Bad Cat Wild Cat Reverb 212 Combo

This amp made in 2004, with black and white real cow skin, custom finish. It came with a sturdy Holmberg flight case as well, which added to the price. All features has been mentioned below anyway. It looks cool, but people associated with country stuff no doubt. It's so simple that it's fairly basic. It lacks effect/send return loop, and is not a true real 2 channel amp.

Sounds, are as described, very LOUD, and suitable for almost all classic hard rock, old school rock, blues, dirty pop, and even clean straight out jazz. The half power switch is useful. When using full power, if you play clean jazz it hardly clips but have emormous dynamics anyway. You can explode with your pick, and this amp will explode with you, without choking or compressing. This is for the first channel only. The second cracks up earlier.

Distortion is one of my favorites, but by and large, very reminiscent of a Vox AC30 (old) or Matchless DC30. Guitars I am using, is a Hagstrom jazz axe with Benedetto p-ups, which can kill any input stage amp, and a Klein DT-96 with Joe Bardens pickups humbuckers on. It finally reveals, and brings out the nuances of pick attack, and how you angle your pick ever so slightly to change the sound. I agree with all former reviews, that this amp has to open up - i e master volume set slightly too loud - at least for your fellow musicians - before it starts to really shine. Flick the half power switch and your fellow musicians and neighbors will have a sigh of relief. I play mostly jazz, blues, country-rock, and some old school hard rock on it. It is not noisy unless cranked full, and reverb set on full. It's the most silent tube amp I've heard so far. I can't comment on every other boutique amps out there, but I'll guess there's very little difference between these high end tube amps. I mean, regarding hum and noise at least. If you go for a Rivera, Matchless, Soldano, Carr, Koch et al, I think you'll basically have the same thing. I can't really compare them, since this the the first and only ever guitar amp I've owned.

Speaker distortion, pushing the speaker as hard so it chokes, is virtually impossible, you have to put something in front of the signal chain to make that happen. Good thing, to me that is. Someone else may prefer speakers distortion and speaker cone choking.

To my needs it sounds great, I don't play metal, and I think it will not suit metal style. It's a VOX AC30 on steroids, and everything else, stronger, tighter, whatever. But general timbre of distortion IS VERY AC30, but outrageously louder :-)

A Sherman tank is a fragile little piece of sh*t compared to this it seems, but weighs accordingly. According to website, I still have 2 years left on my warranty. The warranty is not first owner only. I've never heard of this though before. But Tubes goes though, and they will burn out some day or another ...:-)

Haven't dealt with them yet. It came without manual - as if that is needed - but a BRIEF schematics would've seem appropriate. I mean, not revealing every little thing, but more spec like, like impedance on input, output, and so on. But basically, I think their website has great intro, and promising attitude, but then when you start to wade through all this glitzy and gimmicky stuff, you end up disappointed. It seems they started something great, and then just left. No information on website, and poor layout of comparison between different amps and their specs. Warranty is 5 years. They will get a 4 for their website. All flash and nothing else.

Have been playing for 35+ years. Semi pro. Here comes MY caveat. Used to work in a music store, wholesale distributors, and was surrounded with amps to try out. Never ever bought one myself. Tried to build one myself, but when I plugged it in, it went "psssst" and a smoke and smell came out from it. Thought that, hey, amps simply not my thing! The years went by, resorted to Rockman, rack gear through PA and pedals, Virtual stuff, Zoom, Korg pandora etc, Guitar Rig on computer. Borrowed friends Fender Twins, Marshalls, you name it, whenever gigging. Until now I found an amp that I thought was at least reasonable for me to acquire, having never ever owned one. But mind you, I have looked for years. I takes a great hulk to hump it around... but...well, let's not go there ;-) It's a great studio resident. I've tried out other stuff before I'll settled for this one, so I am not a complete dud. Of course, I hate the price of it, but they're even more expensive new around here, if one can catch them.

