So today I finally tried a Boss Katana

p90fool

Snags said:

Having just spent another weekend surrounded by a mix of Katana's and much dearer/more traditionally desirable stuff, I have to say they sound fine to me, certainly in a band context.

I can get how they might not be universally popular - after all there are many genres and styles of music because people have different tastes - but they categorically can't be described as objectively shit. They demonstrably aren't. They're also not the best thing in the world, but there's a place for them in the world, and it's not at the bottom of landfill. 

That's where mine went, when it was just out of warranty. 

darthed1981

Snags said:

Having just spent another weekend surrounded by a mix of Katana's and much dearer/more traditionally desirable stuff, I have to say they sound fine to me, certainly in a band context.

I can get how they might not be universally popular - after all there are many genres and styles of music because people have different tastes - but they categorically can't be described as objectively shit. They demonstrably aren't. They're also not the best thing in the world, but there's a place for them in the world, and it's not at the bottom of landfill. 

Double Wisdom...

Bridgehouse

A few thoughts from my experience having manned the desk for the gig @Snags was talking about..

We had a variety of players swapping and changing, in a fairly cramped space.. There were 3 amps being used - a Bassbreaker, a Deluxe, and of course, a Katana. 

The DI from the Katana was the only decent one - the bassbreaker was just a bit pants. So the other two were mic’d..

Broadly, it was actually difficult to tell who was going through which amp at any given time - mostly as there were boards in front of each. However, controlling levels and getting a decent mixed sound was far easier with the Katana (mostly due to DI) but.... from a sound and tone point of view, the Katana held it’s own very well. 

The reality is, in your average gigging situation, in a crowded pub or club, with all sorts of other stuff going on, the Katana will do an admirable job - and your sound guy will thank you for making his or her life a hell of a lot easier than a mic’d up classic valve amp. 

Find out what course you are on and choose your horse appropriately.

Snags

There was another one tucked away at the studio coping happily against a decent Marshall, Fender Reverb and @luttis posh thing. Yeah, in a pure isolated listening test there were differences, but in the room against drums, bass, vocal and other guitars it was just another acceptable layer. 

noisepolluter

I’ve not yet heard a Katana at a gig but it will be very interesting to do so - there have been various amps where I’ve heard them sounding great being gigged by other folks but I found I really couldn’t get along with them myself. 

Rocker

Somebody LOL'd my post above.  ?????????

ICBM

Rocker said:

Somebody LOL'd my post above.  ?????????

The ‘using the same power cable’ bit made me laugh .

LuttiS

Snags said:

There was another one tucked away at the studio coping happily against a decent Marshall, Fender Reverb and @luttis posh thing. Yeah, in a pure isolated listening test there were differences, but in the room against drums, bass, vocal and other guitars it was just another acceptable layer. 

Haha 'posh thing' - Kustom 36 coupe, tuck n' roll at its finest. 

And yeah, the Katana's all sounded fine, in the mix honestly couldn't tell who was going through what..

ionian

Meh, I have the Mk1 100w, I'm exactly the target market - a bedroom player who does the odd light gigging in pit bands and jam nights, and runs band workshops for teens. I play a bit of everything and don't want to muck around with a million menus.

I'm sorry to be so uncontroversial, but it has a range of usable tones and is versatile enough for anything I personally will throw at it. Plus it was £200! I haven't owned top end valve amps although I've played through them, I couldn't even start to compare. I'm not sure why you'd want to, it's a whole different market. But as a Swiss army knife amp it's as good as I need it to be - acceptable range of tones so I can concentrate on the dots. 

Sassafras

ICBM said:

Rocker said:

Somebody LOL'd my post above.  ?????????

The ‘using the same power cable’ bit made me laugh .

Yes, the same power cable isn't essential but it's absolutely vital that whichever cable you use it must've have been "burnt in" for a minimum of 100 hours.

midlifecrisis

p90fool said:

Snags said:

Having just spent another weekend surrounded by a mix of Katana's and much dearer/more traditionally desirable stuff, I have to say they sound fine to me, certainly in a band context.

I can get how they might not be universally popular - after all there are many genres and styles of music because people have different tastes - but they categorically can't be described as objectively shit. They demonstrably aren't. They're also not the best thing in the world, but there's a place for them in the world, and it's not at the bottom of landfill. 

