Roland Cube 60 Anyone?

I've got one.

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd171/telechaser/HomeRig009.jpg

It's very handy and it's what I use at church 'cause the Laney won't fit in the car.

Synchronicity!
I was just about to start a Cube 60 club.
Will organise pics soon. In the meantime, Im in!

Synchronicity!
I was just about to start a Cube 60 club.
Will organise pics soon. In the meantime, Im in!


I was wondering why nobody has started one yet. I'm sure there would be more. It's a handy little amp.

You guys that have the 60, any thoughts on the 30 and why you have the 60 instead of the 30?
I'm thinking of picking up a cube but don't know if I should go 30 or 60.

It's what I saw on eBay, it's that simple and it's more than bedroom use. If it's only for the bedroom, I might consider the 30.

You guys that have the 60, any thoughts on the 30 and why you have the 60 instead of the 30?
I'm thinking of picking up a cube but don't know if I should go 30 or 60.

I have the 60 for the extra power and the 12" speaker, the latter of which makes the sound a lot fuller in my opinion. The big cube also has a better selection of speaker outs and just generally useful stuff for gigging.

Otherwise theyre the same thing, apart from one or two little bells and whistles.

If I was buying one for at home Id use the Microcube, the 30w cube will hang with a band at reasonable practice levels.

The Cube 60 will do a gig no problem and also sounds good at home at whisper levels. I've had one for several years and I'm very pleased with it.

It's what I saw on eBay, it's that simple and it's more than bedroom use. If it's only for the bedroom, I might consider the 30.

For what it's worth, I've got a Cube 30, and I've played several small gigs with it. It easily keeps up with a set of drums and an electric bass, as well as vocals through a small PA. The Cube 30 is way more than a bedroom amp - it's plenty loud enough to upset your neighbors several houses down, if you want! :wink:

For what it's worth, I've got a Cube 30, and I've played several small gigs with it. It easily keeps up with a set of drums and an electric bass, as well as vocals through a small PA. The Cube 30 is way more than a bedroom amp - it's plenty loud enough to upset your neighbors several houses down, if you want! :wink:

+ 1 on that.
only sold my 30 as I had 3 cubes!

As I've often said elsewhere, I own a bunch of amps and I originally bought my Cube 60 just for fun and noodling around indoors without having to bother with external effects. But having gigged it once as an experiment I was so impressed that I now use it almost exclusively for every kind of guitar gig.

For live work, mostly I don't bother with the second channel models or the internal effects except for a touch of reverb. I just plug my pedalboard or MFX into the "JC Clean" channel and away I go. Lots of EQ adjustment available to suit any of my guitars. Plenty of clean headroom under most circumstances but if a bit of extra level or spread is needed I just slave the Cube via its voiced line out into the PA.

Brilliant bit of practical kit and, as I never tire of saying, in my opinion one of the all-time greatest bargains in the whole music trade.

Black Panel model
Gain at noon to 2 o'clock
master to taste
midrange at 1 to 2 o'clock
add Telecaster + Zendrive for blues gig
Telecaster + comp + slap echo for country/rockabilly

nice grab "n" go amp

When I was in the market for a new practice amp recently, I demoed the Cube 30 and liked it quite a bit. I ended up going with a Super Champ, but the Cube was a very close second.

I've discovered another neat trick up the Cube 60's sleeve. By using the Acoustic Sim model the amp can serve as a small portable vocal PA, accepting input either from a single mic or a small mixer. Handy for home rehearsals, gig emergencies or perhaps speech applications such as a pub quiz or business networking meeting. The amp can similarly also be used as an extra powered monitor if need be.

Tip: I used a line-matching XLR-to-jack transformer for the mic. Due to its physical size this could very easily strain the plastic jack socket if tugged sideways even gently, so a turn or two of the cable around the hooks at the back is a good idea to help prevent such damage.

This of course isn't what the amp was designed for, but it's a potentially useful additional string to its bow.

I have a Cube 30 and gig with it a lot. I would like to have a 60 but really don't need as the 30 has all I need.

My Cube 60 has never let me down. Great tones, plenty of volume, does pedals very well, and never a lick of trouble.

If i wanted some variety, I would probably go for a 50-watt Vox Valvetronix, as I hear their modeled sounds are equally good, but different than those of the Cube.

It seems a lot of players here use both, and speak highly of them. I have had other brands, & models. But this is where I have settled.

