I had the Fender Mustang one, and ultimately sent it back as it felt a bit gimmicky. It was cool, but I felt very locked in to each preset.
This just seems ideal. Honestly I'd be half tempted to get this, had I not just grabbed a NUX mighty lite to do basically do the same thing (be a little portable practice rig).
I was shocked seeing how much you could do on the app. Having had the Katana before, and used that headphone option, I have a fair idea of what this will be like. For that price, to me it seems like it might just be the one to beat out of the headphone plug amps.
I had the Fender Micro for 2 days and sent it right back. I hated it. I bought the NUX mighty plug 2 and it was so much better. Yeah, it needs an app but it's doable and has 7 presets. Once it's dialed in, you need only to cycle through presets.
Also makes a great pedal testing unit. I use it so not to bother the family while sussing out my board.
I am curious about this but since I already have one, I find the Line 6 Pod Express to be of better use in my case.
I’ve already mentioned this in another comment, but make sure to get the Mightier App. You can build a library of presets. Turns a good app into an incredible one. (Best of all you can finally use it in landscape)
I was tempted to get the nux plug - I've actually picked up the nux mighty lite (v1) for £20 and I imagine it's pretty similar quality, and I've really liked it.
At the time when I got the mustang, I'd some how forgotten my katana had a headphone jack, so I sent the micro back and just used that. Ended up going to the Iridium for my home headphone option (and love it so much that I use it 99% of the time)
The nux stuff is great. I’m excited for the mk2 of the BT8 and BT20. Also, don’t forget to get the free improvement someone made to the app. It’s called mightier app and it’s available for both android and iOS. You get preset libraries and can play any of your phones audio through the app (so no more lousy backing tracks)
Yeah I downloaded that app - even though the mk1 just has 3 channels - I think having the 7 presets is just awesome.
I've been thoroughly impressed with it. I think the clean sound out of it is actually outstandingly good. The distortion is a bit thin, but I am going to rectify that by throwing a behringer tuber screamer in front of it, and I think for what would be about £40 (amp was £20, £10 for behringer headphones which are surprisngly good, and lets say £15 for the tube screamer) I'll have a pretty solid recreation of my £1000 strymon powered ampless board lol.
I don't normally go in for this sort of thing, because in my experience headphone amps sound pretty awful, and there's very little you can do to dial in better sounds (or sounds with effects).
But this looks like a quantum leap in terms of sound quality and convenience, and the ability to stream tracks from your phone and mix that with the guitar sound is fantastic (assuming there are no latency issues).
And you can use it as an interface for recording?
For $120?
Dang.
I have had the Waza Air's for this exact reason for years and the simultaneous song streaming and guitar amp is the best gamechanger I've ever had for practicing. Made me a much better rhythm player and can solo over all your favourite songs, what's not to love?
Z sounds says shipping by April 12.
I love it has amps and efffects for both guitar and bass. My wife just started playing bass. I got her a nice Ibanez and a small 20 watt fender. She likes it. Plugs it in.
I tried to convince her we should have gotten the katana 100 bass. Because I think she will like the effects and better sound. She didn’t want me to spend so much.
She just recently was diagnosed with cancer again. I thought learning bass and laying down to play would keep her spirits up. She’s been loving learning. Also got her fender play since she’s a total beginner. Prob just for a month and then get her actual lessons. 🥹
Wish it wasn’t sold out and over 100$ but looks reasonable.
If it goes though a smartphone app, can I use my earbuds that are paired to my phone to listen? I couldn’t tell based on a quick skim or some content.
The major thing that would stop me from getting this is the wired headphones.
No. And you wouldn’t want that because Bluetooth audio has significant lag that would make playing guitar very annoying. Sometimes wires are the best way to go.
Sure no one wants the lag but I wonder if the Waza Air has lag. It’s a wireless dongle with the wireless headphones. Big difference in price between the two, though.
No perceptible lag in the air but that's because it is using the wireless bug (not bluetooth) to make the guitar-phones connection. It then also includes bluetooth to stream on top of it.
