Re: bad cat cougar amps?
played two gigs with the cougar and a strat this weekend and was pretty happy all around. the clean channel is really nice, i ran the tone selector all the way to the right. the global presence control is nice for adding high end, i ended up running it at about 9 oclock which gave the tone a nice shimmer. even with the volume at noon the tone was still tight, focused and clean. im used to my fender reverb amps which have the holy grail of clean tones as far as im concerned and while definitely different and maybe not as rich the cougar didnt leave me dying to jump back to my fenders. its an el34 power section rather than 6v6 or 6l6 so different character but very usable.
the gain channel is pretty sweet too. i havent had a channel switcher in a long time so im diggin that part. i kept the gain pretty low, like 9 oclock, and it was plenty for me. im still dialing it in but the tones are nice. with full eq + a mid frequency switch theres a fair amount to twiddle. finding the balance with the presence control between the gain and clean channels may prove to be tricky but i havent spent enough time with it to know for sure yet.
the reverb... when i first pulled it out of the box i put the reverb at 9 oclock and there was plenty. when i got to the first gig i did the same and there wasnt really much reverb at all. i cranked it up to about 1oclock and it sounds nice, wet but not too splashy. im not sure if there is something wrong with it or it just acted funny out of the box, i actually prefer it the way it is since theres more control so if it stays where it is ill be happy.
overall for $429 shipped this thing was a steal! with so much gain on tap i may end up swapping lower gain tubes into the gain channel and i may change out the v30 for something else. its a fine speaker but never my favorite in an open back 1x12 and i have others layin around that i can try. for now im gonna keep it all stock and get a lot more hours on it before i do anything but make music (or whatever the hell it is that i do) with it
played two gigs with the cougar and a strat this weekend and was pretty happy all around. the clean channel is really nice, i ran the tone selector all the way to the right. the global presence control is nice for adding high end, i ended up running it at about 9 oclock which gave the tone a nice shimmer. even with the volume at noon the tone was still tight, focused and clean. im used to my fender reverb amps which have the holy grail of clean tones as far as im concerned and while definitely different and maybe not as rich the cougar didnt leave me dying to jump back to my fenders. its an el34 power section rather than 6v6 or 6l6 so different character but very usable.
the gain channel is pretty sweet too. i havent had a channel switcher in a long time so im diggin that part. i kept the gain pretty low, like 9 oclock, and it was plenty for me. im still dialing it in but the tones are nice. with full eq + a mid frequency switch theres a fair amount to twiddle. finding the balance with the presence control between the gain and clean channels may prove to be tricky but i havent spent enough time with it to know for sure yet.
the reverb... when i first pulled it out of the box i put the reverb at 9 oclock and there was plenty. when i got to the first gig i did the same and there wasnt really much reverb at all. i cranked it up to about 1oclock and it sounds nice, wet but not too splashy. im not sure if there is something wrong with it or it just acted funny out of the box, i actually prefer it the way it is since theres more control so if it stays where it is ill be happy.
overall for $429 shipped this thing was a steal! with so much gain on tap i may end up swapping lower gain tubes into the gain channel and i may change out the v30 for something else. its a fine speaker but never my favorite in an open back 1x12 and i have others layin around that i can try. for now im gonna keep it all stock and get a lot more hours on it before i do anything but make music (or whatever the hell it is that i do) with it
