Katana Double-down or Valves and Pedals?

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darthed1981darthed1981 Frets: 11670
Hi All,

Getting ot the point where I need to make a couple of potential choices, and as I thought it would make an interesting discussion, I thought I'd open a thread... do I...

1. Double down with Katana.  I have a K50 and it has all the FX I'd ever need built in, but to get the very most i'd need to upgrade to a K100 or K100 Artist (or K100 head and a cab, all same difference) and buy the full foot controller and an expression pedal - big investment.

or...

2.  Go down the route of a valve amp and some pedals, big change of tack and as mostly a home player some potential disadvantages, but obviously more giggable and leads to having a pedal board for events like the TFB jams.

I guess I can't be the only player making these kinds of choices, hence this thread, so what are everyone's thoughts?
We have to be so very careful, what we believe in...
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Comments

  • thecolourboxthecolourbox Frets: 9654
    For a similar situation/use case, I'm kind of heading towards a small valve amp with pedals, volume appropriate to playing at home but with a line out so that I can also play through monitors or headphones at home via a mixer or multi fx, but also plug that line out into a loud clean power amp and cab in order to play live.
    Please note my communication is not very good, so please be patient with me
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  • flying_pieflying_pie Frets: 1806
    I'm currently thinking about moving just to multi effects. I'm only playing one gig per year just view and seldom get to play without headphones at home due to "the little ones". 

    My current setup - Blackstar HT 50 plus cab in 4cm with Boss GT 100 is a bit of a pain to lug around to rehearsals and is suited in the cupboard in between use. I currently prefer the multi effects to individual pedals as I'm a vocalist as well as guitarist and being able to change amp channels and effects with a single button press gets rid of tap dancing mistakes. Pedals are great but less practical for me and I don't miss having sold them. 

    I'm thinking of selling my amp/cab and just using multi effects, possibly switching to a Helix. But another part of me thinks that the Victory preamp pedals look really interesting and one of those plus a power amp all on a single pedal board with multi effects could be the way forward... 
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  • SteveFSteveF Frets: 536
    I have a Helix and run it through studio monitors at home and use it as my audio interface as well. I love this setup and for home use it's ideal. I can record through it and play along with my music or YouTube backing tracks easily, through headphones if required with no additional messing about.  

    I would happily gig a Helix or any other modelling setup.  In fact, I regular gigged a BOSS rack unit (GT Pro??) about 10 years ago, straight into the return of a Marshall DSL combo.  I quite like the idea of the new power cab to go with my Helix, and that should give me everything I could possibly need for gigging and home use. 

    But.... 

    I like amps. I like pedals. I like the simplicity sometimes of a guitar straight into an amp, maybe with a pedal or two.  I often find that with the Helix I can spend an hour or three just fiddling with sounds whereas when I plug into my Blackstar HT-5 I have a clean sound, a dirty sound and that's about it. I like that sometimes.

    I don't think I would get rid of the Helix - I love it - but equally I don't think I would want to own JUST the Helix.  My own view is that I like more than one guitar and I also like more than one amp.  I see many people who have several guitars and always on the lookout for the next, but are happy with a single amp setup. Each to their own, but that's not me.  
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  • I have the Katana Head. I also have GAFC but for live I hook it up to a 2x12 and control it with a HD500X via midi.. for the tuner and wah/vol capabilities it wired in line up front.

    The head is great for home use with it's inbuilt speaker, just sit it on the side, hook up a laptop and noodle away.. rarely use the controller at home unless I want perform a song with patch changes obviously.

    I bought the Katana head because of its home/live balance... no need for a bigger combo.. or using headphones with the HD500X; was looking at stuff like the Yamaha THR10 and stuff but the Kat head won, and is still winning
    My trading feedback

    is it crazy how saying sentences backwards creates backwards sentences saying how crazy it is?