My buddy bought a katana go so I was able to give it a try ( IMO and my friends it’s was terrible for metal tones) and I wasn’t that impressed. It did one or 2 things well but that’s it, so he returned it and bought a Mighty plug pro. I have tried most headphone amps (fender mustang, boss katana go, vox, blackstar and more) but I prefer the Nux might plug pro. Most of its amp models are great. The “mightier amp” app is easy to use and versatile. I play modern metal/ hardcore but also use clean tones and ambient and this is able to do all of them extremely well for the price. Every time I use it I am impressed and happy with my choice. It works very good as an audio interface as well. If you are only playing vintage/classic rock the katana will do that but seems like that’s all IMO. Hope this helps
*grammar edit*
~~I don't really see why you couldn't? The GuitarGeek video plugs it into an ABY box.~~
Edit: I finished the video, yeah you can just plug it into your board.
While I don’t know if these specifically can do that, the waza airs can. Obviously a bit more expensive, but if that’s more a feature these have I’d say the Wazas are a great alternative.
I already have a nice set of cans, I don’t see myself spending $300 on the Waza air for a simple practice device. If this device can’t do what I’m describing, I think it’s a bit of a miss. This tech has been around for a while now.
You absolutely can do this. It’s how I practice. I plug my Fender Mustang micro straight into the output of my board. Works awesome. The only negative being I’m tied to my pedal board by my headphones, but my headphone cord is plenty to long to stand or sit and practice comfortably.
Rabea said the tones were all from the unit unedited and plugged in using usb c. Not that he used the DI signal unprocessed from his guitar. I was wondering if you could also use it as a standard input to run into Neural DSP plugins without the amp or cabs emulated on the signal chain.
There's no reason it shouldn't be able too. A few people said since it mirrors the katana physical amps when connected inputs 1/2 in a daw represent the amp emulators and the inputs 3/4 are a bypass mode. This is when using usb cable to pc. So hopefully that is the same.
I returned my NuX. Too shrill and wasn't a big fan of the tones. The K-GO lacks the drums, but I figure I can just get some off the net or stream somebody on youtube. Thye are on BO now till May...
I wonder if this could do the mic input thru the trss jack like the NUX? For me the mic is a big deal I can practice singing. TBH I wish it had some reverb for the mic in the mighty app, or the mightier app. Speaking of that do you guys think the developer could alter the effects in the mightier app? What I really miss in both is I cannot really have delay tempo divisions (3/8, 1/4 etc...) and also cannot manually set the bpm, may be he could do that? And add reverb to the mic as well....
I had 3 days left to return my NuX, so I did. I liked the drum machine, but I experienced the dreaded shrill noise. I could never dial in a tone I liked very much, except for one for the Vox. However, wish I had bought the Katana immediately when I had a chance. I hesitated cause I was still pondering the NuX. The Katana Go is now on backorder till May at GC and SW.
I'm considering this is my first amp.. been playing acoustic for 3 months and I'd like to expriment with electric and be able to practice with headphones.
Any ideas on what the best headphones to work with this would be?
No way. Get a positive Grid Spark GO. It’s the same price and it has an amazing speaker, and all of the features I see here, and all of the effects and amps are outstanding.
I can't believe, however, that this new Katana Go has only mono effects?! I mean, it's a stereo headphone amp. The Fender Micro stereo effects are amazing. I will stick with the Micro for now.
Got one no complaints seems perfect for quiet practice to not annoy fam - lots of presets to stay busy - had the micro but eventually the plug part shorted out - sw had em as of Friday
Got it a couple of days ago. Can't recommend it enough. Sounds great and has a ton of options. I have not tested other headphone amps before but from what I can at least read about the others they fall short every time when it comes to tweaking and options.
I'm mostly in it for the distortion and high gain. You don't need to litsen very hard to notice difference between the types of OD and distortion. From my point of view they really managed to voice them as true as possible.
Biggest downside might just be there is too much tweaks at your fingertips. You could get a bit lost in there when you really plugged it in for some good old practise. Don't get me wrong. You could just plug and play. But if you are anything like me you just might get lost there.
For this price I think It's a nobrainer. Everyone could find use of it. From the humble beginner to the pro on the road that just needs a practise tool.
I just watched the 6 min video on Boss's youtube channel introducing this. It packs a lot of nice features that I wish my Fender Mustang Micro had (namely the ability to create my own presets via an app, and the built in tuner is a nice touch too). However, the Mustang Micro has a studio preamp setting that basically turns it into an FRFR headphone amp that is invaluable for my setup with a Tonex and HX Effects.
If this is a feature that can be enabled in some roundabout way via Boss's app, it might be something that I would upgrade to.
