Katana Bass Club/Support Group

[strost]

Hi All.

I'm not about to assign numbers or anything but I thought I'd try to gather my fellow Katana Bass Amp owners to share our knowledge and experiences.

Cuz these things are not all that straightforward.

First off, before I rant, I really dig this thing. It's bit much for my bedroom and I never get out of the 1 watt setting but the effects are fun!

I got a 110 a few weeks ago and am slowly figuring it out. But some things just are weird.

Like this bit of the manual:

There is literally no just "Bank B". There are "presets" you can access in Bank B (Ch 1, Ch 2, Ch 3) but each preset has completely different effects in the six slots (2 FX times 3 colors). I only learned this by hooking it up to my computer. Like if you hit channel 2 all the effects are different than the table above. If you hold "Panel" and switch to Bank B, channel 2, all the effects are different again. If you go to Panel, whichever "Bank" you are in, you get the "Panel A" presets above but that's the only thing that matches up here. Other than that, and without my computer hooked up, I have no idea what effects I am dealing with or what the settings are on the presets. It's a bit frustrating.

So why the rant? I just wanted to see if others have the same thing or if my amp is messed up somehow. Has anyone figured out a good way to know what's happening?

I keep wondering if I should return it for a Boss Dual Cube that has a much more straightforward interface (but fewer options). The Katana is also a bit big for a 110.

Anyone else want to talk about these?

 

[Low-Five]

I would love to talk about these, in due time. I play guitar too and have had the Katana Head Mk.II for a while. I just got the 210 in this week and haven't had a chance to plug it in yet. Weekend coming up, I hope to spend some quality time with it.

From your description this sounds like classic Boss, where clever engineers figure out ways to do a lot with relatively few buttons and indicators. The downside is the user's learning curve in acclimating to the engineers' way of thinking. They set the Katanas up with a big variety of effects in the factory patches so that you can access more different sounds without connecting the computer, which surely helps during store demo time. The sounds are there, and you can stumble onto them, but visibility isn't great. Like many value-engineered amps that do a lot, it doesn't have the ability to "describe" fully to the user exactly what it's doing at all times when it's not connected to a device running an app.

My Fender modeling amps have the same problem, even though their layouts are totally different. The Mustang GTX-100 at least has a little color LCD screen and a jog dial, but for the Champion 100XL I made little laminated cards and hung them around the knobs to remind me what the different settings are supposed to be. I suspect a "cheat sheet" of some sort might be in order for daily Katana use.

I also have the GA-FC and GA-FC EX footswitch controllers, and two of the FV-500H expression pedals. I have the BT-Dual Bluetooth adapter coming. Maybe I can contribute a little here while I learn about these amps.

 

[Low-Five]

I had a leisurely moment, so I checked out the Dual Cube Bass LX and the phone apps for both it and the Katana Bass amps.

Amps here:

BOSS - DUAL CUBE BASS LX | Bass Amplifier

https://www.boss.info/us/products/katana-110_bass/

The Cube looks pretty cool for what it is. It's meant to be portable and will run on the laptop-style included power supply or on eight "AA" batteries. It has stereo 5" speakers and a 5W x 2 stereo power section.

Like the Katana Bass, it has USB but needs a $60 adapter to do Bluetooth. The mobile apps for the two amps are pretty different; you can install them for free and look inside them even if you don't own the amp, so it might be worth comparing if you're on the fence. The Cube has some stereo capabilities, looper, some drum-machine fubctionality, and the portability might be appealing, but I doubt it would fill a room like even the Katana 110 would. (The 110W peak, 60W RMS power rating for the Katana 110 isn't exactly earth-shattering for a bass amp, though. I'm playing at home for now, so I'm not too worried about it.) I know the Boss/Roland Cube brand has some cachet, but I'm still having trouble understanding why these two amps are almost exactly the same price. I will say that I was pretty surprised to see stereo XLR outputs on the back of that Cube, though.

So if you haven't returned the Katana yet, try to hang on.

 

[Low-Five]

A little hands-on session this evening:

I had to update the firmware on my 210 to the current version, which is v1.03.

These bass amps are, indeed, much like the Katana guitar amps. Bank A, Bank B, Panel — and just one button on the control panel to switch among them. To me this is the one truly clumsy part of the Katana layout. Sure, it gets the job done with one button with an LED in the middle of it, and one word, "PANEL" screened on the chassis, but without the manual, figuring out how to use it would be a mind-reading exercise.

They could have made this a lot more intuitive with one more of those little round LED buttons labeled "BANK B". Light on, Bank B. Light off, Bank A — just like the "Variation" mini button/light on the Katana Mk.II guitar amps. The Panel button should be a momentary toggle just to switch between panel mode and preset mode. Panel lit up? It's on Panel. "Panel" not lit up? It's in preset mode, Bank A or Bank B. Or, they could have done three mini LED/buttons, each a momentary press and labeled "Bank A", "Bank B", and "Panel". Instead, the Katana layout makes you use the same button for two pretty different functions, and doesn't exactly explain there on the panel what it does.

