Roland BC-30 BluesCube

What, no reverb? I'm really kind of pissed about the lack of reverb and may still send it back to musiciansfriend. I just don't want to go to the trouble and doubt I'll find anything with as much sound for the money. Not many features. Simple, makes you rely on your playing, not alot of effects.

Clean channel is great, hefty and nice. Distortion has a little to be desired. I suspect I'll end up using a pedal. I have two g&l guitars, an older s-500 and a new blues boy semi hollow. They both sound great through it. I'd say the clean channel is this amps strong point.

n/a only had it since Feb. 2- 05

haven't had to use customer support.

I've played for over 20 years. I haven't had a lot of amps though. I've got a fender hot rod as my main amp. This amp is a home amp and is fine except for the lack or reverb.
I trust roland products.
It also looks pretty cool. It's plenty tall so you don't have to lean too far over to reach the knobs if you're sitting down to play. It's also quite light and easy to move around. Overall, I'd say this is a good sounding amp but be prepared to buy an external reverb unit and though it has distortion you may want a better distortion pedal too. It will probably last forever since there are so few features to break I guess.

Not many. It has a lead channel and a clean channel. It has presence. No reverb though. It is a solid state amp. It has 30 Watts of power...but it is plenty of power because it is almost equivilent to 30 Watts of tube power. With regards to this aspect it is not like other solid states...the thirty watts is plenty.

No headphone jack or effects loop.

I use a telecaster copy(american made) and a Godin Radiator. I use it in with a Adrenalinn synth filter/delay pedal. Well this is the best solid state I have owned. Clean all the way up to 12, which is uncommon for small solid states. It also can be competive with tube amps regarding volume, which is very uncommon for 30 Watt Solid States. Basically this amp is versitile, it sounds very good. It only gets a point off for no reverb.

I never use distortion on the amp.

I use it for loud post-rock and shoegazer music and it works quite well. I also use it for quiet indie pop.

As reliable as it gets.

It is a great, cheap, small, and versitile solid state amp. The best bang for your buck. Yeah it is not as good as its bigger BC-60 brother because of the lack of reverb, or its cousin the JC-120. But it is damn fine and one of the best solid state amps ever. I would buy it again in a second if I was not opting for the BC-60 in the future(the amp is that good that I want an upgrade as supposed to a tube amp). Basically Roland proves why they are the reigning kind of Solid States and do not even bother to make tube amps...thier solid state amps are simply the best ones out there. For $200 or under it is simply the best available.

BC-30 Blues Cube. Purchased Dec 2004. Musicians Friend as it was the only place I could find it. Sitting on my door step in 4 days, great service. A basic no frills amp. One jack in. Clean and Lead channel switchable. 12 inch speaker. No reverb but hardly notice it missing once you get rocking with this thing. Would like an extension speaker jack. Not sure about adding one as its an 8 ohm speaker now. Dont want to screw up anything by adding another 8 ohm speaker. But would be VERY interesting with a Mesa 12" speaker cabinet.

Guitar: Gibson Les Paul Stuido, also new. Play the regular blues, Hendrix, Clapton etc and maybe some mellow jazzy stuff. Clean channel will distort a bit when played hard. Dial back the guitar volume for a jazzier clean sound. I use a Boss FS-5L footswitch to go to the Lead distortion channel. LOTS of sustain and blues there. From slight to mega. You can dial in the Clean/Lead volumes to match or got louder when switched between the two. The amp did well in a small loud group setting along with a Fender, Mesa, and Marshall. I had the amp on about 8-9 and didnt get the guitar fully volumed. Could have easily however.

All my Boss/Roland stuff so far is great gear.

Never needed them
2 years on the amp. 5 years on the Speaker.

Played years ago in dives and bars. Got this for fun and jams. Took back a Blues Junior and ordered this. This is a bit larger and heavier than the Blues Jr. The Jrs a good amp but this blows it away. Dont bother to buy a distortion or Blues pedal with this amp. I added reverb and delay but had that stuff anyways. For a GOOD sounding balls out entry level amp for home practice at low volumes, and small clubs its the best 200 bucks you can spend. Read the other reviews for more details. Im very pleased over all with this amp. If it were crap would simply send it back.

Already covered below. Has everything I need, except reverb and a speaker jack. No biggie though.

