I am so sorry to hear that as my amp is working quite well.I hope your next amp whatever it be works for you.
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Boss Katana Bass ...
- Thread starter Phlipper
- Start date
I received the 110 last week. Had a similar experience until I started experimenting with the controls. I found that if I have the Master higher than the Gain that it will start to distort. I’ve been using it with the Gain at 50% and the Volume at 25%, then controlling the overall volume with the Master. I don’t have the pad engaged with these settings and there is no distortion. I think the GK amps work in a similar manner.
Sam Ash has processed my refund. That's some fine tinkering on your part.
I am glad you have figured this out as I havent experienced any problems with my 210 combo but might if I ended up setting it up like you said and not really thinking about it.What is your opinion of the amp so far?
It’s been great for me so far. Compared to the Fender Rumble 40 Studio, the Katana sounds more natural to me, almost like a regular amp with pedals.The volume and punch of the Katana is also much greater than the 20 watt difference between the two would suggest. The Rumble sounds soft in comparison. I used the DI out to record a few songs at my friend’s studio last week and it sounded amazing. I had one clean track and the Katana track had chorus on it for two of the songs. I used a fretless on the third song with chorus and octave. I loved being able use the standby setting and have the amp in the control room while I was recording. The 1 watt setting is also very useful for keeping the volume reasonable inside my house. I’m really happy with my purchase. So far I’ve only used the desktop editor, but I have the Bluetooth adapter on the way so I can use the phone app.
That is great to hear.I so glad to see amps like these on the market bringing boutique tone down to reasonable cost.Its something to read all the negative comments on these amps from players that have never heard or played one such as it wont be loud enough or its too heavy.I own one and I know better.
I have the Boss GT 1000Core mfx. It’s quality bit gear and sounds fantastic. Even though I haven’t tried the Katana bass combos yet, I have no doubt in my mind there’s going to be way more pros than cons. But being a Boss product for bass players, I think the uptake is going to be slow. Hope they bring out more combos, maybe a Waza head and cabs.
After owning my Katana 210 for little over a month now the only minor complaint I have is that when you plug in an extension cab it no longer sends any power to the internal 10s.I believe the 210s are a 4 ohm load and the amp puts out its full 160 class ab watts into an 4 ohm load.I say either make the amp 3.2 ohm stable[plugging in an extra 8 ohm load]say a single 15 etc or make it 160 watts into 8 ohms[have the 10s 16 ohm paralel wired for 8 ohm load]and say a little extra when you plug another 8 ohms in.I have no complaints whatsoever about it not getting loud enough as it doesnt have any problem keeping up with any other 210 combo on the market but what i just mentioned would add some flexability.Maybe they could bring out a Nextone series bass amp.
How are you liking the tone and effects ? I really like the chorus, delay, reverb and octave. The drives are good if you really dial them in on the editor. As far as the tone, I feel like I can get something I’m happy with fairly easy. I prefer either the flat or modern setting with some very small adjustments in the EQ section. I also keep the blend at 50%, even without effects so I guess I’m always hearing half of the natural tone of my bass and half of the Katana tone.
Ive messed with the reverb,delay and chorus a little and havent got into the tone editor yet.But one thing I really like is the variety of compression there is.I play with a pick and with just a little bit of compression ive been able to get some deep,tight tones that i dont think I could get with most other 210 combos.
I finally got to try one out for over an hour at my local Guitar Center and was able to compare it side by side with the Fender Rumble 500 combo.
Let me preface this by saying that I’m probably not the intended consumer for this amp as I don’t use built-in effects on an amp, nor do I have a want/need for amp modeling so if I were to use it I would only use it in its most clean and neutral state, and eq from there. That being said, the effects did sound pretty nice and the different amp voices and such were cool if that’s what you’re looking for.
Anyway, here’s my thoughts on first play through.
The inherent tone of the Katana Bass 210 kind of reminded me of the baked-in character of a Sansamp set fairly clean. The Boss was cleaner, obviously, but there was an inherent scoop to the sound with an emphasis on a full and punchy, yet somewhat undefined low bass frequency, and an upper treble grind. It was more hi-fi sounding than a Sansamp, but it has a similar punchiness and EQ curve, IMO.
For the tones I typically go for I like a balanced rig with present and defined mids rather than any kind of scoop. That’s why I’m usually using Aguilar and Bag End stuff. Because of the tones I like and the perceived scoop of the amp, I had to back the bass off slightly and boost both mid knobs to about 3 o’clock. This gave me more definition and was much closer to a tone I would normally gig with.
Once set like that it felt nice to play and was definitely loud. Not quite as loud as the Fender Rumble, but loud of enough for a smallish gig, or even a medium gig with a respectful drummer (what’s that?). It’s the loudest 160w combo I’ve played, but it’s also the heaviest.
And that brings me to the next point. I wouldn’t say I’m super sensitive to weight like some are as I’m still using a couple of old ceramic driver Bag Ends for most things. But this amp isn’t loud enough or excellent sounding enough to justify the weight, for me personally. Especially with the single top handle, it seems like it would be an annoying and awkward carry.
Overall, it definitely has some great sounds in it for someone who is trying to play small shows or practices and wants a wide variety of tones. Plenty loud and punchy enough for those applications as well and the effects are high quality, which is to be expected from Boss.
To be honest, I think I actually prefer the clean and punchy sound of the Boss to the Fender. There’s a softness and kind of a vintage vibe to the Fender that’s always there, whereas the Boss has a real solid feel to it. Whether that’s due to the voicing of the preamp, the class of the power amp (I’m skeptical), or a slightly more sturdy build and heavier ceramic speakers (seems more likely, IMO), there’s some nice oomph going on.
