Inside The BOSS Katana ~ Chassi Pull ~ Speaker Upgrade??

[@darklight4815]

thank you for this....i figured it was some kind of hidden screw i couldn't get to....gonna upgrade the grill cover on the front as well as my speaker cab and as usual i immediately ran into a snag ..but i'm gonna be in good shape now...again thank you so much for the excellent tips

[@petervanrayne5120]

4:15 "For all intensive purposes..." *eye twitches*

[@tryten9]

They go over more of the details than you think. "Bad design" usually can be attributed to limitations put in place by bean counters.

[@Kuato_lives_kuato]

My chassis doesn't want to pull out of the frame. Is it just the two screws on top?

[@rhodesshah4603]

Very educational, Noob question OG, between your Marshall DSL20 watt combo & the Marshall Origin 20 watt combo would you swap?

[@oldguyjammin9732]

Not a noob question at all, in fact it's probably a VERY common question. I don't have the Origin but do own the JCM800 and if I had to do it again I'd just stick with my DSL20. It's killer. The JCM is really interesting and fun to have but when all is said and done, the DSL covers more territory.

[@abcnech]

Great video !!! Thanks Question How about if we build a small speaker cabinet 2x10” separate cab ? Still small enough to play home ?! Any ideas ? I rather not bring the 2x12 cab in my home ?

[@oldguyjammin9732]

well heck ya!! You could build one and plug right into the existing "extension cab" jack on the back OR you could do a 'mod' using a switching jack that you'd have to mount somewhere. A switching jack would allow you to interrupt the internal speaker so you could use the quieter aspects of the amp. Ideally the cab would need to be 8 ohms, same as the internal speaker just to be safe.

[@whiskeywhiskeyromeo3730]

Just subbed....Ima old guy jamming at home also.....I have 50 mk2 combo.....can headphones out be connected to PA amp, safely??? Thanks

[@oldguyjammin9732]

That should work, not sure how it will sound but headphone out/line out are often the same low level signal.

[@whiskeywhiskeyromeo3730]

@@oldguyjammin9732 thank you

[@RobertBeckk]

Boss Katana Head Gen 3 vs the spark 2. Which one would you get?

[@oldguyjammin9732]

I’d probably go Spark 2, they are super fun and absolutely great for practicing or small jams. The only real benefit of the Katana head is that you can plug it into a big cab and crank it… if that’s not desired than Spark all the way.

[@FrancescoMunzone-s1k]

My question is, for an bedroom level volume is this head katana head with 5 inch speaker a good solution? Maybe I wrong, but the full potential is when you using this with a proper cab.... in this case the combo version setted on 0,5 watt mode sounds better with the in built 1x12 compared to 5 inches solution?

[@oldguyjammin9732]

The nice thing about the head is that you have an easy “grab and go” practice amp that you can take to a buddies house AND/OR when you want, can hook it up to a nice cab 1x12, 2x12, or even 4x12. If you have the space to store a cab, I’d go with the head version. I keep mine stored under our TV on a small shelf. It’s plugged in and the cords are all right beside it. If I’m watching a football game I can slip it out, sit on the couch and jam during commercials.

[@guitarpoetone1]

Dude let me know if u ever put that other speaker in i would like to do the same thing. My speaker stopped working so i got to look to see if something came loose ? Any ideas would be appreciated thank u kindly.

[@oldguyjammin9732]

Not right off…? You could run a volt meter through it using the diode test setting but probably not real serviceable. Look for discoloration or burnt components, might even be a fuse on the board that blew :o I probably won’t be putting the other speaker in. The Boss has found a nice home under our TV and there it sits - I usually crank it up during NFL games, otherwise I’m playing my other amps \m/

[@Tommi_D]

Not knowing Alot about electronics what about an 8ohm 2 way car speaker which includes a tweeter as well or would that require extra wiring? Also have you found a way to make the head have a more rounded "full" sound? Even going into a cab it seems to have that same thin sound you get from its own 5" speaker no matter what settings I use on the front.

