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1,773 posts
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Post by MartinB on Apr 2, 2018 18:34:00 GMT
I think there were a couple of different ODs and boosts I liked on it.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 2, 2018 18:35:24 GMT
The guy I bought the Bugera from used it for acoustic guitar playing mostly. Must be the 6L6s !
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1,773 posts
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Post by MartinB on Apr 2, 2018 21:42:39 GMT
I changed the signal path and changed what FX were on DefJef
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3,968 posts
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Post by salteedog on Apr 5, 2018 12:39:11 GMT
That was a great price on a Katana...really it was a no-brainer price.
Not sure if you have done it (might be too late now anyway) but my first suggestion would have been to do a complete reset on the unit in case the previous owner had messed with global-eq or presecnce anything like that. Probably worth resetting anyway.
Also - if the previous owner had played it frequently then the speaker may have already broken in. Otherwise you will find that the high end brittleness will become less as it breaks in. My initial experience with the Katana was like yours but now I find that if anything I am constantly dialing back the low end on the clean channel. Incidentally the on board panel EQ is very non-Fender like. Highs really need to be set lower on Clean channel than expected.
I agree the effects aren't very tweakable unless you use the tone-studio. Luckily the amp works great without any need to go to the Tone studio at all. 90% of the time I play mine with just the onboard blues driver boost and a bit of plate reverbs. Sometimes some delay as well. If I feel the need for some FX then I hook up to the computer (I can never remember what I've stored in the panel or preset settings!). There is a sneaky amp that give close to Fender cleans but it's not worth the hassle really - I find the JazzChorus voiced clean channel to be just fine. There is humongous EQ capability under the bonnet too (FX EQ, Channel EQ and Global EQ) but again it not really worth the hassle unless you have particular frequencies you want to boost or cut.
One other handy thing about the Katana is that you don't need the computer to save a preset - just hold the button down (car clock radio style) if you find a tone you like.
From reading the Katana facebook group most of the guys who gig with it (including plenty players in Guitar Town itself (Nashville)) use it as a clean pedal platform. Several gig the 50watt sucessfully although it does not suit the cover band crowd because of the footswtich limitations (they prefer the head or the 100w). Jazz or super-clean twang types have trouble getting enough headroom with he 50 if they have a loudish drummers. Anyone playing with crunch or distortion have more than enough volume unless the drummer is insane. I suspect the 50 will be loud enough for you but it depends how clean you need to keep it.
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3,968 posts
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Post by salteedog on Apr 5, 2018 12:44:30 GMT
BTW - these day my tone of choice is using the Clean channel with gain set pretty low (9:00), onboard blues driver engaged, master volume set very high, amp at 25w setting and control volume using the guitar vol. So not a million miles away from what you have landed on!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 5, 2018 13:15:38 GMT
You lads are having so much fun with that box Im thinking to get one too I hope you had a good vacation saltee! Im off to Morocco tomorrow and am back next Friday!I hope its not just rain over there at this time!
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DefJef
THBC Moderator
Due to musical differences I've decided I can't work with myself any more.
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Post by DefJef on Apr 5, 2018 13:19:08 GMT
Thanks for that insight from your end salteedog. Seems we've sort of discovered the same things. I did do that reset thing (I think) when checking what version of software I had before updating. It was very annoying, "Press this whilst holding that but don't hook up yet. Now hook up and press..." no thanks! Yeah it was a booster setting that I was playing on the clean channel last night and it was great. I'd avoided them before setting my own in the Tone Studio because they were all too aggressive but I've set them now. I'm not sure I totally understood the software interface and seemed to undo things sometimes. Particularly couldn't work out if I was setting a preferred volume level for each amp style so that they were all balanced. I tried to but seemed to fail there. I'm guessing it is possible to set two delays, a short and a long at the same time? Probably. Might do that one day. I stick to the panel settings rather than presetting the two channel buttons 'cos, like you I can't remember what I've set and the amp gives no clues! And like you I found that the 25w setting is great at home but I'm looking forward to seeing what 50w does at rehearsal or live. We'll see about that clean headroom. At our last gig we got a lot of praise from a sound engineer for how hifi we had sounded and the reason for that had been not playing too loud. It's a lesson well taken on board. The onboard effects would be better served if they did what Blackstar did on their ID Cores (minus the hiss of course). Here the amp has a separate knob for the amount of effect vs the amount in the mix. So you can have a long or short tail delay, a big or small reverb but choose how present it is in the mix. The Katana just seems to allow one type of tail and then you mix it in. Not great unless you are plugged in to the Tone Studio software. Talking of presence, I noticed there was a knob for that on the software but left it alone because, as we all know, nobody really knows what that means! I'm sure there are a lot more things I could do in the software if the need arose but I'm no fan of that business and don't think I would ever really master it so it became second nature...heck my Boss ME70 still baffles me regularly, once at a sound check! But in another way I'm a huge fan of these software controlled amps because the previous owner never understood it and wanted to get rid of it for peanuts. Hooray for baffling USB hookups.
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Post by salteedog on Apr 5, 2018 13:22:04 GMT
Got back from Paris yesterday evening. France has gone crazy with strikes so we were lucky to get out in time - managed to get a lift so we avoided the SNCF chaos and also Air France very kindly were not on strike yesterday!
Enjoy Morocco - it's a country I've never been to that I'd love to visit.
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3,968 posts
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Post by salteedog on Apr 5, 2018 13:30:46 GMT
DefJef You cannot change the volume for each amp style unless you decide to allocate a preset channel to it. eg. Ch1 = Clean, Ch2 = Crunch, Ch3 = Lead etc. The setting of the volume knob is stored with the preset. However the setting of the master volume is not. One other thing...if you decide to try out the onboard USB recording interface you will most likely find that the recorded level is very low. This can be adjusted in tone studio but even at the max it's still quite low.
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