Boss is Still Totally Winning the Amp Wars - launches killer Wireless Katana Air 30W

After a lull of a several years, Boss is totally on fire these day! Pretty much since starting down the Waza Craft route in 2014. First the pedals, then the Waza Craft Amp Head and Cab, and since then the various Katana Amps that came out of that original product research and development.

I’ve been onboard with Katana since they were first announced, and already have the KTN-100 and Mini. I already use a wireless system - in the form of the Line 6 G-10, so I already love that sort of technology. With the earlier Katana Amps you have to connect to them via cable to laptop etc. to access and manipulate the Boss Tone Studio. For the Katana Air you have a dedicated mobile bluetooth app - which connects wirelessly! This is proclaimed as the world’s first wholly wireless amp, as it can operate totally without any wires at all - no instrument cable, and equally important - it can run on batteries - so you don’t have to connect via mains lead either.

The amp takes 8 x AA batteries as well as mains power, and delivers 30W on mains, and circa 20W for 8 hours on the batteries. You get the full controls, settings, and effects of the regular Katana Amps - with 2 presets (Channel A+B), as well as the active panel settings - this amp is also stereo!

This in my opinion is absolutely the perfect practice amp - probably best of all time to-date, albeit pricey for some at £389. The technology it contains though is just brilliant and without parallel. At the start of my most recent phase of guitar journey I purchased a Line 6 Amplifi, but returned it soon after because of its flawed operation - it relied way too much on the app, and had not enough dials, settings or presets on the amp itself. The Boss gets it totally right - allowing it all to work properly without the Tone Studio App. With the App you just get a lot more - but you can already dial in everything you need with the existing amp controls.

It seems Boss has caught the other Amp manufacturers napping of late. The Katana range is head-and-shoulders above anything else that is out there right now, and everyone else is looking somewhat primitive at the moment!

This one obviously goes straight onto my wishlist - and I will look to acquire it a little later in the year - these things will sell like hot cakes. The Katana Mini is cool, but it’s really more of a novelty than a proper practice amp. The Katana Air though - has everything I would want in such an amp - props to Boss once more...: