Pictorial of amp GAS deflated.

[JeffB]

This is what Ive been thinking......

 

Combined with......

 

But out of curiosity I threw this in to the mix.......

Through the Mesa LS's clean channel it cops the Bad Cat's gain ch pretty good. Close enough for rock'n'roll anyway. Good enough to not be able to justify big spendy on Bad Cat. Easier to work into the system as well.

Lately any gas I had as been foiled by some silly mod to a guitar, an eq pedal or some item of gear Ive had lying around unused.

Ive got to break this cycle. Feel cheated

[Steiner]

So... Did you get the Hot Cat?

[tulk1]

You can get a chimey AC30 (Bad Catish) sound from your Mesa LS? Please forward the settings!

 

I played with a band last year where the Rhythm had a Bad Cat. Very nice sounding with the Teles/ASATs. Very nice price tag, too. And weighed pretty much what the LS weighed. Clean, I think I liked his BC better, actually.

[JeffB]

So... Did you get the Hot Cat?

No its just sitting there brooding and redundant. The Blackstar Dual in front of the LS does a fair impersonation of the Hot Cats gain channel. Not perfect but close enough. Took a bit of tweaking with the gain levels and eq but I found a happy compromise.

 

You can get a chimey AC30 (Bad Catish) sound from your Mesa LS? Please forward the settings!

 

I played with a band last year where the Rhythm had a Bad Cat. Very nice sounding with the Teles/ASATs. Very nice price tag, too. And weighed pretty much what the LS weighed. Clean, I think I liked his BC better, actually.

Probably not as chimey. I was more talking about the high gain personality of the bad cat.

The Hot Cat has el34's. Tighter bottom end. More thunk.

Just did a quick quiet volume clean channel comparison and I could dial in some similar sounds into the LS. Probably slice my head off if I turned it up to gig level. I never had the treble this high before. Pretty chimey with the strat.

But you have got me thinking about how I can kill a bit of time and annoy the nieghbours tomorrow. I have a few el34s lying around that I can stick in the LS and have a good try at replicating the Bad Cats clean ch. Not expecting to clone it though.

[tulk1]

Probably not as chimey. I was more talking about the high gain personality of the bad cat.

The Hot Cat has el34's. Tighter bottom end. More thunk.

Just did a quick quiet volume clean channel comparison and I could dial in some similar sounds into the LS. Probably slice my head off if I turned it up to gig level. I never had the treble this high before. Pretty chimey with the strat.

But you have got me thinking about how I can kill a bit of time and annoy the nieghbours tomorrow. I have a few el34s lying around that I can stick in the LS and have a good try at replicating the Bad Cats clean ch. Not expecting to clone it though.

 

I've never like EL34s in my LS. Do dig the 6L6s, of course. Hmmm, now you've got me thinking of maybe trying those THD Yellow Jackets that let you use EL84s in an Octal based amp. Bet that'd get it closer to a BadCat/AC30.

[JeffB]

I've never like EL34s in my LS. Do dig the 6L6s, of course. Hmmm, now you've got me thinking of maybe trying those THD Yellow Jackets that let you use EL84s in an Octal based amp. Bet that'd get it closer to a BadCat/AC30.

Ive tried the YJ's in the LS. Turned it into a LSS

I ran it with two 6l6s and two yj el84's for a little while and liked it. Not sure if I lost some reverb quality or if that was another amp I ran with yj's. I know I lost the lush tremolo on one amp I had yj's in.

A Fender Concert I have works well with YJ's and a G12m. Best results Ive had with the YJ's.

I run my LS through a 212 cab with V30's so I probably have a different sound to your combo to start with. My findings would be different to yours I guess. That and the fact we probably try to dial in different sounds.

[big bob]

I hate you guys..

[JeffB]

Ok, what I dont like about the Hot Cat30 is the shared eq for both channels.

If I dial in a killer clean sound, the gain ch is to toppy, grainy and just plain yuck. When I dial in the gain channel to what I like the clean is to dull and muddy.

If I try to strike a compromise I like neither channels.

What I like about the HC30 is when I get either ch dialed in to what I want from that channel it sounds absolutely fantastic. Mrs Tully suggested getting two of them and setting one for clean and one for gain using a head switcher to control them. She even suggested getting another speaker cab and running them through their own cabs. That way, she said, you could get the perfect speaker for your cleans and for your gain. No she didnt. I made that up.

 

Cant dial the HC30 clean into the LS. Close ish just kinda. Tone stack dictates.

 

Next up...Electra Dyne, Hot Cat, LS comparisons. Got the feeling the ED is going to come out on top of the Hot Cat for what I want. The shared eq seems to work better for the ED and they are both capable of about the same gain levels.(Yes, I like a little bit of gain) Also the ED is cheaper, has reverb and an fx loop.

[Steiner]

The HC30 also allows one to run the clean and gain channel blended. I usually run the gain channel in the background to give sizzle to the prominent cleans.

 

I've got to try the Yellow Jackets in there. Who knows, perhaps I'll find I have another amp! New amp day?

 

Tell Mrs. Tully I said thanks for the sage advice.

[JeffB]

The HC30 also allows one to run the clean and gain channel blended. I usually run the gain channel in the background to give sizzle to the prominent cleans.

 

I've got to try the Yellow Jackets in there. Who knows, perhaps I'll find I have another amp! New amp day?

 

Tell Mrs. Tully I said thanks for the sage advice.

The blend is a nice feature.

What style of music do you use your HC30 for? I was initially taken by the gain ch and thats why I dragged it home. Id been listening to Porcupine Tree and thought Id see if I could dig some of those tones out of the HC30.

Since spending time with it Ive discovered I also like the clean ch. Just wish I could get what I wanted out of both ch's and the shared eq.

[Steiner]

Why thank you sir! I believe you have me mixed up with somebody else. I haven't a style. Mostly self entertainment.

 

What I enjoy is that with most amps, I allow the sound to take me to the song. That happens primarily because I haven't your talent or ability to dial in what I'm looking for. I make due for that inability by hording a multitude of voices. I'd go nuts if I had to economize - I'd have to learn how to control the beasts.

 

The Bad Cat is one that I enjoy swapping out guitars while listening and let that new voice change the practice routine. Currently she's connected to a 4x12 with an AlNiCo and three various ceramics. It gives her a very lush voice.

[Steiner]

I threw the YJs in last night and took her for a spin around the block. It sounded a tad bright. There was a dropout of the high frequency overtones and then the higher overtones were accentuated. A little too icepicky for my tastes but I gave her a couple hours to settle down. In summary, I liked the sound but wasn't in love.

 

To be fair, I thew the EL34s back in and played a while. The 34s added a boomy low end and cleared up the missing high frequencies to give it a balanced overtone. Now I remember why I loved that amp.

 

I suppose I should try a different set of EL84s in the YJs. I'm feeling a bit like Big Bob; the mad scientist experimenter has been awakened. Thanks Tully. Time to break out the tools and play with the amps...

[JeffB]

Ive tried yj's in a few amps. Some they work well with and some not so well.

After spending more time with the HC30 Im starting to really like it for what it is rather than judge it by my expectations and assumptions.

Something raw and refined about it all in one hit.