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

Vox AC4TV 10 Tube Swap

7:45 p.m. - I just had my Vox AC4TV retubed, thanks to my good friend Tavo Vega.  He knows his guitar amplification and was kind enough to diagnose the microphonic tube noise I was hearing when I plugged in and turned it up!  He ordered and installed a new Tung Sol 12AX7 pre-amp tube and a new Electroharmonix EL84 power tube.

Soon I will plug it in and see how it sounds.  In the meantime, here is a picture he sent me inside my VOX AC4.  I will post more when I have the chance to see the effect of this change of tubes.  Thanks Tavo!

10:30 p.m. - After getting my Vox AC4 back with new tubes already installed:  I plugged it in, grabbed my Strat and started playing with the knobs.  I found that with the new tubes it had a more open sound and a greater spectrum of sound choices I could dial in.  There is definitely more clean at a higher volume when setting the attenuator on 4 watts and setting the tone on 3 o'clock (75%).  It is a brighter sound overall and rocks quite a bit more.   Maybe a slightly less warm tone generally, but still retains plenty of Vox Chime.

Overall,  the tubes improved the sound, giving the knob adjustments control over more contrasting settings.  I bought this amp to play blues guitar, so if I want to overdrive the gain by reducing the tone to 10 o'clock I can enjoy the breakup.  Using the 1/4 watt setting still allows blues tone at a much lower volume for quiet home practice.

I recommend these tubes and am grateful to Tavo for his expertise.  Great, inexpensive mods.