I recently sat down with a BOSS Katana KTN-100 to see what the fuss was about the Katana series. At $329, this amp sits in what I’d call the upper level of inexpensive amps, with the Fender Mustang III and some of the latest Line 6 offerings. My overall impression? I thought it sounded good – better than the Mustang III. But the real killer deal is the KTN-50.
You know as a Budget Guitarist reader that I’m not going to go through all the features and benefits detail by detail. You can read the Sweetwater or Guitar Center ads for that. So here’s what I’ll tell you – for the most part, it sounds like what you think it’d sound like. It has a small number of clean and dirty sounds, which I think most players will appreciate, and they vary in quality. The “Clean” preset sounded a bit brittle and shrill to my ears, even with a Gibson Les Paul. But the “Brown” preset was a passable fake, and the “Acoustic” preset sounded very good – it sounded like what you wish the “Clean” preset would sound like. Try it out and you’ll understand exactly what I mean.
It does have a lot of effects combinations and for most people would enable you to avoid bothering with pedals. And at 100 watts, it’s plenty loud for any situation.
But much like the Mustang III, to me this amp feels like hot rodding a bicycle. In Fender’s Mustang range, to me the sweet spot is the Mustang II. At $199 and 40 watts, it’s cheap enough for a bedroom amp and loud enough for a garage band amp. The Mustang III adds a better speaker and more powerful amp, but moves the amp from the “great practice amp” to the “bad pro amp” category. Yes, you can gig with a Mustang III and many people do, but not people who are REALLY into great tone. And as you know, this site is all about great tone on a budget.
The Katana KTN-100 suffers from this same problem. To my mind, the KTN-50 is the crown jewel, with its $199 price tag. The KTN-50 is a great amp for the money, much like the Mustang II. In a head to head between the KTN-50 and the Mustang II, I would say the Mustang II does better at clean Strat sounds, and the KTN-50 does better at everything else. The KTN-50 is probably the best $199 amp on the market. Just use the Acoustic preset instead of the Clean, and you’ll be fine.
Some of you are mad because you either play a Mustang III in your All Dads Cover Band or were thinking about a KTN-100 for the same reason. And you feel like I’m disrespecting your opinions. Well, I am, and I shouldn’t be. At the end of the day, if you’re gigging, I respect you. But just like there being a continuum of guitar playing level, there’s a continuum of guitar tone. Some people can’t hear the difference between a Marshall tube amp and a Line 6 copy of one. If you have only played $99 Line 6 amps, you will think something like the KTN-100 sounds amazing. And it does, until you put it up against something like a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe at gig level volumes in a big room. You CAN gig with a KTN-100. But if you’re to the point of needing a 100 watt amp to compete in a live band setting, a $329 amp is the entry level amp. It’ll work. People do it. But honestly, most people who play for crowds of 100 or more are using better sounding amps.
For a bedroom amp and for your first band, get a KTN-50. It’s a kick ass amp for the money. When you eventually outgrow it, get something like a Vox AC15 or a Fender Bluesbreaker.
