Bad Cat Cougar 15 15W Class A Tube Guitar Combo Amp 

Comments about Bad Cat Cougar 15 15W Class A Tube Guitar Combo Amp:

This amp is a nice simple straight forward design. It lacks the bells and whistles many small combos have. Therefore it is somewhat limited. Either you have to set it up to play clean or set it it up for a dirty sound. The thing I love about this amp is how the amp sounds when it is driven. It has high gain potential, but the tone is extremely articulate when driven. I have been setting it up to get a nice driven tone, when I play soft it cleans up. It has been working out nicely at the local blues clubs. When you back off on the pick you can play chords with nice flavor. When you go to a solo you can dig in and make this thing scream like a banshee. I have playing this thing non stop since it arrived. I simply can't get enough.
I know there has been some diologue about the fact that it is made in China. Although I am not completely happy with the fact alot of companies import manufacturing to foreign countries, it is a fact of life. The quality of this amp is boutique all the way.

Comments about Bad Cat Cougar 15 15W Class A Tube Guitar Combo Amp:

A duo of El-84's isn't really a formula for gobs of clean headroom. This thing is what it is folks ; a blues and rock mini brute that gets superb Brit power tube grit and grind at earlier break up levels along with some respectable clean fendery sounds that might need to be miked for greater volumes . I dig that edgey break up allot so it suits me as I'm not looking to fill the arena up with decibles ( they make PA systems for that don't they ?)

Over all build quality is impressive at these price levels, and the controls give you lots of good sounds without a lot of fiddling ( I haven't found a bad one yet !) Reverb is great .

So there you go . If you paired this with a small tweed or blackface type clone; ( something that uses a quartet of 6V6's or 6L6's ) and a ABY box you would have a great , portable set up to cover all the important bases.

It's important to see that this amp is a specialist and makes no pretense at being that elusive if not impossible "Jack of all trades "

Well Done misbehaved feline , well done.

Comments about Bad Cat Cougar 15 15W Class A Tube Guitar Combo Amp:

I really wanted to like this amp,but for my purposes it's just a one-trick pony.It's a great trick if you want a touch sensitive,overdriven rock sound.Sounds great with my teles,strats,335s and Les Paul guitars.But hardly any clean sound above 2 or so on the gain knob.I have an AC-15 handwired to compare it with.The Vox is a much more versatile amp with plenty of headroom in the 1st channel.BTW,they claim the Cougar is a channel switching amp,it's only 1 channel with no gain boost or anything that would provide a 2nd,footswitchable channel.I had hoped the Badcat would sound similar to my Vox,but in a smaller package.I would need to bring a separate amp for my rhythm and clean playing,so I had to return it.Nice build quality and the lead sound is great.I just wish it had a little more clean and less gain so that I could use it on a gig.

Comments about Bad Cat Cougar 15 15W Class A Tube Guitar Combo Amp:

I was upgrading from a blues jr and I have to say this blows the fender out of the water. The construction quality is flawless. The one thing I do have to say about it is that it's bigger and heavier than the blues jr but not as bad as an ac15. Overall it's an awesome buy

Comments about Bad Cat Cougar 15 15W Class A Tube Guitar Combo Amp:

For the sake of full disclosure, I have gigged/rehearsed with a Bad Cat Lynx 50 head and a Hot Cat 15 combo. This amp comes close to, but not exactly to the sound of the American gear.

That being said, there is also a couple thousand quid in the price difference between the two "worlds" of Bad Cat products. Make no mistake, this amp is fantastic!

My current gig is a metal/hard rock band (think A7X meets Stone Sour) and I use this amp for recording demos and rehearsals. It is easy enough to grab and go when I don't want to take an entire rack of gear.

As for sound, this amp kills! The gain knob is a little touchy on the drive channel. I've found that even with the gain set very low (8 o'clock) you can still get a pretty heavy crunch suitable for more mellow or classic rock sounds. The midrange is very nice, and detailed. Even with the gain in a range suitable for my style of play, the individual notes of large chords can still be heard, which is a perk you would usually have to fork over some serious coin to get on a high-gain amp.

The clean channel is very straight forward, the sounds on each of the knob settings are usable but I find myself sticking to either the far-right setting or one behind that. The reverb is subtle. Even when cranked, it won't wash out your sound. It seems to just sit pleasantly underneath what you're playing, rather than fighting for space in the front.

I'm able to get very usable sounds out of this amp, and since it was on sale when I bought it, the price was right. Even when it isn't on sale it's worth the money.

Bottom line, it's a great amp. If you're a boutique amp kind of player, this may not exactly be your cup of tea, but it's a very good cup of tea nonetheless.

Comments about Bad Cat Cougar 15 15W Class A Tube Guitar Combo Amp:

After having some time to plug and play a little I was impressed with the range of tonal characters available using the 4 position rotary "Tone" selector. This control follows the gain stage and alters the mids and lows in each of its 4 positions. For my taste, position 1 and 2 are too thin for a good clean sound, however, these settings are useful when the gain is cranked. I found that positions 3 and 4 are best for what I like to hear in a clean sound. Position 3 of the "Tone" selector has a more of a British character and position 4 yields a nice full, Fender-like tone which matched up well to the clean tone of a Fender Deluxe Reverb when I compared them side by side. The Bad Cat has a nice bloom to it's feel as well. Not stiff sounding at all. The Deluxe Reverb has more clean headroom though. The rest of the tone stack is nicely voiced and very powerful.

Pleasant surprise #1: The reverb. The Bad Cat's full size tube driven reverb tank provides a sweeter, more usable reverb than the overly sensitive reverb circuit of the Fender Deluxe Reverb Reissue. (I'm tempted to pop a 12AU7 as a replacement for Fender's 12AT7 as the reverb driver in the Deluxe to tame the reverb response...another story I suppose.)

Pleasant surprise #2: The taper and response of the preamp gain are incredible. This is one of the most dynamic amps I've ever played. I already mentioned that the clean headroom on this amp is limited but it dynamically moves into overdrive land in the nicest of ways. Cranking the preamp volume yields an incredibly nice lead tone. No 12AX7 preamp buzz but rather a legit and dynamic tone that would warrant setting the Bad Cat Cougar 15 up with that lead tone and getting an amp switcher to get your clean tone from an amp with more headroom.

I've never owned a Celestion Vintage 30 but have received mixed reviews on them over the years from those whom I respect but this speaker doesn't seem harsh or overly strident which is a bit surprising especially since it's brand new and not broken in yet. Granted, you can dial in very obnoxious brittle tones with this amp if that's your thing but you can also get some sweet & smokey Fender like tones too...bloom and all. It's truly amazing the variation in tones and textures that are available from the controls which only consist of: Volume, 4 position rotary "Tone" selector, Bass, Treble, Master Volume, Presence, and Reverb.

If you're looking for a class A boutique amp and don't have a couple grand laying around, you may be pleased with this new Bad Cat offering. If you're looking for a lot of clean headroom, keep looking.