Roland Cube Club (all models)

[Geoff Charles]

Just picked up the 40XL. Love it.

[buddywayne]

I love my cube 30. It has been used and abused gigging and practising for 5 or 6 years and never a problem. Love the JC120 channel.

[CostaRicaJones]

I have a Roland Cube 30 that I bought used, of undetermined age. I like the overall concept of the amp (small, light, powerful, built tough, etc...) but next to my Vox Pathfinder 15R, I can't get as good of tone.

Nonetheless, I want to buy a bigger Roland Cube for playing with a band.

How much has the tone improved with the newer XL models?

[Sollophonic]

Ive got a Cube 30 on the way, that I got off the 'bay at a good price.

Hopefully it'll arrive before Tuesday night so I can use it in anger at a rehearsal.

Was tempted by the Pathfinder, but Rolands reliability reputation, the 10" speaker and the extra 15 watts for the same price won me over.

Lets hope it delivers............

[CostaRicaJones]

Actually-- since posting this, I spent some more time with the amp and have been getting some good tones and really having fun with it.

The blackface option with the gain at about 2:30 produces very nice blues tones, albeit a little on the Jazzy side.

Flick it over to the "classic stack" and you've got an instant Jimmy Page sound.

[yettoblaster]

Originally Posted by jefcon1

I bought myself a Cube Street for Christmas. I love that little thing. I call it my JC-5 because of the stereo chorus. I use it as a mini PA/acoustic amp at church and I drag it all over the house for practice. The Cube Street is probably my favorite advancement in guitar technology since the Boss DD2.

I have owned Cube 60 in the past, and presently have the "Mobile Cube," and the "Street" Cube models.

These things are a gas.

I have actually played quiet restaurant jobs with them in a jazz quintet. In fact tonight I'll be using the Street Cube in a bar&grill quiet jazz gig with our quintet "Jazz_A," with my G.E. Smith Tele. Lots of Showtunes and standards with vocals, plus we get to also play some straight ahead jazz tunes like "Joy Spring," "Take Five," "Road Song," etc etc.
Fortunately the drummer is very light touched.

I sure don't mind walking in and setting up in one minute, while the rest of the guys scramble for extensions and outlets! I use rechargable batteries and they last about four hours between charges (our gigs are usually about 2&1/2 hrs).

I usually run the Street Cube on the "Instrument" setting, as it compresses less and has a nice "small tweed" sound. Works great!

I also have a Polytone amp, and a Boogie Mark-IV, but really prefer using the Street Cube for most jobs if I can get away with it. They're so light to schlep!

I have even used the "Mobile Cube" a couple of times for some of our drummerless coffee house gigs, but then I got the Street Cube which has more bass, not that I need much.

Around the house I use all the other settings and rock out, which drives the dogs from whatever room I'm in.

[Psyclone]

Cube 60 in the house. I feel fairly confident I can gig with this amp. I've been in the habit the past few years of using my amp on a wedge in front of me to act as a stage monitor for my guitar. Sound guys love it. I've been switching between the JC and the Blackface model. Seems to sound fine with any guitar I use.

I'll keep my tube amps for studio and home practice, but I think the cube has earned a spot on stage with me.

[Sollophonic]

Cube 30 arrived yesterday, and I did a rehearsal with it last night.

Delivered the goods even in a 9 piece with a drummer.

Love the Brit combo setting too,

Nice portable, light, nice sounding little amp IMO

[CostaRicaJones]

Originally Posted by Sollophonic

Cube 30 arrived yesterday, and I did a rehearsal with it last night.

Delivered the goods even in a 9 piece with a drummer.

Love the Brit combo setting too,

Nice portable, light, nice sounding little amp IMO

I had the opposite experience. Last night, I hosted a jam session, at one of those rehearsal spaces. 5 guitars (including myself) and one bass player. (Yes, it was chaotic).

I brought the Cube 30 and couldn't hear myself, even though I was sitting pretty much right in front of the amp.

It's a great amp for the house, though. I love it, and I'll be ordering the 80XL, later today.

[Sollophonic]

My Cube is a bit "directional" so sometimes you lose yourself a bit.

I play in a band with 4 horns, bass, drums, keys vocals, and myself, and I didnt have my amp up that loud at all.

Mind you I recently did a practice and a gig with this band using a Vox DA5, (mind you it was lined out for the gig)

Our band does actually have a bit of space in the arrangements of the songs we do, so unless we are all playing flat out, a Tele or other single coil guitar seems to cut through our mix pretty well.

I find using the tone controls on the amp pretty much maxed, apart from the bass seems to make me come through louder.

I was messing around with it at home last night, and even the effects are OK, unlike the ones on the DA5 which a few of them are a bit silly.

And the JC Clean channel is pretty nice too, for getting some nice African sounding guitar.

After all for a while the JC120 was the amp of choice for the likes of the Bhundu Boys, and others

[steevc]

I've got an 80x. I was rehearsing with a rock covers band at the time and fancied something with a variety of sounds. I switched between clean, DLX and Classic Stack with the odd bit of phaser. I think it sounds okay, but I'm no amp tone expert. Not used many tube/valve amps.

