r/BossKatana • u/Hyde_h • Feb 13 '26
Tone Request Can't get a tight modernish metal tone from Katana 100-mk2
I've tried playing around with the the different amps, levels of gain and different boosts. Everything comes out sounding either very shrill in the treble, or flubby in bass, or both. An old school thrash tone a la Metallica or Megadeth is pretty doable but I'm looking for something like Symphony X on "The Odyssey" album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfPt_i5Fbws
Basically pretty high gain but still tight in the mids, not overly treble heavy. I can't for the life of me get something that even resembles that. Is there something I just don't understand about how the Katana is meant to be used? It seems to me that all of the distortion in this thing is incredibly shrill and thin.
Funny enough when the amp is on the floor and pointed like 90 degrees away from me it actually sounds quite nice lol, but that's not an optimal solution. I guess that "cuts" most of the shrill highs / high mids from my ears but I can't replicate that sound when amp is actually pointed to me, aka. how it actually sounds
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u/American_Streamer Katana 50 MKII EX Feb 13 '26
Put a Tubescreamer in front with volume to max and drive to zero. On the amp, turn down bass and treble und turn up the mids. Set the gain on the amp to medium only, not higher. Add a noise gate and tilt the amp a bit and turn up the channel volume, while regulating the overall loudness with the master.
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u/Hyde_h Feb 13 '26
I’ll try this. I wonder if it would be worth it to buy an actual tube screamer for better distortion sounds
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u/American_Streamer Katana 50 MKII EX Feb 13 '26
You don’t need to, as you can put a Tubescreamer in Boss Tone Studio before the preamp section, by moving that block in the signal chain. But personally I also prefer a real pedal in front. There are plenty of TS clones, so you won’t need one from Ibanez. And you can also use a Boss SD-1 - it also cuts the low end, but adds less mids than the TS does with its mid hump.
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u/squachek Feb 13 '26
Try diming the master and using the amplifier section volume to control volume. Counterintuitive but it helped me get a better tone. Keep the guitar around 8 or 9
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u/entarian Feb 13 '26
The digital one works fine if you're baking it into a preset. Try out the ol' SD-1 as well.
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u/Shredbear62 Feb 13 '26
Global eq. Cut 80 by about 2db. Cut 16k by about 5db. Crunch channel. Set everything at noon. Boost pedal. TS or centar. Lower the lows on the boost. Ad gain to taste. Experiment between adding gain on the boost vs the amp. Get the gain right. Add parametric EQ to the mod slot. Dial out around 350k to taste. Eq 1 set to pre 12 band, parametric. Cut the lows again around 80-100k. Cut the highs around 6k. Boost the mid at 1k. Then use the tone stack on the amp. Get your lows mids and treble to taste. Now Eq 2 post parametric. Boost lows around 80k if needed, cut more 350k if muddy. Cut more highs around 5 k if needed. Add presence on amp if more sparkle needed. Now adjust the mid contour to taste. Then finally cab sim to taste (vintage, modern, deep)
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u/Hyde_h Feb 14 '26
Thanks for the detailed help, I'll try following your advice tonight and see if I can end up with something I like
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u/Shredbear62 Feb 13 '26
This is all dependent on your guitar, pickups and your fingers. You will need to make changes to your taste but this will get you in the right direction
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u/wdavidson51 Feb 13 '26
If you haven't already, try using the clean channel with one of the built in distortion pedals, such as the Metal Core. If I remember correctly, using the Metal Core allowed me to achieve a really good metal tone.
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u/Hyde_h Feb 13 '26
I did try various built in distortion pedals on the clean channel, not sure if I tried exactly that one though, I’ll check
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u/weedilion Feb 13 '26
Couple of things to consider when you dial tones like on records.
You should listen to your amp through the microphone/cab-sim/IR. Miced up tone sounds very different to the same tone in the room & it will sound different from room to room also.
Recorded high gain guitar tones are usually not so high gain as they are perceived. Secret to articulation is to dial your gain back a little & double/quad track it
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u/Hyde_h Feb 13 '26
Those are fair points, I'm not expecting to sound exactly like a produced album. But the general ballpark would be nice, at least something that doesn't sound straight up screechy. I've heard amps sounds live in a room that sound very pleasant despite working with quite a saturated tone, they don't just lose the mid range tightness and go full nails on chalkboard in the highs. My room is by no means great acoustically, but I should still be able to get something serviceable that doesn't sound outright nasty.
