Boss Katana MKll Head

Little Pigbacon said:
I was so offended by the Line 6 plastic expression pedal that I bought the Mission Engineering pedal that costs as much as the M5 that I got it for.
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I bought a converted Ernie Ball vol pedal. There is no excuse for a plastic pedal unless they threw it in for free, which they didn't.
 
PFDarkside said:
Are the Katana and Waza Air using the same modeling technology? I am still loving the Waza Air for night time practice, I’ve got some ideas brewing for non-headphone practice without firing up a big rig. (The lunchbox head was one, this is another)
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Good question. I have no idea. Someone here will probably know.
 
UnderTheFlame83 said:
^ I was surprised to see all the boost selections this amp has to offer. I have had this amp a couple of weeks now and still seeing stuff I never came across. The Boss Studio isn't cluttered. The menus are pretty easy to navigate.
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I only have the Katana 50, not the head, but I love all the Tone Studio options, particularly the boosts. Add in the parametric and graphic EQs and a lot of tone-sculpting is at your disposal.
 
Little Pigbacon said:
I downloaded the Waza Air app for iPhone and played with it a little at lunch today. I dont know if the amp models are the same, but it looks like they could be. The two environments appear to give you about the same options, apart from the 3D psychoacoustic capabilities of the Waza Air headphones, which I have never tried. It looks like the headphone software might be an update behind the Katana amps, as I counted only 20 boost pedals instead of the 22 on the Katana, which I think added a couple on the last update. I saw only the parametric EQ in the Waza Air app; maybe it doesnt have the 10-band graphic? It looks like neither system offers an extensive set of amp models to rival the selection you get from, say, a Fender Mustang. They are just good-sounding, generic, ballpark sounds instead of claiming anything really specific.
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Thanks for checking! I’m not looking for the Line 6 style “this was modeled after a crusty old ‘64 Fender Deluxe found under the owner’s grandpa’s bed”, and I’ve gotten some pretty good tones so far.
 
Little Pigbacon said:
Absolutely. Unless you are set on hearing a company take a crack at duplicating the sound of a specific legendary/popular amp, the amp channels offered by the Katana are quite good and offer a lot of flexibility. The Mk.II amps have a variation on each, in theory doubling your optIons compared to the original amps. Not to mention you have tons of pedals modeled in the software that you can load into the slots accessed by the physical controls, for further tweaking the tone.
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I think there is a "Sneaky Amps" software someone developed that lets you unlock all the GT100 amps. Not sure if its still supported with the Mkii, but worth looking into.

Honestly, owning a Gt100 I wouldn't bother. There is enough overlap that whatever onboard amps they give you probably covers everything important.
 
Anyone have the Airstep KAT board for the Katana? Works with the 50 and give you BT connectivity too

Just got it, haven't messed with it much but it seems to have a lot of flexibility. I am sure it is using MIDI so maybe there are other pedalboards that would work but it seemed like a cool option to try.

xsonicaudio.com
 
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I wonder if a MKlll is in the works from Boss? If so, there isn't any news about it. I see Boss continuing the Katana models for a long time, if not new models, just more updates for the MKll.
 
UnderTheFlame83 said:
I wonder if a MKlll is in the works from Boss? If so, there isn't any news about it. I see Boss continuing the Katana models for a long time, if not new models, just more updates for the MKll.
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To be fair, Boss/Roland is really tight-lipped about new product releases. There are rarely any leaks before they decide to roll it out. If they are working on it, we'll never know.
 
Little Pigbacon said:
Otherwise inventories of Mk.II’s around the world would grind to a halt and have to be blown out at clearance prices. I wouldn’t have bought the head that I just bought; I would have bought something else last month instead and waited on the Katana, and many would have done the same.
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There is a chance there will be some announcements in early June, for the NAMM show.
 
Katana release dates:

Mk I: Sept 2016
Mk II: Sept 2019
Mk III: Sept 2022?


Little Pigbacon said:
New features and capabilities move boxes in this product category. I would like to see Bluetooth, mobile apps, and low-impedance drive capability.
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They really need to add a built-in tuner to make them more complete.
 
