Katana Go is back

[MichaelDean]

I just had an email from GAK that they've brought it back. Must have sorted out the missing component or maybe a redesign? Might need to get one.

https://www.gak.co.uk/en/boss-katana-go2-guitar-and-bass-headphone-amplifier/972558

[MrDinsdale]

They're great, hopefully this means more ongoing support and updates!

[markbunney]

Good news, it is a bit cheaper than the first edition as well.

 

i had one and sold it, and then regretted selling it so I might grab another one.

[tauzero]

I was just about to post the same thing. There's an update to the firmware available at https://www.boss.info/us/support/by_product/katana-go/updates_drivers/12b0d6f6-b2c4-41d3-8f65-b1247ce1eb4b/ which I presume means that the Mk 1 and Mk 2 are software compatible. Just did the update, all went well, and I didn't have to re-do the pairing for the audio side - on the MIDI side, the app happily scanned for and picked up the MIDI channel on the Go.

 

Externally, the only change seems to be that instead of having a big knob for volume, there's a side mounted control which I would have thought would be more fiddly.

[MichaelDean]

I wonder if the big volume control was the hard to source part? It seems strange to omit it otherwise.

[Cato]

Total unfounded speculation but without the big volume wheel the Go looks less like the Fender Mustang headphone amp.

 

I wonder if there was a 'cease and desist' involved in the sudden halting of the original run?

 

Great to see it back anyway, mine is still my go to practice set up.

Edited February 13 by Cato

[thumbo]

I've just got back into using mine again, it's an excellent little gadget for practice sessions. I was underwhelmed with the bass presets out of the box, but with some tweaking it's capable of some decent sounds. I've just dialled in a Jamerson-ish tone for my P bass with flats which has kept me entertained for a good chunk of today. 

 

How are folks using it for practice? I find the bluetooth connectivity great for playing along to tracks off my phone or laptop. 

[tauzero]

1 hour ago, thumbo said:

How are folks using it for practice? I find the bluetooth connectivity great for playing along to tracks off my phone or laptop. 

 

That's the way I use it. I've been a bit lazy over presets and haven't bothered setting up anything, must do something about that some time. Maybe.

[tauzero]

On 13/02/2025 at 16:57, Cato said:

Total unfounded speculation but without the big volume wheel the Go looks less like the Fender Mustang headphone amp.

 

I wonder if there was a 'cease and desist' involved in the sudden halting of the original run?

 

Great to see it back anyway, mine is still my go to practice set up.

 

If there was a cease and desist, it would have been the other way as the Boss came out first (or at least that's what this article says). And it also says that Fender bought up the entire supply of the required chip, hence the redesign.

[Woodinblack]

They are great things, I have one of the originals.

[MrDinsdale]

Game changer, realised I can just plug the Katana GO straight I to my phone to record little ideas straight onto my iphone via the native camera app 🙌

 

 

Its so much easier than booting up logic and connecting everything up.

[Woodinblack]

Is that straight from the USB?

[MrDinsdale]

Yeah literally plugged the usb into my phone and hit record on the native camera app, didn't even need to change any settings!

[ped]

I just got one of these after a long wait. I sold my WAZA Air headphones because whilst they’re super neat and everything, the actual headphones themselves let the system down. I really wanted the same sort of tech but where I can use my preferred bass playing headphones, the Beyer DT770. 
 

Well, the GO is bang on. I plug it into my Backbeat so it’s like it isn’t there, the app is much better than the WAZA one and I was able to make a flat preset which sounds almost identical to my VB99 setup right away (copied the settings across, pretty much). Flat amp, small upper mid bump, limiter and a tiny bit of room reverb. 
 

The app is so much more logical and thanks to a tiny box that says ‘don’t show this screen again’ when you connect the device and open the app, it’s actually more seamless then the WAZA which you basically had to pair with the app each time you opened it. 
 

I’ll spend more time with it later this week but I’m pretty confident that I will be able to get exactly the same clean sound I get with my home setup, which will be great - and I notice you can record out of it via USB, too. Excellent! 

[MrDinsdale]

I love it, there's a few times ive had an idea, connected to my phone and recorded a quick video with the audio from the Go that would've otherwise been long forgotten.

 

I love that I can play bass in the garden while my daughter's playing too. It also sounds great considering how compact it is. 

