one back in the early 90's with a Marshall 4x12 and it was a beast master... I used a Boss Heavy metal stacked on a 7 band graphic equalizer as a boost and it had so much chug, it would make your average person lose control of their bowels and crap their pants.
@@TaylorDanley a honorable mention should be the Crate MXR65 1x12, made in USA. The exact same pre amp, but a single 65 watt power amp. I found it at a pawn shop for $45.00....
Budget and availability play huge roles in why a lot of this music gear becomes popular. You stated it exactly. Most of our favorite artists don't even remember what they were using on a specific tour and/or recording - Unless a company paid them enough to remember. Edit for spelling.
Very well said. And very few of them had any endorsements in the early days of a bands life, so yeah, like you said they probably don’t remember what they used. Probably the producer had a slightly better amp than the band and they all used that. The bigger they got the better the gear got. Haha nowadays you can record yourself and sound phenomenal with a couple hundred dollar plugin. Crazy how things have changed.
I just scored one for $99 at my local guitar shop. Knew exactly what it was as soon as I saw it. I had a VH-140c a few years back that I loved and regret selling to this day but super glad i found this
No way this thing is worth $999 or even the $650 that's on Reverb now. I've been told CC used them intermittently during the first 4 albums and used a Boss MT-2 in the FX loop, again nothing factually backed up. I got mine, a GX-130C, for like $300. It now needs worked on, recapped due to age, etc, but it's DEFINITELY worth that much to me. Even by your song, that's the sound I LOVE. It's filthy in all the right ways. If you can get a good deal on one, go for it, but sweet baby jesus don't spend a grand on it!
Totally agree with all this. And yes, I wonder too about Cannibal Corpse since it's so hard to find any interviews or anything where these are mentioned. Like I said in the video, if they did use them, it seems to me to be a "best bang for the buck" sort of deal... but I could be wrong!
They used them on studio recordings and playing live. Especially Jack Owen. It wasn’t just on the first 4 albums either as Jack used Crate on Gallery of Suicide as well which is a spectacular album with great tone.
Taylor thanks for reviewing this old gear. It's a super fun and enlightening trip down memory lane for a middle aged metal kid such as myself. Props and keep up the great work!
I love seeing the studio secret(s) reveals… so many cork sniffers claiming expensive gear is what you need to get to where you want. Ampeg and Crate were basically the same company and at the heart of the American death metal scene along with Peavey. Swedish death metal were Peavey bandits and Boss pedals… not what we saw generally on tours, but what we celebrated and were the sound of the recordings, and as a guy who has had a studio for a couple of decades - it’s just great to see and hear that cheap gear still rules… although once the secret get out, everyone thinks it applies across the product lines - and it’s not always true. But it is true that everything can be fixed in post production. No ow that all being said- nothing beats big wattage tube amps and a lot of the newer preamp gear and power amp gear is pretty pricey and high quality. Good stuff here - your playing is fantastic and you’ve got a great way of explaining things and making concise observations.
Totally bummed that an old friends dad stole my GX130C. Was my first amp and was given to me by a friend who has since passed away. Back then, I didn't have money for shit and I remember how blessed I felt to be gifted this monster
My friend had this G130C XL. I believe it was the Crate sleeper that sounded like a Marshall in alot of ways. I set it up w/ a dual EQ and got a perfect Overkill tone as I seen one on thier stage in 89'. He played alot of Yngwie and it sounded close too. They implemented flexwave in the poweramp sections about this time and gave it a warmer tuby feel. I found a combo of this and didn't feel the same.
I used to have this amp. Loved it. Was my first “real amp.” I was devastated when the transformer blew out and it costed more to repair it than buy a cheap 5 watt tube amp. Wish I had repaired it. God bless to whoever still has theirs. Have a good day.
Yeah when the parts cost more than the amp... ya gotta think twice. This has happened to me with a few amps. Now a days im always collecting spare parts for all my amps so i have backup parts already. I spend so much time with my amps that it becomes a part of my "sound" and im too old to keep starting a new one over and over with a new amp. I like the ones I have and im glad i can keep them all rocking for cheap or free.
I had that series Crate back in the mid - late 90's. The cabinet got stolen but still had the head until a year ago when I sold it to Guitar Center. A few days later, they had sold it. I asked someone about it and they said people went crazy over it.
I have the earlier G120C, a surprisingly good sound amp. Channel switching, stereo, lead channel, Accutronics Reverb tank, footswitchable. I have had to replace the gain pot, other than that, very reliable. I will say that when you pull this apart and look at the circuit board and build, it’s better than most modern amps. The pots are the only thing I’d call “cheap”. I chopped mine to make it fit on a 4x12 better, removed the carpet,painted it black, it looks cool, sounds cool, I like it.
My drummer owns a GX130C he bought ages ago. We use it for band rehearsal, and MAN is it loud! Gets a ton of gain, decent clean channel too. I've always been a fan of Crates but have never owned one. I used to borrow a Crate combo from a friend back in my club days in the 80s on the Sunset Strip. It sounded great. I would call Crates the kind of amps snobs love to hate. They really delivered the goods. You've gotta remember if you were playing in club bands and didn't have much money your choices for high gain amps in the 80s were limited. Boogies and Soldanos were just out of the question, but you could get a Crate, Randall, or if you wanted to spend more money, a Laney or a Marshall. I owned a Marshall stack back in the day and got tired of lugging it around. It was like moving a grand piano. I then switched to using combos, either borrowing my friend's Crate, another friend's modded JCM combo, or the Randall RG 75 combo I bought. I also eventually got a Boogie, but to be honest, I didn't enjoy it like I did the Randall and the Crate I borrowed. There are myriad reasons why solid-state amps got a bad rep and tube amps are overpraised. A lot of it has to do with musicians talking through their ass, having no idea what they are talking about. When I played the Crate or Randall I cut through the mix like a chainsaw. I even used some Peaveys. It's all about how you mic it up and if the soundman knows what he's doing. Luckily, I had a good rapport with the soundmen in those days. I learned the hard way after pissing off the soundman at one club because I turned up the volume at a show right before my guitar solo. He gave me a piece of his mind after that, and I didn't play that club again for a year; and by then they had a new soundman. One of the best sounding players I ever heard was this dude rocking a BC Rich Gunslinger through a Crate half-stack, like the one my drummer owns, around 1988 at the now defunct Coconut Teaszer. He had a few effects, like an EQ pedal, a Boss overdrive he only used to contour the gain, and a Phase 90. When the other bands went up they had Boogies or walls of Marshalls and sounded like crap.
But honestly if you get a good guitar player somebody that’s really good I could name many of them but I won’t , they could play any cheap guitar and cheap amplifier and make it sound good there’s no doubt about that.
Holy crap. I had a G130C half stack for a while. Bought it used at Guitar Center for like $350. That thing was loud and sounded fantastic! Traded it for a huge Peavey bass stack. Which I needed more since I’m more of a bassist. Miss it because I did love it.
I had the 2x12 combo version of this. I basically used it as a power amp/extension cab running out of a marshall valvestate combo. For a teenager playing death metal in 1998 the tone was incredible.
I currently own a vh140c and in the past owned the crate gx130c and the best mod I ever did for both of them was to use a bbe as it really cleans up the muddy sound of both of these amps
I still have my Crate GT1200H 120watt half stack with Celestion 75 speakers from 2005, still in new condition, but I did have a 2×12 version of that amp back in 2001 you're demoing, plus, way back in 1988, I had a 60watt 1×12 Celestion 75 loaded combo, they all sounded Great(Crate, LOL) for the money, but, my 1st really good amp I have was the Crate 1R ,way back in 1978/79, I was a sophomore/junior in high school! That's when Crate amps were shaped like a crate box! Great video my friend, you ROCK!!!
Yo, Taylor. I to this day still have my Crate GX1200 full stack. So I had gotten this back in 1997 and paid $800. I used it for live shows back in the day. I then got my Gt3500H Shockwave head off eBay back in around 2004-2005? for $450. I also still have that too. This was my budget head since back then I could not afford the Blue Voodoo. Did a lot of shows back in the day (15+ years ago) with my metal band for 5 years with the full stack cabs and the 3500 head. We also did a 4 song demo back then and I used my 3500 head and slant cab to do those recordings. I now have finally gotten my holly grail rig! Mesa triple rec and slant cab. Yessssssss!!!!!
