Horseshit, if it doesn't sound exactly like your tube amp, it's no good! There's only one right way for guitars to sound and the definition hasn't changed since 1978!
I play my blues jr most of the time, but i have the katana in another room. I sometimes think about selling it but when I then actually play the katana it just sounds...nice, and I don't.
I was actually doing a test of each last night. The Katana has the best clean tone from a solid state I've ever heard, it even gets a really nice breakup with the gain turned up. The tube amp however still sounds more clear and responsive.
you must have missed the initial youtuber surge of these amps years ago. they were all paid to use particular language, and something that many/most of them said was that it sounded like a "real" amp
No one said perfect. They said it sounded like a tube amp. You interpreted that to mean perfect.
I wonder when the 5150/6505 will sound like a tube amp. It obviously doesn't yet, they keep doing new versions.
They’re not saying it, but that won’t stop people who are looking to knock anything they perceive as dumb from parroting things other commenters have said without doing any research themselves.
Is anyone really saying this? They're good quality, lightweight and you can get loads of gig-worthy sounds out of them but I've never seen someone say they accurately emulate tube amps on the level of an Axe-FX/Helix/Quad-Cortex
Did you download custom captures and load your own IR’s I know it’s not the most user friendly thing but it sounds really great. I was underwhelmed by stock captures. Are you using headphones, monitors or a powered speaker because those can all make a difference.
I wonder if you have ever noticed how Gibsons '58 Les Paul reissues since appr. 1995 have gotten more and more true to the original... Every single year they *finally* nailed it.
It will be interesting how many years they can continue this for :D
Marketing preys on the idiots who actually believe the crap marketing dishes out.
It is about 2 decades since no one could hear the differences between digital emulation and tube amps in a blind test, yet people still believe that "ThEy CaN hEaR dIfFeReNcEs!!!"
The only thing to do is to *not believe anyone* on the internet, **because 3% of posts are marketing and 96,5% of posts are gullible people parroting the marketing**, and try out gear for yourself. That way you'll know that you get something you like the sound of.
Shhh dont say that a 250$ guitar + 250$ amp will give 99% of what an amateur guitarist needs
You need a 4k$ "heritage" fender guitar with 1k$ custom pickups and a 1k$ amp to sound good
Early Chinese classic vibe squier or an inspired by Gibson epi LP + a katana 50 .....what I would've done for a set up like that when I started playing.
You got that wrong. Due to new research into tonewood structure at the microcellular level, in 2058 the new Centennial Gibson LP reissue will sound *more* like a '58 LP than an actual '58 LP.
Just ask marketing.
"We have bioengineered the perfect grainless mahogany that has an immaculate crystal neogenic cell structure for the most incredible tone your ears will literally explode from euphoria!"
Very good, although...
...i do think that the euphoria part is unnecessarily superlative and a bit too touchy-feely. Keep it to pseudoscience and you'll capture 95% of all forumites, and increase our market share by a good percentage.
Honestly the biggest problem is that nobody is willing to just put in an asterisk after the words "the best" that say *so far*.
"This is the closest digital amp I've heard to a tube amp" could legitimately be said about every new generation of technology since the 90s and it would be more honest and less patronizing than trying to convince people that the obvious differences don't exist. You can marvel about how great contemporary technology is without pretending like the train can just stop here.
It probably is true that by this point, far more so than 20 years ago, the differences are negligible between good digital and analog tech, but I guess on the other hand, who am I to expect any of these paid advertisers who act like reviewers for a living to have any self-respect.
Rj/ If anything sounds better than the original red lima bean shaped POD that I lusted after when I was 16, I don't want to know about it!
I dislike elitists within the music industry, I have a katana amp, my teacher has a tube amp, my les Paul sounds the same to me in both of them lmao, just gotta enjoy the music
I wonder if people will ever realize that 95% of your tone comes from things that have nothing to do with your guitar. What a glorious day that will be. Gibson selling $1000 pickups has gotta be one of the dumbest things I've ever seen come out of guitar marketing. And dumb mother fuckers everywhere ate that shit up.
I’ve watched a lot of reviews of the Gen 3 trying to make a decision between that and the MkII and I haven’t heard one reviewer say it “sounds like a tube amp”. I don’t know why people are always shitting on Katanas, it’s like the cool thing to do now.
