Badger 18: Combo and Head

The Suhr Badger is the first of many Suhr-branded amplifiers we have planned for the future. Nearly a year in the making and in the concept stage in John's mind for an even longer period of time, the Badger has been John's labor of love and the crystallization of his vision of the ultimate low-wattage cathode-biased all-tube amplifier. Tonally, the Badger imparts a distinctly British flavor with the EL-84 output section, but it doesn't quite sound like any of classic UK vintage amps.

   The Badger has its very own tonality with a very broad range of sounds covering a wide spectrum of clean to overdriven tones typically not found in amps of this class. This new little beast of an amp also offers unmatched flexibility with a defeat-able Drive control (pseudo master volume), the defeat-able Power Scaling feature for great cranked amp tones at low volume levels, and a tube-buffered effects loop.

From warm three-dimensional crystal clean tones with a surprising amount of headroom for an amp within this power range class, to spine-tingling on-the-verge-of-breakup sounds that are super touch-sensitive to your picking dynamics, to sweet and singing bluesy overdrive lead tones, to broad and open-sounding crunch rhythm sounds that are ideal for classic rock riffing, to juicy and fat lead sounds with the right amount of grease and sustain for fusion and classic rock single-note playing, the Badger does 'em all with authority, character, and tonal quality that simply has to be heard to be believed.

   The Badger sounds big – really big! Plug this little monster into a 4x12 and you will not believe that the broad soundstage this amp covers is coming from such a small power section. Low-wattage amps typically sound small, but not the Badger; this beast sounds as big as most 50 and 100 watt heads without a lot of bass and other such artifacts of big amps.

The Badger can operate in 3 distinct modes for a variety of musical situations. The first is the non-master-volume mode. When the Drive and Power knobs on the far left of the front panel are turned all the way up, they are out of the circuit. This means the Gain control on the far right becomes the volume control. The EQ section of Treble, Middle, and Bass act as normal.

   This is the ultimate in simplicity like the great non-master vintage amps and ideal for playing in small clubs and venues where you can really get the power section involved in the tone you're getting. The second mode of the Badger kicks in once you bring the Drive control into the circuit. The Drive controls the amount of signal being sent into the power section, which in turn controls the volume level. The Gain knob now acts as a preamp gain control. This mode is the familiar "master volume" setting on virtually all modern guitar amps being produced out there today. The third mode engages the unique and extremely effective Power Scaling feature. In this mode, the Drive control becomes like a secondary gain control and the Power knob controls the overall volume. With careful balancing of the settings of the Drive and Power control knobs, you can get power tube overdrive from moderate to bedroom volume levels with a full transparent tone without the squashed compression artifacts of most attenuators and load boxes. With the Badger, you now have total control over your tone and volume from the clubs to churches to garage rehearsals to home recording to late-night practicing in your bedroom.

The Power Scaling feature, licensed from London Power, lowers the wattage to the power amp, allowing the power tubes to clip. The tubes run cooler and aren't running as hard compared to using the speaker load while still retaining the interaction of the tubes and speaker(s). This proprietary technology allows the output power of an audio amplifier to be dialed down from 100% to less than 1%. This requires a modification to the amplifier's power supply.

   Unlike external attenuators or load boxes, which interfere with the amp-speaker interface, Power Scaling does not alter that relationship between the output tubes and the speakers. Tube life will be greatly enhanced by the Power Scale circuit as well. What you get is improved transparency, less squash, more natural and pleasing compression, and the sound of the power tubes working hard. Add the tube-buffered effects loop with a fixed level send for use with both instrument-level pedals and line-level rack effects and you've got one very versatile tone machine ready for a variety of environments and musical situations.

Badger 18 Head MSRP: $1750

Dimensions: 20.5" wide x 9.25" high x 8.25" deep
 Weight: 25 pounds

Badger 1x12 Combo

The all-new Badger 1x12 combo is a departure from traditional combo designs to focus utmost in reliability and sonic performance. The result is a great focused sound that is consistent no matter where you place it in the room or on the stage. With a traditional designer combo, it looks pretty and has an open back with the tubes hanging down, causing the heat to rise into the chassis. It sounds open but small and will sound different depending on where it is in the room and not very good when in the middle of an open stage. Components don't last long as a cathode biased amp runs hot. Also, the tubes rattle and they will interact too much with the speaker.

