BOSS Katana - 100 Mkii Combo Guitar Amplifier, Stage-Ready 100-Watt Combo Amp with A Custom 12-Inch Speaker, Black

Oh, my god! Why have I waited this long to buy this amp and end my misery in the pursuit of finding "the sound" that I want to hear and play? Prejudice, and nothing more... For 2 years, I dismissed all Youtube Boss Katana 100 reviews in the belief that I could get the sound I was looking for only from a Marshall amp, in particularly JCM 800... Ok, ok I watched one of the videos, and I gave my verdict immediately - "there is too much bottom end with these amps". Well, I did not still change my view on that, it is true. However, it doesn't mean you can not adjust all the settings, effects, and EQ etc. Also guitar pick-ups used in those demos and reviews are different than yours.The reason for my obsession with JCM 800, it has its stamp on an era. I love the sound. You can not go wrong with it. Marshall amps are very good amps, don't get me wrong, and they served me well in the past. I had a Marshall Valvestate, I enjoyed playing with it.But for a while, I was looking for new technologies to enable easy home practicing, USB recording rather than mic-ing, and being able to access more tonal possibilities to suit to my pick-ups and guitar choices. Marshall had the offering, Code 25. Or I assumed!In the pursuit of finding "the sound", it was a mistake to buy Code25. I thought it had "well modelled classic sounds" all packed up in this unit, it has 100 patches, with Marshall preamp, power amp, cab simulations and a ton of reasonable effects, which we can combine. And I had prejudice to all other brands. A JCM 800 sound can be best modelled by Marshall and no one else! You can not go against the Marshall value proposition, right?When I say this, I guess only a guitar player would believe me that I tried all preamps, power, cab model combinations with different drive setting etc, used in several recordings, and I still said "Not sure if this is still the sound I am looking for". It was a 2 years of searching. It was disappointment after each and every session, and always ended with "what if I tried this?". Theoretically, you should be able to get a realistically sounding Marshall tube amp sound from all these possibilities, right? I can not quantify it, all of the sounds did not feel right. They did not have the organic, even distortion. I am aware that amp models can not achieve that 100% tube sound, but they come very close. The technology is very advanced, and that is a different discussion.Well, I finally gave up on Code25 and started to look around other brands. Breaking my mental barriers.. Fender and Vox, not a chance, but I said why not Boss. I watched all youtube videos that I could find. Every requirement that I had.. checked. Ordered without sound testing at a music shop!After the sound I heard from Boss Katana 100 MkII, I am saying good bye to all my Marshalls. Boss seems to have nailed it. It is a job well done. You can see and feel attention to detail in every part of this amp (apart from Boss Tone Studio which is still buggy as of version 1.0.2).It took me a minute to figure out how the unit works, 30 mins to figure out the sound that I always wanted to play. Incredible! I used that in a mix (via usb) without any issue and... perfect.Why LESS is MORE?Compared to other amps or amp modellers, the preamp, power amp, cab choices are seemingly a bit limited, which should not fool you. It is possible to create a variety of guitar tones for various genres in minutes and store them on 8 channels + the panel. You can also use Boss Tone Studio to store hundreds of sounds and download to the unit. Remember, I had more than twice the amount of choices with Code 25, targeted specific to the brand's own sounds, and none of them felt natural.Boss Katana 100 Mark II gives you 5x2 preamps, plus a great choice of Boss pedals to use. Less choice lets you better focus on fine tunings.In addition, all effects listed are pretty much what you get from a Boss GT-100 multi effects unit. So effectively Boss Katana 100 Mk II is an amp packed with GT-100 effects and more. You can configure your effects chain, connect external effects etc.And the best part is; being able crank up the volume but not get the neighbours down.Interesting note: USB Connection provides 4 outs. Primary L/R is the output of the chain, secondary L/R is dry sound.It is a great amp. You can not go wrong with it.

I often for a Katana as I'm growing tired of lugging around so much equipment and want to downsize my rig for both rehearsal and gigs. To be honest, I spent less time researching this purchase than I usually would. Why? The volume of reviews and the conclusions pretty much saved me the trouble.One of my main considerations was weight. I'm too long.in the tooth to be hauling 25kg+ amps around. The Katana weighs in at about 14kg but somehow feels lighter - probably on account of being accustomed to lifting aforementioned 25kg+ beasts! The other main consideration (aside from quality, and with BOSS/Roland, that is as good as a given) was versatility. I won't go into a long-winded description and assessment of the amps features as the net is bulging with reviews but people far more qualified and erudite than I am. Suffice to say, the amp sounds great! It has depth, warmth when dialled in, and a LOT of volume. So yes, this (100W variant) can most definitely be gigged. Absolutely no question of that.One point repeatedly highlighted in reviews is the value of using the BOSS Tone Studio software to edit amd create tones. I subscribe to this position 100%. Watch a couple of YouTube tutorials, connect the Katana, and there us a world of potential. It is scary! Being able to experiment by sitting with the guitar and tweaking the settings in the software while hearing what you are creating us a seemless, rewarding experience. My advice is to set aside a couple of hours very early in your ownership to do this. Mess about with it and don't worry. A factory reset is only a few button presses away.As a guitarist, I'm all too familiar with the arguments from tone purists about the supremacy of valve amps. I get that up to a point, but it is subjective, and not all valve amps are born equal. Times are changing, and if you are looking for something more portable, versatile, and customisable, it is difficult to see past the Katana. All that said, to utilise it to the full in a rehearsal or gig context, I would strongly suggest purchasing the dedicated GA-FC (ideally the upgraded EX version) foot controller. Yes, it is pricey, but as a package with the amp, I would suggest it is still killer value.The Katana is talked up pretty much anywhere you choose to look or listen. There is good reason for this. It takes guitar amplifier technology to a new level, and at the price you pay for one, the Katana has to be a contender for the one amp you must have.

I've used this amp for teaching, rehearsing but not gigging (yet). I have the GA/FC footswitch, with a NUX NMP-2 dual switch added on. Channel switching and Effects on/off are not quite as simple as a Tube amp with pedals, requiring more clicks to get what you want. If the song goes from Clean with chorus to Crunch with flange, then Brown with delay, that's a lot of extra clicks. The two banks of four presets are useful, but not enough to cover an entire set of 30 Classic Rock songs, so you need to switch FX in and out.I like the sounds, Clean is superb, but care is needed setting up Crunch/Lead/Brown sounds, as the wide range of tones means it's possible to make some nasty noises!0.5w power is fine for lessons, 50w was OK in a rehearsal room with loud drums, but it wasn't as loud as my Peavey Classic 30. I've still got 100w to try. All this, for the price of two sets of tubes for the Peavey!Prime Delivery is a farce, the first one I ordered got lost in transit, so I cancelled, re-ordered and the second one took several days to arrive, missing the gig. Hopeless.

I have 3 Katana mk2 amps now, they are fantastic guitar amps, they are superb for any type of music, I would recommend to everyone.

The BOSS KATANA 100 AMP has better affects, and good price ..