Boss’ Katana digital amps are among the most successful amplifiers of all time. They’ve sold over a million units since the first one appeared in 2016. But that’s hardly surprising given the wealth of sounds most Katanas put on offer, their abundance of features, and almost unrivaled bang for the buck.
At this point, the Katana user community is big and enthusiastic. And a sizable, online portion of that community spends a lot of time speculating about what the next generation of Katanas will bring. By the time you read this review, the cat will be out of the bag, and seven new Gen 3 Katana models will hit guitar shop floors. It’s likely that just about every facet of the Katana’s audience, from dedicated, to casual, to curious will be intrigued if not blown away with what the newest generation delivers for relatively little cash.
"The brown patch communicates the nuances of tapping and palm-muting techniques as well as a responsiveness that I might have attributed to tubes in a blindfold test."
Features Overflowing
The flagship of the line, the Katana Artist Gen 3 reviewed here, is a 100-watt 1X12 combo amp with a custom-designed Waza G12W speaker. So far, so simple. But as one look at the rather daunting control panel will tell you, the Artist Gen 3 does a lot.
Boss is careful to distinguish their Tube Logic architecture, which captures the behavior of many individual components in a tube-amp circuit rather than just the output of a tube amp itself as some modelers do. And the depth of the control set reflects that thinking in many respects.
There are eight sections on the front panel: amplifier, equalizer, effects, tone setting, solo, line out, global EQ, and cab resonance. Within each of these control categories, there are many knobs and buttons that enable control of practically every facet of your tone—from the virtual “air” in your line-out signal to wattage (max, half, .5 watts) to cab resonance (deep, modern, or vintage). On the back panel, meanwhile, are line-out and USB jacks for direct recording; an effects loop; as well as jacks for using external modelers and preamps (via the Katana’s own AB power section).
The Katana Artist Gen 3 has five independent effects sections with over 60 Boss effects to choose from. There are also six basic amplifier types—brown, lead, crunch, pushed, clean, and acoustic. There’s a variation button to select an alternate voicing for each amp type as well and a new bloom button, which enhances the power stage with more bass and more-defined attack.
In the tone setting section, you’ll find pushbuttons for bank, CH1 through CH4, and panel. The CH1 through CH4 buttons recall sounds you save (in which case the knobs won’t reflect the settings you hear). Pressing the panel button lets you use the amp in WYSIWYG fashion. This is where most people will start their Katana voyage. But if you just use the Katana Artist Gen 3 as a basic channel-switching amp, you’ll miss out on many of the amp’s most compelling features.
Optional But Recommended
If you’re only going to use the Katana Artist Gen 3 for home practice and recording, then the amp gives you just about everything you need right out of the box. However, if you’ll be using the amp in a live setting, an optional—but I’d say vital—accessory is the 6-button GA-FC EX footswitch. At $149, it’s a considerable expense for an optional accessory, but it makes leveraging the amp’s horsepower, depth, and flexibility in gig situations easier and more satisfying.
The footswitch enables super-smooth transition between patches. You hear none of the pops or lag that you hear even in big-ticket tube amps when you switch between channels. And before you balk at the extra expense, remember that changing amp channels and effects simultaneously in real time with a conventional pedal switcher would require a significantly more expensive switcher, so the GA-FC EX’s price tag is actually reasonable if you compare it to a similarly capable switcher.
Another optional accessory that is very useful is the BT-Dual ($59), which allows you to connect to the amp via Bluetooth. The BT-Dual lets you do a lot—from basic things like playing music from your phone wirelessly (useful when loading backing tracks to jam with) to advanced functionality in the Boss Tone Studio app, which lets you dive deeper into the Artist Gen 3’s customization capabilities.
From your smartphone, you can use Tone Studio to create chains of effects and amp settings. You can also use the app to change between other saved presets. What’s amazing is how immediate and seamless the patch changes are. While letting an open A chord ring, I toggled through various factory patches like spongy crunch, bloom crunch, and sparkle clean, and there were no delays, dropouts, or weird noises between patch changes. The volume levels of the respective patches were within a similar range and the changes felt organic. The Tone Studio app also allows you to edit parameters that are not accessible from the amp control panel alone. For example, you can access the “air feel” settings as well as hidden parameters like mic distance, position, and type, and ambience pre-delay and level, which lets you further sculpt your sound for line-out recording. You can also use the app to access four hidden tonal templates for the contour mini pushbutton.
Tone Mastery
The Katana Artist Gen 3 is loaded with more features than you’re likely to use. But features aren’t worth much if the sounds aren’t there, and across the spectrum of tones I checked out, the Katana impressed.
