Anyone else have a Boss Katana?

[Dan M]

And furthermore: Have you realized that with a little time in the tone studio, you can replicate every pedal you own with it? For 300 bucks and the footprint of a house cat.

A rational man would stop this pedal building habit all together. But he also wouldn't understand the joy of plugging DIY pedals into a JCM800 half stack in your basement and playing the same 8 power chords for an hour.

On a serious note, the Katana is a pretty cool amp. I have the head, so I can:
1. Use the internal speaker as a practice amp.
2. Run headphones out of it.
3. Use it to answer questions like, "Do I really want a flanger pedal. . . or do I just *think* I want a flanger pedal?"
4. Use it for things I can't do with the Marshall. Like weird ambient mod/delay/reverb stuff, since I don't have the actual pedals.
5. Get good tone out of it. And it has the power to be loud through the the 4x12. Once it's loud enough to move some air and feel the vibration, it makes me grin like a goofy 12 year old kid.

I really like it. But there's some sort of magic inside the JCM that's not inside the Katana. I don't know if it's truly in the sound or if it's just emotional attachment inside my brain. I'm guessing it's the second one, and in a blind test I'd have no idea which was which.

Hmm. I just took a long pause after I wrote the last sentence. Because the most glorious sound I've ever created came from a Gibson SG into a Fuzzlord FET120 into the effects loop return of the JCM. And I haven't replicated that sound with the Katana. Well, now I'm just rambling in a circle.

Dan

 

[Blooze]

I’ve had the mk1 100W combo since they came out and a handful of Juca Nery’s Patches. It’s fun to play with and you can get some good sounds, but as usual I end up spending more time tweaking than anything else to the point it becomes frustrating. I like the usb out to record with though. And despite what everyone says, to me it just doesn’t have that feel of a tube amp. You like what you’re used to I guess though. Honestly the Orange Crush 120 is the best SS amp I’ve ever played. Very tube like IMO.

I usually build a pedal, play it for a week or so and up on the shelf it goes. I enjoy the building part and hearing what tweaks do and such. There are a couple exceptions like some of the old fuzz designs, but I have yet to build a pedal that compares to most of the commercial ones I’ve bought.

Most of the time I prefer to just plug straight into my tube amps and go because I didn’t ever use a pedal or anything else for a long time and it’s what I’m used to..

 

[BuddytheReow]

I’ve got the MKII 100w head and cabinet. This thing can get LOUD and I love that it has a power attenuator. In my basement there’s really no need to go beyond .5W unless the wife isn’t home.

Tons of effects built in and very tweakable to a degree. I love how you can upload patches that others have done.

Effects loop and power amp only function is pretty neat as well.

And for the price? Can’t be beat. I was torn between this and a Mesa MKIV. The Mesa won, but cost 10x more. I’d rather spend that money on Tayda or Small Bear

 

[SillyOctpuss]

I had a katana 50 for a while as a quiet amp for practice when my kid was in bed. I bought it based on reviews and it was pretty good for the quiet practice at night.

I ended up moving it on because there was a weird midrange which I was never able to dial out which got worse as it got louder. For the money I paid though I can't think of anything better.

I ended up replacing it with a HX Stomp but the cost of a stomp and decent studio monitors (I already had the minitors) is considerably higher than a katana 50 so it's not really a fair comparison.

 

[spi]

you can replicate every pedal you own with it?

The last thing I want is a device that can replicate every pedal I own. What would I do with all these pedals!?

3. Use it to answer questions like, "Do I really want a flanger pedal. . . or do I just *think* I want a flanger pedal?"

The correct answer is build it, then decide

A rational man would stop this pedal building habit all together. But he also wouldn't understand the joy of plugging DIY pedals into a JCM800 half stack in your basement and playing the same 8 power chords for an hour.

My thoughts exactly!

 

[Dan M]

Well, the Katana has convinced me that I need a flanger pedal.

So it has officially changed from:
“buy this amp and you don’t need pedals” into
“buy this amp and it will show you all of the pedals you are missing”

 

[BuddytheReow]

^^^THIS

 

[fig]

Well, the Katana has convinced me that I need a flanger pedal.

So it has officially changed from:
“buy this amp and you don’t need pedals” into
“buy this amp and it will show you all of the pedals you are missing”

Careful.....that flanger will whisper in your ear...chorus...chorus...

 

[jeffwhitfield]

Pretty much the same thing happened with my HX Stomp. Ended up building a hybrid system around it with analog pedals running through the effects loop. Way too many options now.