is any Crate amp worth $600?

[tedmich]

in the local Clist:
Guitar amp Coca-Cola Crate with lights in ports !!! Custom made !!

Coca Cola Crate Amp,


$600? Maybe for this one...

[Justin Thomas]

Just because it's in a crate doesn't make it a Crate. And besides, that first one looks more like a Crate-Peg to me, anyway. I might pay $600 for the speaker cabinets... but in this day and age, I bet the sound guy makes him play that amp on "1" anyway.

Well, I might pay $600 for a Crate if someone put NOS 6L6GCs and a bunch of Telefunken or Bugle Boys in it...

Justin

[Enzo]

What do you mean by Crate-Peg anyway..SGM used to deride Ampegs as Crate-pegs because the AMpegs were made by the same company as Crate - SLM. Crate brough tout their first amp in 1978, an SLM product. They bought Ampeg 8 years later. So Crate and AMpeg were made by the same people from 1986 onward. When Loud bought the brands from SLM, both went and so Crate and Ampeg are still made by the same folks as each other. So what is the distinction between a Crate and a Crate-peg?

[tedmich]

Well, I might pay $600 for a Crate if someone put NOS 6L6GCs and a bunch of Telefunken or Bugle Boys in it...

Justin

or filled it with real coke....

[Justin Thomas]

It was a jibe at SGM. While I prefer Pre-Magnavox Ampegs, I have no issues with SLM Ampegs because I have never played one. I never had the opportunity to work on one, either, and any reservations I have about doing so are due to my own limitations. My first amp (not counting the Gorilla :P ) was a Crate GX30M, and it sounded pretty darn good for what it was. AND it still works just fine, 21 years later, and I'm pretty sure my aunt who bought it has done absolutely nothing to it.

Justin

[Justin Thomas]

or filled it with real coke....

Define "real coke..." I'll take the lack of capital C as "the stuff I'd find in people's trunks when I pulled o it their spare tire."

Justin

[tedmich]

Its got some bad belt buckle rash but I'd still buy it....

[The Dude]

nice "mirror" finish pick guard to go with it.

[Leo_Gnardo]

So what is the distinction between a Crate and a Crate-peg?

I read it as SGM's observation that modern Ampegs are indistinguishable from Crates - from the inside. Same parts, board construction, etc, because after all they are made on the same assembly lines by the same company.

Original Crates, the ones made for a couple years late 70's that looked like rough wooden boxes, may have been a bit of a novelty & sounded OK but no big deal and very crapola electronic construction that reminded me of cheap TOUR amps = disposable. Crate got their act together and started making better stuff not far into the 80's, though it was never stellar quality. Perhaps the top of the heap was their 90's Vintage Club amps. I used to hate 'em, now we get along OK. I found some mods that make VC's less brutal to the ears and to their output tubes. Still a PIA to work on except maybe the smallest of the line. Ampeg combos of that period were pretty good: one of the Jets is a 50W Marshall 1x12 in disguise, an excellent amp for a sleeper price.