Boss Katana MKII vs Blackstar Silverline - A Blindfold Amp Shootout!

I don't know your problem could you put my glasses on an appropriate nearby over here thank you thanks mom I might even wear them let's have a look oh my life everything's so clear welcome everybody to another episode of on Anderson's TV this is possibly the most requested shoot out of the last three or four weeks or certainly one of them as you guys know boss katana undisputed king of that kind of affordable solid state guitar amplifier market for the last three or four years have released katana - which I know he's not hood have you not looked okay and simultaneously virtually simultaneously Blackstar also released silver line which is a similarly kind of featured amplifier which so we could that's the shootout now but also stay tuned because Yamaha thr have also released a new one and despite the fact that one of the amps is quite big and one of the answers quite Diddy that's the most asked for shoot out of the last three or four weeks it's do I buy thr or do I buy katana 50 so we'll be doing that shootout after this one in another video so Rob you have got here my chapman captain which I recently put some Seymour Duncan pickups in this is the first time this has been but seen on video let me get rid of that stand for those of you that are Seymour Duncan aficionados out there it is a 59 in the bridge a vintage staggered single coil in the middle a custom hybrid the bridge and in positions two and four at coil tap so you get those nice kind of strategy tones anyway we have got the two amps here with Rob sat in the middle with both amps kind of angling it feels wrong yes so it's positionally not quite right here but the idea is like wow I don't want there to be any and y1m should have an advantage over the other so Rob should be getting exactly the same kind of tones from each one on an a/b switch on the floor here and I have got a snake-oil very thin kind of boost II pedal set to a little bit of gain lots of volume so be using that in a sort of a tube screamer ii way and we're gonna try three sounds we're gonna try the clean sounds on the amp I'm gonna try the crunch sounds on the amp and we're gonna try the high gain sounds on the amp can I just interject dude and just say for the viewers to know that they shut me in the toilet yes and left me in there so that I couldn't see how things were being set up I was a bad boy who's a bad boy they shot me at the toilet we are gonna start with each amplifier at the same kind of volume but with all the EQ at 12 o'clock and Rob will be able to say all could have a bit more bass bit more treble whatever and we're simply going to use a very similar sounding reverb on each amplifier so we're not delving into the effects that things can happen I feel like we should get on playing but there is quite a lot to tell you so I tell you what we'll do first we'll do the clean thing first and then I'll come back and tell you some features that make the amps different etc etc okay are you ready Rob I was born ready brilliant I am gonna go GoPro cam to go behind the amplifiers show you what settings they're on Taylor in fact let's just quickly do this Taylor over there he is in charge of the a/b box of doom they'll be switching between these fine guitar amplifiers you'll see the settings there on Rob will go rob has the option to ask me to adjust any of the cue settings on them and ultimately will go I like that one more than that one or whatever so here we go can i play you can watch one are we on our way on a or b are we on this one or this one run this one okay cool right here are the settings as Rob plays [Music] okay all right sounds nice cool should we jump to the rest jump to the other one without adjusting anything yep so here we go [Music] what changes would you like made to either of the mr. C well I mean you could add a bit more mid-range to this one the one you were just playing yeah okay here we go a little bit more mid-range yeah jump ex the other one [Music] it needs a bit more low-end and he needs a bit less of the all I'm allowed to adjust on this particular setting for you Rob is bass middle and treble okay I'd like more place please okay there is more bass now [Music] [Applause] that's good okay just a quick a be between the two then really yeah cool I already know meters which you already know which is which well let's leave the reveal till the end okay so that was the first bit I should tell you whilst I believe GoPro cam going all the time something I'll make it easier for editing so I should tell you feature wise you'll know already if you're familiar with these ranges that the boss katana range is quite a bit cheaper than the black star silver line range and had we done this shoot out brace based on price you'd have found the hundred watt katana up against the 20 watt silver line so katana would just win that all day long so that wasn't really the shootout that we decided to do and I think it's fair to say that if you're shopping on a budget you've saved up for the last six months to reach three or four hundred pounds whatever you're going to buy katana every time over Silverlight what we've done in this shootout is compare the like-for-like models so a hundred watt one by twelve silver line versus 100 watt one by twelve katana there is a price difference it's up to you really to decide if you think the silver line sounds better it's up to you to justify whether you think the price difference is worth it and of course if you like the katana better then good for you you're you've just bought yourself you've saved yourself a couple of hundred quid as well in terms of features this is how that this is how most of these this is how these amps work and these are the differences so the both of them you plug your guitar in it's a normal analog input stage it should be fine for pedals and all that kind of stuff then as it goes through all the preamp circuitry that's when the digital modeling happens then when you get to the power amp section the black star has a Class D power amp section and it has an over rated power amp section so although this is called the Silver Line 100 it's a Class D