Dialling in the Katana 100 Mk11


SamA01
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SamA01
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07/13/2022 5:47 am

This amp has all the sounds or so it seems. However, I am having a difficult/torrid time dialling it in.

After downloading all the presets from the Boss Tone Studio and playing around for several months and growing to hate most of those tones, I started trying to create my own.

I started by doing a factory reset and getting a feel for the default presets. Then, after mucking around for some time tweaking these settings I started overwriting them.

One of the problems is that I have three guitars, all HSS but sound different in their own respect. That problem aside, if I focused on only one guitar, the problem is that any minor changes to the guitar's volume or tone knobs seems to affect the perfect tone that I was using a few minutes ago which then seems impossible to recreate on a consistent basis.

Also, I am constantly looking for that perfect tone as I am a beginner and don't quite know the amp's limitations...

Today, I tried dialling in the Studio Rats Blues preset but alas, I can't seem to get his tone (I put it down to him using a HH PRS).

Also, a tone that I may have really liked previously, doesn't seem to sound the same the next time I use it. Is it my ear or what?

I understand the concept of this amp but damn it's tough dialling it in.

Any help would be appreciated.


# 1
ChristopherSchlegel
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ChristopherSchlegel
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07/13/2022 11:20 am
Originally Posted by: SamA01

This amp has all the sounds or so it seems. However, I am having a difficult/torrid time dialling it in.

[/quote]

I have a Katana 50 MK1 & love it. One of the most important things about the Katana or any digital solid state amp is that treble, brightness & good sounding presence often requires volume. You have to turn it up a bit to get it to sound really good. :)

And there is always going to be a big difference in timbre between low & high volumes.

If you want to keep it at a home friendly volume level, then set it on the clean amp, gain & volume about 50%, bass 25%, mids & treble 75%.

And here's the important part, select any Boost setting & turn it up about 50%. This really adds some presence & sparkle to the clean tone. Try the green button setting for a treble booster-blues drive type tone.

Use your bridge pickup for the most treble sound. Add some reverb for depth. That should get you in the ballpark of a clean-ish bright rock tone to use for basic practice.

[quote=SamA01]

Today, I tried dialling in the Studio Rats Blues preset but alas, I can't seem to get his tone (I put it down to him using a HH PRS).

[p]I don't know what that is. Do you have a link to an example?

I did a whole series of demos using my Katana. It's pretty versatile.

https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLlnl5iWw43icBvpfQQUpzkOKfLncd-bL

If you give me some idea of what kind of music you are trying to play then I can probably help you with some settings. Hope that helps!


Christopher Schlegel
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# 2
SamA01
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SamA01
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07/13/2022 9:06 pm

Thanks for your reply Chris,

The tone that I am looking for is the heavy rock tone with a bit of overdrive and lots of fuzz but not heavily distorted. I am trying to get those Jimmy Page sounds in Whole Lot of Love and Kashmire.

This is the Studio Rats You tube video https://youtu.be/mFRmKtOkk3I which is Blues Rock tone whcih I was referring to. From the start with everything at 50% his sound is fuller and heavy compared to my sound.

Subscribed to you channel. Thanks


# 3
ChristopherSchlegel
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ChristopherSchlegel
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07/14/2022 2:38 pm

You're welcome!

Originally Posted by: SamA01

The tone that I am looking for is the heavy rock tone with a bit of overdrive and lots of fuzz but not heavily distorted. I am trying to get those Jimmy Page sounds in Whole Lot of Love and Kashmire.[/quote]

Page's studio tone on those is actually quite basic & almost thin especially compared to modern production. Especially the lead tone. Look up the isolated guitar tracks.

[quote=SamA01]This is the Studio Rats You tube video https://youtu.be/mFRmKtOkk3I which is Blues Rock tone whcih I was referring to. From the start with everything at 50% his sound is fuller and heavy compared to my sound.

Thanks for the link. What volume are you playing at? I'm guessing he is playing direct into the DAW recording setup for the video. And that's necessarily going to sound much different than your speaker amp in a room at a low volume.

At about 3:50 he adds the boost like I was saying. That really brightens up the tone with treble. Later at 4:40 he adds compression. And he explains that this is done to make up for the lack of bite & punch to the tone. That sort of thing happens naturally with a good loud tube amp. :)

But in the end, even the tone he has at the beginning is good enough to practice & build you chops! Notice that he's playing completely solo here. And a lot of these fine details like the delay & compression get lost in the mix as soon as you add bass & drums.

