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Gulp....

GeeJay

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Joined
Sep 11, 2001
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1,730
In the last two weeks my band mate has got his hands on a Mesa Boogie Lonestar and a Bad Cat Hot Cat 50.....

I've heard the Mesa, (excellent and different to other Mesa's I've heard), but not the Bad Cat

I just hope he doesn't plug a Gibson Les Paul into either of them (he uses a.............. Variax as his main guitar at the moment). Mind you he has a very nice custom made Strat with decent pups etc.. that'll sound awsome. :wha
 

GeeJay

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Sep 11, 2001
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1,730
Well, played through the Bad Cat 30R last night with my humble DSL401 next to it....

The Bad Cat:

Very nicely built, though I'm not sure about the logo lighting up thing. Doesn't seem to add much in the way of class IMHO, but there you go. It's also very heavy for a 1x12 (40kg ?)

The speaker is a Vintage 30 with a Bad Cat sticker on the back.

The clean sounds are nicely complex with bags of headroom, in fact it has to be driven quite loud before it crunches. This would benefit from a decent pedal up-front I guess, but I'm no expert.

The overdriven/gain sounds were very tasty, again quite complex and articulate. Pick attack came through well, individual notes from within a chord came through so that each note has it's own voice.

Dimed, it gets very loud. 30W through a 1x12" can't get much louder than this (can it?).

Overall, I think this amp sounds excellent, but for me it's physically too heavy and way too expensive (but then I am a cheapskate..:))

The DSL 401

Not as much clean headroom, and it therefore crunches at lower volume. Tones not as complex, but still very articulate and 'friendly'.

Overdriven sounds may not be typical Marshall, but with the two options on offer, I think there are some nice tones in there. Again individual notes within a chord have their own voice and at no time were the sounds 'offensive'.

The overall volume of the Marshall is loud enough especially dimed when it sounds killer in my view (but I am biased :)).

In terms of construction it gets the job done, but it's not really nice. It's easy to see where Marshall cut costs.

Of the two amps, the Bad Cat is clearly better in every department (apart from the weight and cost). It would be interesting to compare with one of the 'new' hand-wired amps from Marshall or indeed from some other maker.

Just thought I'd share this little review with you guys...:yay

Cheers!
 

mikey_guit

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Joined
Dec 27, 2003
Messages
1,009
Thanks for the review, GeeJay!

I especially liked that you actually didn't put your DSL first, in the sense that most guys will put THEIR stuff first, and simply don't be honest.

I've recently played thru a buddy's DSL401, and while I really liked the clean channel, the OD sounds were a bit disappointing to me. Maybe it's because of the EL84, or the speaker, but it wasn't very Marshall-y, as you've remarked that issue, too.

Have you by chance tried the DLS thru the Vintage 30 speaker of the Bad Cat?
 

yz25098uk

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Jan 4, 2004
Messages
2,783
Zhangliqun said:
40 kg = 88 lbs.

Sheeesh, that's heavy for a 2x12!

i think my tsl122 2x12 100w combo is 70ish lbs??

f@kin heavy!! :bug




cheers
bruce
:dead:
 

GeeJay

New member
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Sep 11, 2001
Messages
1,730
The weight of the Bad Cat really is an issue, but it has some of the largest transformers I've seen in an amp. Gotta be loads of iron in there. Maybe this is necessary to provide enough 'trons for all of the glassware (seven or eight 12AX7's and a couple of EL34's together with a Z80? tube rectifier).

I didn't think of trying the DSL into the Bad Cat speaker, so the simple answer is nope..

I do have a 12" extention cab though, and that currently has a G12T 75 in it, but I did try a Vintage 30 in there (same guy has a couple of these) and I found the voicing to be a little strong/forward for my taste.

I would really like to try a couple of Greenbacks, which would be fine when I'm driving the amp and the cab. But I'm not sure if a single nominally 25W Greenback would survive being thrashed by a 40W amp, i.e. if I use it without the Cab.
 
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