Roland BC-30 BluesCube

2001 Model. It was actually a "scratch & dent" model from Musicians Friend. When I opened the box, I saw a brand new amp. No scratches nor dents. As in other reviews, I'll review this per price point and then some...

It's a 2-channel model. Its circuitry is called "Tube Logic". This is Roland's low end tube modeling; but it isn't half bad, especially if you compare the amp with some of the Peaveys and Crates in its class. No reverb, no effects loop, no external speaker jack. I don't use an effects loop but an external speaker jack would be nice. Reverb comes from my effects unit. When I first got the amp, I went through a lot of tweaking. I think I've finally found my niche with it. The mediocre score is for its lack of features; not lack of tone.

I play a mix of jazz, pop, country, & blues. Think, Larry Carlton, Robben Ford, Brent Mason, and Steve Lukather rolled into one. I don't use the lead channel of the amp. Within my setup is a BOSS ME-30 multi-effects unit. It takes care of the effects, reverb, distortion, echo, chorus, etc... What I have found is that if I'm playing through the clean channel and have my reverb and delay settings the way I like, when I switch to the lead channel, the reverb and delay are out of control. Through all this tweaking, I decided to use this amp as just a bedroom amp and go back to my Blues Jr. for recording and stage.

I thought, "Let's just tweak it a bit more." I really didn't want this amp to go to the bedreoom only. I love the blond tolex and brown grill cloth. I exchanged speakers with mt Fender Blues Jr.; which has an Eminence speaker with a huge magnet. There was a noticable improvement in tone. It became warmer and bigger. Now remember, all this stuff is very subjective. Warmth to me might be dark to you. I decided to NOT use the lead channel at all. That let me use the clean channel for all it's worth. I set the master bol all the way up and control actual volume levels with the clean channel's volume control. It becomes very loud and punchy without much noise - great for the studio.

I love "real" tube amps. I hate their unreliability. Be it shotty wiring in a club or the deafening hum of florescent and/or mercury lights in your church, or accidentally bumping it and having a tube go out. They're very fragile. The BC-30 is a tank. It's solid state with a respectable tube simulation. I would gig without a backup.

Never dealt with them. Go to your warranty repair store. That's what they're there for.

I've been playing over 20 years. I've owned a lot of gear. I decided that I wanted to have a couple of good guitars and maybe a couple of small, but loud amps. That's what I now have. It's really nice when you can go to the studio or a gig and fit all of your gear in the frontseat of your car; plus sound as big as the guy with the Bluesbreaker or Super Reverb.

This rating is features per price point. It has no reverb, digital effects, or effects loop. What it does have is two channels, clean and gain, that both sound really good. It has a bright switch on the clean and a shared three band eq, a master volume section with a presence control. In order to get those other features such as reverb, digital fx, or fx loop, the price would obviously get much higher -- and at a higher price point there are alot of good sounding amps available. At this price, you could get a crate GX-15 with digital effects. Only problem is that the Crate sounds like garbage.

This amp is very impressive -- probably the best solid state I have owned and better than many tube amps including a Marshall JTM-60 that I recently bought and then returned. I do own several tube amps that I love including a Carvin, Sovtek, and Trace Elliot which all sound better than the BC-30. However, if you compare the BC-30 to tube amps from Peavey and Crate the BC-30 wins hands down. The BC-30 has a nice warm creamy tone. If yours doesn't, maybe you've got a bad one or you turned your treble up to ten -- this amp's eq is not like marshall which sounds best with everything full on. I've found it to sound its best with all eq at or near 12 O'clock and then cut or boost as necessary. As for volume, this amp is very efficient and loud enough for any professional gig.

By the way, where are all of these people playing that say an amp of this sort, or even a H & K tube 50, is not loud enough for a gig. I have been gigging professionally for well over a decade, and the only volume problem I have EVER had is my tube amps being too loud. My Carvin is thunderously loud and needs to be to get its tone. My Sovtek and Trace Elliot amps are more manageable, but I still get complaints from sound men about too much stage volume. I have yet to use the BC-30 for a gig, but I know it is loud enough to draw the "you're too loud" complaint.