The Badger combo concept is: design the cabinet for the best possible tone, tuned and ported (closed back with front ports) to the speaker (Celestion V30) using high end analysis Linear X software program and triple checked with close mic and room mic’s to be a balanced system. Everything is tuned to sound like a big cabinet. Attaching the head to the cabinet extends the baffle and adds to the depth of tone. Another benefit is that any owner of a Badger head can slide his head chassis into the combo. This way, the amp runs cool and the cabinet is designed for optimum tone at any stage position. The added front area from the head being attached makes it sound bigger than a separate extension 1x12 cabinet. The Badger 1x12 combo is simply the ultimate in versatility, portability and great consistent tone for amps in its class!

Badger 18 Combo MSRP: $2100

Dimensions: 20.5" wide x 24.75" high x 11.0" deep
 Weight: 55 pounds

Badger 30: Combo & Head

The Badger 30 is more than simply a more powerful version of the extremely popular Badger 18. Featuring EL34 power tubes, a larger output transformer and a tweaked preamp voicing to better match the tubes and the tranny, the Badger 30 not only has more power and headroom than the Badger 18, it has more aggressive and pronounced midrange that is punchier with a tighter and more focused lows.

  Although called the Badger 30, this handsome little beast puts out 38 watts and has enough power to cut through a dense stage mix and handle medium-sized clubs and similar size venues such as a church. In fact, the Badger amps have become very popular with church worship bands and the Badger 30 is perfect for those large services with an audience of 300 to as many as a thousand.

   Whatever size the venue, the Badger 30 has the headroom and the power to be heard loud and clear while retaining the high quality tonal characteristics that has made the Badger 18 amp the choice of such seasoned pros as Mike Landau, Peter Thorn, Walter Becker, Boz Scaggs, John Shanks and many others.

Try the Badger 30 if you need more power but still want to retain the lively feel and lush tonal characteristics of a smaller cathode-biased all-tube amp. You will find that the Badger 30 is the perfect bridge between a low power amp like our Badger 18 and the powerful 50 and 100 watt amplifiers.

Badger 30 MSRP: $1995 (Head), $2345 (Combo)

Dimensions: Same as Badger 18 Head and Combo
  Weight: 30 pounds (Head), 65 pounds (combo)

Badger Extension Cabinet 1x12

The Suhr 1x12 extension cabinet is the result of nearly a year of extensive R&D to design and produce the best 1x12 cabinet possible. Designed concurrently with the combo cabinet for the Badger, the new Suhr 1x12 cabinet loaded with the V30 speaker sounds big, full, punchy and focused. Whether you want to mate it with the Badger head/combo or use it as a "wet" cab in a sophisticated wet/dry rig, this cabinet provides superb tone in a compact package. Tuned and ported with the Celestion V30 in mind, the cabinet can still be ordered unloaded so that you may install the speaker of your choice.

MSRP: $525 loaded, $325 unloaded

Dimensions: 20.5" wide x 17.0" high x 11.0" deep
 Weight: 33 pounds loaded, 23 pounds unloaded

Badger Extension Cabinet 2x12

The Suhr 2x12 extension cabinet features a big open sound while still being quite portable for those live situations when a 1x12 just won't do and a 4x12 is just too much to lug around. A lot of thought went into this cabinet to combine the best aspects of both the open-back cabinet and the closed-back. The rear ported design allows the cabinet to "breathe" like a traditional open-back while retaining the focused punch of a closed-back cabinet.

MSRP: $800 loaded, $475 unloaded

 Weight: 55 pounds loaded, 34 pounds unloaded

Badger Sound & Video Clips

Michael Landau ~ Audio

The following sound clips have been provided by the renowned studio guitar legend and recording artist Mike Landau. The equipment used on the clips is as following.

• *SM57 thru Neve 1066 mic pre, EQ set flat
• *PCM60 small room reverb
• *-3dB of 4:1 compression on the stereo buss

The first 3 Badger clips are essentially the same rhythm track being played at different levels to demonstrate how well the Power Scaling feature works. The first Badger clip has an overdubbed solo but the second and third ones don't.

"Strat", "Les Paul", and "Marshall" are registered trademarks of Fender Musical Instruments Corp.(FMIC), Gibson Musical Instruments Corp., and Marshall Amplification, respectively. JS Technologies Inc. (aka Suhr Guitars) is not affiliated with Fender (FMIC), Gibson or Marshall in any way.

