Crate V18-112

[ibanezjunkie]

well, im in need of a better gigging amp, and 18 watts class A seems good enough to me for small gigs.

but on the other hand, ive never had any experience with Crate amps, i jsut know people are pretty crazy for the V5. none of the stores around here stock them so ive never had a chance to test them for myself.

so can someone try and fill me in on the fiddly bits reguarding this amp?

also, i know its 18 watts but whats the ohm rating on the speaker output?

thanks

 

[Katastrophe]

I believe our own pes_laul has one of these amps. He sounded great in the YouTube vid he posted a while ago.

 

[WackyT]

I have one also, and it's a good sounding amp. The ohm rating on the speaker output is 8 ohms. I replaced the stock speaker with a Goodsell RGM I got at Warehouse Speakers. It's voiced after the Celestion Greenback. I also replaced the reverb unit with an Accutronics 3-spring, and did the resistor switch to brighten her up. She's definitely worth the $150 she cost new.

 

[ibanezjunkie]

I have one also, and it's a good sounding amp. The ohm rating on the speaker output is 8 ohms. I replaced the stock speaker with a Goodsell RGM I got at Warehouse Speakers. It's voiced after the Celestion Greenback. I also replaced the reverb unit with an Accutronics 3-spring, and did the resistor switch to brighten her up. She's definitely worth the $150 she cost new.

thanks for finalyl giving me the ohm rating, no stores seem to show it in the specs. 8 ohms is a striking bit of luck, since it matches the ohm rating of my celestion loaded cab, so iwont have to bother replacing the speaker, ill just voice it through that.

also, $150? which is about £95 if im right, i was looking at the Crate V18-112s for £220? :S

 

[markb]

The Crate Vs became very popular in the US for a while due to a clearance deal by one of the big retailers. Hence the low prices people quote on these.

 

[TS808]

I would take a good look at either the Crate V32 Palomino (30 watts class A) or even the Crate V3112. The V3112 and V3112T are one of the final series made by St. Louis Music (who used to own Crate) and are made in the USA. The V3112T comes with a tone tubby speaker.

You can find these on ebay...some used some NOS at pretty reasonable prices.

 

[Ro3b]

If you get a V18, a speaker replacement is pretty much required. These amps have a rep for being bass-heavy, and imho the stock speaker is mostly to blame for that. The cone is coated in plastic, for no good reason that I can tell. I replaced mine with a Weber Signature ceramic and it made a huge improvement.

If you use reverb much, you'll probably want to upgrade the stock reverb tank too.

Having done both of these mods, I tried a bunch of different tubes and ended up going back to the stock 12AX7s. As it is now, there's loads of heavy Marshallesque distortion on tap, there's almost no clean headroom, and it's bloody loud and can't be played in the house without an attenuator. I love it.

There's a ton of info on these amps on this thread on the Telecaster Forum.