Roland Cube 30X

This is a Roland Cube 30x circa 2008...Very Compact & Sounds Great. This amp is one of the Cleanest sound-wise I've used( it rivals my 11 yr old well used Line6 ax212)...2 channels, Modeling, no effects loop ( Roland dropped the Ball here by not adding this feature), very sturdy. The distortions/Amp Modeling sounds great & works well in a studio enviroment, very versatile, but Live use I only use the Jc-120 clean setting and run the new Boss gt-10 and my Strat or my trusty 15 yr old Ibanez RG's....Nice, Loud, Smooth-with this setup I can get any sound I want! Mad Distorted/Jazz Fusion style tones, Bluesy stuff, Stinging R&B/Funk Rhythm tones, all of this...the Cube 30x with the GT-10 is a great combination for the Music I play ( Funk-Rock, R&B, Smooth Jazz, Jazz Funk-fusion & Soul), and you have to be versatile in your playing. All Lead-Metal or all heavy Chords/rhythm by themselves just don't cut it-you have to do both.

As for the Power of this lil' brute? Plenty. I don't know what everyone else on this review blog is talking about! Most of the shows I've played ranges from small Clubs to Arenas & Large churches, the biggest being Paul Brown Stadium/ Cincinnati (where the Bengals play & the annual Macy's/Kool music festival is held/ I played there with this rig last year with the Opening act)...for big shows the sound techs stick a mic in front of my 30x and it works fine, same thing with the Band when we do local clubs (cincinnati/Dayton/Indy/Columbus/Louisville)-If you have good PA gear & know how to place mikes, no problem, trust me, you'll be heard, this amp cuts through!( Plus, I'm not trying to go Deaf being Loud onstage).. But the best part is after the show you're not Lugging some heavy *** tube amp offstage...later for that nonsense. Cash & Carry, Baby!!

No Noise, Very Clean...as I said, for shows I Play either an RG (H-s-H)
or my Samick/Greg Bennett RL-3( Dual Humbucker semi hollow) and run the guitars thru a Boss gt-10 effects board with the output set to "JC-120"
and into the Cube 30x. This is a great Sound package. For home/studio I use the amp effects/models...you can get any basic sound you need.

I just wish Roland would have given this an Effects loop as opposed to the Mp3 input!!

I use it without a backup....no worries. Roland stuff is very well built. I've owned & used their Synths for years without a problem, so I didn't see where the amps would be any different. I will say this- this isn't the best amp for playing live if you're into "Metal" music, or any genre based on constant Loud, Distorted tones...then again, a Great PA & a well placed Mic, along with a Tight Band goes a Loooonnnng Way!!

Never had to deal with the Roland Folks....

I've been playing for over 25 years, and I can appreciate the the Quality, size/ease of use & Sound I get from this amp...I started to trade up to a 60, but when I got the gt-10 & started tweaking/experimenting with the amp & the settings in the Boss unit I decided against this...I'm a R&B/Jazz-Funk/Funk Rock kind of guy & this setup works perfectly. I can rock out on a solo if the song calls for that, or get a mellow tone, echoes, phase, crunch rhythm-Blues lead, all that with no problem. The bands/Musicians I play with get intense, but are well disciplined-very tight & intuitive without being Obnoxious( Loud) onstage, so this setup is great for that. This is Pro gear.

It has more features than the predecessor Cube 30 which my friend has. The tuner is useful even though more effort is needed (need to turn the knob for different string). The Dyna Amp is a nice addition. I don't like the small 1/8 TRS jack for AUX IN. I think it should be bigger and put at the back side like in the older model instead of near the guitar input. I wish it has more than 1 AUX IN and a full range speaker like in my MicroCube (which is also good for playing MP3 or keyboard).

Good for Guitar only without the MP3 accompaniment (which does not sound good with a non full range speaker in my opinion). The Amp models are slightly improved. Very good for clean and slightly overdriven sound, very clear and pristine. Just a Roland/BOSS quality. I have other BOSS gears such as GT-8, BR1080CD, MicroBR and many pedals. The BOSS sound clarity is just unique and can't be found in other brand. Although sometimes it sound very sterile.

This is the thing that I like about this amp. The construction is solid and it looks like it will stand the test of time. None of my other BOSS/Roland gear has ever let me down so far.

Never had to deal with them.

Good Amp! should be bought by beginner and who want to jam in a small Gig. It's loud! Louder than my Fender FM25DSP with the similar wattage. The sound just cut through with the Drum and Bass player. The other Amp that I also love is my VOX Valvetronix VT30 which give me more realistic model for Fender and VOX amps. But it is slightly bigger.

Purchased new in 2008 for about ??145. I could have got it about ??10 cheaper on line but I wanted to support my local music shop. ??10 is only 3 pints of beer!
I use it at home and for practice sessions when I'm playing rhythm. It can just hold its own against a set of drums in a practice room, but I probably could do with about twice the power against our drummer! ("If we let you have a drum solo will you just play a little quieter for the rest of the time!?")On stage I'm sure I would need a bit more, but I have not needed to try it. However brilliant at home. My Marshall 100W is simply too loud when set up to sound ok but the 30X is just right. Mind you I have got to get my ears syringed out and I sometimes get complaints from my wife. There is a power squeeze button which is supposed to make it sound like it is overdriven but at a quieter volume. I don't think this setting is very effective, but I don't really need it. I would use headphones if the noise ( sorry music) was disturbing anybody.
I play pop, rock and folk rock which all sound good, but I'm not sure about blues or jazz. Umm-m, might be my playing rather than the 30X!
Two channel - clean and modelling amp, with EFX on either. Dead easy EFX ( I don't seem to be clever enough to make my Korg modelling foot pedal work properly!) Two rotary knobs that you rotate to select what EFX you want. One knob for Chorus / Flang/ phaser / trem and depth, the other for delay / reverb and depth. Works every time! but limited a bit.
There is a foot switch socket but no foot switch supplied, aux input for your CD player ("how does it go again?")and a recording out jack socket come headphones. Inserting a jack into the socket turns off the internal speaker.
The 30X has a built in tuner which seems accurate. However you have to switch it into action (which mutes the amp)and then select which string you are tuning. I want a tuner that works all the time and selects the string automatically, like my stand alone tuner. I could then have a go at tuning during playing, whenever I have the chance to play a lengthy note on an open string. A mute button would enable me to turn of the output if I was tuning in-between numbers.

I play two guitars
- Regent Guitars Nightfall(Taylor look alike) electro acoustic . Sounds nice through the 30X
- Epiphone Dot, twin humbuckers, sounds absolutely delightful to me! But I'm in love with my guitar!!
I think the clean sound is excellent and gives me everything I want when practicing. The seven amp models are ok, but I usually end up back on the clean sound. Of the amp models, I like Tweed and R-Filter, the best.

It looks pretty tough and has shown no hint of being unreliable.

As I said above, I wanted to buy from my local shop because they have always been there when I needed them. So this is not actually a comment on the 30X.

The 30X fills totally the practice roll, plus a little bit more, and I love it!
I would however like a better built-in guitar tuner.
The only other thing I would like is for there to be an output to feed a second amp, but still allow the 30X speaker to function. Then I could gig with the 30X near me to act as a monitor for my guitar but also feeding a bigger amp in the back line. I have a 200Wrms amp with no preamp specifically for this job and I am on the verge of invalidating the 30X warrantee and modifying the headphone output socket so that it doesn???t switch off the 30X internal speaker, but I haven???t done it yet. I want to gig with the 30X because I can reliably get the sound I want from it.