Introducing Boss's next bestseller - the Katana : Go Personal Guitar Amplifier - instant everywhere plug-and-play satisfaction!
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.
What if you could operate a similar system - which pairs with one of your existing headphones - and delivers similar results at a much lower cost? Enter stage left - the Katana : GO Personal Guitar Amplifier pocket plug-and-play device!
Now this isn’t the first plug-and-play headphones connected amp device by any means. I believe Vox were the first with their AP2-CR amPlug Headphone Amplifiers - which were / are rather more simpler affairs - I’ve had one of those for yonks. Since then we’ve had increasingly more feature-rich devices from the likes of Fender, NUX, and Positive Grid. And now Boss flexes its muscles with the most potent take on such a format to date. It has pretty much more of everything than the competitors - and delivers more flavours and effects in a smarter way. In fact to my mind the only thing that Boss may need to ’borrow’ from those other devices is NUX’s onboard BeatMachine - which is a neat feature to have, albeit not necessarily essential.
What you get here is the full Katana Amp EcoSystem at your disposal - where you can even use the Boss Tone Studio App to share Preset Patches across from your full size Katana Amp. For me the Katana : GO is the absolute perfect take anywhere practice system - while it also doubles up as an audio interface and USB Recording interface. And it truly sounds magnificent through my Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones - note that the headphones need to be wired - as otherwise you would suffer latency - as the processing occurs on the transmission device. For the Waza-Air Wireless Headphones - all the processing occurs within the headphones - which is why you can use those wirelessly - while as for the Katana : GO the App interface is wireless, but the playback has to be wired - as explained!
In very much every other category though (apart from 'onboard BeatMachine' and number of amp types) on a head-to-head basis Boss is the clear winner. In terms of the bang-for-your-buck stakes - there's very little out there that delivers more satisfaction than this $129 / €139 / £122 pocket device. Note that the custom carry pouch is an optional extra - at $19 | €25 | £22!
Bluetooth App Nirvana!
The device does have a tiny screen - which is useful for the Bluetooth Pairing - and seeing which Memory Slot / Patch is selected - but for everything else there is the Bluetooth connected Mobile App - which allows you to setup, configure, copy across and select which your 30 onboard patches are - which are split into 3 sets of 10 - A / B / C - with the format 1-A, 1-B, 2-A, etc. You can move the patches up and down within each letter selection - but need to click on the appropriate letter button on the device to get the next batch of 10 as such - really easy to operate.
Here are the patches that come default set on the device - beautifully calibrated by Boss's Gabor - where most of them work immediately and without any need for tweaking, while some will need some EQ adjustments to match better with your guitar / pickups.
These are the 30 default presets - which of course you can edit / replace as you wish! :
- 1-A BROWN LEAD
- 2-A MODERN BROWN
- 3-A METAL RIFF
- 4-A STADIUM SOLO
- 5-A 80s ROCK LEAD
- 6-A PUNK RIFF
- 7-A Major HARMONY
- 8-A PHASER LEAD
- 9-A RING DRIVE
- 10-A FIXED WAH LEAD
- 1-B NATURAL DRIVE
- 2-B WARM TONE
- 3-B STACK CRUNCH
- 4-B CRUNCH TREMOLO
- 5-B MIDSCOOP LEAD
- 6-B UK CRUNCH
- 7-B AMERICAN CRUNCH
- 8-B BASIC BLUES
- 9-B ROTARY OCTAVE
- 10-B FUZZ LEAD
- 1-C CLEAN CHORUS
- 2-C FAT CLEAN
- 3-C AMB CLEAN
- 4-C RETRO PHASE
- 5-C NEO CLEAN
- 6-C UK CLEAN
- 7-C SLAPBACK ECHO
- 8-C CHILL TREM
- 9-C T-WAH CLEAN
- 10-C FOR ACOUSTIC
It's interesting that it kind of starts heavy on the A, and gets progressively lighter / lower gain through B and C patches. I tend to prefer heavy riffing - and the Brown Lead, Metal Riff, 80s Rock Lead, and Phaser Lead were immediate and instant successes for me. While in mellower mood - the Clean Chorus, Amb Clean, Chill Trem, and T-Wah Clean are my primo choices.
