Vintage Roland SS Adventures

[allesz]

After buying a Peavey backstage 110 years ago I got bit by SS amp bug. I have two tube amps still, but they are DIY, the rest Is solid state.

About 6 month ago I was looking for a practice amp, and I got a Roland DAC-15D.
It cost about 50 euros delivered, 15 Watts, 1x8 speaker and four Boss/Roland Digital effects: delay long and short, chorus and flanger.

Stock It had good cleans, but dirt tones were not so good, stiff and harsh. The eq was difficult to set, with the presence knob adding piercing trebles.

I decided to try a speaker swap and I found a cheap Warehouse G8C (about the price of the amp, actually...) look at the pics for comparison.


The new speaker gave more volume and the eq curve of the amp got a lot more Guitar friendly: the eq controls changed completely behaviour and dirt sounds (both from amo or pedals) are very good now.
Now it's a great little amp, I tried It on rehearsals and I was satisfied; of course we don't play too loud, but we have a real drummer!
And clean sound Is still very good.

Then, two weeks ago, I found a busted Vintage Orange Cube 40... For 80 euros. And It had to come home with me.
Heavenly cleans, crystal clear but not cold at all. It was busted badly.

 

[allesz]

The amp got smashed, the grille was badly rebuilt, and as you can see the speaker aluminum bell has been bumped and knoked... Still It sounds soo good clean... But again dirt sounds are stiff and cold.
I had an old Jensen 10/35 (a bit short on Power rating) and tried the swap. Again the amp came to Life with dirt pedals.
But, unlike the 8 inch, this original 10 Is very loud (look at the magnets) and, even busted, sounds great clean. Great defined lows, and very loud. I put It in the cab where the Jensen was, I want to keep It around.

The Jensen tamed the amp a little, but it was free, and still retains great clean sounds. Again the dirt sounds came to life.
The two channels are, actually, Just like hi and low inputs on a regular amp; in the clean input you barely get some dirt with very hot pickups, on the distortion input It gets louder and It can go from crunch (very nicely) to almost fuzzy; and It responds very good to the guitar's volume changes.
I would like to try the Jensen 50 watt speaker (mod 50? Can't recall the name), I bet It would be perfect.

My gas got quite satisfied, I spent Just a little Money... And I have two good sounding amps. The poor dac15 really surprised me with the new speaker.

I think Roland made good sounding amps BUT if you plan to play dirty you have to change the speakers. The cube 40 has an external speaker out btw.

 

[atchooommm]

Hi, thanks for sharing the experience I have the same amp the dac 15 and I like it a lot. I do have also the same opinion on the piercing sound with the stock speakers but I don't know if I will swap it. Amp is built like a tank. How do you deal with the eq? Do you think the roland 40 is better ?

 

[msalama]

buying a Peavey backstage 110 years ago

Crikey mate, yir old! Ok, where's me coat...

No but seriously, I've considered swapping out my Cube 80X's 10" stock speaker for something more vintagey, but I can't decide what to replace it with. Any suggestions?

 

[allesz]

Ah ah, ok it was a Peavey Backstage 110 I got used some years ago, but definitely less than a century Can't help with suggestions for a speaker swap for your cube 80 xl thoght; the market is plenty of interesting ten inch speakers but you have to take into account cost and the sound you want.

Welcome on board atchooommm. Swapping the speaker on the DAC 15 made a big difference and I bet that any decent 8 inch guitar speaker from a known manufacturer will always sound better than the original one (wich is quite poor for guitar).

The eq changed completely, treble now are more like mids and presence is treble and now I think it is a great grab and go little amp; it has good effects and nice clean and overdriven sounds. I keep a pedal on the back of the amp to turn on effects and a big muff clone (for ultra dirt).

The cube 40 is a really good clean amp by itself in stock form, and ready for gig or rehearsals: if my speaker was not busted I would have probably left it on and use the external speaker out (great option that makes it very flexible) for dirty tones.