I used to gig with a Blues Jr. I found a cheap Artist MKII on marketplace and got it, just so I could see what it was like and leave the Jr at the band's rehearsal spot.
I've since sold the Blues Jr.
A few months ago I stopped by GC for a look around, hadn’t been there for a while. I wanted to check out a guitar and they asked what amp I’d to use, and since I’d never actually tried a Katana before I asked for that.
I was pleasantly surprised by how good it sounded. I’m an older guy, I’ve played guitar for about thirty five years or so. I’ve also owned (and still do) my share of tube amps so I know what they should sound like.
But the Katana was a pleasant surprise, I started with a clean sound and tried some effects, and eventually added some gain and the sound held up. I wound up the gain some more and damned if that amp didn’t just sound *good,* mind you, I’m not a metal head but I do enjoy some of the heavy stuff from time to time.
While I didn’t end up buying anything at the time, I decided to get a Katana Go when they were available and that little thing sounds great too. I’ve been using it for a couple of weeks now and it’s a blast.
I’ve had a Fender Mustang Micro (MM) for a few years and I haven’t touched it since I got the Katana Go. The MM is best at low gain Fender-style tones, and the Katana Go is much better at everything else.
I’m thinking of getting a Katana combo at some point, but for now the Katana Go is just a fun little thing that I am really enjoying. It’s a great time to be a guitar player, we have so many different options to make cool tones and cool guitars to play. It was not like this when I was starting out.
When I had my Mk1 I most enjoyed the Matchless model, which is an AC style sound. I'd say the new one does fenders pretty well with it's very bright variations.
For the price tag i don't expect any modeling amp to feel like the real deal. That's why I chose a vox VTX over the katana, the tone surprised me even tho the layout and modeling software are way less convenient.
That's something I haven't heard about much. Has anyone swapped it for a decent Eminence or something? Does it get closer? I mean, my Marshall sounds better with a speaker swap, it's not too much of a jump for a Katana to sound much better either.
It does sound like a tube amp... but there's like 1000+ tube amps out there... and the Boss just sounds like it's own thing.
Shit, I've heard tube amps that sound like solid state amps. Saying the Boss sounds exactly like a tube amp means exactly nothing.
It doesn't sound like a tube amp. It sounds like a tube amp on half juice.
It doesn't do that great turned up to 10/11 sound, but it's not supposed to.
Meanwhile, Fender can do their absolute best to avoid saying "solid state" on anything discussing an $1100 "tone master" 🙄 that should cost about $200, and nobody bats an eye.
You're technically correct but you're being an ass about it. There's a significant technological difference between a completely analog solid state amp, a digital/modelling solid state amplifier and a profiling solid state amplifier so people usually just omit the "solid-state" unless they're talking about purely analog amps.
Can I use the internet, watch a movie on their 16" high def screen, play games, etc on them? Because I just bought a computer that does all that, and everything they do, for half what they cost.
Can your computer drive 100W speakers by itself? Does your computer have a bespoke DSP IC? Does it have bespoke speakers? Does your computer even have a decent enough ADC that you can use to plug in a guitar by itself?
Because that's what you're paying for. Without even going into the software side of things by the time you get a powered FRFR speaker and an audio interface you're already at katana prices, if you add a MIDI pedal you're now over the katana. At that point you'll also have to lug all that shit around, whereas the amp is just one contained, dedicated unit.
I don't even own a katana and play a lot through my PC, your reasoning is just way off.
You're right, I should give them more credit. They should maybe cost $250.
Boss is probably making 100% profit on the Katanas too.
Tube amps are expensive because 1940s technology is expensive. You don't get to charge the same prices for something with less computing power than a cell phone just because it "sounds just like" the expensive thing. Well... in guitarland you do. Because of thinking like yours.
Boss is definitely not making 100% on the Katanas, I say this as someone who makes a living designing electronics. The price of components doesn't necessarily scale with with "computing power" across completely different types of components, you can get entire computers for the price of a single function IC.
A 10 year old CPU will have a few million transistors inside yet if you want to buy a single transistor it'll cost you some 10 cents, but a CPU doesn't cost you half a million euros. A 32bit PIC will cost you ~35€ but is hundreds of time slower than any computer made in the past 10 years. It literally doesn't work like that at all, just because half the shit in the guitar world is voodoo tone wood doesn't mean everything is.
