Anybody know which part caused BOSS to discontinue Katana:GO ?

[Dave Lewis]

The only realeased earlier this year brilliant Boss Katana : GO personal Headphone guitar amplifier?
I only found out they had stopped making it yesterday.

 

[RaceU4her]

low sales would be my guess

 

[Frodebro]

low sales would be my guess

I don’t think so, it seems like they yanked it very shortly after launch. Not enough time to even start to get sales numbers going.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

Materials

 

[Sleezy E]

temu

 

[Frankencat]

They couldn’t get the chips they used in it.
They are great little units and I have one that I am not using that I am considering selling at a significantly inflated price.

 

[Jarick]

I'm also assuming it was a supply issue. Boss doesn't tend to release and then immediately discontinue things.

 

[Jarick]

Didn't Line6 release a wireless system that exploded?

My guess is there was an explosion. Somewhere. Hopefully not on someones head.

Probably not a good idea to have high capacity battery in a headset.

I don't think there was an explosion but there was a risk of fire with a wireless transmitter battery I think, so there was a recall.

 

[Dave Lewis]

low sales would be my guess

No it sold like hot cakes from release day .
It’s a brilliant outstanding bit of kit.
Leaves the Fenders for dust.
Andy the guitar geek on his 2024 year in gear round up video said some part had become very expensive .
Mine has worked flawlessly since it arrived in March 2024

I even bought it a little case.

Which are now only a tenner each from GAK.

 

[Jarick]

I can't imagine there's a lot inside the little unit, it's probably whatever CPU chip they used. I'm sure it's expensive to design the product around a chip so if it suddenly became unavailable they would have to redesign the entire thing. And because the Go is so tiny they probably have to use different chips than in all the other Katanas.

 

[Dave Lewis]

I’m not going to open mine but would think it’s pretty jammed full because of the screen tuner and everything it does .

 

[Lysander]

low sales would be my guess

Definitely not the case. And even if it weren't selling that well, it's still weird how Boss pull the plug on the Katana Go just 2 months (gasp!) after launch.

The official explanation, from Boss' Japan website, was high demand combined with "a procurement situation of the materials used". That's not how these things are supposed to work normally when you see products discontinued that fast, it's related to IP issues. Only Boss knows for sure thou.

 

[redsnapper]

No it sold like hot cakes from release day .
It’s a brilliant outstanding bit of kit.
Leaves the Fenders for dust.
Andy the guitar geek on his 2024 year in gear round up video said some part had become very expensive .
Mine has worked flawlessly since it arrived in March 2024
View attachment 35464
I even bought it a little case.
View attachment 35465
View attachment 35466
Which are now only a tenner each from GAK.

Umm, I have the new Fender Micro Plus.... It's fantastic with great tones. I wouldn't say the GO leaves it in the dust... The comparisons I've heard has the Micro Plus winning.....

 

[Alex Kenivel]

I don't think there was an explosion but there was a risk of fire with a wireless transmitter battery I think, so there was a recall.

More accurately, there was an update that shortened the battery life and charging time.

 

[quadgear]

So many wrong answers, there was
1. A shortage of the lcd displays.
2. I heard here was a copyright dispute with Fender over there yet to be released one. (they look very similar).

All that was speculation. Also odd that for a short time some retailers pull it off the shelf.

Same with the DSP and ADC and DAC.

Could also have been competition with other Boss products

Presumably an incremental, replacement product would be ready to ship now. Maybe an announcement at NAMM in a few weeks.

Hard to say.

 

[Dave Lewis]

Looks like it’s back in production in stock and no price increase.
https://www.andertons.co.uk/boss-katana-go-personal-guitar-headphone-amp/
I have just been told it wasn’t a part that caused production to stop last year.
It was something to do with the casing .

 

[dbagchee]

Looks like they removed the large volume knob on the front:

Boss Updates the Katana Go 2 Headphone Amp with New Design

The KATANA: GO is the latest addition to the Katana family. Offering a compact piece of gear, loaded with welcome tones and sounds.

www.gearnews.com

 

[Dave Lewis]

Yes the big knob has gone from the top and volume is on the side.
The Katana Go 2 now also functions as an audio interface when you connect it to your computer via USB-C. This way you can directly record guitar and bass with or without the included Boss effects in your DAW. With this functionality, the Katana Go 2 is also ideal for content creation for social media, because you can connect it directly to your smartphone or tablet and integrate the guitar signal into the stream.

 

[paisleywookiee]

 

[quadgear]

The Katana Go 2 now also functions as an audio interface when you connect it to your computer via USB-C. This way you can directly record guitar and bass with or without the included Boss effects in your DAW. With this functionality, the Katana Go 2 is also ideal for content creation for social media, because you can connect it directly to your smartphone or tablet and integrate the guitar signal into the stream.

Does this mean we can use it round trip to a daw/modeler sending the dry guitar and hear only the wet return signal out of the headphone jack of the Go?