amplifier capable of delivering up to about 150 watts to give you that extra Headroom to sort of emulate more like a hundred watt valve and would emulate not all lots of digital processing going on in the black star to change the characteristics of the power amp as you turn the volume up and as you choose different settings on you know in its parent mode the boss katana has a more traditional class a B power amp section that if anything is perhaps more likely to react in the way the speaker's being driven rather than relying on DSP to get it to change but it's a it's a different power amp technology and that is a hundred watts kind of maximum if you like the black star is using a shark DSP processor so that's a processor that lots of brands like helix and fractal have used over the years for their processing the boss uses a proprietary DSP chip and they made it themselves basically same on the speaker the black star uses a Celestion V type the boss uses again a proprietary they designed it themselves twelve inch speaker that's kind of the spec differences I do want to just show you quickly the both amps have foot switches that give you a variety of functions to do with changing recalling patches turning on and off effects things like that the boss one is an optional extra the black star one if you buy your amplifier from Anderson's comes free so I guess that narrows the price difference by sort of you know seventy odd pounds something like that but anyway perhaps you'll see some close-ups of the foot switch is on screen the boss foot switch by the way I've got here's got all of our stickers all over it from when we use it in the studio here so it'll won't have all those stickers on it when you get it right let's go over to the crunch mode now and see which one Rob prefers out of those exciting I feel like I'm a bit of a sitting duck slash and they're like it's weird this video because I'm learning lots about the amplifiers but I felt like I'm not allowed to participate because I don't know what I'm playing so here we go this amp here you can see from the settings we're now trying to achieve a crunch tone you can see what I've adjusted EQ is all flat again no pedals yet although we do have a boost pedal on the floor that we can use at Rob's request so here you go Rob let's play [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] uh-huh next should we move over to the other side then okay here we go [Music] [Music] okay g'bye jump back to this ant please tape again you can have everything's at 12 o'clock so you can have more gain different EQ whatever you want you you tell me I could I could I have less trouble yes less just a touch less mid yeah but is there any more game there's like yeah we're only at halfway with game so I'll turn the gain up to three good yeah okay [Music] would you like the snake oil pedal pompton oh yes okay [Music] [Music] all right let's jump over to the other one and again what would you like the same again Morgaine let me hear it so just a little bit more game and a little bit less trouble yeah yeah the cycle [Music] yeah yeah you do anything else on that I mean or should we just move on to the highest gains yeah the hardest part of doing this blindfold test other than the fact that I can't see and that they shut me in the toilet so I couldn't see what was happening uh is that I can't adjust the amp myself right because there are many things that I would do to tweak them and make them sound the way that I would want them to sound and without having full access to the controls it's impossible to really say to you let's do that once I unveil them let's finish them let's finish the Sawyer that's a good idea so there's not much else to tell you about these amplifiers you'll notice if you know for those eagle-eyed of you one of the answers in a slightly bigger enclosure than the other again but not that that is what happens like for like if we were to do more of a price shootout comparison with this you'd find that the silver line would be in a sort of a smaller enclosure a more similar sized enclosure perhaps to the price equivalent boss one and then again if we have a shot on screen now of the features that you get on the back of the amplifier you'll see again the boss has got quite a lot more in and out kind of features than the silver line the silver line really just has a sort of an auxilary input and an emulated power output which using the software editor you can switch to become an effects loop whereas on the boss you'll see the effects loop and the ins and outs are all separate so you can have both simultaneously anyway let's jump over to our highest gain settings and again excuse me a second whilst I just look them up and give us a second deadly deadly do just a level check [Music] ready [Music] our cucumber really strongly okay here we are back in the room with the credit Buster highest gain settings on each amplifier here we are you can see what I've done here and let's play with this amplifier please [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] and let's see what we've done with this amplifier [Music] [Music] uh-huh okay so we go back to the first one is there anything you'd like me to change on it in terms of EQ or gain back off the game yeah adding mid-range okay there we go and it's got too much presence in it so much travel frequency add a bit of bass and remove some of the trouble [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] there's a frequency that I it's not being removed that I don't like it playing [Music] [Music] yeah next okay fine over here what would you like to see over here I'd like a little bit more gain and a bit less mid less trouble yeah [Music] yes yes what I don't like the model that it's using okay the crunch though well it's sexy ah there's not a lot I can do about that other than I think to be honest with you we might as well I quite like your suggestion of just doing the reveal and then you tune so what my glasses them so well I think that's the black star and I think sorry I think that's the katana I think that's the black star well let's reveal oh when you chat really really have please your glasses Thanks here's your