Crate VC508 mods: how to make it not suck ass.
Posted: Wed May 15, 2013 8:22 pm
If anyone is interested, I just modded my little Crate VC-508 amp so that it does not suck huge donkey balls. If you have this amp and have not thrown it through a window or intentionally blown it up, I'll post a how-to so yours can not suck.
Basically, it went from one of the worst sounding amps ever (that actually has a tube preamp and power section) to a not terrible sounding, simple, clean 4 watt all tube pedal platform monster. Kinda like a epi valve junior with less gain and not as dark.
In stock form, it is a simple 12ax7/el84 5 watter with mediocre build quality. BUT it has two things going WAAAAY against it: there's actually a solid state IC gain stage before the preamp tube (wat?) like a tube screamer without clipping, and then a terrrrrible sounding mid-cut tone control that is kinda like the mid scoop on a big muff. Why Crate... why?
So, lemme know if you want to give it a shot. The amp is 100% useless without mods so hey, why not? They go super cheap used too.
Basically, it went from one of the worst sounding amps ever (that actually has a tube preamp and power section) to a not terrible sounding, simple, clean 4 watt all tube pedal platform monster. Kinda like a epi valve junior with less gain and not as dark.
In stock form, it is a simple 12ax7/el84 5 watter with mediocre build quality. BUT it has two things going WAAAAY against it: there's actually a solid state IC gain stage before the preamp tube (wat?) like a tube screamer without clipping, and then a terrrrrible sounding mid-cut tone control that is kinda like the mid scoop on a big muff. Why Crate... why?
So, lemme know if you want to give it a shot. The amp is 100% useless without mods so hey, why not? They go super cheap used too.