Easto
New member
I recently bought a used Crate Vintage Club 50. The first thing I did was to put in a new set of tubes (EL84's and 12AX7's Electro-Harmonix). I also had an amp tech go through it and fix a few cold solder joints, clean the pots and give it a basic servicing.
The problem was that this thing had way too much gain. The volume and gain knobs had very little finesse to them. You just start to move the volume knob and then... Wham! This was not what I was looking for, lol. The amp tech suggested I try some 12AY7's in it in various configurations and see if that gives me something closer to what I was looking for. It did! The lower gain tube (12AY7) in the first preamp slot for each channel did the trick. I now can adjust the tone and basically have an amp that reacts to my guitar and playing style without being "over the top" 100% of the time.
I did experiment briefly replacing the 12AX7's in the second stage but decided to go with the first configuration for a while until I get use to it and have a bit more time to enjoy the stage that it's at.
The problem was that this thing had way too much gain. The volume and gain knobs had very little finesse to them. You just start to move the volume knob and then... Wham! This was not what I was looking for, lol. The amp tech suggested I try some 12AY7's in it in various configurations and see if that gives me something closer to what I was looking for. It did! The lower gain tube (12AY7) in the first preamp slot for each channel did the trick. I now can adjust the tone and basically have an amp that reacts to my guitar and playing style without being "over the top" 100% of the time.
I did experiment briefly replacing the 12AX7's in the second stage but decided to go with the first configuration for a while until I get use to it and have a bit more time to enjoy the stage that it's at.