Bad Cat Mini Cat II 112 Combo

I bought it directly from the Bad Cat german dealer, Station Music, on January. There is no place here in Spain to get a Bad Cat Mini Cat II. Spanish dealer doesn't have Bad Cats anymore. I don't know what year the amp was made in, maybe 2007. It's all black, with an outstanding build quality, and really beautiful.

I bought it to complement my Cornford Harlequin and get different sounds playing at home.

The amp is versatile enough for the styles of music I play at home, classic rock, pop, blues, alternative rock. It's NOT a hard rock or metal amp at all.

It has 1 el84 and 2 12ax7, it's hand-made, point-to-point wired. It has one channel with gain, bass, treble and master controls. The bass and treble controls are interactive. It has a line out jack and a speaker cabinet output, with an impedance selector. The speaker is 12" Celestion custom made for Bad Cat.

I wish it had a bigger cabinet, like Cornford does with the Harlequin, I think that the sound would improve, although it wouldn't be so portable. The reverb lack isn't really a problem, using a Holy Grail it sounds very good.

I use this amp to play at home. It has enough power for that purpose, I haven't tried it with a drummer, but I think this amp is not designed for that. It's for home or studio use.

I use a Fender American Telecaster with Dimarzio Twang King pickups, Fender American Stratocaster with Kinman Woodstock Plus pickups with K9 switching system, G&L Legacy HB (Seymour Duncan JB4 at the bridge position and G&L alnico single coils at middle and neck positions), and a Gibson Les Paul Studio.

As I mencioned before, it is NOT a hard rock or metal amp. I play in a hard rock band, but I use a Mesa Rectoverb head for that purpose. I use the Bad Cat to play at home other styles that metal.

It is absolutely silent! I own a Cornford Harlequin too, and the Harlequin is much more noisy than the Mini Cat II.

This amp has excellent clean sounds, Vox like, and turning up the gain and lowing down the master you get a beautiful light overdrive sound, really beautiful!! It is very touch sensitive. You don't get a lot of different sounds from it, but the clean tones and the light overdrive tones are absolutely awesome, with the Bad Cat-Matchless trademark sound. Maybe single coils sound even better that humbuckers. The Telecaster just sings through the Bad Cat... It is also pedal-friendly, I use a EH Holy Grail reverb and a Keeley compressor, with that combination the clean sounds are just wonderful!!! Modulation effects and overdrive pedals sounds awesome too. Blend the overdrive sound of the amp with a Xotic AC Booster or a BB Preamp and you get a gorgeous lead sound.

Comparing it with the Cornford Harlequin that I also own, they have very different sound. The Cornford has a bigger cabinet and that makes the sound more bassy. It has much more distortion that the Mini Cat, it gets awesome rock sounds, it's a rock amp. The Bad Cat has chimey highs, beautiful clean tones that the Harlequin just don't get, and a light overdrive open sound perfect for pop chords, alt rock, blues, 70's rock. I enjoy having the two because they have different sounds that complement each other.

I think the Bad Cat would have even better sound with an oversized cabinet, but you can always connect a external cabinet and experiment (I haven't done it).

I have it since January, the amp has't ever broken down. It has an incredible built quality, and it's beautiful.

The only thing I'd like to mention is that the finish, the tolex,is a little weak, you have to be carefull witch the scratches.

I emailed directly to Bad Cat 3 times and they answered me two of those emails, so it could be better.

Ive got over 15 years of playing in. I also own a Cornford Harlequin and a Mesa/Boogie Rectoverb series 2 head with a 4x12 Harley Benton cabinet with Celestion Vintage 30.

If it were stolen I'd try to buy another one, or maybe a Bad Cat CUB II R to go deeper in these sounds. But for home use maybe the CUB II R would be too much wattage.

I just bought a 2006 Mini Cat II. It's not incredibly versatile, and I didn't get it for that reason either. I make music for commercials and I play a little bit of everything. So, I got this amp because I wanted a low watt EL84 amp that I could crank.

The Mini Cat II has bass, treble, volume, and master volume controls. Also, it has a 12" Celestion and a line out.

I wish this amp had the headphone out of its little sister, the Mini Cat, but in lieu of that, it has a 12, bigger cab, and another tone stack.

