IanHenry Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 Has anyone on this forum tried one of the Rolland Micro Cube amps? I’ve just borrowed one from my brother, and after playing my Les Paul Antique Classic and Studio 60’s tribute through it, I’m amazed at the sounds that I can get out of it. I know a lot of the purists will be horrified because it’s not a valve (tube to our U.S cousins) amp, but out of all the practice amps that I have heard this is the best, and considering it’s only 2Watts, it’s bloody loud. My brother uses it on batteries, and he recons it’s had the same ones in for six months of daily use! I think I’m of to get one now! http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.php?ProductId=802&ParentId=57 Regards, Ian. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artie Owl Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 Has anyone on this forum tried one of the Rolland Micro Cube amps? I’ve just borrowed one from my brother, and after playing my Les Paul Antique Classic and Studio 60’s tribute through it, I’m amazed at the sounds that I can get out of it. I know a lot of the purists will be horrified because it’s not a valve (tube to our U.S cousins) amp, but out of all the practice amps that I have heard this is the best, and considering it’s only 2Watts, it’s bloody loud. My brother uses it on batteries, and he recons it’s had the same ones in for six months of daily use! I think I’m of to get one now! http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.php?ProductId=802&ParentId=57 Regards, Ian. I haven't tried one but I saw one at a local small shoppe for 50$ used, not you're making me think I should go snatch it before someone else reads this and does just that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damian Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 I own a couple......Nice little amps....Good sound, versitile.... They keep upgrading them as well, with more and more features..... IMHO, too sterile for recording, but great for jamming and small gigs...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanHenry Posted June 1, 2011 Author Share Posted June 1, 2011 Brandon, I'd go and check it out if I were you, I think you’ll be surprised. Damian, I agree, the amount of different sounds you can get out of the thing are amazing. I have a Vox Valvetronic 20+, and I’m a little disillusioned with it, because there are just too many options and controls on it, (I get fed up with them). The Roland is just so easy to use. Like I said, I really think I want one of those. Regards, Ian. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silenced Fred Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 Brandon, I'd go and check it out if I were you, I think you’ll be surprised. Damian, I agree, the amount of different sounds you can get out of the thing are amazing. I have a Vox Valvetronic 20+, and I’m a little disillusioned with it, because there are just too many options and controls on it, (I get fed up with them). The Roland is just so easy to use. Like I said, I really think I want one of those. Regards, Ian. They aren't bad amps for small jams. I am not a fan of the VOX Valvetronix series, too many options and getting a good sound is hard out of them IMO I do like the AC4 though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fl00dsm0k3 Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 i was wondering are they better than Line 6 spider IV i know the spider 3 arnt good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riverside Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 I read somewhere that Joe Walsh used them on a bunch of Eagles records... I had a Roland Bass cube and it was all that - except for only being 30 watts. Maybe they'll make a 600 watt version someday... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artie Owl Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 i was wondering are they better than Line 6 spider IV i know the spider 3 arnt good I was not impressed with the Spider III either, very sterile sounding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigKahune Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 i was wondering are they better than Line 6 spider IV i know the spider 3 arnt good Line 6 has a Micro Spider - http://line6.com/microspider/ Same concept. Great tech for the power level. It tried a four different micros a couple years ago. Ended up with the Spider. The Roland is really nice. Both have amazing battery life. I use it for noodling, particularly outside or as an easy take along for kicks. If you're thinking a micro can keep up with a practice amp or bigger, it can't - but it can sound good trying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shnate McDuanus Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 As someone who spent a semester in college using a friend's borrowed Micro Cube (he's not a guitarist, but just had one lying around in case he needed it for amplifying the synthesizer he hardly ever used) and as someone who eventually recorded two songs on an industrial metal EP using nothing but a Micro Cube into a laptop sound card (an EP I recorded with the same friend, who programmed beats and synths,) I can say that, yes, the Micro Cube is a great amp for the price and wattage. I will say, however, that it does have distinct and definite shortcomings. First of all, the way the tone control is set up is so that the tone control has a huge effect on available gain. Turning the control all the way up was the only way I could get a good saturated sound on the Recto channel, which is really what I needed for my recordings. Even then, the tone was super mid-heavy, and nowhere near as tight as I would've wanted. I couldn't really get a solid, scooped chugging sound from it, which, again, is pretty much what I needed for our recordings. It still sounded excellent for what it was, don't get me wrong, but it was far from perfect. So, to wrap it up: Pros: + Great sounding clean channels (acoustic, Black Panel and JC Clean) with plenty of sparkle and chime + Good speaker for how small it was, and gets pretty loud for two watts! + Excellent distortion channels for certain things (interestingly enough, the R-Fier on full blast got me more of an EVH-style "brown sound" than the Classic Stack mode on the same gain settings) + Overall, pretty good built-in effects + A LOT of amp, with a small footprint and very efficient battery consumption, for a really good price + Easy-to-use, intuitive interface with very legible labels + No hum or buzz, ever + Pretty damn versatile Cons: - Extremely mid-heavy tone, ESPECIALLY on the high-gain R-Fier mode (I think a 3-band parametric EQ would be super-useful on this amp, but what can I say, but that you get what you pay for?) - Weak delay and reverb effects (I can't say they were bad, just that they didn't go very far and weren't especially noticeable--on that same token, I never used them for recording anyway and never found a use for them, so YMMV) - Lacks the proper presence for a really convincing recording tone - Distortion is extremely sensitive to tone settings, more so than it is actually sensitive to gain settings - Doesn't really hit that high-gain, "buzzsaw" territory (although for some of you this may actually be a pro ) Of course, overall, it's still an excellent practice amp, and it works pretty well for recording. You won't nail a really convincing industrial/NDH tone from it, but a good eighties metal/sleaze rock tone is well within your reach, as is a good black metal tone (more Rotting Christ than Burzum, though,) a really excellent pristine clean, a few decent blues tones (Brit Combo at full gain with the lightest touch of reverb brings you pretty damn close to a usable Rory Gallagher tone, I was pleased to find,) and an interesting and pretty usable acoustic simulation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanHenry Posted June 1, 2011 Author Share Posted June 1, 2011 Well, I liked it so much I've just ordered one. Hope I can hang on to my brothers until it arives, better not answer the door! Ian. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigKahune Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 . Nice . . . . . . NAD. Congrats. B) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanHenry Posted June 1, 2011 Author Share Posted June 1, 2011 . Nice . . . . . . NAD. Congrats. B) Thanks, I'm looking forward to it's arrivel, I orderd a white one. Ian. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinner 13 Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 I keep one in the living room, I love it. two thumbs up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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