Boss have really done a superb job on the variety and mix of effects here - and the App is so incredibly easy to operate with a very intuitive and easy to understand interface.
TUNER | CHAIN
TUNER | CHAIN are the first two options you see on the App Screen.
The TUNER option loads up a cool chromatic tuner which we will not particularly concern ourselves with here - the Chain Arrangement is the more salient part!
CHAIN ARRANGEMENT
So instead of a fully drag-and-drop arrangement of Effects Blocks - you have a more fixed format here - but where you can select 7 preset patterns of arrangement - which typically involve the placement of the EQs and core effects blocks. It's simple enough and wide-ranging enough to cover all bases really! :
Options : CHAIN 1 | CHAIN 2-1 | CHAIN 3-1 | CHAIN 4-1 | CHAIN 2-2 | CHAIN 3-2 | CHAIN 4-2
e.g. Chain 1 : [IN] > [BST] > [AMP EQ] > [MOD] > [FX] > [DELAY] > [DELAY2] > [REVERB] > [SPEAKER]
AMPLIFIER
Next we have the AMP Settings
Everyone should be familiar with the Core Katana Amps Selection - which sine series II has also included a 2nd Variation for each of the 5 amp models - delivering 10 Amp types in total - where the other competing devices have more specific types (Postive Grid Spark Go has 33) - while overall Boss has more effects and variations than any of those other devices. And this is of course Canon within the Boss Katana EcoSystem - and therefore mirroring the features and functionality of their full size amps.
- BROWN
- LEAD
- CRUNCH
- CLEAN
- ACOUSTIC
- [VARIATION]
Controls for - GAIN (%) | VOLUME (%)
AMP EQUALIZER
BASS (%) | MIDDLE (%) | TREBLE (%) | PRESENCE (%) | RESONANCE : VINTAGE > MODERN > DEEP
60+ EFFECTS
Interestingly - the Effects are split out across 12 selections - where several of them have overlapping options - these mostly correspond to the CHAIN ARRANGEMENT BLOCKS - but there are addition categories here - including SOLO, PDL FX and NS (Noise Suppressor).
All very intuitive really, and I've listed out the key options below :
- BST
- MOD
- FX
- DLY
- DLY2
- REV
- SOLO
- CONTOUR
- PDL FX
- EQ
- EQ2
- NS
BST - Clean Boost / Treble Boost / Mid Boost / Crush OD / Blues Drive / Overdrive / Natural OD / Warm OD / Turbo OD / T-Scream / Distortion / Fat DS / DST+ / Guv DS / Rat / Metal Zone / Metal DS / '60s Fuzz / Muff Fuzz / Oct Fuzz / HM-2 / Metal Core / Centa OD
MOD - Chorus / Flanger / Phaser / Uni-V / Tremolo / Vibrato / Rotary / Ring Mod / Slow Gear / Slicer / Comp / Limiter / T.Wah / Auto Wah / Graphic EQ / Parametric EQ / Guitar Sim / AC Guitar Sim / AC Processor / Wave Synth / Octave / Heavy Octave / Pitch Shifter / Harmonist / Humanizer / Phase 90E / Flanger 117E / DC-30
FX - Chorus / Flanger / Phaser / Uni-V / Tremolo / Vibrato / Rotary / Ring Mod / Slow Gear / Slicer / Comp / Limiter / T.Wah / Auto Wah / Graphic EQ / Parametric EQ / Guitar Sim / AC Guitar Sim / AC Processor / Wave Synth / Octave / Heavy Octave / Pitch Shifter / Harmonist / Humanizer / Phase 90E / Flanger 117E / DC-30
DLY - Digital / Pan / Stereo / Analog / Tape Echo / Reverse / Modulate / SDE-3000
DLY2 - Digital / Pan / Stereo / Analog / Tape Echo / Reverse / Modulate / SDE-3000
REV - Plate / Room / Hall / Spring / Modulate
SOLO : 0-100
CONTOUR - Contour : Off > 3 | Type : 1-4 | FREQ SHIFT : -50 > +50
PDL FX - Pedal Wah / Pedal Bend / Wah 95E
EQ - Parametric EQ / GE-10
EQ2 - Parametric EQ / GE-10
NS [Noise Suppressor] - Threshold (%) | Release (%)
BASE MENU :
Right at the base of the App you have a further menu which grants you access into other areas - including the Boss Tone Studio - Librarian / Tone Exchange
EDITOR | SESSION | LIBRARIAN | TONE EXCHANGE | SYSTEM
During the pre-release testing phase we used a Test version of the App - which had all the features intact, bar the ability to share across the patches from your Katana Amp - via the Boss Tone Studio. Which would have been fairly moot for me in any case - as you know that I operate my Katana Artist II very much as a neutral / flat EQ'd Clean Pedal Platform Amp.
