NAD: Badcat Hotcat

thomasw88 · July 2023

Many years ago I played a Matchless DC30 at a festival. It was the best amp I've every played in 30 years of gigging. Always hankered for something that sounded as good as that but realistically I was wanting a 2 channel amp ideally with a boost that didnt weigh the equivalent of an elephant.

I wanted something with really nice clean channel as well. For the last 10 years I've been using mainly H&K Statesmans for cover band work and other amps (Wienbrock,, fender Hotrod, Vox AC30, quilter etc for originals. I like the H&K statesman a lot but would like a clean channel that could break up and the Statesman clean stays clean all the way.

After watching a few vids I decided that the new Badcats looked really interesting and due to circumstances of work/hols was around shops where they were in stock.

I was in glasgow and managed to nip to a couple of guitar shops.

First up was the Cub 3. I really liked this, but found that there was a huge volume difference between the clean/od channels. The guy in guitarguitar also struggled to get the two channels to balance.
I've had other amps like this in the past, which were a nightmare to tweak on stage. As such I decided I needed to try the other two new BC amps especially as my credit card was going to take a hammering from this purchase! I also tried the Blackstar St James, both the EL34 and the 6l6 versions. I much preferred the EL34 out of the two but it didn't quite get enough gain for me to use. These were the first blackstar amps I've tried that I actually liked tho. I've owned the Artist 30 before which sounded great in the house but never sounded great in a band situation and have tried a bunch of others over the years. Anyway enough digression and back on track..
.
Coincidentally, we were away on holiday last week and I was able to pop into Coda music which had the other BC amps in stock. Coda is an emporium of dreams. If I lived near there I'd be massively in debt..

First up was the Black Cat. This is a 20 watt two channel amp with tremelo. The trem was fantastic and the clean channel sparkled like a new kitchen sink. Could get a bit of crunch from the clean so box ticked.
I liked the drive channel as well. Could get a whole range of sounds from it. The Trem was fantastic, really liked it and the reverb whilst quite subtle was very usable. I liked the Cut knob on the eq as well alot as it would be useful for switching from a brighter single coil guitar to humbuckers.

Main issue for me was that there wasn't a boost. There was also a weird thing with the amp I tried in that the footswitch didn't seem to always work with the trem channel, but I assumed it was something a bit odd with THAT particular amp rather than a design flaw. I was also slightly concerned that 20watts may not work with a noisy drummer, but as I mic up my amps could have lived with that no bother.
I would have been perfectly happy with this amp (assuming the trem switching thing could be fixed),but as Coda had the hotcat as well I wanted to try that.

I started grinning instantly when I plugged into the Hotcat. Its a 45 watter with EL34's.
Clean channel was great, sparkling cleans to a medium/light od on tap, and the drive channel was absolutely fantastic. The hotcat has a subtle presence and Reverb, both of which sounded great pretty much every where.
Both the clean/crunch channels have a hi gain switch which adds a bit of gain/volume boost to the sound. It works perfectly as a boost for me as I like a bit of volume and gain boost when doing a lead, but you could easily use it as another channel as well. I tried a delay in the loop, and a prince of tone in the front. Swapped from a tele to humbucker guitar and it sounded absolutely fantastic with everything.
Drive wise it can pretty do much everything so I might have to sell a bunch of OD pedals in the near future.

So I bought that one! Looking forward to gigging it but as all my bands are on hols at the moment going to be a couple of weeks before get to road test.

Its the most expensive amp I've ever bought by a mile, and I'm hoping it will be worth the investment. It sounds great at home volumes as well , the master volume works really well. I think BC have hit it out the park with this amp personally but time will tell if that's correct.

Winny_Pooh · July 2023

Fab, sounds like a good choice

stickyfiddle · July 2023

Nice - sounds perfect!

rze99 · July 2023

Nice one. Fancy one
My old Genz Benz Black Pearl gets me in the Matchless type tone ball park enough.

thomasw88 · July 2023

rze99 said:

Nice one. Fancy one
My old Genz Benz Black Pearl gets me in the Matchless type tone ball park enough.

