OBX351
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In response to capt_goodvibes post found here:
http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/squ...re-amplifier-attenuator-any-amp-100watts.html
Here's a GREAT review of the Bad Cat Unleash
Badcat Unleash Review | Fauxsuper Blogs
Badcat Unleash Review
February 5th, 2013
Anyone who has owned a tube amp sooner or later discovers that it has a a sweet spot where it sounds best. There is a range where differences in picking attack alter more than just the volume that comes out of the amp; the guitars tone changes as well. Guitarists from Charlie Christian forward to the present day have used this quality to add expressiveness to their playing. When you get to the upper range of the amps ability to produce more volume, the signal not only becomes more distorted, but begins to compress as well. This adds a singing quality to the sound, enabling a guitarist to emulate the long sustained tones of a horn or a string instrument.
Depending on the amps output power, speakers and cabinet design, each amp allows a window of usable amp volumes. Below a certain volume, an amp wont allow the guitarist to access the touch sensitive zone, (which actually might be desired with some styles and types of music) and eventually the amp gets to where additional signal produces more distortion than you might want. (This does vary from guitarist to guitarist; a country player might want just a little extra spank to his Teles sound, some people cant ever have enough distortion.)
For the big time touring guitarist playing large venues this doesnt pose much of a problem. What ever rig he uses on stage, the sound engineers will find a way to feed his sound through the PA system so the audience hears pretty much what he does on stage. The technologies used to do this are varied and beyond the scope of this review, but suffice that those of use that arent headliners have always had the dilemma of matching the amp to the venue.
You can use a big amp that can play loud enough to cover most any situation, and some guitarists (mostly those who have a mostly clean style) can use an amp like a Twin Reverb in any setting, (even at home) and be quite happy with its performance. But some of us, who prefer the sound of a cranked amp to any sort of distortion device, find that we never get an amp such as a Super or Twin Reverb (or a Marshall Stack) to the pointin the venues we play in, (and this can include our bedroom or home studio) where we get into that touch sensitive zone.
Using a smaller amp to get into the sweet spot for solos at more reasonable volumes also means the amp might not have enough clean power to play rhythm guitar without distortion, and forces you to play all solos with a distorted tone if you want to be heard over the band.
There are devices that can help a larger amp produce distortion at lower volumes, distortion pedals and attenuators are two main choices so far. Guitarists have also resorted to having several amps of different wattages, to cover all possible situations. There are times when you arent sure of what the situation at some new venue is, so you end up bringing a lot of stuff so youre prepared for all situations.
The Badcat Unleash is an amplifier/attenuator that can take the output of any amp between 1 and 100 watts and shift the sweet spot of that amp up or down to any point between whisper quiet and as loud as most any club level guitarist will ever need to play. It has as a built in amplifier that will produce 100 watts of output into an 8 ohm speaker or cab. (even more into 4 ohms, somewhere around 160 watts)
The first thing the Unleash needs to do to make all this work correctly is to fool the guitar amp into thinking that is is connected to an actual loudspeaker. The reason this is important is a lot of the sound of a guitar amplifier is created by the way the amp reacts with and to the loudspeaker its connected to. Amps connected to a resistive load (like you find in most attenuators) sounds kind of dull and stiff.
The Unleash features (patent applied for) proprietary reactive circuitry that mimics the effects of a loudspeaker on the amp. This circuitry manages to accomplish the task with a degree of aplomb previously available only by spending considerably more cash than the $379.00 youll pay for an Unleash. This is remarkable considering that you also get a 100 watt amplifier with foot-switchable volume levels and an effects loop with the Unleash.
This performance level of just this one task is the key to why the Unleash is such a groundbreaking device. Guitarists have been able to load a tube amp with some device that drops the signal down to a point where it can be re-amplified by another amp to whatever level is desired; but nobody has done it this well and integrated so many useful functions in one affordable, compact device. But none of this would be nearly as cool if the device didnt allow the sound, character, and feel of the host amp to shine through as well as the Unleash does.
Ill eliminate the suspense and tell you right now that in terms of this most critical task, the quality of transparency, the Unleash exceeds my expectations. Otherwise, you wouldnt be reading this review and my Unleash would be on its way back to Badcat.
