Incoming! ( Katana )

[oldmtlhed]

IT.....HAS.....ARRIVED.

FedEx did a good job with NOT beating the crap out of the box. Nice job guys!

UNBOXING

( I haven't hooked it up yet, but I will tonight after dinner. )
Expect a report and more pictures soon!

 

[Kevin11]

Congrats! Interested to hear what you finally think of it after all the hype we've given it.

 

[errrrrl]

Congrats! Interested to hear what you finally think of it after all the hype we've given it.

Totally!

Post some clips!

 

[Ventura]

Hey, partner in psychiatric GAS crime....

CONGRATZ!!!!!!

Let us know how things come together when the power button goes "flick".

(Now bear in mind this will open the floodgates to new modellers, cabs, cones, guitars, picks, whammy bars, effects, deluxe cables, notions of purchase insanity, delusions of grandeur, groupies, your own YT channel with over 1M subscribers, fame, and many...many panties all over the ground!!)

 

[Kidkramer71]

congrats !!
Did you get the footswitch ?
I have never been able to download all the pedals from the website.
I have heard about the secret head sounds or sneaky amps or something like that .
Let me know if you do get them ?

 

[oldmtlhed]

Congrats! Interested to hear what you finally think of it after all the hype we've given it.

Funny you should mention that..... ( storytime )

So.... yeah. I plugged the Katana into a power outlet. ( surge protector )
I plugged my guitar straight into it.
I set the power level on the lowest setting. ( half a watt )
I turned it on, just to test the functions. You know, to make sure it "works".
I was only using the built-in speaker, and barely any sound was coming out.
So I fiddled with the knobs in PANEL mode. I tried the amp sounds, and some effects.
It seemed to be working like it was supposed to.
Now... here comes the confusing part: it sounded like ASS.

NONE of the settings sounded any good at all. But I wasn't upset or discouraged.
I could not judge it until I hooked up my entire RIG, and spent some time with it.
I knew I needed to push air through my kick ass 4x12 cab.

SO... now that I knew the Katana worked okay, time to connect the RIG!
I must refrain from giving any opinions at this point. I spent literally 5 minutes with it.
But I can say one thing now: on the 100-watt setting.... this sucker is LOUD.
Ridiculously loud.
I can see I will spend most of my time on the 50-watt setting, with the master volume
fairly low. Now that I had my whole rig up and running, it's a totally different world.
It is going to be fun making my custom channels. The foot controller is SWEET.
My MXR 10-band EQ in the loop is SWEET. My Maxon OD808 in front of the amp is SWEET.
My G*major rack unit is SWEET. My 4x12 cab is SWEET! ( You get the idea )
I can already tell.... all my shit works very well together with the Katana head.

TOMORROW I will work with it some more. See what I can make it do.
After that, I will have a more detailed report of exactly what I think of this thing. ( Pros and Cons )

Until then... here is a picture of the whole RIG:

 

[oldmtlhed]

Hey, partner in psychiatric GAS crime....

Let us know how things come together when the power button goes "flick".

(Now bear in mind this will open the floodgates to new modellers, cabs, cones, guitars, picks, whammy bars, effects, deluxe cables, notions of purchase insanity, delusions of grandeur, groupies, your own YT channel with over 1M subscribers, fame, and many...many panties all over the ground!!)

Hey now! This thing was only $350! It doesn't qualify as "GAS crime".

Power button went "flick". But I need more time with it before I can give any thoughts.
I plan on spending several hours with it tomorrow. Should be interesting.

"Floodgates"...... ummmmm..... NO.
Picks... maybe. The rest of what you said.... no. Sorry, no.
What is going to come next is: me making my custom channel patches, and saving them.
And me practicing more, with my new found versatility this rig is capable of!
I could throw a video or two up on YouTube, but some of you guys have one of these amps.
So you already know from personal experience what it sounds like.

This KATANA head is the only new piece of gear I have bought in many years.
The last piece of gear was the Maxon OD808 pedal, and I don't even remember when I bought it.
( 6 years ago maybe? )

When I was younger, I had GAS bad. I was convinced that if I just found the right piece of gear,
it would help me play better. I spent so much time researching gear, and talking with other players,
I didn't study or practice much. When I got older, I realized that was a foolish idea.
I stopped researching gear, and I didn't buy anything for many years.

So now.... here I am. I guess I had to wait for someone to invent something I thought might be
useful to me, at a price I was willing to go for. KATANA just might be it.
If Katana does what I need it to do, then I won't need to buy anything else for a long time. ( If ever. )
I just need to play more. Simple as that.

 

[Shask]

Yeah, I think that internal speaker sucks. At least for the bass-heavy high gain chunky sounds I like. If you are using a clean sound with no bass, it sounds OK, but so does about anything.

Definitely hook it up to the computer. Dial in a boost, dial in a graphic or parametric EQ to dial in a bunch of bass, scoop some mids, and cut some highs, and you can get nice heavy tones.

 

[Mailman1971]

Congrats
Love my Katana. Use the same MXR 10 band in the loop.
The mini built in speaker sucks balls. This Amp has to be heard thru a 4x12.
100 watt mode of course.