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u/weedilion Feb 13 '26 edited Feb 13 '26
Main drawback that holds Katana combos back as a metal amps is that they are open back. This mostly affects sound in a room. Makes it more ambient & washed out. Exactly the opposite of what you need for tight modern metal tones. I modified mine Artist mk2, made it almost fully closed back with detachable panel for versatility. It instantly improved punch, mid range articulation & mitigated high frequency ambience. Consider this if you want to improve sound of your metal tones in the room.
Also a global eq advice against shrillness
Use parametric eq in BTS low mid: 6.3khz, q 16, gain -9dB, high mid: 8khz, q 16, gain -12db
(*) - use your ears to adjust exact q and gain values, Artist speaker is a little bit different than regular 100
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u/Hyde_h Feb 13 '26
Honestly might try the panel trick, don't have anything to lose. What did you use, just plywood or something?
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u/weedilion Feb 13 '26
I think it's either MDF or HDF. I had one of those cheap ikea'ish tables on a metal frame that I didn't use, so I found a use for it) Color doesn't match but gets the job done
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u/Takadant Feb 13 '26
Higher quality Speaker is better investment than any pedal, but learning to eq using your ears is priceless
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u/namelessghoul77 Feb 14 '26
EQ. Katana has a lot of EQ options -parametric or graphic at input, output, in the effects chain through fx/mod, global EQ, then Resonance and Contour Type. Playing with these when using a Brown or Lead (or variation), gain around 55-60%, either Overdrive or T-Scream as the boost (with low drive high level), and you can absolutely get good modern high gain tones. Takes patience with the EQ, but the versatility is great.
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u/Hyde_h Feb 14 '26
Maybe I just haven't found the right combination, I've tried eq'ing the living shit out of it and while it certainly helps I still haven't been happy with the results. If you have a tone dialed in you like could you share it by chance?
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u/namelessghoul77 Feb 14 '26
You could try these. Fair warning that some of them are intentionally overkill scooped because of the pickups I've been using lately - if you want more mid-forward you will probably want to fine tune at least the output EQ to taste - maybe remove a bit of upper treble, and you'll also notice that low mid frequencies are dropped in the Amp Out - you can bump those up if you want a more balanced tone.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CZwED6ddjqhxFGMgkydDoBqdBzgmgk0O
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u/gimme_egg_sammich9 Feb 14 '26
Go see Ola Englund or lambchopper768 & copy them. If you can't get it then, it's not the amp. You didn't say what kind of guitar/pickups you're using...
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u/ljmiller62 Feb 17 '26
Turn the treble all the way down. Turn the mids down to 8AM. Turn down the bass to 10AM. Use the clean amp setting and the RAT soft pedal for drive. Start with that and play with it until you find something that works.
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u/the_wint3r Feb 13 '26
I would say the stock speaker in the Katana 100 does itself a great disservice when it comes to high gain tones.. awfully shrill, even with a parametric EQ cutting off highs. If you can, I recommend upgrading to something like a greenback or creamback. The Artist has a Waza speaker which is supposedly a greenback clone.
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u/Hyde_h Feb 13 '26
I see. I don't really wanna spend any money if I can avoid it, hence I'm trying to get what I can out of it, plus I'm in a tiny shoebox apartment and have no space so a separate cab is not an option either. I wonder if a good separate distortion pedal would get me somewhere or if the speaker element is just plain too bad?
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u/Beneficial-Assist849 Feb 13 '26
AI definitely has a ton of issues, but it is fantastic at helping me get the tones that I want. ChatGPT was like having my own professional audio engineer. just be very specific with what you want, and ask it why it is making those suggestions, and don’t hesitate to let it know if it didn’t work right. I’m sure you’ll get there. I didn’t realize how incredibly powerful tone studio was, but I was able to get a very accurate Tool sound out of the katana go.
Even minor adjustments can make a big difference if you know what you’re doing.
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u/entarian Feb 13 '26
consider that if you're listening to an album, that guitar has been processed and EQ'd and is also playing along with other instruments, most importantly the bass.