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 too…
$119 at sweetwater, so same price as the fender Mustang micro
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/KataGo--boss-katanago-mini-guitar-headphone-amp
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.
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 I’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 I’ve mainly used this when using Jamulus so I can communicate with the other people.
TBH though, I’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, I’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 didn’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 didn’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
I purchased one on release, couldn’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 ‘session’ so you can play along through the katana app.
This looks to be a very good piece of gear! I have the Katana MkII 50… it’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 go… yet.
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 don’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 that’s largely speculation on my part.
Cheers,
Keith
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 I’m wrong
I’d be surprised if it worked with BT headphones but who knows
All correct. You can stream to it with Bluetooth, but need wired headphones.
Bluetooth has a latency which isn’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 doesn’t matter for streaming music.
Cheers,
Keith
Okay… I still am considering this to buy… total bummer about the Air Pods though… I really love mine & us them a lot! Thanks for the clarifications, guys!!!
Tod
I’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. I’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 “Stage Feel” mode. I use headphones alot but I’ve never really liked the sensation that the sound is in the center of my head. I much prefer an actual amp but it’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 don’t really need this but I’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 I’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 it’s what I primarily use because it’s so easy. I like it but find myself almost exclusively using the “Green” amp which is a “65 Deluxe”, 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 “Stage Feel” mode and may give this one a try.
Blockquote
Will it chug…
You can use the session manager features to repeat a section of a youtube video with any amp. The repeat feature doesn’t require that the app is connected to the katana go. I actually used the katana go app with my mustang micro.