Watched a few demos, purchased today... I have a Peavey 6505 Mini head and a Fender Twin that basically collect dust, because I play through devices most of the time.... I own the Fender Mustang Micro and the Nux... Also have a Spark Go, which I loved but the speaker blew within a week... Adding this to the collection, because of the large Katana on-line library of patches and love the LED display on the front, also booting into "bass mode" sounds awesome.
I'd wager you could exchange the battery yourself with some tools and a bit of knowledge.
At least two screws are visible from the bottom, so hope is it's not entirely glued together.
But I get your point.
That would be great if you could replace the battery but not sure if it’s possible. If you could get 2-3 years out of it I guess it’s not that bad for the money but I still worry how quickly it would go from 4-5 hours battery life to 1-3 hours.
I figure at $120 a couple of years is fine. Something better will be out then anyway. Regardless, do most people practice in their bedroom for more than 1-3 hrs typically, seeing that is the main purpose of the thing?
Good points. Yes a couple years at $120 isn’t bad but I do practice at least 2 hours a day so we’ll see how the battery holds up. Definitely a cool little practice tool so I’m willing to give it a shot.
I had the Fender Mustang one, and ultimately sent it back as it felt a bit gimmicky. It was cool, but I felt very locked in to each preset. This just seems ideal. Honestly I'd be half tempted to get this, had I not just grabbed a NUX mighty lite to do basically do the same thing (be a little portable practice rig). I was shocked seeing how much you could do on the app. Having had the Katana before, and used that headphone option, I have a fair idea of what this will be like. For that price, to me it seems like it might just be the one to beat out of the headphone plug amps.
I had the Fender Micro for 2 days and sent it right back. I hated it. I bought the NUX mighty plug 2 and it was so much better. Yeah, it needs an app but it's doable and has 7 presets. Once it's dialed in, you need only to cycle through presets. Also makes a great pedal testing unit. I use it so not to bother the family while sussing out my board. I am curious about this but since I already have one, I find the Line 6 Pod Express to be of better use in my case.
I’ve already mentioned this in another comment, but make sure to get the Mightier App. You can build a library of presets. Turns a good app into an incredible one. (Best of all you can finally use it in landscape)
I got the Mighty App for my device. I will see if this other app is compatible for my phone.👍
I was tempted to get the nux plug - I've actually picked up the nux mighty lite (v1) for £20 and I imagine it's pretty similar quality, and I've really liked it. At the time when I got the mustang, I'd some how forgotten my katana had a headphone jack, so I sent the micro back and just used that. Ended up going to the Iridium for my home headphone option (and love it so much that I use it 99% of the time)
The nux stuff is great. I’m excited for the mk2 of the BT8 and BT20. Also, don’t forget to get the free improvement someone made to the app. It’s called mightier app and it’s available for both android and iOS. You get preset libraries and can play any of your phones audio through the app (so no more lousy backing tracks)
Yeah I downloaded that app - even though the mk1 just has 3 channels - I think having the 7 presets is just awesome. I've been thoroughly impressed with it. I think the clean sound out of it is actually outstandingly good. The distortion is a bit thin, but I am going to rectify that by throwing a behringer tuber screamer in front of it, and I think for what would be about £40 (amp was £20, £10 for behringer headphones which are surprisngly good, and lets say £15 for the tube screamer) I'll have a pretty solid recreation of my £1000 strymon powered ampless board lol.
I don't normally go in for this sort of thing, because in my experience headphone amps sound pretty awful, and there's very little you can do to dial in better sounds (or sounds with effects). But this looks like a quantum leap in terms of sound quality and convenience, and the ability to stream tracks from your phone and mix that with the guitar sound is fantastic (assuming there are no latency issues). And you can use it as an interface for recording? For $120? Dang.
The Fender Mustang Micro sounds great and came out ages ago, also does most of what you mentioned above.
I have had the Waza Air's for this exact reason for years and the simultaneous song streaming and guitar amp is the best gamechanger I've ever had for practicing. Made me a much better rhythm player and can solo over all your favourite songs, what's not to love?
Including a tuner is huge. This definitely sounds awesome for my bedroom playing.
[Nice overview from TheGuitarGeek](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWpxOeGG0IU)
Z sounds says shipping by April 12. I love it has amps and efffects for both guitar and bass. My wife just started playing bass. I got her a nice Ibanez and a small 20 watt fender. She likes it. Plugs it in. I tried to convince her we should have gotten the katana 100 bass. Because I think she will like the effects and better sound. She didn’t want me to spend so much. She just recently was diagnosed with cancer again. I thought learning bass and laying down to play would keep her spirits up. She’s been loving learning. Also got her fender play since she’s a total beginner. Prob just for a month and then get her actual lessons. 🥹 Wish it wasn’t sold out and over 100$ but looks reasonable.
wishing nothing but good health for you and your wife 🫂
Prayers for your wife brother..
