Whats the verdict on the Boss Katana Mk 2 ?

TimmyO · February 2023

noisepolluter said:

Deadman said:
Conscious that I don't want to hijack the thread and turn this into yet another bedroom amp discussion, but your thoughts are the type of things that go through my head daily. I hear great things about the DSL40 and it's been on my list for a good while. I'm not afraid to run a big amp at home and am in that camp of thought. The best sound I ever made at home was with a Fender Twin, although I obviously struggled somewhat with overdriven sounds/window shattering/earth movement.

Never looked at the JVM but will now. And you're so right about a 'really' good master volume. BUT. Do I need a valve amp? Oh God, it's happening again

Taking the thread hijack into a nerve shredding second day…

It does occasionally feel faintly absurd playing the JVM at home, especially as I’m not using for anything which the DSL40 wouldn’t do equally well. I only use the ‘middle’ four gain modes, roughly corresponding to those on the DSL.

However, my other half also plays and is firmly supportive of it being there. It’s not substantially bigger than the DSL (about 2 inches wider), though admittedly the extra speaker does make it punchier and therefore I have to be very precise with balancing the master volumes.

On the non-rational side, I’ve never owned a big/biggish Marshall before and it seemed churlish to pass up the opportunity to have this experience given the low price and local seller.

Maybe eventually the sensible side of me will win out and I’ll feel compelled to downsize slightly. In the meantime I’ve just put some fresh EL34’s and a pair of Creambacks in there so may as well get my money’s worth out of them, and see how I get on over the course of the year.

I had a JCM800 reissue head as my home amp for ages - it was ace. (I did add an attenuator)

noisepolluter · February 2023

TimmyO said:
I had a JCM800 reissue head as my home amp for ages - it was ace. (I did add an attenuator)

Which attenuator did you use? Was it just to knock a few dB off the top and tame the lower reaches of the master volume, or did you get the power section working a bit?

Ironically my SC20H and Zilla live round at my mate’s cave for jamming, as the master volume doesn’t really do home volume without also switching to 5w mode which doesn’t sound as good.

maw4neu · February 2023

Deadman said:

Arghh! Every time I’m thinking of buying the 50 watt mk2 something stops me. Nah, I really appreciate it. I need to upgrade from my massive Fly 3 twin. I’m now thinking I need to get a Princeton TM or a decent tube amp and an attenuator. Seriously, why is it so hard to try and select the perfect home amp?

I don’t need high gain stuff for my Jam stuff. I’m lost.

May I remind you of my Practice Rig at home . . .

https://i.imgur.com/LOwx6Ge.jpg

A Champ really is a wonderful, warm & tactile Practice Amp . . . At a smidge over 4 its in a sublime sweet spot :-)

maw4neu · February 2023

@Deadman ; . . . . Of course the biggest draw for me was price . . . I was fortunate to get my 50 watt Katana Mk2 for £150 which is peanuts in comparison to a Champ or a Champ Clone or a Princeton TM . . so don't let my thoughts blur your vision :-)

TimmyO · February 2023

noisepolluter said:

TimmyO said:
I had a JCM800 reissue head as my home amp for ages - it was ace. (I did add an attenuator)

Which attenuator did you use? Was it just to knock a few dB off the top and tame the lower reaches of the master volume, or did you get the power section working a bit?

Ironically my SC20H and Zilla live round at my mate’s cave for jamming, as the master volume doesn’t really do home volume without also switching to 5w mode which doesn’t sound as good.

I had 2 - a Marshall Powerbrake and a Torpedo something (the one that dumped all the load then re-amped it with a built-in linear digital power amp and had recording outputs)

Was definitely a case of getting a cranked sound. The PB100 was simple and passive, the Torpeso had to be powered but had an eq tweak which was handy

Deadman · February 2023

maw4neu said:

@Deadman ; . . . . Of course the biggest draw for me was price . . . I was fortunate to get my 50 watt Katana Mk2 for £150 which is peanuts in comparison to a Champ or a Champ Clone or a Princeton TM . . so don't let my thoughts blur your vision :-)

I was back looking at them last night, am I right in thinking only the Mk2 'EX' is footswitchable? If so it's another 100 notes!

Love that little champ set up mind. Nice.

Yorkie · February 2023

Deadman said:

maw4neu said:

@Deadman ; . . . . Of course the biggest draw for me was price . . . I was fortunate to get my 50 watt Katana Mk2 for £150 which is peanuts in comparison to a Champ or a Champ Clone or a Princeton TM . . so don't let my thoughts blur your vision :-)

I was back looking at them last night, am I right in thinking only the Mk2 'EX' is footswitchable? If so it's another 100 notes!

