Boss katana 210 experiences?

[la bam]

Hi all, 

 

Has anyone tried the boss katana 210?

 

How does it feel and fit live in a band at rehearsal etc? 

[fretmeister]

I tried one at my local PMT. I've been looking for a grab & go combo.

 

Sounded nice - but it was really heavy compared to other modern combos, so it's not on my list anymore.

[Happypants]

With the caveat that I’m not the most experienced player and certainly not at loud volumes, I have one and think it’s great. I’ve been through a few different home setups including Genzler Magellan 350 “combo”, TE Elf + 208/Barefaced One10, PJB BG-75, Yamaha THR30ii, Ashdown RM800 and an Orange LBT.

 

I wanted something for home that would be silent (I loved the Elf but the fan noise drove me nuts) and cover everything without the need for pedals - comp, drive, effects, bluetooth playback from my phone/ipad - the only thing it’s missing is a tuner. I’ve recently started playing in some rehearsal spaces where we can turn up a bit, we were hitting 110db and master wasn’t at half way. Certainly more power/volume than I’d ever need.

 

To my ears it sounds brilliant.

 

The only thing that lets it down is how bloody heavy it is, I wouldn’t want to be lugging it around very far. So much so that I’m considering something lighter to take to rehearsals such as Rumble or Ampeg combo with a preamp/multieffects as needed. But I wouldn’t need both so the Katana would probably go - a shame!

Edited February 6 by Happypants

[Thurbs]

Yeah, a new owner here...

 

I bought it as a "b-stock" from PMT in Norwich as it had a small scratch on the side, came with 6 months warranty and £100 off RRP. The foot-switch, case + Bluetooth module bumped the price up again soon enough! After it all arrived, I got it all plugged in and set up ready for a rock gig I had the next day. Setting up the Bluetooth MIDI was easy but I didn't have a lot of time to mess around so played it safe and used the "rock" library from Boss: https://bosstoneexchange.com/liveset/0e5eb187-a945-45c7-a506-c9767eaae25a/ (with some small tweaks). As an aside, it also has a "Bluetooth audio" connection which plays songs through the combo as well. 

 

Now I am incredibly lazy and am frankly miffed I have to bring anything more to a rehearsal / gig than a guitar, a old Zoom 9.1 ut effects box and some in ear monitoring. I have tried but failed to get any band to practice and gig this way and always end up with an amp and cab on top (I know proper first world problems...). So I looked for this box to replace the zoom, amp and cab to enable a "one carry" load in and plug & play capabilities. Honestly (and feel free to flame) this is becoming much more important to me than any "tone". 

 

The good news is this "one carry" goal is a winner, with a heavy caveat. Walking 100m or so is OK but after that I was swapping arms around to avoid increasing pain. I am sure the 110 with DI in to the PA would be much better for those in the tube / trains / long carries (and now on my shopping list). So on to the gig.. the band is a five piece with a loud drummer and two other guitars playing very "run of the mill" rock covers (think Dakota and Sex on Fire). It was in a odd shaped football type pub full of punters bouncing along with us.

 

I had never played this thing beyond the 1 watt setting so had no idea what to expect. With 160 watts available and usually gigging with a 300 watt Ashdown I was expecting it to be quiet and needing some support from the PA. Being optimistic, I set the volume to half way at the sound check and this was bang on and gigged the whole night like this. I could hear it really well despite wearing some headphones https://www.amazon.co.uk/Behringer-DH100-Drummer-Headphones/dp/B093VZPW6T with no bass in the headphone mix. I did have the advantage of being about 4 feet in front of the cab so benefited from not just hearing it via my ankles. 

 

My old band mates came along to support me and were very complimentary on the bass sound. They said they could feel it as much as hear it and thought it had definition and clarity as well as a punch.

 

There were two minor things which caused me an issue (other than the weight). (1) I used an lower octave effect to really create some depth to the sound (Zombie). It was ok playing a Bb, but a F really dropped the volume noticeably so swapped to the higher octave (if that makes any sense at all!) and it was all good. (2) The footswich switches are very soft compared to the Zoom so took a bit of getting used to. It also comes with guitar labels which are different to the bass and got confused mid gig a few times remembering what they should be. I have since noticed a sticker pack in the cab documents which I have stuck over the guitar labels and hopefully no more confusion!

