The new toy is a new-to-me used amp...a Roland cube, the 20XL-Bass. As far as I can tell, no longer in production.
My band practices in the drummer's basement area, and there's a fairly narrow stairway going to it. I got tired of dodging the walls with my Genz-Benz Shuttle on a 12T cab, or my Fender Rumble 100. It's more a size problem than a weight problem. ALso, the band practices at very moderate volume, so even the Rumble 100 was considerable overkill.
There aren't a lot of helpful reviews, but it looked to me like the Roland Bass cube would be an improvement that had enough power to work.
Here's a "gotcha" to be aware of: Roland made both a guitar and a bass version of this amp, with the SAME model number. If you look for one, make darn sure you get the "20XL-BASS" version, not the "20XL" version, which is the guitar amp. It's VERY common for them to be listed incorrectly.
Case in point: The first one I bought came from Guitar Center for under $200, but when it arrived it was the guitar version - the GC that took it in read the model number but didn't realize the missing suffix "Bass" was important.
So I returned that one and put the idea aside for a while, since the others I could find were all $50 to $100 more. But a week later I tripped over one on Reverb, and the price was the same! I ordered it because the photos told me it was the correct bass model.
Quick review:
Info taken from online specs at https://www.roland.com/us/products/cube-20xl_bass/
Lots of handy functions built into this COSM tech head, including a tuner, reverb, compression and a couple of other effects (delay, drive and a solo function). There's also a function which I suppose might be handy for practice in an apartment, the "Power Squeezer" which is supposed to provide "big, rich sound at low volumes." Not sure I'll ever need to use that. One little detail that counts: pushing the Tuner switch also mutes the amp while tuning.
There is three-band EQ, and separate gain and volume controls. There's a Headphone/Record Out jack if you want to use this as a source for the house PA, and an Aux in for a CD player or other music source input to practice with. There's a footswitch jack, but I can't imagine why it would be needed unless you were actually using this as a source for a FOH.
Weight: 20 pounds, 12 ounces. Dimensions are smaller than anything else I own at essentially 13 x 13 x 13 inches (give or take 1/2 inch.)
There are also six amp emulations: Super flat, Flip Top, Bassman, Bass360, Session, Concert 810. They are enabled by pressing a "Shape" button. To my ear there aren't huge variations in these, but there are enough that I quickly settled on using the Flip Top or Bassman settings, as they suit my ear playing decades-old flats on all my basses.
The sound from this 20-watt amp with 8" speaker is nice and bassy, and is quite capable of getting the 60's thump sound that I like. As long as I don't try to dime it, the speaker doesn't break up and gives good clean sound. I also found that running the gain up high results in some speaker breakup. I'm using the gain around 50% and volume for the rest.
I can get a sound quality very similar to that of the Fender Rumble 100 which works well in my band. There's enough volume there to work in any practice session that doesn't demand a great deal of volume. I could play a "coffee shop" gig with this amp, but of course I'd probably bring one of my more powerful amps on the principle that I can always turn it down.
Definitely a keeper, and it works well both for moderate volume practice and for getting up and down that tight stairway. I'd recommend this as one of the best practice amps I've found if you really are using it for practice or for very low volume gigs.
My band practices in the drummer's basement area, and there's a fairly narrow stairway going to it. I got tired of dodging the walls with my Genz-Benz Shuttle on a 12T cab, or my Fender Rumble 100. It's more a size problem than a weight problem. ALso, the band practices at very moderate volume, so even the Rumble 100 was considerable overkill.
There aren't a lot of helpful reviews, but it looked to me like the Roland Bass cube would be an improvement that had enough power to work.
Here's a "gotcha" to be aware of: Roland made both a guitar and a bass version of this amp, with the SAME model number. If you look for one, make darn sure you get the "20XL-BASS" version, not the "20XL" version, which is the guitar amp. It's VERY common for them to be listed incorrectly.
Case in point: The first one I bought came from Guitar Center for under $200, but when it arrived it was the guitar version - the GC that took it in read the model number but didn't realize the missing suffix "Bass" was important.
So I returned that one and put the idea aside for a while, since the others I could find were all $50 to $100 more. But a week later I tripped over one on Reverb, and the price was the same! I ordered it because the photos told me it was the correct bass model.
Quick review:
Info taken from online specs at https://www.roland.com/us/products/cube-20xl_bass/
Lots of handy functions built into this COSM tech head, including a tuner, reverb, compression and a couple of other effects (delay, drive and a solo function). There's also a function which I suppose might be handy for practice in an apartment, the "Power Squeezer" which is supposed to provide "big, rich sound at low volumes." Not sure I'll ever need to use that. One little detail that counts: pushing the Tuner switch also mutes the amp while tuning.
There is three-band EQ, and separate gain and volume controls. There's a Headphone/Record Out jack if you want to use this as a source for the house PA, and an Aux in for a CD player or other music source input to practice with. There's a footswitch jack, but I can't imagine why it would be needed unless you were actually using this as a source for a FOH.
Weight: 20 pounds, 12 ounces. Dimensions are smaller than anything else I own at essentially 13 x 13 x 13 inches (give or take 1/2 inch.)
There are also six amp emulations: Super flat, Flip Top, Bassman, Bass360, Session, Concert 810. They are enabled by pressing a "Shape" button. To my ear there aren't huge variations in these, but there are enough that I quickly settled on using the Flip Top or Bassman settings, as they suit my ear playing decades-old flats on all my basses.
The sound from this 20-watt amp with 8" speaker is nice and bassy, and is quite capable of getting the 60's thump sound that I like. As long as I don't try to dime it, the speaker doesn't break up and gives good clean sound. I also found that running the gain up high results in some speaker breakup. I'm using the gain around 50% and volume for the rest.
I can get a sound quality very similar to that of the Fender Rumble 100 which works well in my band. There's enough volume there to work in any practice session that doesn't demand a great deal of volume. I could play a "coffee shop" gig with this amp, but of course I'd probably bring one of my more powerful amps on the principle that I can always turn it down.
Definitely a keeper, and it works well both for moderate volume practice and for getting up and down that tight stairway. I'd recommend this as one of the best practice amps I've found if you really are using it for practice or for very low volume gigs.
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