As it is, there truly is a Bank B. You switch between A and B by holding down the PANEL button for "approximately one second". You'll know you've held the button long enough when the PANEL light changes status from off to blinking, or vice-versa. (This is slightly annoying, because the LED you need to watch is under your finger that's holding the button down. I count "one-one-thousand two-one-thousand" and let go; that seems to toggle the A/B bank switching pretty reliably. Off, it's in Bank A. Slow blinking, it's in Bank B. Don't confuse this with Panel mode, which you'll know you're on because the PANEL light will be blinking faster, and none of the Channel buttons will be lit up. When you're in Panel mode and you press one of the Channel buttons, the amp automatically switches to that channel in the last bank you were in. So if you were in Bank A before, then switched to Panel mode with a quick press, the next Channel button you press it going to put you back in Bank A. If you were in Bank B before you entered Panel mode, pressing a Channel button will take you to the corresponding channel in Bank B.

While I'm at it, something that I see a lot on whiz-bang techie gear, going back years and years, are lights that flash for no apparent reason. In this case it's the Channel lights. The red LED for the active channel is always blinking, and I can't imagine why they wouldn't just make it solid. It's bad enough that the only time the Panel LED won't be flashing is when you're in Bank A. I personally don't think any lights should be flashing on music gear unless it's truly necessary.

Keep in mind that, with three channels in each of two banks and three different effects modes for each of compressor/limiter, drive, FX1, and FX2, they're giving you a bonkers amount of flexibility. Load each of the six channels up with your chosen options, add the optional six-button footswitch, and you can probably play whole gigs without having to touch the amp.

Of course, that brings us to the other thing you mentioned that some people might find cumbersome, but which I look at as a fun challenge: How do you remember what the tricolor LEDs are trying to tell you? The Katana Mk.II guitar head has five such LEDs, but the bass amps have eight (!). Cheat sheet, definitely, especially if you want to access a lot of versatility without the amp connected to a computer. You could do a nice graphic layout, print it out on a color laser printer, get it laminated. A middle ground might be to get the Bluetooth module so that you can use a phone or tablet instead of the computer. I have a Fender Champion 100 XL, and I've owned a Marshall JVM 410H, so I'm not afraid of tight-lipped amps that give relatively subtle indications of what they're doing when you press buttons and turn knobs.

All that said, the amp to me is worth the minor trouble getting used to the quirks. I'm pretty confident that the 210 is going to take my modest set of needs and hit it out of the park and well into an adjacent time zone. At the volumes I use at home, with my Sterling StingRay RAY35HH? In one evening, it's already made most of my noob bass guitar dreams come true. It sounds wonderful for what I do. Pretty sure I'm going to go ahead and cut the barcode out of the box and send away for the rebate this weekend.

 

[Low-Five]

Um… are we being supportive yet?

 

[Low-Five]

Someone at Boss may share some of my thinking on the Bank A/B switching. The rear-panel jack designated for a direct expression pedal connection is three-conductor TRS. If you connect a latching single-pole, single-throw switch across the ring and sleeve terminals, you can use it to toggle between Bank A and Bank B. (If you do the same thing across the tip and sleeve, it toggles between Ch. 1 and Ch. 2, in whichever bank is active.) I would recommend getting a GA-FC foot controller and an FS-6 dual footswitch, season with expression pedals to taste. There are non-Boss switches and expression pedals that might work, but I'm just enough of a Boss fanboy to buy their accessories anyway.

 

[Low-Five]

Got the BT-Dual Bluetooth adapter today, installed and set up. Works like a champ with my phone and the iOS version of the Katana Bass app. There is direct access to all six channels. Here are the factory default patches:

Regarding the differences in the effects in the factory channels, you can make your own presets as different or as similar as you want.

 

[strost]

Thanks Low-Five.

I completely checked out of this and just saw all the responses.

I'm keeping it cuz it sounds cool and makes me want to play. Not sure I need all the headroom for my bedroom but it's good to have.

 

[Low-Five]

I'm keeping it cuz it sounds cool and makes me want to play. Not sure I need all the headroom for my bedroom but it's good to have.

You, wanting to play, is the most important thing. If a piece of gear can help keep that going, it was worth it. I've been messing around with music gear for over thirty years, and never once have I looked back with regret on a little extra money spent long ago on a more capable piece of equipment than I could have made due with.

 

[Low-Five]

Lol, one quirk I saw the other day with the mobile app connected over Bluetooth: I was adjusting the drive on a particular dirt pedal model and noticed that the Drive parameter in the app went up to 120, but when I maxed out the knob on the amp, it stopped at 100, and I had to go to the app to go over 100. That's kooky.

