Roland GC-408

Just want to say,that this amp is simply superb.I also own tube amps
and the roland still sounds better in every way.I love it and highly recomed it,and i also have the xtension cab as well.

Nice build quality.

Just amazing

Not sure of the year it was manufactured. I play pop to hard rock type material. My last band was the best one. I was the Guitarist for a band in Australia call The Spirit of Rush, ie Rush Tribute band. After our first awesome drummer left due to career decisions, we could not get anybody good enough to emulate Mr Peart. DOH!
Versatility of the amp is limited in the switching department but very versatile in the sound department. I use a Boss GT-5 with the unit for effects like harmonizer at the end of the solo for Hold The Line from TOTO. A feature that I think all modern amps should have today is switchable channels via midi. It would make life a lot easier when using full on effect units. I was very surprised by the available volume from this amp. I use it with the extra speaker cab that goes with it. Loud man!!! For a Solid State amp it rocks!

The band members including myself were blown away by its awesome tone. The other guitarist uses a Peavey tube amp which sounds great but was still not as good as this Roland amp. Its very quiet and the clean channel has a nice bite to it. The Brite switch on the clean channel seems a bit useless as I could not distinguish much of a difference with it on or off. The Dirty channel set up with 80% Pre, 30-40% post, 90% bass, 10% mid, 70% high, 60-70% presence and the boost set to "on" was just about right for me! I want two of these amps now!. I originally bought this amp as I have the small practice version (405) of this amp and was always saying that this amp with more power would be awesome. Well I have it now!. My other amps always needed a bit of extra EQing from external units, but this is great straight out of the box!!

No idea as I have only recently purchased it, but my little practice amp which is used a lot has been very good for over 4 years.

No, never needed to.

I have been playing for 20 years (Shite, I am getting old! as advised by my 10 year old son! I was a bit of a late starter on guitar) My love of the amp is the tone, my hate is the limited switching, however this is very common on most amps. The Laney TT100 has the switching ideas right, but cost is high here in Australia.

For the Price of the Roland, the tone and how easy it is to carry (light as a feather!) I would give it an 11, but due to the limited switching I give it an 8-9.

Roland GC-408, not sure what year. Solid State, 2 channels (clean and lead). The clean channel has a bright switch and lead has boost (doesn't do as much as it could). Has bass, mid, and treble knobs, and a lo-cut button that can actually give some cool vintage sounds. Power squeezer can cut by 80 or 50% which is a very good feature for practice/quiet gigs. Four small speakers. Fx loop and cab connector. Only bad thing is no foot switches for switchable channel, reverb.

I use a Fernandes guitar with 2 singles and a humbucker. Can get good strat sounds and heavier with the humbucker. i mostly play rock/blues and a little jazz; I think its the perfect amp for all of that. Not too noisy but not perfect. Distortion is perfect for me, maybe not for metal but i think you could get that with a little tweaking. If you want an amp for jamming to medium gigs its perfect, plus you can get the cab for bigger stuff.

Haven't had it long but seems indestructable. Only the handle is a little weak. Anyway i've heard good stuff about Roland.

got it used and they don't make it anymore, so probably not good. Shouldn't need it though.

I've been playing about 6 years but only have had a small practice amp. I tried fenders and a Marshall but prefer this, something more unique. if it were lost or stolen I'd get another as fast as possible.

Not sure of age, but it is like new.
This Amps is extremely good, I have a Roland Bolt 100 valve hybrid that I have used for years, and although this 408 does not sound like that amp, valve wise, it does break up in manner typically characteristic of valve amps. I am impressed that any Solid State rig can sound this valvey.
The Clean Channel goes from semi fender like sounds when not being too heavily driven to having a very usable mild overdriven tone similar to Smaller Marshall Valve Combos.
The only feature it needs is to have the So-called Boost switch actually do something noticable!
It has 2 channels, with Shared Eq. The Channels are distinctly different, and the Dirty Channel goes from Mild gain to a sweet Singing Sustain. I saw one guy say he can't get a Metal tone from it. Most metal sounds of the last 10 years have been Synthetic anyway, and if you stick a Processor in front it does easily emulate those horrid sounds.
I have not used it at a gig yet, but I would have no qualms about taking it to a venue. Roland Gear is Bullet proof, and this sounds as good as any other amp I have used or heard.

