Crate BX100

I am Sir Puffers Rabbinald the Third of Comparative Anatomy, the most barrage drum and bass band on the animal planet. I play lightning treble bass. We have played since birth. This amp was Puffer's first real bass amp. It's a large, cube-shaped, off-black amplifier with a handle at the top, the Crate logo on the mesh, and tons of nobs. Along with the usual volume and gain, you have an incredible equilizer that can really give you a nice range of sound.

My mother rabbit gave it to me before I blew up the den with my lightning bass power. It cost her around $350 I believe.

<a href="http://www.myspace.com/comparativeanatomy">http://www.myspace.com/comparativeanatomy</a>

The great thing about the Crate BX-100 is its versatility. For its size, this thing delivers. It has excellent gain, a contour nob for getting a general sound for a foundation, an awesome 8-band equilizer, master level, balanced line out, and the usual. The equilization on this thing is killer, you can really, really derive some great sound out of it and an incredible range. Very versatile. In addition, aside from the fact that its only 100 Watts, this thing is LOUD. It's surprisingly loud. I've used this in medium-sized venues and was able to fill the room with wonderful lightning bursts at roughly a little over HALF of max volume. Don't let the 100W fool you, the BX-100 has some fine kick to it. Definitely good for a small or medium venue band, this thing can crank.

The only thing I really didn't like about the BX-100 is the size. One of the reasons I think it's so loud is the absolutely beast size of the cabinet the speaker is in. I mean, we're talking probably three times the necessary size. This, unfortunately, makes this cube of death incredible awkward to carry. It has NO wheels on the bottom and no handles on the sides for ease of transport, and the pathetic little handle on the top looks like it could snap at any moment, not to mention it's almost impossible to carry it around with it in any sort of way short of ridiculous. If it weren't so heavy, this might not be an issue, but its size and weight really make the BX-100 an awkward, often painful experience on the road. It damaged two car windows in the time I've had it and destroyed countless plastic things in the back seat. Make sure it's secure in the car or where, because if this thing moves, everything dies. Another issue worth noting is NOTHING inside the back to hang and/or hook the cord to. Talk about annoying, try carrying this and have the cord fall between your legs as you're going down a flight of stairs.

Still, the BX-100 is a solid, nicely put together piece of equpiment. I had it for years and cranked it up quite a bit and never had a problem with it. It's definitely built to last for a long time.

Overall, the Crate BX-100 delivers where it really needs to, the sound. Keep in mind its size may break the back of the strongest of musicians, but if you can look past this (and perhaps install your own side handles, which should be easy to do), it's a great amp and will give you all the power you need. Heck, I'd go so far as to say this is one step below a half-stack. Turn it on and see why!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

This is a 100watt black combo amp

I bought it used off a friend along with a cable and a zoom effects pedal for a combine $300 in around 2003 or so.

It's a good lightweight starter amp for very small venues and for practices. If you are just playing around in your garage with a drummer and guitarists this will do just fine to be heard in the mix. Tone is satisfactory, clear and somewhat customizable, but personal tone is a preference. This amp is probably best for a practice studio.

If you need to be heard on stage, this is not the amp for you, only 100 watts means not to much power, however if you are mic-ed or DI-ed you should be fine, I used this one time at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ, for any of you who know famed place, and my bass ran through a DI box so it did just fine, however I used it on a small community center stage by itself and it DID not cut it volume wise with 2 other loud metal guitars.

Okay construction, internally it seemed fine, but I had some knobs and EQ levers fall off over the years, still worked and sounded fine but was a bit annoying. I never had the speaker on the inside blow out or anything.

If your starting out and don't have a lot of money, and need to upgrade from a small 15watt practice amp, this is great, if you need to medium to large venues, get a head and cabinet separate, this does not have a lot of power!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

i bought it new in 2005 its a great amp by itself or with ext speakers have a b.c.rich warlock bass playing thru it and the sound is phenominal awesome effects ive been playing guitar snd bass for 36 years mostly home and garage band stuff we call ourselves ' the banned' weve only played out a handful of times but were always liked. crate amps are my choice they 'ROCK'

PURCHASED NEW AT HOVERMANS MUSIC IN VAN WERT OHIO I PAID 400.00 FOR IT JUST WANTED TO UPGRADE FROM OLD AIRLINE AMP AND CRATE WAS GOOD CHOICE FOR ME IM ALWAYS TOLD TO TURN DOWN EVEN WHEN VOLUME IS ON 2 OF TEN SO THERE YOU HAVE IT LOTS OF HEADROOM