 

[dougjwray]

Not being one who likes to tinker, just skimming that info from the manual and everyone's discussion about how to use this amp makes my brain hurt.

 

[Low-Five]

Not being one who likes to tinker, just skimming that info from the manual and everyone's discussion about how to use this amp makes my brain hurt.

There's no need to tinker with the Katana bass amps to get them to sound good. You can go nuts tinkering with it if you want, but probably the best thing to do it set up one to three presets you like in Bank A and just use the amp's control panel and/or footswitch to access them and turn individual effects off and on. Believe it or not, it's really designed so that you can set it up with a computer or mobile app, then access tons of versatility without being connected. If you don't care much about advanced features, you still do a lot with it right out of the box without ever connecting it.

On the other hand, you can cover a lot of ground with a decent amp that's not nearly so complicated. I just picked up a couple of little Hartkes that sound wounderful.

 

[dougjwray]

There's no need to tinker with the Katana bass amps to get them to sound good. You can go nuts tinkering with it if you want, but probably the best thing to do it set up one to three presets you like in Bank A and just use the amp's control panel and/or footswitch to access them and turn individual effects off and on. Believe it or not, it's really designed so that you can set it up with a computer or mobile app, then access tons of versatility without being connected. If you don't care much about advanced features, you still do a lot with it right out of the box without ever connecting it.

On the other hand, you can cover a lot of ground with a decent amp that's not nearly so complicated. I just picked up a couple of little Hartkes that sound wounderful.

My comment wasn't meant to criticize the amp, or people who like it. It was more of a confession of my own limitations. I don't have the patience for multi-effects units, or anything else with presets or banks. Too much of a learning curve for me!
I prefer either no effects, or one or two individual pedals with knobs I can twist.
I'll go away now...

 

[Yahboy]

My comment wasn't meant to criticize the amp, or people who like it. It was more of a confession of my own limitations. I don't have the patience for multi-effects units, or anything else with presets or banks. Too much of a learning curve for me!
I prefer either no effects, or one or two individual pedals with knobs I can twist.
I'll go away now...

Agree. Boss katana work like syndyzicer keyboard. Maybe work for some one, but not for most ppl.

 

[Low-Five]

My comment wasn't meant to criticize the amp, or people who like it. It was more of a confession of my own limitations. I don't have the patience for multi-effects units, or anything else with presets or banks. Too much of a learning curve for me!
I prefer either no effects, or one or two individual pedals with knobs I can twist.
I'll go away now...

No need to leave. This is a support group not just for users of Katana bass amps, but also for those whose lives are inadvertently impacted by them.

 

[Hamburgeler]

New owner here! They don't make it easy though. I had a heck of time getting the amp updated just to use tone studio, would not work on my computer and had to borrow one, but at least I can use it now. I haven't played in a long time, and compressors are currently lost on me, but does anyone have a suggestion on which built-in one to use? Also, what effects are everyone using? The reverbs didn't seem great to me, but I'm trying to dial in the octave, flanger and fuzz

 

[Low-Five]

New owner here! They don't make it easy though. I had a heck of time getting the amp updated just to use tone studio, would not work on my computer and had to borrow one, but at least I can use it now. I haven't played in a long time, and compressors are currently lost on me, but does anyone have a suggestion on which built-in one to use? Also, what effects are everyone using? The reverbs didn't seem great to me, but I'm trying to dial in the octave, flanger and fuzz

I'll be really upfront and say that I've been slow to adopt much effects use into my playing so far. A lot of them just sound out of place to me right now, and this has been true of all the setups I've played through. I can go for compression, a little chorus, a little grit, maybe some phaser or tremolo if there's some space to fill. I'm still in awe of the different sounds I can get from my basses just by touching the strings differently or turning an EQ knob a bit.

 

[B-flat?]

Is there any way to pair BT-Dual Bluetooth adapter installed in Katana Bass 210 to a windows computer with Bluetooth?

 

[xposaune]

I recently purchased the Katana 500 bass head. I need to watch some tutorials but thought i would ask - am i right that you can only have one fx going at a time? Meaning, you couldnt stack a chorus and a pitch shifter for example? Edit: looks like the combos have fx1 and fx2 but the head only has one fx slot?

 

[RMacBass]

Just reviving this thread: Yeah, the Katana-500 Bass can only do one FX--I am a little surprised by that, too. I have a Katana guitar combo and since the Bass 500 was so much more expensive and powerful, before I bought the Bass 500 I assumed that Boss Tone Studio would open up its FX capabilities a little more.

However, while the Bass 500 lacks a few basic professional features, it makes up for it in EQ controls. In Tone Studio under Settings, there's a huge Global EQ, and (I guess) the knobs and your user presets add/subtract from that global EQ. It's traditional looking with knobs, parametric mids, etc., BUT there's also a huge 10-band graphic EQ if you prefer that.