I had the black pearl briefly when they were selling them off cheaply. Sent it back after a handful of gigs as it was of the faulty ones.
It was decent but didn't get near the DC30 I tried.

rze99 · July 2023

thomasw88 said:

rze99 said:

Nice one. Fancy one
My old Genz Benz Black Pearl gets me in the Matchless type tone ball park enough.

I had the black pearl briefly when they were selling them off cheaply. Sent it back after a handful of gigs as it was of the faulty ones.
It was decent but didn't get near the DC30 I tried.

Sorry to hear of your bad BP30 experience. Mine's been excellent (bought it used) so maybe it's one of the early ones.

anyway your Hot Cat sounds fantastic

Dave_Mc · July 2023

thomasw88 said:

rze99 said:

Nice one. Fancy one
My old Genz Benz Black Pearl gets me in the Matchless type tone ball park enough.

I had the black pearl briefly when they were selling them off cheaply. Sent it back after a handful of gigs as it was of the faulty ones.
It was decent but didn't get near the DC30 I tried.

Just out of interest, was there a known batch that was faulty or is it just that you know a few were? My first one I got (when GAK were blowing them out) was DOA, the second one I got was fine but then it died a good while later. Haven't got round to getting it fixed yet...

thomasw88 · July 2023

Dave_Mc said:

thomasw88 said:

rze99 said:

Nice one. Fancy one
My old Genz Benz Black Pearl gets me in the Matchless type tone ball park enough.

I had the black pearl briefly when they were selling them off cheaply. Sent it back after a handful of gigs as it was of the faulty ones.
It was decent but didn't get near the DC30 I tried.

Just out of interest, was there a known batch that was faulty or is it just that you know a few were? My first one I got (when GAK were blowing them out) was DOA, the second one I got was fine but then it died a good while later. Haven't got round to getting it fixed yet...

I seem to remember a few of the massiv from here or musicradar bought them when Andertons(?) Were blowing them out cheaply. Quite a few had issues.

Dave_Mc · July 2023

thomasw88 said:

Dave_Mc said:

thomasw88 said:

rze99 said:

Nice one. Fancy one
My old Genz Benz Black Pearl gets me in the Matchless type tone ball park enough.

I had the black pearl briefly when they were selling them off cheaply. Sent it back after a handful of gigs as it was of the faulty ones.
It was decent but didn't get near the DC30 I tried.

Just out of interest, was there a known batch that was faulty or is it just that you know a few were? My first one I got (when GAK were blowing them out) was DOA, the second one I got was fine but then it died a good while later. Haven't got round to getting it fixed yet...

I seem to remember a few of the massiv from here or musicradar bought them when Andertons(?) Were blowing them out cheaply. Quite a few had issues.

Thanks

It was GAK IIRC (unless there were a couple of blow-outs of them)

And yeah there did seem to be a few problems from what I remember too, as you said. I got the El Diablo head as well when they were blowing them out and it- while not DOA- died on me within the week IIRC. As you said, I don't think I was the only one, either. (GAK was great at sorting it out, and also the DOA Black Pearl.)

Chester · July 2023

Congrats .. looks like a great amp, with options to balance channel outputs

How good is the global master on this version? Can it get to conversational level, with the channel volumes high? Sound good?

thomasw88 · July 2023

Chester said:

Congrats .. looks like a great amp, with options to balance channel outputs

How good is the global master on this version? Can it get to conversational level, with the channel volumes high? Sound good?

Yes its perfectly usable at library levels and normal home levels. Not tried hooking it up to a pc yet but will do soon. Line out doesn't have a speaker sim so will use an IR,

Dave_Mc · July 2023

Oh I meant to say (I thought I'd done it already!), great score on the amp @thomasw88 ;

guitarmanessex89 · July 2023

I bet it’s fantastic. I had a player series cub that really sounded great.

