Crate V50-112: Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad
Boasting a spring reverb tank that's more powerful than a Sherman tank, the Crate V50-112 is a tube amp to be reckoned with. In addition to its amazingly punchy clean channel, it has some of the most intense reverb you'll ever hear -- reverb so intense it feeds back onto itself. It does have a high gain channel.
Owen O'Malley breaks out some of his HAZ-VERB gear to wage a war on unsaturated tone. Tanks for watching!
[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING GUITAR THROUGH A CRATE V50-112]
OWEN O'MALLEY: Welcome back to Gearwire.Com. This is the Crate V50-112 combo. It's part of Crate's sort of V Series of all-tube or all-valve amps. This is the 50-watt combo, which is the highest wattage you can get in a combo version of the V series. There's also a 100-watt all-tube head. It has three 12AX7's in the preamp stage two 6L6's powering the output stage.
It's a two-channel amp. It has a spring reverb tank built in. It's got an effects loop, it's got a couple of different switching options. You can get a footswitch for it. You can get a dual-function footswitch to switch the boost and also switch between channels. To be completely honest, I don't think you want to switch off the clean channel on this amp. The clean channel sounds I think fantastic. It's really punchy. It's really spanky. Let me take down this reverb.
[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING GUITAR CHORD PROGRESSIONS THROUGH THE CRATE V50-112'S CLEAN CHANNEL]
I think this amp excels at, well, clean tones in general but it's great for sort of like country licks.
[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING COUNTRY LICKS THROUGH THE CRATE V50-112'S CLEAN CHANNEL]
And it's really good for like funk stuff. It really brings out the sort of like the punchiness of the in-betweeny Strat tones, you know, the two and four positions.
[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING FUNK CHORD PROGRESSIONS AND LICKS THROUGH THE CRATE V50-112'S CLEAN CHANNEL]
There's -- It's a three-band EQ here so if we crank them bass...,
[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING LICKS THROUGH THE CRATE V50-112'S CLEAN CHANNEL]
...we crank the trebles...,
[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING LICKS THROUGH THE CRATE V50-112'S CLEAN CHANNEL]
...it gets very harsh, and if we crank the middle...,
[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING LICKS THROUGH THE CRATE V50-112'S CLEAN CHANNEL]
...the middle sounds pretty good actually. It's very hard to sort of overdrive this amp. It's a 50-watt class A amp. It's hard to overdrive it in the clean channel without it just getting unbelievably loud. Let's just switch over to the gain channel for a second so I can kind of give you an idea of what it sounds like.
[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING CHORD PROGRESSIONS AND LICKS THROUGH THE CRATE V50-112'S OVERDRIVE CHANNEL]
It's not a terrible sounding gain channel. It's -- To my mind, it's a little dark. I mean I'm playing through a Strat, and this is the bridge pickup on the Strat.
[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING CHORD PROGRESSIONS THROUGH THE CRATE V50-112'S OVERDRIVE CHANNEL]
You know, there's nothing wrong with the gain. It's got a good distortion. It's just kind of like weirdly voiced. Let's try cranking the treble here.
[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING LICKS AND CHORDS THROUGH THE CRATE V50-112'S OVERDRIVE CHANNEL]
That's a lot better, but both channels share an EQ so you know you've got a great clean tone on the clean channel with everything, all the EQs just right in the middle, and when you switch over to gain, you really have to go back there and pump up the treble to get enough treble response or, you know, an equivalent treble response to the clean channel.
[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING LICKS THROUGH THE CRATE V50-112'S OVERDRIVE CHANNEL]
One other sort of really unique thing about this amp is the reverb. Now, the reverb right here, which has a pretty long trail, is only up about a third of the way.
[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING LICKS THROUGH THE CRATE V50-112'S CLEAN CHANNEL WITH REVERB]
Ooh, that's out of tune.
[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING A LICK THROUGH THE CRATE V50-112'S CLEAN CHANNEL WITH REVERB]
Now, if we turn it up more, like here's about two thirds of the way up.
[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING LICKS THROUGH THE CRATE V50-112'S CLEAN CHANNEL WITH REVERB]
It's more of like a modulation effect than it just a standard reverb. I mean this is -- you know only at a little bit past halfway up, this is way more reverb than you get on most combo amps. Let's just run it up all the way.
[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING LICKS THROUGH THE CRATE V50-112'S CLEAN CHANNEL WITH REVERB]
You get feedback on reverb. So kind of a crazy intense effect. So yeah, that’s about it for this amp except for one more piece of good news. This amp is $200 right now, new, at retailers. Most may not be going very fast, but yeah I mean its really only drawback is that the second channel isn't that useable but the clean channel is great! It's a great-sounding clean channel in an all-tube amp. So, $200 you can get a 50-watt single channel class A amp with a 12" speaker from Crate. It's the V50-112. You're watching Gearwire.Com. I'm Owen O'Malley. Thanks for checking us out.
Great playing Owen. Whatever
Great playing Owen. Whatever you were playing at around 5:11 sounded really, really good...very Modest Mousey!
V50-112 Combo Review
Great review. I really appreciate your attention to detail and your candor in presenting what this amp does well and where it is lacking.
Thank you!
Thanks, Bill and Alex, for your kind words and for checking out Gearwire! Let us know if there's anything you've got a burning desire to see demo'd and we'll try and get it in: webmaster@gearwire.com
CRATE V50-112
GREAT AMP!!!,,,DID 3 RESISTOR MODIFICATIONS,TO CLEAN UP THE 2ND CHANNELL,,,EVEN GREATER NOW!!!!,,THNX FOR YOUR REVIEW,,
Crate V50-112 Mod
I read your comment on the resistor mod on the V50-112. Where can I find info on this mod? If you don't mind, send me an email with info.
Thanks,
Tod
owen rocks
Owen is a great presenter and player. Awesome review. Thanks.
Very nice Amp
I picked one up for really REALLY dirt cheap ($175), and I must say that Owen has hit the nail on the head about channel 2.
Though if you run an overdive pedal with it on the second channel, it really perks up a little.
One thing that Owen didn't touch on are the boost and presence switches. They really REALLY help the second channel if you play around with it.
The Effects loop can also be used as a line out to Mixer After the EQ but before the reverb.
For $200 you cannot beat this amp.
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