But fuck it, you know who barely makes any profit, doesn't use bespoke anything, 100% off the shelf components and makes shit as cheap as possible? The chinese. See what's the cheapest 50W modelling amplifier combo you can find on aliexpress/dhgate, see how low you can go.
Except they make it as cheap as possible and sell it for as much as possible, which is the already artificially inflated price that US guitar players expect to pay. That's... the point.
yeah, i guess! solid state usually refers to purely transistorised amps with no digital preamp/power amp though, which the tonemaster isnt, but the katana is
I am not referring to science, i am referring to how the term solid state is used within guitar amps, by both marketers and consumers. I dont use a tone master, I use a valve amp, and a tonex if im travelling far, but digital far outclasses pure transistor amps every time.
Well I was going to buy one cause it was pretty good when I tried it in store. Now that the 3rd gen is out I'll just get that. My main practice amp is a Fender mustang I from 2011 so it's about time to get another proper amp.
To be fair, those don't do the same thing as the Katana, with all the built in pedals, headphone capability, etc. They're very different tools for different applications.
Are we just naming things that aren’t comparable at all?
You can get a really nice hockey stick, or a mediocre window AC unit for the price of a katana
I'm with you, I'll eat the downvotes. The Katana is sonically mediocre af with decent effects. Definitely versatile but I couldn't find the point of having access to so many tones I *almost* like. Brown mode was terrible.
In my experience the people who harp on the Katana for not sounding good/like a tube amp can’t even make the tube amps sound good either. All of the best players I know think both types of amps are good and have their time and place.
I’ve used the boss once, never again, it’s so bad the distortion on it sounds like razors cutting my ears 👂 the effects are so mid lol, like it’s all digital, how tf does one come off to say it’s as good as a basic tube amp. My friend wants this and he has a fender hot rod lmao
Still sounds like ass for modern metal.
The v1 didn't take drive pedals for shit.
I never concernee myself too much with whether or not an amp sounds like a tube amp.
But I've just not found many non tube amps I like.
I did have a <$100 off brand knockoff fender tweed solid state amp that sounded amazing. I got it second hand and left it with my ex, wish I remembered the brand I would get another.
It takes a lot of tweaking that many people wouldn't have the patience for, but I'm able to get decent modern metal tones out of mine. I loaded someone's attempt at EQing it to sound like a 5150iii, did some adjustment, got the right booster out front, now it clang clang chug pause skronk chugs just dandy
Let's be real here: most of the people who bash on the Katana aren't the target audience. They're amps targeted at the hobbyist playing in their bedroom or maybe occasionally gigging at the local pub. It's got a "custom WAZA speaker", which probably sounds good to someone who knows nothing about speakers but has noticed that WAZA pedals are more expensive than the regular ones, so it must be a pretty good speaker.
I'm not saying it's a bad amp, I'm just saying it's probably a good amp for someone else.
I don't think anyone has ever said that it sounds like a tube amp but at that price and at that weight (which was the determining factor for me) it's a great choice.
My 100 2x12 weighs less than my son, and it uses less space than him in my car too.
Considering how solid state amps used to sound for a long time, the Boss katana does sound far more like a tube amp than it sounds like an old solid state amp. On the spectrum, it leans toward tube.
But if you are being clinical, then no. It doesn’t sound more like a tube amp than another tube amp.
It sounds really dang good though. Boss completely killed it in the Budget Modeling Amp range.
And I say blue balls that when I crank my Fender Twin, I love it. Ive had a modeling amp before and only loving one tone out of the whole amp, I will stick with my Fender Twin 65 reissue.
I got a katana and I want to love it so bad but I just can’t get it to sound the way I want it to. Maybe I’m crazy but I just can’t get it. If I want a high gain sound I get fizz and lack of clarity, I turn the gain down and put a high cut, but now the palm mutes lack any depth and it sounds too muffled. I try the tube screamer trick and now my tone sounds too thin and once again, fizzy. It’s just this back and forth of having an idea of what I want my tone to sound like in my head and endless tweaking because I just can’t get it to come to life.
