Universal Audio have definitely been busy these days, and following their ANTI 5150 take - they’ve completed an almost identical exercise for the MESA/Boogie Dual Rectifier Revision F.

The controls are pretty much identical bar the Channel Selection and Cab assignments - and including the 3-Band EQ + Presence, and the 3-controls secondary Overdrive (TS808).

This is essentially the second of its High Gain Preamp pedals - I presume there will a third variant some day too - as most of ...

In my usual way I’ve poured over the Ample manual several times, and distilled the essentials down into a graphical visual format. This is my most detailed Poly Effects visual to-date with a lot of fine details - including all the Cab variants in the margins.

Same as with the ’Verbs’ - this is an IR-infused approach (specifically Neural Amp Modelling) - where those Classic Amps have been expertly captured and profiled - and rendered in simple but richly textured stereo format. You don’t get...

When I first saw a teaser for the Neural DSP Nano Cortex I thought it was an interesting idea - but one that I wouldn’t necessarily get along with. For instance - because the Source Audio compacts offload a lot of the pedal control to the Neuro App - that has entirely managed to put me off those devices - I love the larger One Series pedals - Ventris, Nemesis, Collider and recent Artifakt - which you can entirely run off the surface controls - but I’ve never really gotten on with any of the ...

You can instantly feel that the new amp is more immediate, tighter, and responsive than before - with more snap and punch to its output, and deeper soundstage projection. It benefits from additional expansive controls and output options, and now is much more controllable via direct Bluetooth App control with the Boss Tone Studio App. I would describe it as overall significantly more articulate and dynamic than before.

And I really love the new ’Pushed’ Amp Type - which I’ve switched over to...

I feel I did the definitive write-up of the GT-1000 Core back in January of 2021. The Core stayed on my board from October 2020 through March of 2022 - so I certainly built up a decent knowledge and experience of that pedal. I will never though be one to have the GT-1000 as I prefer individual effects mostly, many of them analogue, with the occasional workstation - while I appreciate the leaps-and-bounds evolution of digital formats.

In the Update release notes much is made of improvements ...

Somewhat serendipitously - Boss’s Katana Series was birthed in the same year that Guitar Pedal X first started - 2016. From that first MKI Series I very early on acquired a Katana 100, which of course was a long term favourite of mine. Then in 2019 Boss introduced the improved MKII Series - with the quite superb Artist MKII arriving a year later - that was to be my second Katana Amp. And now in 2024 Boss has released the Gen III Series, NOT MKIII, as this release is far more significant than a ...

I’m totally in awe of the technical prowess presented on this killer dual analog amps in a pedal format.

It’s actually a very compact device at just 125 x 105 x 65 mms, and carries so many advanced functions here almost entirely in the analog domain. There’s not a single sub-menu here - this is surely WYSIWYG perfection - while it does use every available surface to cram in all the technology that is needed to support all those features.

At first encounter this all seem wholly intuitive...

This is truly quite a feat of engineering, and it’s all so beautifully executed too. That said Boss’s Katana : Go had a useful tiny screen, and Bluetooth connectivity to its app - which this devices could really have benefitted from. I’ve long grown tired of having to USB-cable-connect my pedals to a laptop app for updates - it should all really just be bluetooth to an iOS or Android mobile phone app by now.

In any case, the operation of this device could not be easier - you first of course...

Most of you will be familiar with the $399 / €399 / £339 Boss Waza-Air Wireless Guitar Headphone Amp - which delivers the Katana Amp ecosystem within a wireless Bluetooth Headphone Set. The Amps and Effects selection is controlled by a Bluetooth connected Mobile App - and since all the processing is done inline within the Headphones you don’t suffer any wireless lag. That proposition though is rather dear for many, and very much limits the choice and style of headphone you have at your disposal...