Boss Katana Go Headphone Amp

Ik speel thuis bas op een Fender Rumble 40 combo. Ik kan hier een iPad op aansluiten en dus tegelijk spelen met een nummer naar believen.
Bovendien kan ik een hoofdtelefoon aansluiten op de combo: zo kan ik nog steeds de muziek horen en tegelijk spelen, zonder huisgenoten te storen.
Het probleem is de erbarmelijke geluidskwaliteit die ik dan hoor. Ik heb me lang sufgezocht naar een beter alternatief.
Tot ik toevallig een YouTube filmpje over de Boss Katana GO zag.

Meteen gekocht en … dit voldoet 100% aan mijn verwachtingen.
De kwaliteit van de muziek enerzijds, en het tegelijk bespelen van de bas anderzijds, is absolute top.
De 30 voorgeprogrammeerde tonen klinken niet allemaal even fantastisch, maar dat is kwestie van persoonlijke smaak en van wat je verlangt.
Maar er zijn genoeg mooie bruikbare tonen voor ieders smaak.
Bovendien kan je voorgeprogrammeerde tonen vervangen door eigen ingestelde tonen.

Een troef is dat je de GO kan instellen voor gitaar OF voor bas: zo krijg je enkel de info te zien die relevant is voor jou instrument.

Ik weet nu dat Fender met de Mustang een soortgelijk toestel heeft. Ik kan niet vergelijken en dus niet oordelen.

Ik kan de Boss Katana GO van harte aanbevelen aan elke bassist.
Ik heb slechts één punt ter verbetering: de instructies voor het pairen mochten iets duidelijker zijn (2x pairen, 1x met de app, 1x met je audio). Een beetje zoeken, maar het lukt zeker.

Since many years I am buying headphone amps for guitar. They shall be very usefull for practicing when on the road. But, untill now they all have one of the following:
- teriible compression
- very limited sound customization options
- crappy sound

Last week I bough new Katana 3 (previous two I was returning after few days) and also - brand new Katana.GO (I had the previous one, but destroyed it on very first day, after demonstrating to my wife, how I can fit it in the pocket of my jeans. I torn the bloody potetiometer ring) (yes, I have 8 kilo overweight).
Anyway. This time both (the Katana 3 and Katana Go) stay with me!

The new GO does not have that huge potentiometer knob (instead it is small ring on the side (like in many headphone amps before). It fits in the pocket of jeans ;-)

SOUND
Bloody Lora, it DOES sound like Katana. I made few presets on Katana 50Ex. I imported those presets to GO. They do sound the same. Which is amazing! That means, if you use any Katana and have your presets, you may now import those presets to GO and have your guitar sound on the go (I mean on the go, but also on the GO)! A-ma-zing!

VERSATILITY
- You may use it as headphone amp.
- You may use it as practice amp with backing tracks.
- You may use it as audio player (it plays your music tracks).
- You may use it (when connected to FS-1-WL as full (backup) guitar rig.
- You may use it as audio interface for computer or tablet/phone.
- You may use it as small recording studio to record ideas on-the-go.
- You may smash it on the ground and stamp on it to de-stress yourself (not recommended).

PRICE
You see it. For all those features not really expensive.

BOSS Tone Studio for Katana Go - works well and is usefull (althought somehow limited, I am using also different software).

BAD SIDE
There is one. Roland for reasons known only to them decided not to write everything in the manual. Or in other words - User's Manual is crap. Missing few important points (eg. How to properly connect BOTH bluetooth interfaces to your tablet/phone to have playback in your hedphones). Manual is bad. The rest is amazing!

As I mentioned, I have at least dozen of different headphone amps for guitar, and they all landed after very short time in drawers with other trash. If there will be no sudden problems with battery life Katana GO definitely will stay with me! Very well designed and well sounding product!

The sounds you can get out of a Katana are great, and this little thing does them all. And the Stage Feel feature makes it incredible to take around the house and play the guitar anywhere.

It functions as a bluetooth audio device, so you can connect your phone to it and just stream audio directly to it (and thus your headphones) without any hassle. It doesn't allow bluetooth earpods to connect to it, I assume because the latency would make them impossible to play with anyway.

The only thing that's missing is being able to upload your own IR, that would really take it to a more professional level, but it's a practice tool, so it's not a problem.

This is a fantastic thing. I wanted to replace my NU-X mighty plug with this for many reasons, but the main one was the volume knob (new one is good) and the Bluetooth control. With this feature, I've built a small board with 2 di boxes and a boss fs-1-wl with an extra switch and an expression pedal with toe switch. This is on a Pedaltrain Nano with a battery pack on. It’s a perfect emergency rig. Honestly, the sound is fantastic and nothing short of amazing, as good as any modeller I have.
Get one for practice, but also for piece of mind. Having one of these in your case with a TRS 1/8" to TS 1/4" will give you a perfectly gig worthy rig. Plug into a di box or even the FX return of the house amp.