Roland Cube-30 Combo

2004 model, same size as a marshall mg15, only one kg heavier.
No noise when switching channels or effects, impressive.
Built-in automatic noise gate, but don't worry it is non-intrusive. Just plain useful, never annoying.
Volume knobs are not progressive enough at low level, I mean it's not easy to get late-night volume. Just the same as my micro cube, I guess Roland should change their volume pots'characteristics.
Rec out way good, clear and open sounding.
Never tried headphones though.
Aux in convenient, accepts my active bass gladly (at living room levels, mind you) so I don't need an extra bass amp for practice.
Amp absolutely silent, I appreciate. This stated, it can be louder than expected, and I agree with reviewers who said its speaker to be way good:it is, and does not collapse at high volume.
Don't see the point of buying the 60watter, in fact, especially with a p-a around.

I only use two sounds, the jc clean and the 5150 model. I don't need anything else, but all models are more than okay.
I set the gain of the 5150 at noon, and use my guitar vol pot for rythm&lead. The big difference with many amps around is that the cube reacts very very well to this basic technique.
If I can't use my guitar's vol pot, I set the gain at minimum and just stomp on a clean booster for lead (same results as with guitar vol pot, only faster).
Overall this 5150 model can do anything, not unlike Luke's sound. Not bad!

About JC clean: it is a bit thin-sounding, mates very well with jazzboxes (...) and humbuckers. Too shrill with strats. That's at room levels, in a band this character is an advantage: you are well heard. Definition is the word here, I just like this channel.

Effects are useful at home, who needs them in a band anyway?
Chorus is a waste, flanger too, phaser is okay at low speeds, only the tremolo is up to my taste...
Reverb is quite fine, delay is enjoyable but really lacks settings.
Still, I like tremolo and this one is smooth and plain, and delay/reverb is a big plus when playing alone.
For what it is, what it costs, clearly top mark.

Absolutely. Tough tough tough.
No fuse I can see, maybe there is an automatic one inside I don't know.
Remember you still find orange cubes from the 70ties, and jc120 too, so I don't worry about reliability.

I bought this to replace my marshall mg15dfx and Ibanez valve bee all tube amp. And I did well!

Just the right size, power, features to get you playing for hours without touching the amp, a real musician's dream!

When I checked this, I immediately found two sounds I really much enjoyed, the jc clean and metalstack5150, and I knew I had to buy it.

Note that this amp is very transparent, doesn't spoil your guitar tone. Great to check guitars in a store.
On the other hand if you use a stomp box you better choose a real bypass one because you'll really hear a difference.
With a wireless system it is even worse, and I didn't hear much difference on other combos (line6 spider2, dod juice it, peavey bandit, marshall mg15) so the cube is very superior.

Apart from more control over delay, the most perfect small amp ever.
I can foresee it will stay long in Roland's catalogue.

Made in 2004/2005.
Lots of amp emulations, a wide palette to choose from. The channel switching and controls aren't much stage friendly, but not many people buy solid-state 30-watters to get onstage. I will, if I have to. Good stuff are the aux in, line out/phones, great reverb and the emulated amps. On the downside, you get no fx loop and no decent control of the effects. More on this below.

Like I said before, amp-simulation-wise, whatever amp baby wants, whatever amp baby gets. This little bastard covers it all: JC for cold clean and multi-fx pedals, not-so-bad-with-a-telecaster acoustic guitar simulation, blackface fender cleans, ac-30 from clean to dist, fender bassman, marshall stack, peavey metal stack, and, of course, mesa-boogie hi-gain. My music goes from U2 and Cure thru Radiohead and Blur down to Velvet Underground, so I don't think I will get harder than Ac-30 and classic marshall. I play a japanese '62 reissue Tele through a Vox Wah with a modded Ibanez tubescreamer to keep the wah from sucking tone. I wanted to buy a vox ad30vt, but it was almost two times the price. But, after I played this one, I thought the effects weren't so bad, and also vox has a valve in the poweramp. I don't think valves are a good thing in moddeling amps-- Valves means servicing, and servicing means spending money and less reliable amps.

I had it for only a week, but from other Roland products I've been getting the idea that only roaches and Roland amps would survive a nuclear war.

