Roland MicroCube Combo

I'VE READ FOR THREE HOURS ABOUT THEM & WE ALL KNOW THEM BY NOW... THE FORK TUNER SHOULD NOT EXIST AND I AGREE IN HAVING A BETTER EQ INSTEAD "OR" (THIS COUL BE VERY INTERESTING FOR GUYS LIKE MY SELF WHO JUST CARE ABOUT TONE & VOLUME) "A DEDICATED GOOD QUALITY HEADPHONE OUT"... COME ON! IT'S A PRACTICE AMP AND YOU WILL WANT TO GET SERIOUS WITH HIGH GAIN MODELS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT! THE MANY COMPLAINTS ABOUT THE POOR QUALITY REC/OUT ARE NOT FAIR. AS LONG AS I KNOW "EVERY REC OUT IN AN AMP MODELER SOUNDS LIKE SHIT... SEEMS IT HAS TO BE LIKE THAT... AND - THEN AGAIN - MANY REVIEWERS TALK ABOUT HOW BEATIFUL THE TONE CAN BE WHEN USING IT WITH PA SYSTEMS AND OTHER AMPLIFIERS... THAT'S WHY I ASK FOR A DEDICATED HEADPHONE OUT...

LET'S JUST SAY I PLAY SINGLE COIL, HUMBUCKER,PIEZO AND MICROPHONE EQUIPPED AXES. COME ON! WHO CARES WHAT I PLAY WITH! THIS LITTLE THING WORKS QUITE WELL WITH ALL OF THEM, AND I'M PRETTY SORRY FOR ALL THESE GUYS, LIKE THE ONE FROM THE BEATIFUL PORTUGAL, WHO DECLARE THIS AMP SUCKS IN EVERY POSSIBLE WAY. I THINK HE IS A VICTIM OF MISCONCEPTION HERE... AS OTHER OLD FOLK SAID "YOU HAVE TO KNOW WHAT YOU NEED AND HOW TO USE IT"... THIS IS A LITTLE PRACTICE AMP. ANYWAY I CANT HELP TO IMAGINE HOW IT WOULD SOUND WITH A 7 INCHES SPEAKER (LIKE THE BULLDOG ONE USED IN THE VOX PF 10 THAT REALLY HANDLES THE BASS OF MY HUMBUCKERS) THAT MIGHT BE THE AMP THIS GUY AND OTHERS ARE LOOKING FOR, BUT, HEY, THOSE ARE PERFORMANCE AMPLIFIERS (STREET PERFOMANCE OF COURSE)AND NOT "PRACTICE AMP"... TO BEGIN WITH, I THINK A GOOD PRACTICE AMP COULD NOT HAVE A SPEAKER AT ALL... AGAIN, "JUST GOOD HEADPHONES OUTLET"...

I HAVE READ ALL THESE COMMENTS AND NOBODY HAS TALKED ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF USING EFFECT PEDALS (OR NO PEDALS)BEFORE THE MICROCUBE. I SUPPOSE COSM MODELING AS A DIGITAL FACT MUST NOT BE OVERDRIVEN BY NOTHING BEFORE, CAUSE IT CHANGES THE WHOLE ALGORYTHM FOR EACH SIMULATION... I REALLY DON'T KNOW... I TRIED A COUPLE OF GADGETS BEFORE THE MICROCUBE AND THEY DID NOT SOUND BAD BUT THEY DID DESTROY THE CHARACTERISTIC "FEEL" OF THE MODELS... MAY BE SOME "DIGITAL" COMPRESSION AND EQ COULD HELP THOSE GUYS FIGHTING WITH THE BASS FREQUENCY PROBLEMS... WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF U SET A CLEAN TUBE PREAMP (ART MP OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT) BEFORE OR AFTER THE MICROCUBE? CAN ANYBODY GIVE ME A HINT IN THESE DOUBTS?... I THINK A NICE TUBE COULD GO VERY WELL "AFTER" THE MODELLING, JUST AS A DIRECT BOX, IN ORDER TO SOFTEN THE REC/OUT... WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK?...

WELL, WHO KNOWS? HOW CAN U KNOW SUCH A THING... JUST BECAUSE ROLAND IS PRESTIGIOUS? COME ON!

I LIVE IN MEXICO CITY & THIS IS A 25 MILLION PEOPLE JUNGLE WHERE THERE ARE NO ROLAND DEALERS OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT... SO I WILL HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE BEST AND RELY IN THE LOCAL TECHNICIANS (MMMHH...)

