Boss Katana Head (Superseded / Discontinued)

Submitted by Alexander Briones on Oct. 3, 2020..

95

GEARANK

95 out of 100. Incorporating 90+ ratings and reviews.

NB: This amp has been superseded by the highly rated Boss Katana Head MkII.

The Boss Katana Head is a full featured amplifier head that can handle stage, recording and practice duties.

It does this with its built-in power attenuator, which lets you choose between 100W, 50W and a super quiet setting of 0.5W. To complement the 0.5W setting, Boss even added a built-in 5" speaker into the amp head - making the Katana head to be technically a combo amp in head form factor.

Complementing its versatile power rating is its built in amp modeling, which gives you five voicings from acoustic, to clean to high-gain.

As expected, this amp comes with essential effects from Boss, with over 50 of them to choose from, 15 of which can be loaded to the amp for quick use, albeit limited to just 3 effects running simultaneously.

Finally, all these features are packed in sleek looking profile that feels really solid, as expected from Boss.

Specifications:

Power: 100W (Switchable to 50W or 0.5W via built-in power attenuator).
Speaker: 1 x 5"
Amp Modeling: Clean, Crunch, Lead, Brown, and Acoustic (for acoustic-electric guitars)
Effects: 15 Effects (55 downloadable, Up to 3 Simultaneous)
Input: 1 x 1/4", 1 x 1/8" (Aux in), MIDI In
Outputs: 1 x 1/4" (8 ohm out), 1 x 1/4" (Headphones/rec out), 1 x 1/4" (out)
Weight: 19.44 lbs.

Pros

Reviews of the Boss Katana Head are quite positive, with many users pointing to its versatility as its main selling point. One user described it as a Swiss Army amplifier, which encapsulates what even experts are saying. Art Thompson of Guitar Player had this to say: "I found the quality of the amp and effects sounds to be quite satisfying. There’s good touch responsiveness on the higher gain tones, and these 100-watters are definitely capable of holding their own in a band." The inclusion of a built-in speaker got a lot of thumbs up from users who are happy that they don't have to use a different amp for practice.

Cons

There are a few who are not too happy with some of the amps' voicings, while others are disappointed that they can only use up to 3 effects simultaneously.