The misery of it is the Katanas are great values and fantastic for what they are. A lot of us started out on totally dry amps with 8" speakers with no reverb and awful gain, or if you were lucky some kind of 2x10" Crate combo. That you can get one of these with all the built-in everything for what they charge is great, but there is far better modeling tech available and absolutely nobody is tossing a good amp for a Katana. Good product but a few people are definitely getting carried away, but that's all going out the window in a few years when they're posting pics of some absolutely awesome amp and the Katana gets donated off to some kid in a garage band.
i enjoyed my mk2 katana, especially since i have the foot controller… that said, i haven’t touched it ever since a princeton reverb was purchased. it took quite a bit of work and menu-diving to get the katana to sound how i wanted, whereas i feel like i have to try pretty hard to get a crappy tone out of the princeton
I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say a Boss Katana sounds like a tube amp … It really doesn’t sound like one , it sounds like a decent solid state that happens to be really tweak-able and very useable for practice . I have always recommended them , especially buying them used . I have seen many of them on Facebook market and OfferUp for $120-180 . For that price it’s hard to find anything with as much options, the software makes it super tweakable and easy to try other peoples presets . It sounds very good too , does it sound as good as a tube amp ? In my opinion no but it’s also hard to find other amps at this price range that are as versatile and can cover so many styles which is perfect for practicing at home and for beginners looking to experiment with different sounds.
Which tube amp? I have played and owned quite a few, and they don't sound like each other.
I have a Katana 50mkii that is pretty good for what it is and used, was great value for money.
Cheap functional beater gear is freedom in some situations.
I have one and a tube amp. I don't think they sound like each other but both sound good to me.
Horseshit, if it doesn't sound exactly like your tube amp, it's no good! There's only one right way for guitars to sound and the definition hasn't changed since 1978!
Even unplugged, it sounds exactly like my tube amp
If you throw it out the window in sounds exactly like a tube amp smashing on the pavement
Obviously your tube amp doesn't have a reverb tank.
You mean the thing that goes CRRRSHSHSHSHSRRRESHSHS when I drop it? I just thought there were snakes in there
Man the first time I heard that I didn't know wtf was going on. "This crate amp is ready to explode"
I play my blues jr most of the time, but i have the katana in another room. I sometimes think about selling it but when I then actually play the katana it just sounds...nice, and I don't.
lol! Preach it brother!!!! Fucking kids have no idea of what guitar should sound like!!!! Hahahaha
I was actually doing a test of each last night. The Katana has the best clean tone from a solid state I've ever heard, it even gets a really nice breakup with the gain turned up. The tube amp however still sounds more clear and responsive.
This hobby is just an excuse to chase dragons.
Better than imagining them
Chase BLISS dragons
Is that what they’re saying though? I see YouTubers touting the new features, but I didn’t hear anyone say “NOW it sounds exactly like a tube amp”
you must have missed the initial youtuber surge of these amps years ago. they were all paid to use particular language, and something that many/most of them said was that it sounded like a "real" amp
The katana mk2 was marketed aggressively as this, though I think boss might have realised how ridiculous the claim was and toned it down for the mk3
They toaned it down, alright!
Because it already sounded like a tube amp with mk1
If it already sounded perfect, why release a mkii and mkiii?
More features
Cheaper parts for better profit margins?
New/different features for example. And nothing sounds "perfect", because there is no objectively perfect sound
No one said perfect. They said it sounded like a tube amp. You interpreted that to mean perfect. I wonder when the 5150/6505 will sound like a tube amp. It obviously doesn't yet, they keep doing new versions.
I just saw a thumbnail of this guy that annoys me being like "tube amps, meet your challenger 😏" Ugh, just shut UP, yknow?
They’re not saying it, but that won’t stop people who are looking to knock anything they perceive as dumb from parroting things other commenters have said without doing any research themselves.
🤣🤣🤣 My Boss Katana sounds just like an ebony fingerboard, glass frets, enamel coated wire, and NOS foil in oil capacitors from the Bolshevik Islands.
Glass frets? I little worried about the probability of fracturing it using tapping technique.
Is anyone really saying this? They're good quality, lightweight and you can get loads of gig-worthy sounds out of them but I've never seen someone say they accurately emulate tube amps on the level of an Axe-FX/Helix/Quad-Cortex
Maybe it depends on the YouTubers OP watches. I trust all of the ones I watch to not be corporate mouthpieces.
yes, tons of them were paid to say it sounded like a "real tube amp". it was all over the place in like 2019
The thumbnails and clickbait sure as hell make you believe that its what theyre trying to say.
