Repairing an old Roland Cube 60 - in need of advice

[Hadyn]

I recently came across a rather old Cube-60, second hand - looks a lot like this one:

http://www.enregistrersous.com/image...317153519.html

http://www.enregistrersous.com/image...317153550.html

Apparently the former owner had once tried to use it for vocals with his mic plugged in, and ever since then the sound is distorted and fuzzy. At first I liked it, but it's gotten worse and now sounds kind of hollow and annoying.

I only got it as a novelty, but I was thinking about using it for practice and whatnot.

The problem is, I don't know much about electronics or what may actually be wrong with it. My guess is that the speaker itself might be damaged, but I'm not sure. Is this sort of problem the sort of thing I might be able to fix on my own? Is it just a case of opening it up, swapping some parts and putting it back together, or is it a bit more complex?

Any advice would be appreciated!

Cheers,
Hadyn

[62bass]

Originally Posted by Hadyn

I recently came across a rather old Cube-60, second hand - looks a lot like this one:

http://www.enregistrersous.com/image...317153519.html

http://www.enregistrersous.com/image...317153550.html

Apparently the former owner had once tried to use it for vocals with his mic plugged in, and ever since then the sound is distorted and fuzzy. At first I liked it, but it's gotten worse and now sounds kind of hollow and annoying.

I only got it as a novelty, but I was thinking about using it for practice and whatnot.

The problem is, I don't know much about electronics or what may actually be wrong with it. My guess is that the speaker itself might be damaged, but I'm not sure. Is this sort of problem the sort of thing I might be able to fix on my own? Is it just a case of opening it up, swapping some parts and putting it back together, or is it a bit more complex?

Any advice would be appreciated!

Cheers,
Hadyn

It's impossible to say what caused the problem with your Roland. It could be one or more of a number of things.

A good tech will be able to find the problem and fix it. The cost to get it fixed likely will be more than the amp is worth.

You aren't a tech nor do you have any diagnostic tools so you can't fix it yourself, unless you take a wild guess and just luck out. Or you could start replacing every component in the amp, one at a time until it works right again. That's not too practical.

The old Cube 60 was a decent practice and very small room bass amp. But it's old technology. You can buy a new amp with more power, has better sound and is lighter these days for less than the Roland sold for. Take a look at the Traynor bass amps for example.

[js1]

Well, I'm seriously attached to my old Cube 60. The preamp stage is basically a Bassman, but built using FETs instead of tubes. It's a coffee house amp, and in that role, it works great. Within its volume limits, it sounds like a big amp. That's not the case for a lot of smaller amps.

I would try headphones (there's a headphone jack). If the sound is bad through that, then it's not the speaker.

Mine is on the verge of needing a recap job - yours could be the same.

Worth fixing? Given that the amp was free, I would sink $100-$150 into it, but more than that, probably not.

js

[Nedmundo]

Yes, try the headphone jack. If it sounds clean there, it's almost certainly the speaker. That should not be expensive to replace, and you could probably do it yourself. Roland amps are great, so that would be worth it. If the problem is in the amp section, probably not.