I HAVE HAD THESE FOR A FEW WEEKS NOW AND I AM VERY PLEASED SO FAR. I DO NOT EVEN THINK IN THE POSSIBILITY OF HAVING DONE A MISTAKE BUYING THIS... LIKE 12 YEARS AGO, WHEN I PAYED AROUND 800 USD FOR A DIGITECH LEGEND 21 (WHICH IS NOT THAT BAD EITHER, BUT PROCESSOR WERE SO ARCAIC AND EXPENSIVE AT THE TIME... THE NEW DIGITECH MULTIDISTORTION PEDAL COSTS MORE THAN 300 DOLLARS... AGAIN: COME ON! IT'S A DAMN BARGAIN! I WISH IT EXISTED 25 YEARS AGO AS MANY HAVE SAID BEFORE... LAST BUT NOT LEAST, IT IS REALLY FUNNY (YEP, SORRY GUYS BUT IT'S TRUE)TO READ RTHE REVIEWS FROM GUYS WHO COMPLAINT THAT MUCH FOR HAVING BOUGHT SUCH A NICE AND RIDICUOSLY PRICED PIECE OF FINE GEAR...

THE MICROCUBE IS NOT A TOY... THE GUYS WHO SAY IT ARE HAVING HEAVY DRUGS FOR THE FLU OR SOMETHING... THANKS ROLAND...

I bought two of these little wonders about 18 months ago, one for my son who was just starting out and one for myself because I liked it so much in the shop. As features go, they are listed below, everything is simple, it is a practice amp. The only 3 things that are missing is chanel switching, speaker out and mix control for the effects. In light of the purpose of this amp these are not great things to be missed but it would have been nice.
My local tech made me a speaker out and I play it now over 2x12 boogie rectifier cab. Big sound!!!!

Sounds fantastic, no noise, great tube feel. Yesterday I was out buying a new guitar with my son who is a real metal boy. His dream amp always has been a Randall. When whe started trying out guitars his first choice was a big Randall solid state RH100 head with a 4x12 cab. When he found the guitar of his choice he tried it out on the microcube and we were both impressed how this little wonder beat the big Randall in sound (we're not talking volume here).
You can go from real nice vintage clean to great crunch sounds and go big heavy metal with the microcube.
Are there downsides: yes, if you put the volume past 12 the little speaker craps out. However for practice use this is more than loud enough. If you want volume buy the cube 60 (this one is louder than hell and will put many head cab combo's to shame.

It is well made, the only thing that has broken down is one knob that could easely be glued together again. It came of and by accident I stepped on it, otherwise it would not have been broken.

Don't no, there has never been a reason to deal with Roland over this product. I once had a Boss pedal (same company) that didn't work from the word go and got a new one instantly.
But were talking microcube here so I can't rate this catagory since there has been no reason to contact them.

I retired my soldano over it: Am I crazy?!! Hell no! I dare to admit that this thing smokes. I owned a Mesa Dual Rectifier, got rid of it because I thought it was to dark, muffled sounding no matter what tubes I used. The microcube has a better sounding rectifier sound than the original one. I am completely convinced of the quality of sound of this little amp.

For the purposes of a training, beginners or pratice amp, there are ample features (more than any other amp in it's class in fact), to spend hours of good practice time on. Please be reminded that this is a 2 Watt unit, don't expect blow away stadiums with sound (although the record out feature may be used to patch into a board, and then...your imagination can take over).

The one thing I like about all the features is that they are certified Boss effects. Taking advantage of the technology Boss has in guitar effects means that the effects are well thought out and very responsive. With this, Roland went to the hub of effects innovation to load this unit up with Chorus, Phlanger, Phaser and Tremolo on one dial, and very ingeniously a second dial for Reverb and Delay...In this way can run 2 lines of effects simultaneously...That's without factoring in the over drives available.

6 amp modelling settings, and one mic input.

I bought this amp mainly for my son who is starting out. This is a great way for juniors to learn how to use and appreciate different effects to guitar sounds...and with Boss quality, I can trust the effects to be beefy.

The only bone I have with this unit is in the back, where a 1/8 jack is supplid for the power adaptor. I just wish that they used a figure 8 or something a little more substantial.

Other than that it's a winner...

Very nice. Please don;t think you're going to blast the neighbours out of existence or blow away stadiums.

Boss effects are genuine, and do not strip the underlying guitar tone.

I've used a Les Paul, Strat and they both sound amazing.

Hands down the best sound in it's class.

I've tried (in order or quality) Orange, Vox, Marshall, Peavey, all in the same Power class and this one is the winner.

Have had no problems with it.

Good always.

A wonderful introduction into the posibilities of electric playing

Bought fall '04. Features as previously mentioned.

I've used this w/ Fender (sc), Gibson (hb), Guild/Fishman active, etc. Blackface setting especially 'farts out' badly at any appreciable volume (I'm talking quiet living room here, folks), even w/ sc's and very low gain and volume. (See other reviews re: same.)Seems to be combo of input overload, cabinet/chassis resonance, and preamp/amp distortion. Pretty ugly. That's the worst of it, most of the rest, fx, etc, is passable for what it is. Ext spkr jack would have been nice.