When my old band was broke and first starting off the lead guitar player and I both had stacks with crate heads. Naturally we'd always catch some condescending comments from ppl about them at first... but after they'd see and hear us, they'd always say something like " you guys actually make crate amps sound good ". We went through alot of trial and error getting our settings tweaked just right, but we're able to get some pretty decent tome. Those amps also took a beating and never had issues. We actually recorded with them too. The downside is theyre kinda limited tonewise.I believe they're still being played as once we upgraded they bounced around between other players we knew who would end up with them until they upgraded and passed them to the next person and so on. Oh, and I also had a Marshall valvestate head when I was a kid around 96 or so and loved it even tho they get hated on alot. I'd love to have one of those again if I found one for the right price.
I don't notice a huge difference in tone from the XL to the GX series.. but I would imagine you might have a better insight into the actual differences? Thanks for sharing your experience, nice to see you here!
I think I have a GX in my garage in pieces. Forget what it is. My experience with these SS Crate is limited to 25+ years ago, really. I moved to Carvin and Marshall tube heads after my Crate. If I run across one at a pawn shop, I might give it another chance for giggles! Thanks for the fun video. I do know that solid state amps from this era were often geared toward metal, and as you confirmed here, they are the key to a lot of those early 90s death metal tones. Even Dime figured out the magic of solid state amps for metal before he endorsed those cheap, cheesy early 2000s tube amps. His Randall days is the classic Pantera sound. Check out the G120CXL head sometime. I think you'll find it's a cheaper way to these same kinds of tones. Probably fewer people talking about them online.
To my ears, the @11:27 minute mark sounds a litttle like the tone Code Orange went for on their album, Underneath. Specifically the near end of "You and You Alone." Love that.
In 1998 I joined a Death Metal band that was signed to Dwell Records. An indie label owned by Metal Blade. I immediately went and bought a GX-130C full stack. My cabs didn't have celestions unfortunately, but I was still tickled with it. I ran it with a Metal Zone,....as one does. Now concerning your question of whether CC used them??? I saw them at the Masquerade in Atlanta in 1997 with Cynic and Sinister. Rob was using an Engl Knucklehead and Jack was using a Marshall JCM800. Incredible show by the way. The GX-130C is definitely an underrated amp for Metal. We played 43 dates and I never had one problem with it. It did its job.
How did you run the metal zone? Loop or as a boost? You know the thing about seeing bands live and the gear they are using is you never know (unless you get the opportunity to ask them) if it's a shared backline. Like there's a good chance, especially at festivals or shows in other countries, the gear they are using on stage is not actually owned by the band.
@@TaylorDanley I barely turn the gain up on the MZ and just used the EQ on it with the red channel. Took some tweaking,...but everyone was floored by the crushing tone I was getting out of it. I wished I had tried the loop,...but i was very young and didn't know a ton about gear yet. The only problem I ever had with that amp, was a tiny dive bar we played that had no PA,....you know,...paying those dues and all.lol. But it just didn't cut through the mix live and sounded thin as tissue paper. Through a PA though??? Unreal. But yes your correct about bands backlining. I did however,...get to meet and talk to Rob Barrett when he was sitting in with Malevolent Creation in 2001. They played a show at a biker bar call The Long Branch next to the University of Tennessee campus. I know. Weird. He was actually a Mesa artist at that time and also Blackhart guitars. He was running 2 full stack Dual Recti's with a red Maxon of some sort. It sounded absolutely retarded. His tone at that show was jawdropping to say the least. He was an extremely cool guy though. He said that touring was getting to him and he was burnt out. I asked him if he was gonna do an album with MC and he said "no,...there just using me for a few shows." He even bought me a beer. Definitely a bucket list moment. Lol.
I recorded an album , back in the late 2000's with one of these.. Definitely sleeper amps.. funny I didnt realize the 90's Death Metal scene embraced them.. I can see why! Cool video! New Sub here. Keep up the good work!
I seen them at 94 with Barnes singing they were definitely rocking Crate full stacks as far as boost pedals I don’t know that really wasn’t a thing back then to try to peep what kind of pedals they used. I seen them again in 95 with corpse grinder and it was the same crate cabinets with dual rectifier heads on top
When me and my buddies started playing music together, my singer/guitarist had a 60 Watt Ibanez amp that looked and sounded just like a Crate, and later on, we had a crate 4x12 with a crate 100 watt head. It did the job, and back then I think we were just stoked to have an amp with decent wattage that we could play and hear with the drums. I myself started on a peavey rage 128 (I think) and I loved that amp, it was definitely high quality for a combo practice amp. I’ll always cherish those memories of that early gear, definitely nostalgic, and these days I do still have one relic from those days, a re-tolex-d Marshall mg100hdfx that actually sounds great through a nice cab. One piece of gear that I wish we would have kept is a Marshall MOSFET 50 or 100, it was an early solid state amp by Marshall, it was so cool. I don’t know a ton about Crate amps, except that they were ubiquitous in the late 90s, early 00s, and they were a go-to for budding guitarists and bassists on a budget.
I just saw one locally in Facebook marketplace for Tioga County New York for $500 obo. It included the cabinet. Half stack. In good shape. Don't pay stupid asking prices for gear that honestly isn't worth it. I've owned Crates, as many of us have. Some have been amazing, many have been really cool, most are landfill Chow. And I wish all of you good luck finding someone to repair that when it goes down. Most, really good and capable repair guys won't touch them. A lot of times you'll end up spending more for the repair than you paid for the amp There's nothing wrong with paying a fair price or getting a good deal on them but don't let somebody hose you over something you are more than likely going to be disappointed about when you get it. Even live, the '90s cannibal corpse sound is still adjusted and tweaked through the pa. You're just not going to get it very easily think before you click my friends.
Crate was my first amp ever! Strait from Cheap Johns Music and Pawn😄. 10 years old and trying to learn one Poison, G&R, AC/DC,or Metallica riff in hopes it would land me a kiss from the girl in the apartment next door! Man I miss the 80’s lol. Moved on since then to bigger and better amps but there are times I like to mimic and remenise that raw, crackly, distorted sound from my Cruise electric and Crate amp.
That mid control being designed like that reminds me of the Pro Co Rat: in that the MK1 Rat kept getting returned for being too tinny so they reversed the sweep of the tone control. Kind of makes me wonder if it was to 'idiot proof' it against people who believed that scooping the midrange was the way to get a metal tone without knowing how to make that work.
Note all the Crate are the same. What the GX130, the G130XL, the Ampeg VH140 and a few others (IIRC G80XL, G160XL, TD70, etc.) have in common in their distortion is 2 stages of feedback clipping with zener diodes as limiters and an active EQ (the TD70 have one stage of zener diodes + a tube stage and active EQ). The early ones like the G60 have hard clipping diodes, the cheapo GX15 from your younger days lacks the active EQ (like my GX40C that I nevertheless cherish), etc. Don't underestimate the power of an active EQ. Ex : 2 SS amps share the same distortion typology, the Sunn Beta and the Laney Linebacker PL100, CMOS inverters as gain stages. The Sunn has an active EQ and sounds massive, the Laney has a passive Marshall like EQ and can sound quite shrill sometimes.
In the late 90s/early 00s I had a CD of The Bleeding, and I'm almost certain that the band thanked Crate in the liner notes. I can't find a pdf of the liner notes online, though. And I know the artwork has changed on The Bleeding, and I don't know if the liner notes have changed as well. You, or someone else, would have to find a CD with the original art and notes, from the 90s/00s to confirm.
In the bleeding studio clip the crate can be found under the valvestate. It’s missing the badge but for sure is a gx130c, you can see the white stripping
On the Morrisound pic you can see the Crate below the Valvestate. The logo is either removed or blacked out. I forget but you can also see the power LED is on. They def used this amp
It's my understanding that depending on which guitarist you're talking about, they used Valvestate and Engl amps, usually layered with some sort of Mesa/Boogie Rectifier or Mark amp, one guitarist using the metalzone as a boost, the other using a tube screamer, and then one or both guitars are dubbed over it with the metalzone direct into the FX return, regardless there is a setup for quad tracking going on. Thanks for the demo so we can hear what's going on and why amps like these were used.
