BOSS KATANA 刀 amplifiers

[VaughnC]

It would be cool if Boss would make a small chassis unit with the GA-FC guts and two expression pedals (for volume & wah)...minimizing the gigging clutter with a great plug & play amp. Dragging my full pedal board to a gig kind of defeats the "grab & go" appeal of the Katana.

 

[trisonic]

Ha! I’d go one further (in a different direction, Vaughn). Make one with no effects at all but an additional 25 watt power notch on the selector....
Have I said I’m just loving the OD with Volume and Master dimed?

Hi Ho time see ya all later... Pete.

 

[mystixboi]

Can we talk about the headphone out vs the stock speaker? So I spend most of my time playing through headphhones(2 babies and a toddler at home) and I dialed in some killer tones this way, but I find when I play with the speaker, the tones are very different.

For example, one setting I have his the crunch channel with the gain around 9 o clock, but then use a boost to give it a bit more teeth. I use the neck pickup in my Ibanez Andy Timmons with the volume and tone rolled back and it totally nails Andy Timmons tone.

Buuuuut... when I unplug the headphones, the gain dramatically increases and it's a more modern sound... I'm using CAD headphones(not totally expensive, but not pieces of crap either).

Would the tone be that different?

 

[orogeny]

I have no significant need for this amp whatsoever.
And yet, I keep coming back to this thread every single day.
Raise your hand or your glass if you're with me.

 

[MacOSatch]

Is Katana a "real modeler"? The typical chain would be A/D-Converter --> "computer "/DSP --> D/A-Converter.
It does really feel like a good (tube) amp ...

 

[VaughnC]

Ha! I’d go one further (in a different direction, Vaughn). Make one with no effects at all but an additional 25 watt power notch on the selector....
Have I said I’m just loving the OD with Volume and Master dimed?

Hi Ho time see ya all later... Pete.

Yup Pete, that would be great idea for a pedalboard guy.

This is the first amp that though I've enjoyed using the guitar's volume control for OD control which makes me a little less pedalboard dependent...but it's still nice to have another volume control on the floor that doesn't affect the overdrive for on the fly volume adjustments.

However, when I tried out the Blackstar 150 (with its wide field stereo FX) I thought the FX were mesmerizing...and I can only imagine how great a stereo version of the Katana would be. I was even kind of surprised to see that the Katana 2x12 was mono...but they were probably trying to keep the amp at a price point and not step on their other products.

 

[VaughnC]

Is Katana a "real modeler"? The typical chain would be A/D-Converter --> "computer "/DSP --> D/A-Converter.
It does really feel like a good (tube) amp ...

So while they say the amp's heart is digital...Boss's new "Tube Logic" technology seems to have captured the hearts & ears of many of us old tube amp snobs . Heck, just playing the amp clean, I can feel that buttery tube-like response under my fingers!

 

[quantech]

Haha! Too funny. I also have no significant or even insignificant need for this amplifier in any way, shape or form other than the newest crop of similar grab-n-go, jack of many trades amps has recently been catching my attention and over in the D&M forum (where I do most of my lurking and posting) there's been talk of the Katana line since it was first announced and it's just intriguing for some odd reason. I have a bunch of old combo amps that are collecting dust and I keep thinking "Hmmm, well, if I sell them all off and put the funds towards a Katana or a Spider V, it would make sense...clear out stuff that's just taking up room and have a nice amp to just plug into at a moment's notice and dial up some nice tones".

There are a handful of folks here on TGP that are eagerly awaiting a showdown/comparison between the Katana and the Spider V (I assume the 100w 1x12 Boss vs the 120W 1x12 Line 6) so that's kind of what I'm waiting for as well. No local places around where I'm at have both that I can try for myself, so I am waiting to see what the overall consensus feels is the better bang for the buck between the two. I've seen a few reviews of the Spider V that were less than flattering and even a bit harsh, yet I don't think I've really seen any Katana reviews that were all that negative...more along the lines of "nice, just not for me". I had the Blackstar ID 60 not long ago, and it was OK I guess, but I never got all warm and fuzzy with it, so I sold it.

So...while dudes over in the D&M forum are waiting for a comparison or unbiased review, if there's anyone in this forum that has hands on experience with both the Katana and Spider V, by all means, speak up and let us know! Or the Katana vs any other similar amp for that matter actually...

 

[argumon]

I think it sounds pretty good at low volume, but almost any amp sounds better loud.
I'm not sure why anyone would buy a 100 watt 112 for the bedroom only...

Because the 100-112 has more bottom end even at low volumes. That can mostly be EQ'ed out, but using the EQ pedal would use one of 2 precious general effect slots. Also the 100-112 has 4 instead of 2 memory positions. And it is controllable with the GA-FC, so when practicing I do not need to fiddle with BTS for additional memory positions or even touch the amp. I have all tones I need for practicing on the GA-FC. Once set up, I can concentrate on practicing and don't fiddle around with the controls. These were my reasons.
Just for volume, the 50-112 has been more than sufficient for me. In fact, only for the clean channel, I went to 25W on the 50-112.