With sound like that I call it broken, right out of the box. I've had it a year, shoulda returned it, but for $125 wasn't worth the time and expense. Bought from DJM, 1 1/2 hours away. Wouldn't buy again from them but that's another story; a long one.

No experience

I've been in music 45 years playing, fixing, buying, and selling. I've used most everything over the years. I picked this up based on reviews much more flattering than mine, and compact size. I'd replace this with a modeling amp just a tad bigger.

I wanted a practice amp I could throw in the car and not worry about.

This is it!!


It has a few effects and a few different amp tones. The great thing is that almost every setting is useable and you don't get bogged down with menus and options.

I use this amp with a mid 80's MIJ Tele with US Fender Vintage pickups, a Gibson Les Paul Studio and a Fender Smith Strat.

All of the guitars sound individual and retain their inherent characteristics through this amp.

The amp has no hiss and the quality of tone is WAY bigger than you'd expect from the size of the speaker.

The tones I use most are the "JC clean model" and "Brit Combo". The modulation effects are spot on as are the reverb and delays.

No fuss just the sounds you want.

It seems very reliable....it certainly is built well.

N/A

I had a Cube 30 before this and although I was very pleased with the sound of it, it was just a little too big for me to carry it around the house with me (plus it didn't run on batteries).

This Microcube has the same effects and sounds to me identical.


I LOVE THIS AMP!!!

The microcube, your average practice amp on NOS. Not you have a bedroom amps that doesnt have to be real loud to sound good, it comes with effects, which most practice amps dont. However the eq is a bit limited because there is only one knob for high and lows. There are settings for acoustic sim, for those of you that plays at churches that hates rock music, then an electric clean for your guns n roses "Paradise City" intro, and you got the Black panel which is slightly distorted, and then the combo and classic/R-fier for your heavy metal sound for those of you that plays Christian rock at a church (try Stryper for a change...). This unit takes batteries so you can do it like Dewey Finn in "School of Rock" where he straps a mini amp to his leg.

This amp has too much presence. There are no adjustments for presence so this thing sounds almost synthetic. However we're talking about a practice amp, and a damm good one too. Most other practice amp doesnt have built in effects and things like that. The sounds are good, its just that it seems to lack the feel of a real amp.

I have never tried to throw this thing out of a window so I cant comment on how reliable it is. Im sure most solid states are quite shock resistant as long as they were properly made.

never dealt with them

Good portable practice amp for those that lives in small places or crowded places where its easy to wake up neighbors... If lost I'd go ahead and buy some marshall 30w amp or save up for an inexpensive tube...

Fantastic. Trully amazing. There's a life time supply of tones on offer here.

Let me start with the channels:
Acoustic= acoustic simulator
JC clean= super clean tone that can sound funky (Red Hot Chillis Peppers)
Black Face= Fender amp tone, treble and bass rich, very clean (Nirvana- teen spirit intro sound)
Brit combo= Mid-rangy tone that can scream and wail (Queen- Bryan May)
Classic stack= Marshall ballsy tone, crunchy and bluesy (AC/DC)
Rectify= Metal distortion sound great for lead and rythmn (Metallica)
Mic= slightly distorted punk soundind (The Clash)

The effects are chorus, flanger, phaser, and tremelo. There's also reverb and delay. All of these are pure quality digital effects and as good as any Boss pedal.

You play guitar and there is a sound on here for you. It is loud enough for a house easy.

The battery's last for ages, brilliant.
Great build quality.
I've turned this up full and it still works fine.

Not needed.

The best practice/house amp in the world. It does everything you want from an amp and more. Well worth double the price. Get one now if you are after a solid, reliable, versitile, great sounding practice amp.

I'm rating this pretty high in features because as a PRACTICE AMP it's the best I've played. It has a lot of onboard effects that are pretty usable. The amp models arent half bad either and the distortion is actually pretty good. Normally gain stages on these sort of amps just don't hold up well at all but I was actually VERY surprised when I flipped it on and tried it out.

You only get a broad EQ sweep and don't have control over individual bass, mids, and highs. You only have a sweeping control for the effects too. And of course, gain and volume knobs.

The amp models include: Acoustic, JC Clean, Black Face, Brit Combo, Classic Stack, R-Fier, and Mic.

Also has a neat little tuning fork button that when you hit it gives you an A 440 (there are two other settings).

The fact you can run it off of batteries is great too!

