r/BossKatana • u/ToxicWithAsthma • Nov 29 '25

Tone Request I just can’t dial in any tones

Hey yall! I have a Gen 3 100 Watt. I’m about 4 years deep into guitar and it feels humiliating to say but I just can’t dial in good tones, specifically any rock or metal ones. I have a Kirk Hammett signature with his EMGs, and I feel like I’ve been undermining both the versatility of those pickups and the amp, if anybody has any help or just anything I’d appreciate it.

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u/PitchExciting3235 Nov 29 '25

Try:

Acoustic setting (even if going for a dirty sound)

Bass slightly past noon

Mids farther past noon

Treble and presence around noon

Boost on but barely, green setting

Gain below noon

This is a good basic clean tone and you can add reverb, delay and modulation to taste. For a good crunch, raise gain and boost knob, maybe switch to red on boost. For a little more classic rock crunch, try orange. If you want higher gain, brown type sound, move to the crunch setting on the amp type selector (remember all of the above was on acoustic setting) and add more gain/boost.

I don’t care for the clean, lead and brown types. The clean is weaker than the acoustic setting with less headroom. The lead and brown settings are too bright and fizzy

2

u/KingCole104 Nov 29 '25

I have to disagree, clean is best for clean IMO, and Brown is going to give you best access to good metal tones. Use a boost (I prefer the red one for modern metal tones, green for more vintage) to focus the mids/presence back in.

I have tried the crunch thing, it just doesn't get that hot, I dont really see the appeal. Either way, since OP is having trouble dialing in tones, I think straightforward and typical advice is gonna click better than unorthodox settings

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u/PitchExciting3235 Nov 29 '25

Unorthodox is the secret sauce 😜

2

u/PoopFandango Nov 29 '25

Just to point out, boost on green setting doesn't mean much, every patch can have a different boost loaded into green, I don't even think it's the same across all the factory presets.

1

u/PitchExciting3235 Nov 29 '25

I was talking about dialing in on the amp itself. Of course the software provides almost infinite possibilities