BOSS unveil new Katana amp range
BOSS latest range of amplifiers offer WAZA tones in giggable sizes
BOSS have just introduced the Katana amp series, a new lineup of guitar amplifiers born of the development process behind the acclaimed Waza amplifier. Offering class-defying tone, touch response, and presence, Katana amps are designed for gigging guitarists who also need a a quality amp for recording and practice at home.
The Katana lineup consists of three combos and a head. The 50-watt Katana-50 and 100-watt Katana-100 are each equipped with a custom 12-inch speaker. The Katana-100/212 has 100 watts of power and is equipped with two custom 12-inch speakers. The 100-watt Katana-Head is designed for use with an external speaker cabinet but interestingly includes an integrated monitor speaker for tone preview and practice.
Each Katana amp features five selectable amp characters: Clean, Crunch, Lead, Brown, and Acoustic as well as 55 BOSS effects, which are customizable using the free BOSS Tone Studio editor software. Users can load 15 different effects in the amp at one time, and use up to three effects at once. The Tone Settings feature in the Katana amps allows players to store amp and effects settings to recall tweaked setups instantly. It’s also possible to connect optional footswitches and expression pedals for hands-free control. The Katana-Head supports control via MIDI as well.
While the Katana amps include many advanced features, they offer intuitive interfaces that allow players to dial in sounds quickly. An innovative Power Control function lets users achieve cranked-up tones at low volumes, a great benefit for playing on small stages and practicing at home.
Musikmesse 2016: Boss TU-3S and TU-3W
Boss' new tuners are designed to revolutionise your pedalboard.
Boss have announced two brand new compact tuners at Musikmesse 2016.
Offering the same reliable operation and bulletproof durability as the rest of the Boss compact range, the TU-3S delivers industry-standard performance with a tiny pedalboard footprint. Both the display and tuning functions are identical to the ubiquitous TU-3, and the removal of the on/off switch makes this new model ideal for use with pedal switching systems like the BOSS ES-8 and ES-5.
Boss TU-3S Features:
• 21-segment LED meter with brightness control
• High Brightness mode enhances meter visibility outdoors
• Accu-Pitch Sign function provides visual verification when tuning is complete
• Chromatic and Guitar/Bass modes, with support for 7-string guitars and 6-string basses
• Guitar Flat mode supports “drop” tunings up to six semitones below standard pitch
• Powered by optional PSA-series adapter; DC Out jack for powering up to seven BOSS compact effect pedals via an optional PCS-20A daisy-chain cable
• BOSS five-year warranty
The latest addition to the Waza Craft series, the Boss TU-3W offers the same rock-solid tuning of the industry-standard TU-3. However the TU-3W now features redesigned circuitry with selectable buffered or true-bypass operation and the most transparent audio pass-through available.
Boss TU-3W Features:
• Superior tuning and premium signal buffer in one pedal
• Tuning functions are identical to the industry-standard TU-3
• Refined audio circuitry for exceptionally pure signal pass-through
• Buffer can be turned off for true-bypass operation
• BOSS five-year warranty
NAMM 2016: Boss ES-5 Effect Switching System
The ES-8 was our Gear Of The Year. This might be even more useful!
Following the success of last year's ES-8 switching system, Boss have announced a new smaller switcher, the ES-5.
Offering the essential features of the ES-8 in a smaller size, the ES-5 is designed for travel-sized pedalboards. With five loops, extensive real-time control capabilities, MIDI and more, the ES-5 allows all guitarists and bassists to explore the benefits of BOSS’s powerful switching technology.
ES-5 Features:
• On/off state and loop order can be stored in 200 patch memories for instant recall.
• Input and output buffers can be switched on/off as needed per patch.
• External control outputs are available for switching amp channels, sending tap tempo information, and more, while an expression pedal or two footswitches can be connected for further real-time control.
•MIDI capabilities for integrating with MIDI-controlled stomp effects like the BOSS DD-500 Digital Delay and many others.
The Gear of ArcTanGent: Alpha Male Tea Party
A look into the unique and bizarre set ups of the bands responsible for pushing effects driven music into new territories. In this episode we take a look at Alpha Male Tea Party's Tom peters and his absolutely bonkers double amp set up.
Over the last 3 years ArcTanGent Festival has been responsible for uniting some of the most interesting guitar music being made. Technically there have probably been more effect pedals in one place over the ATG weekend than there are in a Boss Factory.
