Boss Katana: Everything You Need To Know

My Favorite Guitar + Filming Gear at Sweetwater

Disclosure: I only recommend products I would use myself and all opinions expressed here are my own. The link above is an affiliate link, that at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission on.

[mordikiday]

I am an intermediate guitarist looking for a better amp by Christmas or my birthday, and this video couldn’t be more perfectly timed

[alandennis]

It’s encouraging to see a well-known and respected player such as yourself who has some very high end equipment demonstrating a cheaper amp that is more likely to be found in a modest player’s arsenal! Thank you for demonstrating its features!

[cooperyoung]

My dad and I went to a guitar shop today and he bought this amp for my birthday, we just thought it sounded really good when I was playing in the store. Had no idea how much it could do. I was just wanting something that could maybe do a few cool effects because I thought you’d need a massive price range to get something with crazy access to numerous effects. One of my buddies said this was Marty’s go to amp so I looked up a review. I am shocked and so freaking excited to play on it now.

[davidkenworthy]

I've had my MKII for about a year, LOVE IT, I'm an old man and it is easy enough for me to navigate, how old? Two days older than dirt! 68 yrs! It is the best amp I've had in 59 years of playing! Thx, Marty! You are a Gr8 teacher!

[DAV.AGUIRRE]

For the longest time, I could not figure out how to achieve those heavy-chug tones. I thought my beginner squier guitar was just trash. I had my katana on max volume and was using the guitar volume knob on 1-3 😂. The other day I switched things out- maxed out the guitar volume knob and instead lowered the amp volume. What an incredible difference!

[hendrix]

Crunch setting with a little drive and reverb, love it.

[RCSmiths]

I proudly own a 100 wt Boss Amp, and they still are a charm to play 2 years later! Great showcase!

[ksgtrpkr]

Marty, this by far was the best video on you tube on explaining how this amp and software works! I just bought the 100 watt head on the advice of two friends who are studio musicians in Nashville. At 56 years of age I was a little intimidated about using the software, but you just clarified it so easily. Thank You!!

[juanmackenzie]

Great gear to gig as well. I'm loving Marty's face when he goes with heavy riffs (lead, brown, octaver, etc)

[jakerobertson]

Told my parents i wanted world peace for christams, but if i couldn't get that, Id want the amp instead lol

[SpitefulGoose]

I’ve been a tube amp guy my entire life and have seen solid states as lesser and have been very prejudice against solid states. But after needing a lighter amp to gig with since my shoulders and back aren’t what they used to be I decided to order a boss katana 100 mk2. It is the first solid state amp I’ve owned besides when I was 8 years old and got a small practice amp with my very first cheap electric guitar, and it honestly is my favorite amp for practicing and smaller venues. On my tube amps I loved the fact that I never would turn the volume past 4 in fear of shaking the whole house but with my katana I have that same volume capability, which a solid state amp 20 years ago would have to be much more than twice the wattage. If I feel like channeling Spinal Tap and try to push my katana past 11, the sound quality is very consistent which is something I struggled with on tube amps. The sound is still clear and I don’t get any crackling or hiss like I did on my 99’ mesa boogie. I get hissing in my ears after playing at loud volume but that’s my fault completely for ignoring the dangers of tinnitus lol.
If someone told me that a solid state amp like the katana can sound as good as a vintage tube amp right out of the box then I would have said they were crazy, but I’m now a believer in the quality of solid states and love that I don’t have to keep shelling out for new tubes every few months or so lol.
If anyone is on the fence about these amps then I urge you if you can to go try one out at your local music shop, but if you’re like me and your local music shop doesn’t have one to try, I would take the plunge and get one cuz you won’t be disappointed.
The only bad part is that the foot switch is sold separately and it cost about $125-$150. It definitely comes in handy and personally a necessity for me when playing gigs but the bright side is there are 5 channels to switch between and you can save 5 distinct tones/settings at once.
To wrap up Ive been a huge fan of boss products for a long time, I mainly have boss pedals on my main pedal board and am very happy with my decision to purchase an amp by them. I don’t really even have to bother hooking up my pedalboard to my katana when practicing because of all the built in effects like clean, crunch and lead plus the overdrive, delay, reverb, chorus, phaser, and even an octave effect.
I’m not a sound and tone purist or expert by any means but I know enough to know that this $500 solid state can hold its own against my more expensive tube amps…. And it’s hard to admit this but it sounds better than some of my precious vintage tube amps lol

[keegantoresdahl]

something about marty saying "crunch" is satisfying

[GeneralAdmission_]

Best advice I have for this amp is to make yourself comfortable with the software. It's straight forward and really adds so many options for dialing in your tone

[SethDaughters]

Had my katana 2 50 watt for over a year. I love it. Like $230 at the time, and it's never let me down. Always sounds amazing.

[hank_says_things]

I was looking for an Orange earlier in the year, but the model I wanted wasn’t in stock. Dude suggested a Katana MkII 50w as it was the same wattage as the Orange I wanted, similar price and way more versatile.
Turns out it’s the best little amp I’ve ever had. Hopefully next week I’ll finish building my Explorer and I can demo the two together.

[vaughanschoeman]

Great video! My wife bought me one a few weeks ago. I have been out of the guitar scene for probably at least 10 years, but getting back into it now, and I must say, this amp absolutely blows my mind! The only other pedal I would ever buy is a loop, but the katana does everything else! I'm absolutely loving it and it's the perfect amp to get me excited about guitar playing again

[michaelharrison]

solid and informative video. one thing you missed regarding the loop pedal, is that you can plug it into the loop effect inputs in the back of the amp to circumvent the recorded loops changing tone when you mess with the amp effects. it's an great feature.

[Brewer_]

Just ordered one as my first amp. Looking forward to trying it out.

[artytoney]

Just got a mk11 head, not expecting whole lot, I'm a old school high gain tube guy, and I was blown away at not only the great solid state tones but the incredible versatility of the amp and so many useful features for the price of some of my single pedals it's crazy, for value you can't beat these amps awesome setup and I bought it from your videos (Mr) Marty

[M_WOODLAND]

HA! Thanks for throwing in the bit about radio presets. That brought a smile to my face.

BTW, EVERY tone you've been getting out of that Katana in your lesson vids has been SOOO good, IMO. Core tone is MOST important to me.