My MKII (new) did not come with a footswitch but it did have a jack socket for it. There are a few amp+fs deals on eBay right now.

Deadman · February 2023

Yorkie said:

Deadman said:

maw4neu said:

@Deadman ; . . . . Of course the biggest draw for me was price . . . I was fortunate to get my 50 watt Katana Mk2 for £150 which is peanuts in comparison to a Champ or a Champ Clone or a Princeton TM . . so don't let my thoughts blur your vision :-)

I was back looking at them last night, am I right in thinking only the Mk2 'EX' is footswitchable? If so it's another 100 notes!

My MKII (new) did not come with a footswitch but it did have a jack socket for it. There are a few amp+fs deals on eBay right now.

Cheers for that @Yorkie; you think it'd be easy to find out the difference between the mk2 and the mk2 'EX' but other than the latter being around £100 more I can't see it.

Musicwolf · February 2023

Deadman said:

Yorkie said:

Deadman said:

maw4neu said:

@Deadman ; . . . . Of course the biggest draw for me was price . . . I was fortunate to get my 50 watt Katana Mk2 for £150 which is peanuts in comparison to a Champ or a Champ Clone or a Princeton TM . . so don't let my thoughts blur your vision :-)

I was back looking at them last night, am I right in thinking only the Mk2 'EX' is footswitchable? If so it's another 100 notes!

My MKII (new) did not come with a footswitch but it did have a jack socket for it. There are a few amp+fs deals on eBay right now.

Cheers for that @Yorkie; you think it'd be easy to find out the difference between the mk2 and the mk2 'EX' but other than the latter being around £100 more I can't see it.

It would have been nice for Boss to have included a simple feature comparison table on their site . From what I could tell from a brief read of the features / manual it looks as though you need the EX (or the 100w versions) in order to make use of the GA-FC EX footswitch which would allow you to easily switch between 4 channels / effects. The EX also features a line-out whereas the 50 only has a phones out which mutes the speaker.

If you want that switching ability then you’d need to factor in the extra for the EX and the cost of the GA-FC EX which is a further £95.

Paul_C · February 2023

I'm fascinated by the extremes of happiness, particularly with the MK1 50w combo.

I've had a MK1 since they came out (and swapped a Fender Champion 50 for a second one) and have always been happy with it, though that might be because I've always used it as a clean platform for my pedals and not really touched any of the settings (I have updated it a couple of times), plus I play it pretty quietly so it's never been pushed to any great extent.

Because I've got some gigs coming up this year I'm about to see if one will do instead of taking out either of my recent valve amp purchases (Princeton Reverb and AC15C1) and I will update once I've finished tinkering.

maw4neu · February 2023

Paul_C said:

Because I've got some gigs coming up this year I'm about to see if one will do instead of taking out either of my recent valve amp purchases (Princeton Reverb and AC15C1) and I will update once I've finished tinkering.

Two very nice Amps there @Paul_C ;; . . . that said, a big plus with the Katana is the Clean Tone as its really nice, plus you can add a little Reverb, Delay as well as Modulation and you don't have to use a single pedal . . ! ! !

monquixote · February 2023

I should add as I often mention that I quite liked the katana that I thought the crunch channel was awful.

I used the clean with pedals or the lead.

Yorkie · February 2023

monquixote said:

I used the clean with pedals

Me too. The clean channel with ‘variation’ on behaved more or less like a valve amp.

Arjailer · February 2023

Deadman said:

maw4neu said:

@Deadman ; . . . . Of course the biggest draw for me was price . . . I was fortunate to get my 50 watt Katana Mk2 for £150 which is peanuts in comparison to a Champ or a Champ Clone or a Princeton TM . . so don't let my thoughts blur your vision :-)

I was back looking at them last night, am I right in thinking only the Mk2 'EX' is footswitchable? If so it's another 100 notes!

Love that little champ set up mind. Nice.

The 100w, and 50w EX can both use the 6 button foot switch (GAFC or GAFC-EX) to switch between 2 banks of 4 sounds (so 8 total), plus some other functions like turning effects on and off.

The 50w non-EX can use a 2 button foot switch (any 2 button latched switch will do) to switch between 2 banks of 2 sounds (so 4 total).

TeleMaster · February 2023

I have one. I used it at practice completely clean with a Revival Drive Hot Rod and it sounded decent. I took it to a gig in a big hall and it sounded awful, but that could've been the venue.

The onboard distortion is absolutely unusable in my opinion, but as a clean platform, it's decent.

