New Katana Head owner

Started by Trb, July 11, 2018, 03:08:35 AM

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Trb

Hi All,

new owner here from France.
Just to introduce myself: I'm a home player, with a nice set of toys !
I had and have Tube amp: Diezel Einstein Head, H&K GM36, fender twin copy head, fender twin preamp, Friedman BE copy preamp, and some nice pedals (overdrive and fuzz).
Have an Axe FX 2, too, with my stereo Class D power amp and FRFR 12" monitors.

Juste received the KH yesterday, and a very quick 15 minutes test...

To sum up, connected to my home-made 2*12 cab (large model with Eminence Governor and Cannabis Rex), a really nice surprise, already love it !
But it was just a quick and dirty early test... so to discover more in the coming days, along with the Studio Tone SW at first, and FXFloorboards after.

A very warm sound: was expecting a more spikey one, from the different reviews I saw (more on 100W 1*12 and 50W 1x12, I must say), but no: a nice full and warm tone.

Of course, will make a vid on my review (I'm just a very modest home player...).

I have a first question: I found the Presence knob to be not as efficient as I would expected... Is it just me ? When maxed out the presence, I hear the  shrilliness... but when cutting off, not so much difference with the presence at noon... May be not enought power, coz I played at 11 PM...

Regards
Bruno
Rock'on 🎸🤘

dazco

I pretty much agree. I rarely have the presence past noon for the same reason. Seems like noon is the highest it'll go without adding a bit of shrillness tho it doesn't get real irritating till it's almost all the way up. I too think it could be voiced better. But when i want more than it can give without getting shrill i add what i'm looking for in tone studio or FXfloorboard. It's a very minor complaint tho. I'm more bothered by the mid control's range which tends to be more high mids than body. Lowering it's center IMO would be a big improvement in being about to finely tube it from the front panel w/o having to use a PC.

As tone goes tho, if i had one serious complaint it would be that i wish they had put a much more fender like sound (but also capable of fender overdrive, not just clean) on the amp type dial in place of the lead one. Everything one it is very marshall based and that would IMO make it so much better.

Trb

Thanks Dazco for replying.

I agree on your point. For me Marschall-type tone is fine for me. I really need to continue to explore (I'm on business trip so this WE to go ahead).
I think a large part of the work is to be done within Tone Studio/FXFloor using the internal Eqs. It should make wonders...
Of course the global voicing is what it is (more marschally than fendery...).
Looking forward to continue...!!
Rock'on 🎸🤘

DickBanks

Quote from: Trb on July 11, 2018, 03:08:35 AM
Hi All,

new owner here from France.
Just to introduce myself: I'm a home player, with a nice set of toys !
I had and have Tube amp: Diezel Einstein Head, H&K GM36, fender twin copy head, fender twin preamp, Friedman BE copy preamp, and some nice pedals (overdrive and fuzz).
Have an Axe FX 2, too, with my stereo Class D power amp and FRFR 12" monitors.

Juste received the KH yesterday, and a very quick 15 minutes test...

To sum up, connected to my home-made 2*12 cab (large model with Eminence Governor and Cannabis Rex), a really nice surprise, already love it !
But it was just a quick and dirty early test... so to discover more in the coming days, along with the Studio Tone SW at first, and FXFloorboards after.

A very warm sound: was expecting a more spikey one, from the different reviews I saw (more on 100W 1*12 and 50W 1x12, I must say), but no: a nice full and warm tone.

Of course, will make a vid on my review (I'm just a very modest home player...).

I have a first question: I found the Presence knob to be not as efficient as I would expected... Is it just me ? When maxed out the presence, I hear the  shrilliness... but when cutting off, not so much difference with the presence at noon... May be not enought power, coz I played at 11 PM...

Regards
Bruno

The presence knob boosts the upper mids, so with that GREAT cab you have, I'm thinking that you're just not going to hear a significant improvement or roll-off with that knob. You have all the "presence" you will ever need with those speakers. I don't get much either with the Katana 150W 2x12, but Katana 50 owners have reported a significant difference with that knob.

I've had the amp and cab for about a month. The only "complaint" I have is that there is no dotted delays. In the Praise and Worship world, we live for the dotted-eighth delay! There are work-arounds for that, so really not much of a "complaint" at all.

Also, good luck Sunday!  ;D
Fender GC-1 Stratocaster, Fender Locking Tuners, Super-Vee Blade Runner Trem
Boss GP-10
Line 6 L3T
Record to Scarlett 2i4 --> Ableton Live

Trb

Dears,

a very quick feedback (vid to come...).
I spent the WE playing / making preset s with my KH (except for the time on World Cup Foot... ;D ;D).

To sum up, very pleased with the KA. It sounds huge through my oversized 2x12.
I really appreciate the global Eq to shape the tone I want for each presets. I made a Clean with overdrive pedals, a light crunch, an heavy crunch, a smooth lead and a Big hardrock with Brown channel.

I really like the pedals models: are they similar to "boutique pedals": NO. Are they just fine to produce some nice overdrive tone: YES. So that's the point. In addition I have a french boutique pedal that is great (Riff Shooter) and the KH clean takes it just perfectly. the same for my Mad Professor red fire fuzz.
I too used my Xotic EP Booster: perfect to push  the clean and crunch. I will receive a BBE sonic stomp to add in the KH loop (used it with my Diezel Einstein head...) and that will be surely just great to open up more the sound. Absolutely not useful as the KH tone throught my cab is great, but just for the pleasure...!

Ok so the depending on the channels, plus/minus work to be done to shape the tone, but just as any amp... so a great amp that I already love. From my reminders no shame versus my H&K Grandmeister 36 Head I had, and no pb compriong to my current fender-like clean head.

BTW I'm just playing with the 0.5W, volume at 85, and master at 10-ish O'clock: plenty of power for everybody hearing me in the house (big resonnant cab I must say...) !

Bruno
Rock'on 🎸🤘

DickBanks

New Katana Head and the World Cup on your doorstep. Man, the worm has definitely turned for you! Congrats on both!  ;D
Fender GC-1 Stratocaster, Fender Locking Tuners, Super-Vee Blade Runner Trem
Boss GP-10
Line 6 L3T
Record to Scarlett 2i4 --> Ableton Live

Trb

Rock'on 🎸🤘

Trb

my modest take on my KH:
Rock'on 🎸🤘

Trb

a Quick vid with the FX FloorBoard app.
Rock'on 🎸🤘

Trb

Hi all ,
here is a comparison between line out and 2-micked cab recording.
Rock'on 🎸🤘

Trb

Hello
some more vids...
Rock'on 🎸🤘