 

[Mr. Willy]

Got mine about a week ago. Sounds pretty good. Actually, is the best sounding amp I've ever played... that cost $350, new. The jury's still out for me. There's a highend bite to it that's difficult to dial out. I have a feeling the secret to unlocking really great tone out of this thing is the deep editing software, especially the graphic EQ. It sounds pretty good though.

 

[Shask]

Got mine about a week ago. Sounds pretty good. Actually, is the best sounding amp I've ever played... that cost $350, new. The jury's still out for me. There's a highend bite to it that's difficult to dial out. I have a feeling the secret to unlocking really great tone out of this thing is the deep editing software, especially the graphic EQ. It sounds pretty good though.

If you use the Parametric EQ in the software, it has low shelf, and high shelf controls. Dial in that high shelf to about 10K, and the high end becomes less grating.

 

[SavageRiffer]

Congratulations man. That's a fun amp to play.

 

[Mr. Willy]

Got mine about a week ago. Sounds pretty good. Actually, is the best sounding amp I've ever played... that cost $350, new. The jury's still out for me. There's a highend bite to it that's difficult to dial out. I have a feeling the secret to unlocking really great tone out of this thing is the deep editing software, especially the graphic EQ. It sounds pretty good though.

If you use the Parametric EQ in the software, it has low shelf, and high shelf controls. Dial in that high shelf to about 10K, and the high end becomes less grating.

I need to do some editing with the software at some point. I'm also getting a good bit of feedback. Are the ODs factory set at, like, 50/50 on level and gain? Even when I just barely turn them on, that's what it feels like the settings are.

 

[Shask]

Got mine about a week ago. Sounds pretty good. Actually, is the best sounding amp I've ever played... that cost $350, new. The jury's still out for me. There's a highend bite to it that's difficult to dial out. I have a feeling the secret to unlocking really great tone out of this thing is the deep editing software, especially the graphic EQ. It sounds pretty good though.

If you use the Parametric EQ in the software, it has low shelf, and high shelf controls. Dial in that high shelf to about 10K, and the high end becomes less grating.

I need to do some editing with the software at some point. I'm also getting a good bit of feedback. Are the ODs factory set at, like, 50/50 on level and gain? Even when I just barely turn them on, that's what it feels like the settings are.

Yeah, the drives are usually set at all knobs at noon. I dialed in the typical Tubescreamer setting of gain at 0, and level to about 3 oclock. Not as dramatic as stock settings.

 

[crankyrayhanky]

lol, what do you want from that tiny internal speaker? I think it is awesome for my needs- I take just that head to give guitar lessons at houses and it is handy dandy. It's also a decent alternative to late night headphones. But, yes, it sucks compared to a roaring 4x12

 

[Mr. Willy]

lol, what do you want from that tiny internal speaker? I think it is awesome for my needs- I take just that head to give guitar lessons at houses and it is handy dandy. It's also a decent alternative to late night headphones. But, yes, it sucks compared to a roaring 4x12

Yeah, I find that funny too. Dudes complaining that they don't get enough low end chunk out of a 5" speaker...

 

[oldmtlhed]

1.) Congrats
2.) Love my Katana. Use the same MXR 10 band in the loop.
3.) The mini built in speaker sucks balls. This Amp has to be heard thru a 4x12.
4.) 100 watt mode of course.

1. - Thanks.

2. - You know it! The 10-band in the loop is the hot ticket to tame this beast.
It's an essential part of the overall tone structure. Gotta have it.

3. - True that! I didn't expect the built-in speaker to be good. But it made the amp
tones sound like crap. Thin, raspy, brittle. It's fine for playing CLEAN at low volumes. But that's it.

4. - This thing barks hard on the 100-watt setting. Barks and thumps!
So far, I prefer the 50-watt setting. Plenty of punch, without the ear fatigue.

 

[oldmtlhed]

I need to do some editing with the software at some point. I'm also getting a good bit of feedback. Are the ODs factory set at, like, 50/50 on level and gain? Even when I just barely turn them on, that's what it feels like the settings are.

Sounds like it, huh.
This is why I don't use the on-board OD's. I have the 808 in front of the amp. I know where my knobs are set.
If you don't use the on-board OD's... it frees-up that block for the chorus/flanger/phaser effects.

I haven't hooked mine up to the computer yet, but I will soon.
I will probably need to tweak the on-board effects a bit, if nothing else.
I doubt I will load any "sneaky amps" into it. I want to work with what it has in it now,
and see how far I can take it.

Some rigs you can tweak on it for about an hour, and have it just about all dialed-in.
This Katana rig I have... will probably take me weeks to get it figured out.
I have to re-learn how to make custom patches in my G*major all over again!

 

[Buckeyedog]

Some of us have been having better luck running the master higher and lowering the channel volume. Seems to be a bit fuller or something. I discovered that and have been doing that for a few weeks now. Also if you guys have the combo, the speaker really need broken in. I have the head and it sounds really good through my 212 and 412.

 

[Mailman1971]

I got a Timmy od pedal. Haven't used it in months.
The built in OD of the Katana seems like it goes from 0 to 5 with barely moving the knob!
Gonna have to run my pedal again soon.