The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    Hi there,
    I ended up finding a decent deal for Roland 80XL head and Blackstar HT112 cabinet. I like the clean channel for jazz which is the digital modelling of JC120. However I also have the option for a really good deal on original orange Roland Cube 40 with analog circuitry and I believe it’s Japanese made and has silver dome speaker. I can also have the option to buy a used JC-120 of course for 3 times the price of vintage Cube 40 or twice the price of Cube 80XL head and cab.
    I was wondering if someone has tested and compared these models and can comment on comparing the tone and response of digital Cube 80 vs. analog vintage Cube 40 vs. JC120 and if it is justifiable to seek the vintage Cube or pay much more for JC120.
    Thank you.

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  3. #2

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    I have a JC-40, which is awesome and loud enough for anything. Might be worth checking into?

  4. #3

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    I've played through all three. I like some of the XL's models (I have a MicroCube, which has the same ones), but I'd rather have the orange Cube 40 than the 80XL because I prefer combos to separate head/cabinet, and its one basic sound is very good. I would not want a JC120 at all (not crazy about the sound, and they're impractically big for my uses).
    Last edited by John A.; 10-23-2021 at 11:17 AM.

  5. #4

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    Take the orange combo, it sounds way better than all of the variants that came after.

  6. #5
    Thanks a lot for the feedback.

  7. #6

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    I have two old orange Roland Cube amps - a Cube 40 and a Cube 60. They are both very nice sounding amps with excellent tone-shaping capabilities for a clean jazz guitar tone. Also, the spring reverb in these amps is more to my taste than the digital reverb in the modern versions. My old Cube 40 sits out in my living room as a small practice amp, so it gets a lot of use. The only downside is that the small speaker doesn’t seem to have a lot of bottom end. If you are just looking for a small amp to play at home, an old orange Cube 40 is a good choice. The old orange amps look really cool too.
    Keith
    Roland Cube 40 (original orange) vs. Cube 80XL vs. JC120-f5edbadc-cc7d-48c4-b117-69f988928ea1-jpeg

  8. #7

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    I have also played through all 3, I have a Roland cube 40- 10" original 1978/9 aluminium dust speaker cover, the cone is not aluminium, i put a lil buddy Eminenece hemp cone
    great tone the reverb as above said good. The Lil Buddy is more efficient than original Roland speaker so you get a little more power out. The original Roland build quality was fantastic. it really depends on what your playing situation is live rehearsal, home.


    IMO Roland JC120 has always been a crap amp, Fashion for a decade , any clean amp would do its characterless, far too big & heavy.




    With the Cube 40 placement is important they need tilting in the front. and better on a chair. I have played with several bigger bands, they are really warm. .

  9. #8

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    You don't say if it's for gigging or playing at home. I remember the old Cubes (40 and 60, I believe) had a great, full clean sound and decent reverb, though the 40 would maybe lack headroom in a band situation. I would certainly have a JC 120 in a studio (ie, in a fixed place) because of its huge sound, but they're big and heavy to lug around. A club I used to frequent had one that lived on the stage with cigarette burns, beer stains etc all over it, but people who could play always sounded good through it, self possibly included. Check out Pat Martino playing through a JC live.

    I have a Cube 80 combo right now, and it's a very practical, do-everything amp. I'm not sure how the head + cab would work out, however.
    Last edited by Peter C; 10-24-2021 at 03:55 PM.

  10. #9
    With my hollow body, I tried 3 different amps and noticed the bass of the guitar is really high. I had to cut off the bass on the tone stack all the way. In all cases I was using 12 inch speaker. I thought 10” may give me less bass and more mids that I like. Also it looks like Peavey Delta Blues 210 has a nice mid-range and I saw other compliments about Peavey DB 210 in guitar / jazz forums / blogs.
    I don’t have a used orange Roland Cube option in my town and the ones selling don’t want to ship it, but I have option for a Peavey DB in town. I heard people get nice warm tone out of the clean channel.
    what do you think?

  11. #10

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    JC-120 is probably overkill in this day & age. I have a JC-55 I've had for a long time, it holds it's own with a big band playing outside. For practice at home a Microcube does fine, especially with headphones- but I prefer the Fender blackface setting.

  12. #11
    I sold Roland Cube 80XL already. There was a digital noise although very faint but was bothering me. It was the result of poor dithering and gate that you can't turn off!! That's stupid!
    Anyway, I will keep looking for analog old Cube or will stick to my tube amp (Peavey Delta Blues 210).
    It was an overkill kind of unit for me anyway. All these overdrive and distortion amp modelling that I will never ever use. I rather have a simple analog amp (either tube or solid state) with a natural tone.
    I found 12" speaker is too bass heavy for a hollow body, that's why I'm hoping 2x10" would do the trick.
    I saw a Harmony 8 watt tube amp that was nice sounding and it was probably a 10" speaker in a small body enclosure.
    It filled up the room just fine, and had only one volume and may be one tone knob.
    I'm not surprised a lot of hollow body jazz players prefer small enclosure amps. It's just too much bass!

  13. #12

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    Quote Originally Posted by Arya44
    With my hollow body, I tried 3 different amps and noticed the bass of the guitar is really high. I had to cut off the bass on the tone stack all the way. In all cases I was using 12 inch speaker. I thought 10” may give me less bass and more mids that I like. Also it looks like Peavey Delta Blues 210 has a nice mid-range and I saw other compliments about Peavey DB 210 in guitar / jazz forums / blogs.
    I don’t have a used orange Roland Cube option in my town and the ones selling don’t want to ship it, but I have option for a Peavey DB in town. I heard people get nice warm tone out of the clean channel.
    what do you think?
    the peavey tube amps have a very warm sound, but, they dont sound jazzy at all to my ears, they have a very fast and sharp attack, i dont use it as a jazz amp personally, i really liked the orange cube though, very versatile amp beautiful sound

    you‘d have to test them by urself to see what u like the most