Great Jazz Tone On A $250 Amp?

This is a $250 amp which I think sounds surprisingly good for the money. But, we'll see how well it does with playing Jazz and what I can get out of this practice amp.

What Jazz Guitar Amps do you use or recommend?

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Content:
00:00 Intro - Jazz Guitar Amp?
01:00 Is It A Modeling Amp?
01:52 A Solid Starting Point
02:32 The Jazz Tone Myth
03:15 Tone Knob Mud
03:37 Dialing n The EQ
04:15 A LOT of Bass and Angry Bass-players
05:06 Treble Shooting
06:14 The Trick To Get A Full Sound
06:40 Pick Attack
07:02 My “Opinion” On Shure SM57 mics
07:44 The Tone Knob
08:05 The Effects
08:28 Overdrive as EQ?
08:52 Soaked in Reverb
09:37 Drowning In Delay
10:21 Comparing Katana and Fractal FM3
12:01 USB Connection and Effects Deep-dive
12:16 Types of Reverb - And Why I hate Spring Reverb
14:10 My Tone-Shaping Trick
16:37 The Great $400 Guitar I Used On 5 albums
16:40 Like the video? Check out my Patreon page!

My name is Jens Larsen, Danish Jazz Guitarist, and Educator. The videos on this channel will help you explore and enjoy Jazz. Some of it is how to play jazz guitar, but other videos are more on Music Theory like Jazz Chords or advice on how to practice and learn Jazz, on guitar or any other instrument.

The videos are mostly jazz guitar lessons, but also music theory, analysis of songs, and videos on jazz guitars.

My Gear:

[RobertFisher]

I greatly appreciate this. Not only is this different from the majority of “dialing in tone” videos, which are going for a much more generic electric guitar tone, I think you do a really good job of walking through the process and explaining it. I’d like to see another where you go through the process of using a parametric EQ. My biggest struggle is that even after 4 decades of this, I still find the differences that seem so drastic to others quite subtle. People always say, “just use your ears”, but my ear tends to lead me to extreme settings. I’m always afraid that what sounds fine to my ears sounds awful to others. 🙂

[chromasoulmagic]

This is gold! You opened my eyes, and my ears are grateful. I have a Fender LTS MUSTANG 40. Exactly as you say, I tried for that robust Pat Martino sound by rolling off the tone control. It always sounded thin bassy and unlistenable. You helped me find my solution: By adding midrange to the Twin patch (up to 10.0 made it magic), I can roll the tone control to 10, b/c the midrange makes it robust in the right places. I was seriously doubting these 4 inch speakers, but no more. You are a wizard.

[camp]

The thing with Katana is that most people don't really use the power that is hidden in the Tone Studio, where you can customize EQ on a much more precise level than through knobs. Additionally, I often use a bit of boost, not as an overdrive, but to emphasize certain frequencies (there are many boost modes that you can choose from). All is editable and storable as presets, so effectively you can have several different sound scenes at your disposal, which can match different rooms/auditoriums. Tone Studio, for those who don't use Boss's products, is the software used on a PC (or a mobile, if you have Katana AIR). Worth checking is also the Octave effect hidden inside Katana, which, when set to "mode 4" is only applied to lowest three strings, so can be used to emphasize the bass line without making the sound muddy.

[minister]

I happily own a 100W version of the KATANA. I went from Fender to Marshall to Mesa, and now in my older age, the KATANA is an amazing blessing. I also own a KATANA-AIR as well. As mentioned by others, the Tone Studio app make all the difference in the world. I must say that your videos on tone and gear are nothing short of a breath of fresh air. You cover a much neglected spectrum of topics for those of us who love jazz and anything else that doesn't require high gain tonality. Just seeing you trying your son's Ibanez says a lot about your wider view of guitars, tone, and gear. By the way. The jabs of humor in your vids are just priceless!! Thank you so much!

[kenrobertson]

Great video! I had the Katana for about a year, and had fun dialing in different tones. A couple of years ago, the Sydney (Austrlaia) Conservatorium Jazz school purchased a bunch of these to replace their aging Roland Cubes...they worked out really well.

