Bad Cat Cub III 40 Head

The Bad Cat Cub III series represents an all new era of BadCat amplifiers. They come in Head/Cabinet or Combo configuration, as well as Reverb and Non-Reverb models.

The Cub III starts you off in familiar territory with a very straight forward set of controls, and familiar EL84 chime. The Cub III then takes a turn in a more innovative direction. The first switch on the Cub III allows you to change the preamp input stage from 12AX7 based to EF86 based.

What's the significance of this you ask?

The 12AX7 is the sound we're all familiar with, and when switched to the EF86 you'll notice a hotter signal, with more headroom and definition. The next switch engages a gain boost on the amps Treble/Bass tone stack. Combining these two switches can take you from the original Cub tone to new tonal territories previously unavailable. Included is a two button footswitch that let's you take advantage of these options on the fly! Now you can go from classic chimey cleans, to punchy grit all just with the amp. Bad Cat has even beefed up the reverb on the Cub III to be more warm, musical, and plate like.

All of these great features are fed to the power amp through Bad Cat's new proprietary "K Master" Circuit. The K Master separates the Preamp and Poweramp sections; letting you take full advantage of your amps power section without clipping your preamp. We all know how great power tube breakup is, and how different it is from preamp tube breakup. Now you can make use of the full wattage of your power section, and you preamp can remain nice, full, and clean.

So, what else is different now with the Cub III?

Well, several things. The new Aircraft Aluminum chassis not only improves the shielding of the circuit, but reduces overall weight by about 2 lbs. They also changed the grounding approach to a more traditional method instead of the techniques used by many other amp builders to save time. And for those of you who need it, Bad Cat now includes a passive effect loop in the Cub III series.

So, what about this 5 position Tone control?

This is pretty interesting... The Bad Cat Tone knob is actually a 5-position switch used for instant access to 5 different preset tone settings. Turn it clockwise for darker, thicker tones. Turning the knob counterclockwise gives you more treble and bite. The 5-position switch gives you a distinct advantage in being able to recreate these settings quickly. It's important to note that some people feel that tone is robbed each time a potentiometer is added to the circuit. When using the Tone presets, the signal bypasses the Treble and Bass pots and only utilizes hard wired resistors to determine the tone. If you're super picky about your tone, then take note! :)

Now tell us about the K Master Volume.

Glad you asked! The K Master Volume is Bad Cat's approach to the ever popular question; How do we reduce the volume while maintaining tonal integrity with a tube amp? You want to gain up the power amp section while leaving the pre-amp clean? Now you can. Turn down the master volume to bedroom low all while maintaining your tone intact. Power amp gain is different than pre-amp gain. Until now, master volumes just attenuated. The drive to the power section was always dependent on the drive coming from the pre-amp. Now Bad Cat has figured out a way to separate the pre-amp from the power amp gain, and they're calling it the K Master. Before this you couldn't drive the power amp hard without pushing the pre-amp into saturation. The K Master patent pending technology has allowed Bad Cat to re-invent the concept of the master volume.

These new Cub III series amps offer everything you've come to expect in Bad Cat tone!

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