I still maintain that the boss katana heads are the best value for the dollar out there in the amplifier world rn. It's insane the amount of bases these cover and how inexpensive they are for all the features they have.
I count myself as fortunate to have both a great tube amp (Marshall) and modeler (Helix). But if I were still a gigging musician, I'd be dying for one of these. Crap; I'm not a gigging musician and I'm dying for one of these.
Same. I have a 2001 Single Rectifier solo head, and a Marshall Dsl20 head. I'm very much interested in this amp in the head format. Only hope it has a 8 ohm output.
@@finishin.my.coffee8780 great! Curious if you have an opinion on the regular or artists series version of these amp. I noticed there's a $100 plus price difference.
Liked as soon as I heard you shredding up that brown channel. I still have my Katana 1st gen 100 combo. It actually survived a car accident that almost did me in years ago. Rolled upside down in a ditch. So if I do decide to buy the new version I’ll be keeping the 1st gen because it’s sentimental.
I own one and TBH, I think they're grossly overrated. They're very good amps but combining the right 12" combo and a lower priced floor unit gives us literally no less than 10x more. *I rarely sell gear but am constantly back on forth whether to get rid of it or not.*
Gen 1s rock. One thing I miss is with about the 3rd firmware and Fxfloorboard you had access to a fully customizable amp, distortion, terra echo and multi overtone. These effects are so cool I am thinking about adding a boss GT-1 to get them.
@@JonDethCurious which model you have. I might be one of the last players on the planet that have never tried one (I live in no man's land). I have an affinity for snappy Peavy 5150 tones and although I've seen Katana demos emulate a lot of stuff it's one tone I haven't quite heard it do well (imho), but maybe I'm just overlooking it or haven't seen the right demo yet. Seems to do a lot of other things well though.
@@marcavus1 for the money, the GT-1 looks like you're getting the most. I prefer Zoom but their G3n is lacking in comparison and also leaves you to buy an external expression pedal. I have an ancient Zoom G2.1nu I want to replace with a cheapo backup since I have a handful of floor units. If I ever bother, it will probably be the GT-1
Trippy, my spark amp died yesterday, and was googling the katana air to replace it this morning, didn't see anything about a mark 3....perfect timing as always Leon 🙏
He had the Amp and Master Volume knobs down so the reactive SS Class AB amp was not in play. Almost every Katana demo is like this. They need to set the power down to 0.5W and crank those Volumes to get the amp section compression and harmonics.
Such a cool piece of gear and really well thought out. Hopefully the stores around Perth start to stock the foot switches again for them as I can’t really seem to find any. Cool demo bro!
Great playing. Love how you show your setting rather than waffle on for ages describing them. Gen 3 head seems best for me. Just wish the controls were on the front ( don’t need an Artist!). Subscribed.
I just ordered the 50 watt gen 3. Getting back into guitar after 15 years of not playing. Pairing it with Ibanez 2003 S470DXQM. My old guitar was S470DX but I couldn't find any that weren't cracked or damaged in some way. This one is all original and even has the same hard case mine came with.
@@Treeclimbingexpert for the 50w check out some of the aftermarket footswitch options. The AIRSTEP katana version will open up so many more options, and it will allow you to connect via Bluetooth without buying the Boss adapter
Yes some cool new features. I like the new visual aspect of the mic'd cab simulation and the added ambience room effect. However, boss still don't state which speaker type is emulated or provide a range of IRs to use or blend for recording.
Nice run through of Kat 100 Head Gen 3 basics, thanks! I was holding off for bluetooth to finally show up on a Kat and disappointed there's a module cost when the GO has it built in. But the changes for Gen 3 make it pretty attractive even with that extra cost.
Morning Leon and all. Very cool. I was just at the Boss website yesterday or the day before and they had coming soon for the Generation 3. Now I don't have to wait. 😂. Very cool. Sounds great as all the Katanas do to me. ❤ Very very cool. ❤ I think it's great man. Boss / Roland always does a good job to me. Thank you sir. ❤ I bet you are jet lagged after that travelling with Yngwie? Need more coffee. Just drank my first cup Be well my friend and always great content on this my fav guitar channel sir. ❤
You can get the pushed amp sound with a clean boost into clean. Sounds like a pushed blackface amp. Pretty great but I already have it worked out. I'll probably wait too. Not missing much.
Maybe its me or my computer speakers, but it sounds fizzy, like a blown-out cab. I could be wrong, but I never saw your face of.....yeah, there it is, that's the stuff !! ????
