Re Boss Katana 50w combo

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Re Boss Katana 50w combo

Postby dave robinson » Fri Jul 07, 2017 4:37 pm

Just thought I'd let you know that because I rate the Boss Katana 50 so highly, I invested in it's big brother, the 100watt 2x12 version. Although the little 50 watt job covered most bases for me, there was a lack of punch on big stages, even though though audience could hear it well, I lost some feel which can affect my performance. Anyway it was easily and relatively cheaply sorted out for £399 and I gigged it last night with great success. Add to all of that the ease of carrying, it's half the weight of an AC30 so I suspect there may be some Voxes and Boogies for sale soon - these Boss amps are that good. :)
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Re: Re Boss Katana 50w combo

Postby alanbakewell » Fri Jul 07, 2017 5:44 pm

I bought the 100 watt Katana a couple of weeks ago. I'm still working through the various effects.
I'm well pleased with it. I had a good deal from PMT in Birmingham.

My interest was sparked by your original comments Dave, followed by numerous You Tube demos
and finally a visit to PMT.

The 1/2 watt setting is perfect for my conservatory. ( The neighbours are speaking to me again ).

The fact that you can programme a sound when you find it is very useful.

And, as has already been stated, I can lift the blasted thing.

Robbo, thanks for the pointers. I do take notice of what you say sometimes. :-)

Cheers, Alan.
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Re: Re Boss Katana 50w combo

Postby RUSSET » Sun Jul 09, 2017 3:09 pm

Hi Alan,
Glad you like your Boss Katana 100, I'm sure you'll be pleased with it, especially for the ease of carrying etc. & the preset patch facility. After Dave's advice, I jumped in for the 100 1 x 12" combo last month & have used nothing else since. I use the clean, & acoustic patches mainly, which are great & a special Hank patch if I play a Shads instro. OK, not a valve amp, & there will always be a place for Voxes etc., but these virtually do all that we want, without the worries of valve or transformer failures & ...... they're soooooo light. :)
I take it to our music club at Quarry Bank, & other members are always asking to use it; even the electro-acoustic players, who really like the 'Acoustic' amp model channel.

Tony.
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Re: Re Boss Katana 50w combo

Postby roger bayliss » Tue Jul 11, 2017 11:59 am

Gives you some idea of a comparison re Vox but not clean sounds on this one. Not bad I would imagine. Will probably go for a 50 watt as great price and weight and flexibility.
Would say EQ plays a part here with sound and maybe the Vox top boost EQ is what is scooping the Vox a bit more than the Katana but easily fixable with eq pedals


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Re: Re Boss Katana 50w combo

Postby roger bayliss » Sat Jul 22, 2017 3:46 pm

I too have bought the Boss Katana 100 single speaker. Went to Guitar Guitar in Birmingham and spent a while trying the range out using my echo and EQ pedals and realised it was almost there on the Vox sound and had heard you could tweak the amp with EQ via tone editor. So It was close but I wanted it a bit closer to the Vox sound and tweakable.

I installed the Boss Tone Studio for Katana an the installation went smoothly on Windows 10 laptop. Wow there are a lot of great effects in there !
I allocated a Parametric EQ to one of the effect choices on the panel and tweeked the 800Hz by cutting slightly and adjusting by ear and yes the Vox sound appeared with the treble and mids midway and bass on around 12 I trimmed the parametric filter till I got pretty close. Also added the room reverb and a long pre delay of 180ms. Saved it to channel 1. Then did another set into Channel 2 using the graphic eq on default settings and got similar results as the default scoops os boosts mid range depending on knob position.

These are great amps for the asking price and the single tape delay is great too if you just want to use the amp alone.
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Re: Re Boss Katana 50w combo

Postby roger bayliss » Sat Jul 22, 2017 5:49 pm

The acoustic amp is also great by the way in the Katana no need for a separate rig !
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Re: Re Boss Katana 50w combo

Postby roger bayliss » Sat Jul 22, 2017 6:23 pm

Done a bit of digging and came across The Sneaky Amps for Katana patches which you import into the Tone editor. There are 2 Vox and a Matchless sim in there'

Read this and download the Sneaky Amp and import into the Tone Editor. Basically you can save one setup from the amps into one of the 4 preset channels . Touch the amp selector and you are back to one of the 5 preset sounds built into the Katana.