Guthrie Govan ~ Audio

The following clips are of sensational rock-fusion virtuoso Guthrie Govan performing during a clinic-concert in San Francisco on January 21, 2011 sponsored by our Bay Area dealer Nuts & Saddles. On these tunes, Guthrie is playing his Signature Model Set-Neck with Mahogany body and neck and Pau Ferro fingerboard and a pickup set of the SSH+ in the bridge, the ML single-coil in the middle, and the SSV in the neck. The amp is the Badger 30 head and the cabinets are two Suhr 1x12's (one with the Celestion V30 and one with the Celestion Heritage G12-65). Guthrie also uses our Koko Boost pedal for midrange boost during the high-gain solos. The Eventide Time Factor pedal is plugged into the effects loop of the Badger 30. Other effects used in some of the tunes are Guyatone WR-3 Auto Wah, Providence Anadime Chorus and the RMC Picture Wah.

To download re-mixed and improved m4a versions of these five tracks, please click on this link.

Steve Stevens ~ Audio

Steve Stevens just picked up his Badger and is quite ecstatic about how it's performing for him. Here is a demo audio clip of the Badger by the inimitable Steve Stevens. And here are some comments from Steve about the Badger:

"This amp is so easy to record that all that was required really was to program some drums and a quick bass track. Guitars used were my white Les Paul Standard with my Bareknuckles Rebel Yell pickups with the end part featuring a Gibson Console slide guitar.

Mics were Royer ribbon & Shure 57. No eq was used...honestly NONE. The audio file was then mastered in Logic Waveburner...nothing drastic.

The Badger is plain and simple a recording guitarist's dream. It is so true and real without any hint of fake distortion. I think you kind of have to be a reasonably good player to appreciate this amp because you can't hide behind silly gain etc. It is dead quiet as well. Huge thanks, man. I LOVE this amp."

Peter Thorn ~ Videos / 18 and 30 Watt Badger Demos

Badger 18: On the following 9 minute (.mov/43 MB) video clip, Peter Thorn (Jewel, Courtney Love) demonstrates the wide range of great sounds of the Badger 18w head. This video is also available via (YouTube)

Peter plays a variety of guitars to give you an idea of how each guitar interacts with the Badger and how it preserves the sonic characteristics of each guitar.

Peter also demonstrates the extremely effective Power Scaling feature which allows you to get power tube saturation at bedroom volume levels without sacrificing tonal qualities or the tactile response of the amp and the tube-buffered effects loop.

Badger 30: The following 10 minute video presentation by Peter demonstrates the amazing versatility and tonal quality of the Badger 30. As on the video of the Badger 18, the Badger 30 also faithfully reproduces the acoustic tonal characteristics of different kinds of electric guitars. Badger 30 Watt

Andy Most - Badger Audio Clip Top

Guitarist extraordinaire Andy Most demos the Badger on this lovely clip featuring an intro and rhythm track on the left side and a lead track on the right side. The recording chain on both tracks is the Shure SM57 mic into a UA LA/610 Mic Pre (comp just about all the way off), Digi 002R and some Waves plugs. The guitars are Strat-style guitars with the neck single-coil on the left side intro/rhythm track and a Tele-style guitar with neck pickup on the right side lead-track. The cab is an open-back 1x12 with the Celestion Gold speaker. The Bader settings are as following:

K. Pádraig O'Kane ~ Audio

Nick Sterling ~ Audio

Kid guitar wiz Nick Sterling puts his Badger through the paces on this hard rock-tinged clip. The guitars used are the Suhr Standard with hum-single-hum configuration and a Classic with V60LP single-coils. The Badger is powering a '71 Marshall Checkerboard cabinet loaded with Eminence Governor speakers. The Badger's Power setting is set at around 6 and Drive just over 4. Nick bumped the Drive up a little when playing the Classic model guitar with the single-coils.

Craig Sharmat – Badger Audio Clips Top

The following Badger audio clips feature LA-based studio guitarist and composer Craig Sharmat. These clips exhibit a warm jazzy side of the Badger. The guitar is a set-neck 24.75" scale solid-body with a neck humbucker. The cabinet is a closed-back 1x12 with the Celestion V30 speaker mic'ed with Royer ribbon mic R-122 into a Amek Neve 9098 preamp. No EQ was used. This signal then goes into a Metric Halo Mobile IO which interfaces with a Macintosh G5 8 core computer which applies slight reverb and delay on all lead parts and a compressor (Logic Pro) on the clean parts. The amp settings are as following: