Boss Katana 100 watt 212

  • The Boss Katana inspired me to try the Roland Blues Cube Artist amp. Man, this is incredibly good. At least for me with modest gain requirements it seems to be a great alternative even to the Kemper. Like the KAtana it also loves pedals. Never thought that a transistor amp can get so good. And there is USB recording out. We live in a world full of options - what is another challenge :)

  • Wouldn't it be better to connect through the effects loop in? Although it looks like if you have the 50w there isn't one.

    The aux input bypasses the internal Katana effects, which is what I wanted - simply using the power amp.

    Go for it now. The future is promised to no one. - Wayne Dyer

  • The Boss Katana inspired me to try the Roland Blues Cube Artist amp. Man, this is incredibly good. At least for me with modest gain requirements it seems to be a great alternative even to the Kemper. Like the KAtana it also loves pedals. Never thought that a transistor amp can get so good. And there is USB recording out. We live in a world full of options - what is another challenge :)

    Was your Katana brand new? You didn't experience the speaker harshness that I did?

    Go for it now. The future is promised to no one. - Wayne Dyer

  • Bump.


    Interested to hear anything else about the katana as a monitor solution. Was the harshness dialed out at all @Zappledan

    I spent some time yesterday downloading the latest rev and setting up the editor. I used the amp directly, not as a monitor. My initial impression hasn't changed yet ...

    Go for it now. The future is promised to no one. - Wayne Dyer

  • if using directly as an amp you will notice that the treble and presence at e.g. 12 o'clock are already too much in many cases... may be this is the cause of the harshness?

  • if using directly as an amp you will notice that the treble and presence at e.g. 12 o'clock are already too much in many cases... may be this is the cause of the harshness?

    I was using the aux input, so the Katana eq was bypassed ...


    edit: used as it's own amp, I wasn't experiencing that same harshness, so perhaps changing eq on the Kemper would make a difference. I still need to work with it a lot more.

    Go for it now. The future is promised to no one. - Wayne Dyer

  • I was using the aux input, so the Katana eq was bypassed ...
    edit: used as it's own amp, I wasn't experiencing that same harshness, so perhaps changing eq on the Kemper would make a difference. I still need to work with it a lot more.

    I spent some more time today, putting the DXR10 and Katana on an A/B switch. There's a noticeable difference in EQ between them - the DXR has more bottom end; the Katana has more mids. I changed the Output eq for the Katana: lows up a bit, mids down a bit, highs up a very small amount, and presence down a very small amount. This got me pretty close, though my ears are probably not the best judge of such things :/ . Of course, the eq changes I made were to make the two sound as similar as possible. In a live environment I might prefer different settings, but this was in my bedroom studio with lousy acoustics and just me playing guitar. Also, I did this with cabs on. For me, the Katana just didn't sound as nice without them, but note that I was going through the aux input. When I finished, I plugged directly into the Katana to see what my impression was after noodling through the Kemper for so long. Running straight in, I found no lack of bass, so using another input for the Kemper would certainly give different results. I wouldn't hesitate to use it as a monitor amp for the Kemper.

    Go for it now. The future is promised to no one. - Wayne Dyer

  • For me the Katana as such sounds very much like a tube amp. When using with the Kemper you get the sound from the profiles that sound the originally profiled tube amp. The open combo system provides more "amp in the room" feeling vs. usual FRFR. Hope this helps.

  • You experienced harsness when using with cabs of and the aux.
    Was the speaker "in your face"?
    How would you compare that to a tube amp in your face?

    I didn't experience this as much yesterday while doing the a/b comparison. And, yes, I think part of it that first day was being directly in front of the speaker. As for comparison to a tube amp - I no longer have one :)

    Go for it now. The future is promised to no one. - Wayne Dyer

  • I was using the aux input, so the Katana eq was bypassed ...
    edit: used as it's own amp, I wasn't experiencing that same harshness, so perhaps changing eq on the Kemper would make a difference. I still need to work with it a lot more.

    Did you happen to try it through the effects return?

  • No, I haven't. I suppose I should, but that will also put the Katana's effects into play I think ...


    No way to just turn the effects off? That would be a super downer for me with respect to this amp. I'd want to use just the "power amp" section, without the preamp or the FX. If this is not possible, I can't imagine how it would be good with the Kemper, though it's all YMMV and I don't own this. Running into the FX return would be the option of choice when running the Kemper into an amplifier for me.

  • No way to just turn the effects off? That would be a super downer for me with respect to this amp. I'd want to use just the "power amp" section, without the preamp or the FX. If this is not possible, I can't imagine how it would be good with the Kemper, though it's all YMMV and I don't own this. Running into the FX return would be the option of choice when running the Kemper into an amplifier for me.

    Me too. I would probably setup a patch with no fx and leave it on that Katana preset.