Katana

Grumpyrocker

Yeah I've just had a look at the manual online and realise I'm wrong. I've seen a few amps do the thing where it may have a a few presets on the physical buttons but you can get to hundreds with a footswitch. Just assumed the Katana would do the same. Heck my Peavey Vypyr I had eight years ago managed this, adding tens of presets with the footswitch. 

monquixote

I think with these type of things where they only add MIDI to the flagship it's probably a separate module which just toggles some internal GPIO pins to simulate button clicks.

The Echolution 2 was like that. You could only toggle a button via MIDI which meant as you didn't know it's state it was completely useless.

paul_c2

As I understand it, Boss Katana was deliberately designed to be simple to operate, hence only able to select 2-4 presets. I don't know if it helps but Anderton Music Co recently did a roundup of 7 new(ish) modelling amps including the Katana and Line 6 spider V.

beowulf

paul_c2 said:

As I understand it, Boss Katana was deliberately designed to be simple to operate, hence only able to select 2-4 presets. I don't know if it helps but Anderton Music Co recently did a roundup of 7 new(ish) modelling amps including the Katana and Line 6 spider V.

I watched that video last night, 50 minutes long without a single piece of subjective analysis. I know we all have different opinions, but it might help to have some sort of opinion from the people in the room playing with it rather than what we can hear through our computer speakers.

monquixote

beowulf said:

paul_c2 said:

As I understand it, Boss Katana was deliberately designed to be simple to operate, hence only able to select 2-4 presets. I don't know if it helps but Anderton Music Co recently did a roundup of 7 new(ish) modelling amps including the Katana and Line 6 spider V.

I watched that video last night, 50 minutes long without a single piece of subjective analysis. I know we all have different opinions, but it might help to have some sort of opinion from the people in the room playing with it rather than what we can hear through our computer speakers.

Yeah I was really disappointed that they got to the end and said: "All of them are good"

dindude

Agree re: the Andertons vid, was looking forward to settling down to watch it but quickly just skipped through - it was no more useful than one of those free Gear "magazines" you get which is full of JHS (the UK distributor not the US pedals) stock.

monquixote

I did think from what you could hear that the Katana and the ID TVP were clearly the best sounding (although the TVP is a lot more expensive so it's a bit of a cheat).

I thought the Spider sounded pretty good as well although seemed to be more focussed for home use.

The CODE sounded quite poor, the Mustang was alright on cleans, horrible on gain (my experience from owning one) and the Vox sounded quite good, but the higher gain stuff was unconvincing.

Marktigere1

Just ordered the Katana 100 combo on behalf of my son. (I can have my amps back now)

Arrives Monday so should be able to give an assessment next week.

For him it looks like a complete steal and being Boss, a no brainer for me.

Cheers

Mark

Plectrum

In a sense that review was comparing chalk and cheese. Although all the amps use "modelling technology" some of them such as Katana and the Blackstars aren't modelling any specific amp. I felt both of them were rather bland. The other 4 all had something good going for them.

ICBM

Had a chance to watch the demo now. (Second Anderton's one.)

Interesting… I thought it sounded great - when they were playing single notes and double-stops. But for some reason, mostly horrible on chords - there's that weird kind of crunching-glass sound again. Unfortunately I play mostly chordy stuff.

I didn't think much of it as an acoustic amp either, and that is something that would interest me. It was too boomy and sounded like a bad 90s electro-acoustic tone.

Four presets would be enough for me - I really only need two channels on an amp if I'm using a pedal, but three would mean I wouldn't have to use one and the fourth could be the acoustic, perhaps.

I'll have to try one in reality but I think it's behind the Line 6 for me at the moment. (Even discounting the top-mounted controls, which I don't like.)

menamestom

 

I just tried them both side by side.  Unfortunately the Katana was the 2x12 and the Spider V the 30w 1x8.  They both sound pretty good.  Once you dial in the Spider and strip the sound back to the core amp and a bit of verb it sounded good.  Hard to compare to a 2x12 but the Katana sounds a bit more organic and less like a modelling amp.

I've tried an acoustic through the Katana previously and it was passable, but a bit honky like putting an acoustic through a guitar amp.  I think the acoustic model is just a flat EQ preamp but it's still not going through a full range speaker system (the line out could be useful here).  However, the acoustic setting does sound pretty good with electric.

