software

Does anyone have any experience with these?

They kick a lot of ass. I may actually buy one.

The Chris has one; I'm sure he'll be happy to tell you all about it.

I was quite surprised with the V 32. Major mojo from an amp that has the word Crate on the front. Sorry, but historically Crate has left a bad taste in my mouth. The Palomino series really is nice!! Its got a great clean channel nice OD and pretty convincing reverb. Plus both channels have a footswitchable boost that actually is usable!! HERE are some pics inside and out of one for ya!!


Originally Posted by djs194The Chris has one; I'm sure he'll be happy to tell you all about it.


In short, it's my secret weapon. While my prized Fargen Epic 30 DC was out getting completely rehauled, I needed a really good sounding amp for the 3 song demo I was going to be doing with my band.

For ha-has, I went to Guitar Center and looked around at different amps and I saw in the corner of my eye a sweet looking 1x12'' blonde tolex combo with gold hardware. I saw it was a Crate vintage series amp and from what I've gathered a few notable musicians have used and enjoyed them, like Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top and Joe Walsh.

I've played the Marshalls, Fenders and the Mesas and thought they were decent, but nothing quot;spokequot; to me. I plugged into that 1x12'' blonde Crate and it was heaven from the start. First thing I noticed was the quot;Class Aquot; emblem on it, I knew this was going to be different. The cleans sounded perfectly in the Vox/Matchless ballpark with a sweet chime and a nice full response. The Accutronics reverb tank added some sweet depth to it and it had the overall clean tone had a nice 3d type vibe to it. I flipped over to the Overdrive channel and it was perfect modded Marshall territory. It had a great crunch; it's articulate and very rich as well. With some volume, the boost channels added a little bit of a push to cut through other instruments. Everything I played on it just sounded quot;rightquot; and the controls were easy to manipulate (while the clean and overdrive channels share the same EQ, it's not hard to make them both sound great without compromise). I looked at the tag, it said quot;Crate V32 Palominoquot; and the pricetag was $600. I walked out with it for $500

Is the amp for everyone? If you are a name brand snob, you will not be able to get over the fact that it's a Crate. My singer/acoustic player is like that and then he gets pissed because the Crate absolutely destroys his Peavey Classic 30 in every way If you are a player that dislikes EL-84 tubes and you want a lot of bottom, you will not like this amp. It's a Vox/Marshall sounding vintage Class A amp and it's voiced more for upper mids, the lower registers will flub out if you crank the bass too high.

I understand some people question the reliability of the amps, but I trust mine more than any Vox amp ever made. Mine survived a bad car accident with a huge gash in the side (nearly split the side of the cabinet in half, my entire back side of my car was completely totalled) and it has sung through 4 different gigs, my first 3 song band demo, and countless practices since then. It still has some of my old Honda Civics glass floating around in it and it sounds as good as the day I first bought it. I don't care who you are, that's a good product

Why I like this thing so much is that it blows away most of the boutique amps I've played in terms of sound depth, feel and quality of the sound and it's amazingly cheap. I will never sell mine and the car accident was a true indicator that that amp will last. I've played my fair share of boutique and top of the line stuff and I'm blown away by the Crate (and it feels great to say that ).

Honestly, if I had never known about my Fargen, I probably would have been happy with just the Crate

Thanks for the input, I may end up buying one of those. From what I here, they have the tone, plus, I really like el84 distortion.

I was blown away by the rich, full tone and responsiveness. Great price too!

I played a V32 in GC one day amp; it was very nice..........the pricetag was even better!

I played it as well as the Mesa Lonestar Special....granted, they're a little different beast... but for pure cost purposes, you couldn't go wrong with the Palomino.

This amp sounds quite awesome.

Chris, about the clean channel. Is there any specific song/band you could compare it to or something? Thanks, man.


Originally Posted by FenderStratRock3This amp sounds quite awesome.

Chris, about the clean channel. Is there any specific song/band you could compare it to or something? Thanks, man.

Yep, if you want to know how the V32 Palomino sounds, check out the link in my signature. The first song that pops up, quot;Redirectedquot;, really showcases the cleans, the overdrive and leads that the amp is capable of.

To me, it's definitely in the Vox/Matchless camp, you get a nice warm and fat sound with a chimey top end.

I had a V32 for a few months, great amp. If any of you get one, try installing all JJ tubes and upgrade the speaker to a Celestion G12H30. Awesome!


Originally Posted by the_ChrisYep, if you want to know how the V32 Palomino sounds, check out the link in my signature. The first song that pops up, quot;Redirectedquot;, really showcases the cleans, the overdrive and leads that the amp is capable of.

To me, it's definitely in the Vox/Matchless camp, you get a nice warm and fat sound with a chimey top end.
Sweet. Nice track too. That amp is at the top of my list.

I've had my V16 since april. v32 is better value but it's just to loud for my apt building.
v16 has only one channel so I had to have some pedals. I ended up discovering the hidden potential of this baby:
I am using a rocktron zombie rectified distortion and a good ol' big muff.
the zombie lets you adjust the symmetry of the distortion. very unique feature. it makes the amp from emulating a marshall to emulating a mesa. swear to good. that's a $40 pedal get one and see for yourself. I contacted rocktron tech support they told me the pedal was at its best with a class A amp. and then there's the big muff. My god: talk about a violin sound.
I am close to the end of life of my stock tubes, 7 months. so I will be trying some new tube in spring. stay tuned.