All user reviews of 3/5 for the Crate GX15

I bought this amp several years ago at a music store as part of a starter combo with a Fender knock-off guitar for around $200 all total. I wanted to play guitar to annoy my parents and pay off my wife's student loans. Of course, my parents are happy that I've finally found a productive hobby, and the student loans will follow the old lady and me the grave. Go figure.

It's light and easy to move around. It's also quite cheap. Having played the amp at parties, it looks like it's been through a war, yet it keeps on ticking. For a dinky little amp, it is cabable of satisfying a single room of drunk headbangers on a budget.


It sounds like a clock-radio lit up on meth. The distortion is very muddy, and the soul-penetrating hiss it exudes at even moderate volumes can grate on your nerves. You can fiddle with the dials all day long, and it will never quite sound just right.

It has survived beer spills (Pabst no less), a U-Haul, and people falling on it. It has also been knocked off of a chair. All in all, it seems quite durable. The dials are a smidge off though; when you turn them all the way down, none of them match with the zero mark, which is annoying to me, but maybe not to you.

This is an absolute starter amp. When you've learned to play your second chord, it's time to take this little girl to the pawn shop and let some other budding rocker have a go.

Note: if you have a lot of digital filter design experience, you may be able to put together professional recordings with an amp this cheap, but it does take determination and some serious creativity. If that ain't you, I'd recommend buying a better amp.

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

I needed any kind of amp I could get- this was 45 dollars used at a store. I currently need a new one, 15 watts is too small. Bought from a local shop.

This unit is good at what it does at low volumes- the price was nice. The pre-amp helps a bit.

This amp is too quiet for gigs. It's solid-state. The overdrive is pretty poor, and I don't like the Crate tinny sound too much. Only an 8" speaker.

This amp is fairly solid, though it has occasional pops and background noise (fuzz).

It isn't so great of an amp, but the price is low. Save up if you want an amp big enough for a gig, and get a tube amp if you want nice sound. Use a pedal if you want distortion because the Crate GX 15 doesn't cut it.

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