I wish it had effects send return. I've finally searched and acquired all outboard gear for this amp I'll ever need. A T-rex ROOM MATE is in the singal chain, and a Klon Centaur (yeah, I know I would get you started!) and a Chandler SDE-2 Digital Stereo Echo, another of these hyped retro units. But I acquired all these before they went hyped over the moon, so no excess money were spent on these. It would be nice to put all of them in effects loop. Save for the Klon, or...hey, why not that one too?! :-)

I think it's worth the money, all things considered. The dollar rate is favorable to us here in Sweden right now, compared to say, 5-6 years back this amp and price had been out of question (I don't know if they existed way back then!).

And for the first time, I've seen an amp that really looks cool. They have that attitude driven design to it, but yet, stays very traditional.

2 channels, switchable MV, half-power switch and reverb. Has all the features I could want or expect. It has all the power I could use but can sound good at lower volumes too. Mine is a head that I play thru a 2x12 open back cab with Celestion G12Hs.

I play a few styles - mainly rockabilly, roots-style blues, jump blues, that kinda thing. It handles all of them beautifully. For rockabilly I use a 6120 into channel one with MV switched out and use a dirt-box with delay. For other styles I need no FX at all - maybe a booster but that's it.

Both channels sound great! I tend to favour the first because it has slightly less gain and can sound warmer with more low-end. Channel 2 is more the dirty channel and is tight, bold and clear. Both channels can overdrive beautifully and both can do that OD Marshall thru a stack thing - my Guild Bluesbird or P90 Les Paul sound just incredible through this amp. Powerage-era ACDC, early ZZ top, all that big violin kind of sound is here but better than any Marshall I've played through. And I'm a huge old Marshall fan! It has all the balls of the old Marshalls but is clearer as well. You can get fat howling high strings but still have a piano-like clarity on the bass strings. Mids have the chime and complexity of the best Voxes but without the crud.

The cleans are very DC30, but when you wind it up it can get louder! And the OD tones have better low-end clarity. I really love my twang on the bass strings so that means a lot to me! With my 6120 Gretsch I can do great Rev Horton Heat.

I got this amp because I was so impressed with my badcat Hotcat. I just love the clean channel on the Hotcat and thought that the Wildcat should probably suit me better. And while I think that the Wildcat is the better amp I still love my Hotcat.

The only "fault" I can think of is that I can't have both channels sounding their best at the same time; I have to adjust "cut" whenever I change channels. Ch2 is much brighter than Ch1. You can't just turn treble up on Ch1 to compensate because then you lose too much midrange. I would just like less treble on Ch2. But I don't really find it a problem at gigs - tend to just use one channel anyway.

I'm sure that this amp will continue to be reliable. Although I admire the way it is built it would be a right pain to service as it is hard to get to the tube sockets to solder to them. I noticed that the Wildcat has better quality parts inside than the Hotcat - I guess that explains in part why it costs so much more! It also has NOS 1w CC resistors throughout where the Hotcat uses carbon film. I am perfectly happy with carbon film in amps, but this amp sure has the good stuff in it!

A friend's DC30 recently started to drop in volume the problem turned out to be a CC plate resistor gone bad. That is why I like carbon film over CC!

But the build quality is as good as it gets, so it will get a good mark here.

Well they do answer emails, but they are pretty curt!

It really is a great amp. Apart from how much it weighs(!) amps just don't get any better. It is so touch senstive it feels amazing to play through. All of my guitars sound wonderful through it. For an amp with so few controls you can get an incredible range of tones from it. More than any other amp I've played. You see so few of these - if only more people could play one I'm sure we would see more of them around. Just the best amp I've played, and I've played a lot!

Channel 1: Volume, Treble, Bass. That's it!
Channel 2 : Volume, 5 way rotary tone, Reverb dial, Cut ( sort of a very subtle presence knob), Master Volume, and a Global Master volune in-out toggle switch.
Also has various controls on back panel including a half-power switch. By the way. This amp overdrives at bedroom levels even on the full power setting. Would get a 10 rating if channel 1 was more fexible. More on flexibilty later on.

