Roland Cube 40 Combo

As described above. Only this one only has a clean channel.
Its the perfect economic amp for Jazz. Much better than
the new Cubes I think, especially cause it does not have
all that extra, useless modelling crapp.

Play this with a 1990's telecaster. I use both the pickups at the same time, sounds marvellous! Jazzy warm tone, very responsive. I roll of the base and the treble and turn the middle up a bit. Sounds great!

Not sure, but its from the 1980's and the guy who sold it to me says its well engineered.

its ancient.

I have played a few solid state amps about this same size and they all kind of sound the same to me, to be honest. But this one just sounded so well with a tele I did not bother looking further, got the tone I want. There is definitely room to play around and find your own tone on it. If you like no fuss, reliable, good sounding stuff that is relatively cheap compared to stuff avaialble now, this is the amp for you.

Mine is a mid 1980's Made in Japan model. I bought it from the original owner via E-bay. Paid $40 plus shipping.
Amps does what I need for small venue club jazz.
Two jacks: #1 for clean, #2 for overdrive. Pathetic sounding overdrive. I like the clean channel, It sounds warm and round. Works well with my humbucker guitars. Tone controls have enough latitude to really carve the sound that I want.
Reverb is way too splashy after the knob goes past 4 o'clock on the dial.

I avoid the overdrive channel. I use this amp exclusively for the clean sounds. Gets pretty loud when cranked. Stays clean past 2 o'clock on the volume knob. Loud enough for the quiet dinner club jazz quartet gigs.
This amp has seen lots of action. It occasionally gets hissy or has a noisy capacitor that crackles. I turn the thing off anf then on again and it stays quiet for the rest of thenight.

Turns on and works as I expect everytime. It's a Roland, it'll get the job done.

Roland is great. Never had a complaint with the products or the people at Roland US.

I own lots of guitars amps. New and vintage. I've been mangling guitars since 1960. I've owned lots fo Roland products. I curently own a Roland RD-700 Keyboard, which I Love!
I've had the Cube-30 Blues model - Sold it. JC-100, Sold it - Too damn LOUD & heavy weight!
This little sucker is just fine for $40. A nice contrast to my Fender and Carvin Amps.

Features, hmm. I'm the type that likes an amplifier as simple as possible. The effects, I think, is best to have as stompboxes. So this amp has everything I need. 3 band EQ, master vol, normal vol and reverb. An EQ sweep would have been nice though. I play rock, funk and a little jazz, and the sound really suits what I'm playing. Also, it has a headphone jack, pre out, main in, reverb footswitch.

I think this little amp sounds very defined but still with personality. A clean sound with good punch, and if it's turned up loud a more fat, bluesy sound. The cube is not a huge sounding amp, but that's not to expect from a 40W non-tube amp. The 10" speaker is working well, a funky, tight speaker I think. I both use it with single coils and humbuckers; it handles both pickups well.
When I play larger gigs, I use a larger amp or put a mic on the cube. Works great for me. In gigs with more than 30 listeners, I use a larger amp so I can hear my backgear.

Haven't owned the amp for so long, but it was used when I bought it, It might be from around 1989 and still going strong. It has the original speaker, and have not been opened for repair as far as I can se. That's not bad. The knobs are still good, I get no noise when using them. This amp has been rumbling around in many vans late at night after a gig, and still works well.

Don't know. Never had the need. A little choke: I don't expect much from manufactures anymore. The have a website, a FAQ and probably one poor man sitting answering mails from all over the world...

I don't know the original cost of the amp, but for just a bit over 100 $ (I paid 120) it's by far the best amp I can imagine. The cube 40 was made in two sizes as far as I know. I got the small one (not so deep) so it's extra handy. I'm very pleased with this combo. Have played on a Fender frontman 25R for practising, but I sold it when I heard this little cube.

Two channels, one clean-ish, one dirty. Gain and Master volume, reverb, bass, mid, treble. Solid basic stuff.

Ugh! This thing is horribly under-powered. The clean channel breaks up at about the volume of an average saxaphone. Be sure you try this thing at the volume setting you intend to play at. I've played other transistor amps of similar power rating that can get to MUCH higher volume levels with no distortion.

I bought this beast used. The speaker buzzed like mad and needed replacing (that can happen due to abuse). There were a bunch of 1 microfarad electrolytic capacitors that needed replacing (this only happens when the manufacturer uses cheap parts). In all fairness, even the best manufacturers occaisionally get a hold of cheap caps. But combined with distortion at low volume levels, Roland should have done better.

Called the local dealer. They would be happy to sell me a replacement speaker for $60. Similar speaker from MCM (and much better made too) is $20. "Danger, Will Robinson, danger!"

If lost or stolen, I'd be happy to get back the floor space this takes up in my music room. Please, please, even if you are a HUGE Roland fan, check out the Jazz Chorus series amps before you consider buying this piece of junk. I personally own a really old Yamaha G-50-112 that is utterly superior to this awful thing. Using my tech skills, I brought this thing back from the dead and now regret it. It makes me feel like Dr. Frankenstein for having done so.

I believe the amp was made in the late 70's. It has a beautiful but quiet clean channel and a mildly dirty and much louder overdrive input. the sound is quite nice and the low end is quite full for such a small amp. It's is good for blues/rock and sound nice with an acoustic

I'm using an acoustic and a Les Paul with my cube. The sound is nice and I use it for a monitor when I play. The chorus is quite good althoug not adjustable and the reverb is very good. The clean input should be MUCH louder

Works like a charm. I've owned it for about 2 years and have had no problems.

I did contact Roland Canada for information on the amp once I bought it. They were excellent. The person I dealt with sent me a copy of the original brochure and asked if there was anything else I needed. I will definitly be looking at Roland products in the future for this reason alone

I've been playing for about 15 years. If I had to get a new amp I would look into the slightly beefier Cube-60 or a Jazz-Chorus.

1978-1979 Model

Output:40 W rms
Speaker: 25 cm x 1
Input Jack: overdrive/Normal
Control: Volume/Treble/Middle/Bass/Reverb/Master Volume
Footswitch jack: Reverb
Pre-Out jack
Main-In jack
Headphones jack
External speaker jack
Power consumption: 36 W
Dimensions: 310 (W) x 368 (H) x 205 (D) mm (12.2" x 14.5" x 8.1") Weigth: 10.5 kg (23 lbs.) Accessory: Vinyl cover

The clean sound (Normal) is the typical Roland clean. Very nice and articulate. Raising the gain it becomes more like a tube amp breaking up.

Using the Overdrive input, it reacts like a non-master volume fender type tube amp. Has that power tube style overdrive. Will not do heavy metal. Great for blues and rock.

Reverb is subltle. Does not have the Fender BOING sound.

I think so it's solid state and built by Roland

na

Ilike it a lot so far!