Bad Cat Amplifiers, the boutique builder celebrated for its handcrafted, high-performance guitar amps, has officially launched its newest creation: the Ocelot. This portable, 20-watt tube amp shatters the stereotype of compact amplifiers, delivering a full-throttle, professional-grade sound for a sale price of $1,299/£1299. Designed for the discerning guitarist, the Ocelot promises studio-quality tone and unparalleled flexibility whether you’re on stage, in the studio, or at home.
Small Cat. Big Roar.
The Ocelot is built to be a complete tonal solution, not a stripped-down practice amp. Its two-channel design offers a vast sonic palette. Channel 1 provides pristine, high-headroom cleans that can be dialed into rich, nuanced edge-of-breakup tones with the flick of a Hi/Lo mode switch.
When it’s time to get aggressive, Channel 2 takes you straight into high-gain territory, serving up everything from tight, punchy crunch to thick, saturated distortion. With independent gain and volume controls for each channel, players can sculpt their ideal overdrive to perfection.
A Modern Amp for Modern Guitarists
What sets the Bad Cat Ocelot apart is its seamless integration of classic analog tone with cutting-edge digital technology. The amp features a built-in Two notes Torpedo system, granting access to six meticulously crafted Bad Cat DynIR™ Virtual Cabinet presets. This powerful integration allows musicians to bypass a speaker cabinet entirely, capturing studio-quality tone directly via the XLR or headphone outputs—a perfect solution for late-night practice, direct recording into a DAW, or silent stage setups.
The Ocelot also includes a buffered effects loop, ensuring your pedalboard integrates flawlessly without any signal loss.
Built for Performance, Built for Life
Engineered to adapt to any environment, the Ocelot offers selectable power modes, allowing you to scale the output from a room-filling 20 watts down to a whisper-quiet 1 watt. This, combined with an internal speaker load, means you can get a genuine tube amp feel at any volume. Housed in a durable aluminum chassis, the Ocelot is road-ready and built to last.
Tube Tone
It is powered by a classic tube combination of two EL84 power tubes and three 12AX7 preamp tubes, delivering the rich, responsive sound Bad Cat is famous for. For even greater control, the amp features USB-C connectivity for seamless updates and MIDI input to control its channels and modes from external devices.
Handcrafted with passion and precision in Costa Mesa, California, the Bad Cat Ocelot is a boutique amp full of great tones and flexible modern features. It’s an amplifier that redefines what a compact tube amp can accomplish for this low price point.
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