Been playing about 25yrs. I play several guitars, generally all humbucker, including a Les Paul, and a few vintage B.C. Rich guitars. I'm currently in a rock/classic rock-type band. AC/DC to ZZ-Top covers. I also enjoy country rock and fusion. I bought this amp because I wanted a back-up combo amp and I also wanted a so-called boutique, class-A amp. I am very pleased with the overdrive sounds produced by this amp. Killer! Everyone else in the band agrees. Superior rock tones. Sound is subjective, but I like it over my Mesa Boogie's overdrive tone. Big problem, however. You will NOT be able to instantly switch from clean to overdrive even with an a/b box, which is not supplied, by the way. Because channel 1 does not have it's own master you cannot set the amp up for instant switching from clean to hard overdrive. There will be a serious drop in clean volume, at best, if you try. Boost pedals haven't worked for me in solving this dilemma.

So far so good. For nearly 3000 bucks it best hold up!

Very patient and helpful over the phone. A friend of mine was looking into buying a Bad Cat and receieved the same courteous service over the phone. I suspect that if I have a real problem they will assist in resolving it.

If you want a great clean tone, or desire mild class-A overdrive to killer gain and you are willing to walk over and re-dial in your settings to acheieve these very different sounds then you will probably be happy with this amp. This re-dialing if fine in say a studio situation. However! If you want an amp that provides you with these two extremes in a live situation then forget it. You can't have matching volumes along with opposite drive settings. If you need flexibilty in a combo then something like a Mesa Mark 4, for half the price, will do you better overall. Unfortunately he Mesa won't have the sound of the Bad Cat, but then again the Bad Cat won't have the Mesa vibe either. In my opinion, this amp would score a 9-10 all around if it wasn't for it's lack of fexibilty.

2004 model wild cat 2x12 40 watt class A (w/reverb Combo).
2 independant channels which can be run seperately or together using an a/b/y switch.
channel 1 - treb & Bass & volume controls.
channel 2 - 5 way rotary tone selector and volume.
master volume (pull out to defeat), master cut, reverb level.

also has controls for half power, speaker phase selection, extension speaker ohm's.

thats about a complicated as i like it!!!

i am using a gibson les paul standard, straight into the front of the amp via the buffered bad cat a/b/y switch.
i play mostly rock/blues/hard rock (think muse, stereophonics, poderfinger, radiohead etc.....) and this amp is simply unbelievable!!

i had about 6 or 7 effects units and got rid of them all because the amp essentially sounds so good on its own that i didnt need anything else.
channel 1. goes from spanky clean sounds through to classic rock crunch (think led zep ac/dc kind of tones). Note definition and clarity are the real strong points of this channel - with the volume cranked there is plenty of sustain too. the eq controls have a massive affect on the tone - and can be quite fiddley cuase they interact with one another. after a few hours playing around it sounds superb.

channel 2. this channel literely floored me when i first cranked it!! it has enough gain to cover any rock situation, the sound can get really distorted - but always stays clear and responsive. It has a dynamic range to it that i have never heard before - even at seriouse volumes it doesnt compress and every little change in right hand technique is clearly heard - even at maximum gain. This channel is also the tightest and meatiest sounding crucnh i have ever heard!!!!

the reverb is very subtle - not up to surf levels, but effective, and most importantly it doesnt wash out the tone of the guitar/amp it just adds to it.


I ws a bit concerned about the lack of eq options on the amp - but seriously, it doesnt need it. this amp is all about amplifying your natural guitar and finger tone - hence there is nthing to hide behind. All of the tone controls work in a small but very usable range and it is literally impossible to get a bad sound out of this thing.

i had a problem in the studio 2 days after geting ther amp.
not happy!!

basicaly it was a couple of bad tubes(that shit happens, its a tube amp!!), i took it into the dealer @ 12 pm, he had dropped it back off to my house by 8pm that night after having a full set of NOS tubes installed and service done.

pretty good service i think?

see above - faultless

this is the best amp i have ever heard. I understand that not everything will suit everyones taste but i think that any player could find a sweet sound out of this amp.

they are that good!!

the only downside is the price and the weight of the amp (about 50kg's).

but the older i get i realise more and ore that you get what you pay for.

