Everything a guitarist needs. From the cleanest to the most aggressive sounds, with a powerful digital effects processor and 120 W driving two 12-inch, 8-ohm Crate Custom Design speakers.

Now we analyze an amplifier that has arrived on our test bench: the Crate GTX212. Despite the brand's well-known name and track record, we hadn't previously discussed this family of amplifiers, and I think it's time to make room for them among those we usually cover, since they combine the set of features that makes them stand out: quality, versatility, power and a reasonable price.

Who better than Pedro Andrea to share these pages with, since his connection with these amplifiers has been as close as it gets, having worked side by side with a powerful Crate (or more than one).

The CRATE GTX212 and its three channels. Advantages and setups.
As an advance summary, this is a new amplifier with three channels and a rich digital effects processor that provides fifteen different tools, which I detail a little further down. All of them can be combined with fifteen delay effects. Naturally, we must add the reverb and the flexibility of each channel to create three completely different types of EQ and sound on each. This way, as I'll explain below, we can switch from one channel to another from the footswitch (included), going in tenths of a second from crystal-clear, clean sounds to the most hard-hitting saturation we can imagine. This is especially convenient for live performance or rehearsal, since we can have the following set up at the same time (in addition to the effects):

  1. A completely clean channel for rhythm or arpeggios.
  2. A rhythm channel to our liking, for example somewhat more saturated.
  3. A lead channel, with the aggressiveness of the most radical saturation.

This way, depending on the needs of the piece we're playing, we can go from rhythm to phrase, from phrase to solo, or any combination you can think of or need.

Front panel
Solo:
Next to the jack input we find the controls for the "solo" channel, where, for example, we can set up a fully saturated sound using its gain control (high levels of overdrive), shape (which changes the frequencies of the saturation) and the volume (level), which controls just what its name suggests.

Rhythm:
After the solo/rhythm switch, we have the pots that control the rhythm channel:

  • Gain
  • Bass (Low)
  • Mids (Mid)
  • Treble (High)
  • Volume (Level)
    Both the solo and rhythm channels are high-gain channels with powerful overdrive levels.

    Clean:
    This is the channel with normal gain, designed for crystal-clear sounds. We control the color of the clean sound by following the front panel along past the solo–rhythm/clean switch, at which point we reach the controls:
    Volume
    Bass (low)
    Mids (mid)
    Treble (high)

    As you can see, adding up everything explained, we can therefore set up three completely distinct types of sound, for example:

    1. Full overdrive, with the gain control maxed out on the solo channel, shape to taste and level balanced as needed.
    2. A "bluesy" rhythm sound setup, with gain at a low/medium level, EQ to taste and level balanced for the performance (to control the volume differences between channels).
    3. A crystal-clear arpeggio sound, with no saturation, with EQ to taste.

    Each channel has an LED in a different color (if I remember correctly: red/solo, orange/rhythm, green/clean, plus blue/effects); this way, with a quick glance at the panel, we know which channel we're playing on and what sound we're going to hear when we strike the guitar with the pick. Then we place our footswitch somewhere accessible and, live, as we play, we switch from one channel to another according to what the piece requires at each moment.
    Obviously, we have to add the benefits of the effects to all of the above.

    CD input
    CD input. As you'd guess, this input is for connecting a CD player to the amplifier via RCA inputs.

    Effects controls:
    MULTI. Multi DSP. Selects among 15 digital multi-effects (described below).
    DELAY. Delay DSP, selects among 15 types of digital delay.
    SAVE/TAP. Pressing this button sets the tempo of the effects. It can also be used to save preset settings.
    REVERB. Reverb control.
    POWER. Needless to say.

    The effects on the GTX212
    Likewise, we have powerful control over the effects by combining:

    Multi:
    Chorus LO / Chorus MID / Chorus HI / Flange LO / Flange MID / Flange HI / Phaser LO / Phaser MID / Phaser HI / Vibrato LO / Vibrato MID / Vibrato HI / Octave down (repeats the sequence an octave lower) / Touch WAH / Reverse WAH / Bypass

    We control the depth of the wave (Lo-Mid-Hi) and handle the multi-effect's possibilities with the MULTI and DELAY pots, along with the TAP button (a small, seemingly simple button next to the blue effects LED that actually has several functions and, together with the multi and delay pots, is what helps us manipulate and structure the effects).

    Delay:
    Single LO / Single MID / Single HI / Single MAX / Echo LO / Echo MID / Echo HI / Echo MAX / Tape LO / Tape MID / Tape HI / Tape MAX / Echo FX LO / Echo FX MID / Echo FX HI / Bypass

    I spent a good while poking around effect by effect until I'd heard them all, and likewise I went through every type of delay, while at the same time combining them or tweaking them with the reverb.

    The quality is good, and it would save us from needing an external multi-effects unit, since this amp already has one, with practically every effects option you could need. The idea of carrying our amp and multi-effects as a single "piece of luggage" seems convenient (besides saving us euros).
    In this sense, I find the amplifier extremely complete.

    Rear panel
    Fuses.
    Speaker extension. Output for external speakers.
    DSP/CHANNEL, inputs (2) for connecting the footswitch.
    Insert: Jack for connecting external signal processors.

    Conclusions
    After a few minutes in which I had to take a close look at the amplifier to learn its possibilities, functions and effects handling, I needed more time than usual to experiment with and get to know its sound. The reason is simple. This amplifier has a huge number of possibilities and covers practically every sound we might need, whatever our type of music, band and/or needs. With brutal power (lots of volume) and through its two 12" speakers, we go from 100% "slamming" sounds to spotless, crystal-clear sounds, highs, lows, mids, medium saturation, with reverb, delays, flanger, phaser, wah... in short, I don't think it's missing anything.

    With a suggested retail price of 1,032.40 euros, we have everything any guitarist needs: a 120 W amplifier with two speakers and built-in multi-effects in a combo format. Finally, I think this is the right kind of amplifier for almost any musician who needs power and, above all, great versatility of sounds.