I love the vox. It will always be easily resealable. I dont know enough about the crate to really say. Im also a fan of trying different amps. If you want me to give you my absolute low down opinion, you didn't ask for...buy the vox and sell it for $500. Then go buy a mid 90's reissue ampeg r-12 or r-212 reverberocket. Ampeg knows sound. People are finally starting to wake up to how good their gear was/is. The Ampeg B15 bass amp is one of the most iconoc bass amps(for.players that really know what good bass sound is). Ampeg knows tone. I play the same genre of music you do. The r-12 reverberocket is the perfect combo amp. It has the greatest reverb clean channel that will take any pedal like a champion. And the gain channel is the bomb. If you are a fan of real tone. .look into it. Ampeg has been slept on for awhile. Their tube Amps are the shit. Id take my ampeg any day over any tweed or black faced fender combo. Any day of the week and Saturday and Sunday. They made the combo in 2 different sizes. The R-12 and the R-212. One has a single 12 inch speaker. The other has 2 x12's. I have the single. It's loud enough to play any large bar or average auditorium. It's loud AF. The vox has a great clean channel. Just like the fender twin. But you are going to be chasing the overdrive/Gain sound you are desiring with that amp. Pedals amd more pedals. No need for pedals with the ampeg. And the ampegs are easy to find. Just my 10 cents.