“Punch and power in a flyweight build”: Boss goes head-to-head with Positive Grid with the $149 Katana-Mini X – one of the firm’s most portable practice amps yet

Boss has bolstered its Katana amp family by unveiling what looks to be its most powerful pound-for-pound practice amp yet, the Katana-Mini X – and you can read our review here.

Alongside Positive Grid’s Spark amp range, the Boss Katana collective is widely seen as the market’s premier round-up of desktop amps and fully fledged solid state amps, with a range of at-home practice tools and giggable companions.

For its latest release, Boss has firmly set its sights on the former cohort. Perhaps with an eye on keeping Positive Grid’s growing influence in the desktop amp market in check, the Katana-Mini X is a 10-watt offering designed specifically for “daily practice and jamming”, and offers some of the bells and whistles you’d expect from a Boss amp in a very portable and affordable package.

It’s not the smallest Katana amp – that award goes to the seven-watt Katana Mini – but, in terms of what it offers from its humble size, it’s certainly one of the more powerful. In Boss' own words, it delivers “punch and power in a flyweight build”.

Notably, it has a multi-stage analog gain circuit with the Boss Tube Logic tech in order to deliver authentic tube amp tones from its solid state build, which can be harnessed through its three onboard amp types: Brown, Crunch and Clean, accessible via a slider switch.

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These are complemented with two independent effects sections, split between Modulation/FX and Reverb/Delay, which offer a total of 10 effect types, including Tremolo, Phaser, Wah, Octave, Spring, and Delay.

Elsewhere, the front panel features a no-nonsense three-band EQ, a sole volume parameter, and that gain control that works alongside the aforementioned analog circuit.

There’s also a ‘Variation’ button that provides an additional voice per amp, Bluetooth connectivity for using the Katana-Mini X as a portable speaker, and cabinet emulation for silent headphone practice.

All of the above is packed into a lightweight, tidy-looking cabinet (only 6lbs) that houses a five-inch speaker that projects the amp’s array of tones. These supposedly span from “high-gain solo sounds to tight metal rhythm tones”.

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As a plug-in-and-play practice amp that you can take anywhere, the Boss Katana-Mini X looks like a pretty solid option, with a USB-rechargable battery advancing its practicality. It’s also priced at just $149, making it one of the most affordable Katana amps ever produced.

To put that into perspective, the 10-watt Positive Grid Spark Mini – a close competitor in output and price – is slightly more expensive at $189 and has a streamlined, three-knob control circuit.

However, the Katana-Mini X doesn’t, it seems, support Bluetooth connectivity with the Boss Tone Studio unlike the other, more comprehensively appointed Katanas. That means you won’t be able to hop into the app for deep effects editing and selecting, which Positive Grid units allow. Nevertheless, we suspect that, for many players, it will offer more than enough functionality for a 10-watt bedroom amp.

For a full deep dive into the Boss Katana-Mini X, check out Guitar World’s in-depth review.

The Boss Katana-Mini X is available to preorder now for $149.99.

Visit Boss for more.