Roland Cube 20X

good

This product is a joke.

But, I submitted a review a week ago and why it's not on the page?

NA

NA

Again, it sounds ******.

Many features.
They were already described many times so I'll skip with it.
Plenty for such a small box

Used with Schecter SD-2 (MIJ)
Clean is OK.

But overdrive/distortion sound is so sterile that I couldn't stand it. Amp modeling is a joke. Maybe Rectifier model would pass but other models are pain to play with. Sound is actually very simple to describe. It's Boss pedal in front of SS amp. Nothing better, nothing less. It's a mystery to me why this amp has so high rate in this category.

Just listen to the sample in YouTube(What was his name? Marcello and that Hippy guy). It's exactly like that. I thought it sounded pretty bad but I could tweak the sound so I bought it. It sounded like it and I hated it. I couldn't play more than 10 min with it.

Oh, one thing to mention. The eq doesn't work. I mean it works but it has such a narrow range. I couldn't tweak the sound since the eq is useless. Effect is so-so but unless basic sound is good it's not even worth to mention.

I sold it a week later so I have no idea.
But it looks solid.

??

As a toy, it's ok. Someone will argue that it's a toy, but then this is too much expensive toy. If the list price is under $50, I'll agree this is a good toy and maybe a fantastic amp for the price.

But, with current price tag, this is a joke.

Bought it new, a few months ago.
I've done everything I want with it, so it's time for a review.
I use it for both electric guitar and electric violin.
I use it in the classroom to show children how an electric guitar is played and I accompany songs with it.
When I use it with electric violin, I use it for rehearsals, with a band, with a duo or solo.
In duo or solo situations I rehearse with headphones.
This amp is very usable in all kinds of situations.
It has got lots of features, it's small, light weighted, reliable and sturdy.
I wish the delay was a little bit more adjustable.
Flanger, phaser and tremolo are funny I suppose, but they're not funny enough to tempt me. I wish the recording out was a bit less hissy.
It's got more than enough power for what I need.
I don't gig with it. I use bigger amps when I gig, but I suppose when you mike it you can hear yourself and even get a nice tone out of it all.

Tube model is very good. Other distortion models are articial, but usable.
In combination with the violin I only use the clean channel. It sounds great.
Just don't compare it to a REAL amp (not necessarily a tube amp).

Even Roland/Boss products break down.

I compared it to cube 15, 30x, laney hardcore 20 (nice!!), marshall 30dfx (ok, it's a real amp but things rattle a bit) and some small amps that didn't impress me enough to remember their name (park, squier). others I didn't even try because they didn't look that sturdy (line6). And Fender is a very good brand, but not in the cheap area. Vox could be an option, but my violin sounds better with roland.
I bought a Roland amp because they're always loud enough for what I want.
They've got great sounding clean channels.
They're reliable and the effects are usable.
Theye're not too expensive.
You can take the 20x anywhere and have good sound. you only need power, a cable and an instrument.

Of this were stolen etc. I'd probably buy a new one because it's not that pricy.

...All mentioned before. But pro's for me were:
-Switchable lead/clean channels and
-Switchable effects, pity the reverb/delay is not.
-Built in tuner. Not great, but good enough as an extra!
-Powersqueezer. Nice.
-20 watts , and it's pretty loud for that!
-VERY portable.

I play acoustic on it ,as well as electric from jazzy to over-the-top metal. It's my little-buddy-everywhere if I don't need that much power. Little cafes, practicing with a (modest volume) band, jamsessions, you name it.Those 20 watts are surprisingly loud and usable.

The Clean. Good , nice, warm , very usable. But: there is a little buzz if you let your guitar ring out on the low strings. And that's not on mine only. I tested another one, same glitch. Irritating at times. No, it's not the guitar. It's not the speaker. It's a digital artefact of the clean channel.

The Lead. All usable, except for the Acoustic preset - yuk!
Tube Drive is nice, good for my archtop.
Metal preset is what I use most for ,erm, metal and the likes. Good, tight, a bit generic but very usable.

Those presets are , well , a bit artificial at times but still very,very usable and, indeed, I found them more natural sounding compared to the presets of the 30x.

Delay, Reverb, and the other effects . Usable. Not great, not bad either.

I once dropped it accidently, and still ok.
Sturdy construction.Have it for over a year now and it's been everywhere and still works fine.

