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Now I'm very much in the market to buy one of these. Having palyed for 60 years you can guess I don't want to lug my 1980's DLR around any more.
But am I looking at amps that under the skin are pretty much the same amps? Leaving speaker chassis's aside for now - they all seem to share the same numbers - 4 valve types, 4 channel types, 4 or 8 channel saves, 2 channels x lead and clean = 4 .....do you think just maybe these are all using shared component parts; but they are packaged differently to appeal to different player profiles?
The Blues Cube seems to be all set to play well - and if you want to change anything - no software app - just put a tone capsule. Nextone seems halfway house - you can change a couple of setting for the 4 valvetypes, then its global settings for the eq and effects. And then the Katana is a Lego Bricks approach - go into the tone studio app and set just about everything, from effects, to eq, to anything.
So here's the dilemma - can you buy a Katana Artist (Waza speaker and front console - good for live - nice) AND sit at the computer and programme in the same sounds as the Blues Cube/Nextone....AND have a lot more extra presets you can switch in (footswitch) than both the BC or the Nextone put together?
I've read a lot. I've been through the instructions. I've looked at the software (offline from the amp as you can).....Crikey!....I need a Boss/Roland Guru to guide me. Helloooo??
Am I the only player out there with this question?
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03-04-2019 09:08 AM
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Pretty sure that the Blues Cube and Katana Series are NOT the same algorithms at all. The Katana runs the COSM algorithm, while the Blues Cube has the "Trans-Tube Technology."
Could you get the sound of the BC through the Katana? Not sure, maybe owners of both can chime in.
I own the Katana head and 2x12 cab--very happy with it. If I put the cab on the floor, I get a very good jazz tone with my Gibson Tal Farlow and with my Telecaster. Up on the stand for everything else; rock, blues, etc.
The thing that bothers me about the BC is the "buy the amp, but if you want to make it sound better, buy the Tone Capsule(s)."
Why didn't Roland just provide a selectable switch to select the four amps sounds that the Tone Capsules provide?
Of course, it's a rhetorical question. I'm sure that Roland did this for marketing. And I don't mean that as a slam on Roland. Sure, part of it is that they make another sale via the Tone Capsules, BUT ALSO (hopefully), they continue to provide TCs as time goes on. Like maybe a jazz/fusion TC?
Since the BC amps don't have presets and Tone Central connectivity, all of the updates and different sounds would need to come from the TCs, and from twisting knobs and adding pedals. Just like my tube amps--none of them have "firmware," "computer links," or "presets."
Have to say that despite the "marketing," I'm about 9/10 the way to picking up one of these BC Artists or Stage Amps, and yes, probably at least one of the TCs. A thirty-five pound SS amp with a tube sound--I played through one over the weekend and was very impressed--this one had the Ultimate Blues TC installed. Have no idea what the amp sounds like without it. At the time I played it, I was not aware of the TC, so I didn't think to ask the owner to remove it.
I just can't schlep around my Vox AC15 or Mesa Boogie amps anymore--too heavy, too fragile, and I'm too old!
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I like my Katana 100 1x12. Did the ToneStudio Computer set up thing a year or so ago and never touch it anymore. Just turn it on and play. The Artist version with the “better” speaker and cab is tempting but my understanding is that the Waza speaker is aimed at the shredder crowd and that’s not me.
Did get a reverb pedal. Don’t care for the ones that come with.
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I'd love to know what's actually inside a Tone Capsule - I hardly think Roland is going to do an opening up on YouTube any time soon. Surely those 'sounds' are in the the Blues Cube somewhere? And if the Blues Cube can be so easily changed by a Tone Cap - and note that it has to be switched off and then on - (what just like rebooting a PC??) - then whatever they say, it's beginning to sound more like changing firmware to a digital amp to me. So isn't that what the Katana and Nextone all about? If it was easy to establish big differences, if I were Boss/Roland I'd be shouting that in my marketing. Whereas the marketing is all a bit smoke and mirrors. They seem to have gone all coy on their first claims that the Nextone had four completely different amp components for the four valve models. Or perhaps I misunderstood the first launch material.
I'm currently thinking either Katana head and I'll build a 15" Eminence Neo cab. Or the K Artist - I'll look up what that Waza is all about - I'm definately not a shredder. And if I get convincing evidence I'll shell out for a Nextone or Blues Cube stage.Last edited by ChrisDowning; 03-04-2019 at 12:42 PM.
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I've had the 100 1x12 Kat for about a year and a half. I have made a few deep dives into Tone Studio and I'd be pretty surprised if you can't get a decent emulation of a BC by tinkering around in there. I'd say it's main selling point is if you play different genres you can have basically 8 different amps available through the GA-FC foot switch. It's also good if you have several guitars and want to fine tune the amp for different guitars while playing a similar genre of music. As a bonus, I find it's really quite good as an amp for my acoustic guitar.
While the amp sounds pretty good right out of the box, if you're willing to spend a little time tinkering, I think you can get just about any sound you want out of it.
Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk
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That's what I'm thinking the more I look at how the three are set up. The Katana has such a lot of mouldability if you go into the Tone Studio.
