Boss's new GA-FC-EX Foot Controller Massively Expands on the Control Capabilities for Katana Amps

Sep 1, 202208:00 by

Stefan Karlsson

BossLoop-SwitcherUtility

Most Katana Amp users should be familiar with the Standard 6 footswitch GA-FC floor-based Foot Controller - which has been around since before the first Katana Amps were introduced in September of 2016. The idea was of course that you could switch between 4 Channels and Panel Mode and Two routes of Loops, Reverbs, Boost settings etc.

A single TRS lead connected the controller to your Amp - which provided sufficient power for the LED’s and switching. You had two further jacks where you could attach various Volume and Expression pedals for further enhanced controls.

Seeing how much has been added to the Katana Amps recently with the MKII edition expanded features, across Boss Tone Studio, and Tone Exchange etc. - the idea was to get even more granularity of control out of the Foot Controller format - which is how and why we arrived at the GA-FX-EX - essentially a massively expanded version of the original. It won’t be replacing the GA-FC which still remains as the mainstay offering - but rather it will offer a lot more smarts and enhanced control abilities over and above the standard edition - for those amps its fully compatible with.

Controls - FSW1 : CH1 / Booster Solo / Booster, FSW2 : CH2 / Pedal FX / Modulation, FSW3 : CH3 / Loop / FX, FSW4 : CH4 / Tap 1 / Delay, FSW5 : Panel / Tap 2, Reverb, FSW6 : Channel / Function / Effects. FSW2 + FSW3 = Control 1, FSW3 + FSW4 = Control 1&2, FSW4 + FSW5 = Control 2.

Chief differences being a 3rd expression jack on the back - which also allows you to attach another Foot Controller - either another GA-FC-EX or the Standard GA-FC - this gives you at least twice as many controls to have even more granular impact on your amplifier's ouput. You will of course need to access your Katana's Tone Studio App to best configure all those preferences to get the most out of using 2 controllers.

And what you can also do now is control two amps from the same controller - as the 3rd Expression Jack is multi-functional and has several uses.

Over and above those control applications - you also have a much improved interface - now featuring dual colour LED's versus just the Red of the GA-FC - so it's easier to observer exactly what's happening and what is being impacted - you have more obvious granular access to functions - and you have new ability to combine two footswitches via dual-press to effect even more clever Control functions.

The GA-FC-EX is therefore massively expanded in capabilities and prowess over its predecessor - but you can use both together if you wish - or even go for Two of the expanded edition if you feel the need!

It's just as well that I recently upgraded to a Katana Artist II - as the new GA-FC-EX is only fully compatible with the newer MKII Katana Amps.

Furthermore Boss states :

Only the following BOSS amplifiers support all GA-FC-EX features :

Katana-Artist MkII
Katana-Head MkII
Katana-100 MkII
Katana-100/212 MkII

While there will be only a degree of compatibility for :

BOSS Katana-100, Katana-100/212,
Katana-Head and Katana Artist
BOSS Nextone Special, Artist, and Stage
BOSS Waza Tube Amp Expander
BOSS Katana-210 Bass and Katana-110 Bass
BOSS Acoustic Singer Pro and Live
Roland Blues Cube Artist, Artist 212 and Tour

Furthermore both Foot Controllers are compatible with the following Boss Expression Pedals and Footswitches :

EV-5
FV-500L
FV-500L
FS-5U
FS-6
FS-7

I should be getting my own GA-FC-EX controller very soon - and I will feed back on my broader experience of that - using a MKII amp with the Tone Studio - and the new Tone Exchange - all coming up in the next few weeks or so!

Key Features and Specifications