![]() ![]() ![]() There are libraries of preset sounds available, but you shouldn’t need to cheat with those – basic amplifier tones are easily dialled up on the Katana’s top panel, and navigating the effects on screen is every bit as intuitive. Having found one of those USB cables, we now connect our amp to the Tone Studio software and really open up our options. Get carried away here and things can easily spiral off down a 1980s soft-metal plughole, but the factory-loaded effects are reliably ‘Boss’ in terms of audio quality. But as with the 50-watt model, it’s in the four high-gain modes that this amp really cranks up the fun factor – especially when we start adding delay, reverb and modulation to the mix. Switching to ‘crunch’ brings a major leap in aggression, much like hopping from a blackface amp to a plexi. Single-coils through either of the two clean models remain totally pristine most of the way around the gain control, and when the breakup does come, it’s free of digital harshness. In fact, while we’re impressed by the sheer power of this thing in 100-watt mode, it’s good news for the tinnitus (and the neighbours) that its output can easily be switched down to 50-watts or even a bedsit-friendly 0.5-watt.Īt all output settings, the sound scores highly for clarity and ‘bigness’. Of course, 100 solid-state watts aren’t going to be anywhere near as loud as the valve equivalent, but that’s still more than enough for today’s stages. Like that amp, it’s made in Malaysia using fibreboard construction and feels solid enough, if not exactly ultra-robust. If your reference point for 2×12 combos is a Fender Twin Reverb or Marshall Bluesbreaker, you’ll find this a refreshingly un-hospitalising amp to pick up one-handed – although it’s still almost twice the weight of the single-speaker Katana-50 MkII.
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