St. Louis Music chose to manufacture the amps themselves rather than outsource manufacturing overseas, and the success of the CR1 grew into a full line of Crate amplifiers for guitar, bass, and keyboards.

While visiting a Crate & Barrel store in Chicago, Gene Kornblum saw products displayed using packing crates and had the idea of making guitar amplifiers housed in wooden cabinets, resulting in Crate Amplifiers first product, the ponderosa pine encased CR1 guitar amplifier, in 1978.