• superb amp plus

  

  As reviewed by guitardoctor on 12/12/2007

  I've owned this amp for 2 years. It is, in a word, phenomenal! Not only is the guitar channel clear as a bell, it amplifies my Martin OMC16RGTE AURA as if it were miked. There is no unwanted coloration (unless you dial it in with the EQ). The antifeedback circuit really works well, which is important when you play differant venues, many of which have a small stage space. What really rocks, however, is the versatility of the vocal channel. With the twist of a couple knobs, my voice goes from "Well, at least he can play guitar decently." to "Man, you sound good! I knew you could play, but I didn't know you could sing!" I highly reccomend this amp for anyone who aspires to play coffee shops, church, or any solo accoustic gig.

  52 of 52 people found this review helpful.

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• 15 years later on the Crate CA125

  

  As reviewed by Zoro on 2/13/2011

  While I recommend the Crate CA125, the performance of and your happiness with an acoustic amp depends in large part on what guitar(s) you plug into it, as well as your musical style. If you are considering the purchase of the Crate CA125-DG, my hope is that you find my comments helpful. Long road test: I have had mine for a while; my wife won the best-wife-ever award back in 1996?ish when she bought a CA125D for an anniversary present, so I have about 15 years? of experiences with this amp. Controls are the same but I give the new cosmetics a thumbs-up from the original design. Contrasting the D to the DG model and a design difference, the previous generation has an angled lower back, so you can tilt the amp back to cast the sound more upward. No big deal? you get better bass if you keep it perpendicular like the new design has ? so you?re not foregoing anything by not having the little notch cut out. Tone: The sound is accurate, period. Tone is very shapeable ? and this is important, because if you play more than one guitar, each requires its own setting ? and the CA125 is really easy to quickly adjust. The amp sounds nice at low volume ? which is often required ? like at funerals. But then, I have been told to turn down the amp outside at parties ? lots of power to give you headroom even outside. At a max, I have had 3 people going through the amp at once: 2 guitars and 1 mic. A+ is the grade. Other amps: yep, I have a Marshall TSL100 combo (100 watt all tube, 2x12 Celestion) 6x the cost, an excellent amp, still nearly new, but in the garage ? the Crate wins for what I do. Durability: purchased in Dallas, Texas (extreme hot and cold, I played in and outside all year), moved to El Paso, Texas (more extreme, and more cold and far more dry - static electricity is a biggie in the desert, but no prob at all), then to we moved to Holland, then Ireland (about as humid as it gets ? all year), where I worried about the different power freq in Europe (50 Hz), because the power input tag only spec?d 60 Hz, but with a step-down transformer from 230 volts to 120 VAC, the amp worked fine. I am back in El Paso and the Crate is too. Repairs: Only 1 and it was in the ?operator abuse? category: At about the 10-year point, I had blown one of the woofers (I say I, it was my son who played some Rob Zombie using a BC Rich with high-gain distortion pedal while dad was away). So, I had both woofers replaced in Austin ? and oh my, like new again for around $100 or so (and the son? he got his own amp). Music: I play a wide variety actually, churchy-wedding solo kinda stuff, a good deal of backyard easy listening tunes +/- 20 years off of 1990 genre that includes Eagles & Taylor all the way to John Mayer, and then growing up in the 70?s in South Texas, I enjoy the heck out of playing a lot of Willie, Waylon and the boys with a cold Lone Star. Guitars: most of the time, I play an 81? Martin D-35 with an under-saddle bridge pick-up. For elevator jazz, classical-esk, and Christmas gigs, I use a Yamaha AEX500N (thin-body, nylon strings) ? this guitar works for that soft Janice Ian to Sarah McLachlan sound and the lead licks that call for a nylon string guitar. The third guitar is a fun one: a Gibson ES-335 with a modification? for about $250 all in, I installed a Fishman Tune-o-Matic Powerbridge, using the Powerchip and a mini-switch, producing an under-saddle sound (all piezo or blended with the 2 humbuckers); it?s my way of getting an archtop acoustic jazz sound through a very playable guitar. Another great combo was a friend?s Taylor which he recently had a factory retrofit of Taylor?s ES expression system, and WOW!! We both had mouths open at the sound that came out of the Crate ? so accurate. Mic & In/Out: I use a Sure SM-58 (low-Z) for vocals and the CA125 handles male and female vocals with supreme fidelity ? generally due I have to believe from the foam-suspension woofers and separately powered tweeter ? very smooth. Some years back, I used a buddy?s SM-57 to mic a guitar ? also worked well, but generally I don?t mic instruments. I put a mid-range keyboard through it once, and the sound was quite nice. One limitation is that for the mic channel, you don?t get as much tonal options specific to a guitar as on the main channel, but the EQ handily compensates for those issues. Also, as a side note on flexibility, for family reunions (one of ours is kinda big) we have used it for the boring announcement portion aiding our John-Deere-hearing-impaired-older-farming-relations, and as well we plumbed in music using an iPod with various cables to go from 1/8? stereo out to a mono-1/4? jack in, plugging right into the front. Lastly, once I used a mixer because I needed 4 mics so the Crate became my ?PA? in a small footprint. Nice!! The in/outputs on the back provide as much flexibility as most gigging artists would ever need.

  3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

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• Fantastic amp!

  

  As reviewed by Kathy on 11/21/2010

  We've had this amp for about 3 weeks now, and can't believe the sound. Can easily plug in an iPod without any feedback, plug in a 2nd guitar, AND a mike with phenomenal effects. It's so motivating to make our acoustics sound as wonderful as they do now, that we want to practice all the time. We definitely recommend this amp, although for an electric guitar, I'd go with something better suited for electrics.

  3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

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