I've been playing for 10+ tears now. I've been in a band for 8, but we still thing on getting back together 'one of these days'. I own a '96 trace elliot supertramp twin stereo chorus. It was the amp that got me favouring good solid state amps over low budget and low quality tube amps. An amp doesn't have 2 B tube 2B good. And being tube doesn't make it good. There are great tube amps, but they're expensive.
I really like this amp. It has only 2 problems for me. First of all is the lack of control on the effects. The effects sound great, but you have 1/4 or 1/2 of a knob to do something you would need 2 or 3 knobs to do?! The second issue is something that's been irritating me since modeller amps got around. 90% of all modelling-amp-making companies are stupid enough to think "ok, so we got one reverb, delay, flanger and chorus on this amp, it doesn't need 3? spent on an fx loop, since it already has effects." I think these and most modelling amps would sell better if companies would wake up.

Made in:
2004
Versatility:
Seems to handle every kind of music I play. I like the Brit combo for Blues, slightly dirty rhythm and general purpose dirt (gain at about 2 o'clock). Classic stack is a good representation of a Meshal AC/DC sound. Metal and rectifier are good at reproducing 80's metal and new metal. I am not into metal but enjoy the r-fier. Nicely compressed full sound.
The acoustic model is nice and makes the electric sound like an acoustic.

Channels:
2 channel - JC and lead (with modeled amp sounds)

What features do you wish it had ?
Would be nice if it had a tuner. This would make it a great practice amp without the need to cary extra gear.

Where do you use this amp:
Practice at home and rehersals

The AUX-in is a great feature. I generaly use this to plug my laptop in to pump through Bass & Drums via a midi player. Great for learning new songs !

Use this amp with Yamaha pacificas 604 and 604w (great guitars that stay in tune). Stock pickups. I generally use the neck and humbuckers (for lead work and some riffs)
The only nise this amp produces is amplified noise from the single coil pickups

The clean channel isn't distorted at high volumes however I have only had the amp at 50% volume.

The distortions can be brutal if you have the gain maxed out. Distortion is good & usable with gain up to 75%. R-fier is good an 100%. Classic stack muddies up past 75%

No problem yet, but haven't pushed it hrd over long periods. I expect it to be reliable seeing it is a Roland and appears solid

NA

I have been playing 15 years. Played covers for 5 years and beginning another phase of covers after a 5 year break. I own a peavey bandit 80W, Roland GP8, Yamaha Magicstomp, 3 Yamaha Pacificas, several acoustics.

I try to only buy quality gear. Musical instruments need to be able to stand up to riggors of live playing.

I was looking for an amp that was light weight, capable of enough volume for rehersals, headphone and aux-in. I was in no rush to buy but wanted to get the right amp. They are probably worth Aus$400 new but $250 is a good deal. I tried a VOX, Line6 and a Kustom but went with the Roland because of the tone, size, reliability and resale value.

I like that this amp is loud enough to play with a loud drummer, has great tone and can be used with headphones for late night practice (very important with a new baby in the house).

It would be nice if it came with a footswitch, in built tuner and seperate eq's for the channels but I am happy with it, as is. It makes me want to practice without the need to setup a lot of extra gear.. Because of its small footprint I can now practice in various rooms.

The chorus seems a bit thin and the flanger etc are toys but I use external effects anyway. It would be nice if the reverb/delay were switchable.

Summing up ... It does its job well and is a versatile peace of equipment that can be used as a monitor as well.

Made in 2005
Three band eq, same eq for both channels
Two channels, clean channel models JC Clean (and does it very well)
Other channel has different amplifier models: Acoustic, Black Panel (Fender twin reverb), Brit Combo (Vox AC-30TB), Tweed(Tweed Fender Bassman 4x10 combo), Classic stack (Marshall JMP 1987), Metal Stack(Peavey EVH-5150), R-Fier (Mesa/Boogie Rectifier)
Separate volume knobs for clean / lead channel
Gain control, footswitching between channels and turning efx on / off
Aux in, use with a cd player, maybe even a microphone, handy feature
Recording out / headphones, good for nighttime practice or maybe recorinds, i would prefer micing it up
Digital effects, chorus is nice, hardly ever use the others, but they seem nice too
Delay & reverb, nice reverb, delay is a little short i think

Lacks separate EQ for each channel, and more footswitching features, compressor, noise gate

I use it for practice with a custom-built guitar, mahogany body, super strat body shape, maple neck, rosewood fretboard, 6 stringer, bill lawrence L500XL bridge, 2 duncan singlecoils

With humbuckers, make no noise at all. Hums with single coils (but hey, there's no noise gate on this thing.. you'd have to expect it.) At max volume, hum pickup, no feedback or noise at all. Used in a living room enviroment.

