Bad Cat Cougar 50?

so... recently found about this chinese made Bad Cat model
PCB and not really cheap, but still 1/3 of a "real" Bad Cat
costs $999 in the states, but it's around $650 new on thomann.de (240v, though), which is actually a really good price for a good 50w amp



couldn't find forum reviews and the NAMM video on youtube sucks
found this article in german and the clips actually sound really good (for short test soundclips), specially the lead tone
which I could find more clips or videos

http://www.bonedo.de/artikel/einzelansi ... r-50h.html
(clips on PRAXIS tab)

i've seen that too while looking through thomann, was always curious how it sounded but hardly any clips/info online

some of the sounds in the test seem alright not really for me, curious to hear more sounds however

clips actually sound like a legit bad cat, imo
vox character with balls and sustain
not my usual type of tone, but interesting
I imagine it should sound REALLY good with medium low gain settings, a good overdrive pedal and low output bare knuckle pickups

I e-mailed Bad Cat asking if it was possible to rewire the european version to american voltage without rewinding the power transformer

and look what I get:

"Hi Eric,

The Cougar series has nothing to do with Bad Cat USA. Please contact the manufacturer of the amp Hanzer.
Thank you,

Brian Kushner
Bad Cat Holdings LLC"

so they outsource a new model with their name on it and they have nothing to do with it?

ericsabbath":10ze19xx said:

I e-mailed Bad Cat asking if it was possible to rewire the european version to american voltage without rewinding the power transformer

and look what I get:

"Hi Eric,

The Cougar series has nothing to do with Bad Cat USA. Please contact the manufacturer of the amp Hanzer.
Thank you,

Brian Kushner
Bad Cat Holdings LLC"

so they outsource a new model with their name on it and they have nothing to do with it?

Click to expand...

some positive things in this thread about the 50w

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/archiv ... 80102.html

"
Full disclosure, I work for Hanser, tried our Kustom Defender series, not my Kup of tea.

Just recently took home one of the Cougar 50 Heads. Was expecting something similar, but figured, hey, for what I pay as an employee, 50 watts of all tube, I can tweak it if I need to. This coming from a Boogie fan, main tube head for years was a DC-5. Turned everything to 12 noon and lit it up, fully expecting to be underwhelmed.

SURPRISE.

Flat out rock and roll machine. Ran it through my Marshall 1960 B with V30 clones (Avatar Hellatones and Guitar Warehouse in an X pattern), tried clean first, was fairly impressed, switched to lead channel.

HOLY SHIT.

Gain at 11 o'clock is MUSICAL, SATURATED, ARTICULATE. Tried several different guitars with different wood combos, different pickup combos, was similarly impressed by all of them. This amp can do it all, I'm fairly sure, even though I'm just a rock/metal guy. Definately a hard rock amp, and could easily do metal with or without auxilliary boosting. Just to make sure I wasn't dreaming, A/B'd it with a Boogie DC-10 that I have as well, and, though I didn't want to admit it at first, the Cougar's lead channel was far better sounding than the Boogie. Again, the voicing of the amp is something completely unexpected. I can't vouch for the combos, but I can say the head was/is a great surprise.

It's not a Kustom, that's for sure, totally different animal (pardon the pun). You'll probably see more of the same once more people have a go with them, the initial run is being distributed to stores now.

My 2 cents. The 50 watt head is killing."


YMMV, at the kind of price seems to be worth checking out tho

sent hanser an email now
not sure if they'll answer

"Thank you for your interest in the Cougar50. You will have to buy a new transformer to convert the 240v to american voltage. This will run around $100 plus shipping to you. We do not have one in stock at this time so let me know if you would want us to get one ordered. It will take about six weeks to get in."

damn