<a href="STORE HAS SINCE CLOSED">STORE HAS SINCE CLOSED</a>

PORTABILITY 80 LBS AND STURDY LINE OUTS FOR EVERYTHING YOU WILL EVER NEED.5 YEAR WARRANTY IVE NEVER HAD ANY PROBLEMS WITH THIS AMP AT ALL

NO WHEELS MAYBE THATS ALL

EXCELLENT STURDY AND TOUGH

CRATE HAS A LOT OF DIFFERENT SIZE AMPS FOR ANY SIZE PLACE OR PERSON THEYRE A GREAT AMP IN MY OPINION ALL PLAYERS SHOULD CHECK THEM OUT YOU WONT BE DISAPOINTED.IL PROBABLY KEEP MINE FOREVER AND GET ANOTHER ONE FOR MY SON SOMEDAY

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Purchased at Guitar Center of Hallandale, Fl
for $289.00
I highly recommend "The Guitar center".
These people are really good.

The amps power rating of 100 watts rms seems to be accurate.
It is indeed loud enough to play at moderate volume and play along side someone with a 50-60 watt guitar at about half or slightly more volume.
I like tolex covering; no lint, no snags and no beverages will soak into it like carpet. Easy soap and water clean up.
The Graphic 8 band EQ works well, is extremely effective for customizing your sound curve but has its *limitations depending on the volume used.(*discussed later)You can punch it up, fatten the bottom end etc., its very versitile and would accomodate most playing styles.

The "Contour" control when properly set will allow mild to moderate enhancement of the amps tone. Set the Contour to the right and the amps midrange frequencies are cut and the bass and the treble are given a slight boost. When turned left the bass and treble are cut and the mids are fattened up.
The controls of this amp are setup with a common sense layout, effective and accurate operation. All of the necessary line in/out, extension speaker and effects loop jacks are there and where they should be.



Depending upon your environmental conditions within your home, studio or elsewhere, this amp can get noisy. Computer equipment, Televisions, and other electronics that are nearby will cause excessive amounts of line noise. A noise gate will most likely be a benefit as well as a line conditioner or at least a good surge protector with both
RFI and EMI (Radio Frequency Interference and Electromagnetic Interference) reduction.

The amp is not ideally suited to gig with in small clubs only because the amp starts to distort at about 75% volume. This increases to the point of annoyance if you set the right two graphic eq sliders (50hz and 100Hz) to increase the amount of bass. When you set the amp at 85-90% volume and attempt to increase the amount of bass at higher setting by again moving the right two slider up, the amount of distortion increases to the point where it will drive you insane. There is no way to operate this amp at high volume and at the same time, achieve a heavy bottom end. If you lean out the bass frequencies to more modest settings somewhere just above the middle (only slight boost) then the distortion is not quite so pronounced and is bearable.
There is no line in for a cd player and no rca out for recording media or a computer.
It has does have a balanced XLR line out for studio recording and to patch to the PA system.

Rugged quality internal construction, no internal vibration and no rattles. It's obviously braced and re-enforced properly The controls knobs seem to be durable but the EQ sliders seem to be a bit weak, I've read only one review but the sliders on another guys BX100 were damaged during transport, I can believe it since they appear to be a bit on the cheap side.
The material that covers the units front is ugly and not quite so protective. I know that most of us feel better when we have a rattle free/kick proof steel mesh between ourselves and the units 15” ground pounder and besides, you gotta admit, it just looks cool.


I don’t want to scare you away from this unit. It’s a high quality unit and will faithfully perform its job for you but that depends on what your expecting to do with it.
If your going out on the road or in the studio, you’re going to need more amp with less inherent idiosyncrasies that require work-arounds or give and take.
If you’re looking for a good practice amp or a limited x-small club/coffee house size amp that you intend on having mic’d or patched to the PA and providing your drummer isn’t super loud then the BX100 with all of its features functions and price is very hard to beat.
If you do gig with this unit, run it through the PA system and keep the volume and low-end tone set correctly and you’ll love it.
My opinion is that the BX100 is better suited as a damned good higher end practice amp.

I gave this amp a 4 but only becasue the distortion issue. All other issues that were mentioned are not that serious enough to warrant passing this product up for consideration. I've since traded up to the BT220 I needed more power for giging and more overhead while practicing at b-52 volume levels.
Crate has since replaced the BX100 with the BT100 which is a much better amp less the 8 band eq.
You can get the older Bx100 for about $50 - $70 cheaper that the newer Bt100.
I thought that I would write this review just for those few people out there who are looking at the leftovers or buying used.

My recommendation would be to buy the BT100 over the BX100 but if you want save a few dollars and like this amp, its not a bad deal, its not a perfect amp but for what its designed and designated for its pretty good.
Good luck and I hope you've found this useful.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com