I play all styles, pop/rock to church-burnin' metal, and it can do everything. Nice rock sound, great for blues, jazz master, and really good metal sound (the r-fier model). I find the metal stack model quite useless, too much chug-chug.. probably good for old school metal. For jazz, pop/rock, metal and blues it's perfect, maybe it lacks just a tiny bit in a hard rock setting (i.e. def leppard, kiss, deep purple-kind music.) Distortion is really nice, i burn two-three churches a week and i think it's got plenty. Pinch harmonics really scream, i compared this with a marshall AVT fullstack and the marshall lost distortion-wise, plus pinch harmonics on the marshall sounded real crappy. Clean channel is clean even at max volume.
Reverb is great, delay is pretty good, chorus is really nice, i rarely use the phaser, but it delivers, i don't use the other effects.

This plays really loud for being rated 30 watts, perhaps because of the easy driven 10" speaker. A line6 spider II 212 (75 watts, 2x12" speakers) barely plays louder, and i know, since one bandmember o'mine has it.

Gets a lil minus, i don't like the metal stack model + it doesn't like single coil pickups.

Hey it's a roland, you could microwave it for an hour and it would come out fine. Speaker element is protected by a metal grill, it can take a kick, i use this as a seat all the time and it still works. Speaker element can play at max volume for hours, doesn't blow. If our employers couldn't get us a good fullstack (mesa, engl, krank, orange) for a gig i'd go with this. I'd choose this over a fender or marshall.

Never dealt with them, but i bought this from a music store, so i'd deal with them not roland

Been playing for 3 years, besides this i have a engl powerball / mesa 4x12 combo but it doesn't sound nice on low volumes, plus i only use the stack in studio / for gigging because my neighbors are sons of bitches and call the cops as soon as i crank the volume on the cube past 5.

If it were stolen, i'd get either this or the new vox ac-30, i havent tried the ac-30 yet but i hear it's good, but it's a vox and vox has a hate it or love it sound so i'd probably get this as it has a more generic sound

I compared this with various amps in the 300$-400$ price range and this thing beat them all, the spider II which would cost $170 more came close but i like this better. I suggest you try the vox ac-30 too, though. I got a good deal on this too, retail price where i live (norway) is $450 so.. at this price it's like a 9.9. I'd want separate eq's though, but no biggie.

Eu comprei este amplificador no ano de 2005. N?o sei quando foi feito, mas acredito que seja neste mesmo ano. Versatil ??? Este amplificador e uma m?o na roda. Pra tocar em casa n?o tem nada melhor. Vou fazer uma comparac?o simples. Faca o preco de um Meteoro Thor Plus e some uma pedaleirazinha simples. Ja chegou aos R$700,00? Ent?o pode parar e comprar este amplificador. 4 distorc?es claras, delay e flanger de qualidade. So ai ja vai mais de R$1.000,00. Eu uso este amplificador em casa, para estudo. Ainda n?o usei no palco, mas acho que n?o vai decepcionar.

Minha guitarra e uma Epiphone Les Paul Standard Left-handed de 1997. Os controles de equalizac?o n?o s?o muito versateis. O controle de agudo ate que e bom, mas o de medios n?o faz muita diferenca. De graves ate que soam bem. O canal limpo e brilhante, doce e muito bom de se ouvir. As simulac?es s?o boas. N?o s?o perfeitas, mas s?o muito boas. A distorc?o METAL e arrasadora. A STACK e muito boa. A RECTY da vontade de tocar power chords pro resto da vida. A TWEED e legalzinha e a BLACK PANEL e perfeitinha para solinhos limpos e levadas swingadas.

Achei muito robusto. Sem defeitos. Rocha pura.

The cube 30 has all the fearures you will need and more.

The cube 30 can make brutal noises.It has 8 kind of distortion(lead): acoustic, brit combo, tweed, r-fier, metal, black pannel, classic stack.It also has wicked efx: chorus, flanger, phaser, tremolo, independent delay/reverb. And for the clean channel, the cube 30 reproduce the sound of the legendairy JC-120!

I totally depend on it.

They were incredible. Mine was 375 $ and i got it for 300 $.

It has been 8 years since i started playing. I had a laredo guitar, behringer amp, and now a cube 30 and a Samick av3. If it was stolen i would buy it again, of course.

