Hot Cat 30R is a serious rocker!

[bobbtoz]

Shortly after I purchased this amp in August of this year my band split up. Therefore I haven't had the opportunity to play it in a band setting that many times. Some of my friends got together today to jam. I can not believe the tone I was getting. We jammed everything from blues to heavey metal. Usually theirs a sweet spot you try to find on an amp. Once you get this amps sensitive eq set up to your taste you can roll back the gain and use the level to help get those sweet blues tone. Or up the gain and adjust the level and their you have a sweet metal tone. The gain on this amp I find usable from 8 o'clock to max! I don't max it, but its still usable for perticular music types at this setting. I generally keep the gain set at 1 o'clock and use my guitar volume knob to go from blues to screaming leads. I can't tell you how many 80's riffs I was pulling out of this thing. Many will turn their nose up at the 80's stuff, but that were my heart and soul is. I had a blast! Can't wait until we get together to play again.

 

I think its time to start looking for a band again. Its a waist owning this amp and not getting any quality playtime.

 

For those of you that read reviews on the reverb issue w/ this amp, keeping the reverb at 9-10 o'clock worked great!

 

 

 

[bobbtoz]

bump

[Gooma]

Hey Bob,

 

sounds like a great amp to me, i`ve allways wanted to give a Hot Cat 30 a run but there isnt one to be seen within miles of here LOL.

 

I see there is one up for grabs on TGP amp emporium, how does it sound at low to moderate volumes??

 

My Mojave scorpian is just sounding sooo nice at the moment but it really begs to be played at volume. I`m looking for a head to compliment the scorpian and the HC 30 sounds like it could fit the bill.

 

I`m really interested in this amp, just wandering how it takes a hotplate?? also what speakers are you running mate.

 

The bogner shiva is another amp i`m looking into, how do they stack up against one another.

 

Brad

[bobbtoz]

 

Originally posted by Gooma Hey Bob, sounds like a great amp to me, i`ve allways wanted to give a Hot Cat 30 a run but there isnt one to be seen within miles of here LOL. I see there is one up for grabs on TGP amp emporium, how does it sound at low to moderate volumes?? My Mojave scorpian is just sounding sooo nice at the moment but it really begs to be played at volume. I`m looking for a head to compliment the scorpian and the HC 30 sounds like it could fit the bill. I`m really interested in this amp, just wandering how it takes a hotplate?? also what speakers are you running mate. The bogner shiva is another amp i`m looking into, how do they stack up against one another. Brad

 

 

Good questions. Your right about the Hot Cat being a difficult amp to try out. Seems like when a dealer gets one in its gone pretty quick. I would suggest you make a trip to try one to make sure thats its your cup of tea.

 

You won't need a hotplate for this amp. With the level knob and adjustments to the eq you can get mamoth tone at even bedroom levels.

 

I'm currently using celestion v30's for both my shiva and hot cat. The shiva takes to the v30's better than the hot cat. The hot cat has this great sizzle in the top end, but w/ the v30's it can sound nasally. This can be dialed out w/ the hot cats eq. I'll be trying a different pair of speakers in the future.

 

 

I think the shiva is a underated amp. Put a good boost in front of it and it will compete w/ all the high gainers. The shiva has a darker tone than most amps. You either like it or you don't. If you don't theirs not much you can do to dial it out. The shiva has the best volume taper of any amp I've tried. It can go from bedroom volume to way too loud.

 

The Hot Cat 30R is IMO a superior amp to the shiva. You can get the hot cat to sound similar to the shiva, but you can't get the shiva to sound anything like a hot cat. The Hot Cat also covers a greater variety of music. It sounds incredible at blues stuff w/ a little dirt to a full saturated metal tone. Both the shiva and hot cat sound great at lower volumes and I don't think its necesarry to use a hot plate w/ either of these amps. Keep in mind that I play most of the time at a low volume since I'm not playing in a band right now, so I've got a decent understanding of low volume playing.

 

Hope this helps.

 

You can't go wrong w/ either amp.

[dorkstar1]

Yeah, the Hotcat30r really shines when you get a little volume behind it. Has some really sweet dynamics,touch sensitivity, harmonic sweetness. I guess that is why I have a love hate relationship with mine. The Shiva is a great amp too. At least in the 112 combo format it has quite a bit more low end than the hotcat. On another note a Diezel Einstein can sure cover a lot of these bases really well, and you can achieve 4 really distinctive sounds on the fly without any tweaking after your initial dialing it in. Don't own a Diezel yet, but tried the Einstein and the Herbert out a couple of weeks ago. Mighty impressive. I'm considering swapping out the Hotcat perhaps for a XTC or Uberschall for a high gain compliment to the Shiva. Or perhaps even swapping out both the Shiva and the Hotcat for a Herbert.