N/A

I play for over 25 years. The 20x is in my opinion a very good bang for the buck. Very versatile, very portable, very usable sound, and a solid 20 watts, and that's exactly why I bought it !

Only cons are the after-buzz and the sluggish switching between channels when used with a footswitch, and the build in noisegate that cuts too much " tail".

Excellent for the price - versatile sounds and effects on such a small and cheap amp!

I play the guitar to accompany choirs and Congregations - always at lower volumes, not to drown out the voices - Gospel, contemporary Christian, Pop, Folk, a little Rock. For two years now, I have been using the Roland Cube 30 (1st generation without the X).

Guitars:
a) Strumming an Epiphone ES 335 modified with a Seymour Duncan SH-4 "JB" bridge pickup in parallel wiring - gives me a very wide frequency range.
b) Picking a Washburn D-60 Acoustic with an unknown passive piezo pickup.

I tried out the "JC Clean" and "Acoustic" mode, comparng them to the Cube 30. I am no expert in distortion, so I left all other switch positions out.

The Cube 20X does not give any noise, whereas the older Cube 30 produces a fairly audible hiss on the "Acoustic" setting, Gain 1 p.m. There is a built-in, non-accessible noise gate muting the noise when the guitar is silent, but during sound from my passive Electric-Acoustic, I can't overhear the hiss. The newer circuit on the Cube 20X seems to have eliminated this problem.

The Cube 20X gives the typical ultra-clean Roland characteristic up to higher volumes, but the sound on the Cube 30 with its larger speaker and stronger power amp is more open, more transparent.

Alas, the power squeezer is useless. It cuts treble.

Only had it for a day. Suppose, it will stay in shape as long as the Cube 30 - nearly forever.

No experience.

I have been playing for 28 years, owned several amps looking for a warm electric and a brilliant realistic acoustic tone. Never had much money but tried several cheap amps. The tone the Cube 30 gives is just incredible - no need for me to haul bigger and heavier equipment.
Now I wanted to try if the cube 20x for even less money in an even smaller and lighter case would keep up with its bigger brother.
Well, it doesn't quite. On both clean settings, it sounds like a cube 30 pressed into a small box - which, in fact, it is. I might take the Cube 20 on our tour in South Africa, travelling on planes and buses, but i am not sure if the small 8" speaker will carry lower frequency through larger churches.

Tuner, only for standard tuning, but that is enough and very useful. Not many amps have this, especially in this 20 watt class.

Roland (or Boss) COSM modelling effects: Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Tremolo, Delay and Reverb. Again, not many amps have these.

Clean & Lead. Lead choices: Acoustic (simulator), Overdrive, Distortion, Metal, Metal Stack, Tube Drive.

Foot switch (optional).

Aux in, useful for practicing using iPod. Also can be plugged with microphone. But no volume control for this jack.

Power squeeze, limit volume for night-home-neighbour-friendly practicing.

I use this amp with a Squier Telecaster equipped with Harmonic Design Mini Strat neck pickup and Harmonic Design Super-90 bridge pickup.

The JC Clean channel is priceless. Sounds so great. Have tried other amps in this 20 watt class ??? Line 6, Marshall, Peavey, Laney, Hughes & Kettner ??? and in my opinion no one can compare to Roland's great clean sound.

The effects are great and very useful. Flawless. Just dial and play.

The Lead channel is also great. The Acoustic simulator sounds almost perfectly simulating acoustic guitar (using neck pickup). I prefer the Tube Drive sound for distortion, but the others are great, too.

This amp is for practicing and recording.
But sometimes it is useful for a small venue gig.

Love it very much. No doubt.

Even it is a bit expensive for an amp in its class. It's like buying an amp with a dozen effects, plus tuner. Just do the math.

So I think it's cheap and worth it!

Found it. I've been jacking around with different amps for years. At the moment, i'm just home recording (eight tracks). I wanted something without a menu, but with a great sound. This is it. The recording out is best i have heard. I can just dial in what i want. This amp is the perfect fit for me.

Nice, rich acoustic sounds, and buttery leads are a snap. I was looking for a certain distortion sound, and described it as a creamy chainsaw. Lots of bite, but silky smooth. I'm pleased. I've been thru marshall amps around this size, pod, a behringer unit, a crate, and more. This is my buddy now.

