Sooooo.... Boss Katana or Fender GT?

Parker

Fancy getting one of these puppies in the next few weeks. Haven't had chance to try either yet, so thought I'd get an opinion (I miss the Musicradar poll button!!) 

Marktigere1

My son has the Katana 1x12 and I think it is superb.

No idea about the Fender but try the Katana and see if you can hear the missing valves

For the money its a steal but factor in the foot switch as that brings in a whole level of control but it is around £80

Legionreturns

I tried the GT having previously owned a Mustang ...bloody awful! Sounded like it was made of tin and then sent through an old fax machine.

Katana wins this particular contest hands down. Without getting off the 0.5w setting 

menamestom

The Katana is great and has a really good core tone.
If however you want some Fender sparkle, it dosn't really have that.  The cleans are nice, but not in any way Fendery.

So depends what you play.  If you are after Fender tones, the Katana is not suitable, if you after good basic core tones it could be good.

Marktigere1 said:

No idea about the Fender but try the Katana and see if you can hear the missing valves

You can't really at home, crank it and you can tell.  However, it still sounds better than quite a few valve amps I've played. Valves can very easily be made to sound bad, so the fact you can tell it's not valve is not a problem.

monquixote

Katana all day long

Check the In the Blues channel for a review of the Mustang GT Shane was really not impressed.

p90fool

If you download Sneaky Amps for your Katana it can sound very Fendery apparently, though I haven't tried it yet. 

Plectrum

I was watching a YouTube demo a week or two ago where there were 3 amps played. Two were models from the Mustang GT and the other was a smallish Fender valve amp. I certainly couldn't tell which was which. Which leads me to conclude that they're a lot better than some are claiming (the bigger ones with 12 inch speakers anyway).

Sparky

Katana. I challenge you to find a bad review on them. Don't think the same is true for the GT.

Legionreturns

Plectrum said:

I was watching a YouTube demo a week or two ago where there were 3 amps played. Two were models from the Mustang GT and the other was a smallish Fender valve amp. I certainly couldn't tell which was which. Which leads me to conclude that they're a lot better than some are claiming (the bigger ones with 12 inch speakers anyway).

I've seen videos from retailers (ie those that have GT stock to sell!) that make them sound great using DI out and mastering the sound, but with my own ears and independent reviewers with nothing to gain or lose they've pretty much all sounded dreadful. 

Plectrum

Legionreturns said:

Plectrum said:

I was watching a YouTube demo a week or two ago where there were 3 amps played. Two were models from the Mustang GT and the other was a smallish Fender valve amp. I certainly couldn't tell which was which. Which leads me to conclude that they're a lot better than some are claiming (the bigger ones with 12 inch speakers anyway).

I've seen videos from retailers (ie those that have GT stock to sell!) that make them sound great using DI out and mastering the sound, but with my own ears and independent reviewers with nothing to gain or lose they've pretty much all sounded dreadful. 

They sound like Fenders so I suppose sounding dreadful comes with the territory.

shrinkwrap

Lot of problems with the app on GTs - that may not be a big deal for you but check the GT sub section of the Fender forum - there's lots of complaints, some bugs are fixed, some are not.
Was tempted to change my M III for a Katana - maybe next year.

darthed1981

Katana, the consensus everywhere except for Lee Anderton's bulging stockroom is that the Fender GTs sorta suck.

I have to admit to not trying one personally but I'd be amazed if they even come close to the Katana.

Parker

So is the Katana good enough to leave your valve amp at home....? Like properly? 

Telejester

Shane Diorio's YouTube review of the GT amp killed sales stone dead, this is because no manufacturer gun was pointed at him and he gave a truthful review quite unlike a Tom " it's great " Quayle review where everything is the best he has used.

darthed1981

Parker said:

So is the Katana good enough to leave your valve amp at home....? Like properly? 

[pirate voice] Arghh, so some say argghhh [/pirate voice]

andyoz

Katana even better now with the v2 update so you get 8 stored channels with is more than enough.  Easily switched from the footswitch to.  I find the extra expense of the head worth it if you already have cabinets.

Note that the combo's have no speaker out without modding them.

Hattigol

Having owned various amps in the past (most recently a Hot Rod Deluxe and a ''68 Deluxe Reverb Reissue), I had a try on one of these and bought the GT200. The 100 would have been big enough but the cost difference when you factor in that the footswitch comes included with the 200 is such that the 200 becomes the sensible choice.

My irritation with my previous Fender amps was that you had to play them fairly loud to get a decent sound out of them. Plus if you adjusted the sound (say you played with different volume drummers), it would affect the tone. 

I was totally cynical of digital modelling amps. Like everyone else, I was pretty much of the view that if it wasn't 60 year old technology i.e. tubes, it would be rubbish.

How wrong I was.

This amp is absolutely fkg incredible. It comes with a bunch of presets, 90% of which are rubbish but it is seriously easy to tweak the existing good ones and/or make new ones and they sound IMHO utterly brilliant. Yes, they have had glitches but Fender keep on updating the software (which is dead easy to do on your amp) and it is getting better and better.

I have about 30 'go to' tones, all of which are grouped in setlists that you can create and name (again, a piece of cake to do) for my different guitars. Obviously, as the output from say a Les Paul and a Strat are completely different, you can adjust these and then save these accordingly i.e. all my Les Paul settings start with 'LP' and are bunched together in a numerical order.

Besides the brilliantly easy functionality, the main thing is the sound and it totally nails it. This is a Fender product so if anyone is going to know how to recreate the Fender sound, it's them. The '65 is the highlight but there are seriously lots of usable models on there. Add whatever effects you like or use your own pedal board - great either way. 

It;s not just the Fender amps that sound good - the '60s British' is a Vox sound and is wonderful. Plus you can get the sound you want at whatever level you want it to be. And then control it from your phone - not sure why people don't rate the app as I find it works perfectly.

Seriously, try one of these amps. For the money, they are incredible. I would challenge anyone using their ears and not their sense of nostalgic yearning to tell me that these amps do sound anything other than brilliant.

There endeth my two-penneth worth. And no, I don't work for Fender.

Hattigol

darthed1981 said:

Katana, the consensus everywhere except for Lee Anderton's bulging stockroom is that the Fender GTs sorta suck.

I have to admit to not trying one personally but I'd be amazed if they even come close to the Katana.

Try one personally. You will be amazed.

Parker

andyoz said:

Katana even better now with the v2 update so you get 8 stored channels with is more than enough.  Easily switched from the footswitch to.  I find the extra expense of the head worth it if you already have cabinets.

Note that the combo's have no speaker out without modding them.

So no Line Out with the combos?

darthed1981

Hattigol said:

darthed1981 said:

Katana, the consensus everywhere except for Lee Anderton's bulging stockroom is that the Fender GTs sorta suck.

I have to admit to not trying one personally but I'd be amazed if they even come close to the Katana.

Try one personally. You will be amazed.

After reading your review, I fully intend to

andyoz

Parker said:

andyoz said:

Katana even better now with the v2 update so you get 8 stored channels with is more than enough.  Easily switched from the footswitch to.  I find the extra expense of the head worth it if you already have cabinets.

Note that the combo's have no speaker out without modding them.

So no Line Out with the combos?

There's a line out, just no external speaker out.