Katana 100W combo: My thoughts after having the first time with it...
My amps in the moment: Roland Bolt 60 valve amp (mid 80s, 23kg), Koch Jupiter 45 hybrid valve (19kg), Cube 40XL for very small gigs, Roland AC33 for little acoustic & microphone things, VOX DA5 (for playing on the toilet ;-) ) and now the Katana 100 combo.
I'll mainly compare the Katana with the Koch, which is my preferred amp for gigs the last time, because it has 4kg less weight than the Roland Bolt. The Koch Jupiter works with a preamp valve, I don't know whether in the pre- or main amp, but it's the only amp really sounding quite like a valve amp, not to compare with those Vox VT tricks. I don't know how the Dutch people at Koch do that, and it's nearly as loud as the Roland 60 Watt valve amp as well.
I ordered the Katana because of the user feedback here, thanks for this, very appreciated, and of its weight below 15kg.
As I wrote before, it looks a little tiny and flimsy (thinner cabinet panels, thin cheap looking tolex, plastic corners) compared to the other 12" combos, but man, this little thing really does its job.
All 4 basic amps sound great (didn't test the acoustic channel yet). The crunch, lead and brown channels are very, very loud, maybe even a bit louder than on the Jupiter. The clean channel is loud but definitely has less headroom than the Koch Jupiter, but I'm already convinced that it will keep up in every band practice room and every small to midsized gig, everything bigger or open air is miked or put into the PA via Line Out anyway. If the Line Out sounds right (I don't know yet), that is very handy as the speaker still works and can be adjusted via the master for monitoring on the stage.
Before the Koch Jupiter I had many, many solid state amps like the VOX AD VTs, VTs, Crate, Peavey, Blackart ID60 on my search for a valvy sound in a lighter package, but none of them did the trick. They all lacked this full, round, into the face sound, lacked headroom, some really sounded like plastic.
If weight didn't matter, I'd still prefer my Koch Jupiter.
But the Katana combo is the first I think will fulfill my needs. In direct comparison maybe just not quite the full round, through the middle sound, but played on its own, I'm not missing anything and that's the main point. It's light, has great sounding channels and lots of power. Ok, it looks a little cheap, but honestly it is very, very, very cheap for what it performs. Not to mention all those usable effects and the ability to be easy edited via the Boss Tone Studio.
Tomorrow I'll get my new Boss Gt-1. I hope the Katana will take it well in front of the clean channel.
So for now:
What a great little amp! All thumbs up!