Just about every preset I tried could form a solid core sound for the genre it was designed for. The brown patch, for instance, with its full-bodied gain and arena-style delay, is ideal for Van Halen leads and communicates the nuances of tapping and palm-muting techniques, as well as a responsiveness that I might have attributed to tubes in a blindfold test. In general, high-gain settings deliver heavy bottom-end output that can be room-shaking—even at a modest volume.
Clean sounds are full and exhibit quite a bit of natural-sounding sustain, which brings melodic fills to life. In fact, the Katana Artist Gen 3 could make an excellent pedal platform—and the amp’s effects loop makes pedals very easy to integrate. But there are so many excellent drive and effects options built in here that, unless you have very specific pedal sounds you rely on, it would almost be a shame to not take advantage of the onboard options and keep your rig to a streamlined minimum.
The Verdict
Like most Premier Guitar readers, I’ve invested thousands of dollars into many amp and effects setups. But the reality is that the Katana Artist Gen 3 can do many of the things my more expensive setups can do, and do them exceptionally well. It sounds amazing in many applications, and can be used as a professional stage amp, home practice amp, and at the front end of your recording rig. And at $599, its capabilities are pretty extra-astounding.
Boss Katana-100 Gen 3 Amp Demo by Tom Butwin | PG Plays
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Last year, Taylor Guitars capped its 50th Anniversary by introducing a new guitar collection celebrating the contributions of co-founders Bob Taylor and Kurt Listug to the guitar world. The Legacy Collection revives five of Bob Taylor’s classic acoustic models, curated by the legendary luthier and innovator himself. “To imagine that we’re doing guitars that harken to our past, our present and our future all at the same time,” Bob says, “I really like that.”
In developing the collection, Bob preserved the essence of his originals while integrating performance and playability upgrades introduced during his tenure as designer-in-chief. “It’s an up-to-date version of what those guitars would be,” Bob explains, “but with the same sound.”
Visually, these guitars feel classic—clean, understated and unmistakably Taylor. While Bob’s original aesthetic preferences are showcased in his Legacy models, the nod to the past runs deeper than trade dress.
From his earliest builds, Bob favored slim-profile necks because he found them easier to play. That preference set a design precedent that established Taylor’s reputation for smooth-playing, comfortable necks. Legacy models feature slim mahogany necks built with Taylor's patented New Technology (NT) design. “My first neck was a bolted-on neck but not an NT neck,” Bob says. “These are NT necks because it’s a better neck.” Introduced in 1999, the NT neck allowed for unprecedented micro-adjustability while offering a consistent, hand-friendly Taylor playing experience.
What makes this collection unique within the Taylor line is Bob’s use of his X-bracing architecture, favoring his time-tested internal voicing framework over more recent Taylor bracing innovations to evoke a distinctive tone profile. Since Andy Powers—Taylor’s current Chief Guitar Designer, President and CEO—debuted his patented V-Class bracing in 2018, V-Class has become a staple in Taylor’s premium-performance guitars. Still, Bob’s X-bracing pattern produces a richly textured sound with pleasing volume, balance and clarity that long defined the Taylor voice. All Legacy models feature LR Baggs VTC Element electronics, which Bob says “harkens back to those days.”
The team at Taylor thought the best way to demonstrate the sound of the Legacy guitars was to ask Andy Powers, Bob’s successor, to play them. A world-class luthier and musician, Andy has spent the past 14 years leading Taylor’s guitar innovation. In addition to V-Class bracing, his contributions include the Grand Pacific body style, the ultra-refined Builder’s Edition Collection, and most recently, the stunning Gold Label Collection.
Below you’ll find a series of videos that feature Powers playing each Legacy model along with information about the guitars.
Legacy 800 Series Models
First launched in 1975, the 800 Series was Taylor’s first official guitar series. Today, it remains home to some of the brand’s most acclaimed instruments, including the flagship 814ce, Builder’s Edition 814ce and new Gold Label 814e.
The Legacy 800 Series features the 810e Dreadnought and two Jumbos: the 6-string 815e and 12-string 855e. Each model serves up a refined version of the Dreadnought and Jumbo body shapes Bob inherited from Sam Radding—the original owner of the American Dream music shop where Bob and Kurt first met. “I was making my guitars in the molds that Sam had made at American Dream,” Bob recalls. “There was a Jumbo and a Dreadnought. That’s all we had.”
All three Legacy 800 Series guitars feature one of Bob’s favorite tonewood combos. Solid Indian rosewood back and sides are paired with a Sitka spruce top, yielding warm lows, clear trebles and a scooped midrange.
