Roland BC-60 BluesCube 310 Combo

Let's see. Pretty much the usual fare, single input, two switchable channels, spring reverb, tan tolex wrap, 3/10's. All this was covered previously. There are limitations to this amp, but it is, after all, called the "Blues Cube", not the "Jazz Cube" or the "Death-Metal Cube." It's in the soul and the technique. This is just the raw materials. Not much to hide behind. You better know your chops. For the blues, it is more than adequate. It's not a Fender. What more can I say.

I use this amp primarily with an Ibanez AS-120, a 335 clone with sweet Super 58 pick-ups. Some reviewer mentioned that his Ibanez As model was the first guitar that really made the "cube" come to life. I must hardily concur. The sweet tones I've been able to coax from this combination (with much experimentation of course) rival some of the best I've ever been able to produce. From a Rick Derringer soul blast to a Santana sustain that would make a rock cry. It responds well to string dynamics and technique. It does not however produce a sound that improves with volume added. I'd have to say it peaks at about 75% power, after that it can rattle like a 64 Rambler on the Autobahn. But I love her and the nice tight sound the tens give me. I do actually have no problem getting plenty of bottom out of it too. I've read many review by people with single coil set-ups, and would expect a knock about bottom from them, but the guy with the Heritage?
I don't know much about the Heritage other than that it's also a 335 clone. I like the sounds I get with this amp. After all, this is about opinions, nothing more.

Been a trooper. A heavy trooper though.

No experience with customer support with all my Roland and Boss stuff. It's all still working.

Been playing over thirty years. Too much accumulated stuff to list. Lots of Ibanez stuff, Gibson Blues King Electro, Peavy E-coustic, Gr-09, Roland CR-1000 drum machine, etc. If it were lost (how do you lose an amp?) or stolen, I'd slowly walk and overtake the thief who would be severly crippled from running with this monster. I love the blues sounds I get from this thing. Sadly, it's just a tease since there are no tube elves living inside. This is a great sounding amp for the price, and dependable. I can live with the rest.

Faitly limiting, single channel amp which is best suited for a practice amp. Has reverb and Chorus, they sound o.k.

I play a Mexican Fender strat through this thing and the sound is average. It is great for jazz but limited in a lot of other ways (rock, heavy metal) Overall the reverb is ok.

I've owned it for 14 years so far it has never given me any problems. This thing is Japanese made, although a lot of people refer to Japanese products as "Jap Crap" it has served me well over the years.

Nice practice amp, does it's job well. Could be a little more versitile, ut it has a good Bluesy sound.

Dual channel 60-watt combo amp with a single 12" speaker. Purchased in February 2000. Includes two switchable channels (normal and lead), spring reverb, effects loop, and a special tube emulation circuit, designed to capture the type of guitar sounds produced by classic valve amps of the 50s and 60s.
The normal channel has the tube emulation circuit, controlled by a "crunch" knob (1, 2 or off) and the lead channel has both a boost button for heavy overdrive as well as pre and post level controls, which let you dial in more subtle amounts of drive and effectively balance the relative volume levels between the two channels. Each channel has three tone controls, and a presence control is also mounted downstream at the power amp side. A master volume controls the overall gain for both channels.
The amp is covered in old-style tan tolex, with a dark brown grill cloth, and the controls are on top, not on the front. It has a very pleasing, classic tube amp look, and at 42 lbs is light enough to carry around one-handed.

I'm playing a Telecaster through this, and it produces a very listenable sound. The normal channel has all the brightness and sparkle a single-coil guitar needs, and the 12-inch speaker is capable of a strong and full bass response, much warmer and more natural that I've had before using dual 10s.
I prefer the normal channel with the tube rectifier switched in and the crunch on 1. At this setting my Tele shimmers and sparkles at normal playing and yet just begins to dirty up as I attack the strings a little harder or power down on full chords. It is very sensitive to how you play, as it should be. It is able to go pretty loud on overall gain without fuzzing out, unless of course that is how you have set it.
The lead channel is a little too artificial in its distortion for my tastes, although I have been able to dial in a more subdued overdrive that isn't bad. The boost switch puts in way too much fakey overdrive, so I leave it off and just dial in some pre gain until it sounds right, then use the post gain to set the volume relative to the normal channel so it boosts a little hotter when I switch it to lead. I have the bass and treble boosted and the mid rolled back on the normal channel, which is a classic Tele setting, and then add more mids to the lead channel for a thicker overdrive sound.

I've only had this for a couple of months, bit it seems quite rugged and solidly built.

No company or factory contact yet. I was surprised that Roland pretty much ignores this model on its website. Perhaps because its an older design and they are pushing the newer stuff? Or maybe, since they make and sell so many high-end electronic products they can afford to not worry too much about a cheapo little combo amp.

