Boss Katana Go

This is looking pretty mint for a headphone amp.

Basically a whole Katana 100 in a headphone amp, including same presets etc

Has a screen tooā€¦

$119 at sweetwater, so same price as the fender Mustang micro

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/KataGo--boss-katanago-mini-guitar-headphone-amp

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This definitely takes the lead as best headphone amp available. If someone was looking for a great practice and travel companion, it would be tough to recommend anything else.

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BOSS Waza-Air is prob a chunk better but about 6 times the price.

For $120 this looks a great deal

These look great. I already have the Boss Pocket GT (which does a lot of this, albeit in a less convenient form factor) and the Nux MP-3, which is great, so Iā€™m probably not looking to get one of these any time soon, although I do like the Boss stuff.

The Nux MP-3 does have the ability to load Cabinet IRs, and also can have a microphone as well as the guitar input (via a headset TRRS jack) which, I guess, could be used for singing although Iā€™ve mainly used this when using Jamulus so I can communicate with the other people.

TBH though, Iā€™ve not use the MP-3 that much recently as I find the user interface a little clunky and this is something where the Katana Go appeals to me, as well as the stage feel mode stuff, which seems pretty cool.

At the moment, Iā€™ve been mostly using my THR10ii or my Pocket GT which I tend to use as a small desktop unit in conjunction with a cheap wireless system.

I also like the look of the session mode. The Studio Rats have done a pretty good demo of this:

Session mode is also on my Pocket GT but, until recently, it didnā€™t work with most YouTube videos. I assumed this was down to some copyright issues as many of the more generic backing tracks would work, but actual copyright songs or backing tracks didnā€™t seem to. That included backing tracks I had uploaded to my own account on YouTube and marked as unlisted.

Session mode seemed to be something that held a lot of promise, and everyone was quite enthusiastic about but which ended up being limited going nowhere at the time.

I have noticed that the Pocket GT app had a recent fix and now YouTube videos all seem to be working properly in session mode, I suspect the launch of the Katana go has something to do with that. It seems that Boss are trying to revived it a bit. Hopefully, some content creators start to put out videos with the patch changes already embedded.

There seem to be a couple of rough edges to the Katana Go at the moment, such as Boss Tone Exchange not being available for it yet, so I would wait to see what happened there before I got one.

Other things I like the look of on the Katana Go: The wireless footswitch/expression pedal capability, and the fact it also has an acoustic mode and a bass mode.

Cheers,

Keith

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I purchased one on release, couldnā€™t be happier with it. Nice not to have to have a cable running so I can go anywhere with it. I also really like that you can put some youtube videos, or links to other pages in a ā€˜sessionā€™ so you can play along through the katana app.

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This looks to be a very good piece of gear! I have the Katana MkII 50ā€¦ itā€™d be nice to have the Go & connect to my Apple Air Pod pro!
When is Boss supposed to release the firmware update to connect to the Tone Studio?

Tod

As I own a Katana 100 mk2, I bought the Katana Go so that I can use the same patches as on my 100 mk2. So far it looks and sounds great. Looking forward to playing with it. The only thing I cannot do is link my Boss foot control pedal with the goā€¦ yet.

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I thought that was already there.

I think the only real missing thing is explicit support in Boss Tone Exchange (which is different from Tone Studio).

I donā€™t think that is anything to do with firmware either. I think they mainly need to develop it into the tone exchange website.

I get the impression they.may be setting it up to support the sharing of sessions and backing tracks as well as tones, but thatā€™s largely speculation on my part.

Cheers,

Keith

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I might be wrong about this but even though you can send music into it via bluetooth, I think you need wired headphones for the output which would mean no to Airpods, pro or otherwise - perhaps someone can correct me if Iā€™m wrong

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Iā€™d be surprised if it worked with BT headphones but who knows

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All correct. You can stream to it with Bluetooth, but need wired headphones.

Bluetooth has a latency which isnā€™t really suitable for real-time performance use: it can range from distracting to unusable.

(The current best latency on Bluetooth is around 40ms).

Latency doesnā€™t matter for streaming music.

Cheers,

Keith

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Okayā€¦ I still am considering this to buyā€¦ total bummer about the Air Pods thoughā€¦ I really love mine & us them a lot! Thanks for the clarifications, guys!!!

Tod

Iā€™ve been thinking about buying a pitch shifter. Something like digitech drop or EH pitchfork. If the Katana go has a pitch shifter that will allow me to play in Eb standard or D standard it might be a good option. Iā€™m not really a pedal person, yet. Am I correct in thinking that this device could pitch shift down to say Eb and D?

The other thing that interests me is the ā€œStage Feelā€ mode. I use headphones alot but Iā€™ve never really liked the sensation that the sound is in the center of my head. I much prefer an actual amp but itā€™s not feasible to use it at night when things are quiet and family members are studying, sleeping etc. I have a NUX MP3 so I donā€™t really need this but Iā€™d like to try that Stage Feel effect.

I live in a NYC apartment so quiet playing/practicing is an absolute here. Ok, once in a while Iā€™ll use my amp (a VOX mini3) without headphones but it has to be turned down really low. Seems like a short time ago I bought a Fender Mustang Micro and itā€™s what I primarily use because itā€™s so easy. I like it but find myself almost exclusively using the ā€œGreenā€ amp which is a ā€œ65 Deluxeā€, possibly out of laziness. The Katana Go sounds interesting and given that it has a small screen, that might make me more willing to change amps and experiment more. I also like the idea of the ā€œStage Feelā€ mode and may give this one a try.

Blockquote

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Will it chugā€¦

You can use the session manager features to repeat a section of a youtube video with any amp. The repeat feature doesnā€™t require that the app is connected to the katana go. I actually used the katana go app with my mustang micro.