Crate 112 Won't distort??

[g19g26]

I bought my first tube amp, a Crate v 50 112. I'm playing either a Starcaster (my first guitar) or a G&L Tribute with dual humbuckers. I have tried all kinds of settings on the amp and just can't get it to really distort. I'm just picking in the spare bedroom, no gigging. I've cranked it way loud (put a pillow in front of speaker to mute it a bit). I now know that I got WAY too much power for home, but its too late now. What sold me on the V 50, was that it didn't have a lot of single coil hum like other amps seemed to at idle. BTW, I also have a Line 6 15 watt Spider amp. Two different animal. The Spider does scream.

Any suggestions on what I can do?

Really like reading this forum. Lots of good info.

[Mick Bailey]

Are you certain you're on the gain channel, with the gain pushed up and the level turned down? Shouldn't be a problem in getting it to distort.

[Randall]

Are you using the drive channel? That should distort plenty. At 50 watts with 6L6's it's gonna get very loud before you can distort the clean channel on it's own. suggest looking at this: Crate V50-112 All Tube Combo Demo - YouTube

[Jazz P Bass]

Here is the manual in case you are confused.
Link: http://www.crateamps.com/pdf/manuals/V50-112_OM.pdf
The first knob (Volume) on the left is only for the Clean channel.
The next two knobs (Gain & Level) are only for the Dirty channel.
The Channel push switch below all of this switches the channels.
The Boost push switch gives the Dirty channel a boost.
With Gain & Boost engaged you can set the desired output level (yeah, 50 watts is loud) of the dirty channel with the Level knob.

[J M Fahey]

Well, watch again the video kindly posted by Randall.:
KILLER clean tone (haven't heard such a good one in amps costing 5X more), and incredible, overthe top reverb.
But .... muddy , so and so distortion.
I wouldn't touch it, but add a good distortion pedal ahead.