# Crate V5, turning a mistake into awesome.



## nbs2005 (Mar 21, 2018)

I bought a Crate V5 on a lark. I wanted another cheap tube amp to run with my cheap Champ 600. Well it was cheap. Only after purchasing did I realize they are shit. A quick search showed that with a few mods, people were pretty happy with them. 

I found a USA 10 inch Fender speaker, swapped that in, and while better, was still lacking. I found the monster thread on The Fret that talked about all the mods people have tried. Deciding it was better to have someone help me with this, I contacted Steve Moratto in Ajax, ON. He was able to help me make this thing a tone monster. So for $250 CAD total ($100 for the amp, $25 for the speaker, $125 for the mods) I'm pretty damn happy. At house volume, I get nice cleans and with an SD-1, great blues crunch. Turned up all the way, it's a beast. 

Just wanted to share my experience. And if you impulse buy a cheap amp, call Steve.


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## Guest (Mar 21, 2018)

Welcome aboard nbs.








Steve has a great reputation here.


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## LexxM3 (Oct 12, 2009)

nbs2005 said:


> I bought a Crate V5 on a lark ... Well it was cheap. Only after purchasing did I realize they are shit ...
> 
> ... Just wanted to share my experience. And if you impulse buy a cheap amp, call Steve.


I have the identical problem. Those V5 are cheap and, oh yes, so shit, stock.

May I ask what changes were done by Steve, if you know?


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## Lord-Humongous (Jun 5, 2014)

I have one too. I put a Jensen speaker in it which helped. It’s not great, but it’s pretty easy to haul around.


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## nbs2005 (Mar 21, 2018)

He basically removed the IC OP amp, cleaned up the resistor layout (looks like he removed a half a dozen at least) plus the tone stack. It's very similar to what is suggested on a 25 page Crate V5 post on The Fret. I no longer have tone control so I may add an EQ pedal at some point. I played it a bit more yesterday and am becoming convinced this thing sounds really much better than it should for what I've got into it.


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## LexxM3 (Oct 12, 2009)

nbs2005 said:


> It's very similar to what is suggested on a 25 page Crate V5 post on The Fret.


Thanks! I was/am trying to avoid wading through the 25 pages and skip straight to the goods .


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