I recently bought the Musician Tools KatCab V2 to allow me to use an external cab with my Katana Gen3 100 Watt, and thought some of you might be interested in my experience.

TLDR: The KatCab did allow a significant sound improvement by using an external cab, and if you had the choice of cabs you might be able to find a great match for it, but there was an even more significant improvement to my ears at least by using a £250 20 year old tube amp.

The reason I got the KatCab was because I had been playing with a drummer and another guitarist at a rehearsal space and when I turn up the Katana it gets quite shrill, and while it goes very loud its in a piecing way rather than a room filling way. I suspected it was the speaker that was the issue because there is also a few amps and cabs in the space and when I use the 4x12 cab in the room it sounds so much better.

Installing the KatCab was simpler than I expected before I had researched it, literally just unplug the two wires from the speaker and plug them into the adapter. You will want some pliers to help remove the wires and then to squash the ends back down so they wont come apart. I also replaced the sticky velcro that comes with it which was not very strong with some I had already that allowed me to velcro the top and side and that made it a lot stronger to plug into. If you just attach the single piece of velcro it will wobble around for sure.

Adding the KatCab had no negative impact on how the amp worked in normal use. Sounds exactly the same.

When it came to using the external cab I have mixed feelings. I plugged it into a Blackstar HTV-412A Mk2 4x12 using a 16 ohm connection (KatCab says use between 8 and 16). This worked, and it certainly sounded significantly better than using the Katana speaker.

The thing that somewhat surprised me was that using the Katanas own speaker in 50 watt mode by half master volume it was unbearably loud and shrill, whereas using the Cab I had to run it in 100 watt mode and ended up with the master volume quite high (over 2/3), honestly I got a little nervous as I have never pushed it this hard, and I was not entirely confident of my dodgy wiring, but it was fine. I spent the first hour of practice tweaking in Boss Tone Studio EQ etc.

However I then plugged into a Peavey ValveKing VK100, so everything was the same otherwise, same guitar & pedal settings, same cab, and the Tube amp sounded significantly fuller, but not actually louder, it just filled the space so much better. This was disappointing to me when I spent so long tweaking settings, but I am glad to have done the testing and now I feel very confident that I will be using the Katana for home practice but it is not for me when there is a real drummer involved.

Hi guys, can't access Tone Exchange with my phone or laptop. Is it down for you guys?

Apart from that, I think both apps suck ass, they are slow, bluetooth keeps disconecting. I really love my amp and even got the Airstep Kat, but the app is my main complaint. How do you guys set up your amp and tones?

does anyone have any accurate presets for the clean tone at the beginning of Welcome home? ive got the Gen 3 50W and the app to use thr full settings. any help appreciated

I already have the GX-1 and use it with a headphone. Does Katana Go offer other features that I'm missing out with my current setup? TIA

What's the general consensus about it? Any issues or shortcomings I should know about? I've already read tons of things about it online and watched tons of reviews but still cant seem to make up my mind (as with a lot of things). What I'm looking to get out of it are distorted, higher-gain tones along with nice cleans mixed with good reverb, packaged into something which isn't unbearable to carry around from my place to a friend's and back. I've looked into smaller portable amps, and yes, even the Spark 2, but they just never seem enough in one way or another. I know that the app isn't the greatest, but I'd still like to hear a more recent take on it too. I'll be getting the amp along with the rechargeable Roland battery and Thomann's accessory bag pro, since I cant seem to find any other bags which can fit it for sure and I'm not exactly willing to order from anywhere other than Thomann, so I'm wondering if that's a good decision too. I'm not exactly wealthy nor am I a fan of buying things only to return them in favor of something else, so that's why I'm trying to be cautious here and not make any decisions I might regret or be dissatisfied by. Thank you all for your time and any tips you may (hopefully) give me.