The rest of this post will be based on my experiences with two amp rigs. The first one is as follows:
If you look at the above photo, youll notice that the front panel has three knobs: the two on the sided are labeled CH1 and CH2 and the center one is the INPUT TRIM level. The idea with the trim level knob is to set the input level so that it flashes when you hit peaks but doesnt stay on the entire time. You set the output of your amp first and then adjust the trim level accordingly. The Unleash has to have some sort of limiter circuitry as I didnt hear any nasty sounds if I turned the input level up so the light stayed on most of the time, but I did detect what sounded like a little compression. I preferred the sound when the light was only flashing on peaks and found that once I got the amps levels set, I could set my guitars volume pot at about 2/3 and still crank it to full without causing the light to stay on all the time. This is how I normally use the pot on the guitar to control my distortion level, so no real changes to my usual procedure were in order.
The other two knobs allow you to set two separate volume levels that you can toggle between by using the supplied foot-switch. Ill have more to say about the usefulness of this function, later.
Before practice, Id hooked up the Unleash at home to make sure everything worked, but didnt have the opportunity to hear it at higher volume levels. The one thing I did notice is that the delay and reverb effects sounded much better in the Unleash effects loop than they did in front of the amp. The difference in clarity available by not running through the power amp and thus having distortion added to the effects, was amazing. I have owned amps with built-in effects loops before, but the loop was always before the tube power stage and so didnt offer the sonic advantages the Unleashs loop provides.
At this point, it makes sense to explain that the amp thats built into the Unleash is not designed to add its own sound to the mix. Its only function is to increase the gain of the signal without any additional color. This seems to be a point of confusion to some guitarists as traditionally, guitar amps have been musical instruments in their own right, designed to have an impact on the sound. The amp in the Unleash has a function much like the amp in a PA system or a home audio system, and that is to be as transparent as possible. It does that job admirably. I never used the amp in a way that made me think I needed more power.
When I set my rig up at practice, I realized I didnt have long enough cables to connect the two time based pedals into the the effects loop, so they are not part of this portion of the review.
Neither of my band mates noticed any change in my tone throughout practice. They did notice that my sound was more dynamic and my amp now could deliver a great clean rhythm sound at volume levels that would have been distorted before. What I noticed was that I could pretty much do anything I used to do with the amp sounding exactly like it did without the Unleash. But more importantly, I now could do all sorts of things I previously coudnt do.
The ability to have a preset volume boost that doesnt involve more distortion is hard to appreciate until youve tried it. Step on a pedal, and the sound gets louder, but the distortion level doesnt change at all. Im going to have all sorts of creative things I can do with this. And that brings up the entire point of the Unleash: volume and distortion are now independent of one another. I can have set one level that can mimic the behavior of the 5E3, and another one thats something else altogether.
My little 5E3 now has the clean dynamic ability of a much larger amp. I can get piano like sounds from the lower two strings with the solidity, clarity and presence youd expect from a Twin Reverb. I have a Bandmaster Reverb in a combo cab with a Weber 15″ in it, and this rig seems to have similar dynamic capability: more than Ill ever use. I cant quite describe what the amp can sound like when you turn up the volume a bit, Tweed Twin comes to mind, but it still has the Deluxe character, just bigger. If I want more volume, dynamics, or a more robust bottom end I could add another speaker, or even something like a couple of 4 x 12″ cabs, but I dont think Ill probably resort to that extreme.
The other use Im planning to put the Unleash to is at home, where Ive been using a Fender Greta to power an open back cab with a Jensen re-issue P12R speaker. By and large it works fairly well, but sometimes It lacks the clean volume Id like and sometimes it can be too loud, by the time Its really singing. The rest of the rig is as follows:
First off, the Unleash effects loop is even more effective in this application because I can hear every little nuance, nothing is covered up by the rest of the band. I also have the option of popping the EQ pedal into the loop. this is quite important for late night use, when I might not want to wake up the house.
Normally when you turn an amp down to these levels they sound sort of weak and thin. This is due to the Fletcher-Munson effect; human beings dont hear all parts of the audio spectrum with the same intensity at low volume levels. So, you can use the QP pedal to compensate and still hear a nice full bass at lower volume levels. If you try this in front of the Greta (or any small amp), you end up with all sorts of distortion right where you dont want it to be (try 12 Db of boost at 100 Hz and see what happens to your sound) and end up with muddy sound. Not only does this not happen in the Unleash effects loop, but you can also use the EQ to shape the sound post distortion, which also comes in handy.
As far as transparency goes if the Unleash wasnt transparent, as with the effects loop, Im more likely to notice even slight changes in tone or feel when Im just sitting in my living room without any other instruments. The naked guitar sound really leaves no place to hide. Trying my best to be scientific, I compared the sound from the Greta by itself with the sound from the Greta running through the Unleash. I set volume levels with an SPL meter, so I wouldnt favor the louder one, and tried my best to detect some effect. Nada.
