Boss Katana Artist 100-Watt Guitar Amp Head & 2x12" Cab
The Boss Katana Artist MkII Head debut on the channel — and an immediate answer to a question I've had for a long time about how well this amp takes boutique pedals. Welcome back to Edge of Breakup.
In this episode the Boss Katana Artist 100W MkII Head and 2x12" cabinet take center stage — featuring the Black Bobbin JM by Iconic Guitars with exclusive Lollar Black Bobbin Jazzmaster pickups, alongside a pedalboard covering the Meris LVX (in the Katana's effects loop), Browne Amplification Carbon, KingTone Vibe 1968, and Dominion Electric Fuzz.
The Katana Artist MkII Head is Boss's flagship modeled amp head built on their Tube Logic design approach — five amp characters (Clean, Crunch, Lead, Brown, Acoustic) each with a Variation switch for a total of ten core tones. 100 watts of Class-AB analog power, scalable to 50W or 0.5W via Power Control. Three-band global EQ, three-way Contour switch, five simultaneous onboard effects with over 60 Boss effects accessible via Tone Studio, and eight storable Tone Setting memories. The series/parallel effects loop is what this demo specifically tests — how boutique, finicky vintage fuzz, modulation, and delay behave through a platform outside the Boss ecosystem. The answer: extremely well.
The Black Bobbin JM is the work of Shelby Pollard (Black Bobbin) and Iconic Guitars — a vintage-spec Jazzmaster build with Mastery M1 hardware, quarter-sawn maple neck, rosewood fretboard at 7.25" radius, 1 11/16" nut width, bone nut, Jescar medium frets, 280K vintage-inspired pots, and an NOS K40Y-9 PIO capacitor. The exclusive Black Bobbin Lollar pickups are the result of Shelby asking Lollar one specific question: what would your Jazzmaster pickups sound like after 50 years of aging? The answer was Alnico 2 magnets instead of Alnico 5 — lower output, natural degaussing character — combined with staggered pole pieces and traditional Jazzmaster string spacing. The Jazzmaster rhythm circuit is also explored in this demo.
🔊 Boss Katana Artist MkII Head: https://www.boss.info/global/products/katana-artist_mkii_head/
🎸 Black Bobbin: https://blackbobbin.com
🎸 Lollar Black Bobbin Pickups: https://www.lollarguitars.com/lollar-pickups
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🎸 Black Bobbin JM (Iconic Guitars) | Lollar Black Bobbin Pickups | Mastery M1 | 280K Pots | NOS PIO Cap
🎛️ Dominion Electric Fuzz | KingTone Vibe 1968 | Browne Carbon | Meris LVX (effects loop)
🔊 Boss Katana Artist MkII Head | 100W | Tube Logic | 5 Amp Characters | Series/Parallel FX Loop | 2x12" Cab
Recording: Universal Audio Apollo x4 | Lauten Audio LS-208 | Royer R10 & R121 | Sennheiser E906
