Boss Katana Mk 3 - coming soon

allen

Here you go

https://lp1.boss.info/katana-gen-3

monquixote

I'm hoping they upgrade them to use AIRD rather than COSM to compete with Line 6 putting HX tech in everything. 

noisepolluter

monquixote said:

I'm hoping they upgrade them to use AIRD rather than COSM to compete with Line 6 putting HX tech in everything. 

Me too - I love the amp models in the GX-100, whereas I wasn’t keen on the sound of the Katana v2 I had briefly.

tomajoha

I have no experience of the katana amps but really like the modelling in the WAZA air headphones, I presume they use the same models?

guitars4you

Hope they put a tuner in it 

spark240

I was quite impressed with the Katana 50 at the last Jam day I did....though i find the Ui very counter intuitive. 

Bats_

Looks like you can buy the BT adapter for it so it might suggest it’s more of the GX100 internals… which is a good thing. Hopefully. 

darthed1981

I might get the Artist this time - had a Mk1 50w that's followed me around for years.

Be good to have...

A built in tuner.
Bluetooth
Updated modelling tech, but keep the "not being anything but a katana" sounds - not everything needs to be pretending to be an AC30, a Plexi and a Fender thingummy or whatever...
A phone app that does everything the PC software does.

StefB

The sales e-mails from retailers have started flooding in this morning.

I've yet to see anywhere so far what the actual upgrades are though other than cosmetic. 

They don't seem to have introduced AIRD modelling, so it looks like the emperor's new clothes to me until proven otherwise.

Modellista

The new "pushed" amp seems to be the big selling point on this.  The interminable GuitarGuitar review demonstrates it briefly (and talks about it forever).

Compared to my Mk1 there's loads of stuff that I'll never use, but if you're in a covers band and you need many very specific sounds, I guess the extra bits and pieces of tone shaping (contour, cab resonance, variation on each amp) might be worth it, although it's all analysis paralysis for me personally.

The simplicity of the Mk1 head is for me its selling point, something the newer generations have moved away from.  I just use it as a big clean pedal platform, with a bit of breakup on the clean channel, takes overdrive and pedals really well, loud enough for any stage, and has all the Boss pedals inside for when you need a sound which you don't have a pedal for.

Maybe the Mk3s' extra features may appeal to certain players with very specific requirements, and I imagine the fundamental tone is still good, but the extra faffery is a negative rather than a positive for me personally.

And how can GuitarGuitar make an hour-length video and leave me wondering what the amp is capable of?  A demo video should be 90% playing and 10% waffle, rather than the other way around.

monquixote

I agree with the complexity argument. 

The clear advantage to me of the Katana MKI vs the Spider MKV was that it had a few simple and easy to use models that sounded generally OK. Compared to the more kitchen sink, but lots of things sound a bit crap Spider. 

I was disappointed with the more bells and whistles MKII and the MKIII seems to continue this trend, but I suppose they might say that's what the Blues Cube and Nextone amps are aimed at. 

I prefer Line6 more recent route of improving the quality of the modelling, but keeping it simple. They seem to have put themselves in the niche that used to belong to Boss.

Modellista

^ Further to my whinge about GuitarGuitar's video, turns out Andertons know how to do a demo.

Rkphilpot

Just watched the andertons video, as a katana user I won't be rushing to buy a MK3.

Stereo headphones is great because I always practice with headphones.

The Bluetooth being a paid extra is a bit of a con giving that the katana go had that built in.

They've changed the USB to USB C finally.

And the voicings are different. However without hearing them next to mine I'd struggle to make a comment.

I wasn't sure what they could really add to the amp, what they have is cool, but I'll wait till they drop in price if I decide to get one at all.

Musicman20

I'm still on the MK1 - I primarily bought it for a cheap, grab and go amp that also had an acoustic option on it (barely ever used it!) and it's been great for small gigs and rehearsing.

I think I paid something daft like £235 for the 100W 1x12. 

I don't think I'll upgrade....no point really.

Sync

Modellista said:

^ Further to my whinge about GuitarGuitar's video, turns out Andertons know how to do a demo.

That Andertons vid has sold them for me. Enough incremental improvements without daft price hikes to make them a good choice.

A good refresh benefitting the new customers and no absolute driving obligation to upgrade for existing owners just a moderate temptation...... 

Barquentine

The 'pushed' mode in the Anderton's vid sounded very artificial to me.

KrisGee

Barquentine said:

The 'pushed' mode in the Anderton's vid sounded very artificial to me.

Yes. And to be fair - all Andertons selling vids sound bad to me. No matter whether it's an expensive tube amp or a modelling unit, always sounding like first POD that came out in the 90s. 

Lee and Peter sometimes dish out short clips of playing at home or in the office and they sound much better so must be something with how the post processing is being done. 

darthed1981

Musicman20 said:

I don't think I'll upgrade....no point really.

A lot of the online reviews have basically said if you have a katana already - its not that big of an upgrade.  It's still basically the same amp and the same speaker - the new bits are all software - the pushed mode would be useful but it fills a small gap between high-gain on the clean setting and low gain on the crunch setting.

I'm tempted by the Artist - but it costs as much as many different valve amps - and just like those - for most of my playing, like 99%, they are useless.

LordOxygen

Not had a Katana before, this one my finally tempt me to give the 100w version a go. The phone app looks very usable.

A quick question - will the phone app allow me to download a jimi hendrix or Keef tone, without having to dial it in myself?

darthed1981

LordOxygen said:

Not had a Katana before, this one my finally tempt me to give the 100w version a go. The phone app looks very usable.

A quick question - will the phone app allow me to download a jimi hendrix or Keef tone, without having to dial it in myself?

If it's anything like the PC app - there will be dozens of tones available to download.