Boss Katana 50 MkII Settings Guide
The most popular practice and gigging amp in the UK. Five amp characters, 60+ effects. Misunderstood knob layout confuses beginners.
Used by: Stevie Ray Vaughan, Slash, John Mayer
The best Boss Katana 50 MkII settings start with: Character at 3/10, Gain at 5/10, Bass at 5/10, Mid at 6/10, Treble at 5/10, Volume at 3/10. Adjust from there based on your amp, guitar, and room volume. For Blues: Character 2/10, Gain 4/10, Bass 5/10, Mid 7/10, Treble 5/10, Volume 3/10.
⚡ Start Here — Recommended Settings
| Control | Starting Position | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Character | 3/10 | Clean → Brown |
| Gain | 5/10 | None → Full |
| Bass | 5/10 | Thin → Thick |
| Mid | 6/10 | Scooped → Forward |
| Treble | 5/10 | Dark → Bright |
| Volume | 3/10 | Silent → Loud |
These are universal starting points. Adjust based on your amp, guitar, and room. Scroll down for genre-specific settings and artist-documented positions.
What Each Control Does
Recommended Starting Settings
Safe starting positions for any style. Adjust from here based on your amp and room.
All values on a 0–10 scale. These are starting points — fine-tune by ear.
Settings by Genre
Crunch character, mid-pushed for blues cut-through — keep Gain under 5 so the amp responds to picking dynamics rather than sitting in permanent overdrive. Push the front end with a Tube Screamer (Drive 0, Level high) to push the Crunch channel into natural saturation.
Crunch channel at moderate gain — don't scoop the mids. Classic rock tone on the Katana lives in the Crunch character with Mids at 6 and Treble controlled; the Crunch character is closer to a Marshall voicing than the Lead channel.
Brown character at high Gain — scooped mids, boosted bass, controlled Treble to prevent fizz. Add the built-in noise gate from Tone Studio; the Brown channel at high gain produces significant noise floor. Power Control on the back panel prevents bedroom-volume harshness.
Clean character at low Gain — higher Volume opens headroom. The Katana Clean channel can approximate a Fender sound; add a compressor pedal before it for country or clean single-coil tones, and a touch of reverb from Tone Studio.
Clean character, minimum Gain, bright Treble for Telecaster sparkle — high Treble and low Bass produces the crisp, articulate definition country chicken-picking requires. Add compression before the amp and use Tone Studio to add a subtle slapback delay (80–150ms, one repeat).
Artist Settings
Documented settings used by professional guitarists on this unit.
Crunch channel, mid-heavy — the SRV approach is about thick mids and dynamic response. Add a Tube Screamer at Drive 0, Level 7 before the Crunch channel to push it into natural saturation without adding pedal grit; that combination approximates the SRV Dumble-and-TS approach on a budget.
Crunch into light OD territory — Slash's tone is mid-forward despite the heavy gain. The Katana Crunch character at Gain 7 captures the Marshall DSL character he's associated with; keep Mids at 7 and Treble at 6 to avoid scooping the mid-range that defines his rhythm playing.
Clean character, minimum Gain — the Katana Clean channel as a Fender approximation for Mayer's clean-to-slightly-pushed tones. Add a Blues Driver (Gain 3, Level 6) for his pushed-amp character and a Tube Screamer at Drive 0 as a clean boost. Mids at 6 provide the vocal, forward quality his Fender tones are known for.
Tips & Common Mistakes
- Use the Power Control on the back panel to reduce wattage — the amp sounds better at medium Power Control than full power at low Volume.
- The Tone Studio app (free download) gives access to 60+ built-in effects. Connect via USB to set up effects chains that are invisible on the front panel.
- For home use: Character 1-3 (Clean or Crunch), Gain under 5. The Lead and Brown channels fizz at bedroom volumes and benefit from Power Control reduction.
- The global EQ on the back panel cuts the output before the speaker — useful for matching the room without changing the tone character.
- The Brown character is the Katana's EVH/high-gain voice — it requires Gain above 6 to open up fully and sounds underwhelming at moderate Gain settings.
- Use the Crunch character (not Lead or Brown) for blues and classic rock — it is the most amp-like and dynamically responsive character on the Katana.
- Add a Tube Screamer (Drive 0, Level 7) before any character for the classic "push the amp front end" technique — the Crunch character responds to this most naturally.
- For silent practice: use a pair of headphones plugged into the headphone output (which uses the built-in speaker simulation) — the tone is surprisingly usable.
FAQ
Boss Katana 50 MkII — Common Questions
Best starting settings for Boss Katana 50 MkII: Character at 3/10, Gain at 5/10, Bass at 5/10, Mid at 6/10, Treble at 5/10, Volume at 3/10. Adjust from there based on your guitar, room, and playing style.
For Blues: Character 2/10, Gain 4/10, Bass 5/10, Mid 7/10, Treble 5/10, Volume 3/10. Crunch character, mid-pushed for blues cut-through — keep Gain under 5 so the amp responds to picking dynamics rather than sitting in permanent overdrive. Push the front end with a Tube Screamer (Drive 0, Level high) to push the Crunch channel into natural saturation.
For Classic Rock: Character 2/10, Gain 6/10, Bass 5/10, Mid 6/10, Treble 6/10, Volume 3/10. Crunch channel at moderate gain — don't scoop the mids. Classic rock tone on the Katana lives in the Crunch character with Mids at 6 and Treble controlled; the Crunch character is closer to a Marshall voicing than the Lead channel.
Character: Selects amp voicing: Clean, Crunch, Lead, Brown, Acoustic. Brown is the high-gain channel. (Clean to Brown). Gain: Amount of distortion on Crunch, Lead, and Brown channels. Has no effect on Clean channel below level 5. (None to Full). Bass: Low-frequency content. Cut to 3 for bedroom; push to 7 for live use. (Thin to Thick). Mid: Mid-range presence. Higher values = more cut-through in band mix. (Scooped to Forward). Treble: High-frequency sparkle. Low values with high gain prevent fizz. (Dark to Bright). Volume: Master output. Use Power Control (back panel) to reduce wattage before this. (Silent to Loud)
Use the Power Control on the back panel to reduce wattage — the amp sounds better at medium Power Control than full power at low Volume. The Tone Studio app (free download) gives access to 60+ built-in effects. Connect via USB to set up effects chains that are invisible on the front panel. For home use: Character 1-3 (Clean or Crunch), Gain under 5. The Lead and Brown channels fizz at bedroom volumes and benefit from Power Control reduction. The global EQ on the back panel cuts the output before the speaker — useful for matching the room without changing the tone character. The Brown character is the Katana's EVH/high-gain voice — it requires Gain above 6 to open up fully and sounds underwhelming at moderate Gain settings. Use the Crunch character (not Lead or Brown) for blues and classic rock — it is the most amp-like and dynamically responsive character on the Katana. Add a Tube Screamer (Drive 0, Level 7) before any character for the classic "push the amp front end" technique — the Crunch character responds to this most naturally. For silent practice: use a pair of headphones plugged into the headphone output (which uses the built-in speaker simulation) — the tone is surprisingly usable.
Stevie Ray Vaughan settings: Character 2/10, Gain 5/10, Bass 6/10, Mid 7/10, Treble 5/10. Crunch channel, mid-heavy — the SRV approach is about thick mids and dynamic response. Add a Tube Screamer at Drive 0, Level 7 before the Crunch channel to push it into natural saturation without adding pedal grit; that combination approximates the SRV Dumble-and-TS approach on a budget.
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