By Robert Renman - www.dolphinstreet.com
Tried a Crate V 33 head with matching 2x12 cab recently at Music Centre Canada in Camrose. It looks really nice, this thing. With the matching 2 x 12 cabinet, it would look awesome on a stage. I was stoked to plug in and crank it up.
It has nice features too:
33 watts RMS Class A, all tube circuitry Two channels 4 x EL84 output tubes, cathode biased Spring reverb Footswitchable boost function
I started with the clean channel. Nice, nice. I could get some really fat and shimmery tones with both a humbucker guitar as well as a strat. The tone reminded me a bit of an AC30. It has plenty of volume too, and this channel with some pedals would go a long way.
Then for the crunch channel. I expected some nice, saturated gain tones to be found here. Truthfully, I was disappointed. The distortion was dark and muddy - not exciting at all compared to the clean channel. I set the bass on zero and drove up the treble a bit. On a humbucker guitar, I could that way get some decent tones, but then the clean channel would be way too bright. No matter how I fiddled with the controls, the gain channel had me disappointed.
The reverb is really nice for a relatively cheap amp like this. I was able to get some "surfy" tones and rich reverb guitar tone by some quick experimentation.
In summary, if you want a 33 watt head with a nice sounding tube Class A British tone and you don't need a gain channel, by all means - this ain't a bad amp. But if you want good distorted tones, I think you would need to hook up some good pedals on the clean channel and forget about that you have a 2nd gain channel. It's really that bad, in my opinion.
I don't know what Crate had in mind when they designed this gain channel. It's not gonna work for many. I have also played the Palomino amps in the past, and I must say the gain tones on those amps were much, much better than what this 33 watter has in store for you.
By Robert Renman - www.dolphinstreet.com
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i just did pretty much everything here...
http://dnator.50webs.com/index.html
Ed, where are these resistors locate?
Comment added on September 17, 2009I have th eV33 head. I loved the Clean but hte gain was totally unusable. I recently modded the amp. All you need is to switch two resistors and replace a 33K with a 100K and this amp sings. I A/B ed the modded gain channel with my marshall JCM 800 and its quite convincing. Unfortunately i was sloppy with the iron and roasted my clean channel. i should get it back soon though. ;)
btw, i love your site.
I own this head, and cabinet. The cabinet is very nice, but a little bright for my taste. I have a very large 2x12 cabinet with Jensen Mods (70watt) Now this amp sounds like a beast. I am playing with an SG and could not ask for anything else out of the head. Nice tube saturation at high volumes. It stayed fairly clear well past 6 on the volume. I use a Boss DS-1 for that whole distortion thing. Try the boost button. It brings a brighter sound to the gain channel.
Comment added on November 29, 2008I have the V-18 112, the V-33 212 and the V-50 112. The V-33 is really my go to amp if I am playing a blues or rock gig. I keep the V-50 as a backup. For country type music the V-50 is better, more clean and brighter. Class A in the V-18 and V-33 is hard to beat for that singing, full tone. For the price these amps are hard to beat. You could spend 4 times more to get near the same tone. The VOX AC-30 and the V-33 are close. I have been toying with changing one of the speakers in the V-33. I have run different speakers in my cabinets with good results. Usally a clean speaker and one that breaks up sooner. This adds a multi dimesional tone/sound/voice. Just make sure you use the ohm value.
Comment added on October 16, 2008Sorry, didn't see this. Try the new series V's....the V-18 is a steal at $149.....
Comment added on September 17, 2008One of my friends has gotten by the whole crap gain channel problem by running an un-modded Boss SD-1 pedal in front of it at all times. The SD-1 drains lows something awful un-modded, which apparently actually did some good for making his gain channel sound nice and defined.
Still, I wouldn't call it the best sound ever, or a really good sound for that matter. But then again, I didn't really get a chance to mess around with the settings.