Boss Katana Head into a 50w rated cab

ryanverbena · November 2022

I've considered one of these for around the home and given that I own a nice 2061cx (G12H30/G12M) the head is appealing to me rather than the combo.

It's a 100w head which has a 50w and 0.5w mode.

My question: I'd run it in the 50w mode permanently to match my cab - would this be the same as running a tube amp at half power or similar?

Because for all other amps I've owned, the half power switch (or whatever lower wattage mode) has ALWAYS resulted in less than pleasing results. The quirk is that these have all been tube amps.

Should I expect the same from a solid state amp?

I will manage to try it myself in store but this would obviously prevent me hearing it with my cab, looking to buy second hand.

Johnnyseven · November 2022

If you're only using at home surely you're not going to be cranking it even in the 100 watt setting so I would have thought using a 50 watt cab would be fine.

fretmeister · November 2022

The speaker in the Katana is built for it IIRC.

So it will sound different into another cab anyway.

But the power scaling in a SS amp isn't like a valve amp. It will be fine.

ryanverbena · November 2022

Great I was thinking that might it @fretmeister but isn’t the whole point of power scaling to get the tubes working harder? In which case, I don’t really get why solid state amps even have it (unless it’s about peace of mind when using it with a lower wattage cab).

Johnnyseven said: If you're only using at home surely you're not going to be cranking it even in the 100 watt setting so I would have thought using a 50 watt cab would be fine. That is true, won’t be Uber loud. But still like to be sure I’m not running it above 50 watts to protect the speakers.

ICBM · November 2022

Simple - set it to 50W. See how loud you can get it before it becomes too much in the house... my guess is *well* before it reaches full power. Then try it at 100W, and if it sounds better like that, just don’t go any louder than you had it before. Celestions are pretty conservatively rated anyway, a 50W pair would normally be safe with a 50W valve amp, which can put out up to 100W cranked up. Although solid-state amps are actually harder on the speakers than valve ones if you do overdrive the power section, if you make sure you don’t play louder than you would with it set to 50W, that won’t happen.

PolarityMan · November 2022

We played with a band the other day who were using a katana head into a mesa 4x12..sounded actually pretty decent although a touch on the noisy side during rests between chugs etc.

Ridley · November 2022

I have a 100w head, but can't answer your question, might be a good idea to joint the fb Katana site where you will get some honest opinion from those with experience
https://www.facebook.com/groups/346598415712222/?hoisted_section_header_type=recently_seen&multi_permalinks=1795900677448648

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Boss Katana Head into a 50w rated cab

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