HoraceB · August 2023

Interesting to read your thoughts on the two amps.

I went with a Black Cat and had exactly the same issue with the trem switch on one of them. Yes, I've had two! Both of them have had the same issue and keep blowing fuses in the power input everytime it was switched on, the first was replaced and the replacement ended up doing exactly the same (they were different amps as I checked the serials) and is now being returned. Such a shame as they are fantastic sounding amps, but as a working musician I'm not sure I would be able to rely on one now. I think you made the right choice! I'm now thinking of seeing if I can get it replaced with a with a Hot Cat.

thomasw88 · August 2023

HoraceB said:

Interesting to read your thoughts on the two amps.

I went with a Black Cat and had exactly the same issue with the trem switch on one of them. Yes, I've had two! Both of them have had the same issue and keep blowing fuses in the power input everytime it was switched on, the first was replaced and the replacement ended up doing exactly the same (they were different amps as I checked the serials) and is now being returned. Such a shame as they are fantastic sounding amps, but as a working musician I'm not sure I would be able to rely on one now. I think you made the right choice! I'm now thinking of seeing if I can get it replaced with a with a Hot Cat.

I love it..

I've only done a couple of gigs so far with it as its holidays and everyones been away but I've really liked it so far.
Its fantastic best amp I've ever owned.
in effect you've got a great sounding two channel amp with dual boosts. I've not run the master past about 2 oclock with the volumes between 11-2.

guitarmanessex89 · August 2023

I played the new combo the other day. Best amp I’ve played in a long time. Just the right voicing, character and very versatile. Working out what to sell, and whether to go with a head or combo. Might even move on my (brilliant) BE50 Deluxe.

ChrisCox1994 · August 2023

every time i think of selling my badcat I get a gig where its appropriate (last one was a large hall army camp classic rock / indie kind of covers gig) and its just awesome when you can turn it up.

Its THE loudest 15w amp ive ever heard, but its amazing - nothing is like it.

HoraceB · August 2023

I've have now been told by Coda that there has been a problem with the transformers on a lot of these new Bad Cats and that was the issue with the two Blacks Cats I had. Apparently they have had to send a lot back. Not sure if it's an issue on the Hot Cats as well. My real problem is they did sound really good and I'd still like to get a Hot Cat!

thomasw88 · August 2023

HoraceB said:

I've have now been told by Coda that there has been a problem with the transformers on a lot of these new Bad Cats and that was the issue with the two Blacks Cats I had. Apparently they have had to send a lot back. Not sure if it's an issue on the Hot Cats as well. My real problem is they did sound really good and I'd still like to get a Hot Cat!

Gads that's a nightmare. Not missed a beat so far, and really hoping that continues to be the case.

StuartMac290 · August 2023

The transformers were starting to tarnish before they'd even left the shop, so they all got returned.

This on the back of a whole load of Black Cats having to be returned because someone at the factory had installed a wrong component in an entire batch of them.

stickyfiddle · August 2023

How can Bad Cat not get a handle on the manufacturing thing? Didn't they have similar issues with the little desktop thing (Paw?) that basically killed the line because they couldn't get them working consistently enough to deliver?

It's such a shame cos they're such great amps when they're working!

HoraceB · August 2023

I did notice that a transformer in one of the Black Cats I had with patches of rust, the other one the valves were not fitted in properly. I wrote to Bad Cat for clarification and they swiftly replied with

"Yes we definitely had an issue with our transformer supplier on the first batch. They made two mistakes that we weren’t able to catch until the amps were already shipped. We have since been replacing units and reaching out with repair centers and users to fix the issue"

They did sound great but it was quite stressful to have a brand new amp constantly blowing fuses before smoking and totally blowing to get it replaced with another doing exactly the same! I thought I was going mad! I had to call my tech and checked all the electrics in the house to make sure I was not doing anything wrong.

