Bad Cat Mod Shop Hot Cat 50 Head

Innovation and creativity are two design principles that are deeply rooted in the DNA of Bad Cat. For decades, theyve prided themselves on creating fun, exciting designs that include features players actually want. The Mod Shop Hot Cat 50 is a perfect example of this culture and thought process. What started out as a fun one-off modified amplifier has quickly evolved into an exciting, British-voiced amp thats a real must-try.

The Bad Cat Mod Shop Hot Cat 50 builds on the standard Hot Cat design, but with a level of ferocity and flexibility unlike anything else, but before we dive into the details, let us explain how this amp came to exist. This amplifier was created when Bad Cats US Sales Manager began requesting some custom tweaks for his personal Hot Cat. He took this amp to one of Bad Cats senior engineers and had him rebalanced the modes, refine the circuits, and made further improvements across the entire amp. He also increased the horsepower, beefing it up to 50 watts. News of this amp quickly spread around the Bad Cat offices, and it didn't take long for it to become a firm favourite of just about every Bad Cat employee. It was at this point they knew the amp needed to be shared with the world, and the Mod Shop felt like the perfect place to house the design!

Its great to see that with this new Mod Shop amplifier, Bad Cat are still happy to roll up their sleeves and play around with their own iconic designs. Tinkering with valve amps has always been a core part of what Bad Cat is about. Theyve never been afraid to take their own amps apart, experiment, and make bold, sometimes unexpected changes in the pursuit of better tone.

This Mod Shop Hot Cat 50 delivers 50 watts of power, so its a seriously powerful amp. Playing through an amp with this much power is a really special experience, Strike a chord and youll feel it immediately! It features a pair of EL34 Power Tubes, and 4x 12ax7 Preamp Tubes and custom wound Bad Cat transformers, all which help to give this amp its distinctive British voicing.

It features 2 unique channels, with each channel featuring both a Low and High setting. You have 4 extremely unique voices at your disposal, heres a little bit about each option.

Clean Low - Big, glassy American style clean. Lots of headroom

Clean High - Cranked AC/JTM-style breakup with just the right amount of bite and aggression.

Gain Low -  British Rock crunch with that is perfect for 80s riffs. Has great touch sensitivity

Gain High -  Refined modern high-gain tone. Very punchy and powerful while retaining the trademark Bad Cat definition and feel.

Across both channels and all 4 modes the progression of gain is smooth and super natural, you wont find it a massive jump from super clean to high gain.

The Mod Shop Hot Cat 50 features a shared Treble, Middle, and Bass EQ circuit across both channels and all 4 modes, this helps to keep the EQ of your tone consistent while using the amp. It also features independent Gain and Volume controls per channel, alongside user friendly Presence, and Reverb controls. Other notable features of this amplifier include a Buffered FX loop for time based or modulation pedals, and a Line Out for use with an external power amp.