Boss Katana 50 MKII - Footswitch options

Lestratcaster

**UPDATED THREAD**

Said student is now getting the Boss Katana 50 MKII amp. I'm not sure it comes with a footswitch however. There's options like the Boss FS2 latching switch and the Airstep but they're quite expensive. 

What other options are there for a cheap and "will do the job" of switching between two channels (i.e clean/dirty)? I have watched a few YouTube videos and believe you save the Tone Settings under Ch1 and Ch2. Like this video:



Something like this might do the job but it costs more than the item to ship from the US

British Style Two Button Footswitch for Amps - StewMac


**ORIGINAL POST**

One of my guitar students is looking for a decent amp, preferably a combo one but anything that will have a nice tube overdrive sound as that's what he'll be using most of the time. But the facility to switch to clean is required too.

I would think for budget he's not looking to spend more than £200-300, and not too loud either, well...maybe if he gets gigging in a band but we're not talking big stages. It'll be mainly for home use.

A recording/direct out connection would be handy too as we actually do most of our lessons online. His parents are buying him a mixer/interface for Christmas so if he can have an amp he can run directly into this it'd be cool.

I already suggested a Marshall DSL5 combo or the Boss Katana 50w but are there any others out there that are slightly less money? 

jellybelly

Shameless plug, but I'm selling an Orange Rocker 15 head that ticks those boxes. 

Could get into a Hot Rod Deluxe or maybe a Laney Cub for that budget too. Those would be my picks!

Lestratcaster

jellybelly said:

Shameless plug, but I'm selling an Orange Rocker 15 head that ticks those boxes. 

Could get into a Hot Rod Deluxe or maybe a Laney Cub for that budget too. Those would be my picks!

Hmm..he'd need a cab as well then....I do have a 1x12 I could sell him too for a decent price as I don't use it anymore....

Me personally I haven't been a fan of Orange heads. Love their cabs though.

He likes the punk rock stuff so a nice saturated overdrive, instead of fuzzy farty distortion.

Jonathangus

It's not valve, but for home playing he could do worse than the Yammy THR in the Classifieds:

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/217086/fs-yamaha-thr10ii-guitar-modelling-amplifier-great-condition-with-original-box-instructions

JayGee

If one pops up at the right price then the Hughes & Kettering Tubemeister 18 (available as a dinky 1x 10 combo, which is the one Youngest Son has or a head) ticks all the boxes. Laney LC. VC, or Cub series are all good too, but I don’t think you get a speaker emulated DI out in the package with them…

Lestratcaster

Sorry I missed out that he probably wants a combo amp so he doesn't have to get a separate cab but if the price is right and sound is good he may consider an amp head. Edited title a bit.

darthed1981

Boss Katana 50w...

munckee

The one in the ads has gone now but a fender super champ x 2 is a great amp, especially with a speaker swap, great cleans, can have it driven at home volumes, loud enough if he ever wants to play with mates/in a pub etc.

Lestratcaster

darthed1981 said:

Boss Katana 50w...

This is the cheaper of my two recommendations. I haven't used one myself but everyone seems to love the Katana. 

Does it have a footswitch to operate clean/dirty channels? I think there's several channels on it (like 3-4)

darthed1981

Lestratcaster said:

darthed1981 said:

Boss Katana 50w...

This is the cheaper of my two recommendations. I haven't used one myself but everyone seems to love the Katana. 

Does it have a footswitch to operate clean/dirty channels? I think there's several channels on it (like 3-4)

The 50w will switch patches using a normal one-button foot switch (an unlatched one I think).

The 100w you can buy a fancy footswitch called the GA-FC that lets you control patches, banks, FX etc - this will NOT work with the 50w.

The 50w has two banks of two patches, so four can be stored in total.

FX wise, it's basically a cut down GT100 with an amp attached - with the default settings you can dial a lot of sounds from the panel, but you can also use the tone studio software to simply play with the default panel settings or for really in-depth patch creation - a big community making patches online as well.

