PRODUCT REVIEW: Boss Katana Mk I - 100w 1x12
(Pigs On The Wing - Pink Floyd)
There are two types of guitarists in this world: Those with amps...and those who dig.
I don't dig.
There are a million ways you can go with amps these days. There's a decent amp that will fit almost any price point now as long as you can cough up at least $150, and if you only need a little dinky amp in your bedroom to practice on, you can probably skinny by for less than that. That said, anyone who knows me will understand that I do not do 'skinny'.
For mortal men and our mortal budgets, there are a few schools of thought where amplification is concerned. Some people believe that a separate amp head and cabinet is the way to go, especially if you want that delicious, old-school tube amp sound. The problem with this is that buying good tube amp tech can get VERY out of hand in the price department in order to get into something that will provide good bang for the buck. Additionally, if you elect to spend your money this way, you may end up with wonderful hardware, but no effects such as reverb, delay, or distortion.
"But Steve," you cry, "you can simply buy pedals for those!" This is true, but the route of pedal purchasing is also something that can get very out of hand. A good pedal can easily cost you $100, and depending on how buck wild you want to get with your signature sound, that could cost you a small fortune before it's all said and done.
Fortunately...there's a different path for those of us that are willing to settle for 95% in exchange for insane savings.
There's a completely different type of amp out there called a Combo amp that contains both the amplification hardware and the speaker. These amps typically come with digital effects processors built into them designed to mimic a finite number of those effects pedals I was talking about. Better still, they can do this at a fraction of the cost. The undisputed king in this particular arena is the Boss Katana series of amps.
Anyone who knows their guitar gear will recognize the Boss name immediately. They're arguably the most well-known, widely-used effects pedal vendor in the world right now. They've designed a range of amps ranging from around $200 to $600 depending on what your needs are, and even the smallest 50 Watt amp can still make enough noise to play a gig in a small venue, if only just.
I? I have a 100 Watt version of the Katana with a great whoppin' 12" speaker. It's way more amp than I need.
I don't care.
Here's a small list of features that the Katana brings to you across all of its ranges:
- Access to four different cabinet sounds -- Clean, Crunch, Lead, and Brown Tone -- in addition to serving as an acoustic amp for guitars as well.
- Independent Gain and Gain Volume controls alongside a master Volume control.
- Access to a plethora of effects like Blues Overdrive, Distortion, Flanger, Phaser, Chorus, Auto Wah, Octave, three different types of delay, and three different types of reverb.
- The ability to program four different saved configurations right on the amp.
Seriously, just take a look at the crib sheet for this thing:
As if that wasn't bonkers enough, you can plug this thing into your computer using USB and download the Boss Tone Studio, a tool which lets you configure all of this from your computer, as well as swap in over a hundred different additional effects from Boss's absolutely gigantic digital pedal effect library.
If you're looking for -the- amp for any guitarist that's just starting out, look no further than the Katana 50. Looking for a travel amp? Done. Looking for a backup that you can record with? Done. Oh, and you can squelch the power down to half an amp for anyone looking to practice with this beast in an apartment. That way the neighbors won't come over at midnight.
Question and answer time!
Q: You keep mentioning 'Mark I'. Is there a Mk II Katana out there?
A: Not yet, but there will be shortly. It releases here in the USA in November, and I -will- be getting one. This makes the Mk I an even better buy since you'll be able to get them used at a great price once the Mk II comes out.
Q: So...you can buy a kick-ass amp with all of the effects built into it for cheap. What's the down-side?
A: For hobbyists like myself, there is none. Hell, for weekend warriors who play a gig or two from time to time, there's no down-side. I know people who use the top tier Katana Artist for playing studio musician gigs instead of using their $1,500 pedal boards. Now, if you're a serious musician and audiophile, you -will- notice a difference between any solid state digital amp and a tube amp setup. When it comes to loud noises, tubes just sound better, and they keep sounding better the harder you push them.
Q: Are tube amp setups with pedal boards definitively better than solid-state digital setups?
A: If you like how it sounds, it's the best for YOU, and anyone who argues can sod right off. Period. That little pearl of wisdom aside, a lot of really famous musicians use tube amps for both live playing and recording. More and more really prominent tone hounds like Mark Knopfler and John Mayer are starting to turn towards modeling/solid-state amps though. There is some INSANE high-end modeling equipment from Kemper that folks are swearing can go toe to toe with even the best tube rigs. But again, if you like how it sounds, everyone else can go pound sand. Period.
