imo there is really no concept of "pushing the power amp" in a solid state amp.. tubes softly compress primarily with (pleasing sounding) second harmonic distortion, and in many amps its a significant part of the overall sound. solid state amps however clip primarily with (ear spiking) third harmonic distortion, and is never a part of the overall sound. There are some solid state amps that have soft clipping features, which artificially limit and smooth out the clipping, but that is never a part of the overall sound...simply a protection mechanism...
I can't disagree, conceptually. However, in the case of the Katana, it definitely sounds better the louder it gets. It could be the speaker reacting to the amplifier- like what happens with tube amps. As there aren't a lot of gigs right now, I can't say how I'll like the Katana in a live situation. But so far for studio and practice, I'm inspired!
Some of the old Peavey Transtube amps have what they call a t-dynamics control. It's a compressor or limiter of some sort at the output section (not at the preamp) that allows for the preamp and power amp to be driven harder while keeping the peak output about the same. It was designed to emulate the sound of power tube compression. It is somewhat effective at doing that. Who would have ever thought that boosting a solid state amp could make it sound better. It does though. If you crank up the clean channel and boost it, and use the t-dynamics control for setting the amount of output clipping/compression, those amps improve in sound considerably. Using a boost and the t-dynamics control it can do something of a poorman's blackface or plexi and is much more fun to play than the amp alone. But in doing that you effectively don't have a dedicated output control because the t-dynamics control sets both the output and amount of compression/limiting. It still doesn't sound quite like a nice tube amp being pushed though. A bit of info on t-dynamics here: https://www.ssguitar.com/index.php?topic=4263.0
If I had to guess, I would say that the speaker is compressing at higher volume, helping to smooth out the amp.
Have you gotten around to trying pushing the power amp yet? Just curious if it is doing what you thought it might be able to do.
To a point. I would argue that a cranked up Hiwatt 100 watter full stack in a garage size room tends to slide toward the negative side of better.
I stumbled onto some videos recently of the Boss Nextone, which has a tube preamp into a solid-state power amp. It isn't a modeler type amp as far as I know. One of those videos was a a comparison of the Nextone to the Katana. At equal volumes the Nextone cut through a ton more, and lots of commenters were saying that the comparison wasn't fair because the Katana volume was lower. It wasn't though. Modelers have that thing where they don't cut like tubes and sound like they are sitting in the background compared to tubes, like broadly shelving down the mids of a tube amp. For someone playing in a bedroom, that might not be an issue. Playing in rocking band can be a very different story, especially if there is another guitar player playing through a tube amp. But while the Nextone had much more of the tube thing going on and did cut, it wasn't smoothed and compressed due to lacking a tube power amp. It sounded just like I would expect a hybrid to sound. Halfway between a tube amp and solid state amp.
Pretty interesting find I just had, wondering how my Plexi 51's preamp might sound into a Bandit's power amp and 112 cab loaded with a greenback (using the effects loops' sends and returns). That was uninspiring meh. But the other way around with the Bandit's preamp into the Plexi 51's power amp and a 412 was very surprising. Pretty dang good for solid state, albeit a bit glarey / icepicky way up top for bright broken up sounds. But I'm impressed.
I had a Katana 50 for a short time & thought it sounded pretty good. It couldn't top the 40c though. A buddy from work started playing again after a few years away & was looking for an amp. I sold the Katana to him & he loves it.
I spent a few minutes switching through the tones on the amp a couple years ago and wasnt impressed, havent given it much thought since.
fair statement.. the preset amps and settings thereof are useable but not particularly impressive so the single reason i kept the amp was finding the "sneaky amps" that opened up a big range of hidden amps.. pretty transformative.. ..which brings me to a minor rant.. like wtf.. are presets designed to actually make you hate the unit in question?.. its the same with synths.. lol cheers
Me too. I heard the things that I expect from modelers. My experience is that presets tend to be hyped up in one way or another. So my usual approach to evaluating modelers is to switch off all effects, bring down the gain, turn off any noise reduction, and set eq to middle of the road as a beginning point. Doing this usually does sound better to my ears, but it isn't transformative either. The presets are being hyped up as an attempt to distract away from fundamental tone using ear candy as the distraction. If the thing doesn't sound good with all the junk switched off I don't want to play it.
I was surprised that the Katana has different output power modes. Seems like something a solid state amp wouldn't need but it seems to make a big difference for me. If I am playing at lower volumes it sounds better to use the lower output power modes. I think it's a great little practice amp but I would never say it takes the place of my Marshall stack. I would be hard pressed to find a tube amp in the same price range that sounds better though. Maybe one of the Joyo amps would sound better but you would need a cab and I am not sure how the price would equal out. The 100 watt Katana didn't seem worth it to me. When you get up into the 500 dollar price range there are some great used tube amps that can be had. They would not be as flexible though.
I mentioned it earlier in the thread but I will go into more detail. I have been doing Pro sound for many years and many times been very well compensated for my gear and abilities. The Katana head I have has backlined many shows and many times has had <insert popular tube amp here> lined up across from it on stages and it keeps up with no problems. It's one of 3 amps that pop up directly in my head that are the easiest to mix in a live show. It's great amp period. Does it replace my favorite tube amp? Only when I want a quick grab n go that does a lot of things competently. I can grab the head, a wah, the GAFC controller and a guitar and go direct with it and sound great at a local gig. It's a modern day Peavey Bandit. Jack of all Trades, Master of None.
Old thread, I know. But looking for advice - I am about to try a speaker swap in my Katana 100 1x12 combo. When you swapped your speaker, did you encounter an issue with the Katana ground-wire blade-connector being too small for a normal sized connector-lug on the new speaker? If so, how did you address it? I can think of a couple different ways, e.g. filing the speaker lug, but non of my ideas sound good to me. Thanks in advance
It is. There are connector kits available for such issues. Different sizes. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=electric...=t&hvqmt=p&tag=mh0b-20&ref=pd_sl_94goq5azuq_p