I love the nostalgia of crate amps! I had a few different Crates growing up, wish I would've kept a couple of them, glad to be rid of others lol I recently got a GT1200 head 👍 Also a few months ago i got an FXT65 combo. Also I have a crate V series 2x12 cab that I use pretty regularly. It's built pretty well, all plywood. I loaded it with Celestion V-Types.
The Crate G10 was my first Amp and then I moved up to, I want to say the 30 or 50. (LOL 11:50 That one.) It was the combo with 2x 8" speakers it it. Loved them amps. I also had the Crate Mini Stack and that amp never failed to impress people. When an amp being pushed by a Digitech RP50 is impressing people, I think that says something about the amp. (I could probably get that mini stack back. I know where I left it and I ran into the guy the other day and I'm under the impression he still has it. And while not the same one, I got a DT RP50 in the garage I ran across last week. It was working when I stored it, or else it wouldn't have been stored.) My next and last guitar amp purchase (I bought a bass and a fender rumble 25 earlier this year) was the Marshall MG100HDFX/MG412A Slant Purple Half Stack. I got a couple cheap crap-o amps from various starter kits I've picked up at garage and rummage sales and use those basically just near the bench as something to confirm pickups are working, so I really don't count those. I also have a small Marshal 1x 8" combo that I'm actually running some Simmons digital drums through. (What can I say, I like gear and instruments.) Since I mainly just play my guitars through my half stack, I didn't really realize how much gear I have until I just rattled it off right now. I play the other instruments from time to time, but I mostly have them for my friends to play if we feel like jamming. We played Rock Band together all the time but we all had actual music experience so I started buying gear hear and there and now I get to jam with my musically inclined friends when they come over. I do confess to enjoy exploring other instruments though. I just don't do it as much as I probably should, but can you really play guitar too much? Even the virtuosos are still exploring the instrument, so it's not like you're ever really "done" learning guitar. Even if you don't consider it "learning," practicing or playing in general is still sharpening the skills. That's just my philosophy towards the guitar at least. The first time I play every day, I always try to play something, new or different. I don't go to the well, I start off exploring. Then I slide back into the familiar. What's the first thing you do, the first time you play for the day? Do you have a "warm up" routine or anything?
This was my first amp head around 1999. The one thing I remember was it being VERY underpowered. I got my 5150 and was confused on how I wasn’t getting drowned out by the drummer anymore. Great video.
Vile most likely. They've got em in the background in the Devoured By Vermin music video several times, many pics of Rob from 96-97 show him wearing Crate T shirts, so probably an endorsement was happening, and Vile sounds like it was Crate boosted with a Metal Zone. By the way, great tone you've dialed in.
When I was 17 I walked into my house with a full Crate stack back in the late 80’s. My father just shook his head. Didn’t have it for long maybe a year before I sold it. Now, if I could have that 1980 vibro champ back… just recently saw one for sale and never realized they were all tube.
I got a private tour of the Crate factory in St. Louis back in ‘92. The shop I worked in was a dealer. Not a real fan of their stuff back then, but I got a ton of free shirts and hats.
From all the research I've done, they used these crates 100% , Jack was endorsed and eventually moved onto a blue voodoo. They always used metal zones up until modern times they switched to Maxon 808's. Old CC tone is solid state and metal zones!
I would love to have another of them. I was a Crate Artist (not an endorsement, unfortunately) right when they first came out, which is a glorified way to say that they said "Hey, this guy uses our shit!" And sent me tshirts and decals. 😆😆
I’ve owned a few Crates when I started out. All gain….NO PUNCH. But one of my favorite Crate amps I ever had was a Crate Blue VooDoo 120 head with matching 4x12 cab that had V30’s in it. Loved that amp. Still wish I had it for if not for anything, the nostalgia.
Being one of the guys that played most of these amps back when no one have a shit about them I can honestly day I don't miss any of these amps. Especially not for the asking price used.
“Crate” was a model of amp distributed by St. Louis Music (later SLM) that was built into an actual wooden Crate. From there SLM started Crate as their in-house amp brand and started mass producing models made in America with Celestion speakers. Around the same time they bought Ampeg, which is where the comparisons of rich man’s poor man’s come in. By and large they were similar but separate brands until Crate production moved overseas in the mid 90s, and at that point a lot of the circuitry was an overseas version of Ampeg stuff, sometimes simplified. More and more parts became plastic, and that leads to the era where Crate gets most of their reputation. Janick Gers from Iron Maiden used them on the Fear of the Dark tour, Billy Gibbons would eventually be an endorser of the club series (super underrated), and of course there’s Sammy Hagar and the Voodoo series. Perhaps only Peavey has a greater rise to and fall from prominence in the history of gear.
Still got my Blue Voodoo half stack (the black version not the purple and gold). The see-through mesh and the glowing tubes in the head sold me on it. It's never been to a repair shop.
I got my Crate for $30 from a pawn shop. I noticed it had an 'insert' jack that functioned as an effects loop, one side could be isolated as an out and used in front of my AVT. I liked it way more than any of the models on my POD. I had heard of Crates being used in NYDM and being similar to the Ampeg amps Scott Hull fanboyed over. Years later I got a VH-in-a-box pedal and noticed they didn't quite sound the same. I did a bit more research off and on and gained some insight (maybe, I hope) but got lost in the clustershag of other Crate and Ampeg solid state amps. Still love my GX15, although now it's cut down to be a lunchbox amp and I only ever use it through a cab sim.
I still have the GX-130 CXL head and full stack from 1989. Just recently purchased a GX-140CH because it was practically new and only $200. I have the manual for the 130CXL still too. The difference between the C and CXL is the C did not have the "SUB" control. That added an 80hz control that really made the CXL thump through a full stack in stereo. I feel you are doing a disservice not dialing in a pure clean tone and enjoying the stereo chorus through two cabs. Set the gain on about 2, and use the Level to find the volume you want. Set the Rate of the chorus at about 1, and the depth at full, and turn the reverb to 10. It's a beautiful rich clean sound. I used this in my thrash band live and in the studio in the early 90's. It was the foundation of our sound. I didn't like to use pedals for anything. This monster had more than enough gain by just running a Seymour Duncan Invader through it. And it had chorus and reverb. That's all I needed at the time for my guitar sound. A massive heavy sound, and a nice clean sound. The thing did both and did it well.
Yes, Cannibal Corpse used Crate amps on some of their early touring years. I don't know about in the studio, but on stage, they used Crate. Now, exactly what model, I was a teenager and didn't necessarily pay attention to that stuff...
Interestingly these sound way better than I recall from back in the day. Humorously, the WORST tube amp I ever owned was a crate stealth 1x12 combo from around this same production era. These SS sound WAY better than that Stealth did.
I still have my GX160 Crate 1x12 bought in 1992,it's a very loud Amp this combo has a shape knob,and tank reverb,a effects loop in the front of the Amp I used for many years its actually in mint condition it still sound good good for practice I have tube heads now,with one of my 4x12 cabs it actually sounds pretty good
High probability that pedals were used, regardless of amp. Many bands, especially from back then, messed around with pedal combinations. It’s largely a recent gimmick where people have turned this whole thing into a game where “I can just play and sound like this” straight into the amp. This wasn’t a consideration back then. They wanted a sound and used whatever pedal, amp and speaker combination got them that sound. Now that Crate sounds vicious on its own, but boost and EQ only gets that much more out of it.
I hear ya, but I have to say I’m shocked how good these amps sound here. I had no idea a Crate could sound like this. He is also a phenomenal player so that has alot to do with it.
What do I remember about Crate? They were heavy. They never broke completely no matter the abuse. Had one fall out of a truck going down the road, was fine. Had beers spilled on em, fine. Never owned a head though, only the old school combo's that were always around in the late 90s. They were tanks man
I had an old crate and would boost it with Cannibal Corpses metal zone settings (I think all the knobs at 9 or 10 o'clock but gain 0 and level 5) and it sounded exactly like the bleeding tone. I also had a valvestate and that thing never sounded like the bleeding tone at all.
I had one several years ago and it worked beautifully with pedals and effects units, on the clean channel of course. It had some problems though, it would cut out from time to time, I ended up taking it apart, cleaning all the connectors and reflowed solder joints, I also replaced some of the big ceramic power resistors, after that it seemed to help, although I could never get chorus and reverb to work, but it wasn't a big deal. I paid $80 for it and sold it for like $100.
