Roland Cube-15 Combo

probably 2005, this amp is good while you watch TV and you have a cheap Squier plugged in. Not suitable for what I play- (instrumental/experimental/indie rock/noise/old rock)very limited tonal value with a digital high pitched noise in the clean channel. This amp has 4 distortion models built into it that sound reminiscient of old Boss Overdrive and Hyper Metal pedals with all of the knobs set to the middle of them- good practice amp for shredders that own huge, expensive marshall or mesa-boogie stacks- really bassy and crunchy metal distortion. Not for me, but amazing tone for someone else.

The main dissapointment that this amp brings to me is that it has a very limited cheap digital equalization. The Bass is way too middy and muddy, while the highs are non-existant no matter how high you crank the high knob, and when you do, you get this terrible high pitched digital/computeresque noise that I just could'nt stand. The mid control is, well,.. middy- to sum it up it is as if the amp has 3 mid control knobs- thats it. HUGE LACK IN DYNAMICS... this goes for the clean channel- most importantly.

As I said, the distortion channels are great for new age hardcore kids to practice with- and I would definitely reccomend this amp for that purpose. The metal distortion is good for hardcore/metal, rock distortion model is good for queen/led zepplin style rock, distortion is good for Pete Townsend emulators, overdrive model is ok for blues, but sounds incredibly cheap.

I paired this amp up to this VOX Pathfinder 15 R that I have had for 3 years and there is simply no comparison to that amp in my opinion (As far as non-tube 15 watt practice amps go)

for the 24 hours i had it, it definetly felt like the constrution was sturdy enough, but I,m not too sure how long these newfangled digital modeling amps will stand the test of time.

big corporations suck

I don't care about name brands, just how stuff performs

been playing for almost 14 years, have had several guitars/ amps/pedals. I returned this small amp in for a used dunlop cry-baby wah and a few other little things. Again- good for hardcore or newer metal players, but terrible for anyone else.

Always support and get familiar with local/family owned instrament sellers- not guitar center or musicians' friend as tempting and convinient as that is.

Hey, it is a cheap amp, what do you think you can expect? However, i like the four styles of distortion and the equalizer does his job. Pity that there is no Reverb.

Also nice is the record oud-jack an the aux in-jack.

I love the sound. It sounds.. brutal. Wow I love the four modes (like i already said). However the clean channel isn't very special. But in distortion mode, this little Lego brick will blow you away!

Just bought it. However, it seems very trustful.

I just bought the amp, but it is too f****** poor that there is no Roland office in the Netherlands. So if my handsome brick is broken, i've got to take a ride to Belgium.

Better then Fender, anyway. The nearest office is in Germany. Yes, in Berlin. That's a long trip, i can tell you.

I've played for five years, this is my first amp (i bought it a week after i bought my Fender Squier Stratocaster). It if was stolen, i would beg for money and buy this amp again.

I love the design, i love the sound, i love the features. What do I dislike? Eeh.. the size. It is small.. very small. It won't make a smashing impression at your friends.

But for those 140 euro's, it is definitely worth the price. Rolaaaaaand!

For the price and size of this little practice amp, it is loaded.
4 modes of gain, clean, 3 band EQ, gain, recording/headphones out, aux in, and yes, a super long power cord.
Nice front grill and small square design. Very lite and efficient.

This is where I got super impressed with this amp.
The cleans are sparkling and the "metal stack" setting is down right BRUTAL!! Smooths out nicely on "overdrive" and "distortion".
A killer price on a good quailty, great sounding little practice amp.

I took one of my friends amp shopping. He played tons of Marshalls and Mesas, but at the end of the day, he was most impressed with the tiny Cube 15 that I showed him. haha

I have had it for about 2 months. Seems to be very reliable and sturdy. Roland made it, come on, they rock!!

Havent needed it.

If your looking for a low priced, awesome sounding little practice amp, then look no further. Best one I have tried out for the money. The Micro Cube beats it out in features, but the Cube 15 is $50 cheaper.
I play PRS through a Mesa Tremoverb, so when looking for a good practice amp, I needed something that had some balls. I found the ticket. I write alot of our bands material on this little beauty now.
I bet it even sounds killer in the studio.

15 watt solid state practice-recording amp. 3 band EQ, 2 channel, aux-input jack and headphone-record jack-out. Closed back. 4 overdrive-distortion settings on lead channel. All controls and jacks mounted on top of cabinet. Rather long power cord which I think is a real plus on a practice amp.