I understand that it's more motivating to practice with a tone that inspires you. But at a certain point it becomes diminishing returns. And you want to spend more time playing guitar than turning knobs!

Hope that helps!


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# 4
SamA01
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SamA01
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07/15/2022 12:45 am

Thanks Chris,

I mostly play without any amplification and recently decided that it might be time to learn the sounds/tones of my amp and also play some rock tunes which I have been leaning for the past several months.


# 5
SamA01
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SamA01
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07/15/2022 1:03 am

I installed the latest firmware patch for the Katana MkII [ Ver.2.00 ] JUL 2022 and also the latest Tone Studio SW + joined the Boss Tone Exchange where I managed to download a few more tones to try out.

p.s. Here is rundown by Paul from the Studio Rats of the latest FW and SW update by Boss https://youtu.be/qRDhRwJLHKM.

I tried these tones and wow....My amp has come alive. I wonder if the old FW of my amp was somehow corrupted? Anyway, happy days....


# 6
ChristopherSchlegel
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ChristopherSchlegel
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07/15/2022 1:45 pm
Originally Posted by: SamA01

I mostly play without any amplification and recently decided that it might be time to learn the sounds/tones of my amp and also play some rock tunes which I have been leaning for the past several months.

[/quote]

That's a great idea. I sometimes practice without an amp. But it's a big difference playing through an amp, it's like adding a whole extra instrument into the mix. So it's an absolutely necessary part of the process to learn to play with the amp.

[quote=SamA01]

I installed the latest firmware patch . . .

I tried these tones and wow....My amp has come alive. I wonder if the old FW of my amp was somehow corrupted? Anyway, happy days....

[p]Good deal! Keep practicing!


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# 7
mjgodin
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mjgodin
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07/16/2022 2:05 pm

Far be it from me to ever give advice on how to dial in a guitar amp especially since I run with the acoustic pack, but I thought I'd pass this info on to see if it will help you.

A couple of years ago I purchased a Squire Telecaster mainly to help with learning Barre chords cause electrics are easier in that respect, and to explore the world of electric guitar so I followed that purchase with a Katana 50 Mk1 on sale at my local store.

Since it was a Tele and I like country music I wanted to get that "Twangy" sound that Teles are known for, but like you had no experience with amps and effects. The Boss tone studio just seemed to have nothing, but heavy metal sounds which no longer interested me. I then went out to the Internet to see what I could find and came across this web site.

GuitarPatches

They have a lot of custom made patches made by other players for lots of Boss amps and other products for specific songs, genres and artists. There are probably other sites out there, but this is one that I found. Its easy to use. I just typed in Country in the search field and it came up with a couple of patches that I was able to download to my computer and then upload into the Boss Studio software interface. I have two that I saved. One being an older Tele country sound that you'd hear on 70's & 80's music and another more modern country sound you'd find in todays music. I then saved them into my presets.

Again, I am in now way an expert on this stuff, but if I can figure it out I'm sure you'll have no problem with it. You had mentioned you were looking for a Jimmy Page tone. I just typed in his name in the search field and it came up with several. If anything you could load them up then launch the Editor in Boss Studio to get some baseline measurements to see how they created them and use those settings for any future desires.

However, like Christopher said. Don't spend too much time turning knobs or in this case downloading files. These sounds are not gonna be exact to what you hear on record, but gets you in the ballpark to make practice a little more fun. Everything is still relative to the gear your using. One thing I've discovered is that a great deal of tone comes from the fingers. I'll let Christopher explain that further if you need. lol

Anyway have fun and good luck. Hope it helps.

Moe


# 8
SamA01
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SamA01
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07/17/2022 3:11 am

Thanks Moe,

Yeah, messing around with the amp is a real time waster. Hence, the idea of downloading presets. I have now dowloaded several presets which I like.

I too found the Boss Tone Studio presets not to my liking.

Initially, when learning something new, I don't use the amp at all. I practice the piece of music until I feel competant at playing it without any amplification. Then, I use the amp to refine my playing with the motronome/drum machine and then pluging in the backing track into the Katana. This amp is very user friendly in that respect.

I will try out the link you provided.


# 9

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