Roland Mobile Cube

There's a lot of battery powered portable amps out there, or at least enough to do some serious comparisons. I own a Lunchbox Jr. and have played several others. The Roland is loud for its size but I wasn't able to use it when traffic noise got too loud in a street performance environment. It's got huge utility for its size with inputs, effects, etc.
The battery life is great.

What I wanted to write a review for is that it it has tone. The actual sound quality you get from this amp is better than the other battery powered amps I've used. Lunchbox JR. is impressive but it's heavier and has very few options. It does not have the same kind of tone. An Lunchbox Jr. has its own thing but I like the Roland sweetness just as a guitarist. Without any effects I can play through the Roland and it's going to work. I am putting Behringer tube and delay through the LB soon, it's going to be awesome but the Rolands have a little bit of something straight from the factory worth considering. I played with it for hundreds of hours in live street situations, made a good bit of cash using that Roland.https://soundcloud.com/dana-graham-phelps/pier-839-performance-jan-or-feb-2016-7-dana-phelps

This thing is pretty unique but the features that give it a cool option aren't enough for a purchase. First off it takes 6 AA batteries and it has about 15 hours of life on them. Basically with my playing habits I would be dumping about 12 batteries in this thing per week give or take. Batteries aren't cheap and this economy sucks right now so that is a big disappointment in this amp. That alone will make me not buy this amp and I wouldn't recommend it just based on that features alone.


Roland MOBILE CUBE Features:

* Battery-powered amplifier for anyone, anywhere, anytime
* 5W (2.5W + 2.5W) stereo power with two high-performance 4" speakers
* Inputs for microphone, stereo-instrument, and stereo AUX; headphone output
* Center Cancel function for karaoke
* Built-in stereo reverb/chorus, distortion and more
* Dedicated strap included for easy carry around
* Mic Channel: Input Jacks (1/4" phone type)
* Keyboard/Instrument/Guitar Channel: Input Jack L/MONO, GUITAR (1/4" phone type), Input Jack R (1/4" phone type)
* Aux In Jacks (Stereo miniature phone type, RCA phono type)
* Phones Jack (Stereo miniature phone type)
* Accessories - Strap, Dry Battery (LR6 (AA) type) x 6
* Power Supply - DC 9 V, Dry Battery (LR6 (AA) type) x 6 or AC Adaptor (optional)

UTILIZATION

Details
Type Solid State
Number of Channels 1
Power 5W
Speakers 2 x 4"
Effects Yes
Reverb Yes
EQ Tone
Amp Modeling Yes
Number of Models 4
Number of Tubes 0
Preamp Tubes No Tubes
Power Tubes No Tubes
Inputs 1 x Mic (1/4"), 2 x Instrument, 1 x Aux (1/8"), 2 x RCA
No Outputs
No Footswitch I/O
No Effects Loop
Height 7"
Width 11"
Depth 4.25"
Weight 5.51 lbs.

SOUNDS

The tone sounds like a normal solid state amplifier. It has that good clean tone and poor low gain and then a fizzy but fun high gain tone. The high gain is a lot of fun to mess around with because it is so hairy and you can add chorus, reverb, or delay to beef up the tone.

I personally like the sound of this amp with a Les Paul or another humbucking style guitar. It like the high gain tone on this amp and it needs that humbucker to get the lead lines my ear is wanting to hear.

Another great feature on this amp is the cutting of vocals or solos if your hooking up your CD player or MP3 player. So you can play you own solo or even singing your own melody for practicing. This is great little tool for practicing your vocal and solo chops.

OVERALL OPINION

Overall this amp for me is a big bust due to the battery operation. If it had a AC plug as well then we'd be talking but this is amiss for me. I like the sound it has which is pretty standard for solid state amps.

At new these units come in at around $170. You can plug three things in at one time which is cool. So I can see this thing being good for the one man band thing on the street. I think there are better amps by Roland than this.

20 mins tried in stores, quiet. Ai vox DA5, Microcube, microspider not without a point of comparison.
Look radio grandfather-who-is-the-modern-play, 28 by 18 by 11 cm for 2x2, 5w and 2x10cms hp.
Bass reflex, surprisingly compact, sturdy in the hand.
Tested a strat Mexico zonait 50s there, is much worse ...
Connectivity ultra-complete, see Roland for details.
Batteries and industry through Transformer.
Much easier to fit / carry the aforementioned mini amps, very good idea of ​​Roland format.

UTILIZATION

Very simple, I speak for scratching. Clean crunch and distortion are planned, with chorus and delay / reverb. Or not. The chorus is a simple push-button, and the effect is difficult to imagine for the size of the thing: absolutely gorgeous! Very clean, in fact it is only on one of the hp, the other being dry, the class.
The reverb is good too, but not adjustable delay ok in crunch / distortion solo.
A button for audio tone, enough of this amp.
Very pleasant to use.

SOUNDS

Much more clear and open the micro cube, not digital sounds natural-dark-metal. The clean is awesome, makes super stratum, and strong too!
The crunch is nice too, really useful, surprising.
The lead, with Ben stratum is never again but I guess a good potential with humbuckers.
All very simple, and the sound is always fresh, and it sounds strong for its size.
In short I am still amazed there, what a wonderful creature in this ugly dress!
It's hard not to ten, no competition ...

OVERALL OPINION

Very good feeling, go take it in hand to see.
There is everything you need to do a good job, and if you like to play clean it really good plan. Unbelievable.
and in addition you can mix with your iPod, stereo siouplait, and frankly it changes everything all at all.
For the holidays is not better, it's simple.