New Amp Day

Vaughn McMillan

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Well, after playing exclusively with amp simulators for the past 10 years or so, I decided it was time to buy a real guitar amp. This monster rig is gonna make all the other guitarists green with envy and make all the pretty girls swoon. Ears will bleed within a 100 yard radius. It'll be a beast to move...I'll be lucky to fit it into my 4Runner. Behold, the Roland Micro Cube!
Micro Cube 1024.jpg
This behemoth is a whopping 9 1/2" wide and 8 1/2" tall. :rofl:

Roland no longer makes this model, but I found it sitting in a pawn shop a few days ago and snagged it for only $70 out the door. I needed a tiny amp to put on my guitar workbench for testing wiring and such. I have Fender, Music Man, and Mesa Boogie tube amps that haven't even been powered up in over a decade, but they're all too big for my little guitar workspace in the spare bedroom As a bonus, it actually sounds surprisingly good. It won't replace my Fractal Axe-Fx III for live shows, but it'll be a great addition to my stable. :thumb:
 
Looks like the current Mobile Cube is somewhere in the $450-500 range so this seems like a pretty decent deal even for an older version. Cute little fellow, would be a great camp fire / camp out addition.
 
I bought my micro cube bass amp earlier this year for when I did that pig rock jam out off the grid in the desert.

I wanted a small battery powered bass amp and this is one of the only ones that fits the bill. 4x4" speakers, lol.

It won't replace that hartke 4x10 + 1x15 stack in the back, but it's suprisingly good sounding, especially with my little acoustic bass guitar.

Made for a lot of good jamming under the canopy to keep out of the sun.

One of the younger guys there who is actually a skilled musician that tours and is an expert in European Gypsy Jazz guitar said that when he was touring in europe the bass player used that exact amp and would just run the line out from that into the main mixer board.

roland microcube bass.jpg
 
Looks like the current Mobile Cube is somewhere in the $450-500 range so this seems like a pretty decent deal even for an older version. Cute little fellow, would be a great camp fire / camp out addition.
I think you're seeing the larger models at that price. The current Micro Cube model is retailing for about $200. Not sure I'd want to hear electric guitar on a camping trip...campfire sing-alongs are better with an acoustic. (I do have a camping guitar though, lol.) I'm thinking the Micro Cube is more suited for roller blading on the local bike paths while jamming out on old Eagles songs. :rofl:

Harry Perry has been making a living doing that at Venice Beach in LA for decades.
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I bought my micro cube bass amp earlier this year for when I did that pig rock jam out off the grid in the desert.

I wanted a small battery powered bass amp and this is one of the only ones that fits the bill. 4x4" speakers, lol.

It won't replace that hartke 4x10 + 1x15 stack in the back, but it's suprisingly good sounding, especially with my little acoustic bass guitar...
I hadn't seen the bass model. That's so CUTE! :) And I agree about the sound. They're surprisingly good sounding. Roland has put a lot of work into the whole Cube line. (And their Katana amps have even better amp modeling, but at a higher price point.)

I showed the photo of mine to the guys in the band and they all think it'd be a hoot to set it up on stage with a mic on it as a prop and hide my Fractal rack off to the side. I'm going to save that idea for sometime when we're playing on a large stage. It'd have kind of a "Spinal Tap at Stonehenge" vibe to it. :D
 
I hadn't seen the bass model. That's so CUTE! :) And I agree about the sound. They're surprisingly good sounding. Roland has put a lot of work into the whole Cube line. (And their Katana amps have even better amp modeling, but at a higher price point.)

I showed the photo of mine to the guys in the band and they all think it'd be a hoot to set it up on stage with a mic on it as a prop and hide my Fractal rack off to the side. I'm going to save that idea for sometime when we're playing on a large stage. It'd have kind of a "Spinal Tap at Stonehenge" vibe to it. :D

My acoustic bass (not the standup) is just not quite loud enough on it's own to compete with 6 string acoustics. The roland gives it just enough extra to blend in nicely.

It's an Oscar schmidt acoustic bass. I recently did a little fettling and filed down the protruding frets a bit, adjusted the truss rods and put new strings on it and I'm actually pretty happy with how it sounds.

My other bass rigs are the biggest and heaviest things our band carts around, and by 'our', I mean 'me'. After I got us some decent monitors, I really could see just using this little amp or even just a di pedal, lol

Aww who am I kidding, I love the tone for a big ole amp stack.
 
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