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Vincent wrote:Another one BOSS have come up with is the Nextone series amps..NEXTONE 40 Watt is about £430-00 ; supposedly even better sounding than the Katana but a lot more money. I also looked into the Roland blues cube series. They have a plug in capsule that resembles a valve. It's basically an over sized chip that moulds the sound for blues, heavy rock, vintage Fender..I've seen them priced at £179 and above -each one

But does it have another tremolo that you can't find ?

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Many modern amps have multi-function controls that need to be fully explored.

Vincent wrote:I've not looked at that the Nextone -only photos of it. It's meant to have more of an' analogue' sound than digital..and effects loop. Whether you can download Boss tones/FX not sure. They are coming up with a lot of things recently -some of which might not last...competitive market. As for tremolo on the Katana, I see what you mean now .it's part of the FX set up; there's no separate trem knob as such. At under 200 quid for the 50W Katana, it could mean the components are of lesser quality..as one review I saw said, a good many could end up being scrapped after 8 years or so ..

Reviews are opinions, usually given by people who are NOT out in the big wide world using the gear. If I took notice of some of the reviews I've read, I would never buy anything. I read reviews that Chinese guitars are supposed to be rubbish, yet I recently bought two of them, identical to my Gibson 335 & Gibson J160e and guess what, the Chinese ones are easily as good for less than one tenth of the cost.
I have an opinion too for what it's worth, if more people used and played and learned to use their gear and play the tunes correctly, that energy would be would be well spent, rather than spending time and energy quoting specs and reviews that are mostly meaningless, as are the comments that constantly want to make everything a competition between one product and another. At the end of the day it's one factor that makes a successful act and that is THE PLAYER.
Hands on experience wins every day for me.

Could not agree more on Dave's comments as above on playing whatever piece correctly.
Having started , as probably many others did on the Tab book * Shadows Off The Record",
it was not the easiest book to read for beginners some 25 years back.
There were some inaccurate phrases here and there, which although minor have since been
corrected and revised by various tabbers, most recently SHADSTABS who really has produced an
excellent revision, which I and many others are fully appreciating.
Going back to titles such as Flingel Bunt, The Savage etc and now getting it right, does it
for me and a nice Chinese Squier!!!

Mike

I often wonder why, we all get caught up, with endless discussions about gear.
Wish I could say that I am a exception, but I am not, as I owned and tried almost everything.
However I am moving away from being a purist, and will happily play live with my Fender amp, because it is stocked with all the other live gear, and it is the easiest on to carry.

My gear is really quality, but my echo units are fairly cheap.
Quite often we play gigs where a quite famous swedish band are playing as well.
They have a very good guitarist, who will do anything from the 60.s - shadows to perfection, as well as backing country artist, from other countries, while touring in Scandinavia.

When we are playing at the same gig, he always ask me " have you got a amp, and your pedalboard" then he only brings his guitar.
He does not bother, and he always sounds like himself, guess why.

Regards
Niels

I don't regret following Dave's recommendation of the Boss Katana. I have the 100w combo & have downloaded the Boss Tone Studio app. & found it to give a really pleasing Shads Lead tone, after experimenting with the EQs & Echoes. I mainly play Rhythm, & am glad for the 'Acoustic' amp model, which is super with an electro-acoustic guitar (Epi Hummingbird) . But it is great when I play Lead on the three or four Shads tunes that I know.
For the price you pay, the Katana range is all I'll need for most of the sounds I want. OK, it might give up the ghost after 8 years, as suggested, but I'll have had my monies worth by then. I'll bet it is more reliable than any valve amp, & more consistent & lighter in weight too.
I also have the Roland 'Blues Cube' Artist model, which is rather more expensive, & more like the 'Newtone' model, but without the choice of simulated valves, which aren't really there. It's another great amp from Roland. They have got it right with all these recent models, following on from the older 'Cube' series, & have a good reputation for reliability, if you look after them.

Tony.

As far as guitars go, I can also recommend the Squier Chinese made 'Classic Vibe' series, & also the recent new Fender Mex 'Player' series, They are really good sounding Strats , without the high end expense of Re-issue & Custom Shop models, & work fine for Shads music. I have a Squier 'Simon Neal' Strat (F.Red with Rosewood board) & a Player series Strat (White with Maple board).

Tony.

My rig with my band is a squier simon Neil Strat and boss katana head through a vox 2x12 cab. The most authentic shads sound I've ever had

It’s nice to hear people saying that they are happy with their gear, as to me, it shows they are getting some good use from it.
I mentioned a few days ago that I bought the Fender Rumble v3 which works great on guitar too, but the last two gigs I used my 2 X 12 Katana and still rate it very highly, though the Rumble is so easy to carry, which is a big attraction. I do prefer the spread of the 2 x 12 though on larger gigs.
As for guitars, I picked up two Chinese branded Gibsons’ for very little money, an ES-345 style and a J-160 e.
Each of those hold their own with the real deal, at less than a tenth of the cost of my Gibson ES-335 and Gibson J-160e, in fact the Chinese imposter J-160 has a better sounding pickup than that of the Gibson.
Guess what’s up for sale ?