27 posts
Well, the HotCat 30 landed yesterday but I wasn't able to play it till this morning. My 212 is currently void of speakers so I got to spend time trying different speaker combinations to see what to fill my 212 with. I tried a Mesa Recto 212 with British V30's. This amp has a little brighter tone than Boogies, so it sounded a little harsh through these speakers. I then plugged it into the speakers of a Marshall JVM combo, which has a V30 and an Anniversay. Better, but still not what I wanted. Tried the amp in a Marshall 412 loaded with Greenbacks. This was pretty good, especially with the amp dropped to 4 ohms. I tried it with the Eminence Red Fangs in a Genz Benz Black Pearl; these actually made the V30's sound good. Red Fangs + Hot Cat= massive fail. Finally I tried it through a Bogner Alchemist 212, which is loaded with a Celestion G12H & G12M. All I can say is WOW!!! That cab with this head sounded awesome. Me thinks I know the speakers that are going in my 212... And yes, the eyes light up when the amp is on (I'll snap a pic of it when I have a cab to plug it in and turn it on.
Congrats! Looks clean puuurdy and you didn't even have to douse it with Armor All. Nice chair to, thats where most cats end up hanging out. :)
The Atl GC has a shitload of killer amps at the moment including several Bad Cat's (Wildfire, Panther R). Its further out for me than my normal GC but me and a buddy are gonna visit it tomorrow anyway (I'm checking all corners of town for a couple of used pedals, Maxon 808, DOD YJM308)...prolly have time to plug into a few of those rascals while I'm there. They also have a Cornford Mk50 and Laney TT50 head, definitely gonna sample that Cornford, a rare amp around these here parts...
Wish I had as many speakers as you do, christ! I just went through a week long speaker fest here as well, cabs too even. And I also recently happened to rule out 4x12's in favor of 2x12's for my particular head. Ironically, the G12H + CL80 thing was the best blended match with my Egnater cab, at least for dirty stuff and the "in room/live" sound. I can see close mic'ing each of those speakers though for different job duties - G12H30 for rhythm, 80 for creamy leads (though I'm beginning to LOVE that speaker with the Q-Rod for damn near everything)! On a whim, I demoted (:P) a V30 to my Fender 2x12 along with another 80 and now that pairing/cab is suddenly sounding sweet for cleans, lol! Goes without saying, taking the time to test speakers pays off, gotta say. I ended up with a pair of awesome sounding 2x12's instead of one 4X12. Huh.
HAHA!! Actually I don't own any speakers at the moment. I was trying a bunch of speaker combos that were in cabs at the shop to see what I want to load my cab with.
The first time I tried my buddy's HotCat 100, we quickly figured it took awhile to get it dialed in. The eq on the HotCat is Active and can drastically affect the sound.
If you get a chance to try a BadCat Lynx, you really need to do so. That is another one I'd love to try. It is distinctly more British flavored than the HotCat.
Ahhh, what a luxury to have!
Lookin' forward to that bonus 'shot in the dark' of the eyes. ;) My Splawn does that but you have to backlight it...might look cool at a club but kinda cheesy at home. =)
How much you pay amigo? Big bucks for those Bad Cat Amps.
Actually I swapped my Mark V even for it with a guy in Maine (I met on in the Amp Emporium at The Gear Page).
Yeah there is something about those Mesa Boogie amps, they BIAS them too cold. They have this metallic sound (and I don't mean Heavy Metal sound). It is when the amp is played at house levels they just don't cut it at all. Of course they sing like birdies at band volumes, but at house levels they kinda don't meet my taste in tone. I owned three of them in the past and tried the Lonestar and they rocked loud, but at lower volumes, blah.
Don't get me wrong, I really had to think twice about doing the trade because I did dig my Mark V. ;) I have no regrets owning them. :)
The biggest difference is how less compressed a sound the Bad Cat has. It also has a girthy bottom. I also relish it's relative simplicity: 2 channels straight up that are both really good.
My only wish is that the amp had a loop.
...and every Tom, Dick and Harry owns a MESA...nothing wrong with that, but what you have now is far more rare and thus, more mojonated. ;)
Dearthian: — Dec 11, 2009 I have no regrets owning them.
I loved my Mark IIC+, at the time I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. I bought it as a Mark II then I had it "B"'d then "C"d then added the plus. I sent it back 4 times to Mesa for upgrades, and loved every one of them. Then I bought the Strategy 400 watt power amp and the Quad Preamp, that was my favorite of all of them, 2 two hundred watt power amps in one case it screamed with the highest fidelity tone I ever got from an amp. Then I bought a Mark IV and it was just OK at best (according to my taste). I gave the Mark IIC+ to a friend of mine, he used to own Tekcom in Philly, and I had him sell my Otari 16 track 30 IPS and Otari MTR12-2C half track tape decks, and my Tack Scorpion 24x16 Console. When he got them sold (and I got the checks) I shipped him the Mark II C+ as a gift. Later on I found out that at the same time Tekcom had my stuff the company was going belly up, but he had the integrity to let it die and send me my money as agreed. So that gift was double worth giving.
