Boss Katana Original and Official Irrational Love and Hate Thread™

[dbagchee]

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.

I got one of the KatCabs for my Catalyst. It’s nice to be able to run into some closed back cabs!

 

[Alonious_Monk]

I got one of the KatCabs for my Catalyst. It’s nice to be able to run into some closed back cabs!

I have the Harley Benton 1x12 V30, so looking forward to hearing that.

As I'm in the UK instead of the KatCab, it's actually the Dual Wield by FiveCats, but same concept.

 

[krb813]

I'm running a Gen 3 Katana Artist Head with a Mesa 2x12 Rectifier cab. It sounds great. I'm real happy with that setup.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

I'm debating on whether I should get a Mk2 or Gen 3 Artist Head (the naming scheme is ). I kinda want to have it for my next gig instead of just the combo.

Is the Gen 3 a major improvement over the Mk2? Used Mk2 prices look pretty good and I'd probably sell some unused gear for a Gen 3.

I have a short list of things drawing me to the Gen 3 but wanted to hear from you guys who have actual experience with any of the following:

Bluetooth editor for on the fly deep EQ adjustment (would be cool for global EQ changes and such. A Mk2 alternative would be to use a USB cable and Katana Librarian in my phone. ).
The Resonance control (does it do anything substantial or useful? I could see using this instead of needing global EQ at all).
Bloom control (does it make a difference in stiffness of the preamp models?)

 

[timbuck3]

I'm debating on whether I should get a Mk2 or Gen 3 Artist Head (the naming scheme is ). I kinda want to have it for my next gig instead of just the combo.

Is the Gen 3 a major improvement over the Mk2? Used Mk2 prices look pretty good and I'd probably sell some unused gear for a Gen 3.

I have a short list of things drawing me to the Gen 3 but wanted to hear from you guys who have actual experience with any of the following:

Bluetooth editor for on the fly deep EQ adjustment (would be cool for global EQ changes and such. A Mk2 alternative would be to use a USB cable and Katana Librarian in my phone. ).
The Resonance control (does it do anything substantial or useful? I could see using this instead of needing global EQ at all).
Bloom control (does it make a difference in stiffness of the preamp models?)

I think the GEN three artist sounds amazing. I have a GEN two 100 W 212 that sounds really good but I think a few things on the artist sound better like the speaker and the bloom button and the sounds are tweaked a little bit nicer I think but not like night and day compared to the GEN two kind of like the helix versus the helix XL

 

[Alex Kenivel]

I think the GEN three artist sounds amazing. I have a GEN two 100 W 212 that sounds really good but I think a few things on the artist sound better like the speaker and the bloom button and the sounds are tweaked a little bit nicer I think but not like night and day compared to the GEN two kind of like the helix versus the helix XL

I spent some time running my 100w Mk2 combo into my 2x12 w/ GBs powered by my TC BAM200 using the stereo expand and then putting the combo on Standby.

While it did sound good through the 2x12, it felt as stiff as it usually does which doesn't matter much to me in the heat of a jam or a gig, but sitting by myself playing is apparent.

Does the Bloom help in this regard at all? I watched the Guitar Geek's comparison video a few times but couldn't determine much from it from the sound samples.

 

[timbuck3]

I spent some time running my 100w Mk2 combo into my 2x12 w/ GBs powered by my TC BAM200 using the stereo expand and then putting the combo on Standby.

While it did sound good through the 2x12, it felt as stiff as it usually does which doesn't matter much to me in the heat of a jam or a gig, but sitting by myself playing is apparent.

Does the Bloom help in this regard at all? I watched the Guitar Geek's comparison video a few times but couldn't determine much from it from the sound samples.

Bloom for me seems to make the dynamics sound better. I leave it on all the time… whatever it does, it sure seems to make it sound better but then again I play the artist third generation so the speaker helps as well

 

[Alex Kenivel]

I decided to get a used Gen 3 non-artist Head from GC with what looks like the Bluetooth adapter already installed. Hopefully it ships out today. I like the smaller size and can live with some app tinkering instead of knobs for resonance and such.

As much as I want to play my Axe 3, I also don't want to drag it to punk shows.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

Gen 3 Head arrived a few days ago.

GC Side-Quest Rant:
I find it odd that the picture of an (used) item on Guitar Center's website is removed and replaced with an "image coming soon" placeholder. It made me a little suspicious about whether or not I was actually getting what I saw in the picture in the first place because the item description only said BOSS KTN 100 HEAD and the price is about the same for an OG, a Mk2 or a Gen 3 used.

The box was FUBAR but the head was packaged well and the amp in mint condition, a Gen 3 with the Bluetooth adapter. I finally got to play around with it yesterday after an afternoon gig (new band, first gig) and so far digging it. It's so nice running into a bigger cab!

I have the Katana Librarian app on a tablet that I like to use. It will load my MKII presets but won't load their custom chain orders such as modulation after reverb so I can't get Spring Reverb into Tremolo which is kinda lame. I'll have to see if Gen 3 works with the Floorboard software from @gumtown. I suspect they've streamlined a lot about the Gen 3 as I've heard they've removed the sneaky amps. I didn't try to load any presets using those yet.

