VP connection for Boss Katana Amp/GA-FC footswitch users

[Fred Treece]

I’ve had my Katana 100 combo (Mk1) for a couple years now, and I am still learning the secrets inside this magic box. My most recent discovery has to do with plugging the pedal steel volume pedal straight into the foot volume jack on the Katana’s companion Boss GA-FC foot switch, and running the guitar straight from the output jack to the amp input (bypassing the VP input).

The circuitry in the switch seems to be set up so the VP hits the signal path between the preamp model and power amp, which is exactly where I would put it in the chain if I was running the VP into an effects loop. I like this because it allows the full preamp signal to hit the volume pedal no matter where the pedal is along the volume arc.

I’ll let you do the math on what this means as far as gain, EQ, and any fx pedals you run straight into the amp. It takes all the guesswork about how much gain to add to your signal before the volume pedal lets it start to crackle and burn, because it’s there all the time. And same with your bass-mid-treble settings. No wimpy tone at low volume, and swells get full eq signal from start to finish.

Couple things that took me by surprise -
Backing off the pedal chops the reverb and delay, so you get sharp stops and endings. Not sure I like that or not yet.
Also, connecting the GA-FC footswitch to my Stage One volume pedal via TRS cable massively improved the tone coming from the amp.

Sorry, I don’t usually get excited about this geeky stuff, but I just found out about this recently and thought I’d share in the hopes that other steeler/Katana users might find some of the glory in it.