Following another amazing year of ATG I caught up with some of the most brilliant bands playing the festival and had a chat with them about their weird and wonderful gear.
AMTP make jagged, sugary, super-tight Math-Rock, filled with brilliantly subtle rhythm changes, clever little twists, and ridiculously catchy riffs. Over the last 2 years of ATG Festival the band have earned themselves one of the top podium spots for riff-masters of the festival, and rightly so.
At the heart of this riff making machine is guitarist, Tom Peters, and his reassuringly unusual, obscure and complicated set up. I hooked up with Tom and got him to write down how on earth he goes about making his guitar tone so completely unique... and his answers were anything but simple:
Hi Gear Nerds. You’ve caught me in a somewhat transitional phase of my guitar rig having recently just acquired a Hayden Mofo 100 to replace my faithful but now sadly very ill Groove Tubes prototype plexi head thing and I’m also awaiting delivery of a brand new Boss ES8 switcher/looper for my board. As such, I’ll do this run down as if they are already in my setup, OK?
Walk me through your pedal board. What goes into what?
The most obvious place to start with my board is the Boss ES8 looper. I’ve been using looper/switchers for a while now (I’ve had a Carl Martin Combinator for the last 4 years or so) and this forms the main control surface for my board. I have quite a large amount of pedals and I’ve always hated tap dancing so having the ability to hit one button and engage several pedals at once, especially given how much I enjoy throwing myself around on stage, is pretty indispensable to me now. I decided to upgrade my current looper in favour of the Boss ES8 as it offers a ton more functionality which further cuts down on tap dancing and I’ll be using it’s MIDI control features to change patches and settings on the MIDI equipped pedals I have.
I’ll talk through each loop, like I said above this is purely hypothetical as it’s not even on my board yet!:
GUITAR IN > BOSS ES8
LOOP 1> DIGITECH WHAMMY 5
LOOP 2> BOSS OC2>EHX MICROPOG
LOOP 3> HERMIDA AUDIO ZEN DRIVE
LOOP 4> PAUL COCHRANE TIM
LOOP 5> AMP TWEAKER TIGHT METAL
LOOP 6> MXR SMART GATE>MXR 6 BAND EQ
LOOP 7> STRYMON TIMELINE
LOOP 8> STRYMON BLUESKY
It’s all then split stereo out of a Lehle P-Split box to my two amps. The P-split has a transformer isolated output to get rid of ground loops and also has a very handy phase flip on it which is great for getting the phase relationship right between my two amps.
The ES8 has a tuner out which runs to my Korg Pitch Black tuner.
What would consider the most important pedal on your board? If not a defining pedal, the one that gives your sound that edge.
I’d say that, whilst I have a lot of pedals on my board, my favourite sounds are just the straight up drive tones I use. A lot of my board is dedicated to different flavours of drive but at the core of ‘my sound’ (horrible term) is the Paul Cochrane Tim OD pedal. It’s an absolute beaut and I implore anyone to have a crack at one if they get chance, it’s just the best. I use it in conjunction with my Zen Drive pedal as my main drive tone and it’s the sound of those two pedals together that you’ll here the most in an AMTP set.
Interesting tones are so often the result of stacking rather than a single stomp box. Is there a selection of pedals that you find stack especially well to create something unusual?
As above really, the blend of the two drive pedals is what defines my tone but I also use a lot of octave pedals too, the POG with dirt is a favourite of mine. I also use in certain parts to get a really massive, swelly reverb tone a combination of the Bluesky set to a large room with the Timeline on a really fast pattern delay, it just gives a ton of extra depth in certain sections. I’m pretty conservative with my use of weirder effects in general although this is subject to change in the very near future...
What is your choice of amplification, what led you to this choice, and how do you make it your own?
I’ve run two amps for as long as I can remember. The basic premise behind this started when I realised my 20 watt Laney combo that I used to have just wasn’t loud enough on it’s own so I bought a head and started running stereo to give the verbs and delays and bit of extra oomph. The principle behind the way I set things up is to have one amp providing lots of sparkle and definition and the other providing girth, this is mostly necessary due to the choice of guitar I have which I’ll explain later.
