Boss Katana Go Headphone Amp

Volevo acquistare la prima versione, ma è stata ritirata dal mercato. Ho dovuto aspettare quasi un anno per la nuova, con grandi aspettative. Purtroppo, è stata una delusione.

Appena tolto dalla scatola, aveva già le batterie scariche… ottimo inizio. Nonostante l'abbondanza (eccessiva) di effetti, il suono risulta piatto, chiuso, decisamente "inscatolato" e troppo "mono".

Mi aspettavo un prodotto intuitivo e immediato, ma dopo 20 minuti non ero ancora riuscito a ottenere un suono soddisfacente. L'app per Android è macchinosa: per l'editing bisogna continuamente cambiare pagina, e anche effetti semplici come chorus o compressore sono suddivisi su più schermate. Su tablet, poi, non funziona nemmeno.

Mi ha ricordato perché, anni fa, ho abbandonato i multieffetto Boss per Line6: Boss offre mille parametri, ma alla fine il suono resta sempre mediocre. Se devo perdermi tra innumerevoli impostazioni, tanto vale usare Guitar Rig, Amplitube o TH-U sul laptop. Anche questa è una soluzione portatile, ma almeno ho uno schermo grande per l’editing.

Per le jam veloci, continuerò a usare il mio vecchio Pod!

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.