Boss Katana Original and Official Irrational Love and Hate Thread™

[Alex Kenivel]

I had a Katana 100 and it was just okay. Swapped the speaker and it was still okay. I have a Cat 60 and it’s just okay. Swapped the speaker and it’s still just okay.

I'm only happy with my Katana after a speaker swap and a gratuitous amount of tweaking. I assume I wouldn't be able to tweak the Catalyst like I tweak the Katana so I'm not too hot to trot..

 

[TubeStack]

I love my Katana 100 head. Super useful, light, and fun head and crazy value. Perfect backup in the van for my Mesa at gigs and practices. Also makes a great power amp for my FM9. Sounds really good on its own too, with very little tweaking. I basically turned it on, adjusted a few things, and had a sold rock crunch tone going.

Nice job on the DIY closed cab! I love stuff like that but am too lazy/not-handy to even try it.

 

[TubeStack]

Bet it will sound so much thighter...

Thighmaster-approved!

 

[Jarick]

I'm only happy with my Katana after a speaker swap and a gratuitous amount of tweaking. I assume I wouldn't be able to tweak the Catalyst like I tweak the Katana so I'm not too hot to trot..

You can’t unfortunately. I didn’t like screwing around with the amp hack or whatever it was, actually didn’t like plugging the amp into the computer at all.

I think the Cat has better cleans but anything over a crunch sounds nasty. Katana was better there especially Brown.

I’ll probably sell the Cat at some point and try a different amp honestly. It’s nice as a powered speaker but that’s about it.

 

[Bob Zaod]

Don't mind the snakes, I know where they're all going.

Heh..I had to do so much meticulous cable management at my job for the past 20+ years or so, that it actually feels good to just let them all hang out LOL. Mine looks the same.

Is the Mosky dual switch for the Stomp? I have been considering switching to a stomp from my LT. I set up 8 patches on my LT using the spillover mode on LT to see if I could get along with having one path and did it successfully. I figure a Stomp would do the trick too if I had at least 2 more switches.

 

[Bob Zaod]

Here's my 1st love/hate thing with the Katana.

I love most of the compressors in it but I hate how much noise they introduce. Though I will admit I am used to the way the helix noise gate works, the Built-in noise gate on the Katana requires experimentation. I feel like I should not have to set it all the way up to 55 on a rhythm patch.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

Heh..I had to do so much meticulous cable management at my job for the past 20+ years or so, that it actually feels good to just let them all hang out LOL. Mine looks the same.

Is the Mosky dual switch for the Stomp? I have been considering switching to a stomp from my LT. I set up 8 patches on my LT using the spillover mode on LT to see if I could get along with having one path and did it successfully. I figure a Stomp would do the trick too if I had at least 2 more switches.

I'm really into making things neat and orderly, but nothing is ever too permanent in that arena so wrangling them all in doesn't make sense if I'm going to change it all up in a few weeks anyway and there are no tripping hazards so I know my music professor is smiling somewhere.

Yes that's the Mosky Dual, wired backwards from the factory but surprisingly still hasn't broken down on me since the beginning of 2019.

Here's my 1st love/hate thing with the Katana.

I love most of the compressors in it but I hate how much noise they introduce. Though I will admit I am used to the way the helix noise gate works, the Built-in noise gate on the Katana requires experimentation. I feel like I should not have to set it all the way up to 55 on a rhythm patch.

I think the gate is okay, not a lot of options to tweak but just enough to get by, same with compressors, while the chorus OTOH is very tweakable.. The TS boost adds a ton of noise too.

A lot of just okay, fine and get you by in a pinch -style FX

 

[Bob Zaod]

You can’t unfortunately. I didn’t like screwing around with the amp hack or whatever it was, actually didn’t like plugging the amp into the computer at all.

I think the Cat has better cleans but anything over a crunch sounds nasty. Katana was better there especially Brown.

I’ll probably sell the Cat at some point and try a different amp honestly. It’s nice as a powered speaker but that’s about it.

My exact sentiments. I spent a good amount of time testing the 100 and the 200 at a GC on several separate visits and though the cleans were good, I was not impressed with any of the gains or distorted sounds. I'd venture to say I have my clean for the Katana set up quite nicely and am getting there with the gain sounds. Even though not quite happy with the gains yet on katana I still find it much better than anything I heard come out of the Catalysts and I did test them with my number 1 guitar every time.