By far my favorite preamp is the Mesa Boogie Rectifier Recording pre. I've hardly used the others lately though I'm thinking of trying some dual-amping with them (using one of the others as a cleaner tone). :)
Hey Derek, here's a pic of the Cat all lit up. I borrowed a 112 Earcandy cab from a buddy of mine to plug into. The cab is getting the job done until my speakers get here. I snagged a pair of used Scumback speakers off of gear page that are clones of Heritage G12H and are supposed to sound great (their clone of the Greenback is supposed to sound better than the Greenback).
Nice, heard good things about the Scumbacks! I want to hear this thing!!! (of course, I wanted to hear your last amp! :(
Yeah, it cool. :)
I guess the fluorescent bulb (?) doesn't cause heating or audio interference?
Seems like everyone recomends Scumbacks these days, must be for good reason. Sure that thing will roar with 'em.
Derek, there are several small bulbs back behind the insignia. Doesn't seem to create any noise.
I've been hearing the same things about Scumbacks. Even if I had bought the Scumbacks new, they were still a little cheaper than the Heritage Celestions I was looking at (at my cost the Celestions were still going to cost about $10 more per speaker the Scumbacks). I was hoping they'd roll in today, but it seems that it might be till Monday before I see them. :(
The one thing I'm having to get used to is the volume knobs on this amp are soooo much more sensitive than my Boogies. This thing goes purr to roar pretty quick; for 30 watts, it is one LOUD fucker!!!
Well, these puppies rolled in Friday. Picked them up today and got them installed in my 212.
So here is the fully functioning BadCat rig.
These speakers are quite righteous!! With this cab (Port City), it is one of the fattest sounding 212 setups I've owned.
Pardon the crappy iPhone pics. My card reader is dead.
Makes for a good looking pair as well (not that that is all important if it sounds killer ;) ). :)
Badass rig, we need a complete shot now with whatever pedals you're running with it...sure its as toneful as it looks.
I need to clean up my pedalboard before doing that. The last time I did a pedalboard shot, I got a lot a grief (I think Spud even called me a hippie). LOL!!
These days my pedalboard is pretty simple: Guitar->Carl Martin Compressor->Pedalworx Tejas (boutique TS808)->EHX Deluxe Electric Mistress->ISP Decimator->Eventide Timefactor->HotCat.
what happened to all those expensive pedals you were buying??? :)
Simplification. As the amps have gotten better, certain pedals are no longer needed. There are only 2 pedals I regret purging and might try to get again: hand-wired Red Snapper and Memory Lane Delay.
I know what you mean... I'm considering a pedal sell off to fund a Budda Superdrive 18 ;)
Wow , congrats !! Gorgeus rig !!
Ciao !!
Marco
Dearthian: — Dec 21, 2009Simplification. As the amps have gotten better, certain pedals are no longer needed.
Exactly. Same here. Practical > "my board is bigger than yours." Course I never had a bunch of pedals in the first place, hell, I don't even jack the wah into the chain until I plan on using it/recording something because its a real tone snatcher. And the EQ, I rarely use that as well, might dump it on GC soon for some in store cred and pick up a delay or something, otherwise, I'm happy...guitar, pedal for a clean boost at times, amp, coloring plugins (rarely, lol), done. (-;
I also have a Martin Compressor now but only because I've been doing homework on a decent 'clean tone setup' (amps/tube type, speakers, etc) and went ahead and started on that by picking one up, otherwise I wouldn't have that (and holy shit, does it sound nice - I have an old CS-3 someone left here years ago and compared them since I've never really been a compressor user - ouch, the CS-3 is junk).
Yeah Derek, the Carl Martins sound great. The only other compressor I've heard that is as good is the Maxon CP9 Pro+. It sounds IDENTICAL to the Carl Martin (similar if not identical type of compression), but the Martin has some pluses that the Maxon doesn't have (more flexible control of articulation, more boost overhead).
How does a Keely compressor compare to the Martin? I've always loved mine (or is it just that blue LED? :D ).
Oh yeah, and "my" EQ is a Dar modded special!
Craig, I find the Keely noisier (especially when you push the level into a more lead sound) and too squishy (even after monkey-ing with the Attack) for my tastes. I like a fairly transparent, non-noisy compressor. The Carl Martin CAN squish, but I like the subtleties it can bring.