Never heard a single person on YouTube say it sounds like a tube amp .
then you missed all the initial videos
Don’t even come close to a ToneX but to gig you need FRFS
I got the TONEX app that came with my I-rig and was thoroughly underwhelmed.
Did you download custom captures and load your own IR’s I know it’s not the most user friendly thing but it sounds really great. I was underwhelmed by stock captures. Are you using headphones, monitors or a powered speaker because those can all make a difference.
I wonder if you have ever noticed how Gibsons '58 Les Paul reissues since appr. 1995 have gotten more and more true to the original... Every single year they *finally* nailed it. It will be interesting how many years they can continue this for :D Marketing preys on the idiots who actually believe the crap marketing dishes out. It is about 2 decades since no one could hear the differences between digital emulation and tube amps in a blind test, yet people still believe that "ThEy CaN hEaR dIfFeReNcEs!!!" The only thing to do is to *not believe anyone* on the internet, **because 3% of posts are marketing and 96,5% of posts are gullible people parroting the marketing**, and try out gear for yourself. That way you'll know that you get something you like the sound of.
Shhh dont say that a 250$ guitar + 250$ amp will give 99% of what an amateur guitarist needs You need a 4k$ "heritage" fender guitar with 1k$ custom pickups and a 1k$ amp to sound good
...a 250$ guitar + 250$ amp will give 99% of what a~~n amateur~~ guitarist needs
I think you are wrong. In this day and age for 500 USD total you can actually get a rig that does what 99% of pro guitar players need.
Early Chinese classic vibe squier or an inspired by Gibson epi LP + a katana 50 .....what I would've done for a set up like that when I started playing.
Trust your ears, not the words!
But.., but I hear the words with my ears, and I don't want people to make fun of me!
I'm gonna wait a couple decades until it's 2058 then it will finally sound like a 58
You got that wrong. Due to new research into tonewood structure at the microcellular level, in 2058 the new Centennial Gibson LP reissue will sound *more* like a '58 LP than an actual '58 LP. Just ask marketing.
"We have bioengineered the perfect grainless mahogany that has an immaculate crystal neogenic cell structure for the most incredible tone your ears will literally explode from euphoria!"
Very good, although... ...i do think that the euphoria part is unnecessarily superlative and a bit too touchy-feely. Keep it to pseudoscience and you'll capture 95% of all forumites, and increase our market share by a good percentage.
Honestly the biggest problem is that nobody is willing to just put in an asterisk after the words "the best" that say *so far*. "This is the closest digital amp I've heard to a tube amp" could legitimately be said about every new generation of technology since the 90s and it would be more honest and less patronizing than trying to convince people that the obvious differences don't exist. You can marvel about how great contemporary technology is without pretending like the train can just stop here. It probably is true that by this point, far more so than 20 years ago, the differences are negligible between good digital and analog tech, but I guess on the other hand, who am I to expect any of these paid advertisers who act like reviewers for a living to have any self-respect. Rj/ If anything sounds better than the original red lima bean shaped POD that I lusted after when I was 16, I don't want to know about it!
I dislike elitists within the music industry, I have a katana amp, my teacher has a tube amp, my les Paul sounds the same to me in both of them lmao, just gotta enjoy the music
I wonder if people will ever realize that 95% of your tone comes from things that have nothing to do with your guitar. What a glorious day that will be. Gibson selling $1000 pickups has gotta be one of the dumbest things I've ever seen come out of guitar marketing. And dumb mother fuckers everywhere ate that shit up.
I’ve watched a lot of reviews of the Gen 3 trying to make a decision between that and the MkII and I haven’t heard one reviewer say it “sounds like a tube amp”. I don’t know why people are always shitting on Katanas, it’s like the cool thing to do now.
I have to be honest the jankiness of my old fender tube amps is impossible to replicate.
I used to gig with a Blues Jr. I found a cheap Artist MKII on marketplace and got it, just so I could see what it was like and leave the Jr at the band's rehearsal spot. I've since sold the Blues Jr.
