Crate Vintage Club?

[RealtyViking]

Re: Crate Vintage Club?

Hi all, i'm new of this forum.
Yesterday my brother give me his old ampli; it's Crate vintage club 50w 5115. I have an engl savage with a mesa boogie 4x12 cab but i want to change my configuration. I want to know if with some mod i can use the crate for my purpose.
I want to buy a 2x12 cab and use the crate like a mono chanel head with 4 or 5 pedal. i play in a cover band some Black stone cherry, Metallica, alterbridge, alice cooper, but also joe bonamassa, hendrix songs.

do you think i can mod my crate and use a cab? what kind of mod do you suggest? clean tone- hard-metal tone? wich pedal do you suggest?
thanks for you help!
and sorry for my poor english

Yes you can mod your Amp to run a separate cab by installing a Switchcraft 12a 1/4" phone jack on a 90 degree bracket. Just make sure that your cab ohm load is the same as your speaker. When you plug the speaker lead in you will bypass the 15" combo speaker. Just make sure that you turn off the amp when inserting or removing the cable so you don't risk your output transformer.

The Crate Vintage Club is not going to hold up to metal since the el84 power section will break up at volume. Blues, rock and even surf are where your Crate Vintage Club shine.

Use your ENGL for metal and super clean. Use the Vintage Club for everything else.

[Wattage]

Re: Crate Vintage Club?

Great amps! ........

The biggest problems with these amps are dirty/ corroded pots which effect all amps at some point. That is easy to fix with a little deoxit. Next is the cab mounted channel switch. Again, easy to fix with an inexpensive foot switch as it bypasses the chassis mounted switch. There were some production issues with cold solder joints. A tech would be required to redress the joints if that was still a problem, but most were repaired under original warranty.

The differences between the 30 and 50 watt versions are cathode bias and a smaller OT on the 30. That makes the 30 watt version sound a little more vintage. As far as sound character goes I would say that the clean channel is best described as very similar to a Fender Bassman. So the cleans are not chimey like a Vox or glassey like a twin, but a little more attitude. The drive channel would best match something like a JTM45. It has a nice crunch. Nothing too heavy, but if classic rock or blues are in your set list it will nail those. The original reverb unit being a long three spring is also very nice. The reverb is not as thick as a Fender, but close. The stock speakers were Crate labeled Eminence Legends.

If you have any specific questions let me know.

All of the above. I have owned a couple and dug them both.

My fave is the 20wt 1x12, really killer sounding and with a little maintenance and TLC will serve you well. I found my 50wt 2x12 had more of the cold solder issues than the 20wt. It wasn't a fan of rought handling. I'm thinking of grabbing a 30wt combo and making a head box for it since I can't seem to find any 30wt heads around locally.

[Rick330man]

Re: Crate Vintage Club?

It has been a few years since this thread has seen activity. I have two Vintage Club 50 heads that are over 15 years old. Both are alive and kicking and doing just fine. Neither has ever needed any servicing. I do clean the jacks with DeOxit about once a year. A Sovtek 12AX7A in V3 died after about 10 years of service life. Just today, a JAN Philips 12AT7 that was in V4 (phase inverter) in the same amp died after 6+ years of service.

To my ears, sticking a quality 5751 in V1 and a quality 12AT7 in V4 brings out the best in these amps. Curious to hear from others as to their experiences with these amps.