Only had it for a couple days.

no need yet

I have no complaints, because i'm very happy to find a super easy, great sounding recording amp.

I'm not going to cover the features you can look those up on your own. I will however go over the functionality.

This is one of the most universal amps you will find for the money. It may not have a ton of eqs, presets, etc but you can quite literally get the tone you need for basically any song out there. it may take a few sets to get it right between your guitar and the bass/mid/treb/etc but once its right it sounds incredible.

brilliant.

i'm only giving it a 9 because I have not used the foot switch ability as of yet. but easily would give it a 10 for everything else.

Fender Telecaster
78' Gibson LP Special
Fender Stratocaster

Let me start off first by saying that this amp can get pretty loud. The other reviews saying that the effects get "muddy" at louder volumes may have a loose input jack or simply a bad connection. I've been playing mine for months at its sounds just as clear at max volume as it does at any other setting.

This amp has the most tone I've ever heard in a solid state modeling amp. I originally had the smaller offering and bought this on a whim and couldn't be happier.

Tone. Tone. Tone.

Blues. Hard Rock. Jazz. This amp does it all flawlessly.

This is not a gig amp. Let me be clear about that.

It is however perfect for practice and recording.

Roland is a great name and they've done a great job with these. I never had a problem with my first one and wouldn't expect any with this model.

Never needed it.

I've had amps in this price range, size, features from nearly every solid manufacturer out there.

Out of all of them; Peavey, Fender, Crate, Marshall, etc.

If you need a modeling amp for practice and/or recording there simply is nothing that sounds better and packs more for the money.

Buy it or the next one up.

Well, I finally bought it despite my first disliking of its effects.
I only use it hooked to a 210 bass box loaded with jensens 25w alnicos, and it rocks, really...
Footswitch functions silently, no scratches or such, good point.
Delay or reverb, not footswitchable, sadly.
This amp doesn't like 8 ohm speaker load, it's made for 4ohm. Hence the 210 box. I like body and attitude in sound, hence the 210 box...
Power squeezer not memorized, beware if you only play at night...

Main guitar is Ibanez rg 7 strings w fixed bridge, mostly the single coil nearest of the neck (for that rich and spongy bluesy sound).
No noise, so there is a built-in noisegate.
Jc clean is the only clean sound for bass-heavy axes, jazz or not.
The distortion setting at 11o'clock is pure blues heaven, expressive and clear while tight, it's what sold me this amp.
Just a twist and the metal setting at same levels is spot-on, tight and solid, perfect for rock.
The other sounds I don't know, these three are all I want.
In general, very realistic performance, one can work with this amp.

Delay reverb are feeble at low volume, but usable at high volume. That wasn't the case with my cube 30, the 20x is better.

With my box I leave the eq at noon, perfect match.

With the cube hooked to my 210 bassbox loaded with p10r jensens, I can cover a lot of ground, it is also quite loud (alnicos pretty much effective) and always articulate and fresh. Since the box only weighs in 13kgs, no big deal to move at all. Next project is to combo it with the cube head, should be easy.
That's how happy I am with the thing!
Other benefit of this box is with the power squeezer: treble is still a bit there, stock it disappears and nobody sees the need of this feature.
Of course, 130 for the box plus 160 for speakers plus 150 for cube20x make 440 but hell I am very pleased, much more than with amps costing as much (fender dsp, marshall dsl, epi valve head plus box plus bunch of pedals, and so on...).

For 7strings or detuned guitars, my digital Vox can't cope, my ex-Fender dsp either, but the cube 20x (and my ex-cube30) can. So it's what I call a modern amp. The aux in lets you even plug your bass, with acceptable results at least in your living-room. GREAT LITTLE AMP!

I'm not a big amplification fan and asked around before I bought this. Use it as a practice amp and for performance (where I prefer to feed it to desk via a high quality mike). Play an Ibanez AS73 through it. Enough channels for what I need. I can't comment on the distortion and metal channels as I play mostly jazz and prefer clean sounds. Tremolo effect OK and I disagree with the reviewer who said the reverb was poor - I find it good.