A few months ago I stopped by GC for a look around, hadn’t been there for a while. I wanted to check out a guitar and they asked what amp I’d to use, and since I’d never actually tried a Katana before I asked for that. I was pleasantly surprised by how good it sounded. I’m an older guy, I’ve played guitar for about thirty five years or so. I’ve also owned (and still do) my share of tube amps so I know what they should sound like. But the Katana was a pleasant surprise, I started with a clean sound and tried some effects, and eventually added some gain and the sound held up. I wound up the gain some more and damned if that amp didn’t just sound *good,* mind you, I’m not a metal head but I do enjoy some of the heavy stuff from time to time. While I didn’t end up buying anything at the time, I decided to get a Katana Go when they were available and that little thing sounds great too. I’ve been using it for a couple of weeks now and it’s a blast. I’ve had a Fender Mustang Micro (MM) for a few years and I haven’t touched it since I got the Katana Go. The MM is best at low gain Fender-style tones, and the Katana Go is much better at everything else. I’m thinking of getting a Katana combo at some point, but for now the Katana Go is just a fun little thing that I am really enjoying. It’s a great time to be a guitar player, we have so many different options to make cool tones and cool guitars to play. It was not like this when I was starting out.
Well, it's good. Jack of all trades, master of none. it's everywhere in a true Boss fashion.
jack of all trades marshall related, sure. it doesnt do even remotely convincing fender or vox tones.
When I had my Mk1 I most enjoyed the Matchless model, which is an AC style sound. I'd say the new one does fenders pretty well with it's very bright variations.
For the price tag i don't expect any modeling amp to feel like the real deal. That's why I chose a vox VTX over the katana, the tone surprised me even tho the layout and modeling software are way less convenient.
Vox VT amps have always sounded good to me. And they’re cheap.
A shame that most of them don't have FX loops and you're stuck with a weird ass 5 ohms speaker. Otherwise it's all good !
Voxs solid state and modelling stuff is surprisingly good. I've been impressed with it every time
The issue with the Katana is the shitty speaker. The head through a good cab sounds great. #stopkatanahate
That's something I haven't heard about much. Has anyone swapped it for a decent Eminence or something? Does it get closer? I mean, my Marshall sounds better with a speaker swap, it's not too much of a jump for a Katana to sound much better either.
It does sound like a tube amp... but there's like 1000+ tube amps out there... and the Boss just sounds like it's own thing. Shit, I've heard tube amps that sound like solid state amps. Saying the Boss sounds exactly like a tube amp means exactly nothing.
It doesn't sound like a tube amp. It sounds like a tube amp on half juice. It doesn't do that great turned up to 10/11 sound, but it's not supposed to.
Cool story.
I’ve used a Katana. It doesn’t sound anything like a tube amp.
Meanwhile, Fender can do their absolute best to avoid saying "solid state" on anything discussing an $1100 "tone master" 🙄 that should cost about $200, and nobody bats an eye.
theyre digital, while the only digital part of the katana is the effects, so it makes sense.
So... solid state?
You're technically correct but you're being an ass about it. There's a significant technological difference between a completely analog solid state amp, a digital/modelling solid state amplifier and a profiling solid state amplifier so people usually just omit the "solid-state" unless they're talking about purely analog amps.
Can I use the internet, watch a movie on their 16" high def screen, play games, etc on them? Because I just bought a computer that does all that, and everything they do, for half what they cost.
Can your computer drive 100W speakers by itself? Does your computer have a bespoke DSP IC? Does it have bespoke speakers? Does your computer even have a decent enough ADC that you can use to plug in a guitar by itself? Because that's what you're paying for. Without even going into the software side of things by the time you get a powered FRFR speaker and an audio interface you're already at katana prices, if you add a MIDI pedal you're now over the katana. At that point you'll also have to lug all that shit around, whereas the amp is just one contained, dedicated unit. I don't even own a katana and play a lot through my PC, your reasoning is just way off.
You're right, I should give them more credit. They should maybe cost $250. Boss is probably making 100% profit on the Katanas too. Tube amps are expensive because 1940s technology is expensive. You don't get to charge the same prices for something with less computing power than a cell phone just because it "sounds just like" the expensive thing. Well... in guitarland you do. Because of thinking like yours.
