Bad Cat Mini Cat Combo

4W and 4 knobs, line out, speaker out, no standby, one 10 inch speaker. It can be used as a amplifier on its own with the internal
speaker or an external speaker. It can be used as 'pedal' in front
of another amp. Not many knobs but very versatile. Great for
practising.

My setup is Gibson Les Paul => a few pedals (mostly in bypass) =>
Mini Cat connected to a Marshall 1936 cabinet and line out to the
input of a MesaBoogie Subway Rocket (20w). The combination is very good for Led Zeppelin, Free, Cream, Focus stuff.
No noise whatsoever even with all knobs in '11'. The distorsion
is not very high gain but you can always use a pedal. (I get the distorsion sounds from the Mesa anyway) The internal speaker is a little 'small' but connected to a bigger cabinet the sound is great. On its own it is too weak to play with a band but togehter with an another amp it is ok. My combination is not for gigging, we are just playing for fun. The amp forces you to be careful with your playing, you hear what you play. I can split my humbuckers on my Les Paul and even then there is no noise. I rate both the Mini Cat and Mesa with a 9 but together they are 10+

It is very well built, but I have had it for only one month.

A very good small amplifier. I also tried Cornford Harlequin, which I think sounds even better with low volymes but had a lot of hum when
you turned it up. I think the point with low wattage tube amps is that
you can play it in position '11' without loosing your ears. Otherwise
buy a big amp and play it on '1'.
Would the Mini Cat be better with another (=bigger) speaker?

Volume, Bass, Treble, Master (very useful) in a little, four watt package. Single channel. Micing it for blues and rock recording has proven effective. Use you favorite pedal on clean and you're good to go.

The only item missing is the second speaker out. That would've been fun. This is a mighty loud four watts, but the speaker handles it rather musically.

I use PRS Singlecuts with a variety of pickup configurations. The amp is quiet and no good at hiding my mistakes. It's quite honest. I don't turn it all the way up because I have other amps for that. But this amp accomodates everything well before I have to reach for my Cub II, Hot Cat, or Wild Cat.

NOTE: It won't cross over and replace your 15 watt amp. It's not meant to. Just like your pickups will never replace your strings.

The distortion is musical, but I like the old TS9, Full Drive or the X-Treme Tone.

If you want pristine, chimey clean, then don't sell your JC-120 (or JC-20) just yet. No amp can do everything perfectly.

There is no difference between the build of these and the other Bad Cad amps. I think they want you to give these to your kid in twenty years. They are keepers.

It's a tube amp, so you'll need tubes...eventually. Other than this, I have no reason to expect problems.

The combo, head and cabinet are built very well. That's my first-hand assessment.

I have spoken on several occasions with the Top Cat. He's been gracious and more than fair. I have no complaints except for availability in my particular area. But that's not really crippling.

I always get the feeling that the firm is doing something FOR me instead of AT me. That feeling is enough sometimes.

I have been playing for about 15 years. I have been tempted by several small amps which I never purchased because something was still missing. They're not missing in the Mini Cat.

My dealer gave me cream knobs so it looks like my Matchless SC-30.

I tested the black Combo and the black Mini Cat stack. I bought both (couldn't help it). Sometimes a company comes along that seems to do it right. Bad Cat seems to swing it. Hope it holds.

I tried Fender Pro Jr. and a variety of others in this category, but the quality came up short. My Orange AD15 was right on, but it's been replaced by a Cub II. Smaller firms like Bad Cat seem to try a lot harder than the fatter, clumsier mass production companies.

Fender and its retro-styled Mexican gimmicks suck the worst. Wannabe old school sells well, but that's not my thing. I just wanted a good amp.

The Mini Cat is found at the furthest end of its respective spectrum of comparable products. That end can be pricey. It's a tad more expensive, but you'll have to sort that out yourself.

This is a brand new Bad Cat Mini Cat - a new for 2003 model for the company. Mine is decked out with a cream colored, cab and sports Bad Cat cream chicken head knobs in lieu of the standard black ones (thanks to classahighperformance.com where I purchased from). Its (as described nicely in the previous review) a 4W class A tube practice/performance/recording amp.

It has one channel, but has a master volume in addition to a preamp volume, so its able to morph between clean glassy class A, bluesy grit, and crunch. It doesn't do shredding high gain sounds, but neither do I. It has a headphone jack, recording out jack, and CAN be used without the speaker plugged in (per BC's website) for quiet practice or direct recording.

I use the amp in my home studio, for playing and recording. I've long been a fan of the low watt tube amp, and this represents the ultimate evolution of the species - I've owned a silverface Fender Vibrochamp from the early 70's, a newer Fender Pro Jr, a Top Hat Portly Cadet, and now this. I've finally found the small amp of my dreams.