[RodrigoSantosMusic_]

I have a Katana 100 and really love it, just wanted to mention that the EQ on katana amps is only subtractive, so it's neutral if you put everything at max. It's not that bad to start off with everything at noon, you're just basically cutting the volume in half. That's why I hear many people complaining that the amp does not have the volume of a 100W amp.

[alexanderpotts]

The Katana was essential in getting me into jazz because I literally hated every sound it produced other than a clean tone

[theryanthiggins]

I love my katanas! I had a 50 watt model but returned it for a 100 watt. The 50 sounded thin and I like the 100 watt model better, even though I never use the 100 watt setting. Also, I like to use the acoustic amp model for jazz, sometimes the clean. Another thing to try that you didn't really show is turning up the gain to between 2/3 and 3/4 on the amp. This helps warm up the clean tones a lot. Another trick, along with boosting the gain, that works for me on the Katana is to turn the Master up to about 2/3 and then use the volume next to the gain to control my over all volume.

[aa.mirezZ]

I appreciate you taking the time to really mess with this amp to try and dial in a great tone. I personally own this amp and it is my only amp, so I appreciate you doing this it helps me A LOT. I also wanted to say the pro tip about blaming the mic had me audibly laughing out loud hahaha 😂love your vids and appreciate your content. Thank you 🙏

[JF-emhr]

I've seen many Boss Katana demos/reviews and this is the first one where I found out that those lights on top are also buttons. Thanks.

[mythicoat]

Super interesting, learned a lot from your thought process!

I had the same issues with thin sound on my katana for a few months until I encountered a tip suggesting to minimize the volume knob and increase the master instead. That made the sound way fuller at similar loudness levels, for some reason.

[ollegrane]

While my Mesa Boogie amp was on repair (for quite a while, some 3 years) I tried out (and bought) the 100w 1x12 Katana. To me it sounded workable "as is" but after fiddling with the software I found that the "clean boost" set to minimum (but still turned on) got me in the fat and juicy land of clean tube amp tone, that chewie attack and warm sound with a little hair on it. Now I was really happy. After watching the Pat Metheny interview by Rick Beato a while ago I learned that part of the "Metheny Sound" is running the guitar at low to mid volume settings (much to be able to regulate the volume on stage after soundcheck) - this got me an even more workable tone. By the way, I sold the boogie.

[chrisr]

I have a Boss Katana and love it! Such a great amp. I’ve been waiting for a video like this, thank you Uncle Jens!! 😁

[deadcatforcutie]

very interesting - finally someone who checks the Katana with Jazz. I use it that way and I am pretty happy with it. IMO there is not 'the best tone ever' because I want different sounds all the time. But here the Katana is a huge toolbox and allows me to explore all kinds of sounds

[paulmckeown]

Thanks for the free patch. I use my Boss Katana as my practise amp and I was looking for a patch to play my semi-acoustics through when doing my Jazz practising. While getting to the download I noticed the heaps of stuff you give away free and took advantage of that work. Then I thought I better give something back and bought your Jazz Blues soloing course which I have to say is very inexpensive. Thanks for all the video's you post and I look forward to workign through your courses!

[wondervalleyexperimental]

I really enjoyed this episode. I liked watching your process finding the tone and bringing in a distortion pedal as a tone shaping device. Thanks for presenting this info. I found it very useful.

[scottoharamusic]

Great video Jens! I have a Katana 50 as it’s great to to take to rehearsals over my large tube amp and I get great sounds for rock pop and blues settings….but I’ve struggled to get a good sound for my jazz improv class with an Ibanez lgb300 - Your approach is very different to what I’ve been doing so thank you!

[twli]

Recently got this amp, so your perspective and thorough demonstration is really helpful. I agree there's good value in this amp.

[GuitarZeroHero]

Love the Katana! Great video Jens - loved seeing your approach to tone

[sorenahlback]

Great video! I have a Boss Katana 50MKII and even if Jazz isn't my main course I sniff on in now and then. I like the setting you did and in the newest update there is a new booster, Centa OD, that is pretty nice to add just a little. I find Blues Driver scooped.