Ok, I bought the 100 combo a week or so ago and have been waiting to do a gig with it before giving my thoughts on it. This will contain plenty of detail and may ramble a bit.
I programmed four patches at home, fully expecting to have to tweak them a bit at gig volume but hopefully less than with my valve amps, especially given the selectable output levels.
First impressions during soundcheck, BEAMY! Oh wow is it directional, ranging from pure mud when stood in front of it (it was on a chair), to absolutely cutting your head off when stood on the floor in front of the two-foot high stage we were playing on.
We were miked up through a reasonable PA so I could reach a bit of a compromise, but it was a mission. Forget the built-in tilt-back stand by the way, if the amp’s on the floor it offers two settings, it either fires at your toenails or your ankles.
The EQ tweaks I had to perform to get a similar sound on stage to what I was getting at home were radical, way more than with any other amp I’ve owned. I spent days last week coming back to it to give my patches minor adjustments, playing deep in the mix to loud backing tracks, using years of experience of setting up amps at low volumes and reliably predicting the results etc, then had to spin all the knobs like a crazy toddler with a Fisher-Price activity centre during soundcheck.
Ho-hum, at least I saved my new patches, and will every gig I think.
Next impression, it ain’t loud. I dialled it in at home using the 1/2 watt setting with the master at about 2 o’clock, expecting to need the 50w setting on about the same live. Wrong! Straight to 100w, with the master dimed, and it was just about loud enough on a biggish stage, and this with a dynamic, considerate band and a drummer using a Flats kit.
Now to be fair, I’m probably not a typical user. My core tone for this band is a mid-gain sound turned up pretty loud and the guitar volume rarely on ten. I always use some kind of master volume pedal in the loop {or expression pedal in this case} so I can have loud clean or quiet dirty if necessary, to cover a range of pop/rock styles with one channel.
I add a boost pedal to this which gets used a couple of times a gig. Consequently I need headroom and lots of it, plus I’d set my core patch to match a maxed-out acoustic-simulated patch in volume which means my channel volume was only around 2 o’clock, so I have a little room for manoeuvre for the next gig if I ditch the acoustic thing.
So not exactly plain sailing to start with, but by the third or fourth song it was starting to come together and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It sounded authentic, is small and light, and most important of all to me it reacted to my guitar controls and player input exactly as a good amp should.
I’ve just pulled the speaker out today to do something I do to all my gigging amps, I put a double layer gaffa tape cross between the speaker and the baffle. It makes your amp sound almost the same on or off axis, and stops you deafening three people at every gig with treble.
I have loads more thoughts to add regarding the software, the effects, the presence control, the EQ etc but I’ll leave it for now, I’d like to hear other peoples’ live experience with them.
Comments
Normally I'm on 50W, master at about 3 o'clock and channel volume down at 8-9 o'clock. Even at those settings, my keyboard player was complaining about the volume, and he's usually off-axis at about 90°
Trading feedback here
With the gain up higher and the guitar volume on 10 yes it really is bloody loud, but it wouldn't be appropriate for "I Will Survive".
I need versatility and headroom, not straight ahead rock all the time and the Katana is subjectively about as loud as a 20-30w valve amp, ie, borderline in terms of clean headroom on stage.
There has been a lot of debate online about whether it really can be 100w given that it only draws 77w from the wall and I've read a lot of plausible explanations about how a reputable company like Boss can make the science work, but sadly it really is just plain old bullshit.
Yes it CAN be loud, but it's car stereo loud, not guitar amp loud.
I'm going to have to do a video to demonstrate.
I'm not really criticising he amp, I really like it and it is pretty loud, but don't anyone be under the illusion that it's Quad of 6L6s loud.
Stick your amp on the floor and play standing up, then lean it back so it points directly at your head and note the difference in treble especially.
Then put the X tape on and try the same thing again. On and off axis won't be exactly the same, but they'll be much closer than before.
Avoid the screw holes by doing either a cross or an X, but remember to mic up the gaps not the tape!
http://i65.tinypic.com/2cniofc.jpg
Not doubting your experience, just kinda puzzled by it!
Trading feedback here
It may be you'd get better milage through using more channels?
Although if you have a "method" it would take some rehearsals to get used to channel switching between songs and the dynamics that go with it.
To be fair... If you're able to have a decent gig running from the guitar's volume control, then holy shit but this must be a pretty good amp. Your demands are relatively hard to meet from even a good valve amp - from a sub 500 quid amp it's remarkable.
I'd say this is a very, very positive review - despite the initial struggles. Well don't on not being afraid to turn those tone knobs!
Most valve amps are rated at where they start to break up so an AC30 is kicking out vastly more than 30 watts the way that Brian May uses them.
A solid state amp will sound like total shit and possibly blow up if it gets pushed past it's rated maximum so the 100 watts is going to be something that the amp is going to be actively preventing you from getting to even totally cranked.
Even within valve amps it's all total bollocks as there have been tests that suggested an AC30 can put out about as much sound pressure as a JCM800 even though one of them is rated at more than 3 times the other.
With all that said with the exception of Blackstar most SS amps are extremely generous in their output ratings.
It's not quite that big a ratio, but yes a 100 watt amp is not twice as loud as a 50 watt one.
The main thing is that amp manufacturers calculate wattages in a wide range of completely different and non comparable ways and there is a lot more that wattage that goes into how loud an amp is.
It really is a step forward in digital amp terms at this budget and I'm very happy with it.
To be absolutely fair, I'm in a band which never rehearses much above TV volume and never has a proper soundcheck, so I'm describing issues which I was having to overcome in a rush in front of a paying audience.
It is a genuinely impressive, natural-feeling amp, and I'm looking forward to another two gigs with it this week.