Badcat Amps Factory Tour 

I love how straight up and honest John is about their "secret sauce". Turns out, the secret is just making a good quality product, using high quality components, that does what it's supposed to - who would've thought? :) No need for special transformers with magic pixie dust; just make sure they're high quality transformers. No need for secret speaker cones; just a slightly modified V30 to fit their sound. Very much the same approach we take with our products - no reason not to be up front about what you're selling.

I liked it. It's amazing how well-known a brand can be within an industry and it be such a modest small business at the same time. Efficiency is everything.

"John tell us the process of building a bad cat" "Sure buddy, first we come over here to our box of kittens and carefully select one with a bad attitude, then we poke at it with a stick for 12 months, for our starter range, or the full 18 months for our professional series"

* grabs clump of hair, throws over shoulder *

That’s a great tour. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone go over to BadCat to see how they’re made. Thanks for the inside look!

I love their process, I was on the fence about getting a lynx since I was not sure about quality but after seeing this I will for sure get one for my next birthday

How I didn't know they made the cabinets in hesperia. Back when Bernie Rico bougth his company back from class axe, B.C. Riches were made in hesperia.

I think it's so cool that the boss has the time to get Zeppelin lesson's from his worker's...😅

0:35 Someone playing CKY's Sink Into The Underground, and I'm absolutely here for it. 🤘 2:22 Death's Crystal Mountain.. 👀🤘 (I see, or hear, you, background homies, lol.) 6:44 Definitely Gojira, can't remember the track name.🔥

Hey I know Rob!! @3:13 Great to see Rob!

It's important to note that this is Bad Cat Amps v2.0 I was fortunate to be endorsed by Bad Cat Amps back in the 1.0 days (2004) when the company was headed by James Heidrich. Back then the manufacturing was done in Corona, CA and the crew was an outstanding group of guys plus James' family. Back then everything was hard-wired (no pc boards) and extremely over-engineered. The company was sold to John Thompson, moved to LA, and James has sadly passed away, so I've been out of touch with what's been happening with Bad Cat Amps 2.0. Fun fact - Bad Cat Amps 1.0 was co-founded by James and Mark Sampson (from Matchless amps). Mark left not long after it started, but those 1.0 amps were the closest amps to the classic Matchless amps you could get. Thanks for the vid!

KDH, nice video keep up the good content

I would love to work for a company like “ Bad Cat” I can tell he seems like a good dude!

I used to make wave tech for labs of many fields of science, and so our engineers had to design some highly specialized transformers with multiple core sizes and arrangements, but we had a company make them for us, and to order. One day someone calls and asks if I can repair some device we made like in the 70's! I took it on, and it was the transformer, and a pretty freaky one too, and so I called the company that made it and the one we still used, ask if they could possibly recreate such an old one, expecting an $ 8,000+ price, but the guy pulled it up and said they keep all tooling and can make any transformer they made again, and to order, so one or a few thousand. Daaaaaaaang, now there's a company policy that rocks! The price wasn't much different than some of the newer ones, but still quite a bit given a few side coils... so more than your average guitar amp.

Brilliant walk-through and what a great exclusive! John is such a great guy - very cool, modestly knowledgeable - and his ethos for Bad Cat seems to ooze from every pore in his body. I've had a Bad Cat Hot Cat for eight months and I love it more every day. I've played everything - Boogie, Marshall, Vox, Blackstar, H&K - over the years and, yes, they're all great amps, no question. But the Bad Cat just seems to have that something special about it that just speaks to me (and many others) immediately. If you're at all interested, take you favourite guitar to your nearest dealer and play through a couple of Bad Cats. I guarantee your guitar-playing life will change for the better from that moment on! And, no, I'm not paid to endorse Bad Cat, I just speak from experience.

I love my Bad Cat Lynx .It's nice to know so much care and attention has gone into the production. Great video 🤘

That was cool. Nice to see the owner has a clue about things like transformer design.

I've owned a Hot Cat 30R for over a decade now and I'm certain nobody builds a better tube amp than Bad Cat. There are other brands just as good, but I don't think anyone exceeds them. That's very cool they let you tour and record content in their facility.

For the record, SUNN used to make a 3x12 cab as well. When I first heard about it, I didn’t believe it. But they do exist.

I have moved to using pcb instead of turrent boards for many of my builds-it is just quieter to use traces than wires for the under board connections.

Fun video KDH, enjoyed the look at Bad Cat. I’ve never owned one of their amps but the new stuff they’ve been making sounds excellent. Going to keep my eye out for that new Cub V.

Nice guy. Kinda want one now 🎸

BadCat making some handwired amps again is huge news!

Good tour & interview Kehlen!

My first ever amp was a Cougar 5W. Will have that thing forever.

If I ever feel the need for a tube amp, I might just get a Badcat. Solely because of this video. Not many amp company owners will say to change out the speaker first, instead of recommending to get a different amp of theirs

I love factory tour videos, shame this one was too short.