Mine was made in 2004 and is the same model that is being produced today, and was being produced through the nineties. The main thing about this combo is it massive versatility. The first channel, is JC clean, models the bigger roland JCs and its clean as a whistle. The second channel is where the versatility gets involved. It has a cute acoustic sound, a "black panel" model which i think is simulating a black face (that would make sense), it has a brit combo (vox AC-30), a tweed model, a classic stack (marshall I guess) a metal (peavey?) and a Rectifyer (Mesa/Boogie REcto). These obviously dont match the real amps but the style is the same and therefore they are usefull. ROland owns boss so the 'COSM' models that are on this amp are the same as on the boss pedals like "amp factory". The main gripe i have is that there is only one eq section, and that does both channels, the other is switching between models is a pain also. It has some pretty worthless effects Chorus TRem Flange and Phase but its nice to have them. It also has very useable reverb and delay.

I use it with a Epi Les paul and a PRS McArthy Soapbar. Ill start by saying that this is my favourite practise amp and it sounds great with both guiatr. It has a really warm bottom end for a solid state amp. Although i wouldnt gig with this, it certainly has the quality of sound to mike for a rehersal if need be. It does just what you tell it too, with the dials and your fingers. The brit combo model especially responds well to the dynamics and pressure of your picking. The distortion can go crazy with the gain knob cranked and you get get anything from sprkling cleans to bluesy crunch to metal head. I am giving it 8 for sound quality because it doesnt hold a candle to the better tube amps, but I think it could take on any other transistor amp.

I defininatly doubt it would break at a gig, it doesnt run hot like a valve amp, but it did get stuck on channel two for a while. The shop gave me a new one so Ive never dealt with customer support.

Never dealt with them

Ive been playing four years, and Ive had three practise amps, this one is the best. Its an important tool for jammin with when you dont have the car space or energy to load up the Mesa. Its got a clever thing to hold the cable on the back (like a zip tie thing) but no space behind the speaker for cables and pedals. It doesnt sound tacky like its marshall, fender and line 6 competitors but it would be the perfect practise amp, with a footsswitch and seperate EQ.

Not sure year made, but bought 2004 to use as stage foldback with acoustic electric. Not very effective competing with the other guitar player's 100w Music Man combo. I am happy to work with what it is - in my opinion, setting limits for yourself is good practice as a creative person.

I now sit the amp on the drum riser and go directly through the foldback. I play an epiphone Dot deluxe through the JC120 channel with a smidgen of chorus, on the other side, I use the Classic stack with tremelo halfway. The reverb is set on about a quarter. I mix the Dot pickups - full neck, three quarters bridge.
I got heaps of complaints at first when miked up and trying to play with heavy distortion. That was never my style anyway. It is much better now. The blues sounds I get are like an ol-bitey block of Kraft cheese.
The JC120 channel sounds fab - I use this for choppy, syncopated grooves and ballads.

Does what it is supposed to do. Feels solid. Everything works.

Billy Hydes, Victoria have a great guitar department, so I will phone them if I need to.

I have been playing for 20yrs in Christian church services. This is my first guitar amp. If it were stolen, I would replace it.
I compared this with the VOX and Marshall practice amps. This beat them hands down.

I am currently using two Cube 30's set up in stereo. I play primarily in a solo and duo (with a bassist) Jazz settings with these amplifiers. Although many people have panned these as "practice amps", I have had incredible luck with them in large hotel meeting rooms, brew pubs, and small outdoor concerts,(once playing in a very loud blues band setting) all without the benefit of a PA. The combination of portability, usable but not overpowering effects, and most importantly GREAT SOUND, has made these amplifiers indispensable to me.

I am currently playing a number of different guitars through this set-up. My primary guitars are a Rick Turner Renaisance Nylon string, a Tradition SP1 Strat style guitar with stacked humbuckers (a wonderful guitar, please see my review on this also...) and a Cort Joe Beck hollowbody. I am using the 'BLACKFACE" model set to a clean but warm sound. I add delay ( and sometimes just a touch of chorus) to help acheive a nice stereo spread effect.

In a solo setting I play primarily fingerstyle jazz chord melody. In the duo setting we stretch out to more towards jazz improvisation and blues. I have always been very, very, pleased with the articulation that comes from these amplifiers, no matter what guitar is played through them.

No idea about the reliability. It's a Roland. You can get them just about everywhere. Plus they don't cost a lot!!! I always take two with me anyway so I don't worry too much. Plus jazz chord melody is not real brutal on an amp.

Never dealt with the company.

I have been playing for a long time, 30+ years. I have had coutless guitars over the years and still have over 20. I have also had (and stil have) many amplifiers... Mesa Boogie, Fender, Peavey, Carvin, Standel, Gallien Kruger, Silvertone, and Polytone. At this point in my life, and for this kind of music, these amps are my hands down favorites.

