Shown up by a Katana

Legionreturns

chrishill901 said:

Neil said:

I can't believe the plaudits I have read for the Katana, seems like a fantastic amp and for very little money.

One question, is the 50w version OK for home volumes, is the sound still as good?

Well I’ve just bought one and ive been playing it until 11pm tonight at tv volumes and I’ve got to say it sounds fantastic! What I will say is that it sounds WAY better if you set the master volume high and use the channel volume as your overall volume. I know it sounds counter intuitive but to my ears it sounds a lot better

That's a pretty regularly circulated bit of advice and has always worked for me. 

stratman3142

midlifecrisis said:

am wondering how repairable these are if/when they go wrong out of warranty

I'm sure it's not a huge issue knowing Boss reliability but, at under £280 for the 1x12 100W combo, it's in the territory of "if it goes wrong then just get a new one".

I'm tempted.

Voxman

olafgarten said:

p90fool said:

JayGee said:

Danny1969 said:

I must say though I'm interested in trying one. I have played alongside another guy with one but I never paid any attention to how it sounded at the time

I think the fact you didn’t pay it any attention is probably actually a perverse kind of praise for amps like the Katana - it’s not life changing wonderful, it’s just a useful tool and once you’re over all the clever stuff and the crazy value for money it just sits there unassumingly providing a decent range of usable sounds without really drawing attention to itself. :-)

That's pretty much my feeling too, it's light and I don't need any pedals, power supplies, batteries etc, except for a tuner. 
 

The lack of a tuner is a bit of an oversight, even a basic tuner would mean that you would only have to take the guitar and amp. Now you need a tuner + batteries/power supply

No you don't - just a simple clip-on tuner. I have 2 of the Reverb tuners that every now and again you see on offer for just £2 (£8 normally) and they are blindingly good. Surprisingly accurate not just for tuning but for intonation too.  It was so good and so cheap, I bought a second one as a spare when the offer came up again.  Been offered at £2 three times now - the first one I stupidly broke (my fault!) hence why I bought a spare...well, at £2 each it seemed rude not to!! 

So you really don't need to take a tuner/batteries/power-supply. And there's also apps for your phone now too inc a very good Boss tuner!  

Voxman

stratman3142 said:

midlifecrisis said:

am wondering how repairable these are if/when they go wrong out of warranty

I'm not sure it's a not huge issue knowing Boss reliability but, at under £280 for the 1x12 100W combo, it's in the territory of "if it goes wrong then just get a new one".

I'm tempted.

Me too! If I only had the room!

BUT for me there are two big downers with the Katana:

First - its £85 floor pedal...it has no patch-naming facility.  Once you hit 8 patches (which you can now do with the 100w versions) for gigging it makes life sooo much easier when you are moving in/out of stomp box mode and patch mode, to see where you are in an instant. And £85 for the floor controller (essential for gigging IMHO) is a bit steep when you consider the Marshall CODE pedal is only £49 and they do pretty much the same thing. Kind of partly negates the great price of the Katana.  

Second - although it has a line-out, phones-out, FX loop, USB, & 2xpedal inputs - it has no extn cab out.  So if I bought the smaller, lighter cheaper 1x12 (rather than the 2x12) and wanted to plug into a 2x12 or 4x12 - I couldn't (ignoring 'mods' that would invalidate the warranty).  As good as the Katana is reported to be, there are limits re fullness of sound that any 1 x 12" combo can deliver.  It would be such a simple and inexpensive thing to add on too.  But to be fair the Fender Mustangs, Vox Valvetronix, nor Marshall Codes provide an extn cab out either.  Perhaps its intentional, to make you opt for the 2x12 versions or even the heads. 

Add these two things & the 1x12 combo would be just about perfect!   

p90fool

Voxman said:

olafgarten said:

p90fool said:

JayGee said:

Danny1969 said:

I must say though I'm interested in trying one. I have played alongside another guy with one but I never paid any attention to how it sounded at the time

I think the fact you didn’t pay it any attention is probably actually a perverse kind of praise for amps like the Katana - it’s not life changing wonderful, it’s just a useful tool and once you’re over all the clever stuff and the crazy value for money it just sits there unassumingly providing a decent range of usable sounds without really drawing attention to itself. :-)

That's pretty much my feeling too, it's light and I don't need any pedals, power supplies, batteries etc, except for a tuner. 
 

The lack of a tuner is a bit of an oversight, even a basic tuner would mean that you would only have to take the guitar and amp. Now you need a tuner + batteries/power supply

No you don't - just a simple clip-on tuner. I have 2 of the Reverb tuners that every now and again you see on offer for just £2 (£8 normally) and they are blindingly good. Surprisingly accurate not just for tuning but for intonation too.  It was so good and so cheap, I bought a second one as a spare when the offer came up again.  Been offered at £2 three times now - the first one I stupidly broke (my fault!) hence why I bought a spare...well, at £2 each it seemed rude not to!! 

So you really don't need to take a tuner/batteries/power-supply. And there's also apps for your phone now too inc a very good Boss tuner!  

I can't use my phone onstage, and headstock tuners are useless when the DJ is pounding away six feet away or your own bass player is doing an intro. 

I still use a good pedal tuner, the rechargeable batteries last way longer too. 

flyingv

Vaiai said:

Boss actually shared my old band's recent vid as Steve the guitarists got a Katana. He has an white Bogner Uberschall but was getting fed up carrying it around! So he got the Katana and it's certainly loud enough!:

Take it' this  would be the 100Watt version?

MagicPigDetective

How are people pronouncing it? I reckon it should be with equal emphasis on each short syllable, as per Japanese pronunciation. Ka-ta-na. Not Kuh-taaaaa-nuh