Crate Flexwave 120 H

Solid State
3 channels - Clean, Overdrive, High Gain (with EQ)
120 watts
Evolution 5 preamp
DSP with separate controls for effects, including delay, reverb
CD/MP3 input
Effects loop
Built-in tuner

UTILIZATION

It is easy to get a "good" sound from this amp. Plug the amp in, plug a guitar into the amp, plug in footswitch (optional), and start playing. The amp was well built and pretty tough. It's easy to operate all of the effects and controls if you are familiar with guitar amps/basic effects.

SOUNDS

I've used a Les Paul, Strat, SG, and Telecaster through the amp. This amp gets loud. Louder than I've ever needed it. Even at gigs it was nowhere near full volume. That being said, the sound quality is rather poor. The cleans sound really thin and tinny. The distortion sounds thin and grainy. It was nice to have the headroom to go from fully clean to fully distorted live but the tones weren't good. I've since upgraded to tube amps. The difference in tone is night and day. I used a few pedals in front of this amp and they all worked pretty well. The built in effects sounded pretty good for built in effects but since the initial tone wasn't great to begin with so it's hard to judge. This amp is capable of playing very high gain music (Hard rock, Metal) and sounded better distorted than clean.

OVERALL OPINION

I like that this amp was relatively cheap and loud but it sounds like crap. I bought it when I was an inexperienced guitarist so it was fine for the time but when I wanted to fine tune my tone I moved on. Since most clubs mic your amp anyway I think that smaller tube amps are the way to go. Knowing what I know now, I would have gone back and invested in a 5-15 watt class A tube amp instead of this amp. If you really need the extra volume, its worth the investment to buy a more expensive amp.

Amp transistors 120W, technology "Flexwave" to get closer to its "lights" (I am not very satisfied with the result, but better)
settings treble / mid / bass for the clean channel, same story for the channel "Overdrive" and a level / shape / gain for the channel "high gain"
is entitled to a bonus has tuner LEDs, convenient, but very gadget, and some digital effects manageable via 3 knobs namely delay / mod / reverb
footswitch has 3 switches and their LEDs are orange / red / blue

I put average because there's nothing transcendental at this level

UTILIZATION

The config is simple as regards the setting of the sound itself, it remains an amp, for cons in terms of steering all in the footswitch, at first it hurts a little:
- Switch 1 is used only if the switch 2 is switched

- All the switches have zero sound was clear (normal)
- Switch 2 "on" was the overdrive
- 1 + 2 switch "on" was the sound high gain
- Switch 3 to "on" one triggers the effects

at first it's a little mess, but we made it ...

for sound, (it's still its primary role), I put an 8, but just for the messy side of the management of the sounds on the footswitch I am tempted to May 1

SOUNDS

I do that is to project the sound clear and loud enough without distortion it is doing is wonderful, we love volume level before reaching a bottom knob
I then colored the sound with the input is a Boss GX700 rack, a Behringer Vamp pro rack too, and I get the sound I want without problems, the clear very clear, well inflated in all the right frequencies, and large saturax that vibrate the house ...
The main downside is that the overdrive channel and high gain are nearly unusable in the state has less to invest in a noise gate or be very parsimonious in the amount of gain applied. but this must be a blemish on this type of amplifiers (amplifiers include transistors has) because many of those that I have tried had the same defect
I am an addict of a transistor amp, but big amps, I like that sound cool, like what, all tastes are in nature guitar.

I put an 8 for noise on the gain channel

OVERALL OPINION

I use it for 10 months, and frankly I like, (although I'm picky), I like his side clear and cold, I radicalized with distortion around the unreasonable, and its clear
I had bought used (very nearly new) for not too expensive, with 4x12 cutaway to troubleshoot a first step, the seller told me he changed because too many transistor type, it fell well, that was my niche
the price / quality ratio is very good even in new, but what surprised me most is the lack of info about him on the net, yet he deserves that one is interested more ready

a powerful amplifier, and not very expensive, the price / performance ratio is really interesting (to me again), but nothing beats the fact to try to get his idea