
« Crate GFX65 »
Published on 01/21/03 at 15:00It's very portable and the built in digital effects sound pretty good, although the ability to
tweak an effect is very limited. On the clean channel it starts to sound a little compressed
at higher volumes which is actually kind of nice. The FlexWave distortion is adequate at
best- on the gain 1 channel it is obvious that the sound is coming from a solid state amp,
but on gain 2 with the shape effect it sounds very nice.
I have had no problems at all with this amp and I have played it in numerous different
places including an outdoor show where it was below freezing- try that with your vintage
tube amp.
I have yet to run the amp into an external speaker, but I have miked it through the PA,
and that sounds great.
As mentioned above, the effects are nice but there are limits to the settings you can
choose. Also, the gain 1 channel sounds a little cheezy. The amp is also somewhat
volume limited, but that comes with a 65 watt amp with a single 12 inch speaker, and
can be overcome by adding extra speakers or miking.
Rock solid- I've had no problems at all with it.
For a relatively cheap amp it is a very good deal and will work for most amateurs
or as a practice amp.
I will rate it a 4/5
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com