I'm giving it a 10. If you are in need of a small practice amp that isn't completely lifeless this is a FANTASTIC amp, but keep in mind it's a small solid state amplifier. So I am rating it on the fact that as a practice amp it sounds great, but don't expect it to hold up to any sort of professional gear.

The reviewer that stated the amp "farts loudly on the low-e" must have a faulty cube because I'm not getting the same effect through mine.

Cleans aren't too bad. Acoustic is usable with a single coil pickup. I was really surprised at the R-Fier distortion setting. I expected something weak here but this setting has a lot of power to it considering what its coming from. It holds up very well for practicing and playing along to CDs.

The only thing I don't like (but doesn't really bother me so it doesnt effect the rating) is that I had to re-EQ it on each of the amp models to get a sound I like. Every channel seemed to favor a different setting on the EQ, Gain, and Volume knobs... so if you like switching channels a lot this amp will probably annoy you.

The effects sound great and are very usable. The delay is surprisingly good and the chorus was nice and deep. You also have the trippy effects with Flanger and Phaser. I didn't like the tremelo effect, but thats just me.

Built like a rock. Speaker is covered in a metal grating and it has big plastic guards screwed on to the corners. Knobs are recessed into the top. I've already dropped it from about 3 feet up onto concrete and it works fine. Not a scratch on it either.

N/A

I am a guitar instructor that travels to my students' homes, so I needed something portable and lightweight that I wouldn't mind dragging all over the place. I purchased the amp really because of its size and portablity. I wasn't too concerned about how well it sounded, but I am glad I lucked out and got this great sounding little amp, as it can compete with some of the bigger setups my students own.

I also needed a good practice amp. I recently got rid of my Fender amp for a much larger and more professional set up (Mesa Rectifier) and with a big 4x12 cabinet this isn't something I can practice with in my apartment.

I needed a good, portable practice amp and this amp accomplished what I need in spades. Great buy!

The sounds range from o.k. to horrible. The clean sounds fart loudly when you hit the low E. You have to keep it whisper quiet to prevent it from buzzing and quivering. Not good. If you need an amp that you can play at 3am and carry with ya from room to room this might be your amp! Otherwise forget it. I am shocked at the 10's for this category. I will consider this next time I want some info on a new product. Too bad its not a more reliable source of product info. Anyway, I will rate the sounds at 7 for 3 or below on the amps volume, and 2 for anything higher. Average it to a generous 4.

Been playing for 16 years and own a bunch of gear and various amps, some cheap peavey solid states to fender tube amps and the pvs sound way better than this thing. I tried to like it and may have kept it for a goof but when the thing couldnt handle the low E on a clean sound even with vol low it had to go back! Hope this helps save you some time and money

Read about the micro cube on several websites. I always had the wish, to get a small but good amp for different things: sing and speak over it with a microphone, and play guitar. When I read, what the amp ist able to do, (a variety of effekts) I bought one over ebay. Now I have it, and I can tell, what they wrote in internet is true. Size is liker a car battery, it finds a place in the smallest
room. Its well built, its solid, good look. The knobs are comfortable to use, working exact. Yes ist a versatile amp. You can
create a lot of sounds, if you take a little time. I use this amp mostly at home. Its loud enough, its good for a good neighbourship,
which is important for me. I wish, I could adjust the strength of
the effects, this is the only thing I would like to change. But if you look at the price, its OK without.

I-m playing a standard american strat built 1989. For an amp oft this
small size the sound is good. No question, the low frequencies are
missin, you should not compare the micro cube with a vox pathfinder 15, or a pf 10. (I have theese amps and like them very much) They have bigger speakers, and a higher output. The micro cube brings out a middle to high range of frequencies, in an astonishing quality for a two watt amp. The amp is not noisy. Really not. Well solved, Roland! The distortet sounds reach from lightly crunchy to heavy distortion. You can adjust that very good, mostly even with the volume knob of your guitar!)What I like is the effect section. I you play rythm guitar, accompanying songs, the flanger effect comes wonderful jazzy. I like the tremolo, which is not so impressive like
my vox pf 15 tremolo, but its absolutely useful. I like the delay effect, very good! Its exactly what I alway wanted. I-ll keep this
little amp, I love it for what it is, not always thinkin about what it could be. Roland works on the next generation of amps. I-m shure.
Lets wait and see. For this size and this speaker the sound ist
topp!!

very good.

never dealt with them

Its a wonderful little construction. No dount: Sometimes I think about buying the cube 30 for a louder stronger sound. But this is
not really necessary. the 30 would be too loud for my room. The
micro cube is just right, bringing me fine sounds, when i sit there,
playin my strat. I play rock, I play folk and country, a little jazz,
and this good soundin companion helps me to find my music. I use it
with batteries, that makes me free in movement. In the next days I will receive a microphone, may be I-ll write again, how the amp sounds with it.