Katana

menamestom

Plectrum said:

Grumpyrocker said:

Oh they've done two vids, get to see it used as an acoustic amp on this one.

I can't quite work out why someone would need to put an acoustic through it. Around here we put the acoustics straight through the PA. Acoustic combos often have a mic channel for those doing solo acoustic gigs without a PA but I don't think Katana has a mic input?

  I can see an application, i.e. having the amp close by as a monitor or to cover an acoustic part in a band setup, possibly via an electric piezo guitar.  Or even for archtops, to get that really clear Jazz tone.  For a pure acoustic amp, lack of a tweeter and limited e.q. (Which is often an advantage if acoustic combos over PA's) may limit its application in practise.  

p90fool

monquixote said:

p90fool said:

That's why I'm disappointed, I play clean-ish country style guitar but always use high gain heads - usually a JCA100HDM but currently a pair of Custom 22s in stereo. 
They clean up beautifully from the guitar and are way more versatile than the obvious choices for my style. 

I know these videos have to show how much gain is available, but that totally squashed, guitar-patch-on-a-home-keyboard type sounds tell me absolutely nothing about how the amp responds to dynamic, musical input with a bit of light and shade. 

Ooo @p90fool I have a JCA22, but I'm quite interested in the Custom 22. 

Does it have a real clean channel, or is it like the others that have a distortion and "more distortion" channels?

The crunch channel does have plenty of gain but it does clean up very well, in part due to the bright switch giving a bit of sparkle. 

The video I put up a few weeks ago had the gain on the crunch channel about 2/3 of the way up, but if you run the channel volume flat out and use the gain control as a volume it is a proper clean, up to fairly loud levels for a 20w amp. 

monquixote

Cool thanks for the info. 

You can get a certain amount of clean out of the old one, but it sounds really pants unless you have the gain up and drop the level from the guitar which isn't how I play. 

p90fool

I agree, the old 20w is pretty lifeless with the gain down, the Custom 22 is nothing like that, it has a real chime to it. 

menamestom

p90fool said:

That's why I'm disappointed, I play clean-ish country style guitar but always use high gain heads - usually a JCA100HDM but currently a pair of Custom 22s in stereo. 
They clean up beautifully from the guitar and are way more versatile than the obvious choices for my style. 

I know these videos have to show how much gain is available, but that totally squashed, guitar-patch-on-a-home-keyboard type sounds tell me absolutely nothing about how the amp responds to dynamic, musical input with a bit of light and shade. 

I just tried out the 100 2x12.  I mainly play clean to breakup and in this area it sounded great.  You dig in and the amp responds. The effects sounded good too.  The 2x12 is more than I need at home (although it was really light, probably the same as my upgraded PRRI), so the shop are getting back to me when the other 2 are in stock.  If the 50 sounds as good, it will be a great home amp, certainly based on the 2x12 they have a great core tone and simplicity about them.

nick_s

I'm currently looking to replace my old Vox VT combo I use for practice with something 'better', and stumbled across this amp in an Andertons email.  I have to say, MIGHTY impressed with the sounds in all of the demo videos.  And let's face it, with the BOSS experience behind the amp, it can only be good.  Their COSM modelling has been on the up since it's first incarnation, and the effects speak for themselves.  Only downside is that Andertons don't get delivery until end of January and you have to pay extra for the 4 channel footswitch goodness.  Still, a very good price for the amp negates that small downside for me.

Nikko

Had mine for a couple of weeks now, and absolutely love it. So easy to use, and get great sounds from. The power scaling feature is priceless for me, as most of my practice time is in the evenings after my Daughter has gone to bed. Best £165 I've ever spent.

ICBM

nick_s said:

Their COSM modelling has been on the up since it's first incarnation

It needed to be! The first generation was utter crap - in fact I think I blame it for somehow 'sensitising' me to digital modelling, in the sense that I then found it easy to spot (and dislike) modelling when I heard it elsewhere. It's only more recently that I've been able to listen to modellers and not hear it as much, but I don't know whether that's just because everything has got much better, or whether the memory of the early Roland/Boss stuff is finally beginning to fade.

ThePrettyDamned

ICBM said:

nick_s said:

Their COSM modelling has been on the up since it's first incarnation

It needed to be! The first generation was utter crap - in fact I think I blame it for somehow 'sensitising' me to digital modelling, in the sense that I then found it easy to spot (and dislike) modelling when I heard it elsewhere. It's only more recently that I've been able to listen to modellers and not hear it as much, but I don't know whether that's just because everything has got much better, or whether the memory of the early Roland/Boss stuff is finally beginning to fade.

Seriously mate, try the od1x, d1x and da2.

I don't know how much you'll personally like them (the da2 is fairly amp like, in a tight controlled way, but the d1x is a million miles from it!) but they sound great and they don't "annoy" or "buzz". 

The best digital amp I've had was an old valvetronix, which was excellent and served me through several gigs. Not because it sounded just like a valve amp, but because it sounded good digital or not. 

