Crate Vintage Club 50 Head

[beggar_guitar]

Re: Crate Vintage Club 50 Head

I had a VC50 head at one point and it had a similiar issue. The above post concerning plugging a 1/4 inch cable into the jack fixed it for me. It worked just fine with a footswitch.

That was a great amp. It had a matching 4x10 cabinet. Sold it a few years back to help pay for an engagement ring.

[ant_riv]

Re: Crate Vintage Club 50 Head

I have a VC50H also.

The effects loop jack is a stereo jack with one side the input and the other side the output.

In order to insert an effect in the loop, you will need a 'y' cable that has a stereo 1/4" jack on one side and two cables on the other side. The stereo jack goes into the 1/4" effects loop. One of the two cables goes to the output of the effect, the other goes to the input of the effect.

If it doesn't work on first try, reverse the cables and it will work.

I really like my VC50H!

[Rick330man]

Re: Crate Vintage Club 50 Head

I use Caig, Deoxit D5 from tubesandmore.

Since I have a combo version it is a chore to change tubes. I love the way it sounds as-is so I have settled on the Sovteks and have been very happy. 12AX7s are relatively cheap though so if it is easy to change the tubes in the head version I would experiment more with this amp. I like the EI and Tung Sols.

Here's a friendly suggestion. Let me start from the premise that you are selling yourself short by sticking with the Sovtek EL84s. They sound decent, and they sound better in this amp than in any other application in which I have tried them. That said, I've run JJ, Ei and Tesla quads in these. Each sounded noticeably better than the Sovteks. Unfortunately, the JJ and the Ei quads each suffered casualties. One tube from each quad died a premature death, which I attribute to the VC50H's extreme plate voltages. To their credit, the Sovtek EL84s have held up where the others have not.

How do you get better tone with reliability? Answer: buy a matched quad of NOS Reflektor 6P14P-EV. They are surplus Soviet Union military tubes rated for 5000 hours of service life. They sound very, very good in these amps. I was so impressed the first time I stuck a quad of these in a VC50H that I went back and bought 4 more matched quads. I expect to play my VC 50Hs for a long, long time.

Warning: the last two letters do matter. A regular 6P14P will not survive. Take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the Soviet era tube designations and suffixes. You must use the "K", "EV" or "ER". Of the three, the EV seems to be the most musical. The "ER" is rated for 10,000 hours, but I have repeatedly heard that they sound too stiff in guitar amps.

Suggestion: buy the tubes from a vendor who you can trust. I have purchased all of mine from Jim McShane. He's never sold me a dud or steered me in the wrong direction, and he is meticulous in his testing of tubes.

These are beautiful sounding heads. I hope these suggestions help folks out as they strive to find that perfect tone.

[Rick330man]

Re: Crate Vintage Club 50 Head

TIme to bring this thread back to life - some 3 1/2 years after the last post.

My two VC 50 heads continue to sound good. I recently went a year without using them. When I cranked VC 50H #1 up, my GE 5751 in V1 died. I replaced it with another one. VC 50H # 1 is now running a 1980s GE 5751 in V1; an Electro-Harmonix 12AY7/6072A in V2; a Sovtek 12AX7A in V3; and a JAN Philips 12AT7 in V4, the phase inverter. The Soviet era 6P14P-EVs continue to perform well.

VC 50 head #2 is set up: V1 - GE 5751; V2 - JAN Philips 12AT7; V3 - Sovtek 12AX7A; V4 - GE 12AV7. A quad of Sovtek EL84s is holding up fine and delivering very respectable tone. I'd love to run Ei or JJ EL84 in these, but they don't hold up to the sky high plate voltages.

VC 50 #1 recently started switching from the clean channel to the drive channel on its own. I cleaned all of the 1/4" jacks with Caig De-Oxit. Problem solved.

I'd like to hear from others using these heads/a,ps. What tubes are you using in each position?

[Troybuilt79]

Re: Crate Vintage Club 50 Head

TIme to bring this thread back to life - some 3 1/2 years after the last post.