While for those who really use those Amp Preset Patches to their full potential - you can save those across to your Katana : GO device - for seamless in-context practice sessions.
KATANA : GO - Key Features
- Sound Quality : 48kHz / 32 bit
- Display : OLED 128 x 32 Dots
- Memory Slots : 30 Guitar / 30 Bass
- Guitar & Bass Modes
- Amp Models : 10 - BROWN / LEAD / CRUNCH / CLEAN / ACOUSTIC x Variation
- Effects : 60+
- Simultaneous Effects : 6 + 2 x EQ Block
- Bluetooth Streaming
- USB / Recording : USB-C
- Battery Life : Rechargeable Lithium-Ion vis USB-C
- Stage Feel : 1 / 2 / Custom
- Headphones : 1/8" Jack
- Foot Switch / Expression : Via Bluetooth (FS-1-WL / EV-1-WL)
- Editor App : Boss Tone Studio
- Librarian Software : Boss Tone Studio
- Compatible Presets : Katana / Katana MKII / Katana Bass
- YouTube Video Control : Via App
- Markers for Preset Changes
- Onboard Tuner
- Onboard Noise Gate (NS)
- Size / Weight : 45 x 125 x 24mm (fully extended)
- Weight : 70g
- MAP / RRP : $129 | €139 | £122
NOTE - you will need a set of wired headphones to connect to the device. Roland / Boss makes the phenomenal V-Moda headphones, while I'm using my daily runaround set - the Sony WH-1000XM5.
Recommended Accessories
Carrying Pouch : CB-KTNGO (Accessory / Optional) [$19 | €25 | £22]
Headphones : V-Moda - Crossfade 3, Crossfade LP2, Crossfade M-100 Master, M-200, M-200 ANC, S-80.
Wireless Controllers : Boss EV-1-WL, FS-1-WL.
Final Thoughts
I've always been one to advocate 'pushing air' and stating a preference for loud and direct amp playback. Which is why I didn't overly consider the Waza-Air as a viable platform for me at its time of launch. But there has been many a time where I wanted to practice late at night - particularly if I've just witnessed an amazing gig and want to get into deconstructing some of those riffs - or learning to play them via songsterr.com and similar.
The Katana : GO has actually been quite the revelation for me. Sure it doesn't give me quite the same dynamics as my fully live rig - particularly in the guitar volume gain cleanup stakes. But as a wide-ranging practice platform it's absolutely perfect for my needs. And in particular with the Stage Feel feature active - it sounds really exceptionally lively and vibrant - a million miles away from my earliest experiences with modelling amps - which could render somewhat flat and dull at times. No such issues with the Katana : GO - it truly sounds magnificent and richly detailed - with loads of beautiful harmonics delivered direct to my ears!
Pretty much everything about this is exactly as how I would have it and the Katana : Go Device and App Interface work seamlessly together. The only nice added extra would be to have an onboard BeatMachine too - but that is a tiny omission within the grand scale of things!
The product is immediately accessible to all - and instantly and overwhelmingly satisfying. The fact that you can pair it with your favourite headphone set is a bonus too - and makes travelling with the device a breeze!
Boss has really been on a roll of late - and this device is going to propel it even further ahead of the chasing pack - these are surely going to be one of the hottest sellers of the year!
Demos
