Am I the only one who didnt dig the Katana ?

richardhomer

In other news, my Custom Shop Strat definitely out-performed a Marlin Sidewinder I compared it to....

darthed1981

Telejester said:

The katana was way cheaper at about two hundred quid and the the cornell was £1100, but tell ya what id pay the extra 900 in a heartbeat, the difference really was that obvious.

Well, good on you having an extra spare £900!

Remember though, not everyone has got £1100 kicking around, and if they do, they may have other demands for it.  Remember £1100 will buy you a servicable car, a good chunk of a new boiler, a major car or house repair, and so on.

The great thing about the Katana is that it brings the quality it brings to a price point of £180.  The next Hendrix, if there ever is such a thing, is not going to necessarily be someone who has a spare £1100, or necessarily even £200.

I'm not accusing you of snobbery BTW, though there is a LOT of snobbery over guitar gear, but the perspective is skewed.  If an £1100 amp is not significantly, obviously superior to a £180 one, then the gear market would be in a lot of trouble.  You can easily pay more than that for a pedal!

In terms of young (or old) players starting out, or on a budget, you can get a decent giggable rig now for < £300, with something like a Bullet squier and a Katana, or similar.  That might be still be a huge stretch for people in tight times, but its real progress.  Stretch to £500 for your gear, and frankly you should be in hogs heaven.

It's always great to be wealthy, and if people can afford to spend £10k or £15k on boutique amps and CS guitars, then good for them, no doubt worked hard for their money.  But lets be fair about cheap gear, its damn good these days.

frictionfraction

Bangs for your bucks it can't be beaten.... do I want one?  - no 

Sassafras

I want to know what sort of divvy shop assistant thought it would be a good idea for you to compare the Katana to the Cornell.

So, you're now the proud owner of a Cornell?

usedtobe

Maybe not such a divvy, @Sassafras ;

usedtobe

Apologies for the ;
 I don't know where it came from, and I couldn't edit it out, when I tried afterwards. Bloody phone!

jellyroll

usedtobe said:

Apologies for the ;
 I don't know where it came from, and I couldn't edit it out, when I tried afterwards. Bloody phone!

Never apologise for a semi.

usedtobe

  

photek

At home volume the Katana 50 sounds better than my Marshall Jubilee, Marshall PA20, Bad Cat Hot Cat 30, Cornford Hellcat, Bluesbreaker etc etc...

Unless I get my pedalboard out that is!

The 'secret' (that I only reaslised last week) with the Katana is to crank the master volume up full and use the channel volume to control it.

JayGee

It's that thing with internet hype and unrealistic expectations again isn't it?

I bought mine with the hope and expectation that it would be good enough to act as a reasonably priced "one box" alternative to big amp + 2x12 cab + big-ish pedalboard for rehearsals and gigs where we were either pushed for space or needed to get in/out quickly, and so far it's proved (considerably) more than good enough.

As a "tone machine" it's no match for the Swart AST, Dr Z Z-Wreck, or '80s Fender Super Champ we've got around the house, on the other hand it's a hell of a lot more versatile than any of them, kicks the arse of the Fender Frontman DSP I'd previously used for a couple of "tight" gigs, and gets close enough to matching the Mesa 5:25 and Blackstar Series One to make it pretty clear that we're probably only one or two generations away from "commodity" DSP/modelling based amps like the Katana being on equal terms with "commodity" (as distinct from boutique) valve amps for a fraction of the price. In fact the Katana's probably as good as or better than quite a few mass market valve amps right now...

ThePrettyDamned

JayGee said:

It's that thing with internet hype and unrealistic expectations again isn't it?

I bought mine with the hope and expectation that it would be good enough to act as a reasonably priced "one box" alternative to big amp + 2x12 cab + big-ish pedalboard for rehearsals and gigs where we were either pushed for space or needed to get in/out quickly, and so far it's proved (considerably) more than good enough.

As a "tone machine" it's no match for the Swart AST, Dr Z Z-Wreck, or '80s Fender Super Champ we've got around the house, on the other hand it's a hell of a lot more versatile than any of them, kicks the arse of the Fender Frontman DSP I'd previously used for a couple of "tight" gigs, and gets close enough to matching the Mesa 5:25 and Blackstar Series One to make it pretty clear that we're probably only one or two generations away from "commodity" DSP/modelling based amps like the Katana being on equal terms with "commodity" (as distinct from boutique) valve amps for a fraction of the price. In fact the Katana's probably as good as or better than quite a few mass market valve amps right now...

