Roland CB-30

I play mostly for fun. I'm am in a band called Montainne with a couple of mates.
I mostly play classic rock, with a little blues and punk thrown in.

I bought this amp from a local store, Leading Edge Music Horsham (thats in Autralia NOT England. I got it cos i wanted a really good amp to start with. I figured a good bass thru a shit amp will sound shit, vice versa, a bad bass thru a good amp will at least sound ok. And this amp isnt good... its fucking awesome! I got it for $450 AUD

I like the versatality and the small size of the amp. For a 30 watt this thing is loud! With gain and volume set to full my windows shake and yet each note is still relativly clear. I like the amp modelling, it means i can change my sound without screwing around with my EQ settings.

The sheer amount of digital effewcts built into this thing gives it a little bit of a metallic sound, I guess this is ok for some people, but i hate it. It takes ages to get the right sound out of it, because there are so many knobs. When you have a little brother who mucks around with it and it takes an hour to get ur settings right, its very annoying.

This thing is built like a brick shithouse. No worries at all.

This amp is great for the price, but you have to have a good idea of the sound you want to get it right so its nopt for beginners. Highly recommended to intermediate/pro players.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I got this amp at a Heid Music in Green Bay, Wisconsin. I paid $250 for it, new.

It's built really solid, and sounds amazing. The 2-way coaxial speaker (10", I don't know what company) combined with the little tweeter brings my bass's full range. Just as good low's as high's, and everything in between. The effects are really easy to use. All you have to do is turn the knobs. Conveniently, there is one knob for flange, chorus, and auto-wah, and a separate knob for reverb and delay. You can also hook up a footswitch to turn those on and off. I like this because I often combine reverb with other effects. By the way, the effects are perfect. They sound really analog-ish, and are not overbearing or wussy. The built-in compression gives my bass just the right amount of kick. It is useful, considering the fact that the amp is only 30 watts. The gain control helps with that, too. There are more amp models on here than I will ever need. Models are easy to use, also. (Just turn the knob) The bass man model, and the octave bass model are my favorite. Also, I like the shape button. The manual tells you all about what the shape button does for each amp model. It's a cool little bonus which allows you to get just the right sound.
This thing is indestructible. A little heavy, but I'm pretty small, so I guess that doesn't count. I use this unit with my squeir p-bass special. Yes, this amp makes my cheap bass sound like a million bucks. I am mainly a guitar player, so I also use this amp sometimes with my fender strat w/lace sensors. It sounds really good with an electric guitar, and equally good with an acoustic. All around, this is a very useful amp for bass and clean guitar. It does not rattle at high volume, and the tone is equally awesome at any volume. I also like the auxiliary input. This amp is not loud enough for a big gig or a loud band, but it is amazing for rehearsal, small gigs, and especially recording. If you are a gear/tone geek like me, you will love it. It sounds like a really expensive amp. I'm telling you, this thing is not lacking in sound quality or ease of use. It is perfect.

Sometimes when using the octave setting, if two or more notes are played together, it may sound out of tune. However, if you turn the shape button off, it solves this problem pretty well. The manual tells you about this problem and what you can do about it.
I wish they made a version of this amp with more wattage. I would like to use it on stage. I know they recently came out with a 60-watt guitar cube. Maybe they will do the same for the bass cube soon.

Built really solid. It has corner protection, thick wooden sides, and a metal grille on the front, instead of grille cloth. It looks bad-ass.

There is not a whole lot I can complain about with this amp. I also own some cheaper gear for my guitar, and after playing a Roland cube, I don't want to own anything that is lower quality. Roland stuff is more expensive than the other gear I own, but it is not unaffordable like most quality gear. I would say that the price is perfect for what you get from it. It is not a value-brand at all. This amp is way easier to use than those extremely detailed, digital, computer-ish modeling amps. I would reccomend Roland cube amps to anyone looking for a versatile sound, that is high-quality and very reasonably priced.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Bought via internet in England for £165 delivered next day.
Bought because my souped-up Trace Elliot 300watt 15" combo weighs 80lbs and my back was beginning to hurt carrying it to every practice.

This unit is very good indeed for the price paid. It will fill a small venue with quality sounds, and is excellent for rehearsals.

Would prefer it not to go silent when the line out (headphone)is used. If it worked with a line out it would make a great little stage amp for the jazzy blues type gigs I do with the line out into the PA

The onboard effects, although limited in variability give a genuine extra dimension to the useful amp modelling options. The coaxial tweeter improves the top end and enhances the chorus/flanging options. Solidly made and comes with 3 year guarantee if registered. Although very compact it still weighs 28lbs!

I love it to death and if Roland ever reply to my enquiry about the line out problem with a favourable solution I would love it even more.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

This is a digital modeling amp from roland which works using their COSM technology. It's 30 watts and has 10" speaker. It has a three band EQ, compressor, five built in effects, seven amp models, shape switch and finally volume and gain controls. It also has a headphone/line out jack for recording or practicing, an AUX in for practicing along with your MP3 player and a footswitch input to engage the effects.

The seven models are: Octave Bass, Flip Top, B Man, T.E., Bass360, Session and Concert 810. They're all based on famous amplifiers such as the Fender Bassman (B Man) and an ampeg SVT (Concert 810).

The five in built effects are: Chorus, Flanger, T Wah, Delay and Reverb.

UTILIZATION

Despite having a ridiculous amount of features this amp is really simple to use. The effects just work using two knobs, one for the chorus/flanger/t wah and the other for delay/reverb. This amp is very intuitive in it's design and it's easy to just play about with for hours to get lots of different sounds.

The three band EQ is very simple to work with but still offers a good range of control over your tone.

SOUNDS

I use this amp with my Fender Standard Jazz bass and it does sound good to my ears but only at certain settings. The only amp models which I like are the Octave Bass, B Man and Concert 810. I only like the clean tones of this amplifier, with the gain cranked it sounds quite weak, the COSM modeling definitely lacks in the distortion department I think.

While I think the delay, reverb and t wah effects all sound good the control of only one parameter make them all pretty much useless so the only effect I tend to use is a subtle bit of reverb.

I've used this amp a few times to record using the line out jack and can get some pretty good sounds out of it. At band practices I've found it's not really loud enough and I'd never gig it because it just doesn't put out enough to be able to hear yourself on stage.

OVERALL OPINION

I really like the clean sounds out of this amp but the distortion is lacking in my opinion. The lack of control over the effects is quite disappointing too but overall I think this is a great practice amp. Definitely a good choice for a bedroom player who's not sure what sound they're looking for or if you play a large range of genres I believe as it offers a lot of flexibility.