I've got an old Mk1 Katana 50 and I've used it for literally everything, from home playing with the 1w mode, to small jams (where the 25w mode is plenty loud enough with a drummer...) to a small gig!

That's it's real strength is it does everything in one small relatively inexpensive box.

Many will say of course it would be better to have an amp that  does one thing superbly than lots of things competently - but if you switch a lot between styles, maybe doesn't apply as much..?

There was a lot of hype when they came out that everyone could chuck out their HRDs for a Katana or their boutique valve amps etc - which is obviously nonsense - and generated a lot of negativity for the brand from some quarters.

I think they are great little amps

BillDL

The footswitch is extra, but any standard 2 button latching footswitch with a cable terminating in stereo jack will work.  You can get them as cheap as £12.   It comes out of the box with 4 presets, two banks each storing settings for two channels, but immediately you move knobs it is into "live" mode or you can press the "Panel" button at any time to go into this manual mode.  You can store and overwrite those four presets, but can easily restore the amp to factory settings by following button presses detailed in the manual.  The footwitch allows you to to switch between BANK A and BANK B and CH1 and CH2.

Lestratcaster

darthed1981 said:

Lestratcaster said:

darthed1981 said:

Boss Katana 50w...

This is the cheaper of my two recommendations. I haven't used one myself but everyone seems to love the Katana. 

Does it have a footswitch to operate clean/dirty channels? I think there's several channels on it (like 3-4)

The 50w will switch patches using a normal one-button foot switch (an unlatched one I think).

The 100w you can buy a fancy footswitch called the GA-FC that lets you control patches, banks, FX etc - this will NOT work with the 50w.

The 50w has two banks of two patches, so four can be stored in total.

FX wise, it's basically a cut down GT100 with an amp attached - with the default settings you can dial a lot of sounds from the panel, but you can also use the tone studio software to simply play with the default panel settings or for really in-depth patch creation - a big community making patches online as well.

I've got an old Mk1 Katana 50 and I've used it for literally everything, from home playing with the 1w mode, to small jams (where the 25w mode is plenty loud enough with a drummer...) to a small gig!

That's it's real strength is it does everything in one small relatively inexpensive box.

Many will say of course it would be better to have an amp that  does one thing superbly than lots of things competently - but if you switch a lot between styles, maybe doesn't apply as much..?

There was a lot of hype when they came out that everyone could chuck out their HRDs for a Katana or their boutique valve amps etc - which is obviously nonsense - and generated a lot of negativity for the brand from some quarters.

I think they are great little amps

Right, I see, well he would only need 2 main sounds during songs - clean and dirty, maybe if he was doing a solo he can setup a 3rd channel as a boost.

I don't think they do any smaller sizes than a 50w but it has a switch to control the wattage doesn't it? Makes it versatile if he wanted to take it out to do gigs, or switch down to play at home.

I think he will stick with this for a while so it'd be good to get something that can do a bit of everything as he may grow out of this music style and maybe want to do more clean based songs perhaps.

darthed1981

BillDL said:

The footswitch is extra, but any standard 2 button latching footswitch with a cable terminating in stereo jack will work.  You can get them as cheap as £12.   It comes out of the box with 4 presets, two banks each storing settings for two channels, but immediately you move knobs it is into "live" mode.  You can store and overwrite those four presets, but can easily restore the amp to factory settings by following button presses detailed in the manual.  The footwitch allows you to to switch between BANK A and BANK B and CH1 and CH2.

Ahh -that's interesting - didn't realise a 2-button one now worked that way

BillDL

The Katana 50 is a pretty light amp that isn't a whole lot larger than its 12" speaker, but if students are coming to you for lessons it would still be a lot more to carry than the likes of a very portable Yamaha THR.

Jonathangus

Bright Onion do a 4-button switch to work with the Katana 50: https://www.brightonion.co.uk/katana-preset-footswitch/

Lestratcaster

BillDL said:

The Katana 50 is a pretty light amp that isn't a whole lot larger than its 12" speaker, but if students are coming to you for lessons it would still be a lot more to carry than the likes of a very portable Yahama THR.

