My wife was shopping for some Goodwill stuff online and spotted some things for me. She's a smart lady, so she knows that USA-made Peavey is always a winner. And I'd been talking about re-acquiring the GX-15 I had as a teenage "backup amp" in the '90s, just for kicks. Well, she was right on in her gear radar, and ordered the pair for me. But, the bottom-left Crate pictured was a SLIGHT re-design of the one I had. So, in the interest of accomplishing what I set out to do, I spent the $20 rebate coupon from that first purchase on ANOTHER GX-15, this time, exactly the mid-90s edition I remember so fondl... well, that I remember. (While I haven't side-by-side'd 'em, I'm betting they sound pretty much the same. But the heart wants what it wants.) And I got another $20 rebate for that one, too.
I'm going to donate whichever Crate is "lesser" to my ear to either a local club as an emergency backup amp (mic'd it would suffice if somebody's combo blew, feel free to save the "I'd rather go direct" snark), or maybe a Girls Rock or School Of Rock school or something.
These have basically been giveaways for the past 20 years, so I was STUNNED to see that prices have started moving up. I'm sure deals are out there, and I realize that solidly-made electronics are certainly worth SOMETHING, but I didn't think I'd see any of these getting above the $50 mark. If I must, now's the time, I guess. Better than paying more later to find out.
Full disclosure: I know how these sound. I know exactly how these sound. I know most people hate 'em. I wouldn't choose one to define my sound. I bought them for kicks, throwback nostalgia, $70 altogether to my door, before the coupon. Here's what I think so far:
The Peavey is a 1990, showed up non-working. Powered on, but wouldn't pass signal unless I gave the channel button a sharp poke, then some fizzy "Super Saturation" would cough out of the speaker. Pulled the guts out, gave the pots and jacks some DeOxit, re-tensioned the loose input jack a little, and it works perfectly. It's a pretty "small" sound, and I find the dirty channel to be, well, almost entirely useless for me, other than a weird throwback to teenage '90s bedroom nostalgia. Or for experimenting with the abrasion of the sound in a big effected swirl. But as a replacement for a nice warm crunchy pedal/amp, it's a non-starter. But this thing's built like a ROCK covered in fossilized elephant hide. Will make a great late-night living room amp for cleans with tons of delay and reverb, as well as a "workbench amp" so I don't have to throw on a big boy every time I'm trying to repair something.
The elder Crate has a speaker dated 1995, haven't opened the chassis up yet. Again, sounds just fine as a clean practice kind of thing, with that "small speaker" sound that doesn't have a lot of richness, but a lot of cut. When I flicked on the dirty channel and scooped the mids to a V, there it was -- that "chewing on tinfoil" kind of crunch that would send blooze players running, but I admit, I can see a use for in a big tsunami guitar mix. My wife's face lit up because she said she hadn't heard "teenage '90s punk guitar" sound like that in years. But set clean, like the Peavey, it would make a great "midnight, summertime, open windows" amp in our city apartment.
The younger Crate dates to 2002, and I've probably put the most hours (minutes) on this one so far, just because it's been in the house a few days longer. There was one little wisp of cobweb in the back, but it's MINT. Like, I sincerely don't know if this was ever played, the way the power cord was kinked in the rubber band. Tolex was still soft and un-dinged, speaker and grille logo are still shiny. My only real complaint is that -- in my living room, at least -- there does seem to be some kind of weird middy "honk", even clean, even with the mids down pretty low. Just the nature of the beast, I guess. Just seems to be resonating in the more nasal frequencies. I'd scoop those mids even further, but I'm already making fun of myself for how low they go. Frankly, for the Crates, I think the clean preamps in them sound just fine for a sterile little amplification with EQ adjustability. I think it's the tiny cabs and little cheap speakers that have the biggest negative impact.
Any of these will also have a very valuable role in our live sets. We're lucky enough to play places with decent PAs and monitors, but we prefer to be self-contained for when we have to be. I use a 4-way buffered amp splitter to send my signal out of my pedalboard, and now one of those sends will run over to one of these little monsters next to the drummer, so she has a guitar monitor she can adjust as she sees fit.
These are all neat little amps. Not be-all, end-all, but a practice amp is just to practice, right? A concept from the era where gigging amps were 50+ tube watts. Just something so you can get an idea of things at home or backstage, so you don't have to strum unplugged.
They sound great for that kind of thing, and have a few other tricks up their sleeves, too.
Although, yet again, for one reason or another, it's not a Peavey Blazer or Crate GX-15R, so my family of "dry as a bone" amps continues to grow.
So, yeah, I don't see myself having a NADx3 anytime soon, if ever again. I had to post this.
And as much hate as these little varmints get, at least two of them are going to fulfill very special purposes in our little world.
(Here's some bonus gut shots of the Peavey while I had it open for cleaning the pots and jacks.)
Maybe makers of modern solid-state, non-digital practice amps today spend time burning in all of their bottom-tier line.
Here's some of the 1995 Crate. Funny to see the empty area (and unused panel holes) for what I can only assume would be the reverb circuit, as well as a spot for a second input on another model.
Play on, fellow trash monsters.
