Roland MicroCube Combo

Brand new Microcube, presumably 2005/6. So many posts with the features before this, but I'll focus on the one drawback for me, namely the fact that the line-out jack cuts out the speaker when a jack is inserted - this is fine for use with Phones, but it would have been nice to have the ability to take a line out to the PA but still have a speaker active for monitoring. It's probably a simple mod, but as I've just bought this I don't want to start hacking it just yet!

Still, for a small practice combo this has an excellent feature set

Used with my Tele, my Parker Fly and my old Westone electric, primarily for practising (it's a practice amp!). Great range of sounds - I particularly like the Brit Combo and the Classic Stack. I could have lived without the JC-Clean and Acoustic settings, as Black Panel does it for me. Rectifier sounds great but not a cound that I'd use particularly often. With the volume right up the speaker can get a bit farty, particularly on some of the clean tones, but that's not unusual in this price range.

Built in effects are great too - usable without being outlandish. I could live without Flanger (maybe compression would have been a better option?) but the chorus, tremelo and phaser are excellent. Reverb/Delay are both very usable too.

Just bought it, but I've never had a piece of Roland/Boss gear fail on me

Never had to use

I've been playing for 24 years, and play regularly in a covers band - this little amp is one of the best practice amps I've tried. The flexibility of the modelling, plus the effects and aux-in make it an ideal packqage for home practice, plus it has enough poke for jams (albeit maybe drummerless) when required. If it was lost or stolen I'd likely buy another, although I'd be sure to check out some of the current alternatives.

I'd been sceptical about Roland amps in the past, my only previous experience having been on a JC120 complete with its horrible distortion, but this amp has changed my outlook - I'd certainly check out the Roland alternatives when I'm next looking into buying a gigging amp.

Purchased on 05, single channel amp with digital amp models and a nice selection of effects. Plenty of power for a bedroom jam.

I really only use the rectifier setting. While it sounds nothing like my rectifier, its fantastic for sitting in the living room and practicing at low volumes. The distortion is tight and fairly articulate. Notes are very clear and pinch harmonics are cake at low volumes.

Seems ok? I don't really plan on taking it out of the house though.

For a small practice amp with several options this is it! I checked out a few line 6 amps but they couldn't stand up to the small Roland.

Wonderful. Everything you could ever need. This amp is ideal for people who want something to practice with a reasonable volumes. I could well imagine myself gigging with this too, and not necessarily plugged into a PA either. Extremely punchy for its size. Everything they say about it is true. A little wonder.

Fabulous range of sounds. Everything is useable and will find its way into my playing.

Looks as solid as a rock.

Superb. Get it if you have a family, as the low output and headphone outlet mean you can play away at low/ no volume without disturbing others. In terms of value for money and sheer userfriendliness there's nothing else on the market to remotely compete with it. Superb price, superb spunds, superb amp and at last something I can play without fear of waking my young son up!

wont list em all but britcombo is my fave

cant believe some reviewers are knocking the effects-most of the the competition offer none.the reverb is usually the most disappointing effect on an amp this size, but not on the microcube.very useable and convincing.
i also play my blues harp through it and get very convincing honky sounds, without suffering from the usual dreaded feedback-way cool.

only had it 4 days, but its built like a marshall.nuf said.only one gripe-dont like the cheapie thin mains cable.

ok so far dudes

i own a liberty practice amp and a streetman practice amp-neither of these come close to the microcube at all.the streetman claims to be 15 watts, which i frankly doubt big time.it offers no effects and just about overdrives if you turn everything up to 10.it arrived with the vinyl covering hanging off at the edges.poor build quality.
the liberty offers good distortion and enough power , but its reverb is useless.the rechargeable battery in it is a poor performer-indeed, rendering its street use to almost nil.with its retro looks its the best looking of the bunch, but hey, beauty is skin deep.
microcube? buy one dude.

Bought brandnew out of the box,comes with a wall wart power supply, all the features have been done before: it's a little fella with lots of fun features, and it sounds excellent for the money! Its probably the finest budget practice amp around at this time. The phaser/flanger options are shitty, but the rest of the effects are quite useable, but they do sound very synthetic.

What amazes me is the build quality: solid and to be honest; flawless. Hats off to Roland for keeping up a damn fine quality control. Everything about this amp says quality, and you can pick it up for the price of 1 decent effect pedeal, marvelous!

I have a Squier '51, Squier Telecaster, and a Gibson '79 The Paul. The Roland isnt very responsive to different guitars/ pickup changes, sounds quite generic. But the variety of sounds is really cool, its just such good fun! LOud enough to annoy the neighbours. When cranked right up the speaker gives in and turnes to shit, but hey: its a 5 inch jobbie: what do you expect? For the money, its a 9 for sure.

Its a pain, these wall-wart power supplies. I would have paid more for a built- in power supply. As far as reliabilty goes: I can't really comment,I just pulled it out of the box, but it feels rock- solid. It comes with a year's warranty, so if it burns, just return it and get a new one. Roland delivers once again.

Can't comment on customer support, but I have a decent warranty from the shop.

