Bad Cat Amps

[greatmutah]

I’ve looked at these off and on for a while. I kinda want something a little on the Voxy side back in my stable. I know there was a relaunch of the amps a couple years back and very few of the models now have much in common with the old Mark Sampson designs but some still sound great in videos (that Jet Black sounds awesome). Looking at one of the older Cub 15s, a newer Jet Black and possibly Black Cat or Hot Cat. Any thoughts on these? Not looking for a metal amp. Just more rock tones and clean tones.

[Ry Manchu]

Over the last 15 years, I've used five or so different Matchless and Bad Cat amps with my church band. My favorite and the one I still use is the Black Cat with the K master volume. I've used the Hot Cat, older Black Cat and a DC30 also. I haven't used a Cub or Jet Black, so can't help you there. With the right setup, the Black Cat sounds very good. With the K master, there is much better control of volume and tone. I haven't spent too much time tube rolling, since I don't own it. It pairs with some pedals like a champ. I have owned a couple amps in the vox realm, and the Black Cat is my favorite.

[Guitarbilly]

I tried a Hot Cat at Atomic Music a while ago and it was a great sounding amp. I could definitely use one in my band as my main amp.

[greatmutah]

Was it an older one or one of the newer ones?

[Guitarbilly]

Was it an older one or one of the newer ones?

Newer one, I think. One of the Player Series amps. I really liked it. I would've bought it if I had the $ at the time.

[greatmutah]

Very nice. From what I’m seeing the player series were the older circuits but on PCB instead of hand wired. The new Black Cat is 45 watts and redesigned. Someone said the Black Cat gain is more Wreck inspired than Vox. Which could work for me.

[Beef]

Not a ton of experience with Bad Cats although I always wanted to mess with one of the 40 watt Cubs. If you’re looking Vox-y and have the money for that tier amp definitely consider one of the many Dr. Z options too.

[zozobra]

The hot cat 30 is biased unreasonably hot and eats tubes. It's a fairly common mod to change the bias resistor (they are cathode biased) to set the bias hot, but somewhat sensibly hot so it doesn't go through 3 sets of tubes a year

[Guitarbilly]

Very nice. From what I’m seeing the player series were the older circuits but on PCB instead of hand wired. The new Black Cat is 45 watts and redesigned. Someone said the Black Cat gain is more Wreck inspired than Vox. Which could work for me.

Yeah TW gain is

[RaceU4her]

these are situations where i feel like i should have a modeler like that little tonex pedal, Bad Cat is one of a bunch of companies im never gonna have a chance to try before i buy, it would be nice to get a good idea what the deal is before hand.