 

[-BOOGIEMAN-]

Hallelujah!!! Today I was finally able to update my Kat 50 and get the tone studio to work. I could not get it work since I’ve owned it. Found a video and finally figured it out. Definitely makes a difference in how this amp sounds. Now my interest in the Artist has grown big time…I’m not even kidding…

 

[Baba]

Okay, so i'm not crazy, that I didn't find anything special about the Katanas I tried in stores and certainly nothing that would dethrone a good tube amp, right?

 

[Bob Zaod]

Okay, so i'm not crazy, that I didn't find anything special about the Katanas I tried in stores and certainly nothing that would dethrone a good tube amp, right?

I love my Katana but on pure tone, no it will not replace a good tube amp. What it does replace is a pedalboard littered with pedals. If your chief concern is the tone and feel of a tube amp, that's not gonna happen with a Katana. It's more of a jack of all trades, master of none deal and that works perfect for someone like me who needs to cover a ton of ground between 3 different bands.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

Resurrecting this thread as I've been using my Katana a lot lately.

I've joined a low-effort garage/punk band and have been using it and my Epiphone IBG ES-335 for a few practices and will use it for our upcoming first show at a local thing called Solar Van Saturdays, where we plug into this van and rock out at a park near the water.

We'll likely be standing in dirt or grass so I don't want to bring pedals or a modeler.. The GA-FC will survive a nuclear winter because it's basically a Boss pedal.

Ch1a: Hairy Clean with a some Spring Reverb
Ch2a: Plexi Crunch with a little less Spring Reverb
Ch3a: Screaming 800 with barely any reverb.
Ch4a: Pushed Plexi Lead with slap back and some Plate Reverb

Ch1b: Hairy Clean with heavy Spring Reverb and Tremolo. I'll use this at the very end of our first song, switch off the trem and kick on a delay for the start of song two and switch back to the A bank for the rest of the set.

I recently descovered a severe limitation with the Booster section of the effects. Even if you save three different types of Boost effects to the three different colors, they all share the same parameters.

 

[timbuck3]

If you love it so much, why do you keep fucking with it?

View attachment 2891Making a very crude (semi) closed back panel today.

Cool

 

[timbuck3]

I like my katana gen 3 artist in stereo linked to my gen 2 katana 2-12 combo

 

[Alex Kenivel]

I like my katana gen 3 artist in stereo linked to my gen 2 katana 2-12 combo

I need to revisit the Stereo Expand one of these days. I tried it a little bit with the Fender Frontman I had and it was cool. I could run it to my 2x12 and BAM200 and get close to your rig, ha.

 

[ChordInversion]

Ok, joining in. I ordered a Gen3 Artist. When it arrives, I'll Stereo Expand it with my MkII. I really like the Waza speakers - the green on these Katanas and the blue on the Nextone Special.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

I've been eyeing Katana heads lately. Looking for a good used price on an Artist head since the controls are in front.

 

[Alonious_Monk]

Ordering a KatCab to go with my MK2 50w so I can link it to an ext. cab, hoping to gig with this but will need more time in the rehearsal room seeing if it cuts it when cranked. The built in gain is meh, but I'll be using gain pedals anyways.

I do like layering delay with a tad of reverb and just having that on all the time, as we're a post-punk vibed band. Will have to see.

 

[paisleywookiee]

Ok, joining in. I ordered a Gen3 Artist. When it arrives, I'll Stereo Expand it with my MkII. I really like the Waza speakers - the green on these Katanas and the blue on the Nextone Special.

Speakers make a BIG difference with the Kats. Not a fan of the non-Artist speakers personally.

 

[ChordInversion]

Speakers make a BIG difference with the Kats. Not a fan of the non-Artist speakers personally.

I sure do like the Waza speakers.

To me, the strength of many (relatively) higher end current generation digital combo amps is that they may give you some vague sonic ballparks, but they don't explicitly set out to target specific modeled amps. That's why I end up loving the Blues Cubes, THR100s, Katanas, and Nextones. Those last two both have Waza speakers in them, the descriptions of which vaguely gesture toward being higher watt Celestions, but do not in my estimation straight up mimic them. And that's a good thing in many contexts. Whenever I plug into one of those kinds of amps, I just dial in to a sound that sounds interesting. Sure, some have power tube settings or amps their docs and marketing talk about being kind of like, but that floats out of my mind pretty much immediately.

Having good speakers with distinctive sonic 'footprints' adds to that. It's not an FRFR-like speaker. It has a voice. You dial in with that voice in mind, rather than trying to mimic an amp with an entirely different cabinet and speaker compliment by ostensibly trying to work 'around' it.