RESPECT THE BOSS

I read Michael Channer’s aggrieved response to Nick Guppy’s Boss Katana Artist review (Feedback 434) with interest, particularly its closing sentence advising us that we “could buy a valve amp”.

I play mainly at home, and at the start of the year, I decided the time was right to treat myself to a ‘good’ amplifier. Drawing up a shortlist of desirable small valve amps was not difficult, with the favourite being the new Fender Blues Junior.

So I went and tried one – and that’s where my bubble burst. A valve amp is a glorious thing when it’s singing full-throatedly but I very soon realised that in the lounge at my house I would never be able to have the Junior’s volume much above 1, even in a jam session with electro-acoustic players. I would therefore have to achieve drive tones with a couple of transistorised stompboxes, which, to my mind at least, rather defeats the object.

I suspect that I am not the only reader for whom such domestic constraints render a valve amp of any size or stripe simply out of the question. Mr Channer rightly states the Fender Deluxe is one of the biggest-selling amps in the world, and one of my mates would be the first to agree. Sadly he can only play it at full chat twice a year when his neighbours go on holiday! And while it’s hard to imagine Bonamassa, Johnson or Beck without a brace of Marshalls or Dumbles behind them, pro and semi-pro players are increasingly turning to modelling software to achieve the qualities of overdriven valves without the ASBOs and the lumbago. Even the redoubtable Neville Marten has embraced the sonic possibilities of the Helix, and if it’s good enough for him…

So I was far from insulted by Nick’s review; in fact it sent me scurrying to the internet for other reactions and opinions, at the end of which I bought the Artist’s little brother, the KTN-50. I couldn’t be more delighted. Its master volume setup means I can run it quite happily at half a watt with pre-amp gain and volume dimed to get the singing tones I was after at (mostly) sensible levels; the onboard delay and reverb effects enhance rather than disguise its wonderful blooming voice; it also takes my modest pedalboard really well and that’s before we’ve started talking about the almost limitless possibilities of the Tone Studio software.

No, the Katana is not a valve amp but you can use it like one and, given the parameters of my situation, it’s the best sounding amp I’ve ever owned. The acid test is that once I’ve plugged in and switched on, I just don’t want to stop playing.

Thanks, Nick – you’ve given my guitarplaying a new lease of life. Nigel Price (not the jazz guitarist!), via email Thanks Nigel. The reality is that no one is forced at gunpoint to choose between valve amps or modelling amps. We’ve found that in the home environment, modelling amps can offer some useful advantages over traditional valve amps and we’ve lost count of the pro players who now rely on the likes of Helix and Kemper. But we also know of many top guitarists, engineers and producers who won’t have anything to do with modelling amps and say there’s no substitute for the real thing. It all depends on the job in hand and, yes, those gut personal reactions to the sound and feel of gear. If it inspires, though, and makes you play more often, we’d say it deserves to make the cut.