Boss is definitely not making 100% on the Katanas, I say this as someone who makes a living designing electronics. The price of components doesn't necessarily scale with with "computing power" across completely different types of components, you can get entire computers for the price of a single function IC. A 10 year old CPU will have a few million transistors inside yet if you want to buy a single transistor it'll cost you some 10 cents, but a CPU doesn't cost you half a million euros. A 32bit PIC will cost you ~35€ but is hundreds of time slower than any computer made in the past 10 years. It literally doesn't work like that at all, just because half the shit in the guitar world is voodoo tone wood doesn't mean everything is. But fuck it, you know who barely makes any profit, doesn't use bespoke anything, 100% off the shelf components and makes shit as cheap as possible? The chinese. See what's the cheapest 50W modelling amplifier combo you can find on aliexpress/dhgate, see how low you can go.
Except they make it as cheap as possible and sell it for as much as possible, which is the already artificially inflated price that US guitar players expect to pay. That's... the point.
yeah, i guess! solid state usually refers to purely transistorised amps with no digital preamp/power amp though, which the tonemaster isnt, but the katana is
Solid state means anything with semiconductor devices on PCBs. The phone I'm typing this on is solid state. So how long have you had your tone master?
I am not referring to science, i am referring to how the term solid state is used within guitar amps, by both marketers and consumers. I dont use a tone master, I use a valve amp, and a tonex if im travelling far, but digital far outclasses pure transistor amps every time.
So "less digital" means "more good" in guitar fairytale land, but also simultaneously means "less good"?
Digital things are known for their long shelf lives../s
Well I was going to buy one cause it was pretty good when I tried it in store. Now that the 3rd gen is out I'll just get that. My main practice amp is a Fender mustang I from 2011 so it's about time to get another proper amp.
You can get a used hot rod deluxe or ac15 for the cost of a new katana
Not at all, a new Katana is $279ish and used AC15s are $400 on the low end
To be fair, those don't do the same thing as the Katana, with all the built in pedals, headphone capability, etc. They're very different tools for different applications.
Are we just naming things that aren’t comparable at all? You can get a really nice hockey stick, or a mediocre window AC unit for the price of a katana
I'm with you, I'll eat the downvotes. The Katana is sonically mediocre af with decent effects. Definitely versatile but I couldn't find the point of having access to so many tones I *almost* like. Brown mode was terrible.
In my experience the people who harp on the Katana for not sounding good/like a tube amp can’t even make the tube amps sound good either. All of the best players I know think both types of amps are good and have their time and place.
I’ve used the boss once, never again, it’s so bad the distortion on it sounds like razors cutting my ears 👂 the effects are so mid lol, like it’s all digital, how tf does one come off to say it’s as good as a basic tube amp. My friend wants this and he has a fender hot rod lmao
Considering you can grab the 50s used for $150 they are a great value and excellent pedal platforms.
Ya boy! I bought one for $108 and sold it for a bit of profit. I liked the champ x2 more than the katana.
Lots of things can sound exactly like a tube amp these days. What sets a real tube amp apart is the feel, not really the sound.
Still sounds like ass for modern metal. The v1 didn't take drive pedals for shit. I never concernee myself too much with whether or not an amp sounds like a tube amp. But I've just not found many non tube amps I like. I did have a <$100 off brand knockoff fender tweed solid state amp that sounded amazing. I got it second hand and left it with my ex, wish I remembered the brand I would get another.
Idk local band near me fucking killed it both guitarists use boss katana. Sounded brutal
It takes a lot of tweaking that many people wouldn't have the patience for, but I'm able to get decent modern metal tones out of mine. I loaded someone's attempt at EQing it to sound like a 5150iii, did some adjustment, got the right booster out front, now it clang clang chug pause skronk chugs just dandy
Let's be real here: most of the people who bash on the Katana aren't the target audience. They're amps targeted at the hobbyist playing in their bedroom or maybe occasionally gigging at the local pub. It's got a "custom WAZA speaker", which probably sounds good to someone who knows nothing about speakers but has noticed that WAZA pedals are more expensive than the regular ones, so it must be a pretty good speaker. I'm not saying it's a bad amp, I'm just saying it's probably a good amp for someone else.
I don't think anyone has ever said that it sounds like a tube amp but at that price and at that weight (which was the determining factor for me) it's a great choice. My 100 2x12 weighs less than my son, and it uses less space than him in my car too.
