Welcome to another blog where I will review the Boss Katana Mini Guitar Amp and why you should buy this amp.
We will deep dive into its features and discuss the pros and cons.
Features
Priced at around INR 10,200 the Boss Katana Mini Guitar Amp is a AAA battery-powered amp that requires 6 batteries to run. The battery support is good as I have played for more than 6 hours so far.
You can also use a dedicated power supply, like a 9V Roland PSB series adapter. If you are a bedroom artist and never take your amp outdoors, this is a more sensible choice.
The guitar amp body is plastic with a standard guitar input jack, and two 3.5mm jacks at the back for inserting headphones and aux or line-out connection. It also contains a 7-inch custom speaker with 3-band eq, built-in Delay effect, and 3 channels: Clean, Drive, and Brown.
The amp also has a gain and volume knob which is universal for all channels.
The Pros
The biggest advantage of the Boss Katana Mini Guitar Amp is that it is loud, lightweight around 1.3 kg, and extremely portable with great sound quality.
As both the 9V adapter and AAA batteries power it you can take this amp to any venue and play with your electric or acoustic guitar.
Another benefit is the 3-band EQ and Delay effect. Most of its competitors like Blackstar FLY 3 and NUX have fancy features like Bluetooth connectivity and multiple effects, but they are all digital, have only tone knob to adjust the EQ, and lack sound quality.
Whereas the Boss Katana Mini is an analog amp, meaning that it is more dynamic and responsive to your playing style.
The tones this small amp boasts of are sparkly clean tones for vintage blues and country music genres. The drive channel is best for blues and classic rock.
The Brown channel, a signature sound of the Katana series, is a heavy and open distortion channel, heavily inspired by the Peavey 5150, and opens up a realm of new genres from hard rock to heavy metal.
The 3-band EQ has a significant impact on your tone and the delay can easily be modulated using the ‘time’ and ‘level’ knobs.
The Cons
The Boss Katana Mini amp has a few issues.
First, it is quite expensive in its segment. You can easily buy a 10-watt or 15-watt guitar amp in this price range from any popular brand like Marshall, Fender, Orange, and Blackstar.
Second, the Delay effect is not that great to work with. It sounds more like a Reverb effect and can be modified into the same using the built-in knob controls.
Lastly, the hassle of replacing six AAA batteries after they drain out is a pain. If this is the only amp you own, it can become expensive in the long run.
Hence, you are forced to buy a dedicated 9V power supply adapter. This ultimately increases the overall cost and it is now at par with some great 15-watt amps.
Further, while using the power supply you will observe more noise at higher gain settings, especially in the Brown channel, which is quite low while using batteries.
Final Verdict
The Boss Katana Mini is an excellent choice for bedroom guitarists or guitarists who travel frequently, need a traveling amp, or do small gigs at a get-together and picnic.
With its wide range of tonal options, Delay effect, and 3-band EQ it will last the test of time and will still be a popular choice for upcoming years.
However, if Boss manages to launch an upgraded version with Bluetooth, USB connectivity, and adding firmware. This amp will surely knock out the competition, provided, the price is not like that of Yamaha’s THR series amp.