cyndicate
Well-known member
I remember seeing someone here with a few bad cat amps.. forgot who, but has anyone played these? Thoughts?
mentoneman
Well-known member
cyndicate":1dkvha9a said:
part matchless sparkle and thickness, part mesa mark series dirt
Audioholic
New member
I think there was a video floating around with some guy playing on a bunch of amps, badcat included. from the video, sounded awesome
Rufus Leaking
Well-known member
I've got a Lynx - awesome amp! Really one of the best I've owned (and I've had a few!) 
Kaleiwahea
New member
Good sounding amps. The one I played thru had shared tone controls, and I had a tuff time switching between the best tones available in the amp. If you set it and forget it on either of the channels, it was great. 
ejecta
Active member
Rufus Leaking":opmn3v4d said:I've got a Lynx - awesome amp! Really one of the best I've owned (and I've had a few!)
Have you looked inside? Ive heard the quality isn that great.
Rufus Leaking
Well-known member
ejecta":2zsncceg said:Rufus Leaking":2zsncceg said:I've got a Lynx - awesome amp! Really one of the best I've owned (and I've had a few!)
Have you looked inside? Ive heard the quality isn that great.
I haven't yet. I can tell you that it's one of the heaviest amps I'v ever owned.
I had a Hotcat prior to this and it had an issue where the reverb on the clean channel would bleed into the gain channel. I think overall Badcat's construction quality is really topshelf but it does seem they've been plagued with design/circuit based problems.
cyndicate
Well-known member
What makes the newer ones cheaper? I was looking at pro guitar shops websites. Most of them are in the $1200-$1600 range. I'm assuming these aren't hand wired or something?
cyndicate
Well-known member
I found guts to a Black Cat 30 R
cyndicate
Well-known member
Rufus Leaking":331h29vz said:I've got a Lynx - awesome amp! Really one of the best I've owned (and I've had a few!)
How would you describe the cleans or gain channels
JTyson
Well-known member
Have a friend who is a big Matchless guy, he has one that he loves not sure what model, it sounds great, but not a metal amp. He plays a Tele through it, havent heard it with anything else. Good balls and dynamics. No heavy crunch. He says they are not built as good as the Matchless amps, but they are well made. The guy who builds them is one of the guys that started Matchless, then left to do his own thing. We borrowed some of his Matchless stuff on a recent recording project, it is very good stuff for that type of tone
Rufus Leaking
Well-known member
cyndicate":346v2vpd said:Rufus Leaking":346v2vpd said:I've got a Lynx - awesome amp! Really one of the best I've owned (and I've had a few!)
How would you describe the cleans or gain channels
I haven't spent a whole lot of time on the clean side, but the gain channel is amazing. Kind of a cross between an Uberschall and a hot-rodded Marshall. Not incredibly tight, but tight enough for most power rock / metal. Plenty of low end and low-mid focus. Overall it's extremely thick and complex with lots of harmonic overtones flying out everywhere.
If you've ever played a Hotcat, it's really very similar except it has an added 5 position mid boost knob and also a rotary mid sweep, so you really tweak it anyway you want very easily. Sounds great at all voume levels too... I love it!
ejecta
Active member
Rufus Leaking":2leeygar said:ejecta":2leeygar said:Rufus Leaking":2leeygar said:I've got a Lynx - awesome amp! Really one of the best I've owned (and I've had a few!)
Have you looked inside? Ive heard the quality isn that great.
I haven't yet. I can tell you that it's one of the heaviest amps I'v ever owned.
I had a Hotcat prior to this and it had an issue where the reverb on the clean channel would bleed into the gain channel. I think overall Badcat's construction quality is really topshelf but it does seem they've been plagued with design/circuit based problems.
Yeah a guy that my friend worked with at Gibson went through several Bad Cats that had issues. I never got to look in one. Thanks for the info.
B
bunghole
Active member
there's a combo of some sort at the Lewisville,TX GC but I haven't played it
I played the Sewell Texaplex instead
I played the Sewell Texaplex instead
vchizzle
Active member
I have an old Hot Cat 30 and a newer Hot Cat 50R. I used to have a Hot Cat 100 too. I haven't had any issues with mine and my reverb doesn't bleed on the 50. The 30 and 100 can both be heard in the Livid link in my sig. They the only amps I used those recordings.
Here's a little video clip I did. It was my 1st time syncing audio with video, so I didn't spend much time on getting tones.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQdGRkpyMos
Here's a little video clip I did. It was my 1st time syncing audio with video, so I didn't spend much time on getting tones.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQdGRkpyMos
vchizzle
Active member
Oh, I'll also add that the 30 and 100 got hauled around in a trailer for about 1 1/2 years in no cases of any sort. 6-8 shows/month. They were rock sold for me. The only thing I experienced was switch that went bad once that I had to replace.
vchizzle
Active member
Mark Sampson was one of the original design guys at Matchless. When Bad Cat started up, he and James Heinrich got things started. The Black Cat, Wild cat, Hot Cat and the Cub were the designs Mark was involved with, if I remember right. Mark left later on and started Star amps. Bad cat grew a little too quick and that was thought to be some of the issue with some of their problems at that time.JTyson":21rmtpvh said:
To say that Bad Cat are not built as well is a really broad statement. Those 1st designs were based off Mark's prior Matchless designs and tweaked to what Mark thought would make them better. I think Bad Cat did have some growing pains and I have heard of some of the design issues. I think it was trying to do too much, too quick. The build quality is high IMO, as good as you'll find in most amps at that price point. I have not seen or heard the new BC-50, the new more affordable ones. Don't really know any details on them.
cyndicate
Well-known member
vchizzle":16l7m8fe said:
Wow I would have never thought these amps got that heavy
vchizzle
Active member
cyndicate":1tegqfzy said:vchizzle":1tegqfzy said:
Wow I would have never thought these amps got that heavy
Yeah, the Hot cat can get pretty heavy. I only have the gain around 1:00 in that vid. The gain, level and edge knobs all play a roll in how heavy and aggressive it can get. Pretty sure the level is close to wide open here, that gives it some of the body and "woof". The edge is kind of how aggressive the gain is, higher up is more metal sounding...lower it a softer attack sort of. The edge is up probably 2:00ish here. I have a Mullard 12AT7 in V1 which probably takes the gain down just a hair too. I did that for a bit more clean headroom on cleans, its got more than enough gain so I didn't miss it in channel 2.
The Lynx is said to have more gain. I didn't really find that when I tried one out. I think its a less aggressive sort of gain maybe. I don't know for sure. To me the Hot cat did more aggressive tones better, I had a hard time getting the Lynx to sound the way I wanted. Lots of guys dig 'em though.
Jordon
New member
cyndicate":23g3qww7 said:vchizzle":23g3qww7 said:
Wow I would have never thought these amps got that heavy
Neither did I till Vaughan brought one of his by our rehearsal space. They're excellent-sounding amps. Agressive without being over the top....and punchy as hell.