[Brian Krashpad]

Sunday morning I went and picked up my craigslist find, an old Crate GX-40C. $80.

It has reverb and stereo chorus, no digital effects. Unlike the newer Crate model (probably a GFX-40) with the DSP stuff, the older one also has smaller speakers, 8's rather than 10's. That's OK for me, since I was looking for portability.

The stereo chorus sounds really nice, a big full sound. With the chorus off the amp is a bit bright and clanky, though a usable clean sound can be gotten with the bass all the way up, the treble all the way down, andthe mids on about 2 or 3. Definitely likes humbuckers better than Fender-style singles. Haven't played anything with P-90's or other funkier singles yet.

The gain channel is not very good, marginally passable at low gain but unusable at higher distortion. I'll just keep it on the clean channel and use my Bad Monkey, since it has separate bass and high tone controls, not only will the distortion itself be better but I can EQ it with the pedal so it won't be so bright and clanky.

The funny thing is, the speakers are Jensens and sound really good with a nice warm bass response in chorus mode. Weird that they eq'd the rest of the amp so bright. It's covered in charcoal black fuzzy stuff.

This was just a little thing that I could take along and use as my stage monitor at church (will probably be in the PA mix, but even if not, will only be playing over acoustic instruments) so I don't have to bring a 2x12 and a head, which could scare some of the blue-hair contingent. Also should be good for noodling at home