NAD: Line 6 Catalyst 60

grayn

Whilst I was out yesterday, buying a guitar, just as I had decided what to go for, I spotted this Catalyst 60 for sale.  I asked the shop guy what he thought of it and he said he hadn't tried it yet, as it had only come in the day before.  I had previously watched a few vids on this combo and had been impressed, so put my newly acquired Guild X-175 through it.  And yes, it had a good basic sound, before I fiddled with all the amp modelling, tone and effects knobs.  5 minutes later I decided this amp was a good one, pleasantly lightweight and surprisingly loud.  I thought it was new but no it was a mint, preowned example.  So, for next to nothing, the amp came home with me.

Having played through it last night and today, I am very glad I got this combo.  I mainly use clean and lightly overdriven sounds.  And to my ears, this Line 6 does a beautiful, vibrant clean and an on the edge of break up overdrive, that is far better than any other non-valve amp I have played through,  Which is quite a few, including Roland, Boss, Blackstar, Peavey, Orange, Vox, Marshall and Fender.

This amp has no menu screen, which makes accessing all it does, relatively easy.  You have 2 channels you can save your sound set-ups to and a Manual mode, for creating those sounds.  The digital reverbs are excellent and once you get to grips with how to cycle through and choose which effect you want to use, they are a pretty decent bunch, that sound good.  There's a very helpful attenuator and I found the 1/2 watt setting just right for home use.  You also get Mute, 30 watts and 60 watts, which as I said earlier, is plenty loud enough and should be enough for gigs, unless your band is super loud but most of us put our amps through the PA, so no problem.  And there are plenty of outputs here, too.  Physically the combo feels solid but is nice and light for lugging about.  I got a footwitch with mine, which switches between channels and can turn the effects on and off.  This is a seriously practical amp, which sounds great.  And at it's price, you could buy two, if you play in that super loud band.