Great coverage as always. Get home safe!👍🇨🇦 P.S. My grandpa was from West of Belfast 🇮🇪

I appreciated his candor about how things were unsustainable at various points. Hearing that kind of honesty is a selling point in my opinion.

Great video it's always nice to see what's happening behind the scenes plus I learnt a few things about Badcat 😊

Tremendous tour, once again.

What a nice chap and what a neat process!

John seems like a great guy!

I haven't gotten to play badcat yet. They sound great reviews though.

this guy comes across as very honest

I love amps 🥹. Thank you, KDH.

Hey KDH just wanted to offer my services to you. Been playing drums for 40 years and can deliver if needed. Loved your NAMM videos for 2024.

ALMOST 100 K COME ON, GREAT AMPS ,KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK

Love these tour videos.

Stellar interview, KDH WORLDWIDEPRODUCTIONS coming soon !

Woo! Shoutout BadCat for the epic tour!!

Great amps but some of the best advice given is if you want to change your tone, change your speaker.

Good one KDH 🤘👊👍

Love my Lynx . IMO its one of the best metal amps out there.

It would be so badass if you did some more stuff on the grand amp

If I knew you were in California, I would've invited you to come sign my guitar and laugh at my playing 🤣🤣

Cool. Ampete switcher. I love that. Nice video. Vids like that are important.

Bad Cat are some of the sweetest boutique amps you'll ever play

Excellent video! Thank you!!!

Nice! I have a Cub IV. LOVE that amp!!

Great amps

Excellent video. Love Bad Cat.

Nice tour! That hand wired Cub looks sweet!

I see a "The Paw" in the dungeon. I'd love to buy it. or will they ever bring those back? they were so cool.

Awesome

Cub V?! Hell yeah

Cool. Interesting Never tried one. Time for me to check sone out Thanks

Pillowie Woofyness, worth watching just for that. Where is Glen, the star of the start of the show.

Great video

The bad cat speaker “secret” wasn’t a secret…

Maybe at the end, giving a brief rundown of the products they offer and some of those new things that were mentioned that would be coming out soon. Would be a nice way to finish the whole thing. Just a helpful marketing suggestion on behalf of the companies you you're showcasing and the consumers considering their products. Good information here! Thanks for the video.

8:30 From the amp make himself - The best way to modify your amp is to change the speaker.

Good content

Wow🎶

Great tour! Can you tell us please, what happened with that old Ibanez that you were going to restore 2 months ago? 🎸

great interview!

What did he say about the Celestion speaker around 9:00 ? Did he say "de-doped"?

Not even Phil McKnight made it, I think.

I wonder if their cab operation in Hesperia is contracted out

My favorite Bad Cat artist is Brody Dalle. Mmmm niceeeee. lolol. (No, I am not getting into the private lives of her and her former husband. I just love their music. lol)

Heeeyyyyyyyy. First. Useless algorithm statement.

Is that hand wired in-house or hand wired in China like that Plexi you got previously then repackaged?

Some day, I will build me a 3x12 cabinet with two Alnico Blue and an Anniversary or with 10"gold....

ships alotta amps which surprises me. i dont know anyone with a bad cat

I WANT ROBS JOB

How much of the price of a Gibson goes to attorneys?

So…stuffing the boards by others…wink wink out source to China or Vietnam or India….why not hire some high school kids after school to learn and keep them off the streets.

Was he saying the bad cat speaker was just a modified V30? Or was he just comparing the difference of the doping on the speaker?

What is that Speaker DOPING called, like type of Doping do they use?

HOW MUCH ARE THESE AMPS

Great facility. I played in a band in 2004 where the other guitar player had a brand new Bad Cat. This was in Key West so no idea how he got it... What happened to the clip on mics? And wearing the backpack makes you look. Like a high. School kid doing an interview for the school newspaper.

Where is the Rubicon?!?

Check his backpack before he leaves(!)

Hey dude we got a request there's a channel that released a video shredders storage unit and it's a bunch of fake gibson les Paul's and stuff and a bunch of other fake guitars please don't let them distribute all them fake guitars bro thanks for all you do

Ha! This video auto played. I had no choice but to watch it.

Hi cat's

There were other people in the world that were better (read: cheaper) at doing that. Ignored successfully.

🐈‍⬛

"You cant see Jerry on Fridays" Just be transparent, you cut back workers hours to the absolute minimum. Welcome to the new home of tone.

Cool vid, but who's buying these? Not Joe Average.

Was this paid for by bad cat?

Robinson Deborah White Margaret Taylor Shirley

Probably not best to use Excel as a database.....

Jones Charles Lewis Steven Jones Amy

Sadly Bad Cat have slowly but surely moved away from their Mark Sampson roots

Hall Paul Miller Anna Lopez Karen

Now what if all there amps are actually made in China and what they are actually doing there is repairing the faulty ones set up to look like it's all done there for the video . I seriously dout with only a hand full of staff that they could manage enougth that way to sell I'm not buying it

The constant flipping of your hair gets annoying. Please get a hair tie dude!

Sorry but this was kinda boring, ...feels more like a visit to grandpa's house, "Now here's my bait collection....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz