NAD: Katana 50

[Matt08642]

It's cool! Out of the box it wasn't anything special to be honest. The defaults for everything give you a general idea, but the best tones come from sitting down with the Katana editor on a computer and messing with stuff.

I was actually surprised how expansive the effects, settings, channels, presets, etc are in the application. Really good value for the money you pay.

Also, this thing is fucking loud, I dig.

 

[Luafcm]

I felt the same way man, a whole lot of bang for not much buck! Still stoked on the Katana after months of playing with it!

 

[Bearitone]

Is it good for the brutal stuff? Can you can have a boost and gate built into one of the presets?

 

[Luafcm]

Is it good for the brutal stuff? Can you can have a boost and gate built into one of the presets?

I'm too old to properly understand the diff between brutal and br00tal or whatever, but I play some Nile lashed to the slave stick on my Katana and it sounds brutal I think. I have some laser sharp gated boosted tones for fear factory type stuff, and a really good thrash preset.

 

[Matt08642]

Is it good for the brutal stuff? Can you can have a boost and gate built into one of the presets?

I’m still messing with the gate (I actually got this a week ago to bring on a trip I took, so I didn’t get much time to play around before I left), but I believe so! The boost/mod knob can have 3 separate boosts depending on the colour of the LED (how you select which is which), plus different channels (which can all have their own settings that can be recalled any time) - not sure if the boost is global for all channels/settings, but I’ll test that later for sure!

The boosts themselves are decent as well. I’ve been playing on the “brown” channel with the tube screamer clone and it’s pretty close up my 6505mh red channel with the gain at 12 o’clock.

One thing I’ve noticed is that this amp is much more dependent on pickups for the extra oomph vs the 6505 (which makes my single coil Strat pickups sound heavy)

 

[youngthrasher9]

I still haven’t messed with the editor yet, I want to try messing with the resonance in there. I’ve also been pretty tempted to do the “sneaky amps” thing that has more amps and stuff to choose from... specifically curious about the metalzone and Mesa ones for some unnecessarily gained out slam type tones.

 

[op1e]

Been curious about these for a while for gig purposes. Hauling 300 pounds worth of gear for 8 songs on stage. I heard the fx never really turn all the way off? Something a guy that returned one told me. Can you stompbox them in and out, or is it a per preset type thing?

 

[youngthrasher9]

Been curious about these for a while for gig purposes. Hauling 300 pounds worth of gear for 8 songs on stage. I heard the fx never really turn all the way off? Something a guy that returned one told me. Can you stompbox them in and out, or is it a per preset type thing?

If you switch it to panel mode you can turn them off, or alternatively you can go into the editor and edit them out of channels.

 

[op1e]

What if you're using an external switcher/midi board like a GCP?

 

[youngthrasher9]

What if you're using an external switcher/midi board like a GCP?

I want to say yes but it’s been over a year since I’ve been inside that manual.

 

[Matt08642]

I still haven’t messed with the editor yet, I want to try messing with the resonance in there. I’ve also been pretty tempted to do the “sneaky amps” thing that has more amps and stuff to choose from... specifically curious about the metalzone and Mesa ones for some unnecessarily gained out slam type tones.

I've messed with the presence and resonance in there, also the signal chain. I think by default it puts the boost pedal section of the unit after the amp, but conventionally it should go "before" the pre-amp.

The editor also allows you to use a "delay2" when you have reverb on, freeing up the knob that would otherwise be used for delay for the FX portion, which I think is a pretty cool feature.

 

[Shask]

It's cool! Out of the box it wasn't anything special to be honest. The defaults for everything give you a general idea, but the best tones come from sitting down with the Katana editor on a computer and messing with stuff.

I was actually surprised how expansive the effects, settings, channels, presets, etc are in the application. Really good value for the money you pay.

Also, this thing is fucking loud, I dig.

Yep, great amps! I have had a Katana Head and GA-FC for a years now. I don't always play it, as I have a lot of other gear, but it definitely hangs with the other stuff I have.

 

[Shask]

Is it good for the brutal stuff? Can you can have a boost and gate built into one of the presets?

I have pretty heavy settings. Imagine a Death - Human type sound, mixed with some Hatebreed. I use Lead or Brown, and use the Tubescreamer or Overdrive (SD-1 like). You can turn on the gate, and then every preset has a 10 band Graphic or 4-band semi-parametric EQ. You can scoop it, crank up the bass, etc.... and get heavy sounds, like just about every other amp you use a boost and EQ on.

 

[Shask]

Been curious about these for a while for gig purposes. Hauling 300 pounds worth of gear for 8 songs on stage. I heard the fx never really turn all the way off? Something a guy that returned one told me. Can you stompbox them in and out, or is it a per preset type thing?

Yes, you can turn the effects off. I have the GA-FC pedal that goes with it, and you can select all 8 presets, and turn on/off every effect with it.

 

[Shask]

I've messed with the presence and resonance in there, also the signal chain. I think by default it puts the boost pedal section of the unit after the amp, but conventionally it should go "before" the pre-amp.

The editor also allows you to use a "delay2" when you have reverb on, freeing up the knob that would otherwise be used for delay for the FX portion, which I think is a pretty cool feature.

Yep, they added the "Delay 2" thing in Version 2. That has been one great thing about the Katana. I have had it since Ver 1, and now it is on Ver 3. They have been very good about adding features people wanted. The Delay 2, Per-patch EQ, Resonance, Recording settings, etc.... were all added per user request.

 

[littlebadboy]

I have the Boss GT-100. Kinda like the Katana minus the amplifier. I use an FRFR for that purpose.

I really like the Bogner Uberschall preamp sim as it is "brutal" to me. For my recording projects, I put it on one track and the Mesa Dual Rec preamp sim on the other for more brutality.

Congratulations!

 

[sevenfoxes]

Congrats! I used to own the head version, and had it running through a mesa 2x12. Sounded great!

 

[sevenfoxes]

Is it good for the brutal stuff? Can you can have a boost and gate built into one of the presets?

It can get mean to an extent, but really needs the right cab and pickups to do, imo. Even then, it's never going to sound as pissed off as a 5150 or some other classic high gain amp.

The again, I've yet to try the "sneaky amps".

 

[MASS DEFECT]

For sure, play with the noise gate. Since those high gain amps need some boosting. And the overdrives add quite a bit of hiss. In ver 3, I think, you can save the noise gate parameters on the panel. I'm not so sure since I did a factory reset at ver 1 and never had the time to install the new firmware.