2004 in Silver Sparkle. Pretty simple setup. Two channels but you need to use an A/B box to switch between them. Channel one has volume, treble, and boss controls. Channell two has volume, and a five-position rotary tone control. There's also a masteer volume control (push/ pull to able/ disable) a reverb control and a cut control. Nothing fancy but has everything I needed in this area. the only bummer is the weight. At almost 100 pounds it's not something you'd just throw in your back seat on your way to a gig.

Tone, tone, tone. This thing sounds amazing right out of the box. I'm using a 77 Les Paul Custom with Seymour Duncan pickups plugged directly into the amp and it blows away any other setup I've ever had (which included Soldano, VHT, Boogie). It's loud as hell but never gets harsh sounding. With the Master volume enabled and the amp set on half power I can get a smooth creamy distortion without losing individual notes when playing chords. Though there's only a few knobs to turn, each one has a dramatic effect on the amps tone leading to an unlimited amount of tonal variations. And di i mention how loud this thing is. It blows away my old Marshall 100 watt head. You'd need a pretty big room to open this thing up at full power as it would probably break the windows in an average size bedroom.

I've only had it for two months and have had not problems at all. It's built like a tank so I'm giving it a 10 based on expectations and reputation.

Didn't receive any paperwork (manual/ warranty card etc) with the amp. Contacted the company and they said they'd send it right out. that was three weeks ago so I'm starting to wonder.

I've been playing for 25 years and had gotten kind of stale as of late. This amp got me charged up about palying all over again.

I demo'ed this model in June of '03 in Lake Winnipasaukee, NH -sp? It was an '3 model. It was used ina classic rock setting with some blues fussion. It was a 500 member club. Geeeeez, it blew away my 100 watt Marshall 1/2 stack... NO B.S.!!! It had an A/B box, but not really a big deal. Reverb was, well... ok.

I got to play my Heritage (H-157 LPC) Sclaller dual HB's and a EMG 81, and EMG singles in my gold am strat. The clean side hurt me. The overdive was through EVERYONE'S face. It wiped my Marshall and SLO!! The tones were over the top; better than any amp I've heard in 35 years of playing, 25 years profesionally.

Well, it wasn't my amp. I worked it all weekend. I'm talking eight hours a day for four days of my use and eight hours of the owners use. It sounded and performed to the max for 64 hours! Killer!!!

Let me put it this way... A very kind lady spoke with me for over an hour on the phone. She acted as if I were her only customer. That speaks volumes to me. I've got a 1/2 stack on order now.

I'v been playing for 35 years and have a minor in music (4 year degree). I'm very much looking forward to picking up this beautiful custom shop beast. I'm not giving up my SLO, or my Marshalls though. I want a better sounding reverb and channel switching. I chose this amp because it rocks like NONE OTHER!!

this is a brand new amp 2003, yeah, i finally shelled out the cash for an all tube class "a" amp. its a 2 channel amp, but you have to use an "a-b" box to switch between them. this is no big deal to me. no effects loop, no headphone jack, no effcts except a nice subtle reverb which is optional. this is a no frills amp, and im sure glad. it also has a half power switch to 20 watts. believe me this thing cranks at 20 and 40 watts.

