FRONT PANEL (continued)
Tone (Channel 1) - 30R
The 5-way tone knob has been carefully tailored to cover the most critical frequencies in the
electric guitar’s sonic range. Each setting of this rotary knob affects the most important midrange
frequencies that provide body, warmth, bite and punch in your guitar tone. When the rotary knob
is set at the most counter clockwise setting, the amp provides the most cut and brightness. As
you turn the knob clockwise, the tone gets fatter with more low-midrange emphasis, adding body
and warmth. Although the differences are subtle between the 5 different settings, you will find
this knob most helpful in dialing in the right sound that will fit in with your band’s mix.
Experiment to your heart’s delight and find the setting that works the best for you!
Channel 2:
Gain
The Gain knob controls the amount of gain applied to Channel 2, the Hot Cat’s famous
overdrive/distortion channel. Set the knob low (approximately 9 o’clock to noon) and you will
get bluesy breakup to classic rock crunch. Turn the knob clockwise past noon and you get
punchy hard rock distortion to modern over-the-top metal and shred tones. You will also notice
that the gain on the Hot Cat is very sensitive to your guitar volume knob adjustments and your
picking attack. The touch sensitivity of the Hot Cat’s gain control allows you to access a wide
range of overdrive and distorted sounds without having to readjust the Gain knob in between
noon and 2 o’clock and use your guitar volume knob to go from bluesy with slight breakup to
crunch to searing saturated leads.
Edge
This control is the 2
nd
channel’s pre-emphasis control or a tone control found on other amps. It
boosts the highs and high-mids when you turn the knob clockwise and cuts the highs and high-
mids when you turn the knob counterclockwise. As the name implies, this control is effective in
dialing in the right amount of spectrum (hence, the moniker “Edge”) in your tone.
Level
This knob controls the amount of preamp signal fed into the power section of the Hot Cat. The
higher this control is set, the stronger the preamp signal is going into the power section. You will
notice that setting the Level control high and the Master control low has a similar result as
setting the Level control low and the Master high, but they do sound and feel different.
Experiment with both the Level and Master controls to dial in the sound and the feel to your
liking. The Level control is also effective in balancing the volume levels between the two
channels when switching channels.
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