[@oldguyjammin9732]

That car speaker should work fine and who knows, might really improve the "small speaker" tone. SO, to get the most out of this amp you're going to need to download the tone studio and then hook the Katana up to your computer USB, and then... and then!!! bring up the 10 band EQ pedal from the plethora of effects and BOOM!! You'll be amazed at the tones ~ really worth it. I hate all that techy stuff but once you do it, you're done and anytime you want, you can connect your amp to the tone lab and create absolutely ANYTHING.

[@The_Macaroon]

Hey OG sounds like a great next project. Would you be able to wire it it in stereo?

[@oldguyjammin9732]

Hey Mac! No, I don't believe so because for true stereo you'd have to have a two-channel output, i.e. left and right output jacks. Whatever you ended up with it'd be mono. By the way, I was out playing the JCA the other day... what a monster of an amp!

[@The_Macaroon]

@@oldguyjammin9732 love it! My JCA is in storage at the moment 🙁 but I guess when I get it back it will be like a new amp day.! Glad to see you back making videos.

[@Soloist1983]

What I'd want to know is, does the Katana amp send out a frequency compensated output that matches their speaker, or is it a full-range (as far as guitar amps go) signal going out and the speakers are essentially doing the filtering? Like a regular guitar amp. I suppose we'd need a data sheet for that original speaker which probably isn't going to happen :( Still, I will say this much, after my brief infatuation with tube amps, again, I managed to grab 3 guitar heads, a 5150iii 50S, ENGL Fireball 25, and an ENGL Ironball 20...all stellar amps, but at the end of the day, my Katana Head sounds better, consistently. The brown sound on the Katana is so well balanced, sounds like it sits right in between my ENGL Fireball and the 5150ii blue channel, BUT, the onboard boosts and effects push it over the top. It's a one package solution, and the head having that mini-speaker in it makes it even better as it can do double duty as a "dorm-room/bedroom" amp AND a stage rig. I have never got more compliments on my tone than I did when used my Katana at gigs. The cohesiveness of everything working perfect because it's inside the amp is just unbeatable. Also, for whatever reason, the Katana not only sounds great in just a room with you and a guitar, but it manages to sound equally great on stage. A lot of larger heads have a non-linearity to them that often makes your rehearsal/practicing tone sound great, but when you really turn it up for the stage you find that it just doesn't cut through, or vice versa. The Katana lives up to its namesake and cuts through at any volume, but more importantly it retains the same great character of tone that it had at lower volumes, so you don't have to completely rethink your stage tone at sound check

[@oldguyjammin9732]

That's a good ponderance to which I'd offer "I have no idea" I did try to find spec on the Roland speaker though and didn't find anything. You point about EQ adjustments for Live versus At home practice is Really valid. I know exactly what you mean. Start writing all your settings down for playing live ~ it'll save a bunch of time.

[@StavK]

Not sure if this is what you’re asking, but I did recently saw someone demoing the Katana head and turning on the stereo expand function, which turns off all the cab sim from the Line Out, so essentially you can go out into a cab/IR loader or into a USB audio interface into your computer where you can load any cab plugins there.

[@chrishyde1216]

I've seen several reports of the Head speaker failing. Does anybody know if that is a fault of the speaker itself, or an amp electronics issue? I assume the former is fixable by simply replacing the speaker, but the latter tricky.

[@oldguyjammin9732]

I haven’t heard of the speaker issues, but there is a same size replacement out there. Replacing the speaker will be the way to go.

[@gph2193]

I have a couple of those hotone mini amps. Been thinking about building a small stereo combo rig out of them. Any thoughts?

[@oldguyjammin9732]

I like the idea, but my gut reaction is you'd end up with a mono rig with a wide and big sound. However, with a rig like that I think you could use stereo pedals to develop modulation affects like chorus, tremolo or delay in true stereo fashion. It seems I've seen stereo pedals with dual outputs meant for just such a rig. Let me know if what I've said makes any sense, lol. True stereo rigs are designed with dedicated Left and Right channels.