Roland CUBE Street (Black) Reviews

TedG
from Cliffside Park, NJ
March 16, 2013Music Background:
Musician 45 years

Just Relax And Play!

Don't dwell on the specs. This is not a CyberTwin + a dozen stomp boxes. This is a phenominally clean and flat jazz amp arguably a pleasure to hear. Effects are reasonable and wide fidelity. Roland has always made extremely "musical" prods since the original Sound Canvas. This is friendly tool, ready for an IPod classic (or other .WAV) source for jamming. Concentrate on your guitar playing.

Bob Price
from Port Charlotte, FL
March 21, 2012Music Background:
Pro Musician - over 30 years

Cube Street by Roland

This small amp does everything I need and a big PLUS is that it weighs a third of what some others do. If I need a 30 lb. amp I'll bring a regular one. For me,convenience, great sound and portability are essential to this kind of product. Carrying a guitar, banjo, mike stand, etc. means I don't want to add another heavy load and make 1/2 a dozen exhausting trips. Additionally, the great service I received from your rep. John Ptak, made the entire transaction smooth and friendly, with this knowledgeful professional on your staff. - Bob Price

Jeff Moen
from GA, USA
September 29, 2011Music Background:
Touchguitarist.com

Cube Street is Great for Chapman Stick

I recently performed in Italy with my Chapman Stick playing outdoors and in small trattorias. I was amazed at how big the sound was from the Street Cube, how it handled a large sound pallet from Bass to high Guitar tones. I play a 12 string Grand Stick and it worked perfectly. The Sound is great, the battery life is long, it's light and easy to carry and it has plenty of volume for most solo gigs, including outdoors! Incredible!

Kevin Peat
from Devon UK
December 16, 2009Music Background:
Semi-pro Live Musician

Roland Street Amp

I use this amp for medium sized coffee houses and restaurants. It is perfect so long as the venue is not too loud - with normal chatter the volume is more than adequate. I've used it on the street too and can say that it actually performs better out there.

With acoustic guitars a decent pickup is required as there are feedback issues at 50% gain (with volume control 100%) I use an L R Baggs Element with my classical guitar and the sound leaves me blown away.

Great on-board effects and superb value for money.

Ed from Baltimore
from Baltimore, MD
August 6, 2009Music Background:
Worship Musician with Home Studio - playing for 40 years

Ultimate Portability

Well, I read a lot of reviews for this thing before I got it, but I'm a skeptic until I get a hands's-on. I expected it to be a bit thin with 6.5" drivers, but was very pleased with the sound coming out of it. I normally use the onboard effects of a SpiderIII or an RP-1000 through a keyboard amp so I am used to synthesized tone. The Street Cube for its obvious limitation, delivers a good variety of sound in a very small and powerful package.

I am definitely impressed with the sound this puts out. And even more suprising is the weight. The thing is about the size of a cinder block, but weighs in a just a few pounds. It is truly hard to believe that 6 AAA batteries puts out this volume. I've played it a lot since I got it last week, and have yet to run down the juice. I'm sure the "15 hours" of play time is optomistic, but it easily lasts several hours at loud volume.

The FX are good. There are three basic flavors - several amp styles, chorus/delays and reverb. These plus the gain control gives you a pretty wide palette to play with. It wasn't too long ago that these FX alone would have cost more than this amp. You can get as clean as you want or crank it to the max. It's just a very versatile box.

I bought this to play some light blues for an outdoor wedding, where A/C was not available. Jack in an MP3 and you're good to play along with tracks. Truly the most fun piece of gear I've gotten in a long time. I don't expect to get rid of it, and with Roland quality, that means it'll be with my gear for a long time. Street Musician? - Don't bother looking anywhere else.

Ed from Baltimore
from Baltimore, MD
August 6, 2009Music Background:
Worship Musician with Home Studio - playing for 40 years

Ultimate Portability

Well, I read a lot of reviews for this thing before I got it, but I'm a skeptic until I get a hands's-on. I expected it to be a bit thin with 6.5" drivers, but was very pleased with the sound coming out of it. I normally use the onboard effects of a SpiderIII or an RP-1000 through a keyboard amp so I am used to synthesized tone. The Street Cube for its obvious limitation, delivers a good variety of sound in a very small and powerful package.

