Boss Katana 50/100, Peavey Classic 30 or DV Mark 12?

[Roberoo]

Cubes are great amps and you can fiddle with them (i.e. put new speakers in them etc) to warm up their sound. Good working man amps.

I have a Katana 50 that I bought a year ago. I play it, change it out for something else (I have many amps), bring it back and so on. I love fiddling with gear. It is a great amp in my opinion. Out of the box it was good but I loaded the sneaky amps into the software but only saved the JC model to the amp itself plus the reverbs I enjoy. I fiddled away and zeroed into some great sounds. I chose one amp model because I would go mad with all the options available. That said, I now have 4 channels of JC 120 with different reverbs, eq, and gain settings and I am very satisfied. I can plug in a variety of guitars and get good sounds right away. Some complain about the Katana being too bright or brittle - and that can be the case - but some careful attention to eq, guitar volume and gain settings can really warm things up. I have found this brittle, brightness and honkiness to be a feature of many digital amps - but have come to realize that eq/gain settings are very sensitive and interactive on most digital amps and bad stuff can be dialled out with a bit of work. Tube amps tend to be far more forgiving but have many disadvantages. My recommendation is to take your time (a week or so) and fiddle with the Katana - choosing one or two amp models - and really focus in on developing good sounds. You may surprise yourself. Good tone can be found in the Katana.

[mrblues]

Owned a Peavey Delta BLues (similar to Peavey Classic), now I have a DV JAzz 12, but I have also been playing on the KAtana in the high school.

My vote goes for DV Mark. The Katana is an overall amp, the Peavey is (for me at least) expensive to maintain because of there are many tubes inside. And its too heavy...

For me, the DV has that classic jazz sound.

[Roberoo]

I liked the sound of the Delta Blues (15") but was turn off when I went to play my first gig with - with some heavy players - and couldn't get a sound out of it. It died and I was stuck playing through a Traynor bass amp for the night ..... I sold it after that as I couldn't trust it anymore.


QUOTE=mrblues;933437]Owned a Peavey Delta BLues (similar to Peavey Classic), now I have a DV JAzz 12, but I have also been playing on the KAtana in the high school.

My vote goes for DV Mark. The Katana is an overall amp, the Peavey is (for me at least) expensive to maintain because of there are many tubes inside. And its too heavy...

For me, the DV has that classic jazz sound.[/QUOTE]

[Skip Ellis]

I had the Katana 50 and it was my main gigging amp for about a year but had a chance to upgrade to an Evans RE200 which is perfect for me - light weight and plenty of power and I could use it for steel if needed. That being said, the Katana was a very nice amp at a good price but had waaayyy more stuff than I needed. All the overdrive stuff, phase, chorus, etc. was just wasted on me because I don't use effects except reverb and a little slapback delay for 'Chet' stuff. If you need more power, go for the Katana 100. I'm not a Peavey fan but some folks like 'em. I'm also a tried and true solid state guy so tubes are out for me for multiple reasons.

[GNAPPI]

It's funny how players can differ so much on amp impressions.

Not long ago I sat in a LGS playing a Mustang III V.2 and after dumping the ridiculous presets I immediately bonded with it. Unfortunately at the price they were asking for it without the foot switch I left determined to find one and keep my ear to the ground on Craig's list.

OTOH, at the same store last year or so I played both the Katana 50 combo and 100 head, and left amazed that it became as popular as it is. I had absolutely no use for it. Go figure.