Boss Nextone Artist Guitar Amplifier

Good amp at a great price.

I absolutely love this amp, it finally has the sound that I have been looking for. The clean channel is shimmering and crystal clear, and crank it and can get a little gritty. In lead mode is when things really kick of, 2 F pre amps, and a V and M pre amp, I love the V pre amp. Too bad it took me 4 previous amps to find this one. I am so happy with it. The reason not 5 stars ? Boss should have packaged it with a pedal .

Great amp, great sound, great value

I was always impressed with the Nextone amps when I tested guitars in the store - so when I saw the great, demo deal from Sam Ash on the 80 watt Artist, I bought one. The amp is even better than I imagined. I already owned a Katana, so I had the GA-FC foot switch and it integrates beautifully with the Nextone. I play in a 4 piece blues rock band and I don't even need to go over the 1/2 power level to keep up with the live sound level. Tones are great, the boost and tone control functions are a big plus as well. Hit the channel button on the GA-FC a second time for a volume boost when soloing. Also the ease of using other speaker cabinets is a great feature.I can't say enough great things about this amp. No need to lug heavy tube amps or worry about expensive ... MoreI was always impressed with the Nextone amps when I tested guitars in the store - so when I saw the great, demo deal from Sam Ash on the 80 watt Artist, I bought one. The amp is even better than I imagined. I already owned a Katana, so I had the GA-FC foot switch and it integrates beautifully with the Nextone. I play in a 4 piece blues rock band and I don't even need to go over the 1/2 power level to keep up with the live sound level. Tones are great, the boost and tone control functions are a big plus as well. Hit the channel button on the GA-FC a second time for a volume boost when soloing. Also the ease of using other speaker cabinets is a great feature.I can't say enough great things about this amp. No need to lug heavy tube amps or worry about expensive re-biasing costs when replacing tubes. This amp covers it all. Not sure why they are not more popular but they should be up there with Katanas.

I would buy this product again.

Great sound!!!

Like a old tube amp, some severe limitations for 2018

Very hard to complain about Tone, Power (both clean and over driven). It would be very hard to pick the difference between a black face, dsl 20c and nextone. I would say the differences are so minor, especially if you adjust the bias; you can get pretty much identical tone, attack response compared to a real amp.Now comes the limitations- No line in to connect MP3 players for backing tracks- Only one custom patch set. You can't store several of them and choose between them directly from front panel.- Foot switch (you need to pay extra) is just limited to Channel, DELAY. Nothing else, can't change between custom patch sets etc.- Any thing like Noise Gate, Compressor etc can't be enabled directly from the front panel. You need to connect a PC, it is impractical ... MoreVery hard to complain about Tone, Power (both clean and over driven). It would be very hard to pick the difference between a black face, dsl 20c and nextone. I would say the differences are so minor, especially if you adjust the bias; you can get pretty much identical tone, attack response compared to a real amp.Now comes the limitations- No line in to connect MP3 players for backing tracks- Only one custom patch set. You can't store several of them and choose between them directly from front panel.- Foot switch (you need to pay extra) is just limited to Channel, DELAY. Nothing else, can't change between custom patch sets etc.- Any thing like Noise Gate, Compressor etc can't be enabled directly from the front panel. You need to connect a PC, it is impractical for gigs. The whole point of paying this much money is to avoid all the PC, app etc. Roland completely missed the point- Very weak over drive. It is just barely enough to push the amp to start breaking up. You certainly need pedals.I would gladly give it 5 stars just for the clean tones. But in 2018, it is very hard to understand the design of this amp. It is not very user friendly. Especially after using Katana Artist. I have a strong feeling Roland will issue a update with more front panel options and memory banks.

