HNAD - Bad Cat content

[Gtrbldr]

Somehow in the amp section other brands (mesa *cough*) seem to be permitted. Since I only use PRS guitars I think a pass is in order ;-).

Monday I bought a new tube amp. I have been a modelling player for about 8 years (still am), but it was time to get something substantial with glowing tubes once more, something I can use live. Ok, exaggerating: have had two tube amps last 4 yrs, but those were for fun and not for live use in church.

I have been using models of Matchless and other derivatives in my helix and kemper for years and somehow Bad Cat always intregued me. Once I saw Porcupine Tree live and Steven Wilson used a Hot Cat with a CU22 and that sound always has always been a staple in my head.

Bad Cat released a new product line in 2023 with a revamp and partial redesign of their old amps and I was intrigued. Researched a lot and last monday I was set out to get a Bad Cat, and I was 99% shure it would be a hot cat. Tested the black cat, hot cat and the new jet black. And to my surprise: the hot cat did not work for me. Too compressed. Being a kemper player for years I have come to rely on picking dynamics, which are overly exaggerated in the Kemper. The hot cat did not deliver, however the black cat did a lot better. The jet black was too polished/polite and I went home with the black cat.

Happy camper and I will go back to gigging tubes in church again , but with reactive loadbox, IRs and masterminded by my Helix for drives and effects.

 

[ruger9]

I have a Hot Cat, it's a Player's USA version from 2019 I think? I forget what years they were doing the Player's models.

Anyway, I first tried a Cub, but it wasn't dirty enough for me; I'm an amp overdrive guy... I have some great OD pedals, but I really prefer amp overdrive, and the Cub didn't really deliver the way I wanted it to. So I traded it in (almost immediately) for a Hot Cat. And that was TOO dirty, lol, even on the clean channel.

I emailed them, talked to one of their techs, and got a description of what each tube is assigned to do, because I wanted to put some lower-gain tube in. I switched out 2 of the AX7s for AY7s, and NOW it's perfect. Hotter than a Cub or Black Cat, but cleaner than a Hot cat. And the clean channel now will do clean, but also sounds great cranked up to about noon- it's got the Grissom thing going on.

Pic because I custom-spec'd the tolex, grill, and piping

 

[Gtrbldr]

Looks GOOD!

To clarify: I do not like pedal dirt, but will only use one (timmy or klon) as a "clean" boost to push my very hairy clean and low to mid gain dirt channel. I greatly prefer tube dirt as well and use picking dynamics to go from cleanish to OD on channel one.

And messing with preamp tubes is a good idea: I am going to do that as well: have some great NOS glass in my drawer (Mullard, philips, tungszam, ADZAM) that are going in there.

 

[bodia]

Nice! I’ve never had the pleasure of playing through one. Need to rectify that one of these days.

 

[ruger9]

I always wanted a BadCat because of Keith Urban (in his "old days", the Golden Road era), and also because Grissom played both the Wildcat and Panther over the years (before developing his signature PRS amp).

Bad Cat is good stuff. IDK why they got rid of the "glowing eyes" in their newest models, but they (the owner John) has said they will be returning!

Keith Urban's Golden Road rig:

 

[Gtrbldr]

I always wanted a BadCat because of Keith Urban (in his "old days", the Golden Road era), and also because Grissom played both the Wildcat and Panther over the years (before developing his signature PRS amp).

Bad Cat is good stuff. IDK why they got rid of the "glowing eyes" in their newest models, but they (the owner John) has said they will be returning!

Keith Urban's Golden Road rig:

Yah, hope the eyes will return, hopefully I can replace the front plate with an eyes version. But without works for me too. Next week sunday I am going to put it to the test. Preliminary recordings i did yesterday are "promising".

 

[László]

I had a Hot Cat 30 in the early '00s, and it was a fantastic amp. I also liked the Black Cat a lot, but got into the Two-Rock stuff before I was able to get one.

Bad Cat makes great amps.

 

[Wyzard]

Happy camper and I will go back to gigging tubes in church again

Can someone tell me: what's the connection between notionally-Vox-influenced amps and playing in church? I know I'm late to grasping this phenomenon, but as an outside observer I'm fascinated to learn



And as an only very barely-related aside: a former colleague of mine has got himself a Trainwreck in some super-massive trade he did; he'll be selling it on, so it's not going to stick around. He's trying to trace its UK history (hopefully no Music Ground connections etc) at the moment, and I've offered to help with the .....ah, "hard work".

I'll see and play it in a couple of weeks, and I may get to help pull it apart for photos. To say I'm looking forward to this would be an understatement.

 

[markd21]

My last tube amps were Bad Cat. I was using a handwired Cub IV R and a Sampson era Hot Cat 30R w/ a Bad Cat oversized 1x12. Those amps were AMAZING. Between the two, I could have almost any tone I wanted.

Enjoy!! They are GREAT amps.

