p90jr Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 I could not fight the urge to get yet another amp... needling in the back of my mind were Suhr Badgers, Jackson Ampworks Newcastles and Britains, and Bad Cats... my ultimate amp has always kind of been a Matchless, which is a "refined Vox" type of thing... Bad Cat amps were originally designed with Mark Sampson after Matchless ceased production for a while, and the early models were kind of a continuation of them... And the winner is... A hardwired 30-watt Bad Cat Cub head... a "demo model" from a store that has no physical storefront for almost half the price (I think these are repackaged items that someone ordered then returned... but since they honor warranties and stuff, hey, I'll take the depreciation discount and the item!). The amp is a single channel amp BUT with a built-in, foot-switchable "overdrive" setting that is very lovely... AND 2 foot-switchable Master Volumes... so functionally it is more like a channel-switching amp but without one of the channels getting shorted in some way... EL34s, probably my favorite tubes (though the Genelex Gold Lion KT88s the previous owner left in my Morgan RCA 35 might be a tie, and the Supro Supreme has me loving 6V6s more than I thought I could) And... yep, I love the way it sounds and responds. "Refined Vox" kind of nails it... it does have an effects loop, and with the simple footswitch provided and the built-in digital reverb, I could honestly see gigging with this amp with maybe just a delay/chorus/modulation pedal in the loop. It's loved every guitar I've plugged into it so far... I'm jazzed! 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caevan O’Shite Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 That's great! I bet it's a fantastic amp; I bet I'd love it. How's it "clean-up", respond to adjustments of the guitar's volume-knob(s) and ones "touch"? What cab and speakers are ya runnin' it into? 2 Quote Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do? ~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~ _ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p90jr Posted February 24 Author Share Posted February 24 17 hours ago, Caevan O’Shite said: That's great! I bet it's a fantastic amp; I bet I'd love it. How's it "clean-up", respond to adjustments of the guitar's volume-knob(s) and ones "touch"? What cab and speakers are ya runnin' it into? This amp model was designed for knob surfing and touch dynamics, due to its pedigree as a Matchless/Mark Sampson offshoot!!! And that's how I'm playing it at the moment... and usually how I play around the house (and a volume pedal gets used onstage to the same extent for some things). The original Cub design back in the day had 12ax7 and EF86 preamp tubes that you could switch between... as I understand it, for this they just stuck with the 12ax7 but added a "tuned tube gain stage" for the overdrive setting... still trying to dig into what that is and how it works, but it sounds wonderful. I have it plugged into my Komet AmbiKab, just using the 2 x 12" section and not the 2 x 10" stereo effects section at the moment. I can't remember exactly which speakers are in it... I'll take off the back panel (not easy) to check... I know they put Celestion Classic Lead 80s stock in them, but the one I have was a demo prototype that got dragged around to trade shows and used in the shop when people stopped by (the idea of which I love... the mojo from people playing through it, especially since I think that was people like Sonny Landreth) so it might have one of their upgraded/preferred pairings of speakers... it just sounds so good I forgot what they told me, ha. This is the demo vid that pushed me over the cliff (I just love listening to R.J. play in general) 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p90jr Posted February 24 Author Share Posted February 24 don't want to seem too "SPAMMY" but this one got me, too... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caevan O’Shite Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 3 hours ago, p90jr said: I can't remember exactly which speakers are in it... I'll take off the back panel (not easy) to check... Please, don't bother on my account! We're just kickin' the ball around here... 3 hours ago, p90jr said: I know they put Celestion Classic Lead 80s stock in them, but the one I have was a demo prototype that got dragged around to trade shows and used in the shop when people stopped by (the idea of which I love... the mojo from people playing through it, especially since I think that was people like Sonny Landreth) so it might have one of their upgraded/preferred pairings of speakers... it just sounds so good I forgot what they told me, ha. That made them more 'broken-in' for you; sometimes there's quite a change from brand-new to broke-in... And, yes, MOJO... 💫✨ Celestion Classic Lead 80's are cool speakers, LOTS of strong low and low-mid O0OMPH in 'em, and they sound pretty consistent across varying volume-levels. I really liked the combination of one along with a G12H 30 and an Alnico Gold or Blue (that is, an open-backed 16 ohm 2x12 with the latter two, and a closed-backed 16 ohm 1x12 with the 80). The 80 added some stronger lows to the fantastic growling and chiming mids and highs of the other two. A real classic Brit blast! But I digress... 3 hours ago, p90jr said: This is the demo vid that pushed me over the cliff (I just love listening to R.J. play in general) Haahh! I'd checked that very same video out earlier after reading your OP above here... a very good demonstration confirming that I'd LOVE this amp. 3 Quote Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do? ~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~ _ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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