One feature which took me by surprise is the acoustic channel on the lead switch - lovely sounds from here, if you experiment with gain/vol levels. I can switch to good folk sounds, acoustic jazz which is my main love. The clean channel is fantastic for jazz with a semi-acoustic, and the tone controls are very versatile and responsive to my guitar. I tend to avoid playing only bridge pickup, and either play with both or (more commonly) just with the neck p/u. Beautiful warm sound from the amp on both clean and lead (acoustic) channels.

Very reliable - play it at home for about an hour a day for the past 8 months. No problem at all.

Bought it from a UK dealer I know. Is helpful but haven't had to use them!

If it got lost, I would think of maybe getting something I could gig with (Peavey Classic, or Fender 300). Love the size and versatility. Might have got a 30x, but other reviewers have made me glad I stuck with this. It is the first amp I have owned, though have been playing acoustic jazz for nearly 30 years unamplified or DI.

Read about the features in the other reviews.......although I will say that this little solid state "rehearsal amp" is killer! I use it when I can't use my stage rig. Regardless of what others think, I like the delay, chorus, flanger, reverb, phaser, tremelo effects. I have a $2,500+ pedal board and considering what this amp is and what it is intended to be.....IT'S TOTALLY COOL!!!

The clean channel sounds fine but IMHO this little jewel shines on the distortion channel. I play blues and blues-based rock.... this little bad boy emulates an overdrive, distortion, metal and metal stack. I like all of these settings, and as long as you take it for what it is, I can't imagine a better product on the market for the price! The gain is a little noisy, but the gain is "a little noisy" on the dirty channel of my Soldano!

It's very heavy and well manufactured. Roland makes great stuff and I don't expect any problems from this fine little amp!

Bought it new....don't have a clue yet, but feel quite comfortable with it!

I've been playing since I saw the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. I've had many different amps, guitars & effects. I traded a Pignose Hog 20 and an old Digitech RP-5 pedal and a few $$$ for this little jewel and it totally rocks. This is without a doubt, as good as it gets for a small practice amp. I highly recommend....(would also be a great amp to start a child on).

Two channels, clean and lead. The JC-cleans are very clear and jazzy. The lead channel has six options, all of which are very useable. There are six built in effects; they work but they're not great. Auxiliary output lets you plug in a cd player or mp3 player and jam along with your favorite tunes. Power squeeze is amazing because it makes all the lead channels sound fuller at low volumes. It also has a headphone jack for near-silent playing.

For a 20 watt solid state amp, the sound quality is surprisingly good, but only at lower volumes. Take the volume past half way without the power squeeze and the tone goes down the drain. For a bedroom practice amp, this is the best sounding solid state amp I've heard so far.

It seems to be built very well. I don't forsee myself having any problems with it.

I'm a pretty experienced, gigging guitar player and I really like this amp. For extremely low volume playing, this is as good as it gets for less than $2000.

I A/B-ed this with its bigger brother the cube 30x, and the winner is: The cube 20x!
Where the 30 sounds typically modeling thing (with that nasty digital dark overall tone-or lack of) the cube20 is way more relaxed and natural, without "digital-zingg".
It is actually absolutely usable, while the 30watter sounds like mud on all distorted tones.
I think of the 20 as a clean amp with simple good pedals in front of it (only simpler), and I enjoyed it very much. The cube 30 was switched off after five minutes.
Why didn't I buy the 20? Because of the sub-par quality of the effects, quite a paradox uh?
The reverb is horrible, unusable, far worse than the one on the first generation of cube30. Now it is a room-type reverb, very ugly.
The delay section is better, but still no tap button so any mixing is impossible. Try use it loud...
The chorus/flanger sounds like plastic, the phaser is fun with slight overdrive, and the tremolo is just bearable.
No thanks...

I owned the first generation cube 30, and frankly the cube 30x is no better amp.
Both are blown away by the freshness of the cube 20x, which I consider the best amp in the category, effects apart.
The cube 20x is not your typical modeling amp, it is very different, more like a classic clean-amp-with-pedals setting.
I also own a line6 spider2 210 which I like to practice with, but again it sounds digital compared to the cube 20x.
My tip: use the 20x as a dry preamp, then into an analog delay then power amp-speakers.
And take it home with you after the rehearsal...

2007 Roland Cube 20X. Considered a practice amp. Check the sites for the total description. Too much to type.

Has a wide variety of sounds. It is dead quiet. I use both lead and clean channel volumes on full. Can play it in the house and my ears don't bleed. The various distortion channels are very nice. All the effects are typical of Boss pedals but easier. The reverb and delays are super. Would be a mind blower to play a club with it and mic it.

