Katana Head MkII 100-watt Guitar Amp Head Review

A LOT of Amp For The Money

So we'll start by getting the obvious out of the way, this is the new stuff--surface mount devices and nothing to mod or repair--this is not a tube amp, but I will say you can get it to sound very similar to one. There's great tube amps for the same price, but in my experience that tube head was 50lbs and I never want to take it off the cab. The Katana is a favorite of mine for… read more practice, modeling, playing with pedals and Tone Studio effects and profiles, and I carry this one out to the studio most of the time if I'm not making anything crazy. The little practice speaker in this head is great and it's what makes this worth carrying out, also a direct line out, phones out, and USB output. So you get 4 channels to save all your settings in, and you get 5 amp voicings, or a variation [and 20 more if you're good with computers] and *most* of the time I can get this as loud and as dark as my tube amp, but like the usual line goes "it just isn't the same thing" and that's true, this is a solid state amp emulated tubes. I like it though, it sounds good and you have a LOT of options for setting up your channels. I don't like that the footswitch doesn't come with it and is half the price of the amp, but no worries as you can use a Boss FS-6 or even the Hosa 2 switch cheapo. The built in effects are "meh" to a guy who collects and mods pedals, but could be several hundreds of dollars in savings for a beginners who has no pedalboard. If you already have pedals, they get along very well with this amp. A thing I didn't really like was that there was only *one* speaker jack and it seemed like they designed it so you'd buy the Katana cab with this. Don't get me wrong, I really love the cab, but the options should be there if you want to use an old cab, i.e. an impedance switch, or more than one speaker output jack like most tube amps do have. The "Standby" on this amp basically is a "Mute" switch since there are no tubes, so take solace that you can use it however you want. I also like the cab resonance switch, I personally can tell a slight difference. So the worst part being that you can't repair these yourself, the warranty is long enough that anything that will go bad probably will before your warranty ends. Otherwise, outside of warranty, I've heard it ends up cheaper to usually just buy another one. They're worth the money, and maybe even professionals have a use for this light little head. I really like it, and since it was so cheap I still had enough money to buy a separate tube head as well. This new head, with a 5 year warranty, is cheaper than a lot of used heads. Almost forgot, the power settings: 0.5w is very useful for quiet practice, while 50w is plenty of volume, and 100w is almost stage volume loud. Versatility is the main feature here.

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Really good amp! Very surprised!

I was looking for a small footprint amp that I could take to shows and jam sessions that had everything I needed. I have a really nice boutique tube amp with a giant pedalboard but it's a bit ridiculous to travel with. However, it has spoiled me with rich tone and dazzling effects for quite some time. It's fairly difficult for me to enjoy other amps now. However this one is really… read more nice! It has rich harmonics and a great feel! I highly recommend this amp to anyone who wants versatile to do it all in a compact setup. I do wish they had documentation available as to which expression pedals work with the amp and all of it's capabilities. It has proven quite difficult to get any info! Btw, the 5" built in speaker is an awesome addition and it definitely sounds good enough for jam sessions!

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Love This Little Thing ......Things x2

I Have Mine Hooked Up Stereo Wow!!!!!!! Big Big Sound Waiting For Quad Cortex Then I will use Power Amp in And run stereo or 2 amp sims Heavenly

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One Great Amp

Well I got hit with Covid and wanted to practice in the bedroom and could not lug upstairs my tube amp and 4x12. Wanted to get this amp for a long time and had no reason until now. The five inch speaker in the head is really amazing and can be really loud. I was using that speaker and creating some great tones. I also bought the GA-FC footswitch and the amp came alive even… read more more. Few days later I had also gotten two Boss FV-500H foot volume pedals as I need my wah. I really cant say what has already been said about this amp, it just rocks and is so easy to dial in a great tone using the knobs. I hooked up Boss tone studio and could not believe all the pedals within and how deep you can customize them. Truly amazing for sure. I am now using thru a Marshall 2x12 with Celestian vintage 30s and it just sounds awesome. A big thanks goes out to Carter Drain for getting this to me super fast. Be safe and rock on.

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Work load

The work load you can program into the Boss MkII Head is very easy and able to match many of the sounds of most of the Boss stomp pedals. I was using the Boss Katana Artist Model which is a fantastic amp and also easy to program sounds. Solid state is my choice of amps because I switch from guitar to fiddle. Wish Boss would have added CS3 compressor also the external tap to the… read more Foot pedal. The reason for me to purchase this amp head was to make my equipment load smaller verses carrying to much gear from gig to gig in Nashville.

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