Crate Vintage Club 20 All Valve Amp

I received my new, but 30 year old amplifier, today in the mail.  It is a CRATE VINTAGE CLUB 20, Valve Amp. It is USA made in St. Louis, Missouri.  You can't touch a 15-watt valve amp of this quality retail in today's world for less than $450.  It has three 12AX7 preamp tubes and two EL84's in the power section. I took it out of the box and plugged it in. After noodling with the settings a bit, I started playing it clean with the gain low (7:45) and the volume a bit higher (9 o'clock). It has a nice full, clean sound with my Strat on the neck and mid PU's. I was amazed at the original condition of it for 30 years.  A great blues sound was had on my Epiphone Riviera P93 Limited Edition.

Very little hum-- much less than my AC4TV10 which is fairly quiet. It has a very nice, classic sounding reverb (better than my Boss '63 Fender Pedal) and plenty of low end for a 10" speaker, with 15 watts. I tried pushing the increased gain button to go to 20 watts, but I didn't need anywhere near that volume or power in the house.  Initially, I tried it with the gain high and it sounded very Marshall-ish and warm with natural tube distortion. A little scratchiness is detected in the gain pot and a very tiny tube rattle for a moment when I was distorting it on higher volumes, but nothing to worry about in either case.

If you read my blog, you know I love to play old blues songs by the likes of Elmore James and Albert King. I am going to love this amp and I don't need to do anything right now to improve it, which I am surprised about. A great seller and true to his word. I bought it for $139 plus $45 for shipping 1500 miles. My new favorite tube amp! -- Guitar Man