Growl...Growl!...GROWL! Strictly a rock amp. My American Strat sounds as if this little box was custom voiced for it. My SG Special sounds very humbucker muddy through it, but SGs always sound muddy and nasty anyway. My Ric 12 and semi hollow 6 don't fair as well. The amp doesn't let the trademark Rickenbacker chime through. They sound good, just not like a Ric should. My Fender Global 200 acoustic-electric with my Boss compressor and my Electric Mistress flanger sounds great, very dark acoustic ring, very Pink Floyd. Running full throttle with the Strat the amp has the best just-about-to-break-up tone I've yet to hear on a small amp. The first overdrive setting on the lead channel takes it over the line and I find it quite good. The other 3 however are like most metal distortion settings on cheaper amps, just noise, loud-louder-loudest. No real tone left at all. For real rocknroll a 9, for anything else a 5. I give it a 7. When I feel like rock it's great, when I slip into anything else it's only adequate.

It's a brick. It's Roland solid state. I don't think there's anything that really could go wrong with it. Only time ever tells about these matters.

Dealer says; "Any problems, bring it back...I've been selling them ever since they came out, never had one come back yet...and I've sold a lot of 'em." I deal with this guy every once in awhile and I trust him. He's been in the business a long time.

Looking at 25 years now. I should be much better than I am. My electrics are an American Fender Deluxe Strat, Gibson SG Special, Rickenbacker 360 6 string and a 660 12 banger. My bass is an ancient Yamaha BB300 P bass. (A good 57 Fender copy when I bought it over 20 years ago.) My acoustics are a Fender Gemini 3 I bought new some 20+ years ago, Seagull Cedar+ 12 string, Fender New Global Design 200 electric-accoustic. Amps are a Laney 50 watt twin head combo, Fender Frontman 25 watter, Crate 15 watt keyboard amp. (Used as an acoustic amp) Bass amps are an Ampeg R50 and a Crate B10 that was bought with the Yamaha when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. There are several others in there not worth mentioning. Effects and gadgets are Boss C3 Compressor and Sustainer, Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Electric Mistress, Ibanez Delay-Echo pedal, Boss B10 Wah Pedal, a Schaffier soundhole pickup and a Deluxe Little Smokie Pocket amp, (One of the best $25-$30 investments a picker can make in my opinion.) Kyser Capos out the wing wah both 12 and 6 string models. I know that makes some players cringe. Lots more odds and ends. I trade nothing and I sell nothing. I was raised to never give up instruments, firearms, or women...I know, HILLBILLY! But I'm good natured about it. I was interested in an Orange Crush 10. I needed a smaller amp to carry around with me, you know, picnics and such. The Frontman 25 was bought for that years ago. Still a little big and at higher volume-gain it gets noisey and loses tone. The Roland loses nothing and is much handier on the run. It's much more amp than the Orange and seems much better made. It stomps the Frontman hands down. This amp was bought for it's convenience and price range and Roland's reputation. I think it's a great little amp for it's niche. I'd buy it again without thinking about it what-so-ever and I've already recommended it to several newbies short on cash and just getting started. It's a decent little amp.

Features have been listed by prior reviews. I give this amp a "10",
because it has everything a beginner could want. It is an excellent
amp for the experienced player who needs a portable practice amp.I
chose this amp for my son to buy as a first amp. I did a lot of
research, and I am convinced that this amp is the best deal for the
money.

Again, this amp deserves a "10" for it's sound quality. The clean
channel is very "warm" and tube-like. The distortion channel sounds
good, and inspires beginners with "full stack"- type crunch. By this,
I mean, "for the money", because I have a orig. 65 Super Reverb, a
Hiwatt, and a Marshall JCM 602, and I know what good tube-tone sounds
like. I cannot understand the folks who gave this amp poor marks
because it didn't sound like an expensive tube amp. That is NOT what
this baby is supposed to be--but it does VERY well. I like playing
this thing as much or more than my son does!

It is new from Zzounds, so I cannot comment here. However, I have had
only good experiences with Roland/ Boss gear.

Again, it is new, but it has a very good warranty. Zzounds does a
great job standing behind their products.