Since the new loudspeaker on the DAC is more efficient than the stock one, and the new one on the Cube is less efficient than the original, the two amps are now quite the same volumewise. I use them both on my small rehearsals (guitar, drums, bass, voice) in rotation and they are good and loud enough since I use pedals for drive.

Remember that the DAC 15 is actually a little bigger, but lighter, than the cube 40!

 

[jkingma]

After buying a Peavey backstage 110 years ago I got bit by SS amp bug. I have two tube amps still, but they are DIY, the rest Is solid state.

I also have 2 low watt tube amps that were built by a friend, plus one small off brand SS amp that was a cheap garage sale find. I just picked up a small Roland amp from a friend which will probably end up being my main practice amp.

 

[allesz]

One of my tube amps Is a Rob Robinette's Micro Champ, with some mods, I built by myself inside an old non working combo. It's a wonderful home and recording amp and I play It a lot.
Of course I am playing more the cube 40, since it's the newer amp right now.
Wich model are you talking about, jkingma? I am curious.
And now a pic of my micro Champ; nothing to write home about, but I was very happy with the cab: I found a piece of suit's fabric for the cabinet and purple Velvet for the grill.

 

[atchooommm]

Ah ah, ok it was a Peavey Backstage 110 I got used some years ago, but definitely less than a century Can't help with suggestions for a speaker swap for your cube 80 xl thoght; the market is plenty of interesting ten inch speakers but you have to take into account cost and the sound you want.

Welcome on board atchooommm. Swapping the speaker on the DAC 15 made a big difference and I bet that any decent 8 inch guitar speaker from a known manufacturer will always sound better than the original one (wich is quite poor for guitar).

The eq changed completely, treble now are more like mids and presence is treble and now I think it is a great grab and go little amp; it has good effects and nice clean and overdriven sounds. I keep a pedal on the back of the amp to turn on effects and a big muff clone (for ultra dirt).

The cube 40 is a really good clean amp by itself in stock form, and ready for gig or rehearsals: if my speaker was not busted I would have probably left it on and use the external speaker out (great option that makes it very flexible) for dirty tones.

Since the new loudspeaker on the DAC is more efficient than the stock one, and the new one on the Cube is less efficient than the original, the two amps are now quite the same volumewise. I use them both on my small rehearsals (guitar, drums, bass, voice) in rotation and they are good and loud enough since I use pedals for drive.

Remember that the DAC 15 is actually a little bigger, but lighter, than the cube 40!

Thanks for the advise, really appreciate it. I'll change the speaker and see the result.im a bit intrigued with this roland dac .the built quality is unbelievable. I got mine in a mint state, brand new ,the man I bought it from kept it "untouched " in its box since the 80s. I'm currently in a quest for a very reliable small to medium sized ss amp as I travel the reliability is number one for me. I have micro cube . very nice amp but after a while the built in effects started to stop responding. I used to have blackstar, yamaha ht1r ..etc but the best built quality to sound ratio I found ( the one i got the chance to check) are the peaveys amps form the 80s and this roland dac . The peavey are too big for traveling. I still have a bandit, an ultra and a special they are amp to take on a desert islands ,( if you have electricity )🏝 but way too heavey. The roland dac when you put your band on you feel its a heavy duty box "no joke "technology. The only issue im puzzled with is the high gain, I was not able to get any usable sound. I've tried a ibanez session man chorus/ distortion pedal but the results is not convincing. Maybe I should try a real primary distortion pedal. I have seen that there are différent versions of this dac the 10, 15, 50 and 80. I don't know how they sit in roland catalog in comparison with the jazz chorus and the cube 40 and 60 as they all are from the same era. Do you have experience with the roland amps?

 

[allesz]

I agree that high gains are missing, but you can add a pedal (I told about the Big muff I keep always ready, in the back of the amp).

I tried a JC a couple of times and the cleans were very nice... But the amp it's too heavy.

Always wanted to try the DAC-50, since the cab has four 6, or 6,5, speakers... But they are quite rare.