WOW! I used this with a band last night, and with the volumes full up on the clean channel, and the bright switch engaged, I was able to cut through the mix with no mic on the amp. The tone was FANTASTIC! Very tubey, with a spongey feel. LOTS of low end for a 1x12 combo. It had plenty of crunch and sustain, and I was able to clean up the tone by rolling the guitars volume back - just like tubes do! It may have been even slightly too loud. It was jam night last night, with many other guitarists in attendance, and all were impressed with the sound of this amp. The amp held it's own with two other guitarists - one using a Laney LC30 class A tube amp. With the clean channels volume full up, it was PERFECT for any club gig. As Ralph Cramden said below - if you need more volume than this, you're TOO DAMNED LOUD!

Well, Lord Valve has been complaining about the cheap pots all over the internet, and mentioned something about the reverb in the BC60 model being a potential disaster. This doesn't have reverb, so not to worry. About the pots, well I'll just have to take extra care not to knock 'em around. Other than that, I can't see why this thing shouldn't last for decades. Even running full volume for hours, it never gets terribly hot, and I didn't encounter the intermittant thumping noise that others have mentioned. It rode in my trunk for a 10 hour drive the other day, and it's still working great. I intend to use this for small club gigs, without a back up amp, although I'll have an amp simulator in the gig bag. So if it does die on the job, I can still get through the gig.

Hope I don't have to find out.

I own about 9 or 10 amps (I've lost count). All of them tubes, except for three of them (Lab Series). My main amp is a silverface Pro Reverb from about 73. I know how tube amps are supposed to sound, and I'm only deaf in one ear - not both! This amp sounds so much like REAL TUBES that it's RIDICULOUS! It feels like tubes too! The price is dirt cheap, and all of the tube snobs STILL refuse to give this, or any other non-tube amp, the time of day. Solid State technology has come a LONNNNG way, and with the trend growing towards digital modeling amplifiers, the analog Solid State amps will just get cheaper (that's a good thing).

Mark my words - someday, when all guitar amps are either vintage tube designs, or digital modeling amps, these analog Solid State tube-pretender amps are going to disappear. When that happens, it may take 10 years or more, but eventually people will WAKE UP to the fact that these were GREAT amps with GREAT tones, and they will probably become the next collectors items. Include Tech 21 Trademarks, and Lab Series amps in that list.

I got this off of ebay. It came with a Celestion V12-60, which I'm sure is an upgrade from the original. I too would like to see reverb and an external speaker jack here, but I can live without it.

I'm using Telecasters. Mostly a 52 ReIssue. It makes a nice plug in and play kind of amp. It seems just about loud enough for gigging, if you crank it. If it doesn't cut through the band, then your band is just TOO DAMNED LOUD!!!

The clean channel is the real prize on this amp. It's warm and wonderful. As previously noted, when cranked, the clean channel will distort ever so subtly, and in a most ear-pleasing way. Unfortunately, it's just not quite enough for soloing, which brings us to......

The dirty channel. You know how a good lot of amps with dirty channels sound kind of nasally when using the dirty channel? Well this is no different, but it's nowhere near as bad as most. It's actually quite usable. The distortion is smooth. I don't understand why anyone would need any more distortion than this amp offers. It's WAY too much for my tastes. It is smooooooth though. You have to keep the presence control back otherwise it gets raspy.

I've been reading up on these for a long long time before deciding to go for one, and I've never heard of anyone having a problem with them.

Never dealt with them.

I have lots of amps. All tube, except for my Lab Series L5. I wanted something lightweight and decent sounding for small gigs and jams, when I don't want to pull out my tube amps. Every amp I have was either too big and heavy, or too small (Champs). I wanted something that didn't need to be miked up, yet not be too loud. The BC30 has lots of low end chunk for it's size.

I can grab the guitar with one hand, and the BC30 in the other and head into the club without having to make a return trip to the car. I'm very happy with my purchase!

Nice, basic, well-made amp, built in 2003. I was looking for a lighter weight amp (my main gigging amp WAS a Boogie S.O.B., great amp but a bit HEAVY for this old man).

I use a Strat Texas Special American, mostly. My combo plays jazz, pop, blues, elevator music, you name it...I used the Roland for the first time friday night for a restaurant/bar gig and it seems like it fits the bill perfectly, without all the weight. I am selling my Blues Junior, it just didn't cut the mustard tone-wise. I think the BC-30 will become my main amp for real performances, although if I need more volume, I'm gonna keep the Boogie...If I ever play a Stadium (fat chance!) I've got a vintage Laney AOR 100 watt head for that sort of thing (and for driving my wife crazy with volume here in the house!) although the Boogie with the 12" extension cab and 2 EVH's would probably handle that, too...but I digress.. The Roland has a very sweet tube-like sound and is very versatile for such a lightweight package.

