bad cat appreciation thread

[wsaraceni]

for all those that love their bad cat amps or have owned one before this is the place to post about it. i currently have a hot cat 30r head and had a cub II head previous to this. last august my girlfriend went all out and got me a bad cat 2x12 cabinet (from stu @ fatsound who is great) and i cant imagine a better amp. it is definately my favorite. i'd love to see pics or clips if anyone has any. especially exotic ones like lee's tweed black cat (hint hint post pics). i think the bad cat speakers are so nice. hopefully ill like the old one just as muich as the new one.

 

[Timster]

I had a Hot Cat head. It was a smokin' amp for sure. Whish I didn't sell it. The amp really excelled at high gain neck pickup tones.

There were a couple of video files of the amp posted a while back from a Dallas tone fest. I'd post a link, but the files are too big. Maybe someone else can post the vids... anyways, the Hot Cat is a killer sounding amp IMO.

 

[wsaraceni]

i'd love to see the videos. if someone posts the link that would be great.

 

[Seditious]

I own a Hot Cat 30R head and love it. It's my main gigging amp. I use it with either my Bad Cat 1x12 or my Divided by 13 4x12.

 

[wsaraceni]

what speakers are in the 4x12. how do you like it? is it closed back? i have the bad cat 2x12 (obviously) and really love it.

 

[hw2nw]

I'm hoping to be a new BadCat artist! Can't decide between the 30 and the 30R...so hard.

 

[Dennis Rayburn]

I've had a Bad Cat Black Cat Reverb head for about 6 months now. I love it and its my main gigging amp. I use it with an Ultimate Attenuator. I run Ch. 2 with the volume up around Noon or 1:00 o'clock for a good crunch sound and attenuate as needed. I use Ch. 1 for clean and turn the attenuator off when I'm using that channel (to balance the volume with Ch. 2). I have a 2x12 with G12Hs and one with Blues. Both cabes sound great. I like the Blues a little better for cleans and the G12Hs a little better for crunch. I'll probably end up putting one of each into a cab.

 

[Jon C]

Love my Cub 15R (original version) 2-10, I've had it about 4+ yrs., you can see it behind me in this gig pic (below, can't seem to embed it here)... wonderful amp, almost all internal parts are stamped "Matchless" fwiw.
Cheers,
Jon


http://photobucket.com/albums/c388/fendertweed/?action=view&current=fats1sml.jpg

 

[JES1680]

I've had a Hot Cat 30R, Black Cat, and this is my current, Cub 2x10 no Verb. Its sparkly in more ways than one.

 

[v-verb]

I have a trem cat. That said, Bad Cats need mid controls.

 

[B Vance]

I'm hoping to be a new BadCat artist! Can't decide between the 30 and the 30R...so hard.

Congrats! I jumped on board a few months ago. John Ferrante is great to work with. Super responsive and an all around nice guy. I went with the Black Cat 30 without reverb. Really I just didn't think I would need it if the 3d Bad Cat reputation held true. I was right. When you talk to John about your amp next let him know that Brian Vance says hey and that he is still loving his amp.

 

[Fireball XL5]

I have a Cub IIR 1x12 combo and I think it's a fantastic amp....but I have to say that I'm not digging it in the single 12" speaker format at all... so I always run mine into my closed back Germino 2x12 loaded with Greenbacks. Sounds WAY better to my ears this way. In retrospect...I wish I would have purchased the head version of the amp. :Spank

 

[wsaraceni]

I have a Cub IIR 1x12 combo and I think it's a fantastic amp....but I have to say that I'm not digging it in the single 12" speaker format at all... so I always run mine into my closed back Germino 2x12 loaded with Greenbacks. Sounds WAY better to my ears this way. In retrospect...I wish I would have purchased the head version of the amp. :Spank

my cub head was so heavy that i cant imagine even carrying a combo. must be all that tone they cram in there. i'm going for one of every amp they make in head format. except for the mini cat combo i might pick up

 

[Jon C]

my cub head was so heavy that i cant imagine even carrying a combo. must be all that tone they cram in there. i'm going for one of every amp they make in head format. except for the mini cat combo i might pick up

Yeah, unfortunately there is no substitute for big iron when you want some good clean tone. The Cub 15R 2-10 is about 52 lbs., not a lightweight, but manageable.

cheers,
Jon

 

[Seditious]

what speakers are in the 4x12. how do you like it? is it closed back? i have the bad cat 2x12 (obviously) and really love it.

It has greenbacks. It's closed backed. I love it!

I still mainly use the 1x12 for practice as it's much more portable.

 

[Fireball XL5]

my cub head was so heavy that i cant imagine even carrying a combo. must be all that tone they cram in there. i'm going for one of every amp they make in head format. except for the mini cat combo i might pick up

Yeah...my 1x12 combo has essentially become the heaviest head in existance! I'm probably going to wind up up selling it and replacing it with a head sometime soon.

I find it strange that 95% of all the Bad Cat amps out there (including most all the dealers inventory) are 1x12 combos. To me and my ears....a 1x12 just does not do these amps justice. I know it's a portability issue...and Bad Cats are nortoriously heavy amps....but after hearing the tremendous sonic improvement I could never go back to the 1x12.

 

[ToneRanger]

Hi guys!

I've got a Bad Cat Cub II (no reverb) in cream and the grille is brown, what a looker. The speaker configuration is 1x12. What an amp! I love it to bits.

I have story to tell about my "life with the Cat" that's still missing it's ending actually. Ok, so it all began in the april of 2004 when we were supporting this Finnish act, Egotrippi, whose guitarist has the Bad Cat Cub II. I couldnt believe what I was hearing! Magic! I took a student loan and put the order in. In July 2004 the Cub II 2x10 arrived. I drove the 160 km drive to get it and I was really satisfied..until it started to resonate. Then I took it back to be repaired and was really happy again. Anyway I left for Stockholm for the fall of 2004 to study there so I couldnt spend that much time with my cat. Then in late November of 2004 our bands rehearsal place and studio exploded in flames and we lost nearly everything. I lost two guitars, all my pedals, the Cat. I dont even wanna get into what the other dudes lost and how much work was destroyed with the studio computer. Anyway, after two months battle with the insurance company I got the money and put a new order in for excactly the same Cat. This time it took 6 months instead of the promised two and they sent me the wrong amp, with 1x12 speakers! Damn! Now I've been playing with the 1x12 for half a year, still waiting for the 2x10 to come. No problems there, I really like the tight sound of the 1x12 but I'm planning to compare it to the 2x10 version when it finally arrives.

Anyway, the Bad Cat is such a quality product. It's not cheap but I feel it offers great value and sounds so sweet...

 

[earx]

i'd love to see the videos. if someone posts the link that would be great.

me too

 

[hw2nw]

me too

+1

 

[Sherman]

I'll chime in and say that I'm the proud owner of a Hot Cat head and a Black Cat head with matching 2x12 cabs. My first bad cat was a beautiful HC combo in burgandy and cream. That thing was a heavy mutha. I then bought my BC head and 2X12 and thought that the separate cab sounded incredible. So I sold the HC combo and found a head/cab rig. I used to own a Bogner 100B and a Shiva before my Bad Cats. I do miss the blue channel on the 100B every now and then but I could never really open it up in the basement band situation I'm in. In addition to great amps, Bad Cat offers excellent customer service. Every time I've called I talked to the "top cat" James. He's always been great to deal with.

Sherm