My rigs changed loads of late and I’m very happy to say that I’m now endorsed by Hayden so my current setup is a Hayden Mofo 100 head with matching 4x12 and a Soldano Astroverb 16 2x12 combo. The Hayden is a heft monster and the Soldano is sparkly and gritty, it’s the blend of the amps which give me the punch and definition I like to hear. I adore the Soldano, it’s the most expensive thing I’ve ever bought but I don’t regret it one single bit. It’s an EL84 driven amp which means it doesn’t extend quite as low as something more hefty like the Hayden so the combination is spot on.
The Hayden has a pretty unusual valve combination by modern standards which is something I was drawn to; it uses two EL34s and two 6l6 valves in the output section which gives the Hayden has a pretty unusual valve combination by modern standards which is something I was drawn to; it uses two EL34s and two 6l6 valves in the output section which gives the amp a really unique character.
What is your choice of guitar, how did you come to play that guitar, and what makes you stick with it?
I’m a very stubborn Telecaster man. I have a good few other guitars and only one Tele but it’s my favourite guitar and I use it on everything. It’s a 2004 Fender Highway One Telecaster in Daphne Blue. I love it like a family member. It’s a particularly bright Tele, I’m not overly sure why but I really love it that way, it’s got this incredibly unmistakable smack and crunch to it which I just need to hear whenever I play guitar now. I’ve not played another instrument that has the same whallop as it. I guess in a way, I just like it so much because it’s the sound I’ve become so used to hearing, I got it when I was 15 and have played it ever since and it just feels like home to me now.
I was drawn to the Telecaster in the first place largely out of bullishness; I kept hearing people say things like ‘you can’t play heavy music on Fender Telecasters’ and the more I heard that, the more I wanted to prove everyone wrong. Of course, it doesn’t have the same low mid thud of a Gibson or other humbuckery guitar but it’s got so much life and character that I don’t really care and I set my amps up to compensate for that. For me, it’s an absolute winner.
The Gear of ArcTanGent: Bear Makes Ninja
A look into the unique and bizarre set ups of the bands responsible for pushing effects driven music into new territories. In this episode we take a look at Bear Makes Ninja's resident Jagmaster wielding tap dancer.
Over the last 3 years ArcTanGent Festival has been responsible for uniting some of the most interesting guitar music being made. Technically there have probably been more effect pedals in one place over the ATG weekend than there are in a Boss Factory.
Following another amazing year of ATG I caught up with some of the most brilliant bands playing the festival and had a chat with them about their weird and wonderful gear.
Bear Makes Ninja make quintessential British Math-Rock. Their classic 3-piece format allows each instrument to shine in its own completely unique way. Their quirky rhythm section is as off kilter as it is solid, and gives the effect crazed guitar enough room to flail wildly about in a refreshingly poppy fashion.
I hooked up with James, the band's Jagmaster wielding tap dancer, and asked him a few super nerdy questions about his set up...
Walk me through your pedal board. What goes into what?
Firstly, the board itself....I made it from a wooden pallet! I took inspiration from Pedaltrain and this crazy thing I saw online with the holes to tidy the cables away. It's the third one I've made so far and seems to be holding together nicely! I plan on painting it soon too.
Set up wise, I have the guitar going into a Behringer Compressor. This stays on permanently and just neatens up my tone a little bit, providing a bit more clarity and punch and it sustains really well too! I've had a few Behringers and have been replacing them as time goes by. They're great for anyone wanting an introduction to pedals without the high costs, but tonally some of them do suffer when compared to higher priced pedals.
From the compressor into my TC Electronics Polytune 2. I find that having the compressor first just helps the tuner to be a little more accurate, cutting tuning times down a little. The polytune is great, nice and accurate with a screen that I've never had problems reading from. It also has a power in AND out, meaning that I can power more pedals from this too!
I currently have an Artec Powerbrick, which I've mounted under the board, which powers the 8 pedals I have on there at the moment, but I feel I will have to upgrade this at some point soon!
Next, we go from the tuner and into the EHX Pitch Fork. This is a great little octave pedal, I'm using it mostly on the 1 up and 1 down setting, allowing me to play 3 octaves at once, which is great for single note riffage! It's one of the best octave pedal I've played in terms of tracking and you can even plug an expression pedal into it so you can pretty much use it like a digitech whammy!