The best not practice amp money can buy!

30 watts solid state COSM modeling amp with a 10" speaker and a closed back, 2 channels, 4 effects (chorus, flanger, phaser and tremolo) with a separate Reverb/Delay knob, 3 band Eq., earphones Jack an "play along with CD's" input Jack.

Channel 1 is modeled after roland's JC clean amp.
Channel 2 offers several amp models wich include : Acoustic, Black Panel, Brit Combo, Tweed, Classic Stack, Metal Stack, R-fier Stack.

I'm currently using this with a yamaha RGX121D, an Ibanez RG170R and an Ibanez Artcore AF75 hollow guitar, all straight in to the amp. (notice that the pickups on all of this are not to hot)

The amp is very versatile soundwise, even though it doesn't have as many amp models as some other modeling amps do, the efects section is very limited and the efects are very basic sounding but the reverb and delay are just right (to my taste) since i only tend to use a little bit of them to ad depth and to avoid totaly dry sounds, I don't use the other efects as much (maybe a bit of chorus on the clean channel).

The modeling itself is fun to use and not as dull as some other modelers i heard, obviously it doesn't sound or react as real tubes should do but it's half way there since it does react to playing dynamics better than other solid state amps that i have tried (this is a personal taste thing though).

The one thing that impresed me when i first tried it is that it can get really loud at the lowest settings and it seems to handle loud volumes well without speaker distorting or farting out, this is a good thing especialy on the clean channel. (also good headroom for such a tiny amp)

all models have their "sweet" spot after a little bit of tweak, i tend to gravitate around midrange sounds rather than scooped (i dislike too much trebble for some reason)yet with this amp i play with EQ settings on all positions more then with other amps i have used, the EQ settings make a big difference from model to model, as if the models where voiced to react diferently to eq settings with each model. also the diference betwen single coils and humbuckers is quite dramatic, but in a good way (at least for me):

Acoustic - sounds better with the archtop to get a electroacustic kind of sound, however i don't use this setting as much since all acoustic models on every modeler i tried tend to sound flat and unimpresive.

Black Panel - i love this model, it doesn't get dirty as you turn the gain up, instead it just gets louder and it affects the warmth of the model a bit. with the mids set slightly behind the trbble knob i can get a very "snappy" sound when used with single coils without loosing low end. (great for blues)

Brit Combo - this one has the vox AC30 type of sound and it tends to sound good with a little bit of dirt (gain slightly pass half way), I'm not a very big fan of this sound but don't find it bad or useless, so i use it only if i'm in the mood, i do find it better with the Artcore than with the solid bodies.

Tweed - Another one i like, with the gain around 3.5, mids and trebble about 6.5 and bass at about 3 through single coils it sounds clean with an edge if i pick hard, again a very bluesy sound.

Classic Stack - this one is good for hendrix / srv / classic rock type of sounds that need only a small amount of gain (crunch)yet is very warm and it has good sustain, it has an enhanced midrange on the overall sound, so is best to roll the mid knob back a little for this one, it works great with both single coils and humbuckers.

Metal Stack - This is my favorite, great for hard rock or metal, it has a reasonable amount of gain without getting hissy or mudy, the eq setting for this one i tend to change depending on the mood (gain always on 10), i find this one to be great for soloing and rythm alike with both humbuckers and single coils , Very versatile, and it even cleans up a little bit when rollong back the guitar volume knob without a drop in volume.

R-fier Stack - this one is the tipical mesa rectifier sound, kind of trebbly if you ask me, but it gets a good metal sound rolling up the mids to 10 en the treble back to about 5, also helps if i lower the gain a bit, not bad but i find th "metal stack" better for metal.

Channel 1 - this one is an all around good neutral clean sound that sounds good for just about everything, it even likes pedals and overdrive/dirt boxes. O yeah this channel is GREAT f

Its solid and rigid and very well built, since i've only had it for a month and a half and i don't take it out, i figure that it will last, (Also modeling amps tend to be much like computers on their power requirements and benefit from surge protectors or voltage conditioners to avoid damage from power surges or irregularities in electric current).

its probably the most solid and straight forward practice amp. with a great versatility, great sound and most importantly FUN to play with, as it is so easy to use, much like a standard amp, no need to go trough patches or programs wich is a big plus for me at this time since i just want to plug and play. there is a lot of room for improvements in the effects section, i would have liked an effects loop for better versatility but at this price that is pushing it.

Amazing value, worth considering upgrading to a CUBE 60 in case it got lost or stolen.