Roland Blues Cube Artist: kaput and irreparable

xDottore

Three-ColourSunburst said:

Puretech call themselves a 'Digital piano and keyboard repair specialist' and don't seem to mention amp repairs anywhere on their web site, just the following.

   •    For Keyboard repairs and servicing click here
    •    For Digital piano repairs and servicing click here
    •    For Electronic Drum Repairs click here
    •    For Wind Controller Repairs click here
    •    For Yamaha Disklavier, Silent Piano & Avantgrand repairs & servicing click here
    •    For Coomber Unit repairs and servicing click here
    •    For schools/colleges please click here to visit our education page
    •    For Piano Hire click here

All I can say is that when I called them (twice) they seemed happy to look at amps—just not this particular model, it seems.

Musicman20

Not sure how far you took it online, but link Boss/Roland to this thread on their Facebook/Twitter etc asap. I've got a lot of faith in them as a company so I hope they finally deal with this for you.

exocet

I do find their position to be astonishingly short sighted and detrimental to future sales. The Blues Cube Artist was on my list of amps to buy, not any more.

mbe

I asked on their Facebook page if it was true that Roland amps could not be repaired out of warranty. It was a comment on their recent post announcing new keyboard amps. 

No reply after a month so I wrote that I'll take it as a no then. 

Three-ColourSunburst

I get the feeling that the issue here lies with Roland UK Ltd, which I would guess acts as an independent business, even if it has the same 'corporate look' as all other Roland sites.

Roland UK requires all equipment to be registered with them, and returns of that equipment to be authorised by them. Also, Roland UK says in its terms and conditions that it will only do warranty work on equipment bought via them and its authorised dealers, so if anyone bought an amp from Bax, or Thomann or similar, Roland UK will have nothing to do with it.

Roland UK does not list any service centres, requiring warranty work to be sent to them directly at this address -  Engineering Dept., Roland UK Ltd, Atlantic Close, Swansea, SA7 9FJ. Telephone 01792 702701

In comparison, Europe seems to be served by a different company - NV Roland Central Europe. The sites for many other European countries also seem to give a list of authorised repair centers, which one would assume would also be able to do out of warranty repair work.  For example, here is the page for France

https://www.roland.com/fr/support/service_centers-1/

This sort of set up does seem to be pretty standard in retailing, but it is a pity that the Roland head offices in Japan don't see fit to impose universal standards of service on those companies that retail their products.

Three-ColourSunburst

Musicman20 said:

 I've got a lot of faith in them as a company so I hope they finally deal with this for you.

Do you mean the retail company Roland UK Ltd, or Roland the design and manufacturing company based in Japan?

Gassage

@Three-ColourSunburst

Hope Greg fixes it. Tell him James sent you.

handsomerik

I'm have got time to read 5 pages of comments but I have a suggestion if it hasn't already been suggested.

Go on the guitar nerds Facebook group and message Matt Knight. The guitar nerds podcast is great and Matt is a cool guy. He works for Boss now and may be able to help. I'm surprised they are not willing to fix it given that all Boss/Roland products have a 5 year warranty and they haven't even been released for 5 years. Make a fuss on the guitar nerds or even Roland Facebook groups. I can't believe they would want to hurt their sales by abandoning a product within their warranty period that is advertised as being more reliable than valve amps! This would certainly put me off buying one unless customers are dealt with properly. 

Three-ColourSunburst

Gassage said:

@Three-ColourSunburst

Hope Greg fixes it. Tell him James sent you.

Just to clarify, the amp in question belongs to Dottore, not me. I do have a Blues Cube Hot, though, hence my interest in how this pans out.

xDottore

UPDATE: Greg reports that he's fixed the power supply board but has found another problem with one of the main PCBs. Next step to try and fix that.

More on that as I find out, grapple fans ;-)

Three-ColourSunburst

Dottore said:

UPDATE: Greg reports that he's fixed the power supply board but has found another problem with one of the main PCBs. Next step to try and fix that.

More on that as I find out, grapple fans ;-)

Any updates?

Thanks!

jpfamps

Dottore said:

UPDATE: Greg reports that he's fixed the power supply board but has found another problem with one of the main PCBs. Next step to try and fix that.

More on that as I find out, grapple fans ;-)

One of the problems fixing that type of fault in that type of amp is that until you can get power into the unit then you don't know if another part of the amp has failed, and often the power supply has failed due to another part of the amp failing. 

xDottore

UPDATE: All fixed now by Greg. New board came from Japan very fast, and Greg fixed it almost the same day. Amp good now.

Three-ColourSunburst

Dottore said:

UPDATE: All fixed now by Greg. New board came from Japan very fast, and Greg fixed it almost the same day. Amp good now.

Thanks for the update. Any idea how much Roland charged for the board?

ICBM

Excellent.

Now why couldn’t/wouldn’t Roland do that? Something doesn’t quite add up .

Three-ColourSunburst

ICBM said:

Excellent.

Now why couldn’t/wouldn’t Roland do that? Something doesn’t quite add up .

I wonder if the board was sourced direct from Roland in Japan, with the problems been due to the attitudes of Roland UK Ltd, who are effectively an independent retail company?

xDottore

Total cost to me was £259 inc labour etc. To me it was worth it, given the cost of a new one and the fact that I really like this amp. Greg said he'd had to get the board from Roland in Japan. I didn't go into why. 

Dobrodave

Just reading this 2022, but it has changed my mind about buying one. I was literally just about to part with the cash for a used but mint Artist, and this article changed everything.  Done days of research and viewing YouTube videos only to be stopped in my tracks with this Roland shocker. I've got Roland Boss pedals that are from the 80's and they work fine, had a JC120 back in the day and loved it, but moved back to valves (and hernia) just for the tone. really saddened and disappointed in Roland here, they haver hit rock bottom in my humble opinion, £800+ amps are not disposable, unless they are secretly being made in China and are in fact worthless if they go wrong.

ghad

Dobrodave said:

Just reading this 2022, but it has changed my mind about buying one. I was literally just about to part with the cash for a used but mint Artist, and this article changed everything.  Done days of research and viewing YouTube videos only to be stopped in my tracks with this Roland shocker. I've got Roland Boss pedals that are from the 80's and they work fine, had a JC120 back in the day and loved it, but moved back to valves (and hernia) just for the tone. really saddened and disappointed in Roland here, they haver hit rock bottom in my humble opinion, £800+ amps are not disposable, unless they are secretly being made in China and are in fact worthless if they go wrong.

Same here Dobro - tried one in PMT Manchester not long ago and I was very impressed. Less so having read this.

rlw

One amp......