Roland Cube-20 Combo

I got this amp from the back of someone's station wagon at the tip. It had no speaker in and had reportedly been left out in the weather for 6 months. I took it home and stuck it in the airing cupboard for 2 weeks, checked it for basic function and then resoldered some dodgy joints, sprayed the pots with my usual guitar anti-static stuff, installed a temporary ex-car stereo 30 watt speaker and plugged in. I could not and still cannot believe my ears, grunt it has plenty and both channels have a great variety of good tone, I play rocky blues, rock, jazz and american style folk rock and after getting carried away on my beat-up 72 strat for a while, I like many others considered using as is for a proper gig. The amp seems to prefer maximum signal imput so my strat vol is always on 10, however contrary to some other reviewers I get a massive edgy sound just by plugging in my Marshall Shredder (overdrive) pedal into the OD channel, it also pays to back off the bass eq to 7-8 but this is almost certainly due to the speaker I am using. I love the fact that this amp is so small but also looks the part and when turned on surprises everyone, as a practice amp I don't believe it's fair to try and fault it and considering the history of my particular amp reliability is right up there too. You know when you get something for nothing and it turns out to be a classic, like an old watch, sports car or even a leather jacket that has become part of you, well this little amp is just that.

I bought this amp yesterday at A Sharp Music in Renton, WA for $125 used. It was probably made in late 2006, possiblu early 2007. There is essentially one channel, but the aux in 1/4" patch on the back makes it 2 channels. Really, I'm not kidding, you get to be 50 years old and your cajones aren't as big as they used to be. As a result, your guitar is the biggest thing you want to schlep to practice or outside the house, unless it's for a real gig, and unless you're doing the big enchilada, this amp is perfectly fine. Trust me. You are going to be heard unless you play with a bunch of headbangers, or unless your hidden agenda is to impress your mates with the size of your 'package.' This little 20 watt package gives you plenty of ooompf without sparing tone. No, it's not tube, like my Fender Blues Deluxe RI - 40 watts of creme. But then you gotta add pedals, yada, yada, yada.

This little 20 watt cube can be lifted in a straight arm raise in front of you it is so light and small. Therein is its beauty. If you want the package, don't get this. If you want the best you can get without breaking your back or the wife's attitude, this is the babe (or da bomb).

Look at the website. As the dude before said, if you've made it this far, you probably already know the basics. It's got EQ which already puts it ahead of it's littler bro. the mircrocube. It's got a clean section and a lead section. Lead has OD, Dist., Metal, Brit (which is like a Marshall mimic), and a tube (like a Blackface). They're all close enough. For this price and size, give me a break. I had a pignose and it reeks compared to this thing. This is a real amp. It gets plenty loud. Vol. control on 9:00 and a Fender Strat on 10 and the people at the music store are thinking "How much longer do I have to work here?" It cranks. Plenty loud to be heard at practice over a drummer. For sure. Perhaps pushing the envelope to get decent quality tone without some ugliness if you're at a gig and really crank. I wouldn't do that to this little hummer. I'd bring the BD. But really, effects built in... c'mon! They're totally reasonable fx - flanger, chorus, reverb, delay, distortion, and other basics. Nothing incredible, but nothing to set up. No cords to mess with. It's all built in and, here's the catch, it's out of the little practice amp garbage league. I have a little practice garbage league amp - I know. This one is the real meal deal and it stays small so it's one trip in from the car with your guitar and you're plenty loud. Quote me.

Nothing is certain except death and taxes. With that said, it's pretty solid looking and feels well built. Metal and hardened plastic. Hardcore AC line - 3 prong. Buttons (which are thick and balsy) are nicely inset in the casing and aren't going to get smacked, banged and then come off. You could actually kick this thing across the room and I think it'd come out no worse for wear as it has a tough, hardened metal grill covering the speaker and there's no way a shoe is going to poke through and finish off your speaker(s) as is the case for most amps.

It could burn out - who knows. Only time and rep. will tell. It's all solid state.

I got a Roland/Boss JamStation (JS-5) and it's pretty well built, has tken a licken and is still ticken. Big honkin' 14 Volt AC adapter that says I mean biz. This 20x cube amp that we're talkin' about here is smartly designed so that only the plug comes out of the unit - no weird adapter too to figure out how to plug in next to other weirdly shaped things. Just a solid 3-pronged plug. My cube is used but was well cared for and not abused so it's in good shape. I think they shaved off $35 as a result. Good value though even for $160 IMO.

I've been playing for 32 years. What does that mean? Absolutely nothing in terms of anything other than I've had an additional 25 years of experience compared to a 25 year old in seeing lousy gear. The 25 year old is probably a better guitarist.

