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New Roland Microcube Bass

Joe Nerve

Joe Nerve

Oct 7, 2000
18,619
38,939
New York City
www.joenerve.com
Disclosures
Endorsing artist: Musicman basses
#1
Updating and re-writing this post.

I heard a guitar cube last week at a neighbors house, and I was completely blown away. The sound, volume, effects and size were incredible. I now have major gas for the bass version and must get one ASAP. My favorite stores are all out of stock till 4/4 however. I believe this little thing is going to kick some major butt. And make beach parties a whole lot more fun. I guess I'll have more to say in a few weeks.

Invalid Link Removed
 
#4
varunkapahi said:
simply put its got stereo power amps (two) of a power wattage of 2.5w
same as what it says!
Click to expand...

I pretty much got that - but that would make it a 4X4", 5 watt amp. That's 16 inches of cone in speakers they claim to handle and put out more volume than most - being pushed by 5 watts. And for a bass no less. I wanna know what the volume deal is with this thing.
 
#5
It's decently loud. There was a hired gun slapping away like a maniac at the roland/boss tent at NAMM, and he had it up relatively loud. Obviously no one's gonna be gigging with these things, but it would probably make a fantastic bedroom amp. It's a little bit bigger than it looks in pictures... somehow i imagined it being the size of a regular (guitar-version) micro cube, but it's a bit bigger than that. It looks pretty damn cool actually. I'd probably buy one if i didn't already have a bass cube 30.
 
#7
chimpbass said:
I've been contemplating one of these for acoustic gigs. Until I find an ABG I don't hate, anyway...It would be loud enough for that situation, wouldn't it?
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I would assume so, but I really only heard it demo'd, I didn't get to play with it on my own at all. It sounded reasonably loud but I don't wanna lead you astray with bad advice. I'm sure guitar center will have these in stock pretty soon, so you ought to be able to try one out.
 
#8
Joe Nerve said:
I pretty much got that - but that would make it a 4X4", 5 watt amp. That's 16 inches of cone in speakers they claim to handle and put out more volume than most - being pushed by 5 watts. And for a bass no less. I wanna know what the volume deal is with this thing.
Click to expand...

yes indeed it has to be louder than you would expect an am of that size due to the 4x4 design than just throwing in a 1x6
 
#9
Joe Nerve said:
I pretty much got that - but that would make it a 4X4", 5 watt amp. That's 16 inches of cone in speakers they claim to handle and put out more volume than most - being pushed by 5 watts. And for a bass no less. I wanna know what the volume deal is with this thing.
Click to expand...

Four 4" speakers have the same surface area as one 8" speaker, just over 50 square inches. (Area is proportional to radius squared.) On the other hand, 5 watts doesn't sound like much power.

I am considering at this mini Roland bass amp as a booster to an ABG. Has any one tried one with an acoustic bass guitar? or with a 6-string acoustic guitar?
 
#10
Nobody's tried these amps yet as they're still not available. All the sites that offer them keep pushing the "in stock" date up whenever the previous date comes around. It was supposed to be available today, got pushed again to May 1st I think and I'm not very hopeful. This has been going on for quite a while. I called Roland to ask about when it would actually be available and they were as clueless as me. Couldn't get an answer.

None the less I've been gassing for one of these for too long not to get one. When they're available I will, although I may have to wait a little longer than inteneded as I've dropped over $2000 in gear this month alone.

I'm pretty confident the amp is fairly loud, despite the 5 watt thing. Not band loud but acoustic jam and practice amp loud. There's a video demo from NAMM on the roland site and it seems pretty kickin.
 
#13
Wow. There was another thread on these with a bunch of reviews that seems to have disappeared. Didn't come up in a search. :confused:

There was a lot of info on these amps in that thread. I don't feel like writing another review righ now, but I can tell you it's one of my favorite pieces of gear at the moment. I freaking love that little thing. And as far as a practice amp goes I really don't think there's anything as versatile, with as many features, and that also runs on batteries anywhere near that price.

Anyone have any clue where the other microcube thread went?
 
#15
Reguarding using it for ABG, I think that's really the nitch it fills nicely.

You really can't push it much beyond playing with acoustic instruments. But it does give the small boost necessary to have a nice warm bottom in those situations (something ABG's seem to lack, I'd say). Certainly an ABG + Bass Cube RX can keep up nicely with an piano, for instance. I played my Hohner ABG with 4 other acoustic players (no drummer) last week and just used the RX for a warm round bottom; I had plenty of headroom left.

It will roughly double the volume of an Upright Bass, and blend nicely with the Upright's natural volume.

And you can make some kind of claim to still being acoustic, since you aren't plugged in to the wall. ;)

A preamp with high input impedance is really called for with only a piezo pickup and no onboard preamp, though.
 
#16
I've been using one of these for a while for acoustic rehearsals. (With pecussion at relatively low volumes.) I hardly have to turn it up at all. I run my EUB and bass ukulele with piezo pickups, no preamp or buffer and it works fine. I use it with a slab as well and it sounds good. I've also used it at campouts and on the beach. The built in tuner while not great, is functional.
It sounds way better tonewise than my Pignose HOG, though I doubt if it would get as loud, and it's much louder before breakup than my Crate Taxi.
 

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