The Pitch Fork then goes into a Nux Mod Core. I bought this a couple of years ago for about £30, mainly because it has ton of effects, which are really tweakable with the addition of a 'deluxe' switch, which essentially doubles the amount of effects on the pedal by adding extra beats and sweeps in the effects. I'm using the Phaser setting at the moment in a couple of tunes. I just wanted to play around with a few different noises and on my tight budget this was a great find!
The NUX goes into a Behringer Digital Reverb. This is one of the first pedals I bought, again because it had the most effects to experiment with for the cheapest price. I tend to use the Cave setting the most, but the Room setting is nice too. The 'Space' setting is my favourite, which adds octaves to the reverb. Mmmm octaves! I'm aiming to replace this pedal soon though as I've noticed that whilst it was a great introduction for me into Planet Verb, it seems to suck a lot of tone from the original guitar sound, compared to others I've tried more recently. My favourite so far is the Line 6 Verbzilla, which I think the Behringer is based on as it has a lot of the same effects, but there's so much more clarity and warmth with the Line 6.
Next up is another Behringer. This one has been my favourite and probably the most important pedal on my board. It's called an 'Ultra Shifter Harmonist' and the setting I bought it for is called 'Trem Bar'. With this, you can make your guitar sweep up or down an octave, or any note in between at a whole range of speeds, from siren-slow, to pretty much instantly. For a mere £35, it's provided me with loads of fun and although the other settings aren't really that great tracking-wise, sometimes that can provide an interesting, crapped-out sort of effect in itself! It's the pedal I mostly get asked about after we play at gigs.
From there is a Boss Mega Distortion, which gives me loads of distortion, but not too much that it goes into chuggy metal territory. I wanted a distortion that was nice and clear when playing 4, 5, or 6 note chords with high gain and this does the job well! For recording, I use a Wampler Slostortion, which is a bit more difficult for me to use live, but is a tad more versatile and has a bit more clarity in tone.
The last pedal is a Boss RC-30 Loopstation. This I use for live looping some guitar parts and also as a riff bank. I'll record ideas into it and save them on it's memory for practice sessions etc. You can also plug it into a computer and load samples onto it, or copy your saved loops onto your computer. Last Halloween, we loaded horror movie themes onto it and played them in between songs at a show we played!
Interesting tones are so often the result of stacking rather than a single stomp box. Is there a selection of pedals that you find stack especially well to create something unusual?
I've been using the Trem Bar setting on the Harmonist with the pitchfork for some meaty 3 octave sweeps and the Reverb and Mod Core pedals stack up nicely to create a 'Phasey cave' sound. Both of these feature quite a bit on the newBear Makes Ninja album we've just recorded and hope to release in March next year.
What is your choice of amplification, what led you to this choice, and how do you make it your own?
My current amp is one I've had for many years. It's a 100w Laney TF300 Valvestate combo, but I wasn't quite getting the power I wanted from the single 12" speaker that was supplied, so I bought a Kustom 4x12 cab and started running the combo through that. It was loads louder and clearer now, so I had no need for the single 12" speaker and promptly chopped it out, effectively making it a head unit and ultimately taking up less space in the van/car/train/bus/ferry! I then painted the wood I had used to make a new shell and fitted it with some old denim and some handmade glow-in-the-dark knobs! Ahhhh, pretty!
My favourite feature of this amp, and probably the reason I haven't upgraded yet is the 'Vibe' switch on the far right. I have no idea of the technicalities behind this switch, but it just makes everything more better! Without it, the distortion sounds fuzzy, but with it on, it's a lot tighter, and it just makes the cleans a lot fatter sounding too!
I did borrow a mates Marshall JCM 900 for a while, which was awesome so when I have the pennies I may have to invest in something with valves!
What is your choice of guitar, how did you come to play that guitar, and what makes you stick with it?
The Jagmaster has been my long time guitar of choice. It was a present for my 16th birthday, back when I worshipped grunge! I've had many guitars since, including a more recent remake of this model, but nothing has compared so far! I can't really pinpoint it as its half rusted out, half replaced, knocked and banged about, but I guess it's the feel of it. I've bought higher priced guitars that I thought would be similar, only to be disappointed and return to this one! The next guitar I hope to try out is a Vintage Modified Squier Jaguar HH. It's the closest thing I can find to my Jagmaster as Fender don't even make a version!
I mainly use the neck pickups on this guitar and I find the factory fitted humbuckers on this model produce a nice thick bluesy tone, whilst the bridge pickups have clear mids and highs without being too raspy.