My Cube 60 has never let me down. Great tones, plenty of volume, does pedals very well, and never a lick of trouble.

If i wanted some variety, I would probably go for a 50-watt Vox Valvetronix, as I hear their modeled sounds are equally good, but different than those of the Cube.

It seems a lot of players here use both, and speak highly of them. I have had other brands, & models. But this is where I have settled.

+1 on all that, except the Valvetronix.

To each his own but to me although the Vox had some great tones the cabinet seemed prone to vibration (on two examples that I owned) and I always felt the thing was going to let me down. Unlike the cube whch is solid as a rock. Just 'feels' reliable for some reason.

Another Cube 60 owner here. My first and so far only amp. I only use it on the 'black face' setting.

A Cube 20x & 30x owner here. Started out with the 20x which is now used by my
wife. Currently playing a 30x. Both can be pretty loud if you want them to but also
very quiet (and still sound nice!).

What made me post in this thread is that I never figured a Cube 60 could be used
at "bedroom" levels and still sound good. Guess I was wrong.

TDR

Just discovered a cool trick you can do with a Cube.

One of the tricks to getting a good jazz tone from a JC120 is to turn down the treble and bass to zero and just use the midrange control. Especially nice for hollowbody guitars.

You can do the same thing with the Cube 60. Using the JC120 channel, turn down the bass and treble to zero, set the mids to 10. Works just like the JC120. Check it out!

60 versus 30x: the price point is getting closer. On zzounds for example, a resealed 60 is only $5 more than a new 30x. Unless you like some feature of the 30x (lighter weight?) I would go for the 12" speaker in the 60.

i'll join, although since i found my polytone, it only gets first call for wedding band fill ins. but it does that IN SPADES. versatile little mother.

Just scored another Cube 60 on Craigslist... $150 hand delivered to me. Now I've got a pair of these to use in true stereo with the stereo outs from my GT8. I'm normally not a big fan of chorusing, but in true stereo, the sounds are actually quite yummy... Stereo tapped delays are sweet too. And both Cubes and the GT8 combined still weigh less than a single JC120. Thank you Roland for making good sounding, reliable, lightweight gear at a price regular working musicians can afford.

Okay guys, I'm this close (holding index finger and thumb an almost imperceptible distance apart) from getting one of these.

So do I understand that they sound every bit as good very quiet as they do turned way up? No real tone difference at different volume levels?

If any one has any more compare/contrast against the Valvetronix, it is also on the short list.

Absolute sleeper amp, perfect for everything. Small venues as is, larger venue miced. Not too heavy, not too small, plenty of drive to carry you over the mix. I purchased mine about a year ago from Daddy's and haven't looked back since.

So do I understand that they sound every bit as good very quiet as they do turned way up? No real tone difference at different volume levels?

If any one has any more compare/contrast against the Valvetronix, it is also on the short list.
The tone sounds a bit more compressed at higher volume levels, but it is good and usable both whisper quiet and all the way up. Obviously, you'll want to roll off some of the bass when you're playing loud compared to playing quiet.

The Valvtronix also sound quite good, and the Cube tone is slightly different, but also good. The main deciding factor for me is the Cube 60 is exponentially more durable.

People who like the Valvtronix stuff will just say, "take good care of your gear", but I've seen a lot more broken Valvtronix stuff on the repair bench than Cube stuff.

Okay guys, I'm this close (holding index finger and thumb an almost imperceptible distance apart) from getting one of these.

So do I understand that they sound every bit as good very quiet as they do turned way up? No real tone difference at different volume levels?

If any one has any more compare/contrast against the Valvetronix, it is also on the short list.

That is indeed another great thing about the Cube 60 - as others have said, it works as well at indoor levels as it does when the wick's turned up in a gig situation.

I have no experience myself of the Valvetronix but the consensus seems to indicate that it is not as well-built or as robust as the Roland. I've never seen one in use for a gig of any kind, whereas the Cube 60 finds its way onto a lot of club, pub and function stages.

Slightly off-topic, but for bass use I also have nothing but praise for the 100-watt Bass Cube as well - if anything it's even more remarkable than the superb Cube 60 guitar amp, and incredibly capable for such a physically tiny unit.

Back to the matter in hand... Bottom line: go for it!