Of course, I wish it were free. But, since it's not and it cost money, the bucks are pretty nominal for what you get. If you gotta have one good/great aamp, save your bucks, get the great one, and break your back every week carrying it around. You're only young once. But, if you got some extra $, you want the lux. of running into your drummers house late in one trip from the car (unassisted), or stopping to talk with his good looking wife for 5' because you still have energy as you did not waste it all carrying your gear, then this is the amp for you. It gets an 8 as 8 is pretty good, darn good in fact, but it is not a Marshall stack DSL or TSL or Fender Bassman or... you know who you are...

The amp was made this year, used only in the bedroom. Has some fun features like power squeezer, a built in tuner, a handful of pedal simulations and EFX like chorus and flanger etc. Headphone jack/line out for recording, can plug in an mp3 or cd player or something if you want. Sounds good, but everything just doesnt work as well as you'd like. The power squeezer actually just makes thing seem a little muffled and kinda screws with your eq settings, the tuner is very basic and sometimes just plain doesn't work. I go into more details about the EFX and stuff below.

I'm judging this entirely for what it is, a relatively cheap compact feature packed practice amp. I'm comparing it to other practice amps I've used, nothing more. The onboard effects are fun to play with for a little while but you get over it, they're rather limited in the scope of what you can do with them. The delay is uselessly short and the reverb isn't all that crash hot either. The on board pedal simulations are positively awful, the distortions are muddy and unclear, they're undefined and the EQ doesn't help the matter in the least unfortunately. It's also noisy and I get alot of feedback when using any distortion settings if the gain is high. I have an ESP Viper with EMG's, I love this guitar and I've used it on alot of amps so I know it's not the problem here. The overdrive and tube settings are marginally better but still suffer from the same problems. The acoustic simulator is a joke. The clean channel is nice, i like it quite a bit. I can get some nice sounds out of it with my Fender. I thought with such a nice clean channel my problems were over I could just go and use pedals if I wanted better distortion with more tweaking variety. Nope. It's awful for running any external pedals through. Whether this is due to the speaker or because of the digitalness of the clean I am unsure but no matter what I do the sound just sounds... held back. There is no real attack, the crunch is there but it's very meh. It's just very medicore. I got much better sounds from my cheap old Peavey 15W Blazer amp of all things, the clean on that was better than average and co-operated alot better with pedals.

I see nothing wront with it here, it's pretty solid. I took a mark off cause the input jack feels kind of fragile but thats about it.

Haven't dealt with them, 12 month warranty seems fair.

I wouldn't under any circumstances get this again, there's alot better out there that I have tried and plenty of other practice amps to try as well. I should've demoed it more in the shop before taking it home but luckily I should be able to return it. Try before you buy and if you plan on using pedals find something with a proper clean and not a digital effect based clean.

volume, treble,middle,bass,reverb overdrive input and clean channel.

this is a great little amp for jazz and blues. It has such a warm tone for a Solid state amp that sometimes its like I'm playing though an old Fender valve amp!

small but built like a tank. A mini one!

N/A

This is a very rare amp indeed. If you see one buy it...you wont be disapointed!

Late '70's early '80s MIJ 20 watt 1x8 SS amp; 'verb 3 band EQ, MV. Two inputs.. one with mild gain, other dark clean..no switching between the two(similar to a early Boogie) pretty simple by todays standards, quite advanced (compared to other small ss amps) when new.

MIJ Squier Strat..good amp for small gigs and jams..LOUD, OK for clean sounds and modest OD you will need a pedal for heavier sounds. "verb gets washy and clangy at high settings. VERY fat & smooth sounding compared to most SS amps..not really tube like, but a full sound that most small amps lack.

This one has been thru the ringer, obviously dropped, and I'm pretty sure it's been in some serious damp..no noticible effect..most components are top noch and the whole thing is way overdesigned, nearly Mil-Spec. I've seen smaller power trannys in 50 watt 1/2 stacks, and smaller speaker mags on 12's. The MDF cab is showing some wear and the 'verb tray is not up to the standards of the other componets, but basicaly this thing is a brick.

Never contacted, web site is OK but primarly deals with current/recent production. Roland needs to get groovy with the fact they have a history that folks care about, and get some archival stuff hapenning.

This was a " oh yea and take this amp" throw in when I got the Squier..
Hard to find, but worth the search; this was made when SS was the "way to go" and light years away from most of the cheezy ss practice amps of the time, or now!..this was obviously intended as a small gig amp in the vein of a Polytone or Super Champ, and is sure to be a future colectiable. Best amp I've ever owned and I've had a few!