I've been playing since the 60s, and I am very pleased with this little amp. No tubes to replace all the time, a nice overall sound, and not to big or heavy for my aging back. I would get another again, especially at the discounted price (thank you zzounds).
I compared it to similar priced Fenders and liked the sound better, and their older tube amps sound good, but aren't as versatile.
My only complaints:
Two separate jacks for reverb and channel switching need two switches, or a dual switch with a y-adaptor...and no switch is included.
No cover available, so I'll have to make my own.
No footswitch jack for the effects loop, but most effects units have their own, so that's not such a problem.
I love the sounds with my Tele. Overall, I think it's one of the best buys out there right now in combo amps.

60 watts, 3 ten inch "vintage-voiced" speakers, two channels (clean and overdrive) with separate 3 band eq, clean channel also has two overdrive cruch settings, reverb, presence, effects loop, blonde covering.

I have been playing a tex/mex strat with dimarzio virtual vintage single coils though it. It suits my style of music very well (blues and classic rock). The amp is overall very quite. I used it playing everything (SRV,Clapton, Cream, Hendrix, BB, Etc....). The two crunch settings on the clean channel are great. They really help nail some sweet rythm sounds. I even used the crunch two setting for a lot of SRV lead stuff (with the treble on 2 adn the presence on 8!!). Very versatile amp. Sounds great on blues adn rock, but also does country, and jazz very well too. If you crank to gain on the lead channel and mess with the eq you can really get some heavy sounds!!!For the most part the amp really does sound like a tube amp (roland's tube logic technology). The lead channel sounds a little thin sometimes when really cranked, but adjusting the eq (cranking the mids) seems to help a lot!

Very reliable no problems in two years of playing and three months of pretty heavy gigging.

I have been playing for about 5 years. I also owned a marshall vs65r and a fender princeton ultimate chorus. This amp does that tube emulation thing better!! I love the sound, and especially the look. That blonde covering gives it such a classic look. If it were stolen I might buy it again if I could also hire someone to carry it. It is rather heavy, but oh well!

60 watts, 3 ten inch "vintage-voiced" speakers, two channels (clean and overdrive) with separate 3 band eq, clean channel also has two overdrive cruch settings, reverb, presence, effects loop, blonde covering.

I have been playing a tex/mex strat with dimarzio virtual vintage single coils though it. It suits my style of music very well (blues and classic rock). The amp is overall very quite. I used it playing everything (SRV,Clapton, Cream, Hendrix, BB, Etc....). The two crunch settings on the clean channel are great. They really help nail some sweet rythm sounds. I even used the crunch two setting for a lot of SRV lead stuff (with the treble on 2 adn the presence on 8!!). Very versatile amp. Sounds great on blues adn rock, but also does country, and jazz very well too. If you crank to gain on the lead channel and mess with the eq you can really get some heavy sounds!!!For the most part the amp really does sound like a tube amp (roland's tube logic technology). The lead channel sounds a little thin sometimes when really cranked, but adjusting the eq (cranking the mids) seems to help a lot!

Very reliable no problems in two years of playing and three months of pretty heavy gigging.

I have been playing for about 5 years. I also owned a marshall vs65r and a fender princeton ultimate chorus. This amp does that tube emulation thing better!! I love the sound, and especially the look. That blonde covering gives it such a classic look. If it were stolen I might buy it again if I could also hire someone to carry it. It is rather heavy, but oh well!

3 10" vintage green speakers. Effects loop, reverb, 3 stage gain, tube emulater. I love the features offered with this amp. The only thing I can't understand is why Roland set it up with a footswitch for channels and a seperate one for the reverb. And they don't ship the footswitches to boot. I love the effects loop. It has a mixture so you can totally mix out the loop or have the loop full.

I play blues/rock. I can get a wide range of tones with this amp. As for the other review that said this amp had no bottom end, he must have been on drugs! I get booming bass with this thing and I play a telecaster! It is amazingly quiet for a soild state amp. I play with another guitar player who uses a Fender blackface Twin and he has more buzz then me!

I've only had it for a few months and haven't had any problems. From the previous soildstate amps I've owned I don't expect any problems (except maybe a blown speaker).

N/A

I love this amp and would buy it again if I lost it. I'm looking for another as I have heard that roland doesn't manufacture this model anymore. Get them while you can.

A two-channel, solid-state amp with three "vintage-voiced" 10-inch speakers. The clean channel has a volume, a three-band (treble, mid, bass) e.q. and an "overdrive light" feature called "crunch." The O.D. channel features pre- and post volumes, a three-band e.q. and a gain boost button. The amp sports a master volume, presence, rectifier circuit and accutronics reverb which affects both channels.

