Roland Cube Street EX

Started by Rhcole, August 30, 2016, 11:18:03 AM

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Rhcole

Just picked this amp up, got a killer deal from a vendor and have wanted a high-quality battery amp. The Cube Street has 25/25 watts in stereo from 8 AA batteries. Honestly, I don't know how they have done this. It is a miracle of engineering: 50 watts for about 4 hours from batteries, 25 watts for 8 hours, and 10 watts for up to 20 hours. Absolutely amazing, Roland.

The amp sounds incredible. Unlike most battery amps, the dual 8" woofers can pump out some bass. Don't put your jazz bass in it, but for even guitar synth it can fill the bill very well. It has great headroom and has a very tight, clean sound. It also has dual 2" tweeters, which give a very crisp high end. The dual channel eq is very good for tone shaping.

Cranked up, the amp can keep up with a tube amp roughly in the ballpark of a Fender Deluxe Reverb. You could use it with a drummer if the playing isn't too loud. Think of it as an acoustic guitar or jazz amp for combo purposes.

It has four inputs, two of them with eq. It accepts two mics, but no phantom power.

The FX are not great. I have posted about this elsewhere. The COSM amp models sound fizzy through the tweeters, you gotta' have analog distortion with this type of box because it is so clinically accurate sounding. They don't have a gain control, and they distort the same, even with reduced volume on the guitar. The reverb is a cheap sounding digital spring, passable but not good. The echo isn't bad, but the chorus is overwhelming with no depth control.

Moral: bring your own FX with this amp.

Conclusion: Five stars! That's right, even though it has the usual Roland baffling flaws, it is a miracle of modern design to have a battery amp sound THIS GOOD with batteries that last THIS LONG and an amp that can keep up with a drummer.

Remarkable.

Elantric