 

[Gtrbldr]

Can someone tell me: what's the connection between notionally-Vox-influenced amps and playing in church? I know I'm late to grasping this phenomenon, but as an outside observer I'm fascinated to learn



And as an only very barely-related aside: a former colleague of mine has got himself a Trainwreck in some super-massive trade he did; he'll be selling it on, so it's not going to stick around. He's trying to trace its UK history (hopefully no Music Ground connections etc) at the moment, and I've offered to help with the .....ah, "hard work".

I'll see and play it in a couple of weeks, and I may get to help pull it apart for photos. To say I'm looking forward to this would be an understatement.

I think it is a combination of "fashion" and being able to cut in the mixes that have been getting denser last few years. In the early zeros the P&W hot shots (think hillsong) were playing matchless amps. That set a standard. And they sounded pretty OK.

The last 10 yrs or so modern P&W has developed into a very (over) produced signature sound with pads, stings and what not. The only amps able to cut those mixes are bright amps, like the before mentioned vox and matchless derivatives. Honestly not a sound I really like, but wast can you do? And there you have it.

However I liked bad cat before that fashion set in. Portupine Tree was my ticket into the modern Vox kind of amps. That being said: the bad cat I bought is more than a revamped vox in my book. More fundamentals and conplexity in the clean and BU sounds. The gain channel had more balls and girth. At least to my ears.

 

[Gtrbldr]

Well, tiny update. Have been playing this "bad boy" for 5 nights and some hours during the day (vacation ). Wonderful sounds on channel 1, but the gain channel was a tad dark. Too much mids and too little clarity in the highs.

Today I decided to get rid of the Ruby/JJs in the preamp. Those are hi gain, rather dark tubes. Switched them for some really nice NOS tubes from my stash: a long plate f92 mullard in V1, valvo short plate in V2 (my guess that is for the gain channel and the tremolo, question had been mailed to bad cat) and a tungsram in V3 (PI).

Big difference. A lot more clarity, chime and detail on both channels, but mostly the gain channel really benefits from the swap. Happy with them.

 

[László]

Well, tiny update. Have been playing this "bad boy" for 5 nights and some hours during the day (vacation ). Wonderful sounds on channel 1, but the gain channel was a tad dark. Too much mids and too little clarity in the highs.

Today I decided to get rid of the Ruby/JJs in the preamp. Those are hi gain, rather dark tubes. Switched them for some really nice NOS tubes from my stash: a long plate f92 mullard in V1, valvo short plate in V2 (my guess that is for the gain channel and the tremolo, question had been mailed to bad cat) and a tungsram in V3 (PI).

Big difference. A lot more clarity, chime and detail on both channels, but mostly the gain channel really benefits from the swap. Happy with them.

NOS tubes (in my case RCA, GE and Siemens) completely transformed my Mesa Lone Star from a ‘pretty good’ amp to a great one.

Great that you were able to pull together the tones you like!

 

[Gtrbldr]

Some misfortune hit a couple of days after my previous post: apparently there was an issue withe the amp and all of a sudden it started to splutter (by lack of a better word). The other Bad Cat the store had in stock was manifesting with the same issue, to the surprise of the staff. Both had to go back and - well done bad cat - got another, new, one. Arrived yesterday, within 3 weeks, and I am back at the races for round 2.

Still amazed how different this amp reacts compared to the modellers I am using. More compressed in output volume, while retaining pick dynamics in gain structure, more layers in the signal, layers I have not yet discovered in my helix. I think they are there, but might be buried and hidde in the advanced parameters...

 

[Gtrbldr]

Well, another tiny update. I have lived with the new amplifier for about a week. Still amazed how this thing works and how picky it is about (preamp) tubes. Findings so far

1. Clean channel and gain channel are all kinds of "nice". there is a youtube guy who reviewed all the new bad cats and he called it: this amp is always nice. Even the dirty channel is singing rather than screaming or shouting. Polite as they say, but without being boring.

2. Like I said: preamp tubes picky. Replaced the poweramp tubes with russian 6p14p I had in my drawer. Makes a difference (little cleaner) and way more robust and reliable than the TAD JJs that were in there. But the preamp tubes are really a thing. Have been rolling a lot of nice, high quality tubes though this amp. The PI is always a lock in for a Tungsram ECC83 for me. Colourful. But V1 (input stage for both channels) and V2 (gain stages) were not as easy. The amp is chimey but also a tad dark. Like the vox normal channel can be. To complicate things even more: it matters which tube you put in V1 or V2, sequence matters big time. Had combinations of philips heerlen, long plate mullard, short plate mullard, valvo hamburg i60 and tungsram tubess in there. Magic combination of tight and colourful: valvo i60 in V1 and philips heerlen i65 in v2. An eureka moment. Mullards are nice, but kind of pile on to the low mids in the amp that make it mushy in channel 2. The more balanced and high mid emphasis of the valvo i60 and philips heerlen i65 really balance that out well.

Great experiment and happy with the result!