Roland Bolt 30

Early 80's, solid state pre amp and valve power amp open back combo with 12 inch speaker. A good package back in the day boasting twin channels, reverb, foot switch for clean and dirty channels and reverb, also features fx loop and headphone socket. One slight gripe is that it has shared eq, but never really found it a problem.

I use it with my strat, tele and p90 Les Paul. Now the clean channel sounds absolutely fantastic!, it's really warm and one of the best cleans I have ever heard!, in fact I also own a Cornford Carrera and the Roland really shows it up in this department!, yes I know I couldn't believe it either whan I first A/B'd the two of them, but believe me, it just has a certain sparkle and warmth to the sound that makes you want to just keep playing jazz chords through it!, and it makes the Cornford sound as if someone has thrown a heavy blanket over it!, but most people get a Cornford for it's amazing drive sounds, and this is where the bolt really falls to the ground with a heavy thump!, it just can't do what a decent amp can do in this department. On full tilt I always thought it sounded good until I got the Cornford, but now I realise it sounds quite boxy and not that great at all, and I have always hated the in between just breaking blues settings, they really are awful, so a couple of years ago I got a Voodoo lab sparkle drive and a Visual sound Rt66 set at different drive levels, they really do sound fantastic in conjunction with the clean channel!. I'm going to rate the sound high as the clean channel is so exceptional.

Never had a problem with it in 25 years, never crackles and I've never changed the valves!.

Nothing to say, never needed.

Been playing for 30 years and I use this amp as the benchmark by which all other amps are judged.

Made in late 70's/ early 80's. Very basic amp. DO NOT engage the solid state channel, it sounds utterly crap.This is nice: you can just not use it, and simply click it away... But, otherwise, it sounds very warm, rounded and very full. Valve power stage sees to that ( 2x 6L6) Has effects loop, reverb on / off and headphone out. Line out as well, and it puts out 30 watts into Roland 12 inch speaker. Plenty loud. Reverb is worth mentioning: its gorgeous.
This thing is very, very rare. Only ever saw one, and that's the one I've got.

It's very much a one horse race this amp, very good at what it does, and that's producing very warm , organic sounds. It's like a crackling woodfire, that kind of warmth. Stays pretty clean at high volumes. Does NOT do distortion on its own.( Its pretends to, with the transistor pre-amp, but fails) Use a good quality stompbox/ multieffect and it will serve all your needs.
Responds well to HB / SC variations. Not noisy at all. very quiet in fact.

This amp is completely original ( down to the valves!) , at least 25 years old and performs as good as new. No problems at all. Hence: very good build quality, must be! They got this bit very right.

Not relevant. If it cocks up I have good contacts on the web and know a very good amp tech near where I live.

Been playing fr 20 years. Use it with Gibson The Paul ( 1979) and Squier telecaster. Boss, Tech 21 and Electro Harmonix effects.
I would buy another straight away, the 60 watt version would be nice, or the 100 watt head version, but these things are so rare, finding one would be a miracle. I replaced the stock speaker with a Celestion classic 80 ( but kept the original) for more grunt. Does it well, but the factory speaker has more detail. its 3 band EQ is a bit basic, but works well. Full valve would have been nice, but hey: its the power stage that needs to be valve, and this one has that.

I paid #120 sterling for the roland Bolt 30. It probably dates back to early 80`s with two channels but common eq settings. it has hi/lo gain inputs, two lead gain controls with master volume. It has a spring reverb bolted onto chassis. the 12 inch speaker is dual coned on this one with a large magnet but no makers name. Power amp uses two tubes aka EL34 or 6L6, but not sure. Front end has one EC83 type valve but probably for reverb and not for gain/ lead tone creation which falls to solid state circuitry. Back panel has line out only. Front panel has effects return/ send, headphone socket and footswitch socket. Chanell switched manually by switching on/off with first pre amp gain knob.

the clean channel is pure valve aka rivera/fender with good definition and clarity and a warm vibrant tone. good for blues and jazz. The eq is adequate but not superb, the reverb is huge even on low settings. IF vintage sounding blues and jazz chords are your thing then this amp is good but does not have a great deal of treble end bite, it stays warm, sweet and mellow at all settings. The lead/distortion sound is useable but is fiddly and never manages to compete with todays clever solid circuitry from say Marshall in their MGX/AVT pre-amps. The bolt 30 cannot produce the lead sustain of modern amps, it sounds boxy/ muddy and lifeless , so best to put a `pro-co rat` in front of it. Then wind up the power valve end and you`ll get by. Its a shame the preamp distortion was not valve produced. On clean the amp is good and a bargain buy. Clean rates 8, lead rates 4.

This one is still going after 25 years so no problem here.

Find a man who can ! Roland should have a vintage Roland web site giving all specs and history if they expect brand loyalty.

I bought the little bolt 30 as an experiment to see how far amps had progressed in 30 years. On the rythym front not far at all, but on the lead and preamp circuitry light years ! This amp with a modern distortion pedal will hold its own no problem, and given their rarity
as the only 30 watt Roland valve amp of all time are worth getting hold of.

Early 80s combo similar to Bolt 30 in appearance butunusually has two 7591 valves for the output stage .Same controls as the bolt 60 and same features ,just lighter .2 channells excellent reverb Roland speaker .Footswitchable reverb, channels pre in and out.Loud enough for small gigs master volume allows awide range of overdrive tones at lower vollume

This is a clone of an early Messa boogie lots of ovedrive heavy distortion if needed plus agreat clean tone .LCleantones probly better than gain , a result of the besign I suppose

I bought this amp in a garage sale ,it had not been used for years after an hour or so it setled down and now sounds great . The quality of Roland products is a guarrentee for reliability

This amp ia 20 years old still works fine

Versatile usefull amp with some great tones Messa on a budget?