While hanging out at my favorite guitar shop (Fazio’s Frets and Friends) this holiday season I finally took the time to play an amp I have been seeing for a while but never got around to trying, the Roland Micro Cube. Being a fan of the Roland Cube series I figured the Micro would be a good product, but due to its size I wondered how the sound would be, it is so small (9-5/8"W x 8-15/16H x 6-9/16"D) it seemed toy-like. Well, let me tell you this amp is anything but a toy!

The Micro Cube features Roland famous COSM Amp Modeling which delivers great tones. The clean JC-120 tone was great! Clean, warm and full sounding; I heard everything from jazz guitars, solid bodies to electric fiddles with this setting, they all sounded great! Even though this amp features a 5” speaker it sounds very good, the sound is light-years ahead of most small practice amps featuring only 6” or 8” speakers. Besides the JC-120 sound it also offers an acoustic simulator, black face amp, brit combos, Classic stacks, rectifier tones and even a specially set Mic setting for vocals.

Six DSP effects are included: chorus, flanger, phaser, and tremolo on one control, with delays and reverbs on another. You can create lush, thick effects with the provided effects. Roland did not skimp in this department either. There is a record out/headphone jack and also auxiliary inputs (1/8” and 1/4” stereo jacks) for adding CD or MP3 players a drum machine or what ever you want.

Weighing in at 7 lbs. the Micro Cube is definitely transportable, it even comes with its own carrying strap, which if you wanted to you could replace with a regular guitar strap and sling the amp to become a traveling minstrel. Oh, did I mention that the cube will run for around 20 hours on 6 AA batteries? (It comes with an AC power supply too.) The fact that it sounds great and runs on batteries has made it the new “Go to” amp for many musicians, even musicians where amps are not always accepted. I know of a few folk/bluegrass musicians who actually take them to jams and such and place the cube under their seat and plug in. It gives them a little more volume that they need to compete with all the banjo and guitar players out there. The Dulcimer world has actually embraced this little amp very well, its clean is good enough that it still sound like the actual instrument and many people never even notice.

This amp would be perfect for guitar players who need to stroll around playing in parks, open air venues and any other “moving” music show. It is also very cool for small garden parties, or any other venue where space is a concern. The amp sounds great with acoustic-electric instruments, hollow bodies, solid bodies, what ever. The overall volume of the amp is good for small, intimate venues. It is also a great practice amp with great tones and good effects and small enough to hide in any room so the wife won’t get after you for having amps all over the place.

Roland has a great amp with the Micro Cube. With a list price of $149.00 and a street price around $129.00, the Micro Cube is worth looking into. Roland recently released the amp in two custom colors Red and White and, of course, it comes in the standard black.

Do yourself a favor and go check out the Roland Micro Cube, for a little guy it really rocks! (Or “jazzes”, or “countrys”, or whatever you want!) Visit Roland’s website for more info, product demonstration videos and audio samples of the Micro Cube - http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.aspx?ObjectId=594&ParentId=57

Cool:

Not so Cool:

Overall rating:

Want your gear reviewed? Contact us at email@melbay.com