SeriesBoss Katana

I first bought this Katana 50, then a few days after I returned it to get the Katana 100 instead as I had regrets. I’ve used the Katana 100 as my regular working amp for 6 months now, and I’ll also mention that I own two other amps besides it: a Fender Deluxe Reverb and a small Yamaha THR 10. Let’s now get back to this Katana 50 which I’ve had the opportunity to use for a few days. The amp seemed to me very easy to use. If you like old-school amps, this one will ring a bell. No Bluetooth, screen or complex settings, it follows the same philosophy as the Roland Cube series: very easy to use. It features 5 sounds based on the GT1/GT100 technology. Some geek geniuses have found the way to unlock the sounds of the GT1 / GT100’s 28 amps on the katanas. Lol! In short, forget about Boss's marketing chat about Tube Logic or Wazza technology. Boss has made us a good series of unexpensive amps with the good old GT100 chip inside. It features 5 sounds: clean, crunch, lead, brown and acoustic, each of them based on a sound from the Boss GT100 pedalboard. Don’t hesitate to tweak your guitar’s knob to modify the grain – the amp reacts to such variations. The clean sounds very well and works for every style. It’s based on that featured on Roland’s jazz chorus 120. The crunch sounds is a tad fatwhen the gain is pushed, and you soon get into lead territory. Again, don’t hesitate to use the guitar’s knob to get convincing crunch sounds, even with the gain setting at ¼. If I remember correctly, the crunch sound is based on a Fender Tweed. The Lead is modelled after a EVH 5150. I really love it! It sounds very fat, too. I’m not too much into Brown sounds, but at least there’s something for every taste. IIRC, it’s modelled on a Soldano amp. As for the acoustic model, well… it’s almoist full-range to plug an electric acoustic guitar in. The sounds is very convincing using my own electric acoustic, but not only it. This channel is very transparent, so I also use it with my electric guitar to allow my distortion, overdrive and preamp pedals to come out more transparently, as they would if plugged straight on a PA or poweramp. This feature is all the more interesting on thes Katana 50 that the amp doesn’t feature an effect loop. The included effects are great. There’s really all kinds of effects and for once I found the result better sounding than on other amps in the same price range. Again, I believe they are the same that can be found on the GT 100 & GT 1 pedalboards as the processor seems the same. The Katana 50 provides enough volume but lacks a little projection and low end. So, for stage or rehearsal use I can only recommend the upper model – the 100W version which is more suited for such uses. Or perhaps even the 2x12 cab and amp head. The difference between the different Katana model scan be heard clearly here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiC6MTQsZsE The included power control switch could seem a little useless on a 50W solid state amp, yet it appears practical for home use. Please note that the 0.5W setting already rocks – well enough for playing at home or in an apartment. Its cons according to me: - No presence setting. It would have helped to tame this 50W version’s sparkling aspect. If I remember correctly, the presence can be set using the Tone Studio software, but not directly on the amp. - Limited connectors: no effect loop, no line out, only one pedalboard out. This is the series’ entry level model, and the connectors reflect that. - The speaker’s quality : the sound is too shrilly to my taste, and the amp lacks projection with clean sounds. However, playing at moderate levels reveals no such big problem, while the highs quickly pierce your ears when the volume is pushed – more than with the 100 version. - No tuner: too bad on an amp that can be considered as a working tool. Its pros: - Its look and name: yeah, I know, it’s all about taste but I love them. - Its price: not much to be reproached considering the price - Its size and power, which make it the most suited amp to be used professionally in that series - The possibility to plug an electric acoustic guitar in: a great, alas rare feature! Plus, this channel’s transparency when used with external preamps. - The amp’s sensibility and reactivity to the guitar’s setting for a solid state/modelling amp - The included effects, which are very good as a whole. - The power control switch - The MP3 in & headphone out - The possibility to unlock more amp sounds & effects by tweaking it. Google “katana sneaky amps” for more details – in a nutshell, you can unlock almost all of the Boss GT100/GT1’s amps and effects, for a total 28 or 30 amps and many effects. Considering its price, it’s a really surprising “small” amp!

I have owned the Katana 100 watt amplifier with 1 12" speaker now for a month,..I have warmed up to it slowly since getting it from fear that once again I would be disappointed with any amp I bought for under $500.00 that doesn't have tubes in it, I live and play around the Boston area and usually bring along a fender supersonic tube amp (when I really don't mind breaking my back for good tone) or if I'm feeling a bit tired I will bring my fender cyber deluxe (which has a few great sounds that can compete with some tube amps) to local gig's and open mic's. I have been playing guitar for about 20 years and consider myself a good guitarist who strives to have a very good tone every time I play,..its important to me. I purchased my Katana online (Ebay) and bought it from a gentleman who bought it for a music school that realized it had bought to many amp's so this one had to go, the gentleman said he would let it go for $400.00 WITH the GA-FC footswitch included, it was new in the box warranty and all. When I first got the Amp I was impressed with the way it looked everything seemed very familiar (unlike the fender cyber deluxe for instance) but the real surprise was when I plugged my vigier Excalibur with suhr pickups into it (ssh+,ssv),...not only did the amp SOUND and respond like a tube amp,..it FELT like a tube amp, which is very hard to understand if you don't play guitar, great rock and fusion tones are there (brown channel) as well as a VERY usable clean channel (I can hardly use any clean channels on the cyber deluxe because they just don't break up in a good way and spike in the treble way to much)after playing this amp for 2 hours the day I got it I didn't even want to LISTEN to my cyber deluxe never mind play through it, the Katana had a great sag to it, and the breakup and the compression on the clean channel sounded amazing and I haven't really even made it to the effects portion of the amp's capability which is incredible if you play open mics or small gigs and you don't want to carry a pedalboard around with you. The katana software is pretty easy to use if your a little computer savvy and have some patients the payoff is well worth it, it took me 1 hour to set up the software and start downloading different effects into my Katana (it would of taken a shorter time if not for having to update the katana which took about 1/2 hour) in 2 hours I had programmed my katana with 4 different sounds on all 4 channels and now it was time for the big test.... I took this amp to a big open mic blues jam we have here in town at a place called cellys pub in Lynn,ma its a big place with a stage and all. My setup took less than 2 minutes (which consisted of me plugging in my guitar, the amp,..then the foot controller,.I jammed on 4 blues tunes and this amp just killed, not only did I get compliments on the tone but I could HEAR THE DIFFERENCE easily, the number one thing for me about this amp is the DYNAMICS you can get out of it,...pick soft,..it sounds SOFT , pick hard and it produces a little good dirt,..amazing that I pretty much played the whole gig on the first channel (clean) used a built in boost to dirty it up and controlled a majority of the volume with my VOLUME knob! I never turned the master volume on this amp to more than 6, that was playing with another guitarist, a drummer, bass player, singer and harmonica player!!! the fender supersonic is a great amp (and it should be for $1000) but when I A/B the two,.. for the money,sound and all the effects you get not to mention the mobility issue the clear winner was the Katana, unbelievable value for the money, I recently have gotten back into shred and there are some great sounds there as well, no problem going from Paul Gilbert to danny gatton with this amp, the versatility, sound and thanks to BOSS a whole bunch of pedals for the right price ...$0....gets me thinking I got an incredible Deal, then I plug my guitar into this amp, listen and then I KNOW I got not only an incredible deal,..but an incredible amp.