I seem to like the Bloom, but I can't tell if it's doing anything more than a smiley face/loudness button's job of raising some bass and treble. I plan to get into the weeds with some noise generators and RTA readouts for the Bloom, EQ contours, cab resonance modes, and the resonance knob.

 

[Dave Lewis]

Gen 3 Head arrived a few days ago.

GC Side-Quest Rant:
I find it odd that the picture of an (used) item on Guitar Center's website is removed and replaced with an "image coming soon" placeholder. It made me a little suspicious about whether or not I was actually getting what I saw in the picture in the first place because the item description only said BOSS KTN 100 HEAD and the price is about the same for an OG, a Mk2 or a Gen 3 used.

The box was FUBAR but the head was packaged well and the amp in mint condition, a Gen 3 with the Bluetooth adapter. I finally got to play around with it yesterday after an afternoon gig (new band, first gig) and so far digging it. It's so nice running into a bigger cab!
View attachment 56819

I have the Katana Librarian app on a tablet that I like to use. It will load my MKII presets but won't load their custom chain orders such as modulation after reverb so I can't get Spring Reverb into Tremolo which is kinda lame. I'll have to see if Gen 3 works with the Floorboard software from @gumtown. I suspect they've streamlined a lot about the Gen 3 as I've heard they've removed the sneaky amps. I didn't try to load any presets using those yet.

I seem to like the Bloom, but I can't tell if it's doing anything more than a smiley face/loudness button's job of raising some bass and treble. I plan to get into the weeds with some noise generators and RTA readouts for the Bloom, EQ contours, cab resonance modes, and the resonance knob.

Does the Mk3 Head still have the little great sounding practice speaker in it?

 

[Alex Kenivel]

Does the Mk3 Head still have the little great sounding practice speaker in it?

It does have the little speaker. When it arrived and I got home from work I had a little time to unbox and plug in my son's guitar to verify the knobs and everything was in working order. We played through the little speaker for just a few minutes.


I did run some pink noise, sine waves and sweeps into the input, taking a feed from the line output with cab sim defeated while adjusting some parameters this morning. Haven't tested the EQ contour knobs yet but I did check out the cabinet resonance modes, resonance knob, and bloom feature.

There are some shifts in harmonic content with the Bloom switch activated that don't stay consistent across the different amp types so it seems to be doing something more than just adding some EQ like I suspected originally. (I was hitting the variation switch)

The Cabinet Resonance seems to shift the entire spectrum only incrementally with the most noticeable changes being in the upper end of the frequency spectrum. I was expecting more the opposite. Modern seems to be the most subdued, vintage a little more extended, with deep being the most extended, but not by much.

The Resonance knob shelves the low end around 100hz and doesn't change with Cabinet Resonance.

I'll do more digging and maybe post some grafs if time allows me.

 

[dbagchee]

@Alex Kenivel Would love your opinion on using this as a power amp for a modeler (I’m assuming the same as the combo but curious if any positive differences).

 

[sleewell]

There are 2 bands around here that I've seen a bunch now that use the 100 head and they sound amazing in whatever cab is there. Really makes me want to get one but I always seem to buy something else.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

There are some shifts in harmonic content with the Bloom switch activated that don't stay consistent across the different amp types so it seems to be doing something more than just adding some EQ like I suspected originally.

I think I'm going to have to eat my words here. I must have been fat fingering the switches in the katana librarian app because the variation and Bloom switches are right next to each other. I went back tonight and it was the variation switch that was changing in different order harmonics, not the bloom switch. Nom nom nom

 

[Alex Kenivel]

I did some playing around with the Contour switch above the EQ knobs only to find preset shifts in the overall EQ curves. Nothing as cool, sophisticated or useful like a shift in the MID control's center frequency or different bands for shelving Bass/Treble.

Running sine sweeps into the INPUT of the Katana Gen 3 Head, monitoring from the Line Out with Cab Sim DEFEATED.

Brown Preamp: BMT, Resonance and Presence at noon.

Contour off:

Contour Green:

Contour Red:

Contour Yellow:

And the Brown Preamp again, this time the Mids on 0. I wanted to see if the contour switching would affect the center frequency of the knob:

Contour OFF:

Contour Green:

Contour Red:

Contour Yellow:

 

[Alex Kenivel]

Now the Clean Preamp, BMT, Res and Pres at NOON:

Cont OFF:

Cont Green:

Cont Red:

Cont Yellow:

It's pretty consistent across all preamp models and variants.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

Bloom doesn't seem to be translating to the line output at all but I can hear the difference coming off of the speaker. Interesting.

 

[Dave Lewis]

These are a must have for ones Katana

 

[Alex Kenivel]

These are a must have for ones Katana
View attachment 57111

I have the GA-FC. I don't see a big advantage in upgrading to the EX. The LEDs changing colors for banks would be useful for me but I think that's about it.

 

[Val Kill More]

I'm on my second Katana head and don't use the tone studio or any foot switch. The amp takes pedals unbelievably well. I've got like 4 high gain patches and couple with onboard delay & reverb added. That's it. Played through a pair of 412s with appropriate boosts and eqs on the floor...still haven't heard a Katana high gain tone better than mine...