Mad-Mike said: When I played in Lithium the Rhythm Guitarist had one towards the end of things. It eventually blew a tube and took the transformer with it. Also, I was outblowing him with his 75 watt solid state Peavey Special 130, he had the Crate on 10, I had the Peavey on 3.
This guy being who he is, he probably never had it retubed or got any issues checked (he got it used at a pawn shop for around $300 as they could not get rid of it). Neither one of us knew about that sort of thing at the time as we were both using Solid State up until then. It probably would have been louder if PROPERLY TUBED and any issues it had worked out.
No amp is perfect, not even Bogner. Take it from me, I'm the king of finding all the bad amps that die within a year. I can finally say I'm happy with what I have, and i've been owning and playing through various amps since 1995.
Amplifier Problems I've had
- Amp Sounds like #### - (Gorilla, Most early 80's Peavey Stuff, lots of tampered and badly modded vintage tube and transistor amps, Epiphone transistor amps, Todd's Mesa Stilleto which you can't even bias and had not been retubed in 5 years...my Bugera ate that thing alive).
- Proprietary Footswitches that are needlessly complex and hard to get - (Peavey Classic/Stereo Chorus 212, most of the Bugera Amps, looks like the Bogner Alchemist has one like that too. I'm a footswitch KILLER).
- Not Durable - (My Epiphone lost 4 corner protectors, a chunk of pressboard out of the back, broke the logo, and lost a bunch of tweed covering gigging. My Bugera's cab is missing it's logo now (cheap plastic), and the plastic input jack broke off, and a clip inside burned up. My Peavey rage 158 (first amp) committed Hary Kary after 5 years. I also melted a Gorilla GC30 by playing through it with the Jag-Stang on 10...I smoked most of the electronics and the speaker).
- Too Expensive - (Marshall amps cost $4000 in the states because they are British, I've heard the same is true for Fender with the brits, Mesa Boogies are hella-expensive, and my most recent experience with the Stiletto kept me thinking "this amp is only worth $800 in my mind")
However, I can't attest to any one amp being the best for everyone. If so, then I would not have so many beating me down the head for not liking this or not liking that. The Crate may very well be your want. I just don't like it because I would think on something that recent they would have worked out a way to keep from frying the transformer when the tubes go. However I can understand a lack because many players will notice the change in tone (that Crate Hawk had sounded great at first, but just before it went I could hear it was starting to sound REALLY ####ty when he started needing to turn it up to 10 to get enough volume to keep up with the Peavey, neither of us knew enough about valve amps at the time).
As far as my favorite amps on an all around, the newer Bugeras have seemed to have changed so they are pending, I was looking at one a week or two ago. I have always liked the Carvin X series amps, which have EL84s. I also dig some of the older Mesas, the Heartbreaker sounds killer with a stock Jag through it....Fender Jaguar + Mesa Heartbreaker = Instant Metallica.
