Boss Katana Hummm

Gear & Tools Talk 🔊 Amplification & Effects
1

Hi all,

I’m new here and am loving the info and recordings that are being posted.

I have decided recently to step up my guitar and start learning properly, but have been enjoying playing different songs that like for a while now on an acoustic.

Even more recently I have bought an electric guitar (that I am really enjoying) and now a loop pedal and a Boss Katana 50w amp both of which have been great to explore and the Katana has transformed my sound :grinning::grinning::+1:

However, my question is that I seem to have a background hum or hiss when the amp is on any setting other 5an acoustic or clean. The hiss/hum goes away when I touch the strings or jack plug​:flushed::thinking:. I was wondering if this is normal or if I need to adjust my settings to stop this?

Cheers for any help :+1:

2

I assume it’s a single coil guitar.

This is common with single coil guitars and it’s the guitar picking up the hum, not the amp. The amp is just amplifying the signal from the guitar. Higher-gain settings will amplify the hum more so the hum is still there on the clean channel, it’s just a lot quieter.

The hum comes from the pickups picking up electrical noise from your environment. This is 50 or 60 Hz (depending on where you live) mains hum and some devices, like fluorescent lights, make this worse.

This phenomenon is the whole reason that “humbucker” pickups exist.

When you touch the strings, your body is grounding the strings which drastically reduces the hum.

So, yes, this is normal.

Cheers,

Keith

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3

Thanks for the explanation Keith that makes sense. Yes single coil twin pickups. Maybe I’ll play around with volume and gain a bit more just to see where the best results are.
Thanks👍

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4

Note that the Katana has a noise suppressor option. This is only configurable through the PC Tone Studio app.

Roland - Exploring The Hidden Powers Of The Katana Guitar Amp.

It might be worth having a play with this.

Also, the following article is worth a read:

Cheers,

Keith

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5

Great, thanks yet again. Most of this is a little above my pay grade currently so I hadn’t even looked at the PC software for the Katana but I’m really happy with the sound I’m getting.

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6

Thanks again, that Rock Guitar Universe article was extremely interesting, I have an Elect/Electronic background so it makes perfect sense, :+1::+1:

7

Katana has a Noise Gate built in within Tone Studio, try activating it and playing around with the knobs to reduce the hum. Under NS tab in Tone Studio.

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8

@Majik @adi_mrok Do you guys know if a noise suppressor plugin like that also exists for amp sims ? For example, a plugin in Reaper or Neural DSP softwares ?

9

Unfortunately I never used a sim but potentially there should be a plugin for Reaper that helps with background noise. I am sure Keith will know the answer to your question :wink:

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10

Some amp Sims have a noise gate. I don’t know Neural DSP, but I know Tonelib and that has one.

There’s probably some DAW plugins too, but your best bet will be an amp sims, as it’s generally when applying higher gain amp settings that this is needed.

Cheers,

Keith

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11

I don’t use reaper but apparently there is a vst plugin available called ReaFIR.

https://www.reaper.fm/reaplugs/

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12

Hi CD02.
Just a quick F.Y.I.
Dowbload Boss Tone Studio from the Boss website.
It’s free and is for the Katana range of amp’s. Just follow install and there are masses of settings to explore if you wish or preset amp tones to download and use through you amp at the click of the mouse.
I have the same amp.
Have fun.
Mike

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13

With an electric guitar single or double hum buckers, you need to learn palming to muffle strings while playing. It sounds complicated but you learn it quick. Without palming the noises amplify, especially when playing loud. Research on YouTube. For just general hum, the other comments cover it.