Roland Cube 40XL

**aniss1001** · 01-19-2012, 04:17 PM

As some of you know I finally bought a Cube40XL yesterday. And I love it. Just have a few questions...

The clean channel sounds great (the reason I bought it). Just wondering if any of you guys use the lead / amp. sims. ? And if so with which settings. So far I havn't gotten much sound out of any of them, but then again my guitar is crap until I get the new pups installed so I dunno.

Another thing.. I allready want a footswitch for the looper, but the roland ones are too expensive here. So can you use a cheaper/generic one for the Cubes or does it HAVE to be Roland? If so then what should I look for / avoid?

Roland Cube 40XL-roland-cube-40xl-jpg

**Buster Loaf** · 01-19-2012, 06:48 PM

Congrats on your new purchase! The cube line is outstanding.

One of my favorite settings on my cube is a balance set between my guitar's volume knob and the distortion amp mode. I like to back the guitar volume knob way down and set the amp moderately higher. The result is a lush juicy alive sound, suitable for bringing the heat.

**Evan** · 01-19-2012, 07:18 PM

I got a used cube 30x for 200. Not a great deal really but I couldn't find another cube locally. The reverb is Rather tough to hear at low volumes. I almost thought it wasn't working, but after much experimentation, I suppose it does actually work. I'm really tempted to return it.

How well do you like the loop on the 40? I think that's a huge missing feature on the 30.

And how does it fare at very low volume?

**aniss1001** · 01-20-2012, 01:40 AM

It sounds like a good deal to me (but then again I live in Argentina where stuff like this is very overpriced). If I could have bought a cube30 for $200 I definately would have done so and have been very happy about it. Even $250 or perhaps more. Anyway I paid $360 for a new cube40 after days of intense looking an bargaining. The cheapest used cube30 I found cost $417. Haha yes way more than a new cube40. Why? Well as we say here: T.I.A. (This Is Argentina)

Since I never had a looper before I have nothing to compare it to. But it works fine and it's a GREAT toy. The thing is though... it's not that useful without a footswitch and you can probably get a looper pedal for the same as a ROLAND footswitch so I dunno.

The reverb on mine works great I think. Everything from a tiny tad to a huge beer hall

Either spring or plate. Perhaps the reverb on yours is broken?!

Not sure what you mean by "very low volume" but so far I can't complain about anything in this sense allthough it obviously sounds better with some volume (but which amp doesn't?).

**ruiner54** · 01-20-2012, 07:55 AM

Hello

Congrats on an awesome amp for a good price - For jazz purposes:
I use the blackface (twin reverb i think) with the gain between 8 and 12 o clock and the master volume set to your needs. You can also get an awesome tone out of the "Tweed" if you set the gain low. The cool thing about the tweed is you have no sound if you turn all the eq down...this way you can get some really interesting "Old sounding tones"...by turning up ONLY the bass or only the mids, etc...well you get the picture. I believe this is the same way the old bassmans and tweeds actually worked back then.

The only other I use (for jazz) is the acoustic sim with the gain to full..you can get a nice sparkle with this one...not good for constant use, but nice once in a while.

Then for rockier stuff I use the classic and the brit combo. The great thing about this amp is that it sounds good with the EQ at 12 o clock, from there you can make minor moderations.
Both reverbs sound nice too.

One feature i paid no attention to until after I bought it is the looper. JUst throw a foot peddle in the back to make easy rhythms to jam along with.

"One of my favorite settings on my cube is a balance set between my guitar's volume knob and the distortion amp mode. I like to back the guitar volume knob way down and set the amp moderately higher. The result is a lush juicy alive sound, suitable for bringing the heat."

I 100 % agree with what Buster Loaf said...this gives such sweeet tones. I have never owned an amp that got such a sweet sound from boosting the amp and dropping the guitar vol. I rarely have my guitar vol turned up full. The power squeezer is also great for when people are sleeping

**jayx123** · 01-20-2012, 09:19 AM

I have a Cube 40XL it's pretty good (I use only the clean) but the sound doesn't come close to my old Yamaha Jx30 from 1980.

+1 on the question regarding the foot switch for the looper, do I need a double switch for overdubs?

