Review: Boss Katana Artist Mk II (vs Line 6 Catalyst & Katana 50)

[-BOOGIEMAN-]

Ordered the Boss GA-FC EX footswitch for the Katana Artist this morning, and should pick up later today.

Honestly, all these pedals I've got sitting around me right now are causing me some headaches and option anxiety, and I'm thinking about a big purge.

What I need to do is get to a point of really only having the plug and play amp, and then the modeler. Not much else, otherwise I start screwing around with the gear too much.

Yeah, the GAFC is a must for the Artist. I rarely plug my pedal board into it anymore. I will plug a boost in front at most to use once in a while with my patches. I’m gonna pick up the Katana Airstep foot switch for my Kat 50 at some point to add versatility to it as well…

 

[Iron1]

I ended up getting rid of my Artist MKII. It had some boomy lower mid I couldn't seem to dial out - one of those 'once you hear it you can't unhear it' frequencies that just bugged me. Never had it from the Katana 50. So, now I'm keeping my eye out for a cheap Katana 50 on the local used market. It'll be my 3rd one.

 

[Jarick]

I ended up getting rid of my Artist MKII. It had some boomy lower mid I couldn't seem to dial out - one of those 'once you hear it you can't unhear it' frequencies that just bugged me. Never had it from the Katana 50. So, now I'm keeping my eye out for a cheap Katana 50 on the local used market. It'll be my 3rd one.

Have you thought about a 100? The Artist does have some strong low end, but the 50 I found to have very little lows. The 100 sat nicely in between.

 

[Jarick]

Re: Katana 50 "shrill"

I know you've returned it already, but did you ever try the global EQ? The stock setting sounds harsh, due to excessive treble.

Applying a high cut around 5 kHz works wonders, seriously.

Taking this advice, I programmed the Global EQ to set a high cut at 6.3 kHz and low cut at 40 Hz, so that I can easily toggle on and off. I forgot that there's three different global EQ's that can get programmed. It's a bit subtle but does seem to help with higher gain tones. 5 kHz was a bit aggressive but I have that as another option.

 

[Iron1]

Have you thought about a 100? The Artist does have some strong low end, but the 50 I found to have very little lows. The 100 sat nicely in between.

I haven't tried a 100 yet. I had a Katana 50 that I really loved, but gave it to a friend for doing some work on a few of my guitars. Then, I got another one and really liked it too, but decided to "upgrade" to a 100, which then led me to the Artist 100 MKII instead.

 

[Achilles]

It probably would make more sense to get rid of them and get something better, but I don't see a lot of nice midrange options that work well at very low volumes.

Super late to the party but wanted to add a couple things.
1. EXCELLENT review. You should do it for a living dude!
2. Regarding the quoted bit, I finally gave up and decided to invest in some side gear that would completely negate the concern of having to first check an amps wattage before even considering buying it.

I found an older one without the expanded IR readout, etc. I'm only using the two left switches and level control so I don't even have to plug it in.
I didn't get the Powerstation because I didn't want to add a redundant tube power section - Im using a SS Sampson Servo 120 as power going directly into a 1x12 with a Creamback clone.

As a reference, with a Mesa V:25 on the 25 watt setting and the master volume on about 4 with lots of gain and on the MIV setting - I have the Sampson and Power Load levels at 9:00 and I can play at night while my wife watches TV just down the hall (only my door is closed), and I have a connected neighbor who says he never hears me.

Not cheap but it solves the volume problem without tonal sacrifices. I couldn't be more pleased with this setup.