I have been a "hobby" player for 30+ years. I have owned many "vintage" guitars and amps, so I have an informed opinion. This
little amp is the BEST deal you will find for $100, in fact, it would
be hard to find a better one for $150-$200. It does what it is made to do very well--be light, portable, compact---and sound great! The
headphone jack is very usefull when my son wants to practice while his brother is asleep in the same room. He has hardly stopped practicing since he got this little beauty--and that's the best compliment I can give! Anything that makes you want to play more is
GOOD! I get tired of reading reviews here where everything is a "10",
but this was the best $100 my son could have spent to fulfill his
dream of becoming a great guitarist. If something happened to this
amp, I wouldn't hesitate to get online with Zzounds, and have them
send out another one.

Bought new January 2004.

Able to give great sound to a wide variety of styles, from blues to bonecrunching metal. Comes with 4 built-in Boss pedal effects, which they call overdrive, distortion, metal, and metal stack. The last one is so distorted and extreme sustain, I notice it hides a lot of beginner mistakes in making clean transitions from chord to chord. I prefer the first two settings.

Amp is used at home; first in living room, now in my duaghter's bedroom. She has been playing a year, and is young and a bit shy about "getting the Led out". So most of its power sits unused. I have been known to crank it up a little and it has all the power you'd need at home, and then some.

Has clean channel too, of course, 3-band EQ, headphone out jack, line in jack. We have had some trouble with CD input as the CD volume must be controlled from the CD player, not the amp. And if you use the CD player line out, then the CD player may also punt on controlling the volume. I think we have to use the headphone output on the CD player to the Line in on the Cube, but the experience of extreme volume spooked us a bit and we haven't used it much since. We should make another try.

Also note that these model pedals require one to turn the switch on the unit itself. I think the Cube 30 may permit footswitching.

Used with Yamaha EG-012 (fat strat copy), soon to be used with OE30 (335 copy). Fantastic array of sounds, no distortion, but does hum slightly when on but not being used.

Distortion-a-plenty with modeling effects.

Only wish it had reverb/delay; I think the Cube 30 has that, but costs more than twice as much.

Seems very sturdy, has never given us trouble.

We don't gig.

never dealt with them.

Playing 1 year. My daughter also owns a Marshall MS-2 micro amp and is getting a MicroCube soon (I will get the Led out on the Cube 15!).

I love the amp's versatility and reliability. The sounds are terrific and I can't imagine needing more power for home use. The broader amp and effect modeling on the Cube 30 looks very nice, and they've incorporated those into the Microcube (2 watts). I hope they migrate those to the Cube 15 someday too, perhaps pricing it at an intermediate point (though who would then buy the 30?).

Would like to try reverb and delay, or any number of other goodies, but it is great as is too. I don't even know what I'd want to use, but I love the versatility and price of this practice amp.

I got this for my daughter to learn guitar with so features are adequate. It has 4 gain stages on 1 channel and then a clean channel. Also has aux in and record/headphone out imputs. This amp is used inside the house and has plenty of volume to jam with a stereo or drum machine. Not a drummer though. Who would use this like that anyways? This is a beginners/portable practice amp. If you use it for something more you are crazy to expect it to perform otherwise. Icing on the cake would have been reverb.

I have played this at home with buckers. I found that you need to adjust EQ at each gain stage to get useable sounds or what I consider acceptable tone. This thing beat the snot out of what I first started out with 20yrs ago. My daughter will be using this with single coils once I get her mini strat. She in noodling with my guitars now but they are just too big. She is just starting and is 8. This is just right as far as a first amp goes. As far as volume I just can't see what the hell Fred is talking about when he says it ain't got none. I play in a band and practice regularly with a half stack reved up. I can hear this 15 watt amp fine in the house and I keep volume at about 9-9:30 on the clock. Plenty of volume on tap. I just don't get the volume complaints. If this had reverb I would give it a 10 but that is me. My daughter doesn't know the difference right now. Now I am giving this high score for what we are using it for. If you are using it for more, than get an amp suited for that.

It will be fine used as a beginners/ practice amp. No experience with roland amps but their pedals are solid.

Haven't used customer support yet for any Roland product I have.

I have lots of gear but my practice amp for inside the house is a Tech 21 power engine 60. I put my stomp boxes in front for different pre amps and effects. Perfect for me. The Roland cube is plenty loud enough to play along with me and disturb the rest of the house too. Plenty of volume. Clean is fine and I really like the built in gain stages. Pretty trick for a beginners amp. Don't ask for more than it is meant to do though. If you do you might be mentally challenged.

