Roland Cube 15

[Bach5G]

I got to play through a Cube 15 this morning and was pleasantly surprised.

The music school has a pretty motley collection of guitar amps. There’s a Fender Tonemaster that’s kept on stage, a JC 20 (not bad but a bit underpowered) a Fender B Jr. that needs some work (a bad buzz), an old Garnet tube amp that’s seen better days (donated for a tax receipt, I expect), and a Razors Edge/ZT Lunchbox (also donated for a tax receipt). A well-used Roland Cube 15 showed up today.

We’re in a medium sized room: bass, drums, 2 keyboards, 2 guitars, and 4 or 5 horns. I thought the Cube held up pretty well and still sounded pretty good. I’ve got to say it took zero time to dial in a decent tone.

[ruger9]

The Cubes are good amps. The higher-end one are great amps. I've been gigging with a Roland Blues Cube Artist for several years now. Light, sounds great at ANY volume, loud enough for any gig- but still sounds great turned down as well.

And I own some nice tube amps- Bad Cat, Swart, Supro...

[Cunamara]

I've had a Cube 60 COSM for 15+ years, a reliable amp that I leave wherever whatever band I am in rehearses. Sounds good without a lot of tweaking, good stage amp, works great for jazz; I've never tried a blues or rock gig through it.

[andreshum]

I got to play through a Cube 15 this morning and was pleasantly surprised.

The music school has a pretty motley collection of guitar amps. There’s a Fender Tonemaster that’s kept on stage, a JC 20 (not bad but a bit underpowered) a Fender B Jr. that needs some work (a bad buzz), an old Garnet tube amp that’s seen better days (donated for a tax receipt, I expect), and a Razors Edge/ZT Lunchbox (also donated for a tax receipt). A well-used Roland Cube 15 showed up today.

We’re in a medium sized room: bass, drums, 2 keyboards, 2 guitars, and 4 or 5 horns. I thought the Cube held up pretty well and still sounded pretty good. I’ve got to say it took zero time to dial in a decent tone.

Was it the orange one or the newer black?

[Bach5G]

I’m guessing it would be from the early 2000s. Black. Not the 80s model.

[GuyBoden]

With old vintage Solid State amps, I always wonder about the condition of the Solid State electrical components.

Solid State components electrical degrade over time.

Just pondering, because some amps still seem to work fine.

[Bach5G]

I bought an older Cube 60 that turned out to be a lemon. My repair guy has had it about 6 months and now he doesn’t respond to my texts.

I’m wondering: surely a Katana 50 could reproduce the early Cube sound, at least the COSM era, without too much tweaking? Inexpensive, relatively light. I don’t see many being used in this context though.

[wildschwein]

I had a COSM Cube 30 with a 1x10" for a while. The clean JC-120 sound with chorus and some reverb added where all I used but it was great for that. The overdrive and distortion sounds were horrendous as they had a weird plastic-y sizzle and latency to them.