My two VC 50 heads continue to sound good. I recently went a year without using them. When I cranked VC 50H #1 up, my GE 5751 in V1 died. I replaced it with another one. VC 50H # 1 is now running a 1980s GE 5751 in V1; an Electro-Harmonix 12AY7/6072A in V2; a Sovtek 12AX7A in V3; and a JAN Philips 12AT7 in V4, the phase inverter. The Soviet era 6P14P-EVs continue to perform well.

VC 50 head #2 is set up: V1 - GE 5751; V2 - JAN Philips 12AT7; V3 - Sovtek 12AX7A; V4 - GE 12AV7. A quad of Sovtek EL84s is holding up fine and delivering very respectable tone. I'd love to run Ei or JJ EL84 in these, but they don't hold up to the sky high plate voltages.

VC 50 #1 recently started switching from the clean channel to the drive channel on its own. I cleaned all of the 1/4" jacks with Caig De-Oxit. Problem solved.

I'd like to hear from others using these heads/a,ps. What tubes are you using in each position?

I also have 2 of these. My main 212 combo that I use for gigging has 4 sovtek el84s and a tung sol in v1, jj ecc83 in v2 and 3, and a usa 7025 in v4.
My other head I have 2 tubes removed for practicing purposes. I use 2 harman e84ls. And I use all jjs in the preamp. I'm having serious issues with this amp nowadays though. My clean channel doesn't work at all and it sounds fizzy. I already found a broken resistor I changed last week. I think it's falling apart lol

[ehdwuld]

Re: Crate Vintage Club 50 Head

Fx loop?

Jump the loop with a patch cable and try

*(Sent from my durned phone!)*

[Torren61]

Re: Crate Vintage Club 50 Head

I'll play! I just traded a 1992 Peavey Foundation bass I modded (Bourns pots, vintage bumblebee cap and Babiscz bridge... damn, that bass sounded good) plus $150 cash for a Black Tolex Vintage Club 50 2X12 combo. I love these amps. I played a friend's cream Tolex one for a long time and never had a bit of trouble from it. Question: What are the designated preamp tube positions from left to right closest to the transformer? Is it V1 closest to tranny or V4?

I just took the amp apart to check out the tubes. Looks like the original Sovtek EL84s in the power positions and three JJ ECC83S tubes in the preamps and...get this... one Amperex 6681 tube in the third socket from the tranny.

[Spudman]

Re: Crate Vintage Club 50 Head

I have two of the VC50 heads. Some comments based on 10 years with these guys.

Beware: these eat EL84s because they run them at close to 400 volts on the plates. One of mine runs around 385. The other runs around 396. Both of my VC 50Hs came stock with Sovtek EL84 power tubes. You really need to run 7189s in these amps or your power tubes will have very short lives.

And there you have it. I've had my VC50 since 1994 and it's a tube guzzling beast. Sounds great for a while, but I learned to never move the amp after the tubes heat up until I'd given them time to cool way down and that helps some with the longevity.

Get sturdy well made tubes and they'll last longer. You can also get a computer fan to put on the back of the amp to help dissipate heat. I got one from a dumpster outside a computer place and just set it near the amp to keep air moving. It's really quiet.

[jtougas]

Re: Crate Vintage Club 50 Head

Any way to mod to cooler bias?

[Rick330man]

Re: Crate Vintage Club 50 Head

Years later and I've still got my two Vintage Club 50 heads.

I found that getting the coolest setting JJ EL84s possible will survive. A JJ EL84 quad has been in one of my VC 50 heads for over 3 years now. The JJs sound great and are holding up well. The other VC 50 head has a quad of those old Soviet military 6P14P-EVs.

With the factory spec 4 12AX7s in the preamp the amp can generate unwanted preamp distortion and delivers that bees-in-a-jar type distortion when pushed. Sticking a quality NOS 5751 in V1 and a quality 12AT7 in V4 (phase inverter) will allow you to enjoy the amp's beautiful cleans while also allowing you to have a usable drive channel.

Anyone else? I'm also curious about what speaker and cabinet combinations folks are using with their VC 50 heads.