We pretty much make most of our judgements from recording where of both pedals and the engineer on the sesion changed what we heard to something much different than what we would hear in a club 30 ' from the amp.Those sounds I can get with my 50 watt Plexi and the best take on a pedal trying to clone the amps sound. Recently I got a very good Source Audio EQ and up my game to near perfect. I have the classic Peavey, Mesa, Soldano and ENG pretty much nailed.
I've got an old Crate G 600 half stack that I got new back in '86, or '87. The speakers are 35 watt crate branded and sound great. I eventually had 2 of them blow. I put 2 greenbacks in to replace them. It really sounds good now. I quit using the amp around '89. It sounded okay for what I was doing, but I wanted more and started using rack mount preamps using a Carvin x100b for the power. I've been using a Mesa triple rec since 2010 and still use the Crate speaker cab, plus an oversized Mesa cab.
That whole solid state turn into harsh noise when you turn them up thing came from guys using really shitty combo amps which especially back then came with the worst speakers ever. A well made SS amp head into a real cabinet can be loud af.
I remember Guitar Center selling 120w Crate head with 100watt 4x12 cab.... anyone else here see and issue with this ? lol !!! Talk about garbage ! lol sounded terrible.
My practice amp in the 90’s and early 2000’s (for 12 years) was a Crate GX60. I played in a few Death Metal bands which I played live shows through a Crate Blue Voodoo Head and Crate 4x12 Cab. Crate made quality gear that didn’t rape your wallet. People that talk 💩about Crate either never owned any, got ahold of worn out gear, or didn’t take care of the crate gear they had.
I have a crate TD-70, Solid state class D power amp with a single 12AX-7 power tube in the pre amp. I switched the speaker to an Eminence Hemp-Dog and it fucking slays!!. Back in the late 90's Maty friedman got me into Crate with the Blue Voodoo. But I'm currently playing a Peavey Invective 120 as my main amp now.
My first half stack was the blue voodoo. Which worked out great for me at the time I was covering a lot of sloppy macabre and deicide. Fully cranked it could cut through the bass and drums as crude as it sounded, it crushed and I miss it
The making of the Wretched Spawn goes into detail Jacks rig.. can’t remember off top which crate he used.. but most his tone came from his Parametric eq
Sounds like The Bleeding tone to me, especially on the scooped setting. Where its open to discussion if they used Crate on the album they definitely used it on the tour & the following album Vile, Crate is even listed in the cd fold out. Great video
I believe cannibal corpse used them too but it was the Excalibur edition and it was the gx2200h version. The have it as a gx900h as well but in a different casing and in a lower wattage. I own one myself and man does it down a drummer😂. THE TONE IS KILLER TOO.
I used to have that same half stack back in the 90's. The thing I like about solid state heads is they are easier to haul around since they weigh less than a tube amp.
Taken from an October 1996 Guitar School interview with Jack Owen & Rob Barrett of Cannibal Corpse (Vile-era) : GS: What kind of gear are you using these days? JO: I play a Brian Moore Custom straight into a Crate GX130C. It's the best head Crate ever made, and they don't make them anymore. You plug straight in and it rips. RB: I use a Crate GT200 Quadradrive, a Boss Metal Zone pedal and EMG 81's in the neck position of my guitars. I have an ESP Strat Custom and a Gibson Les Paul.
I bought a Crate Stealth 50 watt tube head from a little mom and pop store in the middle of nowhere Missouri and thought I got ripped off because I paid $300 for it . Turns out it had brand new GT tubes in the power amp section and RCA tubes in the pre-amp section with a re-bias . The amp was designed by Lee Jackson and it's pretty much a JCM800 on steroids......it rages ! I've owned many great amps in my 40+ years playing including a Marshall Plexi and more old Fender tube amps than I can remember........and I still have the Crate Stealth 50 ! I don't play it much anymore because it's just so loud and I live in an Apartment. So if I even turn it on with the volume on 1 the walls are literally shaking !
Have a Crate Amp it's Loud does the job. It's a Crate GTD65 has 3 sound effects; Clean, Overdrive and High gain which sounds like distortion. It's a custom design as well.
I have a Crate GXT100. It's a 4×10" hybrid combo with (2) 12AX7 in the preamp and TO-3 transistors in the power amp. It looks impressive with it's four 10" Celestion V10-60 drivers, but after powering it on and test driving it, I can see why it was put out by the road on garbage day. Yes, got it free and STILL regret draggin' it home. I even used a Proco RAT distortion pedal (effects loop and in front of the preamp), and didn't like the tone that way either. In all fairness, I will fiddle with it some more before I put it out by the road for the next guy.
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I've been playing the 120 watt combo version for 26 years through a late 80's Randall cab.Never given me problems. Traded a $15 bag of weed for it. Best deal on gear of my life. It's a filthy death metal weapon.
Were there seeds in that bag ? If so thats a REALLY good deal ! lol ;-)
@@ctcards2636 it was at least 25 years ago, so there definitely would have been seeds in the bag...
I reckon a whole heap of Crate amps have been traded for weed at some point.
Nice 😎
I got the matching head and 2x12 version and I can confirm, the thing’s pretty sick.
I worked there from '94 until the St Louis facility closed in '03. I can tell you that this, and every, Crate amp that came as a head and a combo were exactly the same, just mounted upside-down. Your combo is electronically identical to the head. Same goes for all of the Ampeg stuff (built in the same factory).
As I recall, what killed the VH140C and the GX130C was the sudden lack of availability of the chip that drove that incredible built-in chorus. We couldn't find anyone else to make it at a reasonable cost, so they got dropped from the product lines. Shame, as both were really good amps.
Whoa, glad to read stuff from a former employee. What was your recollection of the Stealth Series? The G130c Xl was the same as the Gx130c??
The Stealth Series were from the Lee Jackson era, which was before I was there. We were still building his Ampeg VL-502 and VL-1002 amps when I started, but only for a short while. As for the XLs, I don't know that there was any real difference. The specs are the same from the manuals, and the XL manual even has a graphic inside showing the 130C front panel. As far as I know, they're the same amp, only with different graphics on the chassis.
There are other examples of that, too. All of the GX and MX series are the same, with the MX having a different name and different chassis graphics made specifically for Guitar Center. I think the MXs may have had different Tolex as well. Electronically, though, they are all the same.
Most of the Audio Centron PA equipment was rebranded as Crate Pro Audio products for the South American market that recognized the Crate name but not AC. Same stuff, different name.
There was some other intermingling, too. The Audio Centron RMA-1600, Crate SPA-1600, and Ampeg SVP-1600 were all the same amplifier, just with different graphics.
@@pauljsmith2113 I bought a combo amp of the gx130c for £25 of ebay. And I love it. A lot of ppl would say crate were not that great, but the gx130c was perhaps the only one that gave crate justice.
Okay, but what about the keys and stuff????
@@calebneff5777 keys ?
I have a deep love for the old Crates of my youth circa 1986-1990s. Well done.
I had one back in the early 90's with a Marshall 4x12 and it was a beast master... I used a Boss Heavy metal stacked on a 7 band graphic equalizer as a boost and it had so much chug, it would make your average person lose control of their bowels and crap their pants.
Sounds like your typical grind band 😂
@@TaylorDanley a honorable mention should be the Crate MXR65 1x12, made in USA. The exact same pre amp, but a single 65 watt power amp. I found it at a pawn shop for $45.00....
When I was in high school I stacked a Metal Zone with a GE-7 and I had legendary tone among my friends
Budget and availability play huge roles in why a lot of this music gear becomes popular. You stated it exactly. Most of our favorite artists don't even remember what they were using on a specific tour and/or recording - Unless a company paid them enough to remember. Edit for spelling.
Very well said. And very few of them had any endorsements in the early days of a bands life, so yeah, like you said they probably don’t remember what they used. Probably the producer had a slightly better amp than the band and they all used that. The bigger they got the better the gear got. Haha nowadays you can record yourself and sound phenomenal with a couple hundred dollar plugin. Crazy how things have changed.
