Boss Katana 50

[Deleted]

I'll give it a go saltee but I'm thinking I need to do the opposite. An opening noise gate might help just to squash those hard initial clips as long as it doesn't cut my sustain. I'm sure there's plenty I can try to make this work. Compression might be the answer but it seems a shame to take up one of the limited fx in the chain with compression!

[Djangle]

Does this amp have the clean headroom to keep up in a band setting?
Not looking for crystal clear just a sort of cleanish edge of break up tone and also how's the low end ?
The Bandits a great amp with good low end punch but is pretty heavy to lug around. The Katana50 info online is pretty conflicting with differing opinions but I'm hoping it can handle you know REM, Smiths and 60/70 and, new wave type tones without needing miced.
Also salteedog do you prefer the Katana over the Vapourizer?
This last question is kind of irrelevant as The Vapourizer is now sold out at Thomann but I'm just curious?
Cheers

[salteedog]

Djangle My opinion is it won't give you pristine cleans at band volumes (with a drummer). Edge of break up clean is a different matter. It depends on how loud your drummer is and how much grit you want but it should run it pretty close. I just played 'Talk about the passion' on my strat (low power pups) on the clean channel with gain turned to zero and amp power, volume and master volume turned to max and it's loud for home playing but not wake the street loud. However with gain turned to 12:00 or more it's gets to pub gig loudness and gritty cleans.

As for Vaporizer vs Katana...well they are very different beasts. The Kat is very versatile and super handy for recording and the like. But it in no way has the character or personality of the Vaporizer. The Vaporizer is deeply flawed - rough around the edges with not much clean headroom before it breaks up in an unruly (but nice) way. Its also got a nice spring reverb which is wired in a crazy way before the tone stack. I dare say Peter Buck would have appreciated it as it has a more Voxy character than classic Fender. It's garage rock. It damn loud for home use but since I added an attenuator to it I've been really digging it power tube distortion vibe.

[Deleted]

I wouldn't necessarily like to play with a full on drummer using it unmiked but miking up is certainly and option. It's hard to talk about the low end. I find the amp incredibly directional and whilst I have it on a stand at waist height facing the audience it can sound great and warm to me and then I'm shocked when I step off the stage and listen to someone else play through it at how piercingly bright it sounds. It's difficult. Perhaps miking it is the best option.

[salteedog]

Loads of folks gig with the katanas- both the 50 and the 100 but the 100 is the usual preference as it allows you to use the GAFC pedal for more control of onboard effects. From what I hear they are increasingly popular among the Nashville scene - folks who gig a lot and are sick and tired of tube amp weight and unreliability. For sure though most would be miking (or feeding line out) via in-house PA. Actually that's another advantage of the 100 - it has a line out.

I'd say if you plan on gigging it then spend the extra few bob on a 100watt unless you have a great deal on the 50. (or unless you travel to gigs on Shank's mare!)

[rtm]

The 100 combo and head are also the only ones with effect loops, which is why I dropped the idea of Katana in the first place

[salteedog]

I would love if the 50 had an effects loop for using with a looper in conjunction with the onboard effects. Other than that I can live without it.

[Djangle]

Thanks for your opinions salteedog n @defjef......will try both out both the next time I visit Big Smoke, I'm pretty sure they had both models at Guitar Guitar in Glasgow last time I paid a visit.
Great tune "talk about the passion".....I love their earlier albums from the 80s as they were a bit more rough around the edges at the time and trying to figure out Stype's mysterious but clever lyrics was part of the appeal.
Shame those Vapourizers are gone sounds killer on some YT reviews..... looks like you grabbed a pretty sweet bargain there considering they sold for double elsewhere.
The problem with the amp being too bright/brittle.......could it be the speaker hasn't broken in maybe?

[salteedog]

Certainly I (and others) believe the Katana speaker benefits from break-in. The harshness/fizzle I heard in the early days of my Katana seemed to mellow after a few weeks. In fact I often now have to tame the lows and boost the highs. In fairness the EQ is fairly eccentric - so you can get decent tones with the EQ set at extremes. Also it is open backed so lows depend a lot on the positioning of the amp. Some folks have experimented with closing the back and seemed to like it but it's a matter of taste.

Re. REM I love the early albums especially Murmur and Fables of the Reconstruction. Actually I like all their work. The Eighties in particular were a solid streak of genius from them...followed by 'Out of Time' and 'Automatic..etc.' which weren't shabby albums at all

Personal favourites - 'Pilgrimage', 'Maps and Legends','Kohoutek', 'Cuyohoga' and 'Disturbance at the Heron House' - all songs with a certain magic that was distinctly REM.

[Deleted]

It's the weird directional nature of the amps that concerns me. I've always found open backs to be far less directional and much prefer their sound for my kind of clean to break up playing. But the Katana is really odd in that two people standing shoulder to shoulder can hear it quite differently. One position will be lovely, another two feet to the the right and 'ow that's really spiky'. It's a real git when you're adjusting  effects because it'll sound great whan you're standing and then when you bend down to adjust, your ear gets a nasty bright shock. That donut ring baffle idea is starting to appeal to me more and more.

[Djangle]

Good choices, some of my favourites....Carnival of Sorts / Driver8/ Wendell Gee/I Believe/Fall on me/Welcome to the Occupation/ End Of The World////World Leader Pretend..........Jeez I could be here all night 😎
Back to amp.....Ears can be deceiving as there's many times when I think I've found great tone in an amp and then five minutes later I'm tweaking. Drives me nuts.

[Deleted]

May 9, 2018 18:58:19 GMT Djangle said:

Thanks for your opinions salteedog n @defjef ......will try both out both the next time I visit Big Smoke, I'm pretty sure they had both models at Guitar Guitar in Glasgow last time I paid a visit.
Great tune "talk about the passion".....I love their earlier albums from the 80s as they were a bit more rough around the edges at the time and trying to figure out Stype's mysterious but clever lyrics was part of the appeal.
Shame those Vapourizers are gone sounds killer on some YT reviews..... looks like you grabbed a pretty sweet bargain there considering they sold for double elsewhere.
The problem with the amp being too bright/brittle.......could it be the speaker hasn't broken in maybe?

I don't know how long a speaker needs to 'break in' for or whether it does so differently depending on how loud it has been played or how overdriven.  I've not used it a lot, having only owned it a couple of months, but played it every day-ish. It was second hand but looked like new so no idea how much it was played before I had it.

I tried the slow gear effect to solve the brittle attack but all I got was either a sort of latency before the sharp attack or very vast pink swell effects which wasn't what I was after.

[salteedog]

I was dubious about the speaker break-in effect initially but I'm pretty sure it's valid. In any case something changed either in my ears or the amp to render it less harsh than it was when brand new. Some owners have taken to pumping drum and bass music through the aux in at loud volumes for a day to achieve it. It's all to do with stretching the speaker cone apparently.

BTW in tone studio there is also cab resonance. Try experimenting with that.

[Deleted]

May 10, 2018 20:17:28 GMT salteedog said:

I was dubious about the speaker break-in effect initially but I'm pretty sure it's valid. In any case something changed either in my ears or the amp to render it less harsh than it was when brand new. Some owners have taken to pumping drum and bass music through the aux in at loud volumes for a day to achieve it. It's all to do with stretching the speaker cone apparently.

BTW in tone studio there is also cab resonance. Try experimenting with that.

They presumably then went out for the day. My neighbours are gonna love me. 

I saw that cab resonance,salteedog. I assumed it only applied to usb recording to simulate a cab?

[salteedog]

Yes...I wasn't sure about the cab resonance either. But see this video (and no I cant hear much difference)