im using mostly a les paul standard, although i play a strat and tele, all have stock pickups. i play blues and classic rock. ok, lets get to the goods. tone,tone,tone..............unfreaking believable. this thing is a tone monster. i was playing a line 6 ax2 212 combo. when i first got the line6, i was impressed. but while gigging with it, i noticed it only sounded good in small places. outdoors it just didnt have any bottom. it sounded good until you stepped away from it. line6 sounds to processed for me. anyway, back to the badcat. thick, fat, crunchy, clean, breaks up when you want it to by simply turning volume up and master down. the knobs are so responsive...the slightest touch really changes your sound. clean is clean and the natural distortion is amazing. this thing sounds best when cranked, however its a bit loud to max at most places. ive found that the boss blues driver works great at lower volumes, it gives enough gain for sustain and doesnt take away from the sound of the amp, i just use it as a boost i let the amp do the rest. also using it at half power works great, but it breaks up faster, still sounds awesome. the amp is unforgiving you cant hide your playing behind a bunch of effects every note is heard mistakes too...lol. i brought it to my friends recording studio, he said its the best amp hes ever heard and hes heard them all. after 25 years of playing i finally found the tone i was looking for. ive been through multi effects phase the rack units all that crap and found what i was looking for in the badcat. its expensive 2750.00, but you get what you pay for.

5 year warranty....built like a tank, 13 ply birch, very heavy, i use a cart...a+ construction

i bought mine at wild west guitars in riverside ca. these guys are cool. also emailed the guys at badcat before i bought it and they were helpful

im giving it a 10 because its what i was looking for. like i said before its a no frills amp. if you want a bunch of built in effects and floorboard controllers,flashing buttons,menu banks,amp modelers,direct out, midi controls this is not the amp for you. however if you want incredible tone and people (other guitar players espcially)
asking you how are you getting such a good sound? this it it. tonehounds behold. it just doesnt get any better

This is an update on my review of this amp after 6 months or so of use. I have decided that, in many ways, channel 2 could stand more tone control options. The rotary switch is not the coolest thing in the world. I will note that channel 1's tone controls are very active (they have their own 12ax7) and you can dial in a sound that fits your guitar of choice quite well. The half power switch is cool and so is the defeatable master volume. These options give you several choices depending on your venue. Add that to the decidedly different gain options of the two channel inputs for each channel, and you can tailor your tone/volume relationship to suit the size of the room (or the great outdoors, if need be). But don't expect clean clean tones at club volumes - this amp breaks up fairly soon at full guitar volumes.

I have worked with this thing and find that the best tones are on channel 1 (I use a Butler Rangemaster full-range to overdrive it for solos). Channel 2 has its uses as a lead channel as well but, for me, it's not as useful. I finally broke down and spent close to $300 on NOS tubes for this sucker and that's when it totally opened up. Get a pair of good EL34's (this made a much more appreciable difference even than smooth plate Telefunkens in the preamp stage). I was amazed at the tone with a pair of Mullards - I was suddenly in serious old school british rock territory - the amp lost a bit of chime but what it gained in growl and throat was worth it. And really...if you're going to spend over 3 grand on an amp, go ahead and invest a few hundred in killer tubes - you'll be glad you did. I can get Zeppelin, Cream, Duane Allman, early Jeff Beck, and Sabbath tones out of channel 1. Channel 2 gets me Santana and even a bit of Warren Haynes. While it's by no means as complicated as some of the Mesa Boogie heads I've owned in the past, the amp does require a bit of playing with. The sounds are all there once you work with it a bit. The amp works very well with pedals as well - I've gotten great sounds with Wah, Phaser and Echo. It does appreciate a good guitar - I have had great success with the Lindy Fralin Un-bucker pickups (similar to the new Gibson Burstbucker, I suspect).

Holding up great. The tolex is not, however, fire proof - keep candles and cigarettes at a safe distance.

No need as of yet.

This is really a great amp for my needs - my band does a sort of New Orleans meets British Blues Rock - I get all the tones I need (I'm the humbucker guy in a two guitar band so I'm not trying to get the spanky Fender tones which are just not in this amp). With a bit of use, this amp really opens up a lot of old early 70's Marshall type tones. (one bit of warning - if you're looking to use a channel switching pedal, make sure the channel's in the pedal are totally isolated or they both will sound like crap and you will have no idea why - invest in a high end switcher).