Maybe it's me, but despite the variety of tones the amp offers, most of them are pretty mediocre. The 310 lacks the basic warmth of the BC-60 with just a single 12-inch speaker, i.e. NO BOTTOM! I play a semi-hollow body Heritage H-555 with humbuckers and this amp somehow manages to wimp the tone out quite a bit at lower volumes. I'm mostly a jazz/blues guy, so "warm," "fat" and "clean" are important adjectives to me. I really can't use them to describe this amp.
Also, the clean channel begins to overdrive at medium volumes. Sometimes that's cool, but since you cain't switch it off, it actually (and annoyingly) limits the tones. I generally don't play really loud, but occasionally, I'm on stage with cats playing blues through Fender DeVilles and Mesa/Boogies. It'd be nice to to be able to get a good, clean smoothie at higher volumes.
But the dirty channel rocks! It does the 70's-era, medium-distortion thing quite well. If you like your shred, this one can just about get you there with a push of the "boost" button.

Complaints about sound aside, this amp's built pretty solidly. I've only had two small problems. The first being a hum from what seems to be the unit's reverb when the master volume is all the way up. However, I just turned the reverb off, and it went away.
Also, one of the decorative golden disks popped off a e.q. knob when I turned it -- and I wasn't even using a hammer. It's a small thing, but still somewhat uncool.
If I were going to keep this goober, I'd use it without a backup.

haven't had to talk to Roland.

I've been playing for about 22 years and I've been through a buncha guitars and amps. I've got a Fender Roc Pro 700 that I just take around to practices that sounds o.k. but I'm ready to get rid of it, too.
I wouldn't buy this amp again, although it had a lot of promise when I bought it. I like the fact that it's got some semi-cool features but since most of them aren't footswitch-accessible, using them on a gig is a pain.
Truth to tell, I was looking for something under $500 bucks that was louder than my Fender Roc Pro for an upcoming gig. I thought this amp would fit the bill. However, I didn't really crank it in the store, which was unwise. I'm gonna sell it. Soon.

Very, versatile amp. Same features as BC60- 1/12"(clean channel w/ clean/crunch1/crunch2; lead channel; rectifex[diode/tube]; reverb; effects loop; seperate EQ for each channel; boost switch for each channel; presence etc...). I play in a club date band-weddings, party's etc. This amp can get just about every sound I need, from nice clean lead, to bluesy crunch, to all out wail! Is certainly powerful enough! On many gigs, I don't let the sound man put me into the system- the only place that I ever needed the help was at the Waldorf-Astoria (a really BIG hotel in New York). I wish it could switch between the settings on the clean channel by footswitch (and not just the clean/lead channel)

It suits just about all styles of music- I would think that it might be a little too fat for death metal. It is relativley quiet at all levels (I use a Stenberger w/ 2 EMG humbuckers). I was using a couple of pedals (Boss CH1, GE7, DD4, and a crybaby) both through the effects loop and direct line in- BUT I found that they just took away from the sound. I am really happy just bringing my amp to a gig, but if I needed more than ditortion/reverb sounds I don't know how it would stand up. My biggest problem is that the clean channel breaks up to easily- I woulde have liked to be able to get a REALLY clean sound (alah JC120)with no break up. It seems when I put the pre-Amp at 3 I already am breaking up. BUT the distortion channel kicks ass!! From a nice fat tube (fenderish) sound, to a wailing scream (Boogie) this baby has it all!! The EQ really makes a difference, as does the presence/rectifex stuff.

Well I use it alot (3-4 gigs a week)and it gets dragged/smacked around in transit, I already have had 2 MAJOR problems (as matter of fact it is in the shop now) First my Reverb circut freaked out (buzzing etc...) and had to be replaced, and now I have this really strange crossed wire or somthing (the tech guys at Roland never heard of it before) When I am in the rectifex "Tube" setting and my clean channel pre-amp is on 0, and i crank the Master volume- I hear the dirty channel (a strange version of it) coming through. However when I put the rectifex switch to diode the sound stops- I hope the repair guy can fix it.

Of course, it broke 2 weeks after the (1 year)warranty ran out, but otherwise i was very happy with the tech support at Roland (dial ext. 410 I think right away otherwise you get stuck in their voice mail) But they did spend alot of time on the phone with me

I would highly recommend it to anyone with a roadie- it does become a pain in the ass to drag around- and if I ever bought another amp it would probably be a GK Backline 100. I wish it had more footswitchable functions and I wish the damn thing didn't have so many problems BUT for the money it is a very versatile/powerful amp anmd shouild deffinitley be checked out. Oh yeah for some reason even though it is called a BC60 it is really 85 watts.