I'm not sure if those pedals use cosm but whatever it is, it's very pleasing on the ear. 

beowulf

Nikko said:

Had mine for a couple of weeks now, and absolutely love it. So easy to use, and get great sounds from. The power scaling feature is priceless for me, as most of my practice time is in the evenings after my Daughter has gone to bed. Best £165 I've ever spent.

Really thinking about getting one of these to replace my line 6 spider ii 75w.

Two questions, would this be much of an upgrade? The Line 6 has some cool features but my impression is that the tone is really not up to scratch. Clean tones sound a bit thin and lifeless and the distortion is just plain muddy, no getting around it.

Secondly, only 2 presets for the 50W, that's not cool is it? If the 50W came with 4 presets as the 100W it would be an easy buy, but as it is I'm thinking I might have to go for the 100W, even though the extra power isn't really that useful.

Nikko

I've got no direct experience of the line 6, but from everything I've seen and heard, these are two very different beasts.

Presets-wise, yes  I would prefer to have more, but the way I see it, is that I have 3. Channel 1 I have set as a really nice warm clean tone with a touch of reverb and delay, channel 2 is my higher gain hard rock and metal preset, and then you have the 'panel' button. I keep the Amp set to a crunch with booster setting and don't play with  the dials, so go preset 1, 2 and panel...that's my logic anyway

beowulf

Yeah OK that's true I suppose you have 3 really. I have a footswitch at the moment too which is another thing that would be a downgrade. You can buy one called the FS-5L but that will only switch between ch1 and ch2, and needs batteries so that seems like another downgrade. 

On a separate note, can you use the Katana as an all in one amp and PC audio interface? The manual says 'You can use a commercially available USB 2.0 cable to record the sound of the KATANA into your computer. You can also use dedicated software to edit the settings of the internal effects (p. 8).' Does this mean you can record your playing using only the amp and bundled software? Or will this be a pretty low end solution that doesn't properly capture dynamics very well?

Nikko

Yeah, you can use it as a DI for recording. I haven't tried this myself yet, but im not sure you would get the absolute 'Best' possible quality doing it this way. Its just one of the conveniences I suppose. I will use it, but only because I cant be arsed to set up a separate audio interface and mic etc. Im not going to be recording for anything other than my own enjoyment, but if that changes, the option is there I guess.

I think what you get with the Katana, is a real stripped down version of the newer modellers. I looked at the Code, and have watched various videos on the new Spider, and also owned a Vox VT20 for a while. I like things simple/clean, and for me there was just too much stuff/options on the others. Don't get me wrong, if id preferred the sounds I could get from the Code etc compared to the Katana, I would have gone for something else, but this Katana really is a great little thing...and bloody loud.

John_A

Agree about the number of pre-sets on the 50W, but I suppose they are just protecting sales of the 100W version.  the 100W is still small, light, and good value.  But the 50W and a few pedals would be a giggable option

Voxman

I only know about the Katana from what I've read here and demo vids.  But I've only just appreciated that the 50 and 100 only offer 2 and 4 memory slots respectively.  

I appreciate these amps are getting great feedback, but even 4 seems insufficient in the modern world and in my view both should offer more. I would have expected a min of 4 on the 50w and 8 on the 100w.

beowulf

Voxman said:

I only know about the Katana from what I've read here and demo vids.  But have I understood correctly that the Katana 50w only allows 2 presets to be stored?   How many does the 100w allow?

Four. And it accepts a footswitch that can go to any of those instantly rather than cycling through.

Really can't make up my mind between the 50 and 100, I don't need the extra 50W at all but the extra features seem like they might be worth it. 

On the rear of the amp, can anyone explain the difference between 'Line Out' and 'Phones/Rec Out'. Let alone the USB out for recording as well...

menamestom

beowulf said:

Voxman said:

I only know about the Katana from what I've read here and demo vids.  But have I understood correctly that the Katana 50w only allows 2 presets to be stored?   How many does the 100w allow?

Four. And it accepts a footswitch that can go to any of those instantly rather than cycling through.

Really can't make up my mind between the 50 and 100, I don't need the extra 50W at all but the extra features seem like they might be worth it. 

On the rear of the amp, can anyone explain the difference between 'Line Out' and 'Phones/Rec Out'. Let alone the USB out for recording as well...

Phones out will cut the speaker, so pretty useless if you need the amp speaker to monitor on stage.

Grumpyrocker

I believe it can access a lot more than four presets via midi control.

beowulf

You're right Grumpy there are tonnes of 'presets', but I'm referring to the number of preset tones (essentially a combined snapshot of all the settings) that you can have stored on the amp at any one time.

monquixote

Grumpyrocker said:

I believe it can access a lot more than four presets via midi control.

I don't think so. 

I looked at the MIDI implementation and I think you are limited to switching between the 4 presets (and whatever the front panel is set to) and engaging and disengaging effects.