I have ther 60-for the difference in price I just went with the one with the most headroom. The only problem I've had is the plastic input jack. It is very easily broken if you do something dumb. Had to remove the chassis and take some stuff apart in order to fix it. Luckily, the jack is not soldered to the circuit board. It is on its own sub board which is wired to the main board, so there was no damage internally. Otherwise great little rig.

I have ther 60-for the difference in price I just went with the one with the most headroom. The only problem I've had is the plastic input jack. It is very easily broken if you do something dumb. Had to remove the chassis and take some stuff apart in order to fix it. Luckily, the jack is not soldered to the circuit board. It is on its own sub board which is wired to the main board, so there was no damage internally. Otherwise great little rig.

Hey. The same thing happened to me! How exactly did you fix it? I'm sort of puzzled as to how to access the inside of the control panel. I've removed all 8 screws on the both sides of the amp, but I still can't access the inside of the amp. Do you think you could help me out here?

Thanks!

I have no experience myself of the Valvetronix but the consensus seems to indicate that it is not as well-built or as robust as the Roland. I've never seen one in use for a gig of any kind, whereas the Cube 60 finds its way onto a lot of club, pub and function stages.

I've had both and the Valvetronix is larger, heavier and much more complex in operation (4 gain/volume controls :confused:). The Cube is smaller, lighter, louder, punchier and much quicker to dial in on stage. The clean options seem happier with pedals too but I never used the Vox for this much :mrgreen:

I know that posting in this thread is like preaching to the choir, but thought you guys might appreciate this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPkl2gEuSik
aPkl2gEuSik

D-Boom, It was kind of a chore to get the thing apart. A lot of explitives deleated etc. It's been a few weeks, but to the best of my recollection......after all the screws are removed, the chassis is sort of "stuck" to the cab with foam tape that's between the speaker box and the metal chassis. A thin blade steak knife will help separate things, and a lot of wiggle here, and wiggle there. Take your time tho, so you don't break something. (or cut yourself) It may help if you remove the speaker grill and speaker first. It's kind of a pain till you've done it once. Good luck and be careful.

Hey wolfman. Thanks for the help. I'll give it my best shot. And to answer the thread, it is a great little amp. I've got the 60 and as long as you're not playing concert halls, I've never been in a situation where it's not loud enough. That being said, whe I saw John mclaughlin at Massey hall in Toronto, he had a cube 60 witha mic on it!

Some posts have mentioned replacing the 'input' with a decent metal part.

Hey Hiker. while I had the plastic one out I thought about that, but didn't go ahead with the change because they use the plastic jack to isolate the ground. It probably could be done with some work, but I didn't have the time when I worked on the amp. I really hate those plastic input (output, and every other kind of plastic) jacks. If you have the space around the input, you can use a 90 degree plug, and that will help keep from breaking them.
Seems like an awful lot of the companies ae using the darn things. At least they don't rust...........
As for the Cube 60, you should hear it plugged into a Fender Super Sonic two-twelve cab. OUTRAGEOUS!

I've got a Cube 60 too, and I love it. Very versatile and nice n compact. As previously mentioned, does pedals very well, has heaps of extra bits (line out etc...) and sounds great ! I'm gigging with mine tomorrow with my NEW TELE ! It's a Mex George Harrison replica, the Rosewood looking one. The Cube 60, a POD and a Tele. Gotta love that. I also had to get mine repaired to replace the broken plastic input jack. It's been reinforced with a thin steel washer as well and it hasn't missed a beat since. Regards.

Gigged my AV62RI Custom Tele through the Cube 60 tonight. Crowded West London Irish pub, lots of dancers and ambient noise... The little Cube coped without even breaking sweat and sounded bloody superb.

I too have experienced the jack-socket problem a while ago. Fortunately I was able to retighten the plastic nut, which had merely jumped its thread, but as precautions against recurrence I now always use a right-angled Neutrik plug at the amp end of the lead (cord), which I also wind once around the cable hooks as described in my earlier post above.

I have a really old Roland 60 Cube...

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-7/1052255/RolandCube60-1_2.JPG

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-7/1052255/RolandCube60Controls_1.jpg

I used to have a Cube 100 from the original series and I've often regretted selling it. Recently a guy I sometimes work with picked up an original orange-vinyl-covered Cube 60 for a silly low price and he's promised me first refusal if he decides to part with it at some point. I know they came in various colours and versions for guitar, bass, keyboards, etc., but I don't remember having seen a white one before.