Our lessons are mainly online so it'd pretty much stay in his house so I want a good one for him! Occasionally he does come into my teaching room but if he does he uses my Marshall DSL5cr combo which he likes, but they're around £300 odd right now. Any other electric learners use this too to save them carrying their own amp (makes changeover between lessons quicker too).

Jonathangus

Bright Onion do a 4-button switch to work with the Katana 50: https://www.brightonion.co.uk/katana-preset-footswitch/

monquixote

I'd say if he wants some decent FX then a Katana is going to be a winner.

If it's more about getting a decent base tone then the DSL will sound better (although the direct out is not amazing)

If buying secondhand then a Bandit or a Tech21 TM60 would also be options.

andy_k

I can't recommend anything other than the Katana 50 at this price point.
I use both the 100 watt combo and head versions, and with some vigilance either of these might be available second hand at just under £200, but the footswitch is an expensive add on, it does give access to 9 patches though, and is very heavy duty.
Another recommendation, which will be ridiculed by some, is a Marshall Code, 25 and 50, which are both essentially the same, but have very different cabs. The 25 is perfect for  home use, and I currently gig with a 50. Both are very cheap, but amazing value for money, the software is a bit buggy, by using blutooth for connection to the app, but once the pre-sets are stored and tweaked, can, and does sound great, for essentially the price of a decent overdrive pedal, the entire history of Marshall in a box.
Sadly, the idea didn't really catch on, and development stopped for some reason, but a 25 will be easy and cheap to find, I sold mine for £100, as it was redundant for me, I am using a 100 watt Katana head as my home amp-obviously only on half watt setting, and I love it.
Both of these options also double up as USB interfaces for the inevitable journey into computer recording, and both are massively tweakable via apps and software, more options than anybody would ever need. The Katana contains every Boss pedal, and the Marshall has modelled versions of every generation of Marshall amp and cab.
It is a great time to be a guitarist, really.

Lestratcaster

monquixote said:

I'd say if he wants some decent FX then a Katana is going to be a winner.

If it's more about getting a decent base tone then the DSL will sound better (although the direct out is not amazing)

If buying secondhand then a Bandit or a Tech21 TM60 would also be options.

His current one is a really crappy Harley Benton solid state one I think. The distortion channel is terrible. Fuzzy and farty. 

He really appreciates the difference between my Marshall combo and his one at home! But yes the direct out is a bit naff (much prefer the speaker sound but that'd involve him having to mic it up with an SM57 or something).

Lestratcaster

andy_k said:

I can't recommend anything other than the Katana 50 at this price point.
I use both the 100 watt combo and head versions, and with some vigilance either of these might be available second hand at just under £200, but the footswitch is an expensive add on, it does give access to 9 patches though, and is very heavy duty.
Another recommendation, which will be ridiculed by some, is a Marshall Code, 25 and 50, which are both essentially the same, but have very different cabs. The 25 is perfect for  home use, and I currently gig with a 50. Both are very cheap, but amazing value for money, the software is a bit buggy, by using blutooth for connection to the app, but once the pre-sets are stored and tweaked, can, and does sound great, for essentially the price of a decent overdrive pedal, the entire history of Marshall in a box.
Sadly, the idea didn't really catch on, and development stopped for some reason, but a 25 will be easy and cheap to find, I sold mine for £100, as it was redundant for me, I am using a 100 watt Katana head as my home amp-obviously only on half watt setting, and I love it.
Both of these options also double up as USB interfaces for the inevitable journey into computer recording, and both are massively tweakable via apps and software, more options than anybody would ever need. The Katana contains every Boss pedal, and the Marshall has modelled versions of every generation of Marshall amp and cab.
It is a great time to be a guitarist, really.

The Code 25 sounds alright, just looked up a demo of it. Obviously more friendly price too but I think they can get a better one than that. Also no footswitchable option as far as I can see.

They'd be better off with a Katana 50 I think.