Roland Cube-60 (70s-80s Era) 112 Combo

Roland introduced this amp in 1979. It was most likely intended to be a "Polytone Mini-Brute" killer, as one amp salesman told me. My Cube-60's serial number has the numbers 7 and 9 in it, so I'm guessing it might be from the model's debut year.
The amp is built like a tank; I took it apart to see what's inside of it and to get a handle on its design. Basically, it's a 2-channel solid-state affair, witt a 12" speaker and 60 watts of output power. It's finished in a distinctive pumpkin-orange shade of tolex, with black plastic corner-protectors. The speaker's aluminum dust cap peaks through the white-and-black grillcloth, completing the Cube-60's late-'70s hi-fi look. The control panel has normal and over drive(yep, overdrive is spelled as two words on the control panel)inputs, and over drive, volume, treble, middle, bass, reverb, and master volume knobs. The volume knob pulls up to add brightness to the tone. The power switch is a sturdy bat-handle thing located on the back of the unit. Also here are a row of 1/4" input jacks: footswitches for over drive and reverb, pre-amp out, main(power)amp in, headphones, and extension speaker output, plus a socket for the 3-amp fuse. All in all, a pretty full-featured amp, even by today's standards.

Sonically, the Cube 60 is best used as a jazz guitar amp. Plugging into the normal input delivers a decent, if slightly dark, clean sound. Even activiting the volume knob's pull-bright function and maxing out the treble knob doesn't make the amp sound very sparkly, with single-coils or humbuckers. Yet there is a hint of warmth in that clean tone, no mean feat for a 1970s solid-state guitar amp. Cranking the volume control adds just a hint of breakup to the tone, but it's not tube-amp overdrive by any means. The reverb , courtesy of a teensy two-spring mechanism, isn't bad, but the reverb knob must be turned up to "5" before it truly colors the tone.
The over drive channel is a different story. The amount of distortion is controlled by both the overdive and volume knobs(and overall output governed by the master volume). Unfortunately, none of the Cube-60's overdriven tones are very appealing, no matter where you set the knobs. The overall sound is brackish and fuzzy. If one good thing can be said about the over drive channel, it's that it's louder than the normal channel--loud enough to play in clubs or jams with.

It seems to be a very dependable amp. The few times I've played out with it, I didn't have one problem with it. Again, it's built like a tank, very solidly designed and put together. I'm keeping my Cube-60 as an "absolute emergency" amp

Overall, the Cube-60's is a charmingly kooky and compact piece of late-1970s amplification. It could definitely be used for amplifying other things, not just electric guitar.

This amp was made in the early 80s and I have owned it since 1986. It has two channels, clean and overdrive. The channels are not switchable, it depends what you plug into at the start. One of the features I like about the combo is that all the controls are at the top and back of the amp. For small gigs this means you can point it out towards an audience and adjust without having to move equipment around. It has an FX loop that really takes the noise out of some older effects (EH Electric Mistress....y'get sea sick at stage volume). The reverb fitted was a cheap tinny thing with no real depth. I replaced it with a spring reverb unit from an old Peavey...much deeper and clearer. The 12" speaker was a pressed tin thing as well. Fortunately it didn't last long at loud volumes, well it did tend to distort even on clean. In conclusion for this section, this amp is good for live gigs in pubs/small clubs if you want clean sounds or you use fx units to get your sound. As a stand alone it has its faults but it certainly has charachter for a trannie (lovely shade of tangerine!!!)

Three very different guitars are used through this. An Ovation electroacoustic first. Nice clean sound with a surprising amount of 'warmth'(but nowhere near valves). There is a 'bright' pull switch but this breaks beer glasses and attracts small dogs and insects so I don't bother with it. Twin humbuckers....does nothing for either. Even with a Black Widow 12" replacement speaker the sound is a little too flat unless your using some fx unit. Single coils...now here is something else. Again a surprising amount of life and warmth. Very bright without being 'sharp'. Even using the 'overdrive' channel you can get useful bluesy sounds out of the thing. Clean all the way up the dials but a little bit of unwanted distortion on the bottom stirngs with everything wanged up to 10. Needs some top and middle taking off to correct it.

As you would expect from a trannie amp...velly reliable. Speaker went dead on me after 8 years but I think that was to be expected. I now tend to use this as a backup to my valve combo but it was only ever called into service once.

