Re: Boss KATANA Love?
I have the 50 watt combo. It may be the best $200 I've ever spent.
Is it going to compete with a pro-level $2K amp? Absolutely not. You don't get the richness and presence that pushing real valves offers.
But I am astounded at the *tube-like* feel it offers. I can dig in with the pick and get grind and back off and get cleans. I don't get the feeling that I'm playing a good solid state/digital/modeling/whatever amp. I'm just playing a good amp.
I'm not the typical Katana user in that I have basically no desire to explore any of the digital aspects of the amp. I turn off the entire effects section and just treat the amp as an amp.
The amp has 4 main settings - Clean, Crunch, Lead, and Brown. I find Lead and Brown to be pretty bad in their stock forms. Lead is like a hot-rodded Marshall, and Brown is like the modern VH sound. In their stock forms, both are, to my ears, pretty harsh and messy. I could probably tweak those settings with effects and EQ and whatnot via software editor, but I play guitar to get away from, not get into computers.
Clean is a very usable, if not especially exciting clean. I also have the Roland Blues Cube Hot, and that clean is better, to my ears. Both amps are based on the same technology; they're just voiced differently. The current generation Blues Cubes are Fender-voiced, while the Katanas are British-voiced. As pedal platforms go, I prefer the Blues Cube Hot.
But, man, the Crunch channel is awesome. It's not a copy of anything, but it's definitely British-voiced. It's probably closest to a Vox, but the high end is more rounded than a Vox. The mids aren't thick/aggressive enough to be Marshall, but you could probably get there with pickups that emphasize the high mids, like the JB or 498T or 81. I am classic rocking on the Crunch channel all day with a PAF-equipped LP-type of axe.
The Crunch channel takes overdrive pedals well. My Tubescreamer clone and EHX Soul Food (Klone) do great here. With these ODs, I feel like I'm getting meaningfully organic variations of the core tone. Kick in one OD for choruses, kick in another for solos. It's so fun to play with this setup.
I like how the amp is set up with both master volume and NMV mentalities in mind. So I always have the "Volume" knob maxed. This would be like the volume on a NMV amp. Then adjust "Gain" to taste. With low-ish gain, I can approximate Malcolm Young enough to make me happy. But then there's the master volume and the attenuation settings to more or less preserve the tone, just at different sound levels. The attenuation is very necessary and very effective. This sucker can get very loud. I have no reason to use the 50W setting at home. 0.5W setting is perfect for bedroom. 25W setting can actually work for bedroom by adjusting "Volume" and "Master" accordingly; it's a more open feel (to be expected) than the 0.5W setting. But I prefer the 0.5W setting for bedroom because the dynamics just work better at low sound levels. For reference, at home on the 0.5W setting, I never need to get past 9 o clock on the Master volume. 9 o clock fills my practice room with a healthy, rocking-for-home volume.
The 50-Watt combo is very light for a 12" combo - 25 lbs. It is now my grab-and-go amp. If I want to go jam with someone, I just grab this and a guitar (with tuner and cord, of course). I don't have to worry about babying a tube amp, nor do I have to worry about property loss given the extremely low price point.
For gigging, I will probably still get a real tube amp. But for home practice/casual jam purposes, this definitely does the job for me. I like it better in almost every way than the Tech 21 Trademarks that I've owned and the Quilters that I've tried.