Not sure when the amp was made, though it seems like a late seventies or early eighties job to me. The features are pretty basic but about what you'd expect on a small guitar amp. It has a clean and overdrive input, gain, treble, mid, bass, reverb, and master. There's also a line output masquerading as a headphone jack on the back (it does disengage the speaker, however). There is no channel switching or effects loop, but I use pedals and don't miss it much. It's very loud for a SS 20W (conservatively rated as I've blown speakers rated at 20W without even pushing them very hard...) It works great as a practice amp and will cut through great with a moderately loud drummer. I've relied on this amp more times than I'd like to admit in a live situation. It's gotten me through every time.

This amp sounds a lot better than you'd think considering it's a 20W SS amp...I wouldn't go so far as to say it will replace your favorite tube amp, but I would loathe to think of it being grouped together with a lot of other SS amps of similar power rating. It's distortion is a bluesy sort of breakup that sounds best when pushed by a pedal of some sort (I've had my best results with a homemade overdrive that sounds much like a tube screamer). The clean sound stays clean pretty well all the way to the top with single coil pickups, but would probably break up sooner with humbuckers, though you'd have to play around with that for yourself, as I no longer own any humbucker equipped guitars. It's great for funk-style clean strat quacking and has a great midrange emphasis that really cuts through the mix in a live situation. It's not excessively noisy and never really farts out when put under pressure. This is clearly one of the best sounding SS amps I've ever heard. If you get your hands on one, try splitting your guitar signal and feeding it to both channels simultaneously...

This thing is, like all other Roland products, over-engineered to the point that I think you could drop it out a 2nd story window and it would probably still work. Roland is known for it's reliability and this amp is no exception. I would definitely depend on this amp (have, several times) without a backup (it IS my backup).

I think Roland's depedablility speaks volumes of it's attentiveness to customer needs, though I will abstain here from rating their customer support since it's never been an issue in the many years I've owned their products.

I've been playing for nearly 20 years. This amp is as reliable as they come. It won't replace your beloved tube amp, but it will get you out of a pickle when that tube amp is in need of service. It also won't cost you a penny in upkeep and tucks away nicely in contrast to much of the other gear you're likely lugging around from gig to rehearsal and back. I love that it's such a utilitarian, good sounding amp with ample volume. I hate that it doesn't have a speaker output jack, which would add greatly to it's versatility. At $35 used this amp was a steal. If you see one of these ugly orange little amps sitting around at your local pawn shop, give it a try. You won't be dissapointed.

I bought this amp used, so don't ask me when it was built, but it looks like a late 70s or early 80s piece of gear.

This a very simple amp, just one channel with two differnt inputs, ons (called overdrive) with more power and another (called normal) with less power. It has a builtin spingreverb which sounds nice, but is useless for me (I mainly play HardRock/Metal) It als features a Headphone-out, which I've never used.

This thing is really loud, even louder than a Marshall DSL 201 which is a 20 Watt Tube Amp with a 12" Speaker! I think you can use this amp for more than just homepracticing, but I never tried it.

This is really one of the best amps I know. I use it with all eq pots set to maximum and the Gain arround 8. That makes the amp sound like a saturated tube amp!

As I mentioned above I mainly play Rock and Metal. This amp can't deliver the distortion you need for these styles, but if you put a few stompboxes in front of this amp, you can get ANY sound you want. This amp allways adds a special character to the sound, which is like the spice for my sound, which I allway looked for.

btw: I use a Boss-MT2, an Ibanez-TS10, a Boss-BD2, and a Boss-BF2 in front of this amp.

This amp is not noisy, nearly all of the noise I get is from the dist boxes (which is not really much). But as Brain May's father ones said: "An amp that is not humming is either brocken or turned off."

Never had any trouble with it, and I would allways use it without any backup. I mean it's a Roland/Boss product, that should be enough said.

Never had to dela with Roland/Boss although I use their products since I started playing guitar.

I play for about 8 years by now, and I use the stomboxes I mentioned above, the Cube 20 and a Vester Ambition-I with new pickups.

I really like this amp, it is great for home practicing, but can also get really loud. I think I will try to use this amp on stage, but I'm also thinking about buying the new Hughes and Kettner Edition Blue 60R for gigging.

- It is a late '70 model
- I play pop,rock and blues. I bought it because I live in an appartement and can't play without headphones. Not only do I use it for practising but now also as a backup ... for my 1974 silverface twin reverb !!!!!!! How about that ?!
- features are well described in the other reviews, just enough for me : less is more !!
- I wish it had a channel switch pedal ... now there are two separate jack inputs : one for clean and one for overdrive.

