Roland Micro Cube Combo Amp  

Being a solid-state digital amp, it's destined to have a few effects, at least. This amp does have some nice effects. It has 7 amplifier settings: Acoustic, JC Clean, Black Panel, Brit Combo, Classic Stack, Rectifier (spelled "R-Fier") and Mic (for putting a mic directly into guitar input.) Its effects incude Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Tremolo (All of those on one knob), Delay, and Reverb (Both on another knob). It has a total of 6 knobs. The amplifier selector, gain, volume, tone (adjusts overall clarity.), and the other two knobs control the effects. The Micro Cube also has a digital tuning fork that is touch sensitive, and can tune an A, an Ab, and a G (Abb). Also has auxilary inputs in 1/8 size (to plug in iPods or mp3 players.), and in 1/4 size (to plug in perhaps another guitar or a microphone).

Well, being that it's made from Roland, it's bound to be good... and it is. From the digital aspect of the cube, the amplifer models sound really good. The acoustic channel does a decent job simulating an acoustic guitar, the JC Clean and Black Panel sound very good as well, the main difference being that JC Clean is very clear and distinct; and the Black Panel (my personal favorite clean) has a much warmer, deeper end to it. The British Combo will give you a nice classic grit, and the Classic Stack (my favorite distortion) will provide a nice crunchy distortion when gain is at 1/2 or less, and it's a smooth fuzz that works excellent for leads when the gain is turned up more. The Recitifier works for metal pretty well. The mids in it however, are scooped a ton (I dislike that, but it still sounds good). I can't really evaluate the mic channel mainly because I don't have a mic to try it out on. Onto the effects, the Chorus is very deep sounding and overall pretty good. I don't really use the flanger or phaser much, but they sound good. The tremolo sounds good too. The delay sounds nice, and the reverb is excellent too. For the physical aspect of the Micro Cube, it's pretty strong and durable. I'm a big dude, and I've sat on it a few times. No problem holding me up. Also, the amp really lets your guitar's tone shine through. Sounds great on all of the guitar I own. There is one thing I would complain about: the input jack nut is made of plastic... I borrowed a cube from my school and It fell on the input jack from maybe 10 inches and the input jack nut BROKE off... into two pieces of platic. ... But other than that, overall very good quality.

A very flexible, good sounding, and strong little amp for $140. Very good value.

After owning this amp for 1 and 1/2 years, It has served me well. Overall, for the price and for the modeling and effects, it's durability, and how good they sound... Outstanding.

Needed to upgrade my amp .. I use it for cigar box guitars ..   I could not be more pleased with it !!

It gives me exactly the sound i was  looking for ..

Bonus is when i hook my regular 6 string electric gits thru it ,, they will just wail also !!!

Solid as a rock ...  Got all the good things u'd expect in a much pricery amp..

For a good deal plus free shipping ,, extremely good quality ,, How could u go wrong ??

really good product ,, got in 3 days   ,, I ordered at night  and at 0358 next am it was put on truck !!

I have purchased other things from these people ,, same results ,,, they are business people ,, buy from em  as they see after ya ...

When I received the amp the first thing I did was use the batteries to see how well it played. It play wonderful. The different sounds are excellent. It is built like a amry tank and having a portable amp that I can play anywhere is a plus. The only problem I have is when you use the input on the back of unit, the main volume control has no affect on the main volume, you the adjust the volume from the pluged-in device. Still I  highly recommend it.

George,

Staten Island, NY

I had five of these before Katrina washed them all away. I bought five more after I opened my music school back up in New Orleans. We use rechargeable batteries for portability. You name the song and I will get the sound out of this amp. If this thing had a switchable amp selector it would be worth more.

Just keep your foot off of the amp and buy your self a foot stool and it will last ten times longer. All of the problems with the amp have come from people using it for a foot rest. It causes the resistor contacts to separate on the inside.

Come on!!! Any sound under the sun for this price? The real secret of this tiny amp is how well the recording out works!

Like I said I have used this amp EVERYDAY FOR TEN YEARS!!! Just get your foot off of the amp and it will probably out last you!

Roland Micro Cube a lot of features and effects for the money. I like the tuning note button, and also that you can tune to Ab with it, or Abb too.

Reverb is as good or better than most of the small combos I have tried.

I can get good tones for Beatles tunes, bluesy things, country-rock, etc....

I got mine used, and it seems well made. I try to take care of my stuff, but a lot of people don't.... !

I think amps that get passed around, dropped, sold, pawned, and still work great must be decent quality to make it thru all that!!

It sounds really good.

Its a lot of amp for the money!! You could spend this amount of $ on another small combo amp, and still not get the useful tools like the tuning note, reverb, and the amp models.  Speaker is small, but really, its just as good as many of the other little combos out there!

I have a small Vox combo, and a couple of small Fenders, and this little guy can sound similar. The Cube has a lot more built in effects, however, plus some amp models/tones that the Vox and Fender can't pull off by themselves. (Those combos have more power and better/bigger speakers, so they can do more as a "live" guitar amp, mic'd, with a band, than the Cube however)

A lot of 10 and 15 watt amps out there ( for similar prices) really don't sound as good as this amp.

I especially like the "Brit Combo" amp model, and the acoustic model. The phaser and reverb also sound really good.

Its really, really user friendly, easy to get good tones.  Compared to some of the larger, more powerful, and more expensive modelling amps, its easy to get a good sound with it.  As good as it is, I will look at the larger Cubes from Roland if I decide to get a bigger guitar amp. (Probably a part of their marketing plan, but, this little amp gets the job done!!)

The only thing that I would change is putting the power button on top or near the top to make it easier to find.

Keep in mind that by itself, (5 watts, and small speaker)  its pretty much just for practice, or busking on the street.

I got it for travelling ( also got a Dean short scale guitar) and practice... just plug in, pick an amp, pick an effect, adjust the drive and volume and there you are!! Its a lot of fun.

However, I bet it would sound good if you use the line out and go into a PA with it, or into a larger, clean sounding amp