My main guitars, Fenix Tele (luv It) and a ES335 ('81)
Since I play a huge variety of styles I tend to switch between sounds a lot. I am always tweaking the Knobs, or kicking in a Delay or Chorus or Wah. This amp holds up to anything I can throw at it.
it is very quiet, Not silent on the dirty channel, but not nearly loud enough to bother me. From Bright and Funky, to Bluesy, Country and even Metal, this amp is fine. The Distortion, Ok play with it for a while to get the sound you want. They are all in there, it just takes a little time to work out how to get them happening. The Gain is not at all like any other Tranny amp I have heard. It definately has a Valve-esq tone to it, and I definately like what I can get it to do.

Dependability. Hey it is a Roland, enough said!
I have only had it a couple months, and although I don't use it a hel of a lot, I have absolutely no fears that t is likely to die, coz I have used Roland Amps for yonks, and they are bullet proof.

I had to deal With Roland a few Years back in West Australia. Umm, I can't say they were great to deal with. I ended up getting that amp serviced by a local. These things are fairly generic, so most Amp Guys can work on them, and Schematics are usually easily attainable online.
I got this 2nd hand so warranty... Not inclusive.

I have been Playing for 25 Years or so.
I have too much gear to list, and other amps I have owned include, Vox Ac30, Marshalls (Several), Laneys, Gyatone, Fender twin reverb and Fender M80 among others, I currently own a Roland Bolt 100, which I adore! They are without a doubt the perfect amp for me.
I have obviously used it back to back with the Bolt, No it does not sound the same, and I have not had a Fender Amp or Any Marshalls here recently to compare it with directly, but I know the sounds produced by various Fender and Marshall amps well enough to say this compares favourably. It won't sound identical, No 2 amps ever sound identical, even from the same model/ batch, but it will give very similar tones. For the Price I paid, I would happily buy another.

Anyone who is gonna say that this amp is'nt good for metal doesnt know what there talking about. This amp can go from Stray Cats dist. to slayer with the switch of a few knobs. i play guitar in a black metal band and it does the job.....believe me.......

I use a epiphone les paul custom, with the reverb I can get eerie trip sounds, with dist. crank the los and high's, drop the mid's, and you have a deathmetal machine.......I've also played strats through this amp for more of a hard rock sound...

great amp, great for gig's . Ive used it to play many show's, its never let me down

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great amp!!!!!

1998 model, it can play everything i want from it, people that come over to play it love it too, but i'm thinking about wirring in a switch to bypass the effects loop and make it footswitchable, it doesn't have a head phones jack but i always hatted those things on amps, i use it mostly in my basement, i found it only has enough power for home use, on stage then you crank it over 5 the tone starts to go, but oh well, if your mic'ing it then i just keep it under 5

LOADS of mid range, which i love!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i find this amp is great for playing lead cause it's so brite

something shorted out on the board about a year ago, my dad's friend fixed it for 20$ and it's worked great ever since, i use the amp to power another marshall head and 3 other cabs so i can't blame it for the short...

ah... kinda shabby since they don't make it anymore.... the footswitches were way to much i just picked up some no name ones for 1/3 the price...

I love this amp, i was going to sell it at one point or trade it, but now i want a couple more so i can have 32 speakers surrounding me when i play!!!

Hey, there. The amp was made in 1998, and I got one used in 2001. I've been playing it non-stop ever since for home recording and live bad/ small club venues. It has two channels (clean and lead), and both offer up the goods!! It has 3 footswitch jacks for boost, channel switching, and reverb, but the footswitches are not included...a definite bummer. Also, it needs a headphone output. Otherwise, everything rocks!! The power squeezer is great for overdriving your channels without killing your speakers (even though they can easily take it!!), and the ability to connect to the optional speaker extension is great!! Adds enough volume to tackle any situation from home recording to club gigs!

This Amp can be used for any musical style, depending on your guitar. I've used it with my Epiphone acoustic, my Fender Squire strat, my Epiphone Les Paul, and a friends Fender Telecaster. Each guitar gave its own unique sound and the Roland amp controlled them equally well!!
No noise except a great feedback sound at high volumes in close proximity... feedback is easily controlled. Also, the power squeezer does wonderful things to satisy your sense of overdrive without ruining your hard-earned tone!!!! BLISS!!

This amp can take the pressure!! I've tested it at home on maximum and minimum volume levels, and I've had no blown speakers or complaints of any kind toward this amp!! I played for about 2 hours straight with no problems. Only thing to note:
If you want to play a HUGE club show, you'll have to play with something else. Otherwise, you'll need a little something extra in the volume department. But if you're like everyone else, you won't need to worry about auditorium-size shows until you're a multi-million dollar rock star. By then, you can afford something bigger and badder, but in the meantime, this amp can't be beat!