[bobbtoz]

 

Originally posted by dorkstar1 Yeah, the Hotcat30r really shines when you get a little volume behind it. Has some really sweet dynamics,touch sensitivity, harmonic sweetness. I guess that is why I have a love hate relationship with mine. The Shiva is a great amp too. At least in the 112 combo format it has quite a bit more low end than the hotcat. On another note a Diezel Einstein can sure cover a lot of bases really well, and you can achieve 4 really distinctive sounds on the fly without any tweaking after your initial dialing it in. Don't own a Diezel yet, but tried the Einstein and the Herbert out a couple of weeks ago. Mighty impressive. I'm considering swapping out the Hotcat perhaps for a XTC or Uberschall for a high gain compliment to the Shiva. Or perhaps even swapping out both the Shiva and the Hotcat for a Herbert.

 

 

I'd definetely recommend that you play the XTC and the Uber before you unload the hot cat. I owned the uber for a short period and IMO the hot cat pissed all over the uber. Maybe something wasn't right w/ the uber I had, but The hot cat covers a wider range of the music spectrum, plus the uber always sounded pissed off. No matter what I did the sounded, for lack of a better tonal description, pissed. That could be what your looking for, but the hot cat will be hard to beat.

[badtoneno]

I have a black Badcat HC30R Headshell for sale- 275 in case anyone is interested.

 

Fits the HC30R perfectly so you can make your combo into a head!

[dorkstar1]

Definitely plan to try them out first. A local store has a uberschall and a ecstasy 101b in stock. My shiva is the only Bogner that I listened to in person other than at a concert. I really like the shiva and originally got the hotcat to cover a slightly different spectrum. I am really curious to hear an ecstasy with the class a/ab option. I have heard the uberschall is really over the top. Since I have had such good fortune with the shiva I thought I owed to myself to give them a listen. Personally I think the shiva is darker on the gain side, but lighter on the clean side than the badcat. I will have to wait and see how I feel after my hotcat comes back from badcat. I think that they are all really awesome amps, and are really hard to compare tone for tone unless you can ab them in person. I feel really fortunate to be able to listen to them in this manner.

[maz_master]

 

Originally posted by Gooma Hey Bob, sounds like a great amp to me, i`ve allways wanted to give a Hot Cat 30 a run but there isnt one to be seen within miles of here LOL. I see there is one up for grabs on TGP amp emporium, how does it sound at low to moderate volumes?? My Mojave scorpian is just sounding sooo nice at the moment but it really begs to be played at volume. I`m looking for a head to compliment the scorpian and the HC 30 sounds like it could fit the bill. I`m really interested in this amp, just wandering how it takes a hotplate?? also what speakers are you running mate. The bogner shiva is another amp i`m looking into, how do they stack up against one another. Brad

 

 

I've owned both and still have the HC30R. IMO, the clean channels on both amps are great (although quite different), but the HC30R distortion channel is more flexible, has more gain on tap and is just better sounding overall, to my ears. The Shiva gain channel, w/o the boost engaged, is quite nice, but engaging the boost also unleashes a great deal of fizz and this weird upper mid bite, both of which eventually drove me nuts over the two years I gigged the amp. The HC30R gain channel is more 3-D sounding and doesn't have the fizz or midrange issues that drove me nuts with the Shiva. That said, the HC30R is a very unique tone and some people just don't care for it. The HC30R is also very speaker/cab sensitive and may not sound quite as good at supper low volumes, at least not w/o a lot of EQ tweaking.

 

So, both amps have their strengths/weaknesses, but for my purposes, the HC30R is much, much better choice.

[maz_master]

 

Originally posted by badtoneno I have a black Badcat HC30R Headshell for sale- 275 in case anyone is interested. Fits the HC30R perfectly so you can make your combo into a head!

 

 

I'm interested! I'm out-of-town on business now and am quite busy, but will PM you as sson as I can.

[maz_master]

 

Originally posted by bobbtoz I'm currently using celestion v30's for both my shiva and hot cat. The shiva takes to the v30's better than the hot cat. The hot cat has this great sizzle in the top end, but w/ the v30's it can sound nasally. This can be dialed out w/ the hot cats eq. I'll be trying a different pair of speakers in the future.

 

 

Regarding speakers, the Tone Tubby H1E I just installed in my 1x12 combo kicks major arse....much better than the BC V30, IMO. That V30 nasal thing is gone, pedals sound better into the clean channel and the top end is smoother, but still 3-D and "airy". Very cool. I also just installed some JJ ECC803S tubes in V1-V3 (gain/tone stages), ECC83S tubes for reverb driver/receiver and a Mullard RI in the PI.....and the tone jumped yet another notch!

[badtoneno]

I'll go against the grain here and give you a differing opinion. I owned both the Shiva and HC30R although I currently don't have either.

 

The HC30 is a great amp and has a ton more gain than the Shiva. I don't think it does the classic Marshall tone as well however. The Shiva had enough gain for me but barely so. Still, I preferred the more classic tones of the Shiva and felt that it suited my coverband needs much better.

 

The Shiva had a much better clean, IMO. In fact, I'd say it is one of my favorite cleans ever, it is that good. The HC30R has an OK clean but it is still kind of Voxy sounding to my ears. If you're into the Vox thing than you may like the HC better, I personally didn't prefer it.

 

Here is something else to take into account. The HC30R has a {censored}ty effects loop. It really screws with the tone and was unuseable for me. I also had QC issues with mine and others have also reported some. For an amp that expensive, I don't feel that should be happening at all. I never had a burp out of the Shiva. FWIW.