I just scored one for $99 at my local guitar shop. Knew exactly what it was as soon as I saw it. I had a VH-140c a few years back that I loved and regret selling to this day but super glad i found this
No way this thing is worth $999 or even the $650 that's on Reverb now. I've been told CC used them intermittently during the first 4 albums and used a Boss MT-2 in the FX loop, again nothing factually backed up. I got mine, a GX-130C, for like $300. It now needs worked on, recapped due to age, etc, but it's DEFINITELY worth that much to me. Even by your song, that's the sound I LOVE. It's filthy in all the right ways. If you can get a good deal on one, go for it, but sweet baby jesus don't spend a grand on it!
Totally agree with all this. And yes, I wonder too about Cannibal Corpse since it's so hard to find any interviews or anything where these are mentioned. Like I said in the video, if they did use them, it seems to me to be a "best bang for the buck" sort of deal... but I could be wrong!
@cool guy from 2007 can you link that here for people? I only saw the valvestate clip…
Word
They used them on studio recordings and playing live. Especially Jack Owen. It wasn’t just on the first 4 albums either as Jack used Crate on Gallery of Suicide as well which is a spectacular album with great tone.
@@TaylorDanley th-cam.com/video/TTGo9k_uVtE/w-d-xo.html I was at this show and even talked to Jack Owen about the GX130C model Crate amps.
Taylor thanks for reviewing this old gear. It's a super fun and enlightening trip down memory lane for a middle aged metal kid such as myself. Props and keep up the great work!
My pleasure, thanks dude!
I love seeing the studio secret(s) reveals… so many cork sniffers claiming expensive gear is what you need to get to where you want. Ampeg and Crate were basically the same company and at the heart of the American death metal scene along with Peavey. Swedish death metal were Peavey bandits and Boss pedals… not what we saw generally on tours, but what we celebrated and were the sound of the recordings, and as a guy who has had a studio for a couple of decades - it’s just great to see and hear that cheap gear still rules… although once the secret get out, everyone thinks it applies across the product lines - and it’s not always true. But it is true that everything can be fixed in post production. No ow that all being said- nothing beats big wattage tube amps and a lot of the newer preamp gear and power amp gear is pretty pricey and high quality. Good stuff here - your playing is fantastic and you’ve got a great way of explaining things and making concise observations.
As someone who uses a Mesa oversized cab religiously, I think it sounded better with the matching cab
Totally bummed that an old friends dad stole my GX130C. Was my first amp and was given to me by a friend who has since passed away. Back then, I didn't have money for shit and I remember how blessed I felt to be gifted this monster
My friend had this G130C XL. I believe it was the Crate sleeper that sounded like a Marshall in alot of ways. I set it up w/ a dual EQ and got a perfect Overkill tone as I seen one on thier stage in 89'. He played alot of Yngwie and it sounded close too. They implemented flexwave in the poweramp sections about this time and gave it a warmer tuby feel. I found a combo of this and didn't feel the same.
I used to have this amp. Loved it. Was my first “real amp.” I was devastated when the transformer blew out and it costed more to repair it than buy a cheap 5 watt tube amp.
Wish I had repaired it. God bless to whoever still has theirs.
Have a good day.
Yeah when the parts cost more than the amp... ya gotta think twice. This has happened to me with a few amps. Now a days im always collecting spare parts for all my amps so i have backup parts already. I spend so much time with my amps that it becomes a part of my "sound" and im too old to keep starting a new one over and over with a new amp. I like the ones I have and im glad i can keep them all rocking for cheap or free.
I had that series Crate back in the mid - late 90's. The cabinet got stolen but still had the head until a year ago when I sold it to Guitar Center. A few days later, they had sold it. I asked someone about it and they said people went crazy over it.
I have the earlier G120C, a surprisingly good sound amp. Channel switching, stereo, lead channel, Accutronics Reverb tank, footswitchable.
I have had to replace the gain pot, other than that, very reliable. I will say that when you pull this apart and look at the circuit board and build, it’s better than most modern amps. The pots are the only thing I’d call “cheap”. I chopped mine to make it fit on a 4x12 better, removed the carpet,painted it black, it looks cool, sounds cool, I like it.
FINALLY, a death metal TH-camr! Subbed. Tone is mint af and that Guitar is ace btw
💪💪 thanks dude!
My drummer owns a GX130C he bought ages ago. We use it for band rehearsal, and MAN is it loud! Gets a ton of gain, decent clean channel too. I've always been a fan of Crates but have never owned one. I used to borrow a Crate combo from a friend back in my club days in the 80s on the Sunset Strip. It sounded great. I would call Crates the kind of amps snobs love to hate. They really delivered the goods. You've gotta remember if you were playing in club bands and didn't have much money your choices for high gain amps in the 80s were limited. Boogies and Soldanos were just out of the question, but you could get a Crate, Randall, or if you wanted to spend more money, a Laney or a Marshall. I owned a Marshall stack back in the day and got tired of lugging it around. It was like moving a grand piano. I then switched to using combos, either borrowing my friend's Crate, another friend's modded JCM combo, or the Randall RG 75 combo I bought. I also eventually got a Boogie, but to be honest, I didn't enjoy it like I did the Randall and the Crate I borrowed. There are myriad reasons why solid-state amps got a bad rep and tube amps are overpraised. A lot of it has to do with musicians talking through their ass, having no idea what they are talking about. When I played the Crate or Randall I cut through the mix like a chainsaw. I even used some Peaveys. It's all about how you mic it up and if the soundman knows what he's doing. Luckily, I had a good rapport with the soundmen in those days. I learned the hard way after pissing off the soundman at one club because I turned up the volume at a show right before my guitar solo. He gave me a piece of his mind after that, and I didn't play that club again for a year; and by then they had a new soundman. One of the best sounding players I ever heard was this dude rocking a BC Rich Gunslinger through a Crate half-stack, like the one my drummer owns, around 1988 at the now defunct Coconut Teaszer. He had a few effects, like an EQ pedal, a Boss overdrive he only used to contour the gain, and a Phase 90. When the other bands went up they had Boogies or walls of Marshalls and sounded like crap.
But honestly if you get a good guitar player somebody that’s really good I could name many of them but I won’t , they could play any cheap guitar and cheap amplifier and make it sound good there’s no doubt about that.
I bought a Crate GX-1600 head with the matching cab loaded with Celestions back in 1993. I absolutely love it even after all these years!
Awesome review! Your song at the beginning is slamming too! I love my GX130C, definitely going to be a permanent fixture in my collection.
BRO, I watched all your videos when I was hunting for them!
@@TaylorDanley Haha, wow, thanks! You inspired me to put up a new one today.
Holy crap. I had a G130C half stack for a while. Bought it used at Guitar Center for like $350. That thing was loud and sounded fantastic!
Traded it for a huge Peavey bass stack. Which I needed more since I’m more of a bassist. Miss it because I did love it.
I had the 2x12 combo version of this. I basically used it as a power amp/extension cab running out of a marshall valvestate combo. For a teenager playing death metal in 1998 the tone was incredible.
When the TS was added it was mint. Really brings back memories of early se portland days. thanks
OH YEAH BROTHER!
I currently own a vh140c and in the past owned the crate gx130c and the best mod I ever did for both of them was to use a bbe as it really cleans up the muddy sound of both of these amps
I still have my Crate GT1200H 120watt half stack with Celestion 75 speakers from 2005, still in new condition, but I did have a 2×12 version of that amp back in 2001 you're demoing, plus, way back in 1988, I had a 60watt 1×12 Celestion 75 loaded combo, they all sounded Great(Crate, LOL) for the money, but, my 1st really good amp I have was the Crate 1R ,way back in 1978/79, I was a sophomore/junior in high school! That's when Crate amps were shaped like a crate box! Great video my friend, you ROCK!!!
I feel like the aged components on these amps really give it a warmer sound then when the amps were new. 90’s amps are now considered vintage gear 🥲.
Yo, Taylor. I to this day still have my Crate GX1200 full stack. So I had gotten this back in 1997 and paid $800. I used it for live shows back in the day. I then got my Gt3500H Shockwave head off eBay back in around 2004-2005? for $450. I also still have that too. This was my budget head since back then I could not afford the Blue Voodoo.
Did a lot of shows back in the day (15+ years ago) with my metal band for 5 years with the full stack cabs and the 3500 head. We also did a 4 song demo back then and I used my 3500 head and slant cab to do those recordings. I now have finally gotten my holly grail rig! Mesa triple rec and slant cab. Yessssssss!!!!!