At this point, I am curious how the amp would sound with a good Celestion. I may change the speaker. If I do and it sounds better, I will update.

I own alot of Roland and Boss equipment and I have never had any failures of any sort. I do not expect any from this. I usually carry a Pod along as a back up. I will update if this amp fails.

Never had to use them -- I guess that's as good as it can get!

I've been playing pretty much since birth, I have been performing and teaching (I am a full-time degreed musician and teach guitar as well as piano, bass, drums, mandolin...as well as perform 6-12 times monthly) for fourteen years (since age 17). My list of gear that I currently own is very extensive -- 2700 Watt PA, Yamaha AW4416CD and corresponding equipment, Amps from Carvin, Trace Elliot, Sovtek (I have owned Marshall JCM800(hated), Peavey (hated, but not as much as the Marshall), Marshall JTM-60 (liked, but unreliable and BC-30 sounds better anyway), Boogie Mark IV (sounds great, but move one knob a 10th of a milimeter and your tone is completely different, not to mention you could anchor a cruise ship with one). Here's what I love about the BC-30: It is a great sounding, light, plug in and play type of amp which doesn't need reverb because a) it sounds good without it; and b) even when I use an amp with reverb on stage or in the studio, I never Print the amp's reverb to tape or put it into the live signal, for I will let the soundman or engineer use the much higher quality reverb in their studio or sound system.

I used to do the Stack and Rack thing, but as you become more experienced and start gigging more often, you quickly learn how to downscale while maintaining or upgrading tone.

Here is what I hate about it:_____________!

I would definitely but it again. In fact, I probably will get another one for my lesson studio.

This is a 1997 model, single 12". No reverb or effects loop; other than that, the standard tone controls, master, two channels, etc. Features have been addressed below. Quite a lot of power for an amp that some consider a mere solid state practice amp. Shared tone controls for both channels and presence control in power section. It does its clean and overdrive channels extremely well, but feature-wise no fancy tricks.

I play the range from jazz to rock to country. The clean channel is blackface beautiful, that is light bluesy distortion when cranked. The distortion channel - on 2 think early Bloomfield Tele era, on up think ZZ to Doobies to Hendrix. Can do "light shades" of shred. The tone is, quite honestly, about as good as it gets/no reverb necessary (I'm a forty eight year old pro who owns the classic original amps and has a/b'd them extensively). Why these did not fly off of the shelves and have ended up being almost given away is solely due to marketing and media psychology.

Only had a short while, picked up as a lark on a Sunday afternoon cruising ebay, with a ridiculously low bid. Reliability? These are the Boss people.

Used so no warranty, but no problems and no experience with Roland.

I own great examples of most of the classic amplifiers and most classic electric guitars. This amp has no preference for single coils or buckers. It sounds spectacular in all modes with all guitars, including accoustic. It does have a bit of a "blat" at high volumes on the clean channel that is a sympathetic resonance around low A notes. For the money this is unbeatable; I now must have the BC-60, either 12 or 3-10 models or, most likely, both!

I use a KH-2 ESP model, a blue Rhoads V, a B.C. Rich Warlock, and a cusotm built explorer, all with EMG pickups. On this amp a 50 dollar rogue would sound the same... Thats why I got a Mesa Boogie Triaxis and 2:90 power amp, with 2 Marshall 4 x 12 cabs and various other items... but with this amp you cannot actually play the songs of the artists you know and truely admire because its sound quality is not very good. Period

It has never failed, btu tube amps that require attention, actually have tone unlike a solid-state POS like this.

Haven't Delt with them, and wouldnt't even if it broke.

There is worse out there, btu not much worse unless your talkig about some battery powered thing you wired yourself to a 3 inch speaker inside of a shoe box... in other words... this amp is not worth buying.