You guys that have the 60, any thoughts on the 30 and why you have the 60 instead of the 30?
I'm thinking of picking up a cube but don't know if I should go 30 or 60.

I tried a Cube 30 in a store and playing the bottom strings just made the speaker rattle when the volume was turned up. Kinda like my microcube, but that amp serves a completely different purpose.

Now, I play with my thumb a lot and prefer a dark tone, so it may not be everybody's experience, but the small price difference on the SH market just makes it worth to get the cube 60. Never had any trouble with it.

Well, I said that I was almost convinced, so I got one from eBay delivered to me today.

I've been playing with it and it sounds like it has a lot of promise. I just want to give it a once over and make sure that everything is functioning the way that it's supposed to.

:confused:How do I check to make sure that everything is fine; for example how do I check the speaker to make sure that it is not damaged?.:?:


As of right now, I'm still trying to coax the exact tones that I'm looking for. I've spent more time with my Vox Tonelab LE and can get what I'm looking for there. Maybe I just need to spend some more time with it, but I just want to make sure that it is not damaged in any way.

Thanks,
Brad

:confused:How do I check to make sure that everything is fine; for example how do I check the speaker to make sure that it is not damaged?.:?:

Thanks,
Brad

At a guess I'd say that unless there's something obviously wrong with the speaker, such as strange buzzing or rubbing noises, crackling sounds or excessive low-volume distortion, then it's probably OK and in full working order. Much the same can be said about the various pots and switches. There have been rare and isolated known issues with some of the sockets on the back but they are very uncommon and are readily fixed.

As regards adjusting the various controls to achieve your preferred sounds: although in my view it's all fairly intuitive and obvious, if you didn't get the manual with the amp a copy can be downloaded as a PDF from Roland's website.

Good luck with using your purchase and I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I and the rest of us do.

Thanks for the suggestions, Tony. It must be okay then. No strange sounds. I was just having difficulty with my Strat or Tele. They sound good, but perhaps I'm a bit picky.

Forgive me here on TDPRI, but when I put my R7 thru the Cube.......wow! That was what I was looking for.

I also tried putting my Bad Monkey in front of the clean channel. That was very nice too and added a different sound.

Thanks again.

...Forgive me here on TDPRI, but when I put my R7 thru the Cube.......wow! That was what I was looking for...

You're forgiven. My Epiphone Dot with Duncan 59s through the JC channel is a fantastic clean sound. I'm adding an SD-1 for drive.

I've got a 60 and love it.

More Cube 60 deliciousness...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44Ig1wXGdDk
44Ig1wXGdDk

...And you gotta love this green Surfacaster!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXYjc8TlXm0
zXYjc8TlXm0

+1 on the original Roland Cube 60 (in classic Orange)

A great amp to throw in the back of the truck as a spare as well as a main amp when i don't need to lug my other equipment around.

Interesting thread.

I just sold my JC-120 (because its way too big and heavy for me to cart around) and have been considering a Cube 30 or Cube 60. The guy at my local guitar store just told me last night that the Cube 60 has been discontinued. Any truth to that?

Yes, it's been discontinued.

It has been replaced by the Cube 80x.

However, you can still find them on ebay and craigslist.

Yes, the 30 and 60 have been discontinued, to be replaced by the 30x and 80x. The new ones are very similar, with a few new features and effects. I really like my 30, and it does a very good impression of the different amp models (Blackface, AC30, Tweed, Marshall/Peavey/Mesa stack) for the price and size. Goes loud, too.

Hey folks,

I have the same original 80s model as AjayTele. But with the orange tolex covering still 100% intact. I love this amp. It has been a workhorse and a staple in my life for over 20 years.

My Cube 60 has survived:
5 years as my first guitar amp during my teens
2 years of bar gigs as my keyboard amp with a tribute band during my early 20's
10 years as a coffee table
4 years of casual small gigging as my bass amp in restaurants and parties
Numerous spilled beers and random abuse over the years

And the only trouble I ever had with it was a slightly loose input jack and the occasional scratchy pot.

The Cube 60 has to be one of the top 5 greatest solid state amps from the "Pre-modeling" era.

cheers,
ew

i too have a cube 60 and love it, I also have two micro cubes, one given to me because it got wet and the box cam all to pieces, I built another cabinet slightly larger and installed an 8" speaker and now this thing really sounds great.