When my old band was broke and first starting off the lead guitar player and I both had stacks with crate heads. Naturally we'd always catch some condescending comments from ppl about them at first... but after they'd see and hear us, they'd always say something like " you guys actually make crate amps sound good ". We went through alot of trial and error getting our settings tweaked just right, but we're able to get some pretty decent tome. Those amps also took a beating and never had issues. We actually recorded with them too. The downside is theyre kinda limited tonewise.I believe they're still being played as once we upgraded they bounced around between other players we knew who would end up with them until they upgraded and passed them to the next person and so on. Oh, and I also had a Marshall valvestate head when I was a kid around 96 or so and loved it even tho they get hated on alot. I'd love to have one of those again if I found one for the right price.
I had a Crate G120CXL half stack in my high school progressive metal band and yes, you could do all that death metal stuff from the era.
I don't notice a huge difference in tone from the XL to the GX series.. but I would imagine you might have a better insight into the actual differences? Thanks for sharing your experience, nice to see you here!
I think I have a GX in my garage in pieces. Forget what it is. My experience with these SS Crate is limited to 25+ years ago, really. I moved to Carvin and Marshall tube heads after my Crate. If I run across one at a pawn shop, I might give it another chance for giggles! Thanks for the fun video. I do know that solid state amps from this era were often geared toward metal, and as you confirmed here, they are the key to a lot of those early 90s death metal tones. Even Dime figured out the magic of solid state amps for metal before he endorsed those cheap, cheesy early 2000s tube amps. His Randall days is the classic Pantera sound. Check out the G120CXL head sometime. I think you'll find it's a cheaper way to these same kinds of tones. Probably fewer people talking about them online.
@TaylorDanley a g120c xl popped up near me should I grab it? My buddy also said he'd sell a gx130c for 420 but this is about half that lol
To my ears, the @11:27 minute mark sounds a litttle like the tone Code Orange went for on their album, Underneath. Specifically the near end of "You and You Alone." Love that.
Holy shit, I bought mine for only $100 a few years ago, these prices now are bonkers! Phonomenal video, dude.
found one locally for 150, gotta cop right now
In 1998 I joined a Death Metal band that was signed to Dwell Records. An indie label owned by Metal Blade. I immediately went and bought a GX-130C full stack. My cabs didn't have celestions unfortunately, but I was still tickled with it. I ran it with a Metal Zone,....as one does. Now concerning your question of whether CC used them??? I saw them at the Masquerade in Atlanta in 1997 with Cynic and Sinister. Rob was using an Engl Knucklehead and Jack was using a Marshall JCM800. Incredible show by the way. The GX-130C is definitely an underrated amp for Metal. We played 43 dates and I never had one problem with it. It did its job.
How did you run the metal zone? Loop or as a boost?
You know the thing about seeing bands live and the gear they are using is you never know (unless you get the opportunity to ask them) if it's a shared backline. Like there's a good chance, especially at festivals or shows in other countries, the gear they are using on stage is not actually owned by the band.
@@TaylorDanley I barely turn the gain up on the MZ and just used the EQ on it with the red channel. Took some tweaking,...but everyone was floored by the crushing tone I was getting out of it. I wished I had tried the loop,...but i was very young and didn't know a ton about gear yet. The only problem I ever had with that amp, was a tiny dive bar we played that had no PA,....you know,...paying those dues and all.lol. But it just didn't cut through the mix live and sounded thin as tissue paper. Through a PA though??? Unreal.
But yes your correct about bands backlining. I did however,...get to meet and talk to Rob Barrett when he was sitting in with Malevolent Creation in 2001. They played a show at a biker bar call The Long Branch next to the University of Tennessee campus. I know. Weird. He was actually a Mesa artist at that time and also Blackhart guitars. He was running 2 full stack Dual Recti's with a red Maxon of some sort. It sounded absolutely retarded. His tone at that show was jawdropping to say the least. He was an extremely cool guy though. He said that touring was getting to him and he was burnt out. I asked him if he was gonna do an album with MC and he said "no,...there just using me for a few shows." He even bought me a beer. Definitely a bucket list moment. Lol.
I recorded an album , back in the late 2000's with one of these.. Definitely sleeper amps.. funny I didnt realize the 90's Death Metal scene embraced them.. I can see why! Cool video! New Sub here. Keep up the good work!
Welcome! 💪
You do realize that the late 2000's is is still another 975 years away? By late 2000's you do mean the early 2000's but before 2010?
@@jamesblair2000 shot
@@jamesblair2000 haha.. yeah.. for lack of a quick easy way to say sometime between 2007 and 2010.. yes.. you are correct!
I seen them at 94 with Barnes singing they were definitely rocking Crate full stacks as far as boost pedals I don’t know that really wasn’t a thing back then to try to peep what kind of pedals they used. I seen them again in 95 with corpse grinder and it was the same crate cabinets with dual rectifier heads on top
When me and my buddies started playing music together, my singer/guitarist had a 60 Watt Ibanez amp that looked and sounded just like a Crate, and later on, we had a crate 4x12 with a crate 100 watt head. It did the job, and back then I think we were just stoked to have an amp with decent wattage that we could play and hear with the drums. I myself started on a peavey rage 128 (I think) and I loved that amp, it was definitely high quality for a combo practice amp. I’ll always cherish those memories of that early gear, definitely nostalgic, and these days I do still have one relic from those days, a re-tolex-d Marshall mg100hdfx that actually sounds great through a nice cab.
One piece of gear that I wish we would have kept is a Marshall MOSFET 50 or 100, it was an early solid state amp by Marshall, it was so cool.
I don’t know a ton about Crate amps, except that they were ubiquitous in the late 90s, early 00s, and they were a go-to for budding guitarists and bassists on a budget.
I just saw one locally in Facebook marketplace for Tioga County New York for $500 obo. It included the cabinet. Half stack. In good shape.
Don't pay stupid asking prices for gear that honestly isn't worth it. I've owned Crates, as many of us have. Some have been amazing, many have been really cool, most are landfill Chow.
And I wish all of you good luck finding someone to repair that when it goes down. Most, really good and capable repair guys won't touch them. A lot of times you'll end up spending more for the repair than you paid for the amp
There's nothing wrong with paying a fair price or getting a good deal on them but don't let somebody hose you over something you are more than likely going to be disappointed about when you get it.
Even live, the '90s cannibal corpse sound is still adjusted and tweaked through the pa. You're just not going to get it very easily think before you click my friends.
That's actually not a bad price if it's in good condition!
Crate made the best value and most fun practice amps for playing with distortion in the late 90's.
Crate was my first amp ever! Strait from Cheap Johns Music and Pawn😄. 10 years old and trying to learn one Poison, G&R, AC/DC,or Metallica riff in hopes it would land me a kiss from the girl in the apartment next door! Man I miss the 80’s lol. Moved on since then to bigger and better amps but there are times I like to mimic and remenise that raw, crackly, distorted sound from my Cruise electric and Crate amp.
That mid control being designed like that reminds me of the Pro Co Rat: in that the MK1 Rat kept getting returned for being too tinny so they reversed the sweep of the tone control.
Kind of makes me wonder if it was to 'idiot proof' it against people who believed that scooping the midrange was the way to get a metal tone without knowing how to make that work.
Yep. Crate called it Focus or Shape. It was a reverse potentiometer that actually cut mids as you turned it up.
Note all the Crate are the same. What the GX130, the G130XL, the Ampeg VH140 and a few others (IIRC G80XL, G160XL, TD70, etc.) have in common in their distortion is 2 stages of feedback clipping with zener diodes as limiters and an active EQ (the TD70 have one stage of zener diodes + a tube stage and active EQ).
The early ones like the G60 have hard clipping diodes, the cheapo GX15 from your younger days lacks the active EQ (like my GX40C that I nevertheless cherish), etc.
Don't underestimate the power of an active EQ. Ex : 2 SS amps share the same distortion typology, the Sunn Beta and the Laney Linebacker PL100, CMOS inverters as gain stages. The Sunn has an active EQ and sounds massive, the Laney has a passive Marshall like EQ and can sound quite shrill sometimes.
Dude, you have my favorite metal channel on YT. Love these videos!!!