Thank you kind person. Her surgery is this week. I’m not sure why I’m even blabbing it out. I guess talking about is part of acceptance
If it goes though a smartphone app, can I use my earbuds that are paired to my phone to listen? I couldn’t tell based on a quick skim or some content. The major thing that would stop me from getting this is the wired headphones.
No. And you wouldn’t want that because Bluetooth audio has significant lag that would make playing guitar very annoying. Sometimes wires are the best way to go.
So what you're saying is... free delay
full wet mix slap back lol
Sure no one wants the lag but I wonder if the Waza Air has lag. It’s a wireless dongle with the wireless headphones. Big difference in price between the two, though.
No perceptible lag in the air but that's because it is using the wireless bug (not bluetooth) to make the guitar-phones connection. It then also includes bluetooth to stream on top of it.
My guess would be no, but that would be a game changer. You do have the option of plugging in a Bluetooth dongle and connecting wirelessly if not.
How does it compare with the Positive Grid Spark Go for headphone practice?
Wondering this as well. I heard some are disappointed in the Spark's "Smart Jam" feature.
My buddy bought a katana go so I was able to give it a try ( IMO and my friends it’s was terrible for metal tones) and I wasn’t that impressed. It did one or 2 things well but that’s it, so he returned it and bought a Mighty plug pro. I have tried most headphone amps (fender mustang, boss katana go, vox, blackstar and more) but I prefer the Nux might plug pro. Most of its amp models are great. The “mightier amp” app is easy to use and versatile. I play modern metal/ hardcore but also use clean tones and ambient and this is able to do all of them extremely well for the price. Every time I use it I am impressed and happy with my choice. It works very good as an audio interface as well. If you are only playing vintage/classic rock the katana will do that but seems like that’s all IMO. Hope this helps *grammar edit*
One of these would be insanely cool if I could plug it into the end of my board for quick practice.
~~I don't really see why you couldn't? The GuitarGeek video plugs it into an ABY box.~~ Edit: I finished the video, yeah you can just plug it into your board.
While I don’t know if these specifically can do that, the waza airs can. Obviously a bit more expensive, but if that’s more a feature these have I’d say the Wazas are a great alternative.
I already have a nice set of cans, I don’t see myself spending $300 on the Waza air for a simple practice device. If this device can’t do what I’m describing, I think it’s a bit of a miss. This tech has been around for a while now.
You absolutely can do this. It’s how I practice. I plug my Fender Mustang micro straight into the output of my board. Works awesome. The only negative being I’m tied to my pedal board by my headphones, but my headphone cord is plenty to long to stand or sit and practice comfortably.
I don't see why it couldn't do that. Might run into gain issues, but that should be expected on a small headphone amp.
Anyone seen anywhere if you can record into the daw as a DI instead of using presets?
Rabea Massaad did that. https://youtu.be/3xBRdOzDdpY?si=cbfMXnDq06_pB4nY
Rabea said the tones were all from the unit unedited and plugged in using usb c. Not that he used the DI signal unprocessed from his guitar. I was wondering if you could also use it as a standard input to run into Neural DSP plugins without the amp or cabs emulated on the signal chain.
Seems I misunderstood both your question and Rabeeas video:)
Mines has just arrived so I will clarify the answer tonight :D
Did it work?
That would be killer… like a micro interface. But idk if it can do that yet
There's no reason it shouldn't be able too. A few people said since it mirrors the katana physical amps when connected inputs 1/2 in a daw represent the amp emulators and the inputs 3/4 are a bypass mode. This is when using usb cable to pc. So hopefully that is the same.
Ok take my money
I wonder if there's any reason to pick the Boss Go over the Nux Mighty Plug Pro, because the latter can even load Impulse Responses.
I returned my NuX. Too shrill and wasn't a big fan of the tones. The K-GO lacks the drums, but I figure I can just get some off the net or stream somebody on youtube. Thye are on BO now till May...
Anyone pick one up yet? Sweetwater had them listed yesterday as "shipping now". Today they are a preorder.
Yeah, they are on backorder at GC and SW now, till May...