This 'small amp' is loud when turned up, and you'll be turning it up to get the best and most truely happening tones (with the master turned way up and the preamp well past 12 O'clock) - so you need to accept the volume. You could play with a restrained drummer like this, but you won't have alot of clean headroom. I haven't tried driving a bigger speaker cab yet.

It sounds great recorded as well - with an SM 57 and condensor room mic (in my case a Neumann TLM103 or Blue Baby Bottle). I haven't tested the DI features enough to determine whether I'd use that.

In summary, its no swiss army knife of amps (hey I have a Rivera for that), but if you want amazing tone around the home/studio in a small package - this is the one.

Most of my guitars are vintage fenders from the mid 60's - Jazzmasters and Jaguars, as well as the obligate Strat and Tele (both Custom Shop Relics) - all with original pickups and hardware. I also have a newer Les Paul Classic, and some odd guitars (Silvertone Harmony Stratotone Jupiter, Hamer Special with P90s, etc...) and it sounds great with single coils and humbuckers alike. The Fenders really chime and sing in a way that only class A provides - and suits my melodic and somewhat stripped down playing style just fine. Notes just ring wonderfully.

When turning it up, switching between Fender and Gibson guitars is a real eye opener - it gets medium crunchy with nice sustain when dimed with the Fenders (think Sticky Fingers era Stones), and really does get a beautiful sustaining singing distortion with the Les Paul (think Heartbreaker era Led Zep). The guitars unique personality shines through 100% -as they should.

Note, the volume, tone, and master controls are highly interactive, and time should be taken to find the sweet spots - there are quite a few. Also note, the bass knob is subtractive - as you increase it you CUT bass, so when using the factory speaker I leave it pretty much all the way to the left - with my Fenders. I've noticed I do cut the bass more when dialing clean sounds with my Les Paul, as well as for distorted sounds, but LPs always sound a bit dark to me.

Since the tone controls are so interactive, I can't imagine that you would gig with this amp unless you need only one basic sound from it. (Although putting my Bad Cat Xtreme tone in front of it gives you a virtual 3 channel amp)

It is very well built and I can't imaging having a problem. Its too early to tell whether it would break or have problems.

I would gig with it (with a good mic and house PA of course) but to me thats not really the strong suit of the amp.

Too early to tell.

I've been playing for over 25 years, and have cool guitars and cool amps galore. This is one great amp, and has me hooked. I'd replace it in a heartbeat if lost/stolen.

Its pricey, but worth it. There's nothing else like it, and as above, I've had other small amps that don't even come close.

Its really a perfect example of pure tone - simple, stripped down, and quite special. It needs nothing else - in fact reverb, effects loops, more channels aren't appropriate here.

Its a classic.

2004 Bad Cat Mini Kat. This is the new single channel 4w Class A combo. (1) 10" Jensen Special Design Speaker, (1) EL-84 Power Amp tube (Groove Tube designed for Bad Cat and (1) 12AX7 (Ruby) preamp tube. Vol,Bass,Treble,Master. No standby. Has line out,headphone out and speaker disconnect.I would imagine youcould easily power a larger cabinet but haven't yet tried. I just bought this amp to add a super-portable, high-end boutique amp for jamming in the lounge etc....

This is easily the loudest

Too many guitars to list without sounding like a show off... Strats, LPs, Gretsch 6118Jr, etc. I'm really liking it with my Jimmie Vaughn strat as it lets the variety of pickup combinations sing, but sounds great with everthing so far, including P-90's. Low end response is as good as can be expected in such a small cabinet /speaker configuration.

This is a LOUD 4 watts. The controls really do have interactive "sweet spots" so take your time finding the settings that work best. A millimeter right or left makes a big difference. Don't really expect to gig with a drummer without miking thru the PA, but I expect to be able to do some smaller venue gigs so long as the drummer shows some restraint. This amp sounds amazing with a Keeley modded TS-9 and Keeley Java Boost (no,I don't work for,nor am I related to Mr.Keeley). Strat-to-boosts to Bad Cat = great tone!!!

Built like the proverbial brick..... Carry an extra 12AX7 & EL84 and you're good

So far so good

Been playing 25+ years. Own a Bogner Shiva, Carr Slant 6V, Ampeg Jet RI. Several guitars -Fenders, Gibsons & Gretch's & the odd Dano. I guess I wish the logo lit up like the bigger brothers... Oh well.

If stolen or lost I would either replace or consider the Savage 6w combo. Either amp is a home run in it's category