Been playing for nearly 20 years, and have tons of experience. This is a very cool product, don't expext too much, but it has great rewards. The size of it is cool, the portability, battery powered option, its ideal for taking along to parties and suchlike. Get one while Roland still makes them!

This amp is so small that I use it as a "bedside amp". Actually it is standing on my bedside table right now. It's amazing how versatile such a little amp can be. It's good for any style from soft ballads to hard rock, thanks to what the manual refers to as COSM technology. COSM stands for Composite Object Sound Modeling, and it allows the amp to emulate such bigger amps as Roland's JC-120, Fender Twin Reverb, Vox AC-30TB, Marshall JMP 1987, and MESA/Boogie Rectifier. I think this particular feature is the best thing you can expect from a small practice amp like this. Other features that are worth mentioning are: the gain and the tone knobs, as well as the knob for such effects as chorus, flanger, phaser and tremolo. It also has a delay/reverb knob.

I like to use my Yamaha SLG100S Silent Guitar with this amp. This makes the whole thing a very portable ensemble, by the way. The sound is great. I play jazz most of the time, and I can get a very decent warm tone by switching to the JC-120 amp type (see above), and by adding a little chorus effect.

This is an amp intended for home use mostly, so only occasionally is it exposed to risks. But I guess it is a very reliable, durable equipment.

Never needed to get it repaired.

I've been playing for 40 years. Besides the Yamaha guitar that I mentioned above, I have a Washburn J6. It sounds good with that guitar too. I'm really happy about this amp, and I am sure it was one of the best buys I've made.

I'm lazy ...go to roland's site and read :D

good things:
..All the models are very good :D
..The reverb is ok
..It can be loud
..Its so small, but gives punch and bass

bad things:
..Very very flat sound. It has no dynamics at all.
..Low end distortion (caused by the ported cab?).
..Th EQ sounds digital to me.
..The FX are useless... too exagerated.




For practicing, I preffer this amp than Pods or v-amps.

Seems very solid

never dealed

10 years playing guitar. Have owned many guitar amps... from crappy to heavenly biased tube heads.

This is a PRACTICE amp!! Cannot be compared with the big brothers.

I like it.
It's very easy to dial in good sounds. Every amp model is usable!
I has bad things (specially lack of dynamics), but at this price you cannot ask for more.

And it's so light and small!
Perfect to stay next to the sofa :)

This is an update to a previous review, same features as before.

Can only be played quitely without the speaker farting out. Works good if you run it through another speaker or cab, but the stock speaker blows. And there's no point trying to find a replacement 5 inch speaker, the Vox DA-5 runs $10-14 more than the Microcube and has a decent 6 1/2 inch speaker that doesn't love to fart out.

It always works, except for the crappy speaker.

Nice features, nice models, nice AA powered battery life, and sounds good when played quietly. At moderate volumes and up the speaker totally craps out.

Mine's an 05,I think. It's an amazing little magic box. I play a number of styles, from Travis-style picking thru Jazz/rock. You can get an amazing array of sounds and tones with this little amp. It has good power for a practice amp (remember, that's what this is), howver there are some inconsistancies with my unit.

I am using this to amplify my asian-made hollowbody jazz guitar. There is no noise or hum present at all. Here is a quirk that is present in my unit, it may not be typical of all: (Maybe future reviewers can confirm this or not). In some of the amp settings, the volume or output is much louder. For instance, in the 'acoustic' setting, I almost can't turn it high enough. The output is very low. When I dial around to the stack setting, or 'r-fier', the volume output is way off the chart, regardless of where my volume/gain knobs are. Maybe it's the nature of the beast, I'd have to compare to another unit to check.
At very low volume, the sound is beautiful. At moderate volume, things distort a bit, especially at the low end. It almost sounds like the speaker is being overdriven because when you play thru phones, the sound is gorgeous. After all, we're only dealing with a 5 1/2" speaker here. In settings like "black face' which is the simulated Fender Twin sound, your are presented with a fat, rich, chunky bass and the distortion is quite noticeable thru the speaker even at moderate or low volume. Maybe too much is being asked of this little speaker, or a more robust unit should be installed (stiffer cone, larger voice coil, more flexible surround, heavier magnet.) I have also noticed that the enclosure has a bass-reflex port visible thru the lower left front grille. After some experimentation, I found that the amp lost some of the muddy distortion when I sealed up the port. This renders the setup as an 'acoustic suspension' situation, where trapped air within the cabinet acts to cushion or dampen the cone travel of the speaker, mitigating some of the low end distortion. This worked out for me, and I'll leave it that way. Note that I am not attempting to play above a moderate living room practice volume. To sum up: thru the phones A+ Thru the speaker, B-

The little Roland is built like a tank. You could use it for a step-stool

Hope I don't have to go there

I almost bought the little Vox, but I have very limited space for equipment, and this one had great reviews. Very well made, easy to navigate, battery feature is relly cool. The selection of amp styles and effects makes it a little trasure chest of sound. Two concerns: The discrepencies in output as noted above for the different amp selections, and the low end distortion on the speaker. Overall, a very fine little package.

Been done already.

Superb for the size and money.
In fact it'd still be superb twice as big and twice as expensive.

Too new.

See above

Fantastic little amp.
Every guitarist should have one of these.