Wow, thanks! I'm glad you enjoy it! 💪
In the late 90s/early 00s I had a CD of The Bleeding, and I'm almost certain that the band thanked Crate in the liner notes. I can't find a pdf of the liner notes online, though. And I know the artwork has changed on The Bleeding, and I don't know if the liner notes have changed as well. You, or someone else, would have to find a CD with the original art and notes, from the 90s/00s to confirm.
I have the liner notes also. Saw it too.
In the bleeding studio clip the crate can be found under the valvestate. It’s missing the badge but for sure is a gx130c, you can see the white stripping
On the Morrisound pic you can see the Crate below the Valvestate. The logo is either removed or blacked out. I forget but you can also see the power LED is on. They def used this amp
You did make this one sound great in the intro man wow.
The cabinet & pickups help so much…
That tone takes me way back to my time mixing death metal at Smilers
It's my understanding that depending on which guitarist you're talking about, they used Valvestate and Engl amps, usually layered with some sort of Mesa/Boogie Rectifier or Mark amp, one guitarist using the metalzone as a boost, the other using a tube screamer, and then one or both guitars are dubbed over it with the metalzone direct into the FX return, regardless there is a setup for quad tracking going on. Thanks for the demo so we can hear what's going on and why amps like these were used.
6:38 those three numbers.. 😃
Dude, that was like the most insane riff I’ve ever witnessed. 😂❤ 3:02😊
I love the nostalgia of crate amps!
I had a few different Crates growing up, wish I would've kept a couple of them, glad to be rid of others lol
I recently got a GT1200 head 👍
Also a few months ago i got an FXT65 combo.
Also I have a crate V series 2x12 cab that I use pretty regularly.
It's built pretty well, all plywood.
I loaded it with Celestion V-Types.
The Crate G10 was my first Amp and then I moved up to, I want to say the 30 or 50. (LOL 11:50 That one.) It was the combo with 2x 8" speakers it it. Loved them amps. I also had the Crate Mini Stack and that amp never failed to impress people. When an amp being pushed by a Digitech RP50 is impressing people, I think that says something about the amp. (I could probably get that mini stack back. I know where I left it and I ran into the guy the other day and I'm under the impression he still has it. And while not the same one, I got a DT RP50 in the garage I ran across last week. It was working when I stored it, or else it wouldn't have been stored.) My next and last guitar amp purchase (I bought a bass and a fender rumble 25 earlier this year) was the Marshall MG100HDFX/MG412A Slant Purple Half Stack. I got a couple cheap crap-o amps from various starter kits I've picked up at garage and rummage sales and use those basically just near the bench as something to confirm pickups are working, so I really don't count those. I also have a small Marshal 1x 8" combo that I'm actually running some Simmons digital drums through. (What can I say, I like gear and instruments.) Since I mainly just play my guitars through my half stack, I didn't really realize how much gear I have until I just rattled it off right now. I play the other instruments from time to time, but I mostly have them for my friends to play if we feel like jamming. We played Rock Band together all the time but we all had actual music experience so I started buying gear hear and there and now I get to jam with my musically inclined friends when they come over. I do confess to enjoy exploring other instruments though. I just don't do it as much as I probably should, but can you really play guitar too much? Even the virtuosos are still exploring the instrument, so it's not like you're ever really "done" learning guitar. Even if you don't consider it "learning," practicing or playing in general is still sharpening the skills. That's just my philosophy towards the guitar at least. The first time I play every day, I always try to play something, new or different. I don't go to the well, I start off exploring. Then I slide back into the familiar. What's the first thing you do, the first time you play for the day? Do you have a "warm up" routine or anything?
This was my first amp head around 1999. The one thing I remember was it being VERY underpowered. I got my 5150 and was confused on how I wasn’t getting drowned out by the drummer anymore.
Great video.
You were more than likely only using half it's total wattage. It needs to be run in stereo.
Vile most likely. They've got em in the background in the Devoured By Vermin music video several times, many pics of Rob from 96-97 show him wearing Crate T shirts, so probably an endorsement was happening, and Vile sounds like it was Crate boosted with a Metal Zone.
By the way, great tone you've dialed in.
Thanks dude! Yeah the clip I pulled was from 96
Just the BV120H and BV60H but the tones did sound great on the vid! Literally instant 90's Death Metal, gotta love it
Plug and play Florida Death Metal! 🤘
When I was 17 I walked into my house with a full Crate stack back in the late 80’s. My father just shook his head. Didn’t have it for long maybe a year before I sold it.
Now, if I could have that 1980 vibro champ back… just recently saw one for sale and never realized they were all tube.
I got a private tour of the Crate factory in St. Louis back in ‘92. The shop I worked in was a dealer. Not a real fan of their stuff back then, but I got a ton of free shirts and hats.
Jack really did use a Metal Zone in front of it.. Nice.
From all the research I've done, they used these crates 100% , Jack was endorsed and eventually moved onto a blue voodoo. They always used metal zones up until modern times they switched to Maxon 808's. Old CC tone is solid state and metal zones!
sources?
@@nisterror I spoke with Jack about what I said above, Rob Barrett spoke with Ola Englund about past gear and using the metal zone.
Used metal zone as a boost.
@@krumple4skin548 yes exactly.
I would love to have another of them. I was a Crate Artist (not an endorsement, unfortunately) right when they first came out, which is a glorified way to say that they said "Hey, this guy uses our shit!" And sent me tshirts and decals. 😆😆
What band were you in?
I’ve owned a few Crates when I started out. All gain….NO PUNCH. But one of my favorite Crate amps I ever had was a Crate Blue VooDoo 120 head with matching 4x12 cab that had V30’s in it. Loved that amp. Still wish I had it for if not for anything, the nostalgia.
Being one of the guys that played most of these amps back when no one have a shit about them I can honestly day I don't miss any of these amps. Especially not for the asking price used.
Love my gt212 Crate. 20 years of flawless beautiful shredding
Love that your room is so full of amp heads. It's dope af
Thanks dude. I love it too, but I need to make room for others here soon! I always joke that I'm going to die in an amp avalanche lol.
@@TaylorDanley I'll bring my beast, my moser and some of my amps and I'll come die with you on that avalanche lmfao like viking warriors bro!!! \m/
“Crate” was a model of amp distributed by St. Louis Music (later SLM) that was built into an actual wooden Crate. From there SLM started Crate as their in-house amp brand and started mass
producing models made in America with Celestion speakers. Around the same time they bought Ampeg, which is where the comparisons of rich man’s poor man’s come in. By and large they were similar but separate brands until Crate production moved overseas in the mid 90s, and at that point a lot of the circuitry was an overseas version of Ampeg stuff, sometimes simplified. More and more parts became plastic, and that leads to the era where Crate gets most of their reputation.
Janick Gers from Iron Maiden used them on the Fear of the Dark tour, Billy Gibbons would eventually be an endorser of the club series (super underrated), and of course there’s Sammy Hagar and the Voodoo series.
Perhaps only Peavey has a greater rise to and fall from prominence in the history of gear.
Still got my Blue Voodoo half stack (the black version not the purple and gold). The see-through mesh and the glowing tubes in the head sold me on it. It's never been to a repair shop.
I got my Crate for $30 from a pawn shop. I noticed it had an 'insert' jack that functioned as an effects loop, one side could be isolated as an out and used in front of my AVT. I liked it way more than any of the models on my POD. I had heard of Crates being used in NYDM and being similar to the Ampeg amps Scott Hull fanboyed over. Years later I got a VH-in-a-box pedal and noticed they didn't quite sound the same. I did a bit more research off and on and gained some insight (maybe, I hope) but got lost in the clustershag of other Crate and Ampeg solid state amps.
Still love my GX15, although now it's cut down to be a lunchbox amp and I only ever use it through a cab sim.
I still have the GX-130 CXL head and full stack from 1989. Just recently purchased a GX-140CH because it was practically new and only $200. I have the manual for the 130CXL still too. The difference between the C and CXL is the C did not have the "SUB" control. That added an 80hz control that really made the CXL thump through a full stack in stereo. I feel you are doing a disservice not dialing in a pure clean tone and enjoying the stereo chorus through two cabs. Set the gain on about 2, and use the Level to find the volume you want. Set the Rate of the chorus at about 1, and the depth at full, and turn the reverb to 10. It's a beautiful rich clean sound. I used this in my thrash band live and in the studio in the early 90's. It was the foundation of our sound. I didn't like to use pedals for anything. This monster had more than enough gain by just running a Seymour Duncan Invader through it. And it had chorus and reverb. That's all I needed at the time for my guitar sound. A massive heavy sound, and a nice clean sound. The thing did both and did it well.