Nice features for a cheap amp. I think the effects sound cheesy but whatever. Money spent is sound quality in my book. Learn your lessons the hard way. Buy cheap=sound cheap

Sound is weak. Everyone said buy 15 watts for indoor use. Malarky. This thing sounds like a baby weeping compared to my Marshall AVT.
Buy a tube amp or a tube preamp solid state. This thing is weak even if you live in 5ft. by 3ft. basement.

Hasn't broken. Not enough watts to blow the speaker out on this hunk.

Who knows.

Do us all a favor and buy something with tubes. Even if you are a beginner. These solid state amps under 50 watts are quieter than my Washburn acoustic strummed with a .46 gauge pick...
I wish someone would have told me the truth about these small amps

18 watts consumption with a conservative rating of 15 watts output, 2 channels with 4 effects that are boss pedals; ds-1, sd-1, mt-2 and metal zone, i believe. very loud for 15 watts and clear as a bell through the 8-inch cloth speaker. a 3-way equalizer setup and separate volumes and a gain for the lead channel. input for play-along and a headphone/recording output jack. great for home, practice or studio applications.

i am playing a 1969 nicely-aged, white fender stratocaster with a maple fretboard and a u-neck(t-nice) and a black, 1980's, japanese strat/les paul with 2 humbuckers, vintage strat style tremelo, 3-way switch, 2 volume and one tone... made by arbor, named the 'shark' it was designed by some hairband guitarist from one of those useless 80's bands like poison, or something... but he signed off on a killer guitar... anyways, both my guitars sounds great through this amp. the clean sounds clear all the way up to 10, where it breaks just slightly. for 90$? a deal.
i am running a guyatone mc-3 into this on the clean and lead channels and it works great with both. usually, i have to put my mc-3 in front of the distortion, but it sounds fine going in behind the lead channel effects. i am also running an ibanez tubescreamer 7 in both and this sounds great, as well. you can tweek both distortions against eachother for even more tones.

this little thing is a brick.

roland offers pretty good customer support.

i've been playing for 5 years. if it were stolen, i would buy another one. i can't say enough about what a good buy this is. if you were to buy all four boss pedals, separately you would pay twice as much as this amp costs. you'd have to be stupid not to pick one of these up while they are still on zzounds and musiciansfriend for that price.

after about a month stressing about a new practice amp i decided on the cube-15, i have tested many amps, marshall, peavy, kustom but nothing compared to this at this price.

now, the amp i was using was a vantage vg15 and i thought it was alright, i use a digi effects processor so i should basically only need a speaker and volume right, how wrong was i, the body of the sound from the cube is amazing..

features wise it has 2 channels, clean and dirty with 4 distortion types, line in, headphone and recording out and equaliser....

i did want the cube-30 but my budget was up to #100 and the 30 was too much, but it turns out all im going to miss from the 2 is the reverb which isnt on the 15 but a few twiddles with the effects processor and im sorted, would have been nice to reverb from the amp though..

i have 3 epiphones, sheraton, les paul 100 and an old strat i picked up 2nd hand, i think its an s300 series from the 90's, my style is everything, i just like to play, darkness, hole, nora jones, ride, james, the cure..

im using it at home and it just sounds superb, finger picking sheryl crow on the clean channel is superb, i cant believe its only 15 watt, whatever roland have done they have done it well..

when you switch to dirty it goes to amaze mode cos your amazed how a little practice amp can produce such sounds, metal stack just blows you away and after i put ashs burn baby burn backing cd on(which ive fed through the roland in the aux input)and played along i realised this amp is going to do everything i want...

the amp is always in control and never loses sight to its job..brilliant

cant really comment yet as its new but it looks well built...

againg too new to know if ill need any support but the shop gave me its standard 12 month warranty and a 2 minute registration form at rolands website extended that to 3 years, marvellous...

it seems a superb amp for at home, backstage, maybe jamming away at family bbqs/weddings etc.. i would have gone for the cube 30 if id have had the money but id have realised that the 30 has i little to much for what i need, yes id have liked reverb but nothing major..

anyone considering this amp dont let the measly sounding 15 watt fool you, this is a meaty amp, with an excellent sound throughout, whether its turned up to 1 or to 5(halfway, which is the loudest ill ever need it, i dare not take it any further) this amp satisfies my every musical need...