A few years ago I made a mk1 into a floor amp, , added USB out to power pedals using the Engl powertap and it's still going strong... I can pretty much match it to my tube amps, Hard to imagine it getting closer but looks like it can...sag is a good addition for sure
I'd have to play one of these in person, but I thought the first generation Katana was very cold and sterile-sounding. Kinda like Peavey solid state amps in the 80s. Maybe Boss addressed that with this new model. If this employs a Modeling front-end, versus a transistor circuit, that would explain the cold and one-dimensional tone.
That;s awesome now i want a new to go with old!!! please keep up the great tunes. Thier amazing,very nice info!!! that will go great with my blackhark hp cab!!!!
If you are coming out of the headphones jack, would that mute the speaker out on the head version of the Katana? I am trying to figure out how to go front of house stereo while monitoring myself on stage.
Signal chain ? Switched from speaker to line out @ BTS screen? Followup review please switch Bloom on/off while in signal chain lineout? this review the bloom was in while in lineout.
some nice new features there...moving the chain around looks much better than before. Ive been putting off an upgrade to the artist head... now i have an excuse 😄
I guess I was hoping for some leaps and bounds upgrades like when the MKII was released. There are some nice upgrades/changes but not enough to rush out and buy one if you already have a MKII. In my opinion 😀. The drag and drop signal chain is one thing I hoped for. Having to buy something extra to use Bluetooth is disappointing, but of course they want maximum profit. The Go app has a tuner, why wouldn't they include it here? I'm curious to see what FX Floorboard will offer.
Unless I missed it, do you actually show us a visual of the head itself rather than just the top panel? I really want to see what the aesthetics are like with the grey cloth👍🏻
Leon I noticed you were running the Katana at full wattage for this demo. Did you happen to test the lower watt settings (i.e. what one might use in a home practice amp scenario) and if so were there any drastic tone changes between wattages? Great gear demo as always btw!
The Katana does everything so well, except sound very good. It's fine as long as you don't put them next to something else, but if I do then the Katana can't hold its own against any of my tube amps.
These will couple with a mk2 artist right? I have a spare cab with no purpose and might pick one of these up just for the widdle bitty speaker inside but also to do stereo pairing right mon? Hey, comment stalker, what do you think? One of these next or a Browne Carbon or Protein next?
Really, a separate bluetooth module? The Katana Go has that on board. Sorry Boss, but that is just not state-of-the-art anymore. Nice sounds, though, as always, Leon.
The reason it’s separate is not everyone wants the option of Bluetooth , instead of increasing the price for everyone, only those who want it have to pay for it
Sorry that's missing the point. Many other amps have been including it as standard built in for years. It's a money grab and you can bet your life Gen 4 will have it.
I actually use two Katana Artist MK2 and only use the power amp section and use them as FRFRs with a Fractal FM9. I have to have the air on stage. This combo really works well. I run direct and Katana for the air.
Everything you play though sounds cool, but I can't keep up with nowadays technology. Lol. Still got my ADA mp1 and it's enough for me. Wish I had the ADA eq to go with it. Give it a bit more variation.
Can you move FX and boost podals after the effects loop send/return in chain selection? On MKII you cannot do this. Only delay and reverb are allowed after the effects loop.
It sounds so good IMO. Do these have more usb routing options? I've often wanted to run my guitar in straight through my plugin effects in my daw and out of my Katana MkII but afaik it's not possible.
@@LeonTodd 😆 You have to use the Katana in stereo with my Marshall jcm800, it heats up like a radiator when the tubes are hot, it's also practical for cooking pancakes directly on top of the amp. 🤣
If I'm using multi effect but using onboard speaker, can I plug it in into effect loop (return) on the back of head? cause i don't have a cab speaker or monitor
You use the power amp input with cab disabled on the Tonex. It works great. You have to temper your expectations though. Speaker output on Katana 1x12 doesn’t sound like miked 4x12 cabinet of IR
Thanks for the answer 😀 I was just thinking that it might be nice to use the integrated drive pedals before the tonex and the modulation reverb delay after tonex
It has a 5” speaker built in to make it like a small home practice amp, handy when you use it at home. This is why the knobs are on top, the katana Artist 100 has the knobs on the front, and no speaker
Great amp still, however it is still disappointing that Boss don’t just build in the BT and charge me $20 more for the amp. If it’s a so called all rounder then make it a bloody all rounder.. LT makes it rock by the way…
It still sounds like a boss but not like A BOSS. Good sound that will probably cut through but like ...not good on your own. It is still based on the modelling of the gt10...oghh.