Layout is a lot like the other two channel Bad Cats and very much like the old Matchless Chieftan. Two channels - one 12Ax7 and one EF-86. Vol(Gain), Bass and Treble on Channel 1 and Vol(Gain) and the Mark Sampson rotary tone knob on Channel 2. Main section has Reverb, Cut and Master (which can be disabled). The Power section is 40 Watts of EL-34 aggression. GZ34 rectifier. High and low Gain inputs on each channel. The cabinet contains two identical 12" speakers - while unmarked, I am informed that they are Celestion Vintage 30's. Backside has a reverb footswitch input, satellite speaker out, half power switch, speaker phase switch, output impedence switch, and a couple of courtesy outlets. The tolex is a very heavy rubbery thing that seems pretty durable. And here's the bad news, this amp is very very heavy. If you thought your AC-30 weighed a lot, try this one out...I can't fault the amp for weight though, that speaks more to the build quality of the cabinet and the components (speakers and transformers mostly, I suppose). Any drawbacks in features are really taste issues: Do you need a presence knob? Do you hate the rotary tone control (I'm still not sure about that one)? Why a Vox style cut control? The features of this amp are all design quirks that you just have to live with if you want a Mark Sampson design. Wouldn't do any good to complain....Can you use it like a two channel amp? As long as you don't want superclean to super-saturated then, yes, you can. I'm running a Lehle switcher with it and have channels 1 and 2 set to run from crunchy to Soldano style overdrive. You can do the rest with your guitar's volume knob. I was using a Dr. Z Route 66 with a Matchless Dirt Box - this does all the things both of those used to do.

I am using this amp primarily with a PRS Single Cut. My band does New Orleans Funk meets British Blues and this sucker gets all the sounds I need. It won't really jangle or spank with humbuckers (your results with a strat may vary) but it does get the full Hiwatt to Marshall Plexi to Soldano range of tones. (This is for you Marshall heads - Although there's a touch of AC-50 in there, if you really want the AC-30 thing you should try one of Bad Cat's EL84 amps, e.g. the Cub).

The Wild Cat actually has a pretty brutal sound overall. It's tight, aggressive and punchy but with a bit of chime on the top. The reverb is pretty subtle - not a surf amp by any means. I am currently running EL-34s and a GZ34 (the stock configuration and without having changed out any tubes to NOS). I have no idea how 6L6's or another rectifier would sound. But if you want Crunch and Cream, this is a very good amp to consider right out of the box.

A tip when trying out the amp: Stand way back from it to get the full effect. I give it a 10 because it does everything I expected it to. (And I have yet to try to half power or low gain features). Soundmen seem to really love it as well. And my experience to date is that it works well with pedals such as Wah's and phase shifters.

I have had no trouble yet, but do bring a few extra fuses and tubes (never trust your rectifier). It appears to be very very solidly built and component quality is extremely high.

No idea at this time.

This amp has completely replaced a fairly complicated head, power attenuator, cabinet and distortion pedal set-up. I would buy another if I had to. The Wild Cat has all the sounds I expected and wanted but it's by no means a subtle amp. It's very aggressive and punchy and may not be suitable for small children, pregnant women or nervous types. And remember that it's targeted at a specific need - it's not a supercompresssed high gain Boogie or a spanky Fender - but it does the old Marshall thing very very well. The two channels allow a pretty broad range of tones from crunchy to super creamy. I haven't tried to get a super clean sound out of it so I can't comment on that - but it does just what I wanted an amp to do. If you have some major bucks and are looking for an aggressive sounding and well built answer to an old Marshall Plexi, this amp is worth a serious look. If you liked the Matchless Chieftan, or even the Clubman, this amp is also worth a serious look as it certainly exists in the same range of tones. I just wish it didn't weigh so much. And it is pretty pricy. But I don't think it could be any lighter or cheaper and retain the awesome sound, build and component quality.