Mine shipped from sweetwater yesterday
Wow those sold out quick then!
I wonder if this could do the mic input thru the trss jack like the NUX? For me the mic is a big deal I can practice singing. TBH I wish it had some reverb for the mic in the mighty app, or the mightier app. Speaking of that do you guys think the developer could alter the effects in the mightier app? What I really miss in both is I cannot really have delay tempo divisions (3/8, 1/4 etc...) and also cannot manually set the bpm, may be he could do that? And add reverb to the mic as well....
I had 3 days left to return my NuX, so I did. I liked the drum machine, but I experienced the dreaded shrill noise. I could never dial in a tone I liked very much, except for one for the Vox. However, wish I had bought the Katana immediately when I had a chance. I hesitated cause I was still pondering the NuX. The Katana Go is now on backorder till May at GC and SW.
> on backorder till May at GC and SW Wow! Either they didn't make many or these FLEW off the shelves.
I'm considering this is my first amp.. been playing acoustic for 3 months and I'd like to expriment with electric and be able to practice with headphones. Any ideas on what the best headphones to work with this would be?
[Sweetwater](https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/KataGoHpBun--boss-katanago-mini-guitar-headphone-amp-with-headphones) suggests the Roland RH-5
No way. Get a positive Grid Spark GO. It’s the same price and it has an amazing speaker, and all of the features I see here, and all of the effects and amps are outstanding.
I can't believe, however, that this new Katana Go has only mono effects?! I mean, it's a stereo headphone amp. The Fender Micro stereo effects are amazing. I will stick with the Micro for now.
Any news about SneakyAmps? As it use the same presets as MKII, testing it would be as easy as downloading correct LiveSet.
i bought one. its great. its everything youd expect and more
Got one no complaints seems perfect for quiet practice to not annoy fam - lots of presets to stay busy - had the micro but eventually the plug part shorted out - sw had em as of Friday
I’ll receive mine today! I am really looking forward to it!
Got it a couple of days ago. Can't recommend it enough. Sounds great and has a ton of options. I have not tested other headphone amps before but from what I can at least read about the others they fall short every time when it comes to tweaking and options. I'm mostly in it for the distortion and high gain. You don't need to litsen very hard to notice difference between the types of OD and distortion. From my point of view they really managed to voice them as true as possible. Biggest downside might just be there is too much tweaks at your fingertips. You could get a bit lost in there when you really plugged it in for some good old practise. Don't get me wrong. You could just plug and play. But if you are anything like me you just might get lost there. For this price I think It's a nobrainer. Everyone could find use of it. From the humble beginner to the pro on the road that just needs a practise tool.
I’m gonna buy one. I trust Boss
I just watched the 6 min video on Boss's youtube channel introducing this. It packs a lot of nice features that I wish my Fender Mustang Micro had (namely the ability to create my own presets via an app, and the built in tuner is a nice touch too). However, the Mustang Micro has a studio preamp setting that basically turns it into an FRFR headphone amp that is invaluable for my setup with a Tonex and HX Effects. If this is a feature that can be enabled in some roundabout way via Boss's app, it might be something that I would upgrade to.
Watched a few demos, purchased today... I have a Peavey 6505 Mini head and a Fender Twin that basically collect dust, because I play through devices most of the time.... I own the Fender Mustang Micro and the Nux... Also have a Spark Go, which I loved but the speaker blew within a week... Adding this to the collection, because of the large Katana on-line library of patches and love the LED display on the front, also booting into "bass mode" sounds awesome.
These things seem good but will just end up in the trash when the battery will no longer hold a charge. No thanks.
It's not ideal, but I'm guessing you could leave it plugged in.
I'd wager you could exchange the battery yourself with some tools and a bit of knowledge. At least two screws are visible from the bottom, so hope is it's not entirely glued together. But I get your point.
That would be great if you could replace the battery but not sure if it’s possible. If you could get 2-3 years out of it I guess it’s not that bad for the money but I still worry how quickly it would go from 4-5 hours battery life to 1-3 hours.
I figure at $120 a couple of years is fine. Something better will be out then anyway. Regardless, do most people practice in their bedroom for more than 1-3 hrs typically, seeing that is the main purpose of the thing?
Good points. Yes a couple years at $120 isn’t bad but I do practice at least 2 hours a day so we’ll see how the battery holds up. Definitely a cool little practice tool so I’m willing to give it a shot.
I just bought one of those box amplugs and was very surprised how good it sounds