I tried out the KATANA-50 MkII EX!

BOSS / KTN50 2EX

This time, I am going to share my impressions of the KATANA-50 MkII EX from the BOSS KATANA series by actually playing on it! I am sure that there are some guitarists who are interested in this amp, and I hope that you will find it useful when considering it for purchase!

This unit is equipped with a 12-inch custom speaker, and my impression of the actual sound is that it has plenty of room to spare, which is unimaginable for an amp of its size! The sound has a fatness to it that makes you feel as if you are playing using a large amp in a studio. The bass range has a solid resonance, and the treble range has a shimmering and pleasant sound, giving the impression of a well-balanced output.

The control section looks like this.

Here are four of the five selectable amp characters that I really liked! CLEAN has a clear, clean tone, CRUNCH has distortion that responds to your picking, LEAD has a powerful, fat sound, and BROWN has a powerful, dynamic, high-gain sound that is a BOSS specialty. All of these amp settings sound excellent and I felt that I could play on this amp for a long time. My personal favorite setting was the CLEAN amp setting with reverb applied firmly. You could say that It is a standard setting for sound creation, but you can also enjoy very sparkling clean, pleasant sounds! The reverb on the amp is very good, so I personally preferred a sound that also makes use of that. From that standpoint, the BROWN amp setting with a deeper reverb was also very nice! It gives the amp a magnificent and pleasant sound that sounds as if you are playing on a large cabinet.

Another recommendation I have is the power control, a knob that allows the output to be switched between 50W, 25W, and 0.5W! The stereo image of the sound remains the same, but the output can be raised or lowered significantly, allowing you to enjoy the guitar at optimal volume for the environment in which it is used. I actually tried playing the sound while raising and lowering the volume, and I was impressed by how convenient it is because even when the output is lowered, the volume is reduced dramatically without changing the perfection and satisfaction of the sound.

This is what it looks like from the back. The katana (刀) character looks so cool!

The PC editor, BOSS Tone Studio (Windows/Mac compatible) allows users to create their own sounds with over 60 different BOSS effects and EQs that can be customized at will. The BOSS TONE EXCHANGE online platform allows users to freely share Livesets with each other. This is truly the next generation of guitar amps. Awesome!

After actually trying the KATANA-50 MkII EX this time, I felt that this is the next-generation guitar amp that will surely be very useful in all situations, from practicing to the stage. If you are interested in this amp, go check out the product page!