Again, there seems to be no downside, but the Unleash allows me to listen to the Greta completely cranked and drop the volume down to a level that doesnt disturb anyone, and also to get a clean sound from the Greta and volumes that is is unable to achieve while remaining clean.
I should note that the only way to get the Input trim light to even flicker with the Greta is to crank it all the way up and then step on an overdrive pedal, and even then Im not sure I actually saw it light. But it will produce any level Im willing to risk the health of the Jensen P12R (and my lease) at in my living room. Ill have to try it out with the other speaker at band practice to see how loud the combination will get.
Moving back to realistic volume levels in my living room, Ive got to tell you that the Greta/Unleash is capable of making some glorious clean sounds if you turn the amp down to where you can just barely see the little meter on the face of the Greta start to move. It has the most wonderful character to it that I cant quite describe and it brightens ever so slightly when you REALLY dig in to an almost exaggerated degree. In this behavior, it actually reminds me of an old brown era Fender Pro Amp, that was my previous standard for bedroom level clean tone.
Ive not begun to explore all the possibilities the Unleash presents. I have a Fender Bandmaster Reverb that has a output transformer that can deal with an 8 ohm load (which the Unleash requires), but Ill need to get inside the amp and swap the 2 ohm output (Which I havent used in months) with the 8 ohm one, so I can try it with the Unleash. With that amp, Ill mostly be using it to attenuate the level, as its usually not able to really sing at volume levels that are acceptable for the band Im playing with.
http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/squ...re-amplifier-attenuator-any-amp-100watts.html
Here's a GREAT review of the Bad Cat Unleash
Badcat Unleash Review | Fauxsuper Blogs
Badcat Unleash Review
February 5th, 2013
Anyone who has owned a tube amp sooner or later discovers that it has a a sweet spot where it sounds best. There is a range where differences in picking attack alter more than just the volume that comes out of the amp; the guitars tone changes as well. Guitarists from Charlie Christian forward to the present day have used this quality to add expressiveness to their playing. When you get to the upper range of the amps ability to produce more volume, the signal not only becomes more distorted, but begins to compress as well. This adds a singing quality to the sound, enabling a guitarist to emulate the long sustained tones of a horn or a string instrument.
Depending on the amps output power, speakers and cabinet design, each amp allows a window of usable amp volumes. Below a certain volume, an amp wont allow the guitarist to access the touch sensitive zone, (which actually might be desired with some styles and types of music) and eventually the amp gets to where additional signal produces more distortion than you might want. (This does vary from guitarist to guitarist; a country player might want just a little extra spank to his Teles sound, some people cant ever have enough distortion.)
For the big time touring guitarist playing large venues this doesnt pose much of a problem. What ever rig he uses on stage, the sound engineers will find a way to feed his sound through the PA system so the audience hears pretty much what he does on stage. The technologies used to do this are varied and beyond the scope of this review, but suffice that those of use that arent headliners have always had the dilemma of matching the amp to the venue.
You can use a big amp that can play loud enough to cover most any situation, and some guitarists (mostly those who have a mostly clean style) can use an amp like a Twin Reverb in any setting, (even at home) and be quite happy with its performance. But some of us, who prefer the sound of a cranked amp to any sort of distortion device, find that we never get an amp such as a Super or Twin Reverb (or a Marshall Stack) to the pointin the venues we play in, (and this can include our bedroom or home studio) where we get into that touch sensitive zone.
Using a smaller amp to get into the sweet spot for solos at more reasonable volumes also means the amp might not have enough clean power to play rhythm guitar without distortion, and forces you to play all solos with a distorted tone if you want to be heard over the band.
There are devices that can help a larger amp produce distortion at lower volumes, distortion pedals and attenuators are two main choices so far. Guitarists have also resorted to having several amps of different wattages, to cover all possible situations. There are times when you arent sure of what the situation at some new venue is, so you end up bringing a lot of stuff so youre prepared for all situations.
The Badcat Unleash is an amplifier/attenuator that can take the output of any amp between 1 and 100 watts and shift the sweet spot of that amp up or down to any point between whisper quiet and as loud as most any club level guitarist will ever need to play. It has as a built in amplifier that will produce 100 watts of output into an 8 ohm speaker or cab. (even more into 4 ohms, somewhere around 160 watts)
The first thing the Unleash needs to do to make all this work correctly is to fool the guitar amp into thinking that is is connected to an actual loudspeaker. The reason this is important is a lot of the sound of a guitar amplifier is created by the way the amp reacts with and to the loudspeaker its connected to. Amps connected to a resistive load (like you find in most attenuators) sounds kind of dull and stiff.