Normal amp features: 2 channels, 3 eq's. However, i guess in order to bring down the price, they decided not to put a speaker out which makes the amp only good for practice. My model has a presence control which when combined with the eq's give it a lot of versatility. it's a class A amplifier and the sound can get a lot louder that 30 watts, but it getts really muddy when you turn everything up. it has a master volume which, when used with the presence can help you put a leash on your tone.

i'm playing a homade gutiar with duncan 69 (neck) and jb (bridge) or a yamaha 512 with lace sensor blue pickups and a tone zone hum bucker in the bridge (i love this guitar. the old yamaha strats have a neckjoint that enables easy upper fret access. i'd recomend this guitar to anyone at any level, the craftmanship is good, put in some new pickups andi t's golden) I play primarily blues with this amp. you get some good tube type overdrive by turning the clean chanell all the way up. The drive channel is nice and thick, especially when juiced. The amp is naturally bassy, and handles my eq pedal different from my marshal or vox. This amp was made to thump, but it's not big enough to do anything but scream when playing out. I love it's sound. when playing in a room or garage or coffeehouse or small venue, it's sound is great. the speaker pushes more sound that this amp gets credit for, but then again, it's a small amp. I just wish it had a line out.

I can depend on it. It's a solid amp. it has a tendancy to be inconsistent at different levels, so make sure to do a sound check before the crowd gets there. I've taken this thing up and down the east coast. I use it for auditions because it's got monster tone.

no, never dealt with the company

It's under 200 dollars and it gives you monster tone. if it had a line out and an fx loop i'd use it for gigs. If i lost this thing, i'd go to church for committing the sin. i put the tone up there with my old bassman(god rest it's soul) and up and above the marshal i use when playing out.

Two channels - Clean and overdriven
Love the sound of amp on the clean channel, it sound warm. On the overdriven channel I find it to not get crunchy enough. As mentioned in other reviews it is definitly not a metal amp. It seems to work well with my Danelectro - the combo mixes well. I do wish that it had reverb.

My Danelectro has three lipstick pickups and the only problem I notice is the constant hum - to be expected. The amp sounds better as you increase the volume - especially on the second channel. The distortion has a wide range which is a nice characterictic of this amp.

I bought it used (from a dealer) & have been using it for about two monthes now. I have had no problems with it.

No need for support - however I could not find the amp on their website - a big disappointment

I'm not sure when this amp was made. I got it on A clearance sale
from A mail order house. The amp is dual channel but I didn't get
A footswitch. Very simple layout no effects loop or preamp out and no reverb. I'm A big fan of tube amps but I also know solid state amps
have come on strong for quite A few years. Also I have never bought
an amp that I could not try out first but the price and the huge
R&D that Roland has I thought what the hell and bought it. I got new
in july 99

The guitars I use are an early 80s Strat with A humbucker on the
bridge, and A 75 Music Man with two Carvin dual humbuckers. I need
an amp to do good sounding chops and lead fills. This is where the
bad part starts. In less than 30 seconds after turning this amp on
I got A horrible flash back to the 70s when as A kid I hated that
awful sound of solid state treble. Here it was again! it seems to
have that peak at about 2KHZ. At ear level (the speaker pointing
at you) know one could stand to be near it! I tried different
guitars and every setting I could think of and it is bad sounding on
all of them. on the overdrive channel the distortion kicks in on
about 2 with A raspy fuzz and gets worse as you turn it up. I tried
the amp A couple of times spread out over A few days in different
setups an tried to get friends to take it and try it out but, all
they would do was smile and say no thanks. How can I relate the
style and type I like to play ( sorta classic rock and kickin country)
when an amp falls so flat. No sustain,natural overdrive,or glassy
sound to talk about. The only positive think I can think of is the
clean channel stayed clean almost all the way up if you like an
old Roy Clark sound. Any treble and presence you try and add just
sounds piercing.

Only had it A week. Did I get A bad one?

Did not deal with Roland. Just UPS back to the mail order warehouse.
I called and they said to return it(I sure did).

