These New Japanese Guitar Amps Could End Fender and Marshall Forever!

These New Japanese Guitar Amps Could End Fender and Marshall Forever! A Japanese amp named after a samurai sword has sold more than 1.5 million units in ten years, while a new Marshall JCM800 head costs nearly $2,900 and a tube Deluxe Reverb still weighs about 42 pounds. So could the new wave of Japanese guitar amps really end Fender and Marshall? We traced the story back to Hamamatsu, Japan's City of Music, where a repaired reed organ started Yamaha and where Roland built its first factory before giving the world the Jazz Chorus. From there: how the Boss Katana and its Tube Logic design became the best-selling amp line in the guitar industry, how Yamaha's THR created a "third amp" and how Yamaha bought Line 6 and Ampeg, and how Korg, owner of Vox since 1992, reinvented the vacuum tube itself with Nutube. We also look at the other side: Katanas assembled in Malaysia, Marshall's new majority owner, Fender's own digital Tone Master, and what a heritage tube amp still gives you that a modeler can't. Tube legend or Japanese newcomer: which one belongs behind you on stage? Tell us in the comments. #guitaramps #bosskatana #fender #marshall #roland #yamaha #vox #tubeamp #guitargear #Guitarist #GuitarTone #JapaneseGear