**ruiner54** · 01-20-2012, 10:06 AM

Not at all, you can just stop recording by hitting the footswitch again and the loop will keep playing ....when you are ready just stomp the footswitch again and you can dub over what you have already recorded ...it's very user friendly and the overdubs mix very well. I like that a lot because you can practice improvising over the loop and really cut in anytime you are ready.

I am actually using an electronic sustain pedal for my foot switch. It came with an old Roland juno 106 synth I bought and I use it with everything..my midi keyboard, cube, synth and vstudio 20.

The big advantage of having a double foot switch for the cube is just that each footswitch input has two functions with the tip/ring (there are 3 spots for a footswitch). So a double footswitch would grant you both functions...I think on the looper one the second function is turning delay on/off maybe but I'm not sure.

I find it especially helpful for me, a guitarist new to jazz and in-depth musical theory.

**aniss1001** · 01-24-2012, 10:11 PM

Originally Posted by ruiner54

I am actually using an electronic sustain pedal for my foot switch. It came with an old Roland juno 106 synth I bought and I use it with everything..my midi keyboard, cube, synth and vstudio 20.

OK?! So you use a foot switch that is for another purpose BUT still Roland?! I'm still not sure whether I can just buy any old generic footswitch and it will work with my Cube.

Ah and I must admit that the Tweed sim sounds pretty cool with gain somwhere between 8 and 10 o'clock

The others I'm still not convinced but let's see what happens once I get the new humbuckers installed....

**gary mitchell** · 01-26-2012, 11:36 AM

I saw some after market foot pedals on ebay, they are to suppose to be like the Roland pedals. They were like half the price almost, but how good they are I wouldn't know.

**Russ Kapp** · 01-26-2012, 12:02 PM

Amen on all the above 40XL comments....My L5 is partial to the Twin lead setting, and as others have mentioned Eq's at noon and gain at 3 o'clock with the guitar volume lower than the usual with my other clean amps.... :^)

**aniss1001** · 01-26-2012, 01:37 PM

Hmm ... what do you mean when you say Twin lead setting? There is no Twin amp sim on the Cube40XL...

And BTW I have been checking out the matter and it seems (from different forums) that one can use any foot switch with the Cubes. Only it has to be the NON-latch kind otherwise one will have to click it TWICE to make a change.....

**Russ Kapp** · 01-27-2012, 12:44 PM

My apologies for the misnomer on the 40XL lead amp settings. They call it the
" Black Panel " fender instead..... :^)

**rickshapiro** · 01-27-2012, 02:31 PM

I am really thinking about an 80X/40X or Mustang II. I was going to wait for the Champ X2 but I played an XD the other day and it is just too underpowered and I would be surprised if the X2 will be any louder even with a 12 inch cab.

The Mustang is way more flexible then the Cube from an option perspective but played side by side the Cube clean was just much better. The Mustang other models where much better then the cube.

I'm looking for something to practice with around the house and take on some sessions. Sometimes I just not feel like moving my behemoth Blackstar HT40.

**Frank67** · 01-27-2012, 04:54 PM

+1 on everything you say. The XD is nice but underpowered. The clean channel of the cube is great (if one likes that kind of tone of course). To me it sounds wonderfully clear and open and is warm and round and full.

The modeling on the cubes is IMHO way inferior to the Mustangs that do deliver fairly nice tubish sounds that - unlike the cube - do sound like the originals. For me personally, i like the jazz voice of the cube better while preferring the mustang for any kind of rock music.

**aniss1001** · 03-05-2012, 06:16 PM

Rewiving this old thread with some new questions....

1) I found a really cheap generic sustain pedal. It has a switch for changing POLARITY. Just wondering.. If I connect it with a wrong polarity could this RUIN the amp somehow? Or will it simply not work?

2) I read in the manual that one can program the cube to work with either sustain pedals or the footswithces that go "click". What I didn't get was the HOW? Anyone has tried this?

3) Is it posible to get sound from the builtin speaker and at the same time use the headphone output? Currently when I connect my headphones it silences the speaker (off course), but for recording purposes it would be VERY useful if I could do the other too..