 

[sugarlou]

I'm looking forward to a Katana 2 with more user slots and ability to run more effects at once.

 

[erikm5150]

I have no significant need for this amp whatsoever.
And yet, I keep coming back to this thread every single day.
Raise your hand or your glass if you're with me.

hand raised lol
have serious gas for this amp that i don't need!

 

[geodr]

I have no significant need for this amp whatsoever.
And yet, I keep coming back to this thread every single day.
Raise your hand or your glass if you're with me.

Hand raised

 

[Elantric]

I've played both Spider V120 and Katana

No comparison Spider lacks sustain and fails my "Elantric dynamic range test"

To me Spider V sounds and feels like trimmed down Firehawk 1500. -same Line 6 tones and feel , feels cold and never feels like tubes

Katana is a different story. As noted by the reports of approval from tube amp addicts

 

[Filipe]

Quick question, as I believe I'm going nuts:

Read the Katana USB Driver "README.Html" file which goes into detail about Katana's USB Audio I /O properties and what channel does what under a windows DAW app. On Windows for lowest latency Be sure you employ the Katana ASIO driver.

I have, both, and...

I can assign Katana to be be my DAW's audio output device and playback stereo tracks monitoring on headphones connected to Katana Headphone out.

Should be able to do the same in Reaper

Nope. I can't for the life of me get anything in stereo out of the headphones out. Either through USB playback from Reaper, Foobar (set to bit perfect playback), etc - it comes out as mono through headphones, and it sounds like there's cab emulation going on too. Analog stereo source into the Aux In port - same result: mono, with cab emulation. The sound comes out of both cans, but it's summed to mono. Is it me? Is it the hardware? With the ASIO driver I'm using the Katana PRIMARY, btw, as I should, according to the block diagram. (I understand the difference bewteen the primary and secondary input / output thing, and how to use them for re-amping, so I don't think that's my problem right now.)

Also: I believe this great amp has the shoddiest software implementation I've seen in a while. I usually disable all but one of my audio interfaces in the Windows sound control panel, so that Windows doesn't get confused and start playing chimes out of something it's not supposed to. My PodXT Live works (worked...) great in this configuration, and I can (could...) use Line6 Edit without a hitch. Boss Tone Studio? Not so much. Unless I allow the Katana to identify as a usable audio device in Windows, BTS won't connect to the Katana. And once I quit BTS, it always registers the Katana as the default Windows sound device. Slightly infuriating.

Add to that the "sum to mono" thing, and I can see a love / hate relationship developing really quickly.

On a more positive note, the USB recording has a nice low noise level. Me likes.

(edit: added re-amping note)

 

[Filipe]

For clarity

Anything sourced from Katana is always MONO

Stereo audio heard from the Katana Headphone out is restricted to

• Stereo audio on your DAW PLAYBACK ,typically the rest of the band when overdubbing your mono Katana guitar parts

• Stereo analog audio fed into the stereo 3.5mm TRS Aux INPUT

If you feed stereo audio from a third party MP3 player connected to the KATANA AUX INPUT you should hear stereo audio from the Katana headphone jack

(...)

Not my experience so far. Everything external I throw at it, even through the 3.5mmm TRS aux input comes out as mono through the cans, AND with cab emulation thrown in for good measure... might do an amp reset just to route out any gremlins. I'll report back.

 

[Filipe]

Not my experience so far. Everything external I throw at it, even through the 3.5mmm TRS aux input comes out as mono through the cans, AND with cab emulation thrown in for good measure... might do an amp reset just to route out any gremlins. I'll report back.

Nope, reset keeps the same behaviour. There's nothing stereo coming out of it.

Elantric, if you still have both combo and head would you be so kind as to verify if your combo also does stereo via USB / Aux in or if it's just the head?

 

[Elantric]

Nope, reset keeps the same behaviour. There's nothing stereo coming out of it.

Elantric, if you still have both combo and head would you be so kind as to verify if your combo also does stereo via USB / Aux in or if it's just the head?

I will retest this weekend ,I'm on the road this week

Perhaps others can report their findings

 

[JCW308]

So for the GA-FC, it can be either Delay OR Mod and either Delay OR FX? You can't have the option to turn on delay and mod separately, etc..?

 

[Filipe]

I wi



I will retest this weekend ,I'm on the road this week

Perhaps others can report their findings

Thank you, much appreciated.

 

[Elantric]

So for the GA-FC, it can be either Delay OR Mod and either Delay OR FX? You can't have the option to turn on delay and mod separately, etc..?

Many FX can be assigned to either of the two left FX knobs ( and represented GA-FC Effect mode foot switch)

The far right knob is dedicated to Reverb

Use BTS in "offline" mode and anyone can review the available FX options

It would take time to make a spreadsheet to document