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I own the Katana head and I'm pretty pleased with how that purchase has turned out. I use it with a closed back 1 x12" and like the tone both for solo electric guitar and acoustic. I have a separate amp for nylon strings but I've gotten good results from the K as well. The benefit to the head in addition to being able to pair it with any 8 ohm speaker cab combo is that it also has a 5" speaker built in that one can use for practice etc. I have used the Boss Tone Studio software but once I dialed in my tone, I haven't been back to it. With 4 preset channels one can set up for different guitars. It isn't hard to use. If you haven't seen the web site below I would check it out.
Boss Katana Amps - FAQ
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Since the Artist is basically a repacked normal Katana with a Waza speaker - the nearest other option is like Rob Taft's set up - Katana Head+Quality Extn CAb. That has a lot of apeal to me as I've built cabs before. But the critical issue is which speaker chassis? I had good sounds from a pair of monster Eminence 15" Neos - great for bass and guitar and they were quite bright. This sort of neutral sound (HiFi?) speaker my be a way of capturing all the tones the Katana can produce rather than the one trick pony speaker - say - Cannabis Rex, Swamp Thang, Tonker etc.
Anyone had experiences with Katanas and different speakers - I've seen videos suggesting its not an easy decision.
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OK, I've been going down this same road for a while, and I can now say I own (or have owned) all three. They are not the same. Katana is based on the Roland COSM technology, so it is really a simplified modelling amp. It has a fair amount of editing available through the software interface, but the knobs are kept relatively simple. It imho is the most flexible of these, you can go from the acoustic mode which is really clean, to the "brown" mode which is kind of the "you don't even need to pick it has so much gain". The Clean setting works well for a clean jazz tone, fairly clear but not too woofy. Can get fairly loud without breaking up. You get in to the modelling aspect if you want to get into the weeds and explore the "sneaky amps", there are a lot of other amp models buried that you can get to if you poke around www.vguitarforums.com which is the repository for all things Roland/Boss - there is open source software that let's you get into the hidden software guts of the Katana.
I picked up a Nextone at GC knowing I could take it back, and I did. It sounded ok, but to my ear the four power amp modes didn't sound THAT different, and the gain channel sounded fizzy like an older Line6 device. They have very convincing guys on the youtube videos talking about how great it is, some might like it, I didn't. Not bad, just meh.
And finally I took a leap of faith and got a Blues Cube Artist. TOTALLY different amp, it is based on a Fender Tweed Bassman, and by golly, it pretty much sounds like it. Not a bunch of amp models, just the one. It is supposed to have the same technology as the Nextone but to me it is significantly "tubier" sounding, the clean channel is very friendly to all my archtop guitars (with both narrow and standard humbuckers), and the crunch channel does pretty much sound like a Bassman turned up. It makes me want to play. It does NOT sound like a Marshall on 10. It is NOT a high gain amp. If you NEED that, get a Katana. It will scream. But since this is the Jazz Guitar forum, I'll assume many here are looking for a good clean sound, and this has it. It will clip if you push it, but pretty gently unless you have the gain turned way up. Plus the variable wattage is a plus for us apartment dwellers. I have yet to try the tone capsules (I have the Robben Ford but haven't installed yet). I believe the Ultimate Blues gives you more of a 6V6 sound (like old tweed Deluxe), and the New York Blues is the "marshall/vox" EL-84 sound with more gain. The video with the late great Chuck Loeb is what got me, and that is a good representation of what the thing sounds like.
For reference, my main jazz amp has been a Polytone Minibrute which I got in college in 197... something, the thing still works. Sounds great (but like a Polytone, not a tube amp). It is definitely a one trick pony. Blues Cube to me has the most convincing "old tube amp" sound, it can keep clean like the Polytone but you can feel the tube sag they got in somehow that is normally not in a solid state amp. It is not as flexible if you play many different styles (unless you get out some pedals, I hate'em myself), if you need something that will do anything reasonably well (for a ridiculously cheap price) and has a bunch of effects built in already, the Katana is hard to beat. And I have a Quilter Micropro Mach2 which is uber portable and uber flexible, but I still haven't found "the sound" in it, I'm sure its in there somewhere.
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Had the Katana for two years now. I get amp gas from this forum and go shopping but never come back with something else. Out of the eight preset slots available I use two; one for a 175 and the other for a Strat.
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Actually, it was Chuck Loeb the one leading the consulting R&D team that designed the Tone Stack and the 1st gain stage of the Blues Cube amp.
Originally Posted by jwaudio
Robben Ford lead the consulting R&D team that developed the concept of the Tone Capsule technology, allowing to model his highly personalized Dumble ODS clean channel Tone Stack and 1st gain stage as well, AFAIK.
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Robben Ford led the consulting team . . . Originally Posted by LtKojak
Sure, that's it
And he plays it all the time . . .
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JUST based on their marketing material, I believe Chuck Loeb was involved in the original amp, Eric Johnson did the first tone capsule, and Robben did the second. I'm assuming the all were being used for their ears rather than their mad electronic design / digital signal processing skillz... and of course their names, although all of these and the other guys used for the tone capsules are what I'd call high quality / low visibility players, the ones that other guitar players want to hear from rather than Slash or Clapton or someone with bigger record sales. I'd like to try the Sparkle (or twinkle or whatever it is) that Jeff Baxter seems to have had a hand in, that might be my next experiment. If only you could put those things on a footswitch. Originally Posted by LtKojak
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Not possible to implement with the actual design, although I've been told that there's a v. 2.0 in the works... allegedly. Originally Posted by jwaudio
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Of course there has to be a V 2 - they were waiting until I bought one to announce it
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