[41Hz]

On 11/05/2025 at 13:58, MrDinsdale said:

Yeah literally plugged the usb into my phone and hit record on the native camera app, didn't even need to change any settings!

When you record using the camera app with usb out, does it also record any audio you are streaming to it too?

[MrDinsdale]

12 hours ago, 41Hz said:

When you record using the camera app with usb out, does it also record any audio you are streaming to it too?

It doesn’t I’m afraid, just the input of the bass. Not sure if there are any camera apps that would let you record the built in mic at the same time but it definitely doesn’t record Bluetooth audio. 

[41Hz]

 

On 25/12/2025 at 07:31, MrDinsdale said:

It doesn’t I’m afraid, just the input of the bass. Not sure if there are any camera apps that would let you record the built in mic at the same time but it definitely doesn’t record Bluetooth audio. 

It arrived today. Connected my phone to the audio and midi bluetooth connections and streamed music. Plugged my iPad in with the usb-c lead from the KG. Just used the built in camera app to record video and it worked perfectly, bass and streamed music both recorded.

 

Maybe you could try a firmware update, or play with the USB settings?

[MrDinsdale]

Oooooo that’s interesting! I’ll try it again in that case! I haven’t updated it since I got it so maybe that’s it, I think the change between the release version and updated one were only to volume knob so can’t imagine there’s any change to functionality!

[tauzero]

Just tried this with my gen 1 Go on an Android phone (Pixel 10 Pro XL, so definitely up to date). Bass records fine on the standard camera app, the streamed sound doesn't.

 

Doing a little dig around, it seems it should be possible (for anyone with a bit of knowledge of these things, preferably more than me, there's a MediaMuxer class you can use with the MediaRecorder API which allows multiple input streams, audio and video, to be recorded). Now I just have to find an app which uses that. And after some experimentation, I can't.

 

Edit: don't have to use a different camera app at all! Go into the Katana BTS app, and into SYSTEM, then USB SETTING, and set LOOPBACK to ON. Leave both USB INPUT and USB OUTPUT as 100%. Then the common or garden Google camera will record video with both your bass and the output sound - which I think is sent over USB when the USB is connected.

 

Edited 6 hours ago by tauzero
Discovery!

[tauzero]

I should add that the USB loopback method works when you're using the recording device as the source of the music too. I have no idea what would happen if you streamed the backing audio over Bluetooth from a second device and tried to record that and the bass from the USB connected device. I'm almost certain it wouldn't result in death or, indeed, anything other than minor injuries, but remember, safety first, wear rubber gloves and wellington boots, or anything similar available from your local M&S&M.

[MrDinsdale]

Oooo that’s good to know, totally missed that option!

[41Hz]

1 hour ago, tauzero said:

I should add that the USB loopback method works when you're using the recording device as the source of the music too. I have no idea what would happen if you streamed the backing audio over Bluetooth from a second device and tried to record that and the bass from the USB connected device. I'm almost certain it wouldn't result in death or, indeed, anything other than minor injuries, but remember, safety first, wear rubber gloves and wellington boots, or anything similar available from your local M&S&M.

I saw the loop back option in settings and I fully expected I’d need to enable it to make it record bass and streamed audio together, but with mine, it just worked anyway, streaming and midi control from iPhone, recording with iPad via usb.

 

After thinking the KG couldn’t do this after looking at this thread, I’d ordered a NUX mighty plug pro, thinking I’d send the katana back. Just testing the mighty plug pro now, but it looks like the detune feature doesn’t work as you’d expect so I think I’ll send that back and keep the katana go. 

[MrDinsdale]

I wonder if this was a newer feature because I’m sure the option wasn’t there previously. 

[tauzero]

33 minutes ago, 41Hz said:

I saw the loop back option in settings and I fully expected I’d need to enable it to make it record bass and streamed audio together, but with mine, it just worked anyway, streaming and midi control from iPhone, recording with iPad via usb.

 

After thinking the KG couldn’t do this after looking at this thread, I’d ordered a NUX mighty plug pro, thinking I’d send the katana back. Just testing the mighty plug pro now, but it looks like the detune feature doesn’t work as you’d expect so I think I’ll send that back and keep the katana go. 

 

I've got both the Katana and the NUX Mighty Plug Amateur, and I think the Boss wins on sound quality, the NUX wins on the app front. Whoever designed the Boss UI hadn't progressed beyond Geocities.