Never needed to contact the company, except to find the footswitches. I ended up just finding this site, though, wich told me all about the different options for footswitches.

I have been playing for about 4 years now, recording and playing shows with my band, Niche. I had played through a few Kustom heads, a PA 600 and 200 bass head (both were very nice!!!), and a fender Twin Reverb and Super Twin Reverb. The Fenders sounded way too flat and one-dimensional for me, but this Roland GC 408 is just what I've been looking for! I couldn't believe I found it when I did... it easily solved all my guitar rig prayers. Honestly, I'll never have to buy another stack again!! This can cover any realistic situation that the musician will ever come across in his carrer!!

This amp was made in 1998. I got one in 1999. Its the first and only big amp ive ever owned. I use it for all gigs as on its own it sounds great and miked up it sound amazing.
Two channels with an immpressive range of tone from rock to metal. Power sqeezer wich if you want lovely tubey preamp distortion you can switch on and it acts as a type of commpressor and distorts everything with the pre amp. Plenty of space for foot switches and i never boght the roland ones i use single marshall ones. Just as good.

Let me tell you straight off. These people who say you can't play metal on this bavy are outright liars. You can play anything on it. Its brilliant. Best amp ive heard at low and high volumes and with additional 4x8 spkr cab is the perfect gig tool.

BLOODY FANTASTIC!!

never needed it!!

BRILLIANT TRY ONE BUY ONE RELY ON ONE OR MARRY ONE!!

It's a very good amp to work with. You have a wide variety of sounds if you are not a metal lover. It has power and very sensible controls. The best solid-state amp I've ever played, considering I like blues/rock. However I give it a 7 because it has 3 footswitchable controls (reverb, channel select and boost) but it comes with no footswitch at all (wich are expensive!). Once you get the footswitches, you are in wonderland. Oh, almost forgot: It's made in Asia, but tuned in California...

I plug a Fender Amerincan Standard Stratocaster in it. It's not noisy (the noise I hear comes from my single-coil pickups). In the blues/jazz/rock field it has a wide variety of sounds. If you want something not in that way, I recommend another amp. You can get distorted in the Lead channel and you can have a nice overdrive when you turn up the volume after 6. It sounds great also with both acoustic guitars I own. The reverb is satisfatory. The low cut button is useless, for me. The "Power Squeezer" (an attenuator) is an excellent feature if you want overdrive in the clean channel but you don't want to bring the place down! In the case you DO wanto to bring the place down, connect it with the 4x8 cabinet provided by Roland for this amp... a 8x8 stack is a good thing to hear, believe me... Oh, I forgot to say, it has a closed cabinet, wich I think is the reason of such great tone!

Never needed servicing. It's well built, and won't let you down, unless you drop it from de second floor! It's Solid State, it's Roland, it's very durable...

Never needed. I don't know how long is the warranty.

I've been playing on it for 3 years. If it were stolen, I would strive to buy another! I had the money to buy a Marshall Valvestate 65 or a Fender Princeton 112. I truly prefer this amp! Specially the distorted and lead tones! The others sounded too crunchy! It's not a tube amp, but it's one of the best solid-state amps I've heard!

This amp was made in 1998 - Japan. There's two switchtable channels, with only one Presence control and Reverb Control, there isn't a Headphone Jack. I think it should have a Reverb Control per channel, because we could make a different adjust for clean or distortion.
I used this amp at home and in some big bar ins S?o Paulo-Brazil, The power of this amp is Ok, I can connect the external speaker GC 408S and it gets 20 watts higher, and at home I use it without the external speaker.

I use a Japanese Fender scalloped, with a humbuck and two single.
I like to play some songs of Steve Ray, Mark Knofler, 60's, 70's, blues. Actually this amp is very good to play those kinds of song. If you're looking for Heavy Metal or Hard Rock sound, I think you shouldn't buy it, because the Distortion effect doesn't work like the bigs Valve amplifiers. This amp has a perfect clean channel at low or middle or high volume, with this ampl I can take amazing sounds from a Fender Stratocaster, like "Sultans Of Swing - Dire Straits"

It didn't need yet.

I've never needed.

I started playing eletric guitar 10 years ago, but I am playing blues style since 1997.