Guitar Gear

I’ve struggled with this question ever since I got my BOSS Katana 50 (BTW… it’s properly pronounced KAH-tah-nah, not kah-TAHN-nah – had a student who sings with me at church who speaks Japanese correct me). With the Katana 50, I got all the sound and dynamics that I needed; all in a super-lightweight amp. It took to pedals incredibly well but had it’s own very good built-in effects as well. And it was plenty loud. Now I say “was” because I technically no longer have the Katana 50. Oh, it’s in my house, but I gave it to my son for his birthday.

Which leads me back to the title of this article…

Last weekend, I played my Aracom VRX22 tube amp at church. All that Plexi mojo was there that I expected. But I have to say that I really missed my old Katana 50, especially with respect to setting up my rig. With my Katana, I had everything dialed in before I got to the church so it was simply a matter of setting the amp on my stand and plugging it into power and plugging in my guitar – all of a minute or so. With my tube amp, I had a lot more setup; not just with the physical connections. I then had to set up the tone and volume and make adjustments to both channels. Not really a big deal, but it did take considerably more time.

The convenience that my Katana 50 brought to the table was huge; enough to make me look for a new Katana, but I’m now looking at getting Katana 100 Artist this time ’round because of the extra versatility – especially the line out that I can plug directly into a board for playing live or an audio interface for recording. At least for a recording, I’ll still use IRs because nothing beats the specific character of a tube amp. But for general stuff, especially cleans, going all-digital is fine.

Back to gigging though, I don’t think I’ll ever go back to a tube amp for gigging. The versatility of the Katana is just too hard to beat; not to mention the simplicity of setup. Plus, it has all the feel and dynamics of a tube amp, but gives me everything I need to gig with in a single unit. And with the Katana 100 Artist (which I’ve just ordered while taking a break writing this article and isnow on the way), I will spend the time to dial in the effects, so my aim is to do away with my pedalboard altogether.

That’s a sobering thought because I literally have thousands of dollars invested in tube amps and accessories like attenuators and pedals; not to mention software like IRs. Part of me feels really bad about relegating my tube amp gear to the studio. But a larger part of me is SUPER-excited about taking advantage of new technology.

People have asked me if I can tell if the amp is digital. The answer is yes. The attack of a solid-state amp is much more sudden than a tube amp, especially with a purely dry signal, so it takes a little getting used to at first. But it’s possible to tame that with some modulation effects, and irrespective of the type of amp I play, I always grease the sound with a little reverb and a touch of delay anyway. But that said, the attack is very similar to the attack of my ’58 Fender Champ. With that amp, there is NO room for error.

Sound-wise though, it’s hard to tell but that really doesn’t matter because it just sounds good. And no one from a congregation or an audience has ever come up and asked me, “Is that a solid-state amp you’re playing?” 🙂

So… great sound? Check. Versatility? Check. Ease of use? Check. I’m in!