The Unleash features (patent applied for) proprietary reactive circuitry that mimics the effects of a loudspeaker on the amp. This circuitry manages to accomplish the task with a degree of aplomb previously available only by spending considerably more cash than the $379.00 youll pay for an Unleash. This is remarkable considering that you also get a 100 watt amplifier with foot-switchable volume levels and an effects loop with the Unleash.
This performance level of just this one task is the key to why the Unleash is such a groundbreaking device. Guitarists have been able to load a tube amp with some device that drops the signal down to a point where it can be re-amplified by another amp to whatever level is desired; but nobody has done it this well and integrated so many useful functions in one affordable, compact device. But none of this would be nearly as cool if the device didnt allow the sound, character, and feel of the host amp to shine through as well as the Unleash does.
Ill eliminate the suspense and tell you right now that in terms of this most critical task, the quality of transparency, the Unleash exceeds my expectations. Otherwise, you wouldnt be reading this review and my Unleash would be on its way back to Badcat.
The rest of this post will be based on my experiences with two amp rigs. The first one is as follows:
Squier Vintage Modified Telecaster Deluxe
SX Sortacaster with 3 single coil pickups
Joyo Ultimate Drive pedal (in front of the amp)
ModTone Delay (effects loop)
Biyang Tri-Reverb (effects loop)
Coronado Amplification 5E3 with Jensen Tornado speaker
This is my normal rig that I use with the band that a play with a Bass-Drums-Guitar combo with a vocalist. I use George Ls low capacitance cables throughout, and occasionally swap in a Dan Electro Chorus or a rotation of different overdrive pedals, but for purposes of this review, those were not part of the signal chain. I purchased the Tornado speaker (with a 100 watt capacity) specifically to use with the Unleash.SX Sortacaster with 3 single coil pickups
Joyo Ultimate Drive pedal (in front of the amp)
ModTone Delay (effects loop)
Biyang Tri-Reverb (effects loop)
Coronado Amplification 5E3 with Jensen Tornado speaker
If you look at the above photo, youll notice that the front panel has three knobs: the two on the sided are labeled CH1 and CH2 and the center one is the INPUT TRIM level. The idea with the trim level knob is to set the input level so that it flashes when you hit peaks but doesnt stay on the entire time. You set the output of your amp first and then adjust the trim level accordingly. The Unleash has to have some sort of limiter circuitry as I didnt hear any nasty sounds if I turned the input level up so the light stayed on most of the time, but I did detect what sounded like a little compression. I preferred the sound when the light was only flashing on peaks and found that once I got the amps levels set, I could set my guitars volume pot at about 2/3 and still crank it to full without causing the light to stay on all the time. This is how I normally use the pot on the guitar to control my distortion level, so no real changes to my usual procedure were in order.
The other two knobs allow you to set two separate volume levels that you can toggle between by using the supplied foot-switch. Ill have more to say about the usefulness of this function, later.
Before practice, Id hooked up the Unleash at home to make sure everything worked, but didnt have the opportunity to hear it at higher volume levels. The one thing I did notice is that the delay and reverb effects sounded much better in the Unleash effects loop than they did in front of the amp. The difference in clarity available by not running through the power amp and thus having distortion added to the effects, was amazing. I have owned amps with built-in effects loops before, but the loop was always before the tube power stage and so didnt offer the sonic advantages the Unleashs loop provides.
At this point, it makes sense to explain that the amp thats built into the Unleash is not designed to add its own sound to the mix. Its only function is to increase the gain of the signal without any additional color. This seems to be a point of confusion to some guitarists as traditionally, guitar amps have been musical instruments in their own right, designed to have an impact on the sound. The amp in the Unleash has a function much like the amp in a PA system or a home audio system, and that is to be as transparent as possible. It does that job admirably. I never used the amp in a way that made me think I needed more power.
When I set my rig up at practice, I realized I didnt have long enough cables to connect the two time based pedals into the the effects loop, so they are not part of this portion of the review.
Neither of my band mates noticed any change in my tone throughout practice. They did notice that my sound was more dynamic and my amp now could deliver a great clean rhythm sound at volume levels that would have been distorted before. What I noticed was that I could pretty much do anything I used to do with the amp sounding exactly like it did without the Unleash. But more importantly, I now could do all sorts of things I previously coudnt do.
The ability to have a preset volume boost that doesnt involve more distortion is hard to appreciate until youve tried it. Step on a pedal, and the sound gets louder, but the distortion level doesnt change at all. Im going to have all sorts of creative things I can do with this. And that brings up the entire point of the Unleash: volume and distortion are now independent of one another. I can have set one level that can mimic the behavior of the 5E3, and another one thats something else altogether.