**hans halmackenreuter** · 03-05-2012, 08:49 PM

maybe you try the brit combo, since it's a vox emulation and you are a sco fan. if you don't use too much gain, it can sound quit well.

**aniss1001** · 03-05-2012, 08:57 PM

OK thanks! Didn't use that much actually. Mainly the tweed seems usable to me. But frankly I much prefer the clean chanel. Only problem is that it doesn't have a gain knob in clean mode.

**hans halmackenreuter** · 03-05-2012, 09:01 PM

i suggest that you use a pedal for more gain in the jc channel, because this section works well with pedals.

**moray** · 03-06-2012, 08:53 AM

Hi,

I bought a Footswitch for my Roland Cube 80XL last Week so I did a little "Reasearch". As far as I understand, to operate the Looper completely "Hands Free" you need actually either two Footswitches (one 'Latch Type' like the FS-5L and one 'Momentary Type' like the FS-5U) or something like the BOSS FS-6 (each of the 2 Switches can be configured to Latch/Momentary). You need one Switch to operate the "REC/PLAY/DUB" Functions and another one to stop Playback or Overdubbing and to delete the Phrase ("TAB/STOP" Function)

If you want to use Switches other than Boss, make sure it is a Latch like the FS-5L for REC/PLAY/DUB and a Momentary like the FS-5U for TAB/STOP

I bought the BOSS FS-6 (about 55 Euros in Germany) because I can connect it to the Cube using one Stereo Cable (instead of 2 Mono into Stereo) and it is more compact than 2 single Switches.

The Looper Function is worth the Money, I use it a lot for Practicing.

Hope this helps

**pingu** · 03-06-2012, 10:48 AM

But is the Cube 40 loud enough for a Jazz gig ?

All opinions welcome , does anyone actually gig with one ?

**aniss1001** · 03-06-2012, 02:20 PM

Originally Posted by moray

I bought a Footswitch for my Roland Cube 80XL last Week so I did a little "Reasearch"....

Ok now that confused the heck out of me. It contradicts several things I've been reading in my research. And also this comment in this very thread.

I had come to believe that the looper would function only with a momentary switch (which is the same as a sustain pedal I believe?). Also that you would use only ONE pedal to control the looper. Don't see how one could use two given that there is only one plug on the amp for the looper it seems?!

**aniss1001** · 03-06-2012, 04:23 PM

Originally Posted by pingu

But is the Cube 40 loud enough for a Jazz gig ?

All opinions welcome , does anyone actually gig with one ?

I have never gigged with mine so I can't tell you from personal experience.

But I can tell you that the clean channel at near max volumes is insanely loud to me. Enough to make everything in my flat shake, all the dogs in the neighboorhood bark and my neighboors complain, just from playing a few notes. Hehe. And it remains clean. Some of the moddeling amps can be even louder with some gain.

I have also heard on several occations that they are indeed more than adequate for gigging with jazz bands. Unless we're talking big bands.

**aniss1001** · 03-07-2012, 06:34 PM

Ok! Got the answers to my questions elsewhere. Just sharing them in case someone else is interested..

1) You can use any generic sustain pedal / momentary switch to control the looper. As long as the polarity matches.

2) It is NOT possible to get sound via the Cube speaker and the headphone jack at the same time. This requieres modding the amp. It should be a fairly easy mod though. The instructions would be these (see pic also):

"You need to jump these pins 3.7 and 2.6 from that "Jalco" jack. I would do it with an external switch and an in-line volume control. That way you would have the option to use it or not and control its volume."

I would be happy just with the switch

**jorgemg1984** · 03-07-2012, 07:20 PM

The old 60s and the new 80s can keep up with a drummer and horns. Not so sure about the 40s...

**aniss1001** · 03-07-2012, 07:53 PM

Well I severely hope it can. Otherwise I wasted my money and might as well have bought a Cube 20 or even 15. Currently I'm playing with the volume knob at 1/6 of it's potential when I play the loudest.

Since I haven't tried it in a band situation I cannot say for sure off course. But I did choose it over the smaller ones exactly for this reason. My research indicated that it IS loud enough for band situations while the smaller models aren't.