Certainly for classic Marshall driven clean tones at rehearsal volume, the 2x12 combo was ace. It really sounded great - I was surprised to see it was a boss katana. I was expecting maybe a JTM45, jcm 800, or even a great pedal into a clean amp. 

We've never had it so good. 

wraub

darthed1981 said:

Telejester said:

The katana was way cheaper at about two hundred quid and the the cornell was £1100, but tell ya what id pay the extra 900 in a heartbeat, the difference really was that obvious.

Well, good on you having an extra spare £900!

Remember though, not everyone has got £1100 kicking around, and if they do, they may have other demands for it.  Remember £1100 will buy you a servicable car, a good chunk of a new boiler, a major car or house repair, and so on.

The great thing about the Katana is that it brings the quality it brings to a price point of £180.  The next Hendrix, if there ever is such a thing, is not going to necessarily be someone who has a spare £1100, or necessarily even £200.

I'm not accusing you of snobbery BTW, though there is a LOT of snobbery over guitar gear, but the perspective is skewed.  If an £1100 amp is not significantly, obviously superior to a £180 one, then the gear market would be in a lot of trouble.  You can easily pay more than that for a pedal!

In terms of young (or old) players starting out, or on a budget, you can get a decent giggable rig now for < £300, with something like a Bullet squier and a Katana, or similar.  That might be still be a huge stretch for people in tight times, but its real progress.  Stretch to £500 for your gear, and frankly you should be in hogs heaven.

It's always great to be wealthy, and if people can afford to spend £10k or £15k on boutique amps and CS guitars, then good for them, no doubt worked hard for their money.  But lets be fair about cheap gear, its damn good these days.

As one almost always on a low budget, the fact that I could reliably and happily gig with my Firefly guitar and Katana 50 combo means I am not complaining.

ICBM

Telejester said:

Am I the only one who didnt dig the Katana ?

I hadn't tried one when this thread was active the first time around, but having done now...

I absolutely hated it - and not just in comparison to an expensive valve amp, in comparison to almost *any* amp. But you all probably know that anyway .

MagicPigDetective

It’s a good pedal platform. I’m finding my replacement for it, an Orange Rocker 15 far superior, even at low volumes. It sounds so much better.

octatonic

Holy necro-thread batman.

I've got one- a 50w combo.
It was a means to an end when living in Singapore where I couldn't use a 50w tube amp in a concrete walled apartment.
I don't love it, I don't hate it.

I might never use it again except as a backup, which it will be fine for.

randella

ICBM said:

I absolutely hated it - and not just in comparison to an expensive valve amp, in comparison to almost *any* amp. But you all probably know that anyway .

You should have said - we've all been wondering

monquixote

I'm interested if anyone who has talked about the "Harsh frequency" that Katanas have has watched this video:

Pete identifies a frequency in the comparison which he uses to identify the speakers.

I wonder if for those of you that don't like the Katana if the speaker is the problem and you like it with a different Celestion in it?

ICBM

monquixote said:

I wonder if for those of you that don't like the Katana if the speaker is the problem and you like it with a different Celestion in it?

Not impossible that it's a significant part of it, but from my fairly wide experience with different amps and speakers, I very much doubt it's the whole problem.

It's not just a frequency issue, it's something in the dynamics which I found made it incredibly hard-sounding and fatiguing to listen to - even on clean sounds.

monquixote

ICBM said:

monquixote said:

I wonder if for those of you that don't like the Katana if the speaker is the problem and you like it with a different Celestion in it?

Not impossible that it's a significant part of it, but from my fairly wide experience with different amps and speakers, I very much doubt it's the whole problem.

It's not just a frequency issue, it's something in the dynamics which I found made it incredibly hard-sounding and fatiguing to listen to - even on clean sounds.

Would be interested to hear what you think of the sounds in the video.

ICBM

monquixote said:

Would be interested to hear what you think of the sounds in the video.

I'll have a listen later when I can use my good speakers. In advance though, I didn't hear the fatiguing sound as much even on previous clips of the Katana - I've never thought the clips sounded great, but still wasn't quite prepared for how bad the amp sounded when sitting in front of it.