What are you hearing you don't like? Please be as specific as possible. There is, to me, a ratty , busted speaker sound to many of the tones. Leon is a great player and gets excellent sounds out of nearly all gear. But it's still present here. I've heard the boss people themselves and Juca Nery get rid of this quality. But I agree that they sound good, but there is a buzzy fizzy ( not in the high-end, so maybe wrong term) quality to ANY high gain tones. Deep editing is virtually a necessity to get rid of this quality I've seen . But it CAN do it
@@riokinsey2134 after comparing my katana to my axe fx 2. There is this fizzyness to the higher end stuff too, the difference is that the fizzing is more together, higher resolution. I don't know exactly how to explain. I imagine buzzsaw waves. On higher-end modelers the buzzsaw waves are finer and more together; not to mention pleasant sounding. On the katana for example they are very separate, low resolution, and ice picky.
I’ve watched every RU-vid video on the Gen 3 and honestly I’m not impressed. It sounds worse than the previous ones. I had a gen 1 and returned it. Katana is way overhyped.
*You guys and these fucking Katanas!* lol I have one so I guess I better do something with it today since I like your content. I think they are good amps but grossly overrated. In contrast, I scored a Gamma G50 new for $130 and a $400 floor modeler for free I won't elaborate on the how, but even a $150 modeler will do tremendously more than a self-contained Katana. *I guess in that I just realized it's still more than a novelty.* I rarely sell gear and at this stage of things, they're hard to get a decent price as a seller due to market saturation so i may as well keep it.
Dang. All it needed was the tiny screen from the Katana go for the tuner and to show what effect is selected so you don't have to carry a crib sheet to see what effect "yellow" is. Such a missed opportunity. Also, have the dang controls closer to the front! You know, where the player is. I don't play behind or on top of my amp.
Good news: if you have a smartphone or iPad you can now run BTS using Bluetooth from your phone or tablet screen, and this is better than what you described and will be next to you at any rate. The Bluetooth module is optional ($65). Also Boss has a tuner app.
@@markdouglas8073 It definitely isn't better. First, it's not included. Second, the idea of using a smartphone to control an amp that's designed to be controlled easily just by the panel is silly. Instead of choosing effects by the "color" they're assigned to and remembering which is which, having that tiny single line LCD from the Katana GO would be ideal. "DS-1, BD-1, DELAY, etc" that's all it would have to show. Plus the tuner. For an amp that's billed as being an "all in one" which requires no pedals and can be dialed in entirely on the panel alone, not having a built in tuner is a major oversight. Not even buying their "pedal board substitute" footswitch provides a tuner but a pedalboard would have one. Not even the bluetooth app has a tuner which is very strange since the bluetooth app for the ME-90, GX-100 etc does. Not that an app on a phone would be an acceptable replacement anyway. It's just SUCH a strange oversight. It's clearly intentional and I don't know why. Boss has a tuner app? So you expect someone to be doing a show and having the audience hear the tuning going on? Ridiculous.
I loathe the day that amp's started to merge with computers / software 🤣 The unreliable endlessly tweakable upgradeable and then disposable guitar amps when they are no longer compatible.
Cool stuff! It would be nice if they also update the Katana Go to this firmware. Unless there’s a hardware reason they couldn’t. I’ll probably wait to see what the Mark 3 Artist version brings to the table.
Nice! Thanks Leon! My son has an Artist Mk II. I have to say that even the older ones sound VERY good. Gear snobs (myself included) instinctively want to turn their nose up at these because of the pricepoint. But if you fiddle with it... it's cool. I have a Fractal FM9 for my rig... and no you cant expect it to be that... but honestly... it comes closer than most think (considering the price). For the (small to mid) gigging musician... the Katana is a grab and go piece of gear that if you spend some time tweaking it to your liking....it sounds great! Plus...you don't have to worry about your internal head games of FRFR v. amp in the room argument. It's all included! My one big hang up is that the WAH is unusable in my opinion because there is no auto On / Off triggered by the heal / toe position (which most of these type of products come with now). Has this changed?
Don't think the WAH auto ON/OFF will have been fixed, but just as an FYI ... on my Artist MkII, I run the expression pedal out the back of the GA-FC and also a little tap switch out of the other port, and program it through the Tone Studio ASSIGN page to switch between VOLUME and PEDAL FX when you press the tap switch. Not ideal, I know, but it works for me.
