Crate Review: BT100

History:

Purchase: Went to my local music shop in Derby UK (play it again Sam - 16 stores nationwide). I went not knowing what style of amp i wanted. Gave this one a try and instantly fell for it. Cost me £269, reduced from £330.

What I Like About This Crate BT100: This amp is great. Let's start with it's output. It has 100 watt output through1x 15inch speaker. It can reach 103db so is big enough for small pub/venus gigs. It has a line out for external speakers. This amp also comes with 3 very useful in-built effects. It has a tuner on the top which is automatically on whenever the amp is switched on and doesn't require bypass to activate so stays on all through the playing. It also has 2 channels, one being a distortion feature. I've found the distortion to be a high quality 'bigmuff' style and includes a noise gate for a rich, smooth crunch. It also has an octive effect for that 'ultra-bass' rumble. Both the octive and dist. effects can be controlled by included footpedal which plugs directly into the amp and doesn't need batteries to run. General sound quality is awesome.

What I Do NOT Like About The Crate BT100: I could only find 2 faults with this amp: The size. It weights 69lbs and is 26-21-16 inches in size. This makes it both big and heavy and awkward to move round. The 2nd point is also related to the size, and that is it has a small handle on top by which to carry it. This is pointless as it needs side-handles and even wheels to move it about.

Crate BT100 Quality Rating: Good, sturdy contruction, reliable and well made. All components are inside the casing very difficult to damage the wiring.

Review Summary: A great amp for anyone wanting a reliable, gigging bass amp. The features on the amp mean i don't need to cart about a million pedals. Very good value for money, pick it up if you see it on offer.

Rating of this Crate product: 5

This Crate BT100 Bass Guitar Amplifiers Review Submitted By: Rob

Review Date: 2005-02-28