Tube Amp... Meet Your CHALLENGER

Today is my birthday and I received the MkII 50. I was quite happy. Then I saw this. Now I’m coping

I took the Katana on tour back in 2022 and it was one of the best decisions ever. It will never be what a tube amp is, but: it weighs like 35 lbs, doesnt require a massive pedalboard to get 95% of the way to the tones you want, and in the case of damage or theft, I'm only out like $300. That to me is really where it shines: Affordability and practicality.

I use a Katana 50wt, and I love it. Inexpensive, and does what I need it to. Works great for recording and performing.

Great video as usual Mike. It is important to keep in mind the various types of guitarists: bedroom/beginner, first time band, open mic/busker performer, or pro like yourself. Most YouTube guitar videos are produced by pros, teachers and stores so the lower rank of players never get a voice in what is important or even necessary and most YouTube gear videos do not address our requirements. The Katana II 50 EX goes a long way to meet our needs. It is affordable, flexible, small and light enough to transport, yet has a big sound. What it is missing is the XLR output for PA when doing open mic gigs. The Katana II 100 EX has this, but it is too big, loud and expensive for most home use. I would love to do an "amateurs" review based upon real life experience. Then again, someone like me would never get selected by BOSS.

The Katana was a game-changer for me. It doesn’t do any one thing superlatively well, but it does a good job at everything it does. I gigged with a Mk. 1 for years. It was lightweight, took pedals well, it was rock-solid all the time. I played solo jazz/fingerstyle gigs with it, then went to rock shows. I also never needed the 100W mode. 50W was plenty loud enough for rehearsals and shows. I’m excited to put a Mk. III through its paces.

I’d love to see how close to the Pushed amp you can get by just adding some gain to Clean or backing off the gain on Crunch. I kind of saw a continuum from Clean to Crunch on the Mk II that didn’t necessarily leave room for a whole other amp in between. But you do make it sound sweet!

This really got me thinking. For me I have 2 rigs, the helix full digital, and the shoegaze board into my dream tube amp, and I use them for very different purposes. The helix is for silent practice, silent stages, or gigs that require a ton of different sounds. The amp and board is more of a "my dream rig" situation mostly for decent sized gigs. But if I knew someone getting into guitar and they're not sure if they wanted to gig, I wouldn't recommend either of my rigs. I'd probably be pointing right to something like the katana. Most of the helix/QC tier digital stuff is way too obtuse for people just learning, tube amps are loud and expensive, and once you start adding in either an FRFR cab or an in ear monitoring system you end up pricing out most people. So yeah, I don't think a katana is for me specifically, but they do have a super important role to play in the market today.

I bought a Boss GT-1 about 5 years-ago for quiet practice in my tiny L.A. apartment. I can get just about any sound that I need out of that thing, and my tone-snob buddies think I’m miking my amps. 🤷🏻‍♂️

The boss katana is a fuckin workhorse, shit does what it needs to do so well. Mine has had an entire bottle of beer spilt on it, sat in a slightly flooded basement, and its resting place is my cars trunk. I basically run a permanent torture test on the thing and it just takes it and keeps pushing. Fuckin well done Boss.

"You may be called BOSS, but you are not the boss of me" - Mike Cole, 2024

I recently decided to pickup bass and bought a Rumble 500. For grins, I decided to model preamps on my Helix and run it into the FX return of the Rumble. Best backline sound I’ve gotten from my Helix and it only weighs 36.5 lbs.

Great job showcasing that amp Mike. Ive always loved Boss pedals for their awesome effects and relatively quiet performance, but that amp sounds lush! Especially with the push engaged ❤️❤️

Some purty playin in this vid! Way to go Mike! Really nice!

Bonjour From France, I bought recently a Roland Blues Cube ( 30 w ) Hot and an Artist ( 80 w). I’m really satisfied with both. The 30w Blues is a one channel amp ,so I need two overdrives pedals , one to push the other. The Blues Cube Artist has two channels. For classic Rock ,one overdrive pedal is enough to push the drive channel and get creamy tones. When I use my Strat Ultra with vintage noiseless pick ups, I turn the bass and treble down a bit on the amp. The JHS hauting mids ( always on,) fills the big mid range gap , without adding some weird character to the Strat. Contrary to my last amp ( DV MARK JAZZ 12, all transistor) , the Roland Blues Cube can be heard ( if I turn it slightly towards me ) even on a chair placed two meters away on my left, with my mixer in between. There ‘s no deep volume cut when you make two steps away from the amp.

I bought new the Katana Artist 100 three years ago and I love it. First of all it’s more amp than I am a guitarist but I love all the features and the WAZA speaker is a singer for sure.

That feeling you get when your Katana Artist is less than a year old and you find out a new one is coming 😳

My man working hard for all the sponsorship

Great video. You've converted me to a subscriber with just one video. I really enjoy your relaxed and knowledgeable approach as well as your playing. Hi from Canada. :)

Ordered a Katana 50 MkII this morning and the same day, the Gen 3 comes out...

Your videos rule Mike!