However, it is slightly too heavy, slightly too complicated, slightly too expensive, and slightly too quiet for my uses. Which is a shame because I love Boss as a company, and I’m a big fan of the Katana guitar amps for beginner to intermediate guitar players. They really nailed the value/weight/functionality ratio for guitar, and it shows because they sell literal truckloads of them. I just think they slightly missed the mark for bassists.
Obviously this is all just one guy’s opinion. IMO, IME, YMMV, etc. etc.
EDIT: if Boss eventually do these in a higher powered head with separate cabs (which they’ll do if they’re smart and these sell well) then I’ll probably take another look at them.
Let me preface this by saying that I’m probably not the intended consumer for this amp as I don’t use built-in effects on an amp, nor do I have a want/need for amp modeling so if I were to use it I would only use it in its most clean and neutral state, and eq from there. That being said, the effects did sound pretty nice and the different amp voices and such were cool if that’s what you’re looking for.
Anyway, here’s my thoughts on first play through.
The inherent tone of the Katana Bass 210 kind of reminded me of the baked-in character of a Sansamp set fairly clean. The Boss was cleaner, obviously, but there was an inherent scoop to the sound with an emphasis on a full and punchy, yet somewhat undefined low bass frequency, and an upper treble grind. It was more hi-fi sounding than a Sansamp, but it has a similar punchiness and EQ curve, IMO.
For the tones I typically go for I like a balanced rig with present and defined mids rather than any kind of scoop. That’s why I’m usually using Aguilar and Bag End stuff. Because of the tones I like and the perceived scoop of the amp, I had to back the bass off slightly and boost both mid knobs to about 3 o’clock. This gave me more definition and was much closer to a tone I would normally gig with.
Once set like that it felt nice to play and was definitely loud. Not quite as loud as the Fender Rumble, but loud of enough for a smallish gig, or even a medium gig with a respectful drummer (what’s that?). It’s the loudest 160w combo I’ve played, but it’s also the heaviest.
And that brings me to the next point. I wouldn’t say I’m super sensitive to weight like some are as I’m still using a couple of old ceramic driver Bag Ends for most things. But this amp isn’t loud enough or excellent sounding enough to justify the weight, for me personally. Especially with the single top handle, it seems like it would be an annoying and awkward carry.
Overall, it definitely has some great sounds in it for someone who is trying to play small shows or practices and wants a wide variety of tones. Plenty loud and punchy enough for those applications as well and the effects are high quality, which is to be expected from Boss.
To be honest, I think I actually prefer the clean and punchy sound of the Boss to the Fender. There’s a softness and kind of a vintage vibe to the Fender that’s always there, whereas the Boss has a real solid feel to it. Whether that’s due to the voicing of the preamp, the class of the power amp (I’m skeptical), or a slightly more sturdy build and heavier ceramic speakers (seems more likely, IMO), there’s some nice oomph going on.
However, it is slightly too heavy, slightly too complicated, slightly too expensive, and slightly too quiet for my uses. Which is a shame because I love Boss as a company, and I’m a big fan of the Katana guitar amps for beginner to intermediate guitar players. They really nailed the value/weight/functionality ratio for guitar, and it shows because they sell literal truckloads of them. I just think they slightly missed the mark for bassists.
Obviously this is all just one guy’s opinion. IMO, IME, YMMV, etc. etc.
EDIT: if Boss eventually do these in a higher powered head with separate cabs (which they’ll do if they’re smart and these sell well) then I’ll probably take another look at them.
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Hello, i have a 210 , is it possible to test if i have the same problem just with 1w output, because i am at home and dont use a headphones, or should i absolutly use headphones? thanks a lot, have a nice day, Philippe
I tried it with headphones as well as without. If you're not having issues I wouldn't worry about it.
Have you tried using the gain,volume and master volume in the manner that cantstandsya said.Try running the gain about 11 to straight up,the volume next to it at 9 to 10 oclock and slowly bring your master up and see if that takes care of your distortion problem.
Thank you for an honest review as many people jumped on the the bandwagon and wouldnt even give it a listen before they commented negatively on it.Ive owned my Katana 210 about a month now and would like to comment as well.As far as the scooped mids you can get into the tone editor and do a mountain of stuff towards shaping the sound of this amp.The weight maybe a small gripe but this amp compared to the Ampeg 210,Fender 210 and GK 210 averages about 10 lbs more.I came from using a Mesa 400+ that weighs about the same as the Katana 210 so that was no big deal for me but when you add in all the quality Boss effects the Boss Katana 210 has and how you would spend hundreds more to add those items to competitors amps like the ones I mentioned the cost and weight factor pretty much goes out the window.I can see this amp being a little gimmicky for some people that are more plug and play but the part of this amp that really sold me was the tone/sound.The clean,punchy,deep solid tone of the Katana 210 kinda reminded me of my Bass 400+.Something that had a sound that a lot of these class d combos to my ear anyway lack.To me the Katana 210 comes a lot closer to that tube vibe than any other class d combo ive heard and that is why I bought one and to anybody out there thats misses that vacuum tube tone give the Katana 210 a honest listen.I think you will be surprised.My 2 cents.
Thank you very much Bruce and Steel.
The fact is, i dont know if i have this issue, i dont think so, but until now i played only at home at 1w. That 's why i wanted to know is this is a BIG problem that i might see only later, and is there a very simple way to detect it without any doubt, maybe i will see it in one month when i play in a studio. But i think for now, i will not worry about it because i like very much the amp and tone!! I dont think these amps have a problem rather than its the way the amp responds when you have volume,gain and master set in certain settings.Kinda think of it in the way you get distortion out of a guitar amp by cranking the volume all the way the then turning the master up.The Katana bass amps will distort as well when the controls[volume,gain,master]are in certain positions as it is designed to do so.Thank you very much Bruce and Steel.
