Hot Cat
Bad Cat Hot Cat Series Amplifier
Owner’s Manual
Welcome to the Bad Cat Family of Amplifiers
Congratulations and thank you for purchasing a professional tube amplifier from Bad Cat. As
with all Bad Cat products, your amplifier is designed from the ground up to provide the very best
tones possible in a rugged, reliable package. Each one of our pro quality models is constructed
with Bad Cat’s commitment to making the highest quality, hand-made, American-made
amplifiers.
Caution
With a little care and caution, your Bad Cat amplifier should provide you with years of troublefree operation and enjoyment. Please avoid damp areas and moisture during operation of the amp
and in storage. This includes placement of beverages near or on the amp that could spill into the
amp’s chassis. Liquids can easily damage tubes, switches and other parts. Immediately
disconnect the amp from power source should a spill occur and dry the amp thoroughly prior to
switching on the amp again. Drying may require the complete removal of the chassis from the
cabinet and the removal of the tubes for cleaning. Avoid tipping the amp, using it in unbalanced
positions, or lifting it unassisted to awkward heights. A little common sense will go a long way
in making sure the amp does what it’s supposed to do: provide you with dependable operation
and great tone on a consistent basis.
Grounding
Please check thoroughly that the ground tip on the power cord plug is connected to true ground
prior to operation of your Bad Cat amp. Using unfamiliar junction boxes can cause potentially
dangerous floating grounds. Please do not cut or defeat the ground tip.
Operation
If this is your first all-tube amplifier. Please become familiar with a few issues that differentiate
your amp from solid-state or hybrid amp products. Only a few precautions are required but they
will insure that you will get the most of your new all-tube amplifier. Vacuum tubes are “old
world” thermal devices that require more attention than transistors, but that’s the reason they
sound so much sweeter and more musical than integrated circuits and other solid-state
components. A little heads-up on following points will ensure maximum performance from your
Bad Cat amp.
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Operation (continued)
1. Place the amp at least 6 inches away from any wall or obstacle to provide adequate
ventilation around the amp. Good airflow around the amp will go a long way in preventing
the amp from overheating, especially the tubes. Do not place covers, clothing, or any other
materials on or in the amp that can obstruct the free venting of the chassis to the outside air.
Trapped heat in the chassis may cause a condition known as thermal runaway. To put it
simply, to warm or cook the tubes is good, to heat-cycle or fry the tubes is extremely
dangerous and will also shorten the life of the tubes considerably.
2. Vacuum tubes will last longer and sound more musical when they are allowed to warm up
prior to introducing an input signal from your guitar. A full flow of electrons from the
cathode can only be achieved when the tube is heated. This requires some time. Please allow
at least a minute of warm-up time before playing trough the amp.
3. Avoid long idle periods with no input signal. The vacuum tubes prefer to see a signal present.
When taking a break between practice sessions or in between sets of a performance, use the
standby switch to leave it on standby or turn off the amp.
4. Avoid unverified impedance loads. In other words, do not clip on or otherwise attach
additional speakers unless you know the system impedance. Tube amplifiers are very
sensitive to speaker impedance matching. This is due to the relationship between the internal
resistances of the output transformer, the output power tubes and the load that is required to
drive them. Unbalanced loads can cause destructive arcing; the transformer and the tubes
may actually burn themselves out. This is not covered by our warranty.
With proper impedance matching, multiple speaker configurations will work fine. If you are
not familiar with “Ohm’s Law”, please consult with a dealer or a qualified amplifier
technician. Do not attempt to operate the amp if you cannot verify system impedance after
connecting the speakers. Never operate your Bad Cat amp at 2 ohms or less.
5. Avoid unapproved “Power Soak” devices or attenuators that are not recommended by Bad
Cat as they can shorten the life of your power tubes considerably. Attenuators burn out tubes
prematurely because they require the power tubes to overwork continuously. Also, please
note that power tubes are best replaced as a matched full set whenever any of them fail.
Maintenance
Your Bad Cat amp is a professional instrument that does not require much in maintenance. Use a
clean dry cloth to wipe cabinet as required but avoid solvents of any type as they may tarnish or
discolor the vinyl. If you’re going to store the amp with a cover, please allow the tubes to cool
before covering the amp. A cover cloth or vinyl amp cover will prevent dust buildup in the amp.
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Maintenance (continued)
Weak or dull tones from your amp may indicate that the tubes are old or tired and need
replacement. The tubes in your amp are like tires on your car. They do wear out. If you notice
change in tone and tactile response from the amp, it’s most likely that the power tubes needs to
be replaced. As advised earlier in this manual, replacement should only be done in complete
matched sets. Preamp tubes will last much longer than power tubes, but these should also be
checked occasionally. Preamp tubes tend to go micro-phonic and also produce undesired results
when old or not working properly.
Preamp Section
The Hot Cat 30R features a unique preamp section that offers a wide-range of clean and
overdrive tones favored by discriminating guitarists. This is a dual-channel amp that offers more
tone shaping options than many other two or multi-channel amps. Please feel free to experiment
with Bad Cat’s unique tone shaping circuits via the 5-way rotary tone knob of the clean channel,
the separate Treble and Bass EQ controls, the Edge control of the overdrive channel and the
master Brilliance control. Coupled with your guitar’s volume and tone controls and the unique
attack and touch of your own playing style, the Hot Cat 30R should be able to provide you with a
wide variety of sounds to meet the requirements of various performance situations.
The Hot Cat can operate in three modes: clean channel, overdrive/distortion channel and a
combination of both via the included footswitch. The volume and EQ setting of each channel can
be set independently, allowing you to dial in the clean and overdrive sounds exactly to your
liking. Combining both channels gives you a unique full sound, adding fundamental note clarity
to distorted sounds or singing sustain to your clean sound depending on how you set the controls
when mixing the two channels.
FRONT PANEL
Input Jacks
Input jack 1 is the normal input when using the supplied footswitch. Input jack 2 is to be used
when you are not using the footswitch and you want to access the overdrive channel. These dual
inputs also work like the inputs of the original Hot Cat (15, 30 or 100) if you do not use the
footswitch. With a standard A/B/Y switch, you can choose either input or both, but with the Hot
Cat 30R’s included footswitch, it’s most likely that you will not need to use the old method used
to select either input on the original Hot Cat amps.
Volume
The first knob on the left when you face the amp’s front panel is the volume control for the clean
channel. This is the input stage where the preamp tubes first “see” the guitar signal and goes
through the first phase of amplification. Although designed as the clean channel, you can crank
up the volume pot and your picking attack to get varying degrees of clean and overdrive sounds.
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