Blue Voodoo 60 Watt Head

[deathbytinnitus]

Thoughts on the Blue Voodoo? I think its highly underrated, has a good mid-heavy crunch tone and likes clean boosts! They can be had for usually less than 250$ nowadays, totally worth it in my opinion! It seems to cut through the mix quite well also.

[YeRedHouseOverYonder]

Re: Blue Voodoo 60 Watt Head

Nice playing. I always thought they were good for the cash back in 2003, but I was a bass player in a HS punk band lol. Seeing one always takes me back to when we use play gigs every weekend. Good times \m/

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

[DankStar]

Re: Blue Voodoo 60 Watt Head

Everyone hates Blue Voodoos. I kinda liked their fuzzy vibe but never got one. Sounds cool to me in the clip.

[ErikH]

Re: Blue Voodoo 60 Watt Head

Blue DooDoo!!!! I had the 120. Sounded great when it worked. The PCB is flimsy where the power tubes mount and it was designed poorly in that area. The one I had fried 3 times. Finally sold it after the last fix. Never again.

[deathbytinnitus]

Re: Blue Voodoo 60 Watt Head

Blue DooDoo!!!! I had the 120. Sounded great when it worked. The PCB is flimsy where the power tubes mount and it was designed poorly in that area. The one I had fried 3 times. Finally sold it after the last fix. Never again.

Thats really concerning. I already had to deal with that fiasco with the Marshall JCM 2000 in the background. That amp had a defective PCB and the bias would not stabilize or bias in range. It’s fixed now but if the Crate is gonna get the same issue I’m going to sell it. Last few times I checked the bias it seemed ok though and seems to run somewhat cool.

Can you go more into detail with what happened and what failed?

[ErikH]

Re: Blue Voodoo 60 Watt Head

Thats really concerning. I already had to deal with that fiasco with the Marshall JCM 2000 in the background. That amp had a defective PCB and the bias would not stabilize or bias in range. It’s fixed now but if the Crate is gonna get the same issue I’m going to sell it. Last few times I checked the bias it seemed ok though and seems to run somewhat cool.

Can you go more into detail with what happened and what failed?

Basically lost half the power because two of the tubes stopped working, and the tubes checked fine in the other sockets. The PCB had fried traces and resisters in that area. I'm not an amp tech but that was 25 years ago when it happened. While it sounded good in crunch mode, it could not comes close to keeping up with a Marshall JCM800 50 watt head. The Marshall ate it for lunch and dinner.

[Diego]

Re: Blue Voodoo 60 Watt Head

I saw Marty Friedman playing one of those live. It sounded alright, then some guy joined him with a Marshall JCM2000 (can't remember which specific model) and it sounded way better.
Not impressed here.

[deathbytinnitus]

Re: Blue Voodoo 60 Watt Head

I saw Marty Friedman playing one of those live. It sounded alright, then some guy joined him with a Marshall JCM2000 (can't remember which specific model) and it sounded way better.
Not impressed here.

That’s a cool story but have you actually played one? I have both of the heads right next to each other lol

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: Blue Voodoo 60 Watt Head

I don't mind them at all ...almost bought one off ebay a few (maybe 7-8 lol) years ago...but things fell through. They were cheap used (apparently still are) & sound/play pretty decent. They do have a distinctive tonal flavor of their own & that's a big plus for me..

[Ewizard]

I got a second gen version in 2001-2002 and it was not bad for the price, but mine ended up with issues. The clean channels volume pot took a dump and they use PCB mounted pots with a very small shaft, hard to find a replacement..... I was able to sort of fix it. My finding with the amp is that it relies too heavily on its feedback loop to sound right and at low volumes it was just very anemic and thin sounding. Even when turned up it wasn't a very heavy or thick sounding amp. It did have plenty of distortion, and was the can of bee's sort of thing, but it worked and was great for punk rock music ( which is what I played when I had it ). I modded it later on to have a typical Marshall circuit and it was a little better that way, but ultimately sold it. When I see them I do get nostalgic as it was my first half stack rig ( matching cab even ), but I don't really miss it. I have played a couple other BV120 heads over the years and I was always reminded of why I always wished I had just saved a little more money to get a Mesa Dual Rec, while they were still somewhat affordable. At the time I think you could get a Dual Rec for less than $2k. Congrats though, and yes they are pretty cheap these days. I sold mine about 10 years ago for about what you got yours for.

[Diego]

Re: Blue Voodoo 60 Watt Head



That’s a cool story but have you actually played one? I have both of the heads right next to each other lol

I've never played a Crate, let alone a Blue Voodoo. If you like yours, awesome.
I'd say time has moved on and there's plenty of newer choices with improved reliability and functionality.
I bet you could score a used Blackstar head of sorts for similar cash and get great tones out of it easily.

[deathbytinnitus]

I've never played a Crate, let alone a Blue Voodoo. If you like yours, awesome.
I'd say time has moved on and there's plenty of newer choices with improved reliability and functionality.
I bet you could score a used Blackstar head of sorts for similar cash and get great tones out of it easily.

Yes I like Blackstar!

The Crate however has this good tone, It has alot of good utility hey I like it along with all my other heads of course I cant compare to my big boys because the price but as a tool it works well and has its own character which i feel like that Is important to me it helps creativity you know what I mean?

[Toejam]

I had a BV60 head awhile ago with KT66 tubes. That thing sounded amazing. I can't remember why I sold it, but I wish I had it back.

[deathbytinnitus]

Here's another clip of it.....

This time in the mix. (no post eq or processing, this is the raw guitar track in studio one)

[dave74]

Makes some great tone right above. Great music too!