There are two types of guitarists in this world: Those with amps...and those who dig.
I don't dig.
There are a million ways you can go with amps these days. There's a decent amp that will fit almost any price point now as long as you can cough up at least $150, and if you only need a little dinky amp in your bedroom to practice on, you can probably skinny by for less than that. That said, anyone who knows me will understand that I do not do 'skinny'.
For mortal men and our mortal budgets, there are a few schools of thought where amplification is concerned. Some people believe that a separate amp head and cabinet is the way to go, especially if you want that delicious, old-school tube amp sound. The problem with this is that buying good tube amp tech can get VERY out of hand in the price department in order to get into something that will provide good bang for the buck. Additionally, if you elect to spend your money this way, you may end up with wonderful hardware, but no effects such as reverb, delay, or distortion.
"But Steve," you cry, "you can simply buy pedals for those!" This is true, but the route of pedal purchasing is also something that can get very out of hand. A good pedal can easily cost you $100, and depending on how buck wild you want to get with your signature sound, that could cost you a small fortune before it's all said and done.
Fortunately...there's a different path for those of us that are willing to settle for 95% in exchange for insane savings.
There's a completely different type of amp out there called a Combo amp that contains both the amplification hardware and the speaker. These amps typically come with digital effects processors built into them designed to mimic a finite number of those effects pedals I was talking about. Better still, they can do this at a fraction of the cost. The undisputed king in this particular arena is the Boss Katana series of amps.
Anyone who knows their guitar gear will recognize the Boss name immediately. They're arguably the most well-known, widely-used effects pedal vendor in the world right now. They've designed a range of amps ranging from around $200 to $600 depending on what your needs are, and even the smallest 50 Watt amp can still make enough noise to play a gig in a small venue, if only just.
I? I have a 100 Watt version of the Katana with a great whoppin' 12" speaker. It's way more amp than I need.
I don't care.
Here's a small list of features that the Katana brings to you across all of its ranges:
- Access to four different cabinet sounds -- Clean, Crunch, Lead, and Brown Tone -- in addition to serving as an acoustic amp for guitars as well.
- Independent Gain and Gain Volume controls alongside a master Volume control.
- Access to a plethora of effects like Blues Overdrive, Distortion, Flanger, Phaser, Chorus, Auto Wah, Octave, three different types of delay, and three different types of reverb.
- The ability to program four different saved configurations right on the amp.
Seriously, just take a look at the crib sheet for this thing:
As if that wasn't bonkers enough, you can plug this thing into your computer using USB and download the Boss Tone Studio, a tool which lets you configure all of this from your computer, as well as swap in over a hundred different additional effects from Boss's absolutely gigantic digital pedal effect library.
If you're looking for -the- amp for any guitarist that's just starting out, look no further than the Katana 50. Looking for a travel amp? Done. Looking for a backup that you can record with? Done. Oh, and you can squelch the power down to half an amp for anyone looking to practice with this beast in an apartment. That way the neighbors won't come over at midnight.
Question and answer time!
Q: You keep mentioning 'Mark I'. Is there a Mk II Katana out there?
A: Not yet, but there will be shortly. It releases here in the USA in November, and I -will- be getting one. This makes the Mk I an even better buy since you'll be able to get them used at a great price once the Mk II comes out.
Q: So...you can buy a kick-ass amp with all of the effects built into it for cheap. What's the down-side?
A: For hobbyists like myself, there is none. Hell, for weekend warriors who play a gig or two from time to time, there's no down-side. I know people who use the top tier Katana Artist for playing studio musician gigs instead of using their $1,500 pedal boards. Now, if you're a serious musician and audiophile, you -will- notice a difference between any solid state digital amp and a tube amp setup. When it comes to loud noises, tubes just sound better, and they keep sounding better the harder you push them.
Q: Are tube amp setups with pedal boards definitively better than solid-state digital setups?
A: If you like how it sounds, it's the best for YOU, and anyone who argues can sod right off. Period. That little pearl of wisdom aside, a lot of really famous musicians use tube amps for both live playing and recording. More and more really prominent tone hounds like Mark Knopfler and John Mayer are starting to turn towards modeling/solid-state amps though. There is some INSANE high-end modeling equipment from Kemper that folks are swearing can go toe to toe with even the best tube rigs. But again, if you like how it sounds, everyone else can go pound sand. Period.
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