That's where mine went, when it was just out of warranty. 

mine was out of warranty but roland/boss still collected, repaired and returned it to me all free of charge. great service

mrkb

Snags said:

There was another one tucked away at the studio coping happily against a decent Marshall, Fender Reverb and @luttis posh thing. Yeah, in a pure isolated listening test there were differences, but in the room against drums, bass, vocal and other guitars it was just another acceptable layer. 

Did someone play through my katana head and marshall cab in the practice room? I didn't get the chance, hope it sounded good.

p90fool

midlifecrisis said:

p90fool said:

Snags said:

Having just spent another weekend surrounded by a mix of Katana's and much dearer/more traditionally desirable stuff, I have to say they sound fine to me, certainly in a band context.

I can get how they might not be universally popular - after all there are many genres and styles of music because people have different tastes - but they categorically can't be described as objectively shit. They demonstrably aren't. They're also not the best thing in the world, but there's a place for them in the world, and it's not at the bottom of landfill. 

That's where mine went, when it was just out of warranty. 

mine was out of warranty but roland/boss still collected, repaired and returned it to me all free of charge. great service

I know and that is impressive, however I'd already sold mine before it dies and the next owner didn't like it enough to bother getting it fixed. 

joetele

Well, compared to the Hughes & Kettner Vortex I used in the practice room at the weekend, my Katana 100 is leagues ahead. It's also held its own against my old Peavey Valveking and my Peavey Bandit - all of which were used in the same place at loud volumes over a drummer. I mainly use the clean but I've used the gain channels and they're fine, it's easy to get a sound, and there's plenty of headroom. Plus as others have said, the DI out is great for recording and monitoring. Decent headphone sound with a proper set of cans too. 

Rocker

ICBM said:

Rocker said:

Somebody LOL'd my post above.  ?????????

The ‘using the same power cable’ bit made me laugh .

I can understand your thinking on power cables etc @ICBM but when comparing two amps it is better if only the amps are changed during the changeover process.  Everything else remains the same.

ICBM

Rocker said:

I can understand your thinking on power cables etc @ICBM but when comparing two amps it is better if only the amps are changed during the changeover process.  Everything else remains the same.

I agree up to a point, and some of the other things you said were sensible, but the power cable bit just made me laugh - I thought you might be joking . No offence intended.

Rocker

ICBM said:

Rocker said:

I can understand your thinking on power cables etc @ICBM but when comparing two amps it is better if only the amps are changed during the changeover process.  Everything else remains the same.

I agree up to a point, and some of the other things you said were sensible, but the power cable bit just made me laugh - I thought you might be joking . No offence intended.

Absolutely no offence taken my friend.  Part of my training as an electrician, way way back, was to try to have only one 'difference' each time when fault finding.  This way when the results changed it is easy to step back and determine if I found the fault or merely a symptom of the problem.

The sound from a guitar amp is a combination of sound and feel.  The dynamics (feel) may be different thus making the amp sound different to another similarily spec'd amp.  The mains cable probably makes no difference to the performance of the amp under test.  But in case it does, I prefer to see the tester use the same cable to test both amps.

steveledzep

 From reading on here, I gather @Rocker is knowledgeable about hifi.  I like my hifi too and the industry is obsessed with superior power supplies and snake oil quality cables.  I don't subscribe to the snake oil bit, but do agree that a power cable is important to the performance of the component being fed.  The quality of the power cable being used is irrelevant here, Rocker's point is that if you're comparing amplifiers, there must be zero variables other than the amplifiers themselves.

ICBM

steveledzep said:

 From reading on here, I gather @Rocker is knowledgeable about hifi.  I like my hifi too and the industry is obsessed with superior power supplies and snake oil quality cables.  I don't subscribe to the snake oil bit, but do agree that a power cable is important to the performance of the component being fed.  The quality of the power cable being used is irrelevant here, Rocker's point is that if you're comparing amplifiers, there must be zero variables other than the amplifiers themselves.

No, it's irrelevant. There is no difference in the sound of an amp caused by the power cable.

Even if there was, two different Boss Katanas will have power cables made to exactly the same spec so it would make no difference which you used.

I agree that it's important to change only one variable at a time, but the power cable really doesn't matter.

steveledzep

I tend to agree with you.  However, if the same power cable is used you don't have to persuade me that there will be no difference.