Mincer said:
To be fair, Boss/Roland is really tight-lipped about new product releases. There are rarely any leaks before they decide to roll it out. If they are working on it, we'll never know.
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You have to “read the tea leafs” of social media. Like how they had Ola do that big Metal Zone as a preamp video just before the MT-2W release, or the uptick in VB-2 posts before the VB-2W. It’s interesting that they are really listening to customers with the HM-2W and updated Space Echoes.
 
I thought a few times about replacing my Laney Ironheart with Katana in order to save myself from tube maintenance, but then I took a hard look at it again, it looked like a kiddy amp more appropriate for my niece, the knobs and labels and stuff...lol...

And I prefer the hard way when I record my music, utilizing mics, room acoustics, no PC editing even though it's very forgiving which makes things easier. So, no thanks.
 
I like the look of the Katana and the knobs don't bother me. If they did announce an updated model with a screen and other stuff, I am happy with the MKll and wouldn't update for a new one. I like the sound I get and really wouldn't change anything about the amp. But it would be nice if they included the footswitch.
 
^ If Boss did decide to include the footswitch the amp would cost you new with tax $550. They probably wouldn't sell as many units, either. So it's smart thinking on their end. Most who like the Katana it will buy it later, or just use their own pedalboard.

I'm kind of bummed out because a week after I bought the Katana 100, I could have gotten a like new one for $250 local if I'd waited. But I do think its worth the price I payed, and still a hell of an amp for the money. I try to buy used when I can to save some pocket change for more gear. I'm always looking for deals. I wish amps were this good when I first started to play guitar.
 
Something really confuses me. I have watched demos of people changing speakers in Katana combos and in the end they claim it sounded the best with the stock speaker, maybe the amp is fined tuned for Boss's speaker? But then there are also people doing AB shootouts of the Katana head vs some high gain Marshall and sounds so damn close :o To make it worse I tried once a Katana 100 combo in a store and to me it was like it sounds better than their old cube but I did not fall in love with it. Is there something different with the head model? It is the only amp head I have ever felt tempted to try because of features, lightweight and I don't wanna deal with swaping/biasing power tubes.
 
IMENATOR said:
Something really confuses me. I have watched demos of people changing speakers in Katana combos and in the end they claim it sounded the best with the stock speaker, maybe the amp is fined tuned for Boss's speaker? But then there are also people doing AB shootouts of the Katana head vs some high gain Marshall and sounds so damn close :o To make it worse I tried once a Katana 100 combo in a store and to me it was like it sounds better than their old cube but I did not fall in love with it. Is there something different with the head model? It is the only amp head I have ever felt tempted to try because of features, lightweight and I don't wanna deal with swaping/biasing power tubes.
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Take the same head, and play it through an open back cab with jensens in it, then a closed back 2x12 with v30s and finally a 4x12 with greenbacks. Each setup will sound radically different. Speakers and cab are responsible for an awful lot of the sound of an amp.

For an amp like the Katana, I suspect that you could use speakers and cab to tune it to sound outstanding for a few particular sounds . . . but this would come at the cost of some of the other sounds. The speaker that comes with the Katana combo is designed to be neutral enough that it will work reasonably well by default with most of the sounds in the amp.
 
GuitarStv said:
Take the same head, and play it through an open back cab with jensens in it, then a closed back 2x12 with v30s and finally a 4x12 with greenbacks. Each setup will sound radically different. Speakers and cab are responsible for an awful lot of the sound of an amp.

For an amp like the Katana, I suspect that you could use speakers and cab to tune it to sound outstanding for a few particular sounds . . . but this would come at the cost of some of the other sounds. The speaker that comes with the Katana combo is designed to be neutral enough that it will work reasonably well by default with most of the sounds in the amp.
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Absolutely 100%.

Has anyone tried the dual 100W amps in wide stereo mode?
 
Can't really comment on the 50 watt combo speaker, but I am highly impressed with the Katana Mini and the speaker that's built in the head. I would think the speaker in the 50 and 100 watt combo would sound great I bet.
 
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