I didn't try the Line 6 with an acoustic but stumbled on the acoustic setting and with an electric through it, it sounded much like an electric through acoustic amp, thin, bright and very clean.

I'm probably going to go for the 100w 1x12 Katana, but I'm hoping they have the Spider 120 in when I go to get it.  The Spider is much more versatile and shouldn't be dismissed as just the same old line 6 spider, because I think it has some really good sounds in it after just a quick play.  But the Katana just seems to sound more honest, less like an image of an amp and more like an amp.  To be fair though that could in part of been the little 1x8 speaker, so take everything I've said with a pinch of salt.  Also to add, they are both pretty intuitive and easy to use.

paul_c2

monquixote said:

beowulf said:

paul_c2 said:

As I understand it, Boss Katana was deliberately designed to be simple to operate, hence only able to select 2-4 presets. I don't know if it helps but Anderton Music Co recently did a roundup of 7 new(ish) modelling amps including the Katana and Line 6 spider V.

I watched that video last night, 50 minutes long without a single piece of subjective analysis. I know we all have different opinions, but it might help to have some sort of opinion from the people in the room playing with it rather than what we can hear through our computer speakers.

Yeah I was really disappointed that they got to the end and said: "All of them are good"

Agree, it was a shame they didn't offer any opinion on which amp was better/best. I guess they simply wanted to demo them, I guess that's thetrack they've obviously chosen to take as a retailer stocking a number of products - they don't want to say any product they stock is worse than another; or give a definitive best one, since people will just buy that one (possibly elsewhere) than come into the shop and try some amps out.

beowulf

A bit out of the blue, is there any chance of the Katana 50 or 100 dropping in price after christmas? Or has it been released too recently? Or do amps not generally go on sale?

monquixote

beowulf said:

A bit out of the blue, is there any chance of the Katana 50 or 100 dropping in price after christmas? Or has it been released too recently? Or do amps not generally go on sale?

It's pretty new, priced keenly and seems to be a big seller.

Don't expect to see it any cheaper for at least 6 months to a year. 

beowulf

  makes sense 

Trude

Does anyone know if the front grille can be removed easily from the combos?  If I pick one up, I might try to give it a more vintagey silver or basketweave kinda look.  Not mad keen on the logo either.

It looks like it has four screws at the corners...

Chuffola

ICBM said:

(Even discounting the top-mounted controls, which I don't like.)

Really, I'd never have known....

Marktigere1

My Son's Katana 100 1x12 arrived today and he allowed me a little go.

Sound is subjective and I can only suggest you try one.

The only bad sound I got out of it was when I over did the Overdrive pedal (based on the OD3) into the Lead and Brown settings.  Things then became a bit fizzy.

Other than that it has a very nice sound to it from Clean right through to the Brown setting. 

It won't replace my JCA22H nor the Blackheart 15 but for the price and what it offers its a nice package.

He gets the GAFC foot controller for his B'day on Wednesday which is a bit essential in my opinion.

Cheers

Mark

ThePrettyDamned

Marktigere1 said:

My Son's Katana 100 1x12 arrived today and he allowed me a little go.

Sound is subjective and I can only suggest you try one.

The only bad sound I got out of it was when I over did the Overdrive pedal (based on the OD3) into the Lead and Brown settings.  Things then became a bit fizzy.

Other than that it has a very nice sound to it from Clean right through to the Brown setting. 

It won't replace my JCA22H nor the Blackheart 15 but for the price and what it offers its a nice package.

He gets the GAFC foot controller for his B'day on Wednesday which is a bit essential in my opinion.

Cheers

Mark

In fairness, if you ran an od3 into those amps it would get a bit fizzy and probably flabby too. You'd more rather an sd1 into those. 

It does sound decent. These are really interesting times, there is no excuse for bad tone really these days. 

Marktigere1

Yes the OD3 was one of the default effects.

Had a quick look at the software and the number of effects you can load is impressive. (You also have a choice of three signal chains!)

I think the ease of use is also fantastic.  Straight out of the box he was getting good sounds without too much fiddling and definitely not requiring a computer.

I am very impressed so far.