Bad Cat Unleashed (Fizz at low volumes...)

[henter2014]

Hi Guys!

I had a Bad Cat Unleashed for a while now, and so far I am happy re-powering little combos, but for attenuation... I think it really falls with the rest of the ones I tried with my marshalls... a really fizzy! un-natural sound that doesnt make it any better that others...

I Have contacted Bad Cat in the past and asked to check for me if the famous resistors were right, but they told me that that is the sound of my amp! :S

Anyway.... could you folks check the resistors for me? I would really appreciate any knowledge users helping out on this!

here are my pics:

Thanks in advance folks!

 

[henter2014]

any luck? any bad cat users that could give me a hand with this?

 

[Delayed Delay]

I'm no help here at all...

But as much as I love each Bad Cat amp I've tried, and think they have INCREDIBLY awesome customer service, they have given me some strange info in the past... I asked about their Black Cat 30 and whether the Cub II was just one of the channels from it. They told me the Cub II was more of their take on a Vox AC30, and the Black Cat was much more American sounding and geared towards the classic American tones (i.e. Fender, etc)... ... Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING I had heard from people and other users said the Black Cat was MUCH more Voxy than anything else, and after getting it, I hear very little Fender/Americana sounds, and it definitely is geared more towards the Vox sound than anything else.

Again... nothing to add, other than their customer service is occasionally confused about their own products. Not in a bad way at all, because if something was actually WRONG with my amp, they'd fix it in a heartbeat.

 

[8len8]

I don't think most folks here know about the inner workings of the Unleash.

 

[No457 Snowy]

Here is some pics of the resisters in the correct positions from an earlier thread about this issue.
What's interesting from your pic is that you appear to have a 3K resister in position R31, but in that other thread the quote from "Peter" from Badcat seems to confirm in his quoted reply that it should be a 1.8K.

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/1249301

 

[Heady Jam Fan]

According to the other thread, its supposed to be:
- 6.8K in R30
- 1.8K in R31

You have:
- 6.8K in R30
- 3K in R31

My Unleash sounds great, but maybe I should check it...

 

[The Whiz]

yikes.

Where are these made?

 

[henter2014]

supossdly in the USA, but from all the comments I have read, and the lack of support from them, I will just get rid of it and buy a torpedo Live, they are great for powering up a small amp... but as an attenuator? no thanks...

 

[8len8]

supossdly in the USA, but from all the comments I have read, and the lack of support from them, I will just get rid of it and buy a torpedo Live, they are great for powering up a small amp... but as an attenuator? no thanks...

Lack of support? I've read dozens of posts saying their support is great. This is he first I've read otherwise.

 

[henter2014]

That is how I personally feel on my own experience with the unleash, Im not trying to generalise here...

Tried this with several Marshall amps, and all end up on a ball of fizz...

 

[8len8]

That is how I personally feel on my own experience with the unleash, Im not trying to generalise here...

Tried this with several Marshall amps, and all end up on a ball of fizz...

It might be worth finding out if any TGP members with an Unleash live near you so you can compare sounds.

 

[mrfett]

fizz here too unfortunately, but with an older amp (Sound City Concord). wondering what the solution is...

 

[Rogue]

I had a newer one and it had some fizz going on. It's just a part of the device. I know some will disagree and I disagree with them. Ultimately you'll have to determine if the fizz factor is more or less important than its feature set. A delay after power amp distortion is a pretty nice feature, but fizz is fizz...typically goes away in a live mix.

That's about it.

 

[jbt7764]

Keep the input trim way low on a marshall. The linput trim light can be off ! Don't know why but they sound buzzy a very low volumes if you don't do this.
Hey, if anybody has a customer service issue,
714-878-6515
My cell
John

Ps. Black cat american sounding amp ? Huh? Who said that?

 

[wbm68]

My Unleash works great with all my amps, except the Marshall (clone).
I have no problems with my handwired 59' Bassman, Deluxe Reverb, Tiny Terror, OR50, Mesa DC5 and it even works with my Engl Powerball 2 (but I only tried it just to check this with the Engl - because the Engl does not need an attenuator).
The only amp that gave me fizzy tone that sounds like something is broken is with my Marshall clone. Odd.

 

[Randy Van Sykes]

I've only used the Unleash with amps that are 30 watts or less and it's really great. Sounds like maybe the high wattage amps are getting the fizz.

 

[DexterT]

Mine sounds fizzy at super low volumes. When i play it above talking volume it starts to go away. At band volumes i dont notice any change in sound. It sounds just like my amp only not as loud. The unleash has served me well. In a perfect world i would run my 50 watt amp at 3/4 volume all day but my neighbors and my ears dont agree. Its a solid compromise.

 

[mrfett]

Hey so I need to confess to encountering a pretty bad ID-10-T error that had been undiagnosed! Somehow the cable with the speaker plug got into the back of my combo and was stuck to my speaker! THAT was causing my fizz!! So I had to come let ppl know, because if you're using a female coupler thingy to get the speaker lead to a speaker cable to get to the BadCat you might have a bit more cable than you're used to with a combo, and you might be tempted to give in to OCD and try to neaten it up a bit by sticking the extra cable in the back of the amp. If you do, just be wary of moving the amp around and letting the jacks get near your speaker's magnets.

I imagine most people aren't quite as dumb as myself but just in case, I thought I'd share!

(While I'm in confession, I want to admit to not playing my electrics much the last couple weeks because I was afraid of going through a whole huge troubleshooting routine lol. The upside is I wrote and recorded a new tune with my J-45, so it wasn't all for naught. I was so relieved today though when I started taking everything apart (I figured I had to test all my tubes) and realized my foolish mistake!)

 

[Dale]

wbm68 - How are you using the unleash with the 59 Bassman?