It's purely a backup for me as I have a Friedman BE50.

thomasw88 · February 2023

I've heard a couple of guitarists use them in gigs. Didn't really like the sound of them tbh.
I use a quite a bit of delay/ and tremolo and other modulation effects, so can't envisage the onboard sounds of the katana being anywhere good enough for a gig.

Conversely I use a Peavey pro studio Silver stripe at a full band rehearsal, which cost me £20 and a replacement speaker (line 6 GHP80 or whatever its called another £30) and its sounds magic. Admittedly the pedalboard is there as well but the core sound of clean/crunch/reverb sounds brilliant at home/rehearsal studio and is easy giggable. I've gigged a redstripe bandit as well and again that sounds fantastic. I marginally prefer my valve amps but its not by much.

So I'd say getting something like that and a Line 6 m5 or other cheapy effects would more than cover everything the Katana could do, and be super usable and probably cheaper and easier to setup

Yorkie · February 2023

thomasw88 said:

Conversely I use a Peavey pro studio Silver stripe at a full band rehearsal, which cost me £20 and a replacement speaker (line 6 GHP80 or whatever its called another £30) and its sounds magic. Admittedly the pedalboard is there as well but the core sound of clean/crunch/reverb sounds brilliant at home/rehearsal studio and is easy giggable. I've gigged a redstripe bandit as well and again that sounds fantastic. I marginally prefer my valve amps but its not by much.

I've got a red stripe Bandit, and since Saturday I also have a Marshall DSL40c. They obviously sound a bit different, but the 'smooth overdrive feel' and 'responsiveness' are there in both.

I used to have a Marshall Class 5 too, but the Bandit sounded way better without cranking it, and was also able to deliver a very similar overdrive sound, although neither sound like a Marshall to me. The Bandit sounds like a few different things that are not Marshall, and the Class 5 sounded like... I don't know, just watch YouTube to make up your own mind.

Jon

icu81b4 · February 2023

I watched a you tube vid comparing the 100 vs the Artist, and I thought the Artist sounded much fuller.

midlifecrisis · February 2023

i,ve had the mk1 100w combo over 4 years, done about 200 gigs with it, barely touch the controls at gigs, have 3 basic tones set up and use the gfc footpedal. i think it sounds great for live gigs. Other amps i own include a laney vc 30 , peavey valveking and a laney cub 10.

PAL · February 2023

First off I am valve amp snob and have tried Boss Katanas a few time without success I had the original Katana 50 model
Then tried the Katana 100 still didn't get there ! I tried the Fender Princeton Tonemaster it was good but didn't do it for me
Then bought the Boss Katana Mk II 50 watt combo and the variation on amp models made a difference I used this with the
Xsonic Airstep which made it more useable then Boss bought out the Boss Katana 50 II EX & am awaiting the
Boss Footswitch. This does watch the Katana 50 MK II does with the Xsonic footswitch but without the need to charge
Xsonic Airstep . What the Katana 50 MK II EX has is a line out so the speaker doesn't switch off .
My Katana 50 MK II & the Xsonic Airstep are now for sale.
The main thing that made it sound different to me was to install Sneaky Amps and these are the original COSM Boss patches
For me they sound more realistic.
It's early days for me but it's sounding good. The only problem I have is getting a reasonable price for my
Boss Katana 50 MK II & Xsonic Airstep to offset my latest katana & Footswitch. I guess that will just take time.
As I mentioned I now have the Sneaky Amps in my Katana and to my ears they take away the harshness I didn't like
also I use the chain setting where the comp is in front of any boost or drive ( it's the one at the bottom of the list )
I then set the comp light at 50 across the settings and the other thing I do is set the EQ to +3 db.
this is just a starting point . The sneaky amps are available for the MK1 & MKII katana 50 &100 amps.
The chain setting is only available on the MK II with the latest updated firmware.
You actually get more Sneaky Amps on the MK I on the MK II you get 15 ! I use mainly the Fender, Vox & Matchless amps.
I have eight but will probably end up with about half because after all we don't take eight amps to a gig or rehearsal.
The other thing is the Boss Katana 50 MK II now has eight presets using the latest Boss EX Foot Controller.
As I said I am a valve amp snob but also a technophobe so I just keep settings a basic as possible and I can remember the
settings just like I was using one of my valve amps. Hope this helps.

FelineGuitars · February 2023

I just watched this and wondered if the artist head is a lot different

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uobtUyJWi6o

icu81b4 · February 2023

The Artist head and Combo should be the same I would have thought!.

Does the Katana include a tuner function?

Yorkie · February 2023

icu81b4 said:

Does the Katana include a tuner function?

No.

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Whats the verdict on the Boss Katana Mk 2 ?

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