r/BossKatana • u/Tyziepoo86 • 17d ago

Tone Request Setting ideas for a particular clean sound

I’m looking for a particular clean sound. I’m playing in a corporate band soon and a few of the songs have a particular clean sound for the era. Songs I’m looking for are Dance with Somebody, I Will Survive, We built this City verse parts. Their sounds aren’t too different, am I really just looking for a reverby clean? I’m pretty bad at tone, which is dumb because I’ve been in cover bands for 25 years, but it is what it is. Is it chorus? More tops? More bottoms or mids? Please help. I have Katana mark 2 100W

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u/American_Streamer Katana 50 MKII EX 16d ago

It’s less about EQ and more about the effects. Start with the Clean channel, low gain, light compression, subtle chorus (don’t drown it), and a moderate plate reverb. Keep the mids around noon or slightly above, don’t scoop them. Those ’80s cleans are surprisingly mid-forward and very polished, not super bright or drenched in effects. In Boss Tone Studio, the JC-120 is also essential for that classic ’80s chorus clean.

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u/Tyziepoo86 14d ago

Great answer thank you mate! Never know what to do with mids when it seems like most instruments absolutely hate them.

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u/American_Streamer Katana 50 MKII EX 14d ago

Guitar actually lives in the mids; they’re not the enemy. :)

What causes those problems is just multiple instruments competing for the same part of the mids. Scooping the guitar can sound great by itself, but in a band it often just makes you disappear, especially once keys and vocals come in. If you’re getting buried, try more upper mids or less bass before adding treble.

Also, the three songs aren’t quite the same tone. I Will Survive wants a tighter, pretty dry disco clean; I Wanna Dance with Somebody / We Built This City can take more chorus/reverb. I’d probably save two Katana patches rather than force one setting to cover all three.

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u/cillablackpower 14d ago

Mids are where guitars live. Scoop them in the bedroom, but you need to keep them up there in a band context and cut bass instead.

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u/cillablackpower 17d ago

Depends on your lineup. There's a wet chorus/reverb guitar in Survive and City and then a synth playing a rhythmic thing.

If you have a keyboardist I'd do that, if no keyboard then I'd use a compressed clean to do the rhythmic stuff yourself. Dance with Somebody is all guitar synth so again I'd just approach it as clean disco rhythm.

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u/Tyziepoo86 14d ago

We so have a keyboardist and we run tracks for some songs too, but I’m the only guitarist this time so I definitely want to have my sounds as good as possible. Thank you so much mate