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  • PlectrumPlectrum Frets: 494
    Your Katana will serve you just fine for many years to come.
    One day I'm going to make a guitar out of butter to experience just how well it actually plays.
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  • darthed1981darthed1981 Frets: 11670
    Plectrum said:
    Your Katana will serve you just fine for many years to come.
    I have a feeling it will as well.  Just thought it could serve as an interesting discussion point.  I do enjoy hearing everyone's POV and soaking up some knowledge :)
    We have to be so very careful, what we believe in...
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  • LuttiSLuttiS Frets: 2243
    What i read there was "i've got the pedal itch!" :)

    Scratch away!

    As i understand it the Katana takes pedals reasonably well so you can experiment with different sounds and still have a pedalboard for tfb jams.

    :]
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  • darthed1981darthed1981 Frets: 11670
    LuttiS said:
    What i read there was "i've got the pedal itch!" :)

    Scratch away!

    As i understand it the Katana takes pedals reasonably well so you can experiment with different sounds and still have a pedalboard for tfb jams.

    :]
    Good thought...
    We have to be so very careful, what we believe in...
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  • I've got a Katana 100 but not got the foot control and expression pedal. I haven't used the effects much but with the controls I think I would start using them more. I have a few pedals but I just end up messing around with the knobs and not really playing anything. I do think I will go all out  Katana, keep only a couple of pedals, an OD and a couple of modulations in the effects loop, and sell the rest. Being a home player for the foreseeable future, I have no need for a valve amp.

    What expression pedal to get? Should I stick with Boss, such as an EV-30 or something else?  



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  • p90foolp90fool Frets: 31368
    edited April 2018
    Whichever expression pedal you buy, make sure it has the correct pot value. 

    I have a couple of old Bespeco and Zoom expression pedals and none of them worked with the Katana, so I ended up with whatever the recommended Roland one was.  

    EDIT; just checked, it was the EV-5.
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  • stickyfiddlestickyfiddle Frets: 26753
    Amp & pedals for me. 

    The best thing is the flexibility - I can plug the pedalboard into the big amp when I can, but plug into a small amp (THR10C in my case), and get almost the same sounds with headphones at 11 at night.

    The Assumptions - UAE party band for all your rock & soul desires
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  • TADodgerTADodger Frets: 211
    I recently bought a Rift Brownie 5 and I am having great fun sticking pedals in front of it. I also have a Vox AV30 and a Code 25 and can get very close to most tones with the inbuilt effects on both. I don't gig so I don't need 100w (and the (two) jams I have been to have had larger amps and cabs in the main room) so, for me, the small valve amp allows a good amount of personalising searching for that tone in my head.
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  • MagicPigDetectiveMagicPigDetective Frets: 2992
    edited April 2018
    So what some of you are saying, is, never go full Katana......
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  • ive been fully katana for the past 11 months, 30 or so gigs,, rehearsal and home practise. Last week on a whim i picked up a used peavey valveking. have taken it to rehearsal with a zoom g3 multifx. just for a change. just nice to use different stuff every now and then. might gig it in a couple of weeks. just as some people like to use different guitars, sometimes different amps and rigs are fun
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  • grungebobgrungebob Frets: 3299
    edited April 2018
    With the birth of my daughter I could see playing guitar at volume was going to be an issue so I sold my valve amps bought nicer guitars and looked for a solution.  However ,Turns out in the first 18 months you don’t get much free time to play so lack of an amp didn’t even cause an issue. 

    The Katana came out and seemed ideal but people where debating the blackstar core stuff too so I got one of each and decided the Katana 50 was for me (despite the lack of a looper  that the blackstar had) and I returned the blackstar. 

    I soon came to realise the K50 needs the tone studio to get the sounds I needed which is annoying as it’s main selling point was it’s not a modeler you can use it like a normal amp (you can’t). 

    After months of faffing about I learnt that the K50 is great for very low volume stuff but lacks the balls and punch for higher volumes so............

    i bought an Orange valve amp with built in attenuator and love it.  

    The K50 I’ll keep but I’m not using it anywhere near as often as I once was. 

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