I made myself a 4-way footswitch so I could use the looper. That's one of the reasons I went for the 80x rather than the 60, plus a friend got me a discount on a new one.

[Warm Gums]

Picked up a 30x for short $$ over the weekend..
I was thinking along the lines of "Small JC combo could be useful for some jazz & reggae stuff"

After playing it a bit I can see ALOT of uses for this.

Good amps can stay in the studio now..I really cant see lugging the AC-15 or Marshall to a bar gig where some fool will do god knows what to them; just so I can make $25 or so.

Same with my pedals..I don't use many so dialing in a few effects is not a problem.

Amp in one hand guitar in another.. load in/out just got alot easier.

Really only need one guitar I plugged in a inexpensive 'super strat' and got killer tones in a variety of styles. So the "highend" & vintage stuff is for real paydays now.

There are some amps I don't own..this is close enough for most of my needs.

The other house in my duplex in occupied again, family has a young kid with another on the way..the power squeezer is going to come in handy.

I could and someday down the road probably will just get buy with this amp.
Down sizing looms on the horizon & one of the roadblocks was finding an affordable versitle yet professional amp with decent build quaility I spent a good bit of time this spring with all the new budget modelers (Mustang, Vyper, SCXD Line 6 etc..) all had some shortcoming and none seemed like something I could gig with regulary.
Got a Cube..problem solved.

Drawbacks..the footswitching seems needlessly complicated (two switches?) anyone tried a non Boss latching switch?
The Brit Combo model is quite bad..perhaps it's not a Vox at all but a Watkins or something..
Seriously I get more 'Voxy" tones out of the classic stack setting with the drive & guitar rolled back.

[CostaRicaJones]

I really like my 30, but I have a hard time seeing how you could gig with it in a bar? Are you planning on mic-ing it? I've got an 80XL on order, I found used online through Guitar Center, for $279, but it hasn't arrived yet. Also found a Roland Cube Bass 100 for my wife, which arrived today. (Kind of surprised that a couple of the amp models really don't seem very loud, even with the volume cranked).

Or ... maybe I'm just getting old and loosing my hearing??

[Tony474]

Originally Posted by CostaRicaJones

Also found a Roland Cube Bass 100 for my wife, which arrived today. (Kind of surprised that a couple of the amp models really don't seem very loud, even with the volume cranked).

Or ... maybe I'm just getting old and loosing my hearing??

I like my Bass Cube 100 so much that I sold my other two bass amps. Remarkable little beastie with a huge sound for such a physically small unit, much louder than the supposedly 250-watt Ampeg Portabass I had before and more than adequate for the few bass gigs I occasionally do. The bass player in my regular band uses one too, as do a couple of my other pals as well.

I'm surprised at your comment about volume - in conjunction with my Ibanez Blazer BL-700NT bass (basically a Precision clone), I generally use the "Session" model with the "Shape" button in, and I've never needed to turn the amp up even halfway. Oh well, diff'rent strokes...

[Tony474]

Originally Posted by Warm Gums

...the footswitching seems needlessly complicated (two switches?) anyone tried a non Boss latching switch?

IME any old non-latching foot-switch will work for either of the two functions - channel change and effects on/off. You can use latching switches but because of the nature of the switching circuit (I think I've heard it described as a "flip-flop") you have to depress them twice each time. It seems the switching operates on the "break" rather than the "make".

[Warm Gums]

Thanks for the footswitch info..
Will probably see how it goes without the switch..or wait for some Boss switches to turn up 2nd hand,otherwise the switches & cables will cost me all most as much as the amp!

Volume wise this thing seems plenty loud, however I play in a solo/duo situation 99% of the time, we are basicaly just one part of what goes on in the place, not a "tonight we have a band" and some dude is on a 1/2 stack, lol.
For bigger gigs I would just mike it or if it was a more serious situation take a "proper "amp..but those situations appeal less & less.

[steevc]

The Boss switches are expensive if you don't need all they do (LEDs, latched/non-latch). For my 80x I uses a 2-way latching unit I already had and made a 4-way with one un-latched for the looper. I don't have any LEDs on the switches, but I could easily add some.

If you hunt around ebay you could probably find a footswitch you could use. Even if you have to change the actual switches those are not expensive.

I found this 80x switch for sale. Even with a cable included it's half the price of the Boss switches you would need.

http://www.brightonion.co.uk/product...ootswitch.html

[Warm Gums]

I have a couple of switches I can try, but I think I can make it fly with out one..Like I said my gigs are pretty laid back, what is a little knob turning amongst friends? ;-)
I think I've got the Brit Combo sussed..it took some figuring but I found something that sounds OK..it's still not as accurate as the others but it's reasonable.

[metropark15]

Love my Roland 80XL. I have had it since Christmas and its JC clean is super warm.
The effects are good and the Looper really helps but I wish it was longer than 90 seconds. But everything about the amp is right on target......

[slyzspyz]

got an 80's model






I'll use it on jazz gigs, especially if I'm mic'd