Yet, I'd still like to try a Hot Cat!

rsvmark · August 2023

How loud is the Bad cat combo? Seriously thinking of swapping a Marshall head with a 4x10 to one of these…. So I would be downsizing an amp (literally) but it would definitely increase the quality. It would be paired with a Two rock 2x12 and 100w Custom reverb head so needs to be effing loud to (not compete) but to hold its own as the dry amp in a wet dry set up

octatonic · August 2023

StuartMac290 said:

The transformers were starting to tarnish before they'd even left the shop, so they all got returned.

More than meets the eye, I guess.

thomasw88 · August 2023

HoraceB said:

I did notice that a transformer in one of the Black Cats I had with patches of rust, the other one the valves were not fitted in properly. I wrote to Bad Cat for clarification and they swiftly replied with

"Yes we definitely had an issue with our transformer supplier on the first batch. They made two mistakes that we weren’t able to catch until the amps were already shipped. We have since been replacing units and reaching out with repair centers and users to fix the issue"

They did sound great but it was quite stressful to have a brand new amp constantly blowing fuses before smoking and totally blowing to get it replaced with another doing exactly the same! I thought I was going mad! I had to call my tech and checked all the electrics in the house to make sure I was not doing anything wrong.

Yet, I'd still like to try a Hot Cat!

Coda seemed to think it was just the black cats that had the problems. I've emailed badcat but not had any response so far.

the hotcat is fantastic though. Done a few gigs with it now and it absolutely sings..

Chester · August 2023

rsvmark said:

How loud is the Bad cat combo? Seriously thinking of swapping a Marshall head with a 4x10 to one of these…. So I would be downsizing an amp (literally) but it would definitely increase the quality. It would be paired with a Two rock 2x12 and 100w Custom reverb head so needs to be effing loud to (not compete) but to hold its own as the dry amp in a wet dry set up

My Cub IVR Combo was the "loudest" amp I've experienced. More direct and punchy than my 50W Wonderland OD, and held together brilliantly. I didn't have it at the same time as a TR Coral I owned a few years ago, but the BC was up there with the best of them. Unbelievably loud for 15W

tomajoha · August 2023

I have the older handwired black cat 15r with k master, it’s keeper, finally the vox-type sound I was looking for

thomasw88 · August 2023

Chester said:

rsvmark said:

How loud is the Bad cat combo? Seriously thinking of swapping a Marshall head with a 4x10 to one of these…. So I would be downsizing an amp (literally) but it would definitely increase the quality. It would be paired with a Two rock 2x12 and 100w Custom reverb head so needs to be effing loud to (not compete) but to hold its own as the dry amp in a wet dry set up

My Cub IVR Combo was the "loudest" amp I've experienced. More direct and punchy than my 50W Wonderland OD, and held together brilliantly. I didn't have it at the same time as a TR Coral I owned a few years ago, but the BC was up there with the best of them. Unbelievably loud for 15W

Its loud, but not vox ac30 earsplitting loud. The master volume is fantastic, so you can really dial in a great sound at any level. Last couple of gigs I've had the master volume around 2 and the channel volumes either side of 12. I do mic it up for pub gigs but only for a little spread . For original band gigs its alot lower as everything is mic'd. I've not tried an extension cab yet but will do when i can be arsed.
here it is!

HoraceB · August 2023

I went for it and got a Hot Cat (head). At first I preferred the Black Cat's clean sound but after playing the Hot Cat for a while this is the one, for my needs it's perfect, I play in a covers band playing many different styles and the Hot Cat can cover a lot of ground (actually can knock off a couple of drive pedals!) and I think the extra wattage will be useful for gigs. I managed one gig with one of the Black Cats before it's demise and for me it did slightly struggle keeping a nice clean (which is what I liked about it) and with headroom . I noticed that the Hot Cat has different transformers to the two Black Cats that I had to send back. The Hot Cat's are Bad Cat branded and orange whereas the Black Cats were plain silver (and one tarnished).

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NAD: Badcat Hotcat

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