Aesthetic appointments include a three-ring abalone rosette, mother-of-pearl Large Diamond inlays, white binding around the body and fretboard, and Bob’s “straight-ear” peghead design. Both Jumbo models also showcase a mustache-style ebony bridge—a nod to Bob’s early Jumbo builds.
Legacy 810e
The 810 Dreadnought holds a special place in Bob Taylor’s heart. “My first 810, the one I made for myself, was a thrilling guitar for me to make,” he says. “It’s the one and only guitar I played. It didn’t matter how many guitars we made at Taylor, that’s the one I took out and played.” The Legacy 810e brings back that bold, room-filling Dreadnought voice along with the easy playability expected from a Taylor.
Taylor Guitars | Legacy 810e | Playthrough Demo
Legacy 855e
Taylor’s first 12-strings found an audience in 1970s Los Angeles. “I was making guitars that would find their way to McCabe’s in Santa Monica and Westwood Music,” Bob says, “and these guitars were easy to play. Twelve-strings were a popular sound in that music. It was a modern country/folk/rock music genre that was accepting our guitars because they were easy to play. They also liked the sound of them because our guitars were easier to record.” The Legacy 855e, with its resonant Jumbo body, slim neck and gorgeous octave sparkle, carries that tradition forward.
Taylor Guitars | Legacy 855e | Playthrough Demo
Legacy 815e
The Legacy 815e revives Taylor’s original Jumbo 6-string, delivering a big, lush sound with beautifully blooming overtones.
Legacy Grand Auditoriums
In the early 1990s, Bob Taylor heard a consistent refrain from dealers: “Not everybody wants a dreadnought guitar anymore.” Players were asking for something with comparable volume but different proportions—something more comfortable, yet still powerful. This feedback inspired Bob to design a new body style with more elegant curves, more accommodating proportions and a balanced tonal response. The result was the Grand Auditorium, which Taylor introduced in 1994 to celebrate its 20th anniversary.
Thanks to its musical versatility and easy playability, Bob’s Grand Auditorium attracted a wide variety of players. “We came into our own with our Grand Auditorium,” he says. “People were describing it as ‘all around.’ It’s a good strummer and good for fingerstyle, but it’s not totally geared toward strumming or totally geared toward fingerstyle.” Also referred to as the “Swiss-Army Knife” of guitars or the “Goldilocks” guitar, the GA quickly became a favorite among guitarists across playing styles, musical genres and different playing applications including recording and live performance. “That guitar made studio work successful,” Bob says. It gained a wider fanbase with the debut of the “ce” version, which introduced a Venetian cutaway and onboard electronics. “That became one of our hallmarks,” says Bob. “If you want to plug in your guitar, buy a Taylor.”
Today, the Grand Auditorium is Taylor’s best-selling body shape.
The Legacy Collection features two cedar-top Grand Auditoriums inspired by past favorites: the mahogany/cedar 514ce and rosewood/cedar 714ce. Both models incorporate Bob’s original X-bracing pattern for a tonal character reminiscent of their 1990s and 2000s counterparts. Shared aesthetic details include a green abalone three-ring rosette, ebony bridge pins with green abalone dots, a faux-tortoiseshell pickguard and Taylor gold tuning machines.
Taylor Guitars | Legacy 815e | Playthrough Demo
Legacy 514ce
The Legacy 514ce features solid mahogany back and sides paired with a Western Red cedar top, yielding a punchy midrange and dry, woody sonic personality that pairs beautifully with cedar’s soft-touch sensitivity and warmth. It’s a standout choice for fingerstyle players and light strummers who crave nuance and depth. Distinct visual details include faux-tortoise body and fretboard binding, black-and-white top trim, and mother-of-pearl small diamond fretboard inlays.
Taylor Guitars | Legacy 514ce | Playthrough Demo
Legacy 714ce
The Legacy 714ce also features a cedar top, this time matched with solid Indian rosewood back and sides. The result is a richly textured sound with deep lows, clear trebles and a warm, mellow response. Inspiring as it is, this specific wood pairing isn’t currently offered in any other standard Taylor model. Additional aesthetic details include green abalone dot fretboard inlays, black body and fretboard binding, and black-and-white “pinstripe” body purfling.
While the Legacy Collection spotlights Taylor’s past, newer models from the Gold Label, Builder’s Edition and Somos Collections show the company’s legacy is always evolving. Explore the Legacy Collection at taylorguitars.com or visit your local authorized Taylor dealer.
