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I was supposed to get a all tube late 60's ELK 15w combo, which had been modded/refurbished by JP le Roux to a fender princeton-esque spec. Gave it a couple test's and a slightly sick reverb aside, all was very good with the amp. Surprisingly loud, warm clean's, loads of headroom and a reallly sweet pedal platform (overused term, but in this case it's very true!) - the vibrato was one of the nicer one's I've heard too.

But...wierdly, it didn't like bass guitar - it should have been fine but the attack on the notes was wierd. Even when I used a preamp to tame the bass it was odd. For sure, it's not a bass amp but it should be playable at bedroom volume.

So with the reverb needing sorting and the uninspiring bass tone I had reservations...but still, I went to go and put down the $$$ and next to it was sitting a used Mk1 50w Boss Katana. 🤦‍♂️

I came home with a Katana. The Elk/Princeton sounds much better at the things it does well (loud & warm cleans) but the katana does everything acceptablly well with zero fuss.

As reviewers have pointed out, there's a bit of flubby low-end and overly fizzy top's - but the mid's are pretty good. The acoustic amp model is better than a JC120 (for me) and the clean amp sim is better than a blues cube for that almost dirty yet clean tone. The rest of the amp sims are pretty good too. All a bit fizzy with the gain cranked (my guitar is naturally bright) but this can be easily dialed out by pulling back the treble (or dialing back the presence using Tone Studio on the PC).

Plugging in a bass does reveal how guitar focussed the amp is - it sounds more like a amp voiced for guitar (duh) with a bass that it does with a guitar! But it's playable both fingerstyle and slap and I havn't even tried to dial in a tone really. Though it won't hang with a drummer with the bass plugged in, from experience I know it will with guitar.

I've used a katana at a jam and messed around a couple times on one, but first time I've had to live with one. For the $, a used Mk1 is a ridiculous amount of amp - I havn't even plugged it into the PC yet to tweak and I'm happy.

For me, it's simplicity is the main attraction guitar/bass -> amp and done. No pedals, no psu's & no fuss. Though it does handle a pedal's (I've got a rat clone that I tested on both amps, was excellent on the Elk and good on the katana)

I think a Yamaha THR would still be a good choice if you wanted a diryt/clean with stellar reverbs & delays at lower volume or a PG Spark if you were super into the convienience of the mobile app. Otherwise I think the katana is the default choice for regular bedroom use and the rare jam.

My only exposure to modelling type amplifiers was a listen to some Line 6 amplifier long ago. I never bought into the concept.
I can see how such a multi-voice amplifier can be convenient for home playing as well as non-serious live playing, but I have no desire to sit and tweak settings and sounds on a PC. I am over-invested in valve amplifiers, do not play out, and rarely use anything but reverb. I struggle to gel with any overdrive or fuzz, probably because I have no idea how to tweak an amplifier.
The Yamaha is expensive, looks rather handy, and I am sure a good demo of that or the Katana line would sway me to consider one as my main bedroom amplifier. I guess for my situation, I really need nothing more. Would free up a lot of space. Better avoid that demo...

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    As a matter of fact, something I can jack into my little hi-fi system (well, it was 40 years ago) would probably be ideal.

    • V8 replied to this.

      modulator I can jack into my little hi-fi system (well, it was 40 years ago) would probably be ideal.

      It was how I operated for ages - multifx into a hifi (full range speakers!). Worked great for bass and okay for guitar (ocerdrive/dist were not great, they need the colour of a guitar speaker if you're not using IR's)..

      modulator Better avoid that demo...

      Heh, I'm lazy so that's not a problem.

      But I did have some fun yesterday playing around with some settings and getting sounds I'd not otherwise find - still havn't plugged it into a PC to tweak and it's still big fun at 0.5w volume.

      The more I use it the more I like it (but I am a long time multifx user). However, it does not replace a decent valve amp (+ pedal's) - which still sounds better once it's all dialed in. Which, for me, is more effort than the katana 🤷‍♂️ .

        I have been wasting time trying to read up on all this stuff.
        It would seem the early THR 5 and 10 are loved. The bigger Cube's get some love. The Artist line is revered.
        The Mini Katana or similar small Cube might be nice, when used with a better speaker. Need a Line Out to jack into the Hi Fi, and enjoy FRFR speakers, clinical clean tones...
        The ideal unit will have enough knobs and switches to play with the presets, to avoid having to use any App to set up sounds you like. Initially, at least.

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          kat-test.mp3
          745kB

          So in the interest of science, I finally got around to plugging the Katana into the PC to check out Tone Studio tweaking and a quick n nasty Repear recording. The clip above is the stock 'Texas Crunch' tone, untouched by me, with three sample takes on bridge (hot humbucker) the middle and neck (hot single coil). No post processing, just straight from amp USB -> Reaper (The katana as a audio device). What I hear from the recording is about what I'm hearing from the amp.

          The Tone Studio tweaking was also cool - the functionality is > x10 with it. One thing I reallllllly liked was that there's a FX mix and a Direct Mix for pretty much every effect. IMO this is essential for Bass FX, albeit a nice to have for guitar.

          The other thing I noted was that the FX I tried are hit n miss - the heavier drive's (Metal Zone, Fuzzes, Rat) are not great, I definitely prefer the pedal versions. The lighter ones (Blues Driver, Transparent OD, etc..) are good. Reverb's are bland, Delay's (the SDE3000 aside, which is good) are also a bit bland. I dug the touch wah too but didn't go much deeper into the FX than what I've mentioned. Oh, the EQ options are pretty good and useful!

          For me - The Amp sims are pretty good, probably the best part of the katana package - cover the basics of what I'd want (Acoustic, Clean, Crunch, HiGain) and scratch my itch in each respect.

          modulator I have been wasting time trying to read up on all this stuff.

          My apologies for leading you down the rabbithole! I'm a long time multifx junkie, it's become second nature to me - also gotten to use/try a whole bunch of things so I'm ever curious about how they've evolved.

          So I did try and dial in the Katana to be more fun w/o being plugged into the PC for Tone Studio. That'll be a iterative process - but given alllllll the options you've got plugged in and how little you can change when not plugged in - that might be tricky.

          So far, I R satisfied with a old, cheap Mk1 Katana.

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