Outstanding performance

I’m a professional player that needed a back up to a rather fragile/old/expensive/rare amp. I recently gave my Boss Katana to my daughter to use and wanted something a bit beefier and something that wasn’t overly complex. This fit the bill perfectly, but I was worried about the sound being a bit harsh, as some solid state amps can be. All my worries disappeared when I took it to a band rehearsal. Wow! Exceeded all my expectations and it takes pedals so well. The ability to choose valves is great if you like the break up in the signal to be in a certain area (it changes gain properties, not tone! Valves have nothing to do with tone, different types of valves break up differently), which it does beautifully. I leave mine on EL34’s but you can set either channel to ... MoreI’m a professional player that needed a back up to a rather fragile/old/expensive/rare amp. I recently gave my Boss Katana to my daughter to use and wanted something a bit beefier and something that wasn’t overly complex. This fit the bill perfectly, but I was worried about the sound being a bit harsh, as some solid state amps can be. All my worries disappeared when I took it to a band rehearsal. Wow! Exceeded all my expectations and it takes pedals so well. The ability to choose valves is great if you like the break up in the signal to be in a certain area (it changes gain properties, not tone! Valves have nothing to do with tone, different types of valves break up differently), which it does beautifully. I leave mine on EL34’s but you can set either channel to different valves should you want, say clean with 6v6’s and over drive channel with EL84’s. The speaker is top notch, it responds and cuts through perfectly. At gigs I have started to use it as my main amp and it is more than capable of holding its own at medium sized gigs without having to go through the PA. It was a very quick and painless delivery from SCAN too. Highly recommended for home, studio or gigging!!

Review of Boss Nextone Artist 80W 1x12 Guitar Combo Amp

It seems as good as the reviews suggest - preferring now to my other amp which cost 3 x as much!

This amp is shockingly great

I'm a believer in digital modeling technology, and I've been impressed by past devices I've owned including the Fender Deluxe ToneMaster and the Strymon Iridium. But this Boss Nextone Artist takes it to a whole new level. WOW does this thing sound good.You can go on YouTube and hear demos, so I won't go too deep into that. The main thing I want to emphasize is a trick that others have pointed out online. The trick to getting a great sound out of this amp is to turn the Master Volume up all the way. You can then control the output volume using the "wattage" switch and the volume knobs on each channel.Once you've done that Master Volume trick, you'll hear all the nuances in this amp. The four modeling modes each sound distinct, and honestly they all sound great. ... MoreI'm a believer in digital modeling technology, and I've been impressed by past devices I've owned including the Fender Deluxe ToneMaster and the Strymon Iridium. But this Boss Nextone Artist takes it to a whole new level. WOW does this thing sound good.You can go on YouTube and hear demos, so I won't go too deep into that. The main thing I want to emphasize is a trick that others have pointed out online. The trick to getting a great sound out of this amp is to turn the Master Volume up all the way. You can then control the output volume using the "wattage" switch and the volume knobs on each channel.Once you've done that Master Volume trick, you'll hear all the nuances in this amp. The four modeling modes each sound distinct, and honestly they all sound great. I'm especially enjoying the 6V6 mode on the "Lead" channel. It's so good that I don't even need a first stage overdrive pedal.The other thing to know is that the amp's computer-based editor contains IMMENSE functionality and goes far beyond anything you could do with the amp dials. I had no idea how many sounds were in this amp; it's slightly overwhelming if I'm being honest. But it's got a huge range of drives via the "boost" section plus some really good reverb, delay, and tremolo options. But you have to use the computer-based editor.This amp is so great that it's actually worth investing in. And by that I mean that it's worth upgrading its speaker. I tried plugging mine into an external cab with a Celestion C90 speaker, and it got even better. So I'm going to swap out the Boss stock speaker with a Celestion G12 Creamback and get the full value out of this amp. You can also opt for the top-of-the-line Boss Nextone Special, which has a better speaker, but that amp is bigger/heavier/more expensive. Personally I'll allocate the money to an a la carte speaker. Other than that, a FANTASTIC amp!

This is an excellent gig ready or home practice amp

I ordered this amp after reading the specs almost immediately. With the awesome MF customer policies and Roland/Boss quality and performance I took a shot. Sooo pleased that I did, seriously this Artist Model is a warm and powerful amp that is just an amp... no modeling menu or screen to read no Mobile APP! This truly is like having a Maintance free Tube amp because it sounds and reacts very similar to a valve amp, easy to carry I haven't had it very long but I have and do own Boss pedals and Roland keywords for many years and quality is superb. This thing performs exactly as advertised no dolly or roadies needed!

Very Nice Amp!

I play professionally and have owned a lot of expensive tube amps like Fenders, Boogies, etc. The Nextone sounds as good or better than all of them and is more versatile. People have complained that it doesn't have enough channel gain, but I suspect they mostly play at home. I appreciate the more moderate gain structure of this amp as I prefer to play clean or use a boost pedal for more distorted sounds. My only problem with this amp and the Boss Katana Amps is the rather poor footswitching system with the GFAC or whatever you call it.