Over the Katana

[bobbythegoose]

How about the THR5? Simpler to use, and it sounds fantastic. I never plug into anything else at home.

THIS ^^^ I've only ever owned tube amps, but the birth of my daughter required me to find a solution for lower volumes that still sound good. The THR5 doesn't only sound good at low levels, it sounds great. It's amazing what they did there. Trust me; You won't regret it.

 

[regularslinky]

I strongly considered a Katana last year, but I ended up with a Quilter Aviator Mach 3. I'm a very happy camper. It's transistor amp, not a modeling or tube amp. It has a good variety of sounds available, tons of useful features including a speaker emulated headphone out. Sounds great at low volumes but can punch way above its weight. Don't make a decision without looking at what Quilter has to offer.

 

[Blrfl]

I strongly considered a Katana last year, but I ended up with a Quilter Aviator Mach 3. I'm a very happy camper.

For three times the price (four if you were looking at a K50), I'd hope so.

 

[Brent Hutto]

Yeah, a stereo pair of Quliters would cost as much as my guitar and pair of Katanas combined. With enough left over to pay for one of my pedals, probably.

 

[regularslinky]

For three times the price (four if you were looking at a K50), I'd hope so.

I was looking at the Katana Artist 100 watt head and 2x12 cabinet, which ran around the same price as the Quilter Mach 3. There are cheaper Quilters available, and they are excellent.

 

[Midgetje94]

As I’ve said in other katana posts. And others have agreed. As a stand alone amp, it’s trash. Complete garbage UNLESS you spend hours and hours with a computer and tweak EVERYTHING. Then it’s fine…. As long as you never need to adjust anything. Which never happens, you move the amp to the other corner of the room, you’re likely re EQing. In my opinion the cheap speaker and the mass tweaking was its biggest downfall.

A couple “similar” amps that I’ve found cool and very useable are

Blackstar Silverline- Celestion V style speaker. Very easy to dial in.

Vox AV60- one I personally regret selling mine. 2 channel, like 8 amp models ranging from fender cleans to 5150 gain. Models are great. Easy to dial in. As well as the basic built in effects. Honestly what I feel the Katana could have been but failed.

 

[Brent Hutto]

As I’ve said in other katana posts. And others have agreed. As a stand alone amp, it’s trash. Complete garbage UNLESS you spend hours and hours with a computer and tweak EVERYTHING. Then it’s fine…. As long as you never need to adjust anything. Which never happens, you move the amp to the other corner of the room, you’re likely re EQing. In my opinion the cheap speaker and the mass tweaking was its biggest downfall.

A couple “similar” amps that I’ve found cool and very useable are

Blackstar Silverline- Celestion V style speaker. Very easy to dial in.

Vox AV60- one I personally regret selling mine. 2 channel, like 8 amp models ranging from fender cleans to 5150 gain. Models are great. Easy to dial in. As well as the basic built in effects. Honestly what I feel the Katana could have been but failed.

Your experience was different than mine. I like the way mine sounds using nothing but the top panel settings. Gain and Volume around 70. Bass and Mid around 50. Treble down a little lower. Clean channel.

I also like messing about with the deep deep dive stuff with my laptop but usually I turn all the effects off and just play with my stock settings.

 

[tubeToaster]

 

[gimmeatele]

There are a number of possible solutions available to you. I'll share what my low volume, home playing and recording, solution is that's worked well for me. It has several parts that can be swapped out.

I'll start with the last component in the chain, a Behringer mixer. This not only handles the amp input but input other devices like my laptop or synth. This also allows output to headphones, monitor/PA speakers and recording to PC. I also can plug effects units, like a POD or DigiTech RP, directly into the mixer to skip the steps below although I don't do that often now.

Going up the chain, the next part is a Hotone Binary Cab, an IR loader pedal. Almost any IR pedal would work here. I had a Mooer Rader there at one point although it was taken out by a power surge. Picking an IR can be tricky or fiddley. I narrowed this down to 4 IRs that have multi-mic and speaker combinations I like.

The next part is a Bugera PowerSoak load box that has a line out. The line out goes into the IR Cab pedal. Since I don't use powerful amps, the power soak can essentially eliminate any sounds from the amp itself.

