I have a mk1 Boss katana 100 with a Ga-fc foot pedal.
Always had trouble getting decent cleans and overdrive ,i can get okish ones, but never really good ones like the demos on you tube show .
I can't really be bothered with hooking it up to a laptop and using the Boss tone studio ( or is that my only way ? )
Some forums say dial master vol up and use other volume for levels then others say do the opposite .
I think the problem is i've always got it on 0.5 setting as my walls are thin and don't want complaints off the neighbours .
I'm thinking if it needs to go louder to get a decent tone why don't i just sell it with the foot controller for £250 and buy the Posotive grid spark ? .
I'm not in a band or gigging so really don't know why i should keep the 100, might have a couple of jam's a year with my mate but thats it.
What's bugging me a bit is i'd be swapping an amp and pedal you could gig with for a little box with what looks like 2 car speakers in it worth £50 and the rest of the money is for the app for playing along backing tracks etc .
Should i keep the Katana? am i doing something stupidly wrong to be getting average tones out of the amp when everyone else raves about the tube like tone's out of there Katanas .
What would you do ? any Katana owners with tips ?
Comments
THR10.
But first, see what happens if you set the power up higher and turn the master volume down. I know that sounds counterintuitive because everyone 'knows' that you need low power for playing at home so you can crank the volume, but personally I've always found that it's self-defeating and that most amps sound better the other way round.
However... (disclaimer, I know this is not a universal opinion)
I'll admit to not having tried the Katana 100, but the 50 I did try is one of the worst-sounding amps I've ever played regardless of what anyone else says or Youtube demos (which also sound bad to me, for what it's worth). To me it sounded nothing like any decent valve amp at all - clean or dirty, there's something hard and fatiguing about the sound that can't be dialled out irrespective of the amp settings. I didn't try the computer editing.
And don't buy a Blackstar ID Core either . Although the proper ID series are OK.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
The AC15 is above my budget.
I might have the same "ears" as @ICBM
I might have a look at the Vox VT40x
I can't get enough of that Orange tone.
It can be improved by running it at 16 ohms not 8 or 4, and using a lower-gain valve also helps a lot, but it's still not even close to the sound of any of the bigger Oranges.
The Rocker 15 is like a more versatile Tiny Terror and also has a very-low-power 'bedroom' setting, if that's useful to know.
I'm also a big fan of the Vox modelling amps, if that helps - all the way from the Mini5 upwards, they all sound good to me.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
What I've found is that both the Spark and Katana sound better louder -which sort of defeats the object-(whichever method of Master/volume you use) but in both cases I go from thinking they both sound shit to both sounding great on different days(same settings) where as the JVM always sounded good and I wish I had kept it!
So, basically Both the Katana and Spark have some good tones in them but could lead to lots of time programming first rather than just switching on and playing.
Hope this meandering waffle helps some-one, and as always YMMV(hope thats the right acronym!)
EDIT-forgot to add the Katana probably has the edge over the spark for me.
I like the small form, and speaker, I guess you struggle with trying to get anything to do everything.
Katana was a great disrupter for amps, a lot of features at a low cost.
I think stuff like the Spark will go down as well as the Marshall Code series, many features that can do everything, just not quite well enough.
In the end, a 1x12 combo will sound better for some things than a small digital box, and vice versa.
I think the trick is to work with what you have, make it work for you. The fact you have not looked into the PC software tells me you haven't quite got there with the amp yet.
I would be tempted to try the headphone out through some smaller blutooth speaker to try getting more out of the Master / main volume settings, and at least you will be able to see how you like stuff sounding through smaller speakers.
I'd try it on something cheap and cheerful first, just in case anything blows.
In short, I like the Katana, a lot, but it will never stack up against a good valve amp at a particular volume, same as can be said about valve vs valve amp really.
Oddly, then, I later got hold of one of the new Katana 100 Mk2 amps, can't really even remember why to be honest. Bought it a year ago in fact, but only used it once or twice until yesterday when I decided to give it a proper go. After much experimentation I found some decent, warmer tones within it.
Not sure it's ever going to sound better than my blues junior iv for Fender cleans, but it's been resurrected in my house now, as I got tired of using pedals with the BJr when the Katana with GAFC foot controller is a more convenient route to something that's not all that much worse to my ears and takes up less space.
I've always been a home player only, so my experience is limited to just that, but the Katana was due to be sold and has avoided that fate, for now.
Often you need to just experiment more, I think.
For example, I also had all of the original Yamaha THR amps at one time or another, and loved them, but when the new wireless one came out I tried it and thought it sounded inferior.
Then, many months later, I read about the firmware update and some other changes they'd implemented & decided to give it another go. Initially it was still a bit disappointing, but after plenty of EQ and setting tweaks I'm now very happy with it indeed.
It has even superceded my Vox Adio, my longtime favourite sounding bookshelf modeller.
I wouldn't go to the hassle of selling and buying a replacement until you've tried this unless you're bored and want to anyway.
I battled with one of these amps for dozens of gigs because of its finicky EQ and unpredictable reaction to venues and band mixes, but it was always a great home amp once I'd sorted out the global EQ.
I'd say rather than get a new amp, get a dirt pedal you really like and use that with the clean channel of the Katana. Much less expensive option.
Its a brilliant amplifier once you get to know how to use it with the shed load of tone options.
It also loves pedals.
I hope one day I get to play it at full volume.
Yes I've changed mine. You only need to do this once if you don't want to faff about with a computer. Just find the three you like the most then your done.
I have the Guvnor set as one of my three now rather than the default.
I think I understand the tones you are looking for, and there is a mix of amp tone / speaker tone involved.
At least with the Katana, it is an easy process to save patches as presets, which can then be compared via different speakers.
Using smaller speakers via the HP out, may allow you to find the volume sweet spot on either channel or master vol, and I would expect you can get where you want to be, the stock Katana speaker is adequate, and is at it's best after a few hours of break in, this might take considerably longer if it never gets to working volume.
I would give it more time, and there is masses of info out there for this amp.
Can't be bothered to rig the laptop up to it again tonight to check, but if I recall correctly, you could have, say, a tube screamer, blues driver and Guvnor on any given patch, but then have different 'pedals' on another patch, eg three flavours of fuzz pedal.....