Never had to deal with them. Sent me some leaflets for a couple of years but then must have got bored 'cos I didn't buy anything!

I thought people had forgotten about these things til I read a review from Guitarist. They interviewed Steve Hackett. He mentioned that the use of amps was like a quest for a perfect sound so he constantly changed amp set ups. But he did say that when he played blues gigs down his local he would grab his Roland Cube! I have loaned this amp out a few times and had a few offers for it. As you would guess, it is not exactly a collectable, nor an amp noted for its tonal qualities through the years. But it has character in its appearance and sound and it dared to be a little different (I think you could get them in purple and even silver!!) and for that it deserves a little place in the guitarists hall of fame

This is a solid state 60W combo often referred to as a a jazz amplifier. It has two channels; clean and overdrive, EQ and reverb. Reverb and overdrive can be controlled by a fottswitch that goes in on the back. Also on the back you a headphone jack and outputs for external speakers. No effects loop.

I don't know when this one was built but I'm guessing sometime in the seventies or eighties.

With these features in mind one must say that this is surely an amplifier best suited for clean sounds. The overdrive isn't really a overdrive. The sound gets a little bit blurry and somewhat louder when you put on the overdrive channel, but that's it. No heavy distortion.

For me, this is all I need in an amplifier. But I have to admit it feels quite "poor" considering the digital-amp-revolution that's going on nowadays. So it's not that I'm not happy with this amp, for the right purposes it's GREAT, but in competition with other 60W amplifiers the features seem a little bit few.

I use a Danelectro DC-3 through some pedals( Nobels chorus, danelectro Tuna Melt, Ibanez metal charger) and a Microverb. It is kind of noisy in our rehearsal room (don't know if this is the right term for the place that you rehearse, but I hope so...). And I think it is everywhere. But I'm not sure it is more than the usual amplifier. I've had this for such a long time. Before that I couldn't really decide whether an amp was noisy or not.

My last band was an instrumental one; we played both slow and almost psychedelic pop and surf tunes. I can surely say that you should NOT use this amplifier for surfmusic. But for the other stuff we played; kinda like Red House Painters playing instrumental surf, it was superb. It gives me a harsh, metallic and distinct tone. I play with heavy strings and tune my guitar down a whole step, which should affect my tone very much indeed. But the fact is that when I plugged in my guitar in my friends budget and new Hughes & Kettner 60W combo it sounded crap! A weak, thin and soft tone that I do not want.

This amp handles high volumes really well. I haven't once heard any distortion on the clean channel, yet I feel I have pushed it quite hard. But you really don't have to; this amp is POWERFUL. When I first tried it in our last rehearsal room I got the impression that it was much more powerful than the 100W Marshall combos that we had there.

Of course you can't do so much with this amplifier, but one the other hand it is an amp that can "concentrate" on being just one thing: an amp for guitarists that just want an amp that brings you a very clear and good clean sound, magnificent for solo playing.

I'd say it's reliable. It's quite small, yet very, very heavy. The only thing I feel can brake are the input jack, which often is the case with amps that are regularly used and old (am I not right?). I had some problem with it about six months after I bought it. It made some buzzes. Easily fixed though.

And as mentioned you can crank the volume up all the way and it doesn't distort a bit. Seems reliable to me.

I'd defintitely use it without backup, I already have.

Bought it used...

This is my first "big" amplifier and I didn'really try any other amps at that time when I bought it. But I've been playing for some six or seven years and I know now what sound I like and don't. I'm a student with not so much money so when I found an amp for about 130$, of course I had to buy it. I knew the chance wouldn't come along again soon. But then my interest for instrumental surf music was much bigger than now. My musical goal now is to play slow and relaxed music, kinda like Low. So now my Cube-60 is PERFECT! I really love how it thickens my sound and make my guitar sound heavy and hard. I've played on/tried some of the most popular amps available here in Sweden; Marshall combos, Hughes & Kettner combos, Peavey etc. But none of them have given me the special sound that the Roland Cube-60 does.

If it where stolen or I was to buy a new amp I would most definetely refer to the sound of my Roland Cube-60. My next amp just has to have the ability to sound like this.

For me, that like a metallic, hard and distinct tone, this amp is the best. Are you looking for an amp for punk, metal, or any other hard or fast rock, this is probably nothing for you. As I said earlier, this is an amp for those of us that likes to play with a clean guitar sound most of the time.