This Must Be The Greatest CRATE Amp Ever Made! CRATE VC3112

golem · Wed Dec 23, 2020 9:42 pm

There are enough amp designs with fans that I don't think it's problematic to have one. Khan's Pak Amp, for example, has one which you can turn on and off with a switch. But I'd also say that most amps do just fine without one on the flip side of that.

nomadh · Wed Dec 23, 2020 11:18 pm

mozz wrote: ↑Wed Dec 23, 2020 7:50 pm https://tubedepot.com/products/9-pin-socket-saver
9 pin tube socket saver. They use these on tube testers so you don't wear the socket out. I guess you could put one under each tube but then you would have to extend the bracket which hold the tubes secure. Those groove tubes are decent tubes and go for about $50 pair so probably much better than a el-cheapo el84.

As andrewsrea said, the pots would be the weak point. They are a odd size, hard to get now, and there really isn't a substitute for them. I do remember working on one for a friend and it ran hot, which i think does shorten the life of the pots. I remember having to blast De-oxit in there a few times to get rid of the scratchyness, or most of it anyway.

Going to have to disagree about the fan. Many transmitter tubes are forced cooled. My Traynor has a factory fan and without it i'm sure the tubes would melt. You can't get 85 clean watts out of a pair of tubes without moving the air away. The old trick was to use a fan and run it at half voltage, 24v fan running on 12v, or 240v fan running on 120v. I would think a small usb fan run off a 5v usb wall wart would be good enough. All you want to do it slightly move air out of the cabinet, it would be enough to drop the temps. There would be less temp fluctuation with a steady stream of air. Running the fan on full voltage will make noise and that would be the biggest complaint. There are well known Marshall JTM 30 or 60? that you have to mod them with a fan otherwise the heat will destroy other components. It was a bad design that now has a bad reputation.

I dont know jack but I got to agree that anything you do to keep the top of these amps under 180F has got to be helpful to longevity. I have a Peavey classic50 also and it has a small fan by design. My crate fan I added is a 4" and it does move more air than needed and can be a bit loud. I guess that's why I dont use it so much. I also dont like the 2nd plug I got to use.. I need to mount a little one in there. If there is a 12v tap in there maybe I can connect up a 24v fan. I like the idea of more slow moving air.

slowhand84 · Thu Dec 24, 2020 12:42 am

toomanycats wrote: ↑Mon Dec 21, 2020 3:07 pm This morning I scored this pristine 90s Crate VC3112 for $159. When I saw it in the pawn shop and realized it was a made in USA all tube amp I knew it was a steal even if it just worked. It was built like a tank, similar to the Peavey combos of the same era. After a quick test to make sure it turned on and functioned I bought it.

So I get home and fire this thing up. I let it warm up a while before I flipped the standby to "on" and noticed that it throws out a lot of heat, which is not unusual for class A amps. Good Lord! This amp is shockingly good! There are two channels, each of which is independently connected to the spring reverb tank. Channel one is an amazing Fender blackface type tone, with glassy cleans, spank, sparkle, and tons of headroom. Channel two is pure British goodness . . . thick, crunchy, with full chords and singing leads just flying out of this thing. I'm flabbergasted by how good this amp sounds.

Curious as to which tubes it had I opened it up and verified that they're all Groove Tubes, four 12AX7s and four EL84s.

The speaker is supposed to be a Greenback type clone made by Eminence. It sounds spongy and warm with super smooth break up.

I've gotta be honest, I'm no Peavey hater by any means, and I've never been ashamed of my Classic 30, but this 30 watt Crate blows my C30 out of the water! VC stands for "Vintage Club," and though this amp looks similar to the later Crate V Series, it's apparently a different amp (as in superior).

Do you guys know about this incredible amp? Does this thing have a reputation as a sleeper?

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I've played one of these for extended periods of time at a buddy's house, a very nice amp for not a lotta scratch! They typically go for $200-$250ish so $159 is a decent buy for sure. Crate made a LOT of junk so unfortunately the name is not synonymous with quality to say the least, but much like Peavey Crate has a couple of pieces of gear in their history that were well made and sounded good and this is one of 'em. A lot of folks seem to say they eat up power tubes pretty quickly, but other than that they are pretty well regarded. Enjoy it!

andrewsrea · Thu Dec 24, 2020 12:25 pm

"You know why Class A sounds so good. It sluffs off all the crappy sounding electrons as heat leaving only the juiciest tone electrons to power the speaker.
It takes about 120 watts of power just to get 30 watts of tone power."

