Gtrbldr
Not a new member
- Joined
- May 21, 2021
- Messages
- 1,778
Well, I have been feeding my amp greamlins last year. Guitarwise I am set, ampwise I went from 80 to about 100% last weekend. In march I bought a hot rodded plexi amp, that never made my rotation. Kind of a dissapointment, since I thought it would help me with my rock sounds. Turned out my new production BadCat Black Cat did a better job in that department. Lesson learned, amp already left the building. I prefer to rip off the band aid quickly.
The before mentioned BadCat is a great amp. Bought it last summer and have been using it (with reactive load and IR) in church a lot, with great results. However, that amp has a drawback: shared EQ between the two channels, which renders my drive channel - which is a little dark - kind of useless in the dense CC music productions. The clean/break up channel still works very well, but the amp is basicly a great pedal platform in church, which is a little less my style. So the amp itch creeped back a little.
An amp that has been on my really want, but too expensive, list is the matchless c-30 or the original BadCat BC30R (essentially the same amp). However: after selling that plexi I found a BC30R head from 2014 in Europe for a price I could not resist and ordered it. Had it since friday and cannot stop smiling. Home studio amp with the original tubes still in: kind of a case queen. It looks great in burgundy and white tuxedo and sounds glorious, especially after I put in some Nice NOS glass to replace the worn out power tubes, rectifier and Chinese and Russin preamp tubes for european 50’s and 60’s production (Mullard, tungsram, telefunken).
Compared to my other BadCat it is simply a better amp. I can describe it as the difference between a great SE and a Core (or even artiest) PRS in feel and tone. The new production is great value, fantastic tone, but a little bit of a compromise in design, functionality, hardware and sound to meet a price point (shared EQ, digital reverb, SS rectifier, PCB etc). The original BC30 is not, no compromises what so ever. Two completely separated preamp channels: a 12AX7 and EF86 channel, two different EQ controls (click wheel and TB) for the EF86 channel, that makes it wildly more flexible to use than the click wheel of its Matchless counterpart. It feels really premium and sounds the part. Not just the amp sound itself is colorfull, “hefty”, composed, harmonic, but it has a much lower floor noise than the already very quiet new production BadCat.
Does that render the other BC useless? No because that amp has a lot more gain on tap on channel two than the BC30, and is more of a voxyfied marshally sound. Something I like. If I were recording, I would use that for my lead tones, because the gain structure, and the SS rectifier give it a faster response.
Long story short: honeymoon phase still on, but this amp is here to stay. Something you know very quickly if it is a real keeper. The plexi style amp was already back on earth after two days. This one will continue to float on a pink cloud for quite some time. Next sunday it will be on stage with me and I am looking forward to it!
The before mentioned BadCat is a great amp. Bought it last summer and have been using it (with reactive load and IR) in church a lot, with great results. However, that amp has a drawback: shared EQ between the two channels, which renders my drive channel - which is a little dark - kind of useless in the dense CC music productions. The clean/break up channel still works very well, but the amp is basicly a great pedal platform in church, which is a little less my style. So the amp itch creeped back a little.
An amp that has been on my really want, but too expensive, list is the matchless c-30 or the original BadCat BC30R (essentially the same amp). However: after selling that plexi I found a BC30R head from 2014 in Europe for a price I could not resist and ordered it. Had it since friday and cannot stop smiling. Home studio amp with the original tubes still in: kind of a case queen. It looks great in burgundy and white tuxedo and sounds glorious, especially after I put in some Nice NOS glass to replace the worn out power tubes, rectifier and Chinese and Russin preamp tubes for european 50’s and 60’s production (Mullard, tungsram, telefunken).
Compared to my other BadCat it is simply a better amp. I can describe it as the difference between a great SE and a Core (or even artiest) PRS in feel and tone. The new production is great value, fantastic tone, but a little bit of a compromise in design, functionality, hardware and sound to meet a price point (shared EQ, digital reverb, SS rectifier, PCB etc). The original BC30 is not, no compromises what so ever. Two completely separated preamp channels: a 12AX7 and EF86 channel, two different EQ controls (click wheel and TB) for the EF86 channel, that makes it wildly more flexible to use than the click wheel of its Matchless counterpart. It feels really premium and sounds the part. Not just the amp sound itself is colorfull, “hefty”, composed, harmonic, but it has a much lower floor noise than the already very quiet new production BadCat.
Does that render the other BC useless? No because that amp has a lot more gain on tap on channel two than the BC30, and is more of a voxyfied marshally sound. Something I like. If I were recording, I would use that for my lead tones, because the gain structure, and the SS rectifier give it a faster response.
Long story short: honeymoon phase still on, but this amp is here to stay. Something you know very quickly if it is a real keeper. The plexi style amp was already back on earth after two days. This one will continue to float on a pink cloud for quite some time. Next sunday it will be on stage with me and I am looking forward to it!
