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Bad Cat Hot Cat 30 Amplifier |
The new Hot Cat 30; an amp that is part of a much anticipated range from relative new-comer Bad Cat Amplifiers. Bad Cat amps are the brainchild of Founder / President James Heinrich who sought the services of renowned designer Mark Sampson of Matchless Amps fame. The aim here was to build Class A amps that would be uncompromising in both sonic and construction quality.The Hot Cat 30 is aimed at players that require the versatility of modern and traditional tones in a compact combo that still packs plenty of punch! With this in mind the guys at Eastgate Music supplied me with a Hot Cat 30 in order to see how badly this amp growled and purred!
Overview
Well, if first impressions are anything to go on, the Hot Cat 30 is one seriously Bad Cat!! Without exaggeration the quality associated with the Hot Cat 30 is of a very high level. With its cream chicken head knobs, red sparkle vinyl and cool backlit Bad Cat logo, the Hot Cat exudes craftsmanship. Hand made, all-tube class A circuitry, point to point wiring, industrial welded steel chassis, 13-ply birch cabinet, and Bad Cat customised Celestion speaker all lead me to the thought that this is a product built with a great deal of integrity. Detail such as rubber shock mounted valve sockets and over service components used throughout reflect the rugged construction of the amp, with an emphasis on durability. With the standard of engineering here there is no reason the Hot Cat shouldn't last a lifetime.
Features
The Hot Cat 30 is driven by two EL34 valves in the power stage, four 12ax7 preamp valves and 5ar4 rectifier valve. There is also the option for the rectifier to accept three different types of valves and switched to solid-state operation. The front panel of the Hot Cat consists of two inputs, gain 1 and clean 2 as well as volume, gain, edge, level, bass, treble, brilliance and master volume controls while the back panel has an extension speaker jack, switchable between 4 and 8 ohms, and a solid state / tube rectifier switch. There is no reverb, effects loop or slave out on the amp but in keeping with Mark Samson's philosophy, this is done to retain maximum class A purity. The concept behind the Hot Cat is something that differs from other Class A amps. Essentially a single channel amp, the Hot Cat offers greater tonal versatility in duplicating two-channel operation. The two inputs tap into different stages of the preamp and are selectable via an A / B pedal. Alternately, the two inputs can be linked with an A / B / Y pedal and this allows pre ˆ amp loading via the clean input and sweep control of the overdrive from the Hi-Gain input.
In addition to the pre amp, the ability to switch the rectifier stage between tube and solid-state operation allows for further tonal control. Generally, tube refers to traditional and solid state as modern when it comes to rectifiers. The difference here being that the tube rectifier offers a more compressed and dynamically sensitive sound, whilst the solid state mode produces a more aggressive, flatter response across the dynamic range.
Growl or purr?
So, how does she perform? I tested the Hot Cat 30 1 X12 with three guitars: a Gibson Les Paul standard, a maple neck Fender Strat (both current models) and a Fernandez 335 copy. The first thing I noticed was the faithful detail of each guitar captured by the Hot Cat; undoubtably due to how well naturally voiced the amp is. The response with all the guitars, whether single coil or humbucker pickup equipped, proved to be articulate and full. The Fender Strat sounded extremely rich and full in the clean input with no body lost from the single tone control, the brilliance dial. Many a Texas / Hendrix "Wind Cries Mary" type tones were easily achievable here; especially in valve rectifier mode. In the high gain input the Strat retained this body and sounded incredibly sweet in the top end, perfect for blues with the gain down, and very thick in the lower mids with plenty of hang to the note for the cranked vibe. With the additional output of the "Burst -bucker" equipped Les Paul the Hot Cat definitely sat up and growled. The Hot Cat is one loud little amp that due to its efficiency would easily sit up against many 100-watt amps! More aggressive tones ranging from Page / Clapton to ultra high gain were easily covered (shredders will enjoy the very in 'your face' aspect of the solid state rectifier mode). The active treble and bass controls (providing greater control over a broader dynamic range), and the super efficient Celestion Vintage 30 based speaker, (built with Bad Cat's own fibre design), work extremely well . Even though this particular Hot Cat had a single 12" speaker (also available in 2 X 10 version) the frequency response proved really even between the 100-500 hz range and sweet and airy in the 1k ˆ4k spectrum .The single 12" speaker really handled the variety of tones faithfully and always maintained detail and focus to the sound even when pushed hard and in high-gain settings. The 335 also did its thing, capturing very cool jangily sounds through to Jazz and Funk sounds. B.B King / Larry Carlton / and John Scofield sounds all came to mind here. Irrespective of the guitar the image was large and spacious (when I tried some home recording especially) and the headroom from the amp, excellent. Because it's so naturally well voiced the amp felt extremely rich and musical no matter where the controls were set and the absence of reverb really became a moot point. Growls and purrs!!
Nine lives?
I'm particularly impressed overall with the Hot Cat 30 1x12. The quality of the components, construction and sound are all extremely high and totally uncompromising. It should be pointed out that this amp is not cheap, but it is the real deal, and I suppose if you take into account the amount of cash 'tone hounds' spend chasing different amps and other equipment, then this could prove to be a keeper. I'm hard pressed to think of a style and situation where the Hot Cat would be inappropriate, be it studio or live. If you require versatility at a high level that's totally pro orientated, then the Hot Cat could be just what you're looking for. Awesome!
QUALITY
PLAYABILITY
BANG-F0R-YOUR-BUCK
OVERALL