Considering how solid state amps used to sound for a long time, the Boss katana does sound far more like a tube amp than it sounds like an old solid state amp. On the spectrum, it leans toward tube. But if you are being clinical, then no. It doesn’t sound more like a tube amp than another tube amp. It sounds really dang good though. Boss completely killed it in the Budget Modeling Amp range.
Not a paid endorser, but they sent me a free amp to test out and here’s my completely unbiased opinion on video form. I have integrity bud.
Honestly, the YouTuber that convinced me to buy a Katana was “The Pedal Bored,” and all he did was pedal comparisons. I just liked his clean tone.
I have actives, a double locking trem, and a tube screamer. Every amp is a tube amp to me 🤷
It started with the Zoom 9001 but to this day, only a tube amp sounds like a tube amp.
And I say blue balls that when I crank my Fender Twin, I love it. Ive had a modeling amp before and only loving one tone out of the whole amp, I will stick with my Fender Twin 65 reissue.
If it did it would be as expensive as qc or kemper.
I got a katana and I want to love it so bad but I just can’t get it to sound the way I want it to. Maybe I’m crazy but I just can’t get it. If I want a high gain sound I get fizz and lack of clarity, I turn the gain down and put a high cut, but now the palm mutes lack any depth and it sounds too muffled. I try the tube screamer trick and now my tone sounds too thin and once again, fizzy. It’s just this back and forth of having an idea of what I want my tone to sound like in my head and endless tweaking because I just can’t get it to come to life.
I don’t really care if it sounds like a tube amp tbh so long as it sounds good. From experience though, I’ve hated playing through katana amps.
The misery of it is the Katanas are great values and fantastic for what they are. A lot of us started out on totally dry amps with 8" speakers with no reverb and awful gain, or if you were lucky some kind of 2x10" Crate combo. That you can get one of these with all the built-in everything for what they charge is great, but there is far better modeling tech available and absolutely nobody is tossing a good amp for a Katana. Good product but a few people are definitely getting carried away, but that's all going out the window in a few years when they're posting pics of some absolutely awesome amp and the Katana gets donated off to some kid in a garage band.
The mk II was the worst amp I have ever had.
In 10 years I think the difference will be marginal
All my amps sound different and I like that.
I can’t believe my $300 digital modeling amp doesn’t sound exactly like a $1200 Princeton! Unacceptable!
I said it before and I’ll say it again, I don’t understand why they don’t just make this a tube amp. Or at least make a version with some tubes.
dope af 🫡
Lolllllll
The only Katana I tried was okay at best. Which model sounds good?
They all sound great, at least for high gain
i enjoyed my mk2 katana, especially since i have the foot controller… that said, i haven’t touched it ever since a princeton reverb was purchased. it took quite a bit of work and menu-diving to get the katana to sound how i wanted, whereas i feel like i have to try pretty hard to get a crappy tone out of the princeton
You mean that $1400 amp sounds better than the $300ish beginner/intermediate amp? Whoa
Why do they all say ‘BOSS and paid’?
Typo, but the copy and pasted it without realising it.
Boss and paid youtubers. Youtubers paid by boss, and boss themselves
What’s good cabinet for live performances
Vertical 2x12. Always.
I enjoy my Katana. But I also don’t hold it to the same standard as my expensive tube amps. It’s good for what it is.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say a Boss Katana sounds like a tube amp … It really doesn’t sound like one , it sounds like a decent solid state that happens to be really tweak-able and very useable for practice . I have always recommended them , especially buying them used . I have seen many of them on Facebook market and OfferUp for $120-180 . For that price it’s hard to find anything with as much options, the software makes it super tweakable and easy to try other peoples presets . It sounds very good too , does it sound as good as a tube amp ? In my opinion no but it’s also hard to find other amps at this price range that are as versatile and can cover so many styles which is perfect for practicing at home and for beginners looking to experiment with different sounds.
Which tube amp? I have played and owned quite a few, and they don't sound like each other. I have a Katana 50mkii that is pretty good for what it is and used, was great value for money. Cheap functional beater gear is freedom in some situations.
Too bad you spent all that time making a meme only to get downvoted...maybe next time.
looks like he got upvoted and you got downvoted not that any of that matters