MONSTER clean tone!!

[Carbonius]

I've been getting back into electric guitar. With 20+ years of acoustic playing, I like full cleans with warmth and bass as well as clarity.

Enter the Katana Artist model.

This one is different from all other Katana's. Beefer cabinet for warmth. Custom tones. Added knobs for quicker access to certain features (without plugging in a laptop). A partially enclosed back to drive more bass to the front. A custom Waza speaker that has nice tone and OOOMPH! I played this next to a Katana 50 and Katana 1x12 100, the Artist has them beat! I took it home with me.

The shock is the "Acoustic" channel.

It is full and warm. Warmer and cleaner than the "Clean" channel. With my TV Jones Classic equipped Godin Montreal Limited, it sounds great for acoustic style strumming rythms. But role back the tone, tweak the amps tone controls a little and you get some great jazz tones. It's great for many clean situations where you are playing solo and need fuller tone.

THE HEADROOM!!

My goodness. I put on some hearing protection, flipped it to the 100 watt setting and turned it up to half. Standing 2 feet from the amp I could FEEL the air moving. It was nuts! The amp was on a piece of furniture about 1 foot from a wall, so it was all bouncing back at me. What I'm saying is CRAZY headroom, while still being nice and clear. This is a true 100 that will take on a 100 watt tube amp. On the 50 watt setting it is still LOUD! In fact, the 0.5 watt is surprising loud for at home playing. Very full but you aren't struggling to adjust knobs without the volume spiking.

Add some effects and it gets so nice. Just with delay and reverb the "Acoustic" channel tones are fabulous. I like to play by inspiration at times, listening to tones and just play what comes to me. These tones had me making new songs very quickly.

As many reviews have pointed out, this doesn't really work for traditional acoustic playing as there is no tweeter. That upper end sparkle is missing. HOWEVER... that is what makes this an amazing electric clean channel.

The "Clean" channel is also quite nice. It is not as full and warm as the "Acoustic" channel, but that's good. Why have 2 channels that are the same? You can keep it clean or set it for some nice break-up. If you are looking for more of a standard clean channel this is it. It can also be set to cut through a muddy stage. With 100 watts... there's no trouble here!

On tip that I read from a Boss rep on some forum somewhere. If you want a saturated tube tone, crank the "Master" volume first... then bring up the Gain and Volume controls to taste. I have tried various methods and this does give you nice break-up tones. I prefer it less than cranked though... at least for now.

So if you want clean & warm tone with nice bass and the option for MAJOR headroom, give the Katana Artist a shot!