The sound quality is GREAT! I was really expecting less, but I was really surprised. You can't get a myriad of amazing sounds with this amp, but you can get a couple of stellar ones. I am really impressed with the clean sounds (master up full, volume at no more than 12:00). The treble and bass controls are active and very, very sensitive. The amp dimed on a strat sounds really Stonesy and crunchy, and with a Paul, it gets nice and saturated. It's very Vox-like and chimey, but with a sweeter distortion.

I use Fralin pickups on my Strats, R0 Special, and R7. It sounds great with all of 'em.

I gave this a five, because the features were dissappointing. The Bass and Treble controls did not color the sound in an effective way.
Also, the relation between Gain and Volume was touchy and difficult to dial in anything more than a satisfying Clean Sound.

Once again, if you like Clean, this amp is for you. Old style Country and Jazz would work for this amp. But forget Rock or Blues.

Can't say, returned it after 3 days. It seemed well built.

The Web Site had been down for months. The Amp showed up with no paperwork, documentation, warranty. I didn't have to deal with the company.

The Gibson Les Paul Jr. GA-5 is a much better sounding amp (except for extreme clean; for much less money) So is the Fuchs Lucky 7, for the same price. I've been playing for 35 years.

This is the Brand New Mini Cat II, All tube 2 12ax7's, 1 EL-84, rated at 5 watts, class A (tubes run hot all the time), point-to-point wired 1x12 combo. It is a rock/country/blues/jazz amp. It goes from Chimey clean to really dirty, with use from the volume and master. Bad Cat added active bass and treble controls, which makes it easy to attain the tone you want. This is a single channel amp, that loves pedals. There is a speaker ohm switch 4, 8, 16, for running multiple cab combinations. There is no headphone jack on this amp, I don't need that feature anyway, but there is a line out that you can overdrive other amps with, or run direct into a recording console. I bought this amp because it can achive excellent tube saturation at a reasonable level, the sounds guys out there will be very happy. And the single 12" speaker pushes a lot of sound, and plenty of low end. It can handle all the power of this amp and then some. The amp is nice and portable and at 25 lbs it won't break your back or give you a hernia. It is a basic amp with basic features that does what it suppose to do.

I use a Heritage gold top (the original Les Paul), and a 74' telecaster. You can use any guitar on this amp, and it will let the true tone of your guitar shine through in a very transparent way. If your guitar is good, then it will sound great through this amp. This amp sounds like a Bad Cat....very chimey cleans and great distortion. It sounds closest to a Vox AC-15, but kicked up a notch and pretty much just as loud. Don't let the 5-watts fool you, this amp will push a 4x12 cab no problem. The amp is plenty loud, and even hurts your ears when you turn it up, what more to you want. For those of you who think you need 50 or 100 watts, you need to try out a low wattage tube amp. It all depends on how clean the power and what kind of cab you are running it through.

Bad Cat makes a solid built amp. I don't see any problems with the design, they back up their products for 5 years, so I am not worried. I would just carry an extra power tube. OOhhh, and these amps never need to be biased, because of their small tube configuration. The amp is a solid 25 lbs, and built like a tank. Read other reviews on Bad Cat, there are not too many bad reviews in this area.

They are very nice, and they answer their phones, and answer your questions. Since this amp is so new, there was not much information on it, so I called Bad Cat, and the guy was very helpful. And They told me about another amp coming out similar to the Mini Cat II, called the Alley Cat, which is a channel switching 7.5 watt amp with 1x12. Keep an eye out for these new amps, people will love them. And the price is right. The Mini Cat 2 brand new street price is $869 with a 4 month waiting period.

I have been playing for 14+ years now, and I have owned lot's of gear, and I have been on a search for great tone for a long time. I own a Music Man RD50-12 (old school, vintage will always have), I have owned Crate (sucks), Fender (sounds okay, but quality sucks), Johnson Digital, Line 6 digital, Mesa Boogie, Trace Elliot, Top Hat King Royal 2x12 (sounds amazing but way too loud for my needs), THD, and now Bad Cat. My search for the ultimate tone is not over, this amp sounds amazing, and does what I want it to do. It sounds great and doesn't blow away the sound guy. I am now a fan of Bad Cat, and anything else made by Mark Sampson. If you can find Bad Cat used, you can save some money, but most people don't want to sell them, I just got lucky with the one that I found. Just don't take my word for it, go play one if you can, you will like it...Happy Tone Hunting.