Katana 50

[NylonJazz]

I had a Cube 80 for a while and I liked most everything about it but I couldn't get along with the closed back. I'm seriously thinking about a Katana 100.

[docbop]

**UPDATE**

Gigged with the Katana 50 last night and enjoyed every minute of it. It's the first time in a while that I've been able to actually play and not have to worry that the amp tone 'wasn't quite right' - this thing nailed everything that I asked of it. I work a duo with a singer and tracks, some of which already have guitar parts and I just have to blend in and some that I created with BIAB where I actually get to play lead guitar. We're, basically, an 'oldies' act doing everything from Hank Willliams to 50's pop to Billy Joel to Santana to Merle Haggard to surf to Allman Brothers and just about everything in between. This amp nailed it and I never got off the 25w setting. I do plan to set up some custom presets for a couple things I do a lot (Chet, surf and chord melody) but for the most part, the factory presets are perfectly adequate for my purposes. Real nice amp, super price point - you can't ask for much more.

It was my day to hang at the local music store and one of the teachers was bringing in his gear and had a Katana amp so I talked to him about it. He does a similar variety of gigs Country, Great American Songbook to Classic Rock and he was all raves about the amps and especially the power control. Then the way he was carrying it in in one hand and other gear in the others was making it a real attractive amp. I don't need an amp, but might have to take a look anyway.

[MilesPG]

I think I'm gonna buy the Katana head, it has a fx loop, internal speaker for practicing and line out and then I'll buy or build a 1x10 cab for when I need it


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[Tcaron20]

The 50 is so cheap at $199 just make an adaptor panel and put your favorite 4 ohm 10" in it. Reduce the weight at the same time.

The head would also work and I believe that it has jacks for different ohm ratings. I use the Katana 100 and am waiting, and waiting, for the foot controller, Roland GA-FC. Today I used it at church and continue to tweak it to get to my sound. I only use the sneaky amp tones because they are so good.

The 100 does and has everything you need. My Carr Rambler still wins for the best tube tone but the Katana is a great working amp.

tom

[rob taft]

The head does not have separate output jacks for different ohm rated speakers. The head requires an 8 Ohm minimum. I own the head and it has been a great purchase. I using it with a 12" closed back ported cab. The head's internal 5" speaker is powered by a separate 30 watt power amp but is controlled by the same wattage switch i.e. at the 50 watt control setting the internal speaker amp is putting out 15 watts. So one could rig up a separate low wattage speaker e.g. 25 watt and take a tap off the internal speaker. See thread link below. Scroll towards bottom of page.

ww.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=19581.msg140273#msg140273

[newsense]

Lovin' my K50 for both clean and OD sounds. However, most of my practice has to be quiet, so the headphone option should be a great feature. BUT I find that the phones distort at the top end much sooner than the speaker. So what seems to be a creamy Carltonesque tone from the speaker sounds like I have just switched on the Fuzz Face when I listen thru' phones. It does depend on the quality of the headphones - the more expensive they are the worse is the distortion ! I have to say that in my experience this is not a problem unique to the Katana, but as the tones thru the speaker are great, the less than ideal speaker emulation of the phones output combined with the excellent frequency response of my phones is causing me some grief.

Has anybody had similar experiences - and is there a solution ?

[sgosnell]

I wish I had a solution. Guitar amps sound like crap through headphones. Any headphones, any amp. I just don't bother. If it has to be soft, I just play acoustically. That doesn't always sound great, and has its own side effects, but it's better than listening to headphones. One other option is to run the line out of the amp to a stereo, and plugging the headphones into that. It's a little better, but not much, and a lot of trouble. And of course not every amp has a line out.

[newsense]

With my other amp, a Superchamp X2 head, I've had reasonable results using a Koch Dummybox, which subs the speaker with a dummy load and provides either lower power tapped outputs back to the speaker, or a line out with speaker emulation. For a passive device it's pretty good. So, I'm going to try this with the K50 speaker output, just to see whether the Koch has a better speaker emulation than the K50's own line out.