Bad Cat Owners, is this the amp for me?

[wcraven]

The time has come to upgrade amps and the glitz of the bad cat has me smitten. I need a combo amp, preferrably a one twelve with reverb, two channels. I have always used modded pedals for overdrive but would much rather use a high-end amps' second channel as my rhythm crunch. I use atleast 3 levels of gain but would need the amp to only cover clean and rock dirty. Right now I'm only playing humbuckers; 74 SG and tele thinline reissue, besides the lapsteels. The music is Ben Harper, Allmans-like. Do the bad cats still shine when channel switching? I read something about a channel blend option. Do they sound good with a relatively low stage volume? We use in ears and my deville doesn't go past 2.5. It's such an investment for "living the dream" artists but I've never bought boutique. Budget puts me around 1600 max and used is OK. Any help from Cat owners would be greatly appreciated; experience is a currency that will never depreciate. Thanks

 

[FFTT]

I'd look for a Bad Cat Black Cat in your situation or the Lynx.

The Panther is also getting alot of attention.


I would also look at the Reeves Custom 30 or the Reinhardt Storm 33

I wouldn't call any of these metal amps, but most definitely fine amps
to consider.

 

[wcraven]

The bad cat seems like a good fit but the used bad cat combos seem somewhat hard to come by.

 

[dsimms]

I love my Hot Cat 30 thru their 212 open back cab. Both channels are inspiring and I mix them with an Ernie Ball stereo pan pedal rather than using an ABY pedal. Mine doesn't have reverb or an effects loop like the HC30R models, but I don't miss them. I usually just run a wah and TC chorus pedal in front. There's major volume available, and at most gigs I don't get the clean over 11 o'clock or the gain channel over 9 or 10 o'clock.

However, the overdrive/gain channel is smoother and can get higher gain/saturation than my old JCM 800 - it's not as Marshall/Plexi sounding as I'd like sometimes, like when playing Jessica/Statesboro/Whipping Post. For that, and the artists you said you like, you might want to check out Roccaforte and Germino for starters. Ben Harper and Marc Ford (when he was playing with Ben) were using Roccafortes. Some of Greg Germino's amps are known for their Allman Fillmore East sounds. There are plenty of other Marshall inspired amps with great clean channels and raving fans on here and you'll hear from them.

 

[FFTT]

You may be much better off finding a used Bad Cat head rather than a combo.
First of all the combos are HEAVY!

Also buying a head, you have the versatility of running different cab and speaker
combinations making the amp far more versatile especially for recording.

The stock cabs are fitted with V-30's, so in the case of a Black Cat, Hot Cat 15R
you may like running Celestion Blues for more of an accurate Vox tone as just one
example.

 

[vds5000]

I've got a BadCat 'Tone Cat' head.

* The Good:
- The actual tones coming out of each channel are phenomenal. The clean is a good as any amp I've ever heard and the gain is the richest gain I've ever heard.
- Channel blending sounds great at high volumes.

* The Bad:
- Channel blending sounds not so great at moderate volumes.
- The noise from the cooling fan is quite noticable if you're playing bedroom volumes

* The Ugly:
- Channel blending sounds horrid at low volumes.
- It's as heavy as any other combo I've ever owned.
- When using the footswitch to switch between channels, there is a very loud 'popping' noise when going from Clean to Dirty. I'm not sure how practical that would be for you.

Hope this helps.

 

[guitarsam]

I have a hot cat 50 head with reverb. I love it. It's got great clean and drive channels. I didn't use any dirt pedals for a while because of how touch sensitive the drive is. The distortion charachter sounds different than a marshall. This was a plus to me but I would check this out if you had that sound in your head.

It also seems to work well at lower volumes (not quiet). I used mine in a situation where I should have been using a 15 watt amp. It still sounded great. It was not ideal though.

I have been very happy with mine.

 

[Amplite]

Customer service is questionable!

 

[GearOnTheBrain]

customer service is NOT questionable from my experience.
James(owner) is a decent guy and usually answers the phone and was always helpful with me.
He even invited me over to the wharehouse where they build them and gave me a little tour and gave my amp a check up when it was making weird noises with one of my slides.
Great customer service.

 

[JimmyR]

Oh yes customer service is indeed questionable in my experience! I love the amps - have two and wouldn't sell either. But service? HAhahahahahahahahahahahaha!

 

[GearOnTheBrain]

well maybe people dont know how to talk to other people.
everytime i called Badcat, EVERYTIME.........i was helped.
they even offered to repair a vintage Boss DM2 delay unit for me.
they had a look at it and saw what it was wrong with it and didn't charge a bench fee or anything.

 

[Amplite]

well maybe people dont know how to talk to other people.
everytime i called Badcat, EVERYTIME.........i was helped.
they even offered to repair a vintage Boss DM2 delay unit for me.
they had a look at it and saw what it was wrong with it and didn't charge a bench fee or anything.

You've been lucky - try calling him today

 

[LSchefman]

I was also treated very well when I called Bad Cat a while back with questions about my Hot Cat.

But the answer to the O.P.s original question, "is this the amp for me?" is "how would anyone but you know enough about what you want to be able to answer that question?"

You want positive reinforcement? The owners of the amps will mostly tell you, "buy what I bought."

You want negative reinforcement? Someone says he doesn't like the customer service.

But no one has addressed your question because you're the only one who can, being you.