glasses I'm not bad I'm not very surprised I will admit there were times in this I liked well I think you should do look I mean currently boss will be popping champagne corks Oh black star won't be but again of course if you heard some sounds like these you disagreed with Rob of course that's entirely you know up to you it sort of doesn't surprise me in the sense that putana have been so overwhelmingly popular over the last three or four years yeah there's it's this the something in the there's a frequency in this that I want to remove all right that I think would make [Music] [Music] the triode e1 maybe that's voiced [Music] it's a little better and you've got all these different power amp responses as well yeah let me do that but what I noticed you shop for all of the midden yeah [Music] [Applause] it's like a million percent better what about el34s like wow that's it I don't know just the setting before that I had the I say [Music] [Applause] [Music] the other thing I do want to do actually which will I don't know quite how we'll do yeah but I kind of want to see what the overall volume difference is between the two so we'll we'll probably set to do that and then tell you what it was rather than it's quite hot [Music] [Applause] [Music] this one over here and please and what would you normally set this up as well because you've trodden on your lead that's all okay there's a lot of gain I put on maybe 100 watts well it's up to you everybody and that's why we've sort of been I crank the master yeah because it reacts different interesting you can see immediately that you're more familiar with this than you what I mean I I'm all of them yeah that for me would be about the right kind of hi give it a go might be a little bit I mean I can make adjustments for you again if whilst you're playing [Music] could I have yeah the orange reverb of the orange reverb makes a big day I have what I need my hands on it hey I'm not tethered entirely can I have a little bit more game yeah and can I have a little bit less volume and a little bit more master [Music] [Music] and just do it a B then between the two now that we've got this [Music] I mean yeah I could add more Distortion tear this sound that it would still sound good yeah so for example if you if you crank that gain up to about three o'clock or maybe a bit more maybe yeah yeah okay that's where it is now [Applause] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] my honest summation is is that the black star to me it sounds like something pretending to be an amp well whereas this needs tweaking and I know for a fact that with with the right amount of time it sounds like an amp well hey you asked for the comparison we did the comparison maybe not the outcome that black star would have hoped for but it is it's only Rob's opinion and of course if you liked the sound of the black sky over the boss then don't shoot the blind away I did just want to do a quick let's say out loud it goes just the end oh god here we go let's see how loud it goes let's go really love on these amplifiers go [Music] okay that was basically full and let's do the same over here Ready Steady Go [Music] Wow the katana is louder just goes to show that's what happens with different kinds of parent technology so yes well you know what it's a bad girl it's uh it's uh it's my girl it's the katana our grid here's the thing off cam Lee said to me that most people here thought that the Black Star sounded better I think in the cleans and the crunch isn't this sound comparable very similar but I think when it comes to the higher gain stuff which I am more akin to I think it starts to sound a little bit more processed yeah that and that's why I probably prefer the black stuff yeah I mean as I said that I do want you guys to comment because as I said we certainly in the stuff that we were messing around beforehand whilst Rob was hidden away they shut me in the toilet yes and even during that segment you know the eye contact I was making with the guys what I thought the blacks I sounded better whether it sounds better enough to justify the price difference I guess that's all going to depend on how long it took you to save up for it in the first place you know your opinion you didn't know you were blindfolded you didn't know which one was which the other thing is there's lots and lots to adjust on this yes and I've just been given a tenth of a window into things that I could tweak all right so probably if Blackstar sent me one I could make it sound really good yeah given yeah I just had lots of time where I didn't mention the eiv on katana as you adjust the amp model it reavoice --is the preamp and the power amp to sound like that model on the Black Star it's two stages so you've got you've got one to adjust the preamp from one to adjust the power you've got more options on the black star whether that means better it just means more most of the time but yes you could see I just chosen power amp models that I thought would typically and the last thing and models why and the last thing I'd leave you with is people tend to prefer things they are familiar with I am very familiar with the boss katana cucumber it's weird this video video you feel estate because your or you you don't like being bad cop be no I mean I wear bad because the thing is I own Blackstar UPS you know bad feel good for the people is that these are about going honestly you've just said you prefer the cheaper one the people who love you I have two black star amps I know you'd like both those two fives they're good analyst anyway look that's it now we're gonna go and do katana 50 versus thr 32 tune in next week to see how Rob that one up - hahaha goodbye cucumber [Music]

Channel: Andertons Music Co

Views: 411,295

Keywords: Andertons, Andertons Music, Andertons TV, The Captain, Captain Anderton, Lee Anderton, Chappers, Rob Chapman, Boss, Katana, MKII, Blackstar, Silverline, Amps, Amplifer, Electric, Guitar, Guitars, ML1 CAP10, Signature, Snake Oil, The Very Thing, Boost, Pedal, Lehle, Little Dual, 100W, 1x12, Shootout, Footswitch

Id: p4vGHaBoYsc

Length: 31min 2sec (1862 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 01 2019