BOSS Katana 50 Review. 6 months on.

Since my original BOSS Katana 50 Review, I’ve been gigging the Boss Katana 50 for a few months now.  Is it still the best guitar-related purchase I’ve ever made?

Is the legendary BOSS  reliability holding up?

I had my doubts at first. It’s very light and the cabinet’s covering is very thin. Nothing more than a thin layer of paint really.  My BOSS Katana 50 already has a few nicks and scrapes, which could have easily been prevented had I invested in a cover.  But the point is, this is a VERY inexpensive amp, so a £20 cover doesn’t seem worth it. I can live with a few scrapes. Other than that, it’s been a tank. I’ve absolute faith in the electronics, I’ll never need to worry about valves.  The handle will never come loose (unlike my vastly more expensive Cornford). Controls-wise, it’s indestructible, nothing’s ever going to fall off or fail. We have a full set of protective corners and no protrusions to knock off. It’s a BOSS compact pedal in amp form, or in other words, the best reliability there is.

It hasn’t let me down once. If anything I’ve let it down by being a cheapskate on the cover!

Am I getting tired of the BOSS Katana’s non-valve tone?

On the contrary. I was expecting my ears to get tired of transistors, and yearn for the ‘real’ thing again. It’s happened before. But as a pedal platform, on the CLEAN channel, which in my opinion is the BOSS Katana’s forte, I’ve continually honed my core tone. Starting crystal clean and gradually adding more gain and grunt to achieve the biggest core sound possible.  It provides everything I need.

These days I tend to look at tone objectively as it is, rather than A/B it with other amps. When it matters, live at a gig, the BOSS Katana 50 delivers for both volume AND tone. It’s true, in an A/B test with valves the Katana may well lose out, but will the audience notice or care? I certainly don’t. For me, it gets the job done, gets me to my sound previously provided with much more expensive and heavier Fenders, Marshalls, Cornfords, Laneys, you name it.  And it does it with a lot less fuss.

In the studio, again, the Katana could fall short in the face of more expensive competition, but that’s not what I use it for.

Am I tempted to upgrade to other amps in the BOSS series?

In a word, No. It’s common knowledge that the bigger BOSS Katana 100 and Artist series offer a deeper, more expansive sound with more features (etc. GAFC control). But as detailed in the original review, the internal FX + GAFC aren’t flexible enough to fit my requirements anyway (e.g. you can’t use BOOST and MOD separately), so I’d be paying a lot more for a bigger cabinet and extra features I won’t use. I’m happy with what the 50 delivers in terms of features, volume and the minuscule amount of stage space required.

BOSS is absolutely flying at the moment.  The Katana, Blues Cube and now the Nextone series of valve-amp killers’ are however still missing the one product I would upgrade to, and that’s a stripped down clean pedal platform with all the extras taken out, but with upgrades where it really counts, to the construction materials, electronics and speaker.

All I need is Input, Gain (from clean to mild breakup at the most), Volume, Bass, Middle, Treble, and wouldn’t that be great wrapped up in a 1×12 format pine cabinet with an upmarket Celestion? Come on BOSS what are you waiting for!

Have any hidden issues revealed themselves?

I experimented with using the Katana drive channels, drive FX etc. In my opinion, these fall way short of using the CLEAN channel and pedals. Even the drives of my BOSS ME-80 are a huge step up, so I can only imagine what the Katana would sound like clean with dedicated pedals.

Lack of a line out is a disappointment on the BOSS Katana 50 (Included on the 100). We have a headphone jack but that disconnects the internal speaker. I would much have preferred a line out so that I could utilise the pa without having to mic up.

*Note  The pa is used for sound expansion rather than volume.  I run the Katana 50 at 50w half volume, so it has headroom to spare.

As stated in the main review, the EQ hasn’t the versatile yet predictable range of the higher-end amps,  Indeed the midrange tends to cloud rather than push anywhere over 12’o clock, but, to re-iterate again, if you’re using it as a clean platform, your pedals will easily solve that issue.

Is the BOSS Katana 50 worth the money?

I still can’t believe the original price-point of around £160. Only about 5 years ago I was resigned to the fact I’d need to drop at least £500 on a new, gig-able amp. The BOSS Katana’s have since had a slight price increase, which I don’t blame BOSS for at all. They’ve delivered pretty much a perfect product and sold it by the truckload at a price point that is helping guitarists to get out gigging.

It was and still is the best guitar-related purchase I’ve ever made, so hat’s off to BOSS for pushing the boundaries of technology in a scene dominated by history and tradition.

I can’t wait to see what they come up with next!

Pick up one of these to-be all-time classic amps now…..