Now, the amp. I have several amps but the most notable ones are a '73 Princeton Reverb and a Monoprice 5w. I sometimes use them without the rest of the setup although the volume can be loud enough to annoy my wife in that case. Another configuration I use sometimes is a amp or pre-amp pedal, such as my Tech 21 SansAmp, into the IR cab pedal without the load box.

Excellent post. I use an Alessia mixer last and a burgera power soak, and achieve the desired sound for home recording and low volume playing.

 

[hauntingmids]

Just joined the site, mostly to share my experiences with the katanas and help.

The BOSS Katana’s do the tube sag and feel pretty well, especially for a solid state amp. The drawback is their voicing and character isn’t really relatable or based on any familar valve amps. The katana has it’s own sound. I personally am not a fan. And yes, the headphone Jack is BAD.

I had an iridium. The headphone sound was very good, but the feel was stiff and dull. No experience with the Mustang GTX or Silverline but I would bet money both have more authentic tones than the Katana while also sounding decent with headphones.

 

[tlsmack]

I stick a Joyo American Sound in front of my Katana and call it it my Tone Miser.

 

[Red Ryder]

Find a Jet City 333 PicoValve and a 12 pound hammer for fine adjustments

 

[bladeswitcher]

There's one component that hasn't been discussed much in this thread: the headphones. They're not all the same.

I primarily play through headphones (nobody wants to listen to me play/practice). When I first started playing though a headphone out, I tried a set of Grado headphones I was using for my stereo listening. I loved the Grados for listening to music, but I felt they were sharp and a bit tinny when used for guitar. After reading some online reviews, I ended up buying a set of AKG K240 headphones. I bought these because the reviews said they didn't color the music much. They worked out well for playing through guitar, and I now have two pairs of these, both of which are only used for playing guitar.

The AKGs I use are pretty inexpensive. Honestly, I tried listening to music through them and didn't care for them. I thought they sounded dull when listening to my stereo rig or a computer. My theory is that the lack of vibrance is what makes them work well for guitar amp use. I think they'd be worth a try before giving up on an amp just because you don't like the headphone sound:


FWIW, I play through the Yamaha THR. I have two of them; one is the old 5 watt version which I keep in my workshop. The other is the original 10 watt version, which is my main practice amp. I don't recall the last time I played through either of these amps using the built in speakers. (I have a VOX Pathfinder 15r and a Monoprice 15w that get occasional use when the wife is away). Full disclosure, I'm aware the Katana exists, but that's about all I know about them.

Anyway, not all headphones sound the same. A lot of headphones designed for listening to music have their own sound and they color the signal quite a bit. My limited opinion is that you want headphones that are as neutral and flat as possible.

 

[Festofish]

I don’t do banks and menus either. I had a Katana I got in a mass trade. It was impressive until I turned on the Hotrod and it became a toy. I gave it to my niece as her first amp. Now as far as first amps go…it’s pretty good. Plus the effects will get her acclimated to what is what effects wise.

 

[Marc Morfei]

No doubt you will get lots of suggestions, but you may want to try out the Roland Blue Cube (Hot or Stage) or a Boss Nextone (Stage). These are small plug and play amps with simple controls and both can be dialed back to bedroom volumes.

Yep, my first thought when I read the original post was Blues Cube Hot.

 

[Marc Morfei]

There's one component that hasn't been discussed much in this thread: the headphones. They're not all the same.

I primarily play through headphones (nobody wants to listen to me play/practice). When I first started playing though a headphone out, I tried a set of Grado headphones I was using for my stereo listening. I loved the Grados for listening to music, but I felt they were sharp and a bit tinny when used for guitar. After reading some online reviews, I ended up buying a set of AKG K240 headphones. I bought these because the reviews said they didn't color the music much. They worked out well for playing through guitar, and I now have two pairs of these, both of which are only used for playing guitar.

The AKGs I use are pretty inexpensive. Honestly, I tried listening to music through them and didn't care for them. I thought they sounded dull when listening to my stereo rig or a computer. My theory is that the lack of vibrance is what makes them work well for guitar amp use. I think they'd be worth a try before giving up on an amp just because you don't like the headphone sound:


FWIW, I play through the Yamaha THR. I have two of them; one is the old 5 watt version which I keep in my workshop. The other is the original 10 watt version, which is my main practice amp. I don't recall the last time I played through either of these amps using the built in speakers. (I have a VOX Pathfinder 15r and a Monoprice 15w that get occasional use when the wife is away). Full disclosure, I'm aware the Katana exists, but that's about all I know about them.

