My Katana woes.

TTony

Did you see this DT50 for sale?

p90fool

Ok, here are my Katana Global EQ settings. This makes for a great-sounding amp at home, with a kind of Blackface overall tonality. It's a little too "soft" for gigging in a twin guitar band or with a keyboard player, but it's fine in a guitar/bass/drums setup.

Before anyone dismisses that idea, I'm not claiming it's a substitute for a well-sorted mid-60s Deluxe, but it sits in a similar place in a mix, and lets you beat hell out of a single coil bridge pickup, with plenty of bite but no aural pain (my personal yardstick).

Low Cut and Low Gain are out of shot but set flat, and you'll notice it looks seriously scooped in the high mids, with a massive treble rolloff. Their decibel figures look extreme to me, if you cut those frequencies by that much on a guitar track in your DAW it would be unusable.

http://i64.tinypic.com/5v9kd3.jpg

Just while I'm at it, here are my general purpose panel settings for gigging in a covers band with single coils, doing everything from the guitar in conjunction with a master volume pedal. I can get everything from loud clean to quiet overdrive with this single panel setting, and everything in between. Thanks to the Global EQ bass and middle can be somewhere near centred, and I have some treble left to play with for using humbuckers.

I can't be doing with channel switching onstage, getting the volume and EQ of four different patches balanced night after night with different venues, audiences and levels of band enthusiasm are nigh on impossible for me, so I just need a good guitar and a good amp, I'll do the rest.

http://i68.tinypic.com/x2lyrm.jpg

grungebob

@p90fool thanks for that really appreciate it, will give it a go!

Teyeplayer

Awesome cheers @p90fool i’ll be giving that a go shortly.

grungebob

TTony said:

Did you see this DT50 for sale?

Wrong coast for me but thanks for the heads up. 

clarkefan

I'm a bit surprised to be honest, I tried one out at some decent volume (fair enough it was the 100w 2x12 version, but only at the low watt setting) and while I preferred my valve amp, I wouldn't describe what I was hearing as a box of bees.

Maybe worth trying a bigger version? 

grungebob

clarkefan said:

I'm a bit surprised to be honest, I tried one out at some decent volume (fair enough it was the 100w 2x12 version, but only at the low watt setting) and while I preferred my valve amp, I wouldn't describe what I was hearing as a box of bees.

Maybe worth trying a bigger version? 

On low watt setting it does sound good but push the volume on any power setting and then s harshness comes in that I can’t dial out. 

I tried the blackstar Id core 100 today and it seemed a really nice amp for my needs. The tone was there for the quiet settings but remained when I pushed it towards its upper limits so I’m considering that as a replacement, the polyphonic octaver and built in looper is a bonus too. 

monquixote

I'm flogging and 18w mjw with power scaling which will do whisper to gig level.

grungebob

monquixote said:

I'm flogging and 18w mjw with power scaling which will do whisper to gig level.

I’m sorry but I’ve no idea what one of those is? 
Does it do clean to very mean?

monquixote

grungebob said:

monquixote said:

I'm flogging and 18w mjw with power scaling which will do whisper to gig level.

I’m sorry but I’ve no idea what one of those is? 
Does it do clean to very mean?

It does clean to fairly mean like jcm 800ish.

timmysoft

i use the hughes and kettner tm1812, fantastic at low volumes, fantastic when maxed out! I prefer the 5w option over the 1w option, it just sounds bigger. its the only amp I've found that genuinely spans the home/gig divide. 3 very different foot switchable tones and the combo even has a great reverb and DI for recording. my best purchase this year.

martinw

grungebob said:

monquixote said:

I'm flogging and 18w mjw with power scaling which will do whisper to gig level.

I’m sorry but I’ve no idea what one of those is? 
Does it do clean to very mean?

I'll have to have a word with my marketing guys.

grungebob

monquixote said:

grungebob said:

monquixote said:

I'm flogging and 18w mjw with power scaling which will do whisper to gig level.

I’m sorry but I’ve no idea what one of those is? 
Does it do clean to very mean?

It does clean to fairly mean like jcm 800ish.

Hmm if you where closer I’d try it out but your a bit too far and I don’t have a reference point for a similar amp so I’ll pass but thanks for the thought. 

Parker

I've jumped in with both feet - bought a Katana and sold my valve amp to fund some xmas pressies (chances are I'll buy something valvey in the new year). Took my K50 to practice last night and was blown away by the power and depth. Have a pub gig on Saturday, so will be really pushing it to it's limit, but I have no concerns given its performance against a loud acoustic kit. Sounded great with my pedal board too!.

grungebob

I hope either mines a dud or the speaker needs more time. 

p90fool

grungebob said:z

I hope either mines a dud or the speaker needs more time. 

Global EQ didn't help then?

grungebob

p90fool said:

grungebob said:z

I hope either mines a dud or the speaker needs more time. 

Global EQ didn't help then?

Sadly no. There’s still this odd frequency that’s accentuated with volume. 
Thanks for the settings though does sound better than before. 

p90fool

grungebob said:

p90fool said:

grungebob said:z

I hope either mines a dud or the speaker needs more time. 

Global EQ didn't help then?

Sadly no. There’s still this odd frequency that’s accentuated with volume. 
Thanks for the settings though does sound better than before. 

The EQ is pretty powerful, you should be able to home in on that frequency and cut it by a few decibels at whatever bandwidth you need to. 

That's easy if you have access to a computer when you're playing at volume, I'm currently guessing after every gig what I need to cut and boost the following morning, at least until I can bung Windows on one of my Linux laptops. 

It's a pain in the arse tbh, it should just sound good out of the box, but I'm kind of committed to making it work after buying the foot controller, an expression pedal and a nice padded cover! 

ICBM

grungebob said:

There’s still this odd frequency that’s accentuated with volume.

That may be something to do with the speaker. It might either to break in more, or need a different one.

I remember from what other people have said that the 50W model has a different speaker from the 100, with a smaller magnet.

Is there any easy way of hooking it up to the Mesa speaker temporarily?

jonnyburgo

Laney vc30 112, great at all volumes, Or an Egnater Tweaker combo, pretty compact, lots of options