Never have had a problem with any Roland equipment. Not loud enough to gig with a band. Small jam session probably fine.

Been playing many years. Gear owned? Too much. Roland AC-60. Fender Deluxe 65 Reissue. I mess around with this amp with a Fender Hwy 1 Strat. I'm mostly an acoustic player. Nice clean channel when pushed. Great distortion selections to play with. As many have said could be the best thing in this price range going. Could have spent a few more dollars and got the 30 watter with a 10 inch speaker but for just a nice sound at home cant beat the price. For a teenager this amp would be really good as it won't blow the roof off. Only thing I did was replace the China Roland speaker with a Jensen Mod 8-20, 4ohm speaker. Seems to be just a tad louder and clean channel is a bit cleaner at full volume. Distortion channel could be a bit fatter if thats possible. Will have to wait till the speaker breaks in. Was only $20 bucks so what the heck. If the front was 1/4 inch bigger would have wacked in a 10 inch 4 ohm speaker. Still may. There was no need to do this as the stock speaker was fine sounding. I just can't resist hot rodding things a little.

If you've got this far you know what it's got. Very well designed and easy to use. I would like a line out or option to leave speaker on when using record/phones out, hence 9. Otherwise excellent. I purchased for students to paly through while I'm teaching. Ideal for this.

Very very good. JC clean is very sweet and usable for all styles in cluding clean jazz. Of the models my favourite is the tube drive. It cleans up nicely with guitar volume reduction and overloads well if pushed with a booster. Others seem very good but not used as much.

Seems well built and sturdy. A socketed mains lead would have been nice but maybe too much to expect for the price. Speaker seems better and slightly heavier than other amps in this class.

n/a

Sounds better than any other amp I've tried ion this class. Amp sims extremely good and would be happy to studio record with this. I would even use it live if I could run into additional amplification. Even so it's quite loud

See other reviews.

As far as I've taken it, excellent. I am an intermediate playing a gibson ES-135 semi hollow with p-90 pick-ups.

No problem in 2 months.

For electric, I've only ever played the inexpensive 15 watt Crate, Peavey, and Marshall low-feature amps that get thrown in on guitar buys. For the beginner on limited budget learning in bedrooms, this amp is miles ahead of those usual throw ins. My guitar sounds much more vibrant and versatile. Practice drills are so much more fun. All for $160. With a little more money, you might try the Cube 30X for $230, or there is a $300? Fender tube amp "junior" something I really liked. For the beginner or teen on a budget this is excellent value.

Very versatile little amp. Has 6 amp models including an acoustic simulater. 3 band eq, guitar tuner, effects knob [fanger/phaser/chorus/tremelo],and a [delay/reverb] knob. These 2 knobs can only apply one effect at a time per knob. It has 2 chanels, a foot switch input, and an aux input for tape cd jam along. There is a headphone recording out that cuts out the 8 inch speaker. Volume and gain knobs work each amp model like a real tube amp. There is a power squeezer button that works as a power soak to lower volume of amp without losing sound. The 2 chanels are JC clean and Lead. The Lead being your modeling section. Effects work o both chanels.

First this is a bedroom/studio amp. It is not loud enough for playig with a band. This being said it has all the volume it needs to do what is required. [8 inch speaker remember] This amp does a good job sounding and working like the real tube amps it is mimicking. The effects sound good but has minimum adjustments. I use a Fender American Strat and a Godin LG HMB with this amp. This amp picks up the difference between the single coils and humbuckers nicely. This amp even has a nice controlable feedback ability on higher gain. Like all guitar equiptment it probably doesn't like flouresant lighting. I use it for blues and classic rock. It would work well for metal and country. This amp has something for everyone. It is not the same as a big tube amp in a large auditorium. The big tube amp will sound like crap in your bedroom [not enough room for th sound to expand] It does sound amazingly good at recreating the large expanded sound in a small enviroment.

Seems sturdy but just like your home stereo I wouldn't abuse any audio epuipment.

