Boss Katana series

[Jmariner]

Maybe slightly out of place to share this, but I think it is somewhat relevant. I bought a Boss Katana 50 combo based on rave reviews, and I acquired it in "like new" condition at about half it's debut price. It arrives, I see the panel and being the 50-watt version, assume I had gotten the dumbed down of the model line and it lacked all the major features.
With considering it one of the worst amps I have ever owned after nearly 3 years, I decided to update the firmware and install the proprietary software realizing I probably missed something. As it turns out, you cannot access the pedals, EQ's and so forth without a PC or the mobile app! lol

Anyway, it's not the worst amp I have ever owned, but one heck of a disappointing gimmick overall. I am just in shock they went this far with dumbing it down because my model doesn't have Bluetooth, and it even uses the old block style USB port like we pretty much only see on printers today. Overall, the features compared to buying a floor modeler/FX unit and a stand alone amp leave it severely lacking, and this in regard to a rig I just built a month or two ago, I got substantially more for significantly less than my katana sold for new in it's debut.
This amp is truly awful in it's default settings from using the panel alone, and even with a good floor modeler-FX unit plugged in. Now that I discovered "the cheat code", it's actually a good amp but I am still likely to sell it down the road.

I suspect small start-ups going the digital route are still safe with how Boss designed and marketed these machines to less knowledgeable musicians. It's a good amp, but far from amazing the way they are promoted and user reviewed.
I suppose the purpose of this thread is desiring insight from more knowledgeable and experienced designers and builders. The broad range of features it in fact lacks within any of the series is crazy to me, but it's also obviously a marketing tactic to make sure people buy more gear. The add-ons to get it maxed out in potential are 5 or 6 bills grand total!

[potul]

The fact that this amp doesn't match your particular needs doesn't make it a bad product. The idea of this amp (all the Katana series) is to have a digital modelling amp that does not have a zillion menus, and can be easily used from the panel, more similar to a traditional amp UI. What can be confusing is that instead of limiting the effects to the ones accessible on the panel, BOSS decided to add a million options that can only be accessed via PC.
But I think the ideas is not to fiddle with the amp from the PC everyday, but let you choose what 3 or 4 effects you want to use and be able to configure that and leave it in the amp.

I own the Katana 100, and I've owned also a Fender Mustang with an LCD screen and everything accessible from the menus. And I prefer 100 times the Katana. I set my sounds, select what 3 modulations, 3 overdrives and 3 delays I want to be able to access from the panel, and I'm set. I haven't connected it to the PC in the last 1.5 years.

[aron]

The Katana is really great. YES, it leans toward the programmer/tweaker and many will be turned off of that. But it is a really versatile, amazing amp actually.

[Ice-9]

I have the MK1 Katana 100 combo which can have 8 fully saved settings to recall from the front panel or footswitch. This means I can save different lists for different gigs by using the Boss Studio to edit my 8 amp presets, each preset can then be adjusted on the front panel live. 

This is great as I maybe doing a rock gig one night so all my rock settings would be loaded into the amp before the gig but on another night, lets say was a 'surf' clean sounding with spring reverbs and tremolo sounds these would be loaded in for the gig. The amp can also just be used as a standard amp if need be no matter what gig list is loaded.

Fantastic little amp and to be honest at on £280 ish at the time, what else do you need for that money.