Wow I've played guitar for over 20 years. I have many amps from Fender
to Mesa Boogie and Vox To Sears Silvertone! and some I wish I still
had. I am not A Brand hound. I can find A little no name amp and love
it and keep it around for years with A couple of other amps.
When I first read about the Blues Cube line was in A Roland mag.
Of course they had A review by A guy that was an amp guru that
had countless classic tube amps. So he raved on how great the Blues
cube line was. So even if you only belive half what A brand says
about themselves they have their butt on the line if it is A clunker.
The glowing reviews by other buyers in Harmony Central was the reason
I bought The pig in A poke(buying without trying). I must have got A
bad one or everyone else is tone deaf. JUST KIDDIN GUYS! This amp
just did not give any of the classic tube sounds it promised,or even
passable solid state sound.

This is a relatively straight forward amp, but missing some critical features, primarily a speaker out and an effects loop. I love this amp to death but I need something larger and it's killing me trying to find something that sounds this great. The 3-band eq is nice, it has quite a wide range.

This amp is simply the best amp I've ever heard. It delivers a beautiful creamy tone (like a good Guinness) that I'm finding impossible to duplicate with any other amp. It has enough crunch for almost everything but death metal. Sometimes the clean channel isn't quite clean enough though. I'm using a 1970 Les Paul Deluxe and an epiphone Sheraton and both sound absolutely amazing (especially the Sheraton, I've never heard such a tonally well-balanced guitar/amp). I need something louder for bigger clubs and i can't find anything even close. I may end up with the BC-60 if I can find one (I don't think they are making these anymore). If you want a fat smooth creamy sound with decent bite and no dirt, this is the amp for you, especially if your pickups tend be on the hot side.

lugged it around a lot, never had any problems yet (had it for about a year).

For me, this amp delivers the ultimate sound and I would hunt to the end of the earth for another one if it were stolen. The only drawback is the lack of a speaker out for a cabinet. You can pick these up for $199 new (if oyu can find them), and that's a great price for what you get.

2 channels: lead and clean. Wish it had reverb though. Very flexible, can produce many different sounds from rock to blues. Uses Roland's TubeLogic circuitry to emulate a tube amp (not too bad, but there's still a little bit of solidstate hardness in it).

Sounds very close to a tube amp. I play it with a LP, and it sings with sustain. Distortion isn't hard enough for metal, but is perfect for rock. Clean channel has very nice lows (partly due to a nice heavy duty speaker) and shimmering highs. Sounds best when you crank it, gives more sustain. Even gives a tad of overdrive.

Never had any problems. Pretty solid.

Haven't had to deal with them.

Really good value, but lacks power and reverb. If you're using it for a practice amp, its perfect, but for gigs, get the BC-60.

This amp is a solid state amp with rolands new tube logoic tec. as the names states it is a blues amp it rely gives great blues tone that you usualy can only get from those older tube amps and it seams to have eaven thos strange reactions to signal changes that you can get on purpose from the tube amps but can never find on solid state. It has two chanles clesn and lead and is realy versitile but for more descritions look at http://www.sweetwater.com/bluescube/bluescube.html it has almost every thing on the amp there. It gives great sound for a 30 watt and has powerful bass i think its because of the speaker, i mean this thing is one powerful speaker. It has a footswitch jack for the clean and lead switch. and has a bright boton that gives a nice bright tone (dugh obviously). The only thing it shuold have for this size amp is a headfone jack and i wish it had reverb.

Its great for blues on both clean( that can be overdriven) and lead (very versitile) but you can get almost any rock sound out of it exept for realy heavey metal styles

its preaty tough since its lolid state.

na

Its very good and probably the fist series of amps (blues cubes) to realy give the old tubes a run for there money. Iwould buy it again but if I had more money I would buy the bc-60 because it has a lot more feature(and I mean alot). I wish they would make a bc-30 with the same features as the bc-60 exept for the rectifex circuit. this amp is great for a practice amp of for those of you that like pure just amp and wah blues with a mic in front of the amp. and if you have a couple of bucks and want to go for the most awsome blues sound you can get on a 30 watt try hooking this one up to a wah and a boss blues driver.