I have managed to import the Sneaky Amps file into the Tone Editor okay but yet to try it. Apparently the Katana comes with 5 amp presets but has 28 amp types built in so Sneaky Amps helps you get the other amp types. You cannot allocate the amp type to anything other than a preset channel though.


https://github.com/katana-dev/docs/blob/master/how-to/use-28-amp-types.md#sneaky-amps-liveset
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Re: Re Boss Katana 50w combo

Postby dave robinson » Sun Jul 23, 2017 11:29 am

Thanks for this Roger, I haven't looked at any of this yet, but I'll be doing so now ! :)
Incidently I use the 2x12 Katana on our main gigs and. The Shads sound is there, straight off the clean channel with full mid, a tiny bit of bass and 3/4 treble.
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Re: Re Boss Katana 50w combo

Postby roger bayliss » Sun Jul 23, 2017 12:22 pm

Cheers Dave well worth having a look if only for the effects. This is what you may need to try and re create to get the amp closer to the Vox sounds.
Here are some tone curves typical of Vox Top Boost responses reporoduces using Duncans Amp Tool app. The curve is roughly centred on 800Hz
It depends on the Katanas Clean channel existing curve so a bit of guess work by ear is going to be needed.

1. Bass and Treble both at 0 very similar to Vox AC15 sound. Note roll off in bottom end.
https://app.box.com/s/srs3jrdy0hqi3mybb3k6i7qeztp5gbxl

2. Early sound eg Peace Pipe Bass around 12% treble at 12 O Clock. Increasing Bass does not change curve much till bass goes up towards full.
https://app.box.com/s/c6c9r2es0yz6i2ne7ljyi2w65dnjwtj1

3. Nasal Burns style settings Bass full treble around 60%. Increasing treble causes it to move slightly left narrower and deeper.
https://app.box.com/s/w9zfcyq85wnok4553c90m5ed6xuppayz

So if we use a Graphic EQ or Parametric from effects list we could shape these three core tones into the preset patches to cover Shads base tones

I found the Graphic EQ is not bad and simple to use by ear if allocated to an effect position and easiest to implement because it dips and rises depending on dial position roughly around 1k. I had treble 12 O Clock Bass around 10% and mids midway in my experiment similar to setting 2. above.

HTH
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Re: Re Boss Katana 50w combo

Postby roger bayliss » Thu Jul 27, 2017 3:03 pm

Following on from the Vox Tone Curves discussion above, I have written a library of key Shadows Vox Tones to share and help people out. There are 4 tones in the library and these are explained below. Please note I have tried to approximate amp sounds here and to get closer to recorded sounds you will need an additional EQ pedal or maybe cutting edge etc.

The amp for the tones was taken from the Sneaky Amps Vox Lead sound. This is a crunch tone with low gain.

The tones suit the Boss Katana 100 watt combo with presence controls for which I wrote them.

The patches are designed so you can tweak the sound a bit to satisfy your sound quest. They all have Clean Boost added on effect 1, some EQ on effect 2 and Room Reverb with long pre delay on the reverb knob. Feel free to change the three effects knobs to get the sound to your liking as well as the usual amp EQ controls bass treble etc. A slight increase in gain may also change the sound for a bit more grit if desired. Do not alter the EQ on the centre effect knob for the Burns sound as this will cause it to go back to default. If you do just reselect the patch to reinstate EQ sound.

Library Link below and explanation

Library Name - Shadows Vox Tones

1. AC30TB Pre Burns. The sound post Blue Star and when AC30TB introduced. Use Clean Boost on effect 1, EQ on effect 2 and reverb on effect 3 knobs as desired. Cutting the EQ causes a mid scoop sound which approximates the AC30TB at these amp tone settings. ie Treble 12 O Clock, bass around 12 or so and mids 12 O Clock. Presence at 60%. Use Clean Boost and reverb to taste. I suggest the EQ needs cutting to about 10% to get this tone right.

2. AC30TB Burns Era. The sound From the Burns guitars era. Use Clean Boost on effect 1, EQ on effect 2 is fixed and reverb on effect 3 knobs as desired. Do not change the EQ which causes a mid scoop sound which approximates the AC30TB at these amp tone settings. ie Treble 2 O Clock, bass on full and mids 12 O Clock. Presence on full. DO NOT CHANGE THE EQ ON THIS PATCH AS THE PARAMETRIC EQ SWITCHES TO DEFAULT AND SETTING LOST. TO REINSTATE RESELECT THE PATCH AGAIN.

3. AC15 early sound eg Apache to Blue Star before AC30TB presented itself. Again the Clean Boost on effect 1, EQ on Effect 2 and room reverb long pre delay effect 3. The bass treble and mids are all off and flat with presence on around 60%. Use clean boost to improve sound and add reverb to suit. The EQ effect knob is flat in middle but you can boost mids or cut if you wish to change sound.

4. AC15 as 3. but with bass treble and mids at 12 O Clock for a different flavour. Personally I go for 3. but I included this for people to try.

Have fun and hope this helps someone out. Play with settings to hearts content to get the sound you want. The panel sound is always available for your own sounds if you have other or better ideas than me.

Here's the link for library
https://app.box.com/s/to0u3r82d5shmhgzje4syv3yzpk61ck1

You need the Boss Tone Editor for Katana to import the library into and then from library click on one of the patches and drag drop onto a preset patch on left.

HTH
Last edited by roger bayliss on Thu Aug 03, 2017 2:48 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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