How would the g120c xk compare you think
Dude, the gnar on your shreddz is choice!
Love your work, my friend!
Thanks! 💪
Brutally excited to see this!!
sounded great!!!! thanks for the review!
Yes, Cannibal Corpse used Crate amps on some of their early touring years.
I don't know about in the studio, but on stage, they used Crate.
Now, exactly what model, I was a teenager and didn't necessarily pay attention to that stuff...
Interestingly these sound way better than I recall from back in the day. Humorously, the WORST tube amp I ever owned was a crate stealth 1x12 combo from around this same production era. These SS sound WAY better than that Stealth did.
Almost any amp through a Mesa oversized cab with V30’s sounds great. I’ve heard Spider II’s through this sound pretty impressive.
@@okaight7248 yeah, the cab is the key.
I had a stealth head that was pretty good actually.
Crate amps were an easy find back in the day, I think I owned three at some point. They were accessible and inexpensive. I miss those days.
I still have my GX160 Crate 1x12 bought in 1992,it's a very loud Amp this combo has a shape knob,and tank reverb,a effects loop in the front of the Amp I used for many years its actually in mint condition it still sound good good for practice I have tube heads now,with one of my 4x12 cabs it actually sounds pretty good
High probability that pedals were used, regardless of amp. Many bands, especially from back then, messed around with pedal combinations. It’s largely a recent gimmick where people have turned this whole thing into a game where “I can just play and sound like this” straight into the amp. This wasn’t a consideration back then. They wanted a sound and used whatever pedal, amp and speaker combination got them that sound.
Now that Crate sounds vicious on its own, but boost and EQ only gets that much more out of it.
I hear ya, but I have to say I’m shocked how good these amps sound here. I had no idea a Crate could sound like this. He is also a phenomenal player so that has alot to do with it.
Out of all of the small practice amps from back in the day, Crate had the best distortion.
What do I remember about Crate? They were heavy. They never broke completely no matter the abuse. Had one fall out of a truck going down the road, was fine.
Had beers spilled on em, fine.
Never owned a head though, only the old school combo's that were always around in the late 90s. They were tanks man
Just got a G20CXL for my birthday it sounds amazing
My first “real” amp head was one of those Crates. I remember really loving it when I was a teen in the 90’s.
I used a GX-60 and a Led Paul for YEARS. Super Badass sound.
I remember reading about cc in the 90s I think it was used on the Vile album.
Did you know the Ampeg and the crate heads were both made in the same factory in the good ol USA. I have a G600xl on the hunt for a GX130c.
I had an old crate and would boost it with Cannibal Corpses metal zone settings (I think all the knobs at 9 or 10 o'clock but gain 0 and level 5) and it sounded exactly like the bleeding tone. I also had a valvestate and that thing never sounded like the bleeding tone at all.
I had one several years ago and it worked beautifully with pedals and effects units, on the clean channel of course. It had some problems though, it would cut out from time to time, I ended up taking it apart, cleaning all the connectors and reflowed solder joints, I also replaced some of the big ceramic power resistors, after that it seemed to help, although I could never get chorus and reverb to work, but it wasn't a big deal. I paid $80 for it and sold it for like $100.
We pretty much make most of our judgements from recording where of both pedals and the engineer on the sesion changed what we heard to something much different than what we would hear in a club 30 ' from the amp.Those sounds I can get with my 50 watt Plexi and the best take on a pedal trying to clone the amps sound. Recently I got a very good Source Audio EQ and up my game to near perfect. I have the classic Peavey, Mesa, Soldano and ENG pretty much nailed.
I actually kinda love that sick high-gain clean-channel. Almost has a weird single-coil sound to it. A lot of personality.
I had a Crate combo with 2 12' Celestians when i was a kid. Wish i could have that back now.
I've got an old Crate G 600 half stack that I got new back in '86, or '87. The speakers are 35 watt crate branded and sound great. I eventually had 2 of them blow. I put 2 greenbacks in to replace them. It really sounds good now. I quit using the amp around '89. It sounded okay for what I was doing, but I wanted more and started using rack mount preamps using a Carvin x100b for the power. I've been using a Mesa triple rec since 2010 and still use the Crate speaker cab, plus an oversized Mesa cab.
I just got a gx600 for $40 with the cab, trying to find out all I can about it, so stoked tho
That whole solid state turn into harsh noise when you turn them up thing came from guys using really shitty combo amps which especially back then came with the worst speakers ever. A well made SS amp head into a real cabinet can be loud af.
I remember Guitar Center selling 120w Crate head with 100watt 4x12 cab.... anyone else here see and issue with this ? lol !!! Talk about garbage ! lol sounded terrible.
My practice amp in the 90’s and early 2000’s (for 12 years) was a Crate GX60. I played in a few Death Metal bands which I played live shows through a Crate Blue Voodoo Head and Crate 4x12 Cab. Crate made quality gear that didn’t rape your wallet. People that talk 💩about Crate either never owned any, got ahold of worn out gear, or didn’t take care of the crate gear they had.
I have a crate TD-70, Solid state class D power amp with a single 12AX-7 power tube in the pre amp. I switched the speaker to an Eminence Hemp-Dog and it fucking slays!!. Back in the late 90's Maty friedman got me into Crate with the Blue Voodoo. But I'm currently playing a Peavey Invective 120 as my main amp now.
My first half stack was the blue voodoo. Which worked out great for me at the time I was covering a lot of sloppy macabre and deicide. Fully cranked it could cut through the bass and drums as crude as it sounded, it crushed and I miss it
The making of the Wretched Spawn goes into detail Jacks rig.. can’t remember off top which crate he used.. but most his tone came from his Parametric eq
Sounds like The Bleeding tone to me, especially on the scooped setting. Where its open to discussion if they used Crate on the album they definitely used it on the tour & the following album Vile, Crate is even listed in the cd fold out. Great video
The GX900H are good too, Decapitated used them.
I believe cannibal corpse used them too but it was the Excalibur edition and it was the gx2200h version. The have it as a gx900h as well but in a different casing and in a lower wattage. I own one myself and man does it down a drummer😂. THE TONE IS KILLER TOO.
I used to have that same half stack back in the 90's. The thing I like about solid state heads is they are easier to haul around since they weigh less than a tube amp.
Taken from an October 1996 Guitar School interview with Jack Owen & Rob Barrett of Cannibal Corpse (Vile-era) :
GS: What kind of gear are you using these days?
JO: I play a Brian Moore Custom straight into a Crate GX130C. It's the best head Crate ever made, and they don't make them anymore. You plug straight in and it rips.
RB: I use a Crate GT200 Quadradrive, a Boss Metal Zone pedal and EMG 81's in the neck position of my guitars. I have an ESP Strat Custom and a Gibson Les Paul.
I bought a Crate Stealth 50 watt tube head from a little mom and pop store in the middle of nowhere Missouri and thought I got ripped off because I paid $300 for it . Turns out it had brand new GT tubes in the power amp section and RCA tubes in the pre-amp section with a re-bias . The amp was designed by Lee Jackson and it's pretty much a JCM800 on steroids......it rages ! I've owned many great amps in my 40+ years playing including a Marshall Plexi and more old Fender tube amps than I can remember........and I still have the Crate Stealth 50 ! I don't play it much anymore because it's just so loud and I live in an Apartment. So if I even turn it on with the volume on 1 the walls are literally shaking !
Have a Crate Amp it's Loud does the job. It's a Crate GTD65 has 3 sound effects; Clean, Overdrive and High gain which sounds like distortion. It's a custom design as well.
I got a Blue Voodoo 60 that i run into a Jackson J412 cab. its my birth year rig from 92 and it absolutely crushes
I have a Crate GXT100. It's a 4×10" hybrid combo with (2) 12AX7 in the preamp and TO-3 transistors in the power amp. It looks impressive with it's four 10" Celestion V10-60 drivers, but after powering it on and test driving it, I can see why it was put out by the road on garbage day. Yes, got it free and STILL regret draggin' it home. I even used a Proco RAT distortion pedal (effects loop and in front of the preamp), and didn't like the tone that way either. In all fairness, I will fiddle with it some more before I put it out by the road for the next guy.