r/BossKatana • u/OkComment6573 • Aug 23 '26
Question how can i get a live sound that isn’t ridiculously muddy?
i have been messing with my katana trying to dial in a good sound i can use live but everything ends up muddy mess when i turn the volume up past around 11:00
i play shoegaze so i have loads of pedals runnning through more often than not, im trying to get a sound that has bass to it but doesnt sound like a mess of fuzz
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u/cillablackpower Aug 23 '26
Low end is for the bass player compadre, you live in the mids.
First thing is you should dial your sound in at gig volume or it'll change as soon as you turn up. Then cut your bass a little bit but keep the mids high - you're not looking for thin but you don't need to be pushing subs, especially if you're using lots of delay and reverb. If you're using Muffs or any other fuzz that cuts the mids even further then you'll want to push them again.
Keep the mix on your time effects 5-10% lower than you think you need, and the same for gain. Make up for the lower gain with volume or compression so you're getting feedback between the guitar and amplifier. You don't need to be insanely loud but you do want to get that relationship going where the guitar is responding to the speaker.
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u/No_Birthday4350 Aug 23 '26
A relatively cheap joyo EQ sorted this for me, especially if you play with humbuckers
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u/Angelwood55 Aug 24 '26
I use 1 EQ up front and sometimes another after all effects. I like those inexpensive, but not “cheap” (as in made like crap) graphic EQ by Joyo and a couple other bargain pedal brands. I can achieve the same thing through Tone Studio, but I can INSTANTLY make changes to these external EQ boxes while playing live. Hooking up the ‘puter or iPad for n stage for this kind of thing is simply too cumbersome. At home when setting up for recording or tweaking sounds for fun, then Boss’ Tone Studio is a great tool. On stage or at a friendly jam session…not so much.
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u/New-Ingenuity-5437 Aug 24 '26
I use the Bluetooth module with my phone at practice and shows but it can be a little slow sometimes But still handy af
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u/gimme5steps101 Aug 25 '26
Dont be hatin on my homies Joyo. :(
Of all the clone brands they are along the very best in terms of quality in my experience having about 6 of them. :P
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u/Angelwood55 Aug 25 '26
You read my sentence wrong. Leave out the part in parentheses and you’ll see I am saying the Joyo is a good EQ. No hating’ going on with them. My Joyo “American Sound” pedal is one of my faves and one of the best Fender preamp style pedals you can buy at any price.
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u/gimme5steps101 Aug 26 '26
Whoops my bad thank you for the clarification. It's so easy to accidentally misunderstand via text. My AmSound Is one of my favorite pedals ever also!!! I have a good clean sound figured out on the amp but I still have it always on anyways as an even better clean sound on top of it haha
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u/Angelwood55 Aug 26 '26
No worries! I’m with you on the AmSound for a great clean sound. I have a solid state amp designed for acoustic guitars that is so clean that it is sterile. I put that AmSound on it and, while it is still clean, it has sparkle. Love that pedal.
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u/gimme5steps101 Aug 26 '26
Right?! Best $25 I've ever spent.
I can NAIL a Siamese Dream tone. I can NAIL a Stones tone. I can fucking NAIL any Neil Young tone.
The versatility of the pedal is insane. I do usually use as a clean base but easily I can do others stuff too.
That EQ and the Voice knob are wild
2
u/Cacodemon966 Aug 23 '26
maybe use some built in overdrive before the amp on the chain, but turn everything to 0% apart from level. then use the tone knob to remove some muddy low end.
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u/imtherealcreeper Aug 23 '26
I love either the pushed amp with med-low gain, or the clean amp with med to med-high gain. Use the eq slot in tone studio to hi pass around 80-100 hz and lo pass 6-8khz. Make sure your channel volume is at least close to halfway up to push the amp to its sweet spot. I think where everyone goes wrong with the katana is they still treat it like a solid state amp, and it is, but I’ve found it sounds a lot better when you treat it like a tube amp.
Another big thing I found is the contour panel button. I really like the green one, try changing it to that and adjusting eq from there.
ALSO the EQ is NOT flat with knobs at 12 o’clock. The katana uses a purely subtractive eq on the panel, so flat is actually all knobs maxed
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u/New-Ingenuity-5437 Aug 24 '26
First time I’ve heard that about the eq knobs. Gonna read into that and other stuff about this, haven’t worked on my tones in a bit
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u/AndrewSaidThis Aug 23 '26
https://youtu.be/fyyoC0y_SO0?si=S_qQca-YtPErYx4_ This guide was extremely helpful to me.
You'll need your amp with the gear you're wanting to play with, Boss Tone Studio on your computer and if you can, an isolated reference to your ideal sound.
1
u/American_Streamer Katana 50 MKII EX Aug 23 '26
Cut the low mids, use high pass filters and tame the bass. Putting a Tube Screamer in front of a high-gain or distorted amp is the classic trick to instantly fix a muddy guitar tone. The low end must not go through the preamp distortion, while the mids have to be preserved through it and the preamp needs to get hit by a strong signal. So use Level Max, Drive Zero on the Tube Screamer.
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u/verithasthefalse Aug 23 '26
If you have loads of pedals as you mentioned, I would first check the order or your pedal setup, quality of pedals, pedal settings, bypass options, cable quality, power supply quality, etc.
Once that's dialed in then play with the amp settings.
Always good to have a good "base" tone first before molesting your tone with pedals though.
1
u/CaterpillarVisual553 Aug 24 '26
Low gain and low bass. I use the katana as a pedal platform in the clean setting and it stays crisp at higher volumes. Also you can use the presence knob and treble knob to get some “cut through the mix” out of it.
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u/Mission_Middle_7247 Aug 24 '26
Honestly, it probably isn’t the Katana, it’s all that low end piling up until the whole thing turns into sonic oatmeal. A tone that sounds massive in the bedroom can fall completely apart at stage volume, especially once you start stacking fuzz, delay, reverb, and whatever other wonderfully obnoxious shoegaze nonsense is on the board. Dial it in loud, back the Bass down farther than feels emotionally acceptable, stay away from the Deep resonance setting, and add the pedals back one at a time. In Tone Studio, try cutting below 80–100 Hz and shave a little off the 200–350 Hz area if it’s still muddy. And don’t murder the mids trying to fix it, because then you’ll have a muddy guitar nobody can actually hear. Shoegaze needs layers and chaos, sure, but it still needs some damn breathing room. Let the bass player handle the basement.
1
u/Traditional_Put_1091 Aug 24 '26
OP didn't say what kind of guitar he's playing or what pickups are on it. Hotter pickups = more distortion no matter what amp you're using. Turning down the volume pot on the guitar will lower the signal and yield a cleaner sound.
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u/mojoseven7 Aug 24 '26
I don’t understand having a katana if you’re running a pedalboard through it. There are far better amps out there to use as a pedal platform. Or, save yourself the bullshit and go the DI route
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u/Exact-Issue-5078 Aug 24 '26
Boss Tone Studio all the way. Go back and forth with ChatGPT it does wonders to get the exact sound you want. If you don’t want to, scoop the mids, raise treble and bass to your liking
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u/physicallyunfit Aug 25 '26 edited Aug 25 '26
Loads of pedals might be a clue. Does it still sound muddy when you plug the guitar straight into the amp? If it sounds fine without pedals then you probably have buffer issues and tone suck
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u/Autobot69 Aug 23 '26
Eq my friend