Anyway, not all headphones sound the same. A lot of headphones designed for listening to music have their own sound and they color the signal quite a bit. My limited opinion is that you want headphones that are as neutral and flat as possible.

I have those same AKG K240 headphones and LOVE them. They are a thousand times better than what I had been using prior. Best $75 I ever spent.

 

[Marc Morfei]

I’m always a little puzzled/amused at the wide range of varied responses questions like this get. (I’m surprised someone hasn’t suggested a Twin Reverb yet). I guess there are just lots of different kinds of players out there and people tend to recommend the things they have themselves and like.

The OP says he doesn’t like his amp, and people are suggesting various other kinds of extra gear he can buy to change the sound of the amp. Isn’t it better to just buy an amp you actually like, and sell the one you don’t?

 

[NoTeleBob]

There's one component that hasn't been discussed much in this thread: the headphones. They're not all the same.

I primarily play through headphones (nobody wants to listen to me play/practice). When I first started playing though a headphone out, I tried a set of Grado headphones I was using for my stereo listening. I loved the Grados for listening to music, but I felt they were sharp and a bit tinny when used for guitar. After reading some online reviews, I ended up buying a set of AKG K240 headphones. I bought these because the reviews said they didn't color the music much. They worked out well for playing through guitar, and I now have two pairs of these, both of which are only used for playing guitar.

The AKGs I use are pretty inexpensive. Honestly, I tried listening to music through them and didn't care for them. I thought they sounded dull when listening to my stereo rig or a computer. My theory is that the lack of vibrance is what makes them work well for guitar amp use. I think they'd be worth a try before giving up on an amp just because you don't like the headphone sound:


FWIW, I play through the Yamaha THR. I have two of them; one is the old 5 watt version which I keep in my workshop. The other is the original 10 watt version, which is my main practice amp. I don't recall the last time I played through either of these amps using the built in speakers. (I have a VOX Pathfinder 15r and a Monoprice 15w that get occasional use when the wife is away). Full disclosure, I'm aware the Katana exists, but that's about all I know about them.

Anyway, not all headphones sound the same. A lot of headphones designed for listening to music have their own sound and they color the signal quite a bit. My limited opinion is that you want headphones that are as neutral and flat as possible.

Guitar speakers cut off the sound around 6 to 7K. Most headphones run up to 16 to 20 K.

Unless the amp does some specific filtering for the headphone jack, you're going to get a different sound out of the headphone port. And not usually in a good way. If you look at the circuit diagrams, it doesn't appear that they filter the sound on most amps.

Headphones that have poor high frequency response will sound better. If you're listening to a complete band in the control room at the studio, you you want to hear everything. If you're listening to your guitar (only) you don't.

 

[Bob M]

I was looking at the Katana Artist 100 watt head and 2x12 cabinet, which ran around the same price as the Quilter Mach 3. There are cheaper Quilters available, and they are excellent.

I bought a Quilter 101 Reverb. Less than $500. It has beautiful Fender like sounds. I have a 2 x 10 cab-loud enough to gig with. I also have a 1 x 10 that I can take to jams. It has a headphone jack and takes pedals really well. Gone is a PRRI and DRRI. I honestly feel like I’m getting as good as a sound as ever. Unless you really need the variety of sounds that a modeling amp provides hard to beat a Quilter. IMHO.

 

[MilwMark]

i mostly use an iridium through my jbl studio monitors for home practice and recording. feels good, sounds good.

but obviously i also use the jbl studio monitors for working on recordings. and they're also just what i use to listen to music.

three birds with one stone.

I’m hopeless with tech. What type of cable/connector gets one straight from the Iridium to stereo monitors? And are yours powered or unpowered?

I’ve thought about this solution a lot. It’s just so hard to get even the THRs, Microcubes and Katana 100 head (internal speaker) down into the 70-75 dB range. I actually think all 3 are excellent home solutions and better than anything else I’ve tried. But even they are still hard to tame to real world apartment levels.

And can the Iridium do bright, cutting, open and lively at those volumes? Some modelers do great at gained up, darker, compressed sound but can’t really capture anything like a wild, bright, dynamic Plexi or early JCM800 for instance.