In praise of the Roland Micro Cube

Yorkie · February 2025

Have had my GX for ~4 years now. I practice every night for 15-20’. I think I must have changed the 6xAA batteries… three times? It’s incredibly dependable. Sure, no Bluetooth etc. But tons of effects, decent sounds and small size. What a legend of an amp!

inewham · February 2025

I still kick myself for giving mine away

Kebabkid · February 2025

I've had the original one for years and I, too, rate them highly and think they're dependable, plus it's a great home amp. However, live and before we had loads of direct options/IRs etc, I used to use mine on gigs mainly as an acoustic preamp, and using the Acoustic model, take a line out to the PA and it worked really well (speaker shut off and anyway and it's only 2w) and i could also utlise the fx, but mainly used the Reverb. Even doing the same with an electric and some pedals feeding the Blackface channel worked well and it was a good pedal platform.

Handy things and I like my Yamaha THR10X, too, but whilst having some great rock tones, its not as versatile

ICBM · February 2025

I’ve got the 4-speaker bass version - it’s fantastic. It sounds great, it’s amazingly loud for something that’s rated at 5W and can run on AA batteries, and I’ve even heard someone use one outdoors and it worked fine. Its only real disadvantage is that it’s quite heavy for something so small, and won’t *quite* fit in the rucksack I have, so I have to carry it by the strap - it’s not “heavy” like a normal amp, but you feel it if you have to walk a fair way. (And the strap is oddly uncomfortable, with a plastic strip in the middle - I tried removing that, but it didn't really improve it somehow.)

It does work for guitar, especially electric, with some more radical EQ settings, but I’ve been wondering if I should get the proper guitar version too, since it’s smaller and might sound more ‘right’.

Yorkie · February 2025

There is a guitar version of the RX. I had it for a few years. Loud as hell. I prefer the GX, but not by a lot.

sev112 · February 2025

ive lao run it line out to pa on an outdoor gig - worked reallt well

Ozzie744 · February 2025

I have one that I picked up used for $25.00. Great little amp for sure. Maybe the best $25 I've ever spent.

distressed · February 2025

I've tried 4x4" guitar version and it's hands down the best option for playing at home.

Yorkie · April 2025

Here is a pic of mine. It has a few 'usability' modifications, nothing that affects the sound in any way.
- I had to change the knobs because one of my kids rubbed a soldering iron on the original ones.
- I added a brass handle so I can move it without interfering with the cables.

Blueingreen · April 2025

Still got one somewhere. After many years use I upgraded to a Yamaha THR 10C which had better sounding Fender cleans and presets, but obviously quite a bit pricier. The Roland was great value.

Yorkie · April 2025

Here is an interesting development: one of my 'old' (~4 years-old) saved searches on eBay happened to return something the other day: a Vox Mini 5 Rhythm for ~£80. I set up that alert at the time when I was looking for a battery powered amp, then forgot to turn it off when I got the Micro Cube. I saw that the Vox has this other input for microphones and immediately thought about a wooden stomp box I had lying around... so I decided to give it a go.

It's here, it's loud, and it looks like a miniature AC4. Feature-wise it's hard not to compare it to the Micro Cube RX (the guitar version I had years ago). Both have a drum machine, a simple tuner, they're roughly the same size... but the Vox has got more amp models, a _much_ better emulation, a compressor, microphone input, a larger speaker that pumps out a surprising amount of bass... it's also very, very loud for a battery-powered amp. I've been doing a lot of surf guitar lately; strat into 'black panel', compressor + spring reverb works perfectly. I... I think I would even record with this amp.

Plus, the wooden stomp box works fab with it. I can even add delay/reverb to the beats. It's just crazy good.

It's bigger, heavier and flimsier than the Micro Cube GX, but I think it compares _very_ favourably to the RX version.

Jon

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In praise of the Roland Micro Cube

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