I have Roland stompboxes, Keyboards, etc. and the quality and durability of their stuff is unparralleled...

Never had to use them.

Well, I've covered this above for the most part...I've been a music teacher privately and in elememtary school, and a High School and Jr. High Band director and Chorus director since 1970. I am a professional trumpet player, and currently play lead in a local community big band as well as a 6-person combo where I arrange and play guitar and trumpet, trombone, and sax as well. I am playing guitar because finding a reliable guitarist is problematical in my area...

I chose the Roland because of prior experience with their products and somewhat because of the reviews here. So far, it looks like I made a good choice...heck, for 200 bucks new, you can't go wrong...Get one..

2003 Manufacture date. The best clean channel ever! Needs a reverb bad! Gets loud for 30 watt solid state amp. Thre dirty channel is a bit hard to figure out, and the instruction book is not all that much.

I play a Washburn X-40.
The amp has a nice 12" speaker, I've never gotten it to rattle.
Like I said clean channel very clean, not much variety here, no reverb.
The dirty channel is way out there! If you like good basic distortion this is it at it's best!

I don't gig, so the amp dosen't leave the house, but seems to be very well made. Excellent construction and finish.

It's a Roland, who needs customer support? I really don't know about their support system, never had to use it.

I have played for years off and on again I have a les paul.
Would I buy it again? Yes.
I love the looks of the amp, great clean channel, well made,very nice afforable amp. All around winner.
I hate the fact there is no reverb, every amp should have reverb!

Everyone knows the features; I won't rehash that. But, like others; I gave it a few points off for no line out or headphone jack.

I have a BC-60-310 also and I needed a smaller amp for practice and small "open mic" style gigs.
Just like it's big brother, this thing sounds great. I still can't understand how they can sell for this price..?
I play blues and blues/jazz and classic rock and this really delivers great tone for all those.
I primarily use the dirty channel and control the amount of dirt via the volume knob on my guitar; and this amp cleans up very nicely.
You just can't beat this amp for the price..

I've never had to fix a roland product or deal with them.

see above

I've giving this a 10 overall even though I wish it had reverb, line out and a headphone jack...tone is what matters most to me; the other stuff is just "icing on the cake" and this amp just drips tone!
Granted it's not a "DR-Z" or a Boogie MK-4 but it's also not $3.000!

2003 (I think). The amp has two channels: 1) clean w/ bright switch and 2) dirty with pre/post. It has no reverb, which is kind of minus, so I'm going to give it 6. For what it is, it really doesn't need to have much more. It's a straight ahead blues and classic rock amp.

I'm playing it with fender single coils, P90s and humbuckers of various types (PRSs, Gibson, Gotoh, DiMarzio). This amp suits my style perfectly. I really like the sounds. It's amazing to me that this thing is not a tube amp because the sound is very realistic. The clean channel sounds very good. Crisp and clean and gets a little dirty when driven hard. The bright switch enhances things to get it more Fenderish. The dirty channel is pretty good actually. Before I got this I read the reviews here and was a little worried the distortion was going to sound too buzzy and synthetic, but to my surprise it's actually very good sounding. At lower settings (Pre - 3, post - 8) it's a nice growl with some nice overtones. I find myself playing on the dirty channel more than the clean. I have yet to try the clean channel with some pedals (TS-9 + Keeley compressor), but I bet it will sound great.

I don't know really, since I've had it for a very short time. But the keyboards I've owned have always held up.

Can't say, but I expect good things.

I've had a couple of other amps in the past. I have a Peavey classic 30 and I love that amp. The BC-30 sounds very good next to it, but is missing just slightly that tube shimmer. I don't think that that's a major failing because it's $200 amp. It's also very loud.

Built in USA, 30 watts, 12" speaker, footswitch input for changing between the 2 channels, normal channel has bright switch and volume controls, lead channel has pre-volume and post volume controls. Simple to use. No effect loop, headphone jack, or speaker out (but at this price they can't include everything).

I play jazz and blues with an older customized Carvin guitar, straight into the amp with no effects. Very close to real tube-like tone, and plenty of sustain. Good enough sound even at low volumes, so I can use this without headphones when practicing at home. 30 watts but seems louder when cranked, enough for small gigs.

Seems to be solidly built. I play it nearly every day, never any problems. Sounds as good as the first day I turned it on. And continues to be extremely quiet, no hiss at all.

I hope I never need to find out, but I do hear that Roland has good customer service when you need it. I only deal with companies who stand behind their products.

This is a damn good amp for only $200 -- I would definitely buy another one.