 

As for "tone", all of the recordings you can find on youtube are a faithful replication of the real thing. If you like those sounds, you won't be disappointed. I used a Fender Precision finger style on the gig and it was all the usual precision rock goodness with the bank of 6 channels you can pre-load on to the cab. 

 

Buyers remorse or conformation bias I hear you ask... I am pretty neutral tbh. It did what I thought it would do, was loud enough and made rock noises when needed. Wasn't too expensive, looks well made and robust. What more could I ask for? A roadie to carry it in for me. 

 

Yours, a satisfied and lazy old git.

[John777]

Similar experience to above, not too much to complain about but not long after getting in suffered a trapped nerve which made it awkward to carry due to the weight. Bit of a learning curve control wise and manual is not great, but managed to dial in and save 3 presets for rock based sessions swapping out with the footswitch. The BT adapter works well and makes it excellent for home use with backing tracks, although I have now removed it and installed it on my GX100. 

 

It is loud, I don't recall maxing it out in any situation, few pub gigs and studio sessions it certainly had enough in the tank, and kept up with a loud drummer, sound wise I really like it, plenty of punch and variation without a struggle, certainly could be heard in a live situation. I would like to keep it as a backup if anything, now using  a lighter head and cab, as the weight aggravates the injury, although have shifted it around on a dolly.  Build quality is very good, no worries there. All in all a decent performer for the money, as long as your fit enough to cart it around !

Edited February 13 by John777

[uk_lefty]

This is really helpful... I am toying with replacing both my practice and gig rigs with one of these.... Tempting!

[BassManGraham]

I had a Katana 210. It is an impressive amp with an array of effects etc. They pack a lot of value and features into them for the money, but I tend not to use FX etc. It has a really nice punchy sound, and is quite loud for 160W, compared to Class D heads and combos of equivalent rating.  However I sold it within a few months, as it was quite heavy compared to many contemporary lightweight combos such As Fender Rumbles, Markbass, GR etc. Great for rehearsal & recording, but not a serious gigging set up for me. (I am a bit too old for heavy gear these days. I tend to prefer lightweight neodymium loaded cabs and/or combos etc). I play small-medium-large venues and whilst the Katana has a decent DI it didn't really cut it live for me as an on stage or band rehearsal monitor competing with a powerful and enthusiastic drummer.

Edited February 28 by BassManGraham

[uk_lefty]

On 28/02/2024 at 22:04, BassManGraham said:

I had a Katana 210. It is an impressive amp with an array of effects etc. They pack a lot of value and features into them for the money, but I tend not to use FX etc. It has a really nice punchy sound, and is quite loud for 160W, compared to Class D heads and combos of equivalent rating.  However I sold it within a few months, as it was quite heavy compared to many contemporary lightweight combos such As Fender Rumbles, Markbass, GR etc. Great for rehearsal & recording, but not a serious gigging set up for me. (I am a bit too old for heavy gear these days. I tend to prefer lightweight neodymium loaded cabs and/or combos etc). I play small-medium-large venues and whilst the Katana has a decent DI it didn't really cut it live for me as an on stage or band rehearsal monitor competing with a powerful and enthusiastic drummer.

Ouch. I've been toying with the idea of getting one of these to replace my practice and gigging amps. My band gets a discount with Boss so I was very tempted, and I really like their stock bass effect sounds, particularly the amp Sims. I'm using the amp less and less these days as my DI pedal is very reliable, but I worry that there could be some gigs where I'm going bass amp only. It's a bit of an unreasonable worry because I haven't done this since the early days of my time in the band two years ago and we now have active subs for our PA or we play in venues with decent sound systems. But the worry remains!

[BiteTheBoxer]

I've been using my Katana Bass 210 for a while now (I think I got it within a couple weeks of them being released). I can really only echo the same thing that's been said many times already... it is great to have everything in one package/combo, even if it is a rather heavy package. The effects work, and serve a purpose, but I wasn't convinced enough by them to ditch my stompboxes. I can get a great tone from it (I tend to favour a bright sound like Tim Commerford) and it is more than comfortable playing any style that I throw at it. 

 

My only gripe with the Katana bass is that the outputs all seem to clip and sound terrible. I've tried going out of the DI out, headphones and even the USB and just can't get it to sound good. Which is a shame because it sounds beautiful coming out of the speakers. As a test, I played through an ampeg preamp pedal plugged into the 'power amp in' socket (which disables the on-board preamp and processing) and all the outputs work fine and sound as they should.  Has anyone else experienced this?