My little 5E3 now has the clean dynamic ability of a much larger amp. I can get piano like sounds from the lower two strings with the solidity, clarity and presence youd expect from a Twin Reverb. I have a Bandmaster Reverb in a combo cab with a Weber 15″ in it, and this rig seems to have similar dynamic capability: more than Ill ever use. I cant quite describe what the amp can sound like when you turn up the volume a bit, Tweed Twin comes to mind, but it still has the Deluxe character, just bigger. If I want more volume, dynamics, or a more robust bottom end I could add another speaker, or even something like a couple of 4 x 12″ cabs, but I dont think Ill probably resort to that extreme.
The other use Im planning to put the Unleash to is at home, where Ive been using a Fender Greta to power an open back cab with a Jensen re-issue P12R speaker. By and large it works fairly well, but sometimes It lacks the clean volume Id like and sometimes it can be too loud, by the time Its really singing. The rest of the rig is as follows:Squier Vintage Modified Telecaster Deluxe
SX Partscaster with single coil pickups
Joyo Ultimate Drive pedal (in front of the amp)
Boss GE7 EQ Graphic EQ (effects loop)
ModTone Delay (effects loop)
Biyang Tri-Reverb (effects loop)
Fender Greta
Jensen P12R in open back cab
SX Partscaster with single coil pickups
Joyo Ultimate Drive pedal (in front of the amp)
Boss GE7 EQ Graphic EQ (effects loop)
ModTone Delay (effects loop)
Biyang Tri-Reverb (effects loop)
Fender Greta
Jensen P12R in open back cab
And, Introducing the worlds first 100 Watt Greta.
First off, the Unleash effects loop is even more effective in this application because I can hear every little nuance, nothing is covered up by the rest of the band. I also have the option of popping the EQ pedal into the loop. this is quite important for late night use, when I might not want to wake up the house.
Normally when you turn an amp down to these levels they sound sort of weak and thin. This is due to the Fletcher-Munson effect; human beings dont hear all parts of the audio spectrum with the same intensity at low volume levels. So, you can use the QP pedal to compensate and still hear a nice full bass at lower volume levels. If you try this in front of the Greta (or any small amp), you end up with all sorts of distortion right where you dont want it to be (try 12 Db of boost at 100 Hz and see what happens to your sound) and end up with muddy sound. Not only does this not happen in the Unleash effects loop, but you can also use the EQ to shape the sound post distortion, which also comes in handy.
As far as transparency goes if the Unleash wasnt transparent, as with the effects loop, Im more likely to notice even slight changes in tone or feel when Im just sitting in my living room without any other instruments. The naked guitar sound really leaves no place to hide. Trying my best to be scientific, I compared the sound from the Greta by itself with the sound from the Greta running through the Unleash. I set volume levels with an SPL meter, so I wouldnt favor the louder one, and tried my best to detect some effect. Nada.
Again, there seems to be no downside, but the Unleash allows me to listen to the Greta completely cranked and drop the volume down to a level that doesnt disturb anyone, and also to get a clean sound from the Greta and volumes that is is unable to achieve while remaining clean.
I should note that the only way to get the Input trim light to even flicker with the Greta is to crank it all the way up and then step on an overdrive pedal, and even then Im not sure I actually saw it light. But it will produce any level Im willing to risk the health of the Jensen P12R (and my lease) at in my living room. Ill have to try it out with the other speaker at band practice to see how loud the combination will get.
Moving back to realistic volume levels in my living room, Ive got to tell you that the Greta/Unleash is capable of making some glorious clean sounds if you turn the amp down to where you can just barely see the little meter on the face of the Greta start to move. It has the most wonderful character to it that I cant quite describe and it brightens ever so slightly when you REALLY dig in to an almost exaggerated degree. In this behavior, it actually reminds me of an old brown era Fender Pro Amp, that was my previous standard for bedroom level clean tone.
Ive not begun to explore all the possibilities the Unleash presents. I have a Fender Bandmaster Reverb that has a output transformer that can deal with an 8 ohm load (which the Unleash requires), but Ill need to get inside the amp and swap the 2 ohm output (Which I havent used in months) with the 8 ohm one, so I can try it with the Unleash. With that amp, Ill mostly be using it to attenuate the level, as its usually not able to really sing at volume levels that are acceptable for the band Im playing with.
I still havent even tried the line out level, so I will be exploring the uses of that, among other things. I have another 5E3, so I can possibly try a wet/dry rig, and a host of other things. Ill report on these things as they happen. If anyone is curious about something I haven covered, please send me an E-mail at [email protected] and I will try as best I can to answer.