Haven't needed them

Have been playing about 38 years with a few years of pro about 30 years ago. Doing classic rock before it was classic. Amps I've used in the past have been all tube Fender, Marshal, and Vox. The only amp I have now for jamming with friends is a Fender HRD. I love this little amp for the home studio/practice work I use it for and would replace it without a second thought. I chose this amp because of simplicity of operation. NO REGRETS. The only improvement I can think of would be an effects loop. The effects it does have sound excellent but it would be nice to be able to use other effects I have also.

I've had mine since the release date. There are several amps in this SS practice amp catagory but the 20x is fairly unique. Read all the specs., generally speaking it's got the range of amps mods plus effects, 2 channel. Nice little features, like squeeze soak and line input. The most noteworthy feature is how easy it is to use, designed more for a player than a techy. And, it's stands out from the other Cubes...it's a better product.

This is a personal amp, bedroom amp, not a band practice or even small gig amp, imho. Within that limitation is sounds fine. You can imagine the limitations of an 8 inch speaker, but otherwise the sound is very pleasing and the amp offers a great deal or variety that you can access very quickly and easily. Kind'a swiss army of a little practice amp. For woodsheding, this is my first choice. Twise a few knobs and go, none of the laborious digital programming, pre-sets, and little led displays of similar effots.

My sense of it is if you crank this amp all the time you will destroy that little speaker. Otherwise, all my Roland stuff as been bullet-proof.

At the price, pure winner. If you want a digital SS amp that you can gig with, deeply modify, save custom pre-sets, I suggest you look elsewhere. But if you want a benchtop personal amp you can just plug into to and start practicing, and sound good doing it, this is a gem.

The wife asked me what I wanted for xmas, and I said I needed a small, light weight amp for "portable-use. I suggested the Fender Frontman (25R), the Marshall MG 15dfx, or a box of chocalates. She somehow found this!

Made in 2006, brand spanking new, (the ink on the box was still wet), 20 heart thumping solid state watts of power, and all the effects and features of another Ocean 11, 12, or 13 motion picture.

I use this amp at home, perhaps some light gigging in the future, and considering the price, (you will see this a lot in this review), well,,,,read on. Comes with the standard effects and features of a typical Roland Cube,,plus,,,a tuner! Simple to use, can go manual, or chromatic. Additionally, this also comes with a "power squeezer", which goes from 20 watts to 2 watts, just in case it is late at night and you don't want to shake the walls..This actually does help in that you don't lose the "feel", especially on overdrive. Oh yes, also comes (new) with a CD or MP3 input,,,could be useful...some day. All in a 8" speaker. For the money, tough to beat in this catagory,,all it needs is a footswitch (why for home use?) and a partridge in a pear tree.

2 channels, one JC Clean, and the other, dirty. Doesn't say which amps the dirty side emulates (or is it "simulates"?), but for my purposes, I only use two:Distortin, which to me sounds like an overdriven Fender blackface, and "Heavy Metal", you guessed it, sounds like a Marshall Stack, (or half stack, or 1/4 stack..). Both,,well,,,impressive,,,very impressive indeed! The other dirty models I really havn't used much...yet...so not fair to opinionate (is this a real word?) on these yet.
The cleanm channel,,,well,,,I have been raised on Fenders so in some way this will not exactly be a fair review, but the clean is not bad. A bit "mid-rangey", but you can sweeten this up with the effects. Speaking of the effects, chorus, flanger, phaser, and tremolo,,all of them are excellent! The delay is pretty good as well, the reverb is workable. For the money, and comparing it to other models in this catagory, the sound is up there. Not sure if the best,,,but you should be very satisfied!

Too soon to tell.

Havn't call them yet! But I am sure, just like mission control, their is a team of crack experts just waiting for the phone to ring.

I have been playing on a hobby and scatch gigging basis for over 35 years. Most of the amps I have played on have been Fenders, (still have one, just too darn big to drag from the basement, and too darn loud when late at night) so as I said, I needed to lighten the load for portable playing. I have a strat outfitted with the fender vintage noiseless pick-ups, the mexican model. This sounds very good together.
Truth is, I am glad the wife found this, as it must have come out to the market days before she went on this whirlwind adventure. This little baby has tons to offer, sounds very good, light....customer freindly is the best term to use...and is nearly perfect for home use and small gigging. For the money,,,I don't think there is a better buy out there. It looks like Roland is raising the bar for amps in this catagory, so check it out.