^ Lol @nomadh !

...and, Class A doesn't use a inverter or center tapped transformer. Center-tap transformers are rarely dead-center from an impedance / inductance perspective and diver-inverters rarely invert evenly. Making the output being uneven (distorted). Even though the class A circuits in an instrument amp are also rarely biased so that the signal clips behaves exactly on each side of the waveform, they are more analogous than push-pull.

IMHO, that doesn't make push-pull amps sound bad. Just listen to a late 60's Drip-edge Fender Twin with an ultra-linear output transformer. They just don't sound musical, as I find an electric guitar or bass is boring without the amp-added artifacts.

My favorite amps are all Class AB push-pull and my Class A definitely has a place on the palate.

My old studio outboard gear is different: all ultra-linear / garbage in - garbage out.

@toomanycats : I have also found bulged caps in the switching power, so that may be them. If I recall, the 10uF 16V are axial solder leads on opposite ends) types and the 1000uF / 25v are radial (leads on the bottom, next to each other). FYI: this power rail also powers an IC which amplifies the reverb tank in's and out's, which another symptom is drifting or muting reverb as you are switching.

redman · Thu Dec 24, 2020 1:17 pm

Great deal @toomanycats the bass player that I've played with for years has what I think is that same amp. I've saw it a lot at his house and played through it once at a party. The amp sounded great I would definitely be happy to gig with it but he is a bassist and plays through a old SWR head and a 6X10 cabinet. Anyway $159 IMO was a great deal enjoy.

toomanycats · Thu Dec 24, 2020 5:48 pm

tonebender wrote: ↑Tue Dec 22, 2020 9:44 am I picked up a Palomino when they came out because they do have an amazing gain channel. I took it back because there was too much delay when switching channels with a footswitch. it through the timing off when clicking it on for a fill. It was a serious delay more than a micro second. Have you tried a the footswitch to change channels?

Congrats and happy new amp day. Crate has some great sounding amps.

Finally plugged a footswitch into the amp. You're exactly correct, there is a delay when switching channels. It's enough that I could potentially see it being annoying when playing live.

nomadh · Thu Dec 24, 2020 8:52 pm

Iirc the maker was talking about the different models. First there was the blonde usa series. Then the black tolex usa. Cheapened up a bit but also corrected a few issues. He thought they may have been the best. Then the white tolex gc special editions. I really liked the tone and look of those palomino. Always wanted to retolex mine like that. At least some were usa but possibly some weren't? Then there was my Vietnam ver. Cut a few more corners. More than the designer wanted but he was still involved and thought it did turn out well. Then after he left they released the chinese ver of his designs. Lots of changes he said. Some to save $ and some he thought were inexplicable. He said that's where the tone really changed. I think he said a big change was in the power supply. Went to a torroid core? Hopefully @andrewsrea can correct whatever I screwed up.

dearlpitts · Fri Dec 25, 2020 3:48 am

Those are nice, I just sold my crate stealth 50 112
Kick ass amp too.
It will be missed, had to sell some stuff to fix car.

Jaymo · Fri Dec 25, 2020 12:42 pm

Congrats on another great score, TMC.
So, I've been avoiding the pawn shops I need to go, due to being in bad neighborhoods.
Time to rethink my strategy.
"But honey, the crack hoes are a good sign. I'm looking for amps, I swear."

toomanycats · Wed Jan 20, 2021 4:54 pm

Lookie what I found . . .

Was thumbing through a stack of my old guitar magazines today, including this April 1997 issue of Guitar World.

Whadaya know, look at the ad I found in there for the Crate Vintage Club, in particular the VC5212. I'm assuming it's just like mine, only 50 watts and 2X12. I'd say that Mark Knopler was a pretty heavy duty guy to have as an endorser, and that Crate was clearly trying to let the public know that this was not the amp most people thought of as synonymous with the brand. I've gigged my VC3112 twice a week since scoring it and can honestly say that it has been a reliable, toneful workhorse. Will be dragging it out again this Friday and Saturday night. My other amps are starting to get jealous.

nomadh · Thu Apr 21, 2022 10:52 am

tonebender wrote: ↑Tue Dec 22, 2020 9:44 am I picked up a Palomino when they came out because they do have an amazing gain channel. I took it back because there was too much delay when switching channels with a footswitch. it through the timing off when clicking it on for a fill. It was a serious delay more than a micro second. Have you tried a the footswitch to change channels?

Congrats and happy new amp day. Crate has some great sounding amps.

That was always the big complaint on these.