It doesn't sound like an old tube amp (so no 10 ...), but it is the best solid state amp I've ever heard (including Marshalls and Fender !). Everyone laughs at me when I show them this amp, but after I've played the first notes on it ... complete silence ... the tone and power of this little orange monster are unbelievable. I use my SRV strat through it together with a Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face and a ts-808.
These amps are VERY hard to find ! I would even say they are harder to find than a real Fender Vibroverb amp.

Looks very reliable. No problems so far. The Roland/Bosds pedals are very reliable, so why shouldn't their amps be made like that ?

Never had to deal with Roland.

I've been playing 15 years now and I've owned many amps : fender re-issues and vintage amps, Marshalls ... I've tried hundreds of amps in our shop. The cube-20 is a real gem ... I bought it in England without having heard it. Isaw it on a website and immediately ordered it. I was uncertain about the tone but the first time I played on it ... I was blasted away by the tone coming out of this little orange motherf*cker ! But remember : These amps are incredibly hard to find. If you ever see one, don't hesitate ... buy it !
I give it a 9 because my silverface twin reverb (that costed me 10 times more than the cube !) from 1974 gets the 10 for it's REAL tube tone. After our last gig, someone asked me some specifications about that little orange TUBE amp !!? I had to laugh ...

I see this amp listed on a 1979 Roland price list at $245US! Found mine in a pawn shop- they couldn't make it work- offered $40. Cleaned it up and tightened the jack nuts so the leads wouldn't touch and was blown away. I play in a worship band in my church. This has to be the perfect amp. Sounds like a tube amp only without the 60hz hum I'm used to. So it's really better then most tube amps! With my Peavey T-60, I can get ANY tone I want.

I play a T-60 and a 12-string acoustic with a humbucker hard mounted. The T-60 has 2 humbuckers with a split coil setup. This amp really brings the best out in the T-60, with the 12-string I could use a brightness control so I use a stomp box to help out. The Cube is a practice amp with the heart of a stage amp! Everyone loves the warm sound! Very loud, very clean, very tube, very quiet, very tiny... Good crunch- doesn't feedback well though sorry all you Hendrix wannabees. This amp let's me sound just like that great early beatles Lennon rythym guitar tone.

The usual, make sure the nuts stay tight on the phone jacks. No problems otherwise.

Been playing 30 years. Only rythym guitars on stage past 2 years. Have a Peavey Studio 40 and a Pevey Special. Looking for a spare and to have a stereo setup for my K4 and my Digitech 100. This is a CLEAN amp to play punk or grunge, you'll need effects.

OK, were talking about a long out of fashion ugly orange shopping bag sized solid state amplifier from a company who's famous for effects.
I own this piece of junk for over ten years and I bought it because it was so ugly. I think the year of manufactory was mid eighties.
It has no channels, just a normal and overdrive. It has a phone out.
It doesn't miss a feature I need, just a reverb is enough.
I use this amp on my sessions as a guitar player. It has enough power as being 20 watt. I don't record with it...

The size is perfect, just put it on the bassman's amp.

The biggest mistake for using this amp is counting on a heavymetal sound with a humbuckerguitar with a huge bass sound. So singlecoil is the guitar to use. I use it with a Vester Tellie (SD loaded) and sometimes a DC59. I play rock, blues, surf, african, reggae and country music. Most of the time a TS-5 (plastic) as a booster. But with a Boss setup CS-2, OS-2 & DD-3 you can play everything.
The amp is not noisy, even if you got everything on 10. Just with the booster it is noisy.
The amp gives a tiny sharp cutting noise with no variety. At the max the sound can be slightly distorted.

I have NEVER seen an amp which is more reliable. It goes weekly on the back of my bicycle to several sessions in rain, cold, hot and shiny just in a china made plastic $1.00 bag with zipper. Just a few years it goes....
It comes from a low temperature (outside 20 F, -7 C) to high temperature stage (80 F, 27 C) and is DIRECT in use.

Some times it will fall off the bike. Doesn't matter.

Should be rated for 11 !

Not necessary, the Roland salesman I spoke said that they can't make these amps any more because Roland should be bankrupt...
You can't break them............

I play quite a few years guitar, bass and drums. I own a ton of gear.
I was so afraid of losing one, I bought a spare (not necessary).

THIS IS THE MOST PENETRATING AMP YOU CAN IMAGINE !

My mate plays on a Hotrodded 4x12 Fender showman, with that amp on 120 dB you can still hear the tiny orange monster over the drums and the 400 watt Bass Peavey.

Need to be miked? Just one tried it on a gig, the fader was on zero.
Playing reggae on an outside stage with PA, no mike, everybody could hear me with my cristal clear chic strat.

I'm ready to play in five minutes after entrance and can leave the stage after four minutes packaging.
Bye...... Purfect