Roland DB series out of production!

[Midas]

Roland stopped making all "bigger" bass combos, only the Cube series will be available in the future. I spoke to the company and they told me that they decided to do so because the DB series was not accepted by players due to the design. Too bad!!!

[jnewmark]

Wow, that is bad, but I've had the feeling that they never caught on somehow with bass players. I love my DB 700 and was thinking about getting the powered 115 cab. Maybe they will be cheaper now.

[bmc]

Roland was a real eye opener for me. I grabbed a Roland CB100 cube for practicing and it became my main amp. Very, very versatile as a bass amp, as a guitar amp and as a PA with a small mixer plugged into it.

I just never associated Roland with bass amps and so, always gave them a pass. Roland has a long history of making good quality keyboards, pedals, the famous JC120 guitar amp, etc. I never ever considered them for bass.

I might unload the Markbass. It's an old one from the early days, long before they hit North America.

[aproud1]

Loved my DB500 and would have bought one of the newer combo's but they seemed over priced. Especially for something that is only expandable with other powered cabs. It's a shame because their bass amps sound great.

[Midas]

I never understood why they stopped the 700 series!!! And the design of the older dbs (like 500/700) was good, not Trace Elliot but realy "normal". The newer Dbs looked like keyboard amps from the 80s.. But they were still good. The 700 and the cube 100 are one of the best sounding things I heared.

[jnewmark]

Originally Posted by Midas

I never understood why they stopped the 700 series!!! And the design of the older dbs (like 500/700) was good, not Trace Elliot but realy "normal". The newer Dbs looked like keyboard amps from the 80s.. But they were still good. The 700 and the cube 100 are one of the best sounding things I heared.

+1. My DB 700 is the best 15+ Tweeter combo/cab I've ever played through for low to mid volume gigs with a sensible drummer. Really heavy and clunky though to schlepp, and no extension speaker out ( thus the powered 115x cab ). That and the really high price was probably the downfall, although you can get used ones at good prices, but really take a hit if you have to have it shipped. Even with the neo's in the newer combos, still weighed in at 59 lbs ( for the 15 ). In this day of 5 lb bass heads and 30 something lb bass cabs, I guess it did'nt get much love. I sure wish they would offer the preamp for sale that they had in the DB series !

[Midas]

I am thinking of seperating the preamp-section of the cube into a new chasis. The sounds and the effects are realy great!

[jasper383]

Originally Posted by Midas

I am thinking of seperating the preamp-section of the cube into a new chasis. The sounds and the effects are realy great!

I would think Roland would be great at making a bass head that has lots of modeling available; maybe a lightweight Class D head, with lots of their Boss effects/amp models?

Only selling combos, and pretty high end ones at that, seemed an odd choice.

[Midas]

Too bad that companies never listen to what the market says.. strange by the way.. all they can detect are vintage booms...

[jnewmark]

Originally Posted by Midas

I am thinking of seperating the preamp-section of the cube into a new chasis. The sounds and the effects are realy great!

Let me know how that goes if you do it. I would love to lift the preamp out of one of those DB models.

[greenboy]

Roland Preamp tech? It's all DSP and COSM stuff, and on all these products you will subsets that have been spun-off from the V-Bass. The current top-dog implementations are:

(1) The very deep VB-99, which is the first real SUPERset of the V-Bass - and like the V-Bass includes very complex bass modeling - as well as preamps, cab and head models, effects, etc.

(2) The Roland/Boss GT-10B which is basically a floor version of preamps and effects and cab and head modeling - without any bass modeling.

Still, it's too bad Roland hasn't done a rackmount preamp with not-too-huge footboard option. Roland's quality of implementation is generally superb, and durable, but due to Roland's future-looking leading-edge R&D driven mindset, it's not easy to sell to bassists.

[jnewmark]

I do have a local tech who is an authorised Roland warranty tech guy. Maybe I'll run it by him. Roland did make a bass rackmount preamp some years ago, but I think it was way before the COSM era.

[Clark Dark]

Roland SIP-301 Bass Analog Guitar Preamp on sale now http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-80s-Rola...item35ae92cadf

[Midas]

Originally Posted by greenboy

Roland Preamp tech? It's all DSP and COSM stuff, and on all these products you will subsets that have been spun-off from the V-Bass. The current top-dog implementations are:

(1) The very deep VB-99, which is the first real SUPERset of the V-Bass - and like the V-Bass includes very complex bass modeling - as well as preamps, cab and head models, effects, etc.

(2) The Roland/Boss GT-10B which is basically a floor version of preamps and effects and cab and head modeling - without any bass modeling.

Still, it's too bad Roland hasn't done a rackmount preamp with not-too-huge footboard option. Roland's quality of implementation is generally superb, and durable, but due to Roland's future-looking leading-edge R&D driven mindset, it's not easy to sell to bassists.

Does that mean that the (at least six) Cube amp models are exactly equaly available in the GT-10B?

[jnewmark]

Originally Posted by Clark Dark

Roland SIP-301 Bass Analog Guitar Preamp on sale now http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-80s-Rola...item35ae92cadf

Yeah, that's the one from the '80's. Looks interesting.