I am definitely impressed with the sound this puts out. And even more suprising is the weight. The thing is about the size of a cinder block, but weighs in a just a few pounds. It is truly hard to believe that 6 AAA batteries puts out this volume. I've played it a lot since I got it last week, and have yet to run down the juice. I'm sure the "15 hours" of play time is optomistic, but it easily lasts several hours at loud volume.

The FX are good. There are three basic flavors - several amp styles, chorus/delays and reverb. These plus the gain control gives you a pretty wide palette to play with. It wasn't too long ago that these FX alone would have cost more than this amp. You can get as clean as you want or crank it to the max. It's just a very versatile box.

I bought this to play some light blues for an outdoor wedding, where A/C was not available. Jack in an MP3 and you're good to play along with tracks. Truly the most fun piece of gear I've gotten in a long time. I don't expect to get rid of it, and with Roland quality, that means it'll be with my gear for a long time. Street Musician? - Don't bother looking anywhere else.

Warren Shenesky
from Orlando, FL
January 18, 2008Music Background:
Pro Musician - rock

Little Amp with a big sound

I found this protable amp to be very loud on the sound. And the sound is great - loud or at low volume!
The gain is very clean and I have since remove a distortion box from my effect chain when I use this amp.
Batteries drain in a few hours at loud volume - but I use recharagable - so that is not a problem.

Highly recommend for practice.

Kevin Peat
from Devon, UK
April 17, 2010Music Background:
Semi-pro classical guitarist - 30 years.

Roland Cube Street

I doubt you could sit on the Roland Mobile Cube or use it as a foot stool as I do the Roland street, Buleria Chk.

People are always commenting about the lovely sound of my guitar - the EQ can be adjusted on the JC Clean model for a convincing sound. It may be worth checking out the more powerful Roland AC 33 which is also battery operated but is designed specifically for acoustics. Paying the extra 30% seems worth it.

Thus far with acoustic amplification I find that there are diminishing returns in being too loud from a single speaker source. The only problem with the Street on acoustic guitars (and I've revised my rating slightly) is the feedback issue at peak volume - about 5% more output would make it the perfect choice for me.

Paul R. Potts
from Ann Arbor, MI
June 16, 2008Music Background:
Amateur Musician/Producer

A Godsend for the Apartment Dweller

Amp "modeling" and tube "simulators" may never achieve the Holy Grail of tone for guitarists obsessed with it, but Roland shows off their years of expertise in modeling because this little amp is amazingly musical; the amp models and effects just sound very good (I guess the term is "suprisingly good," but I'm not really surprised because it is a Roland, and their stuff really is made for musicians).

It's a considerable achievement getting such nice sounds out of such a small low-power box. I grew up with solid-state amps that cost far more and sounded far worse, with ugly-sounding hum and harmonics; my playing would have improved far faster if this thing had existed in 1981 when I was in Junior High trying to coax heavy metal out of a Fender Mustang!

The kick-back design is great for setting on the floor or a table while you practice; you can keep it pointed towards you, allowing you to keep the volume relatively low and still hear what you're doing. The controls are simple and effective, giving you two knobs to control two sets of effects, and I have not tested the battery life at high volumes but at low practice volumes it seems impressive. (It also comes with an adapter which is nicer than the usual wall-wart). I've tried it with numerous electric guitars, a Roland guitar synth, and a couple of acoustics including a Godin nylon-string acoustic; they all sound very lively through it. It sounds good enough that I am planning to use it for recording, since it has a line out.

It is designed with a second channel for a microphone and a stereo line in for an iPod or similar device; I have not used it with a mic and wouldn't expect it to give a huge amount of headroom before distorting, but this thing was not made to entertain a crowd. Besides working well as a practice amp it is very nice to take outside onto a deck or patio or to a park. It gives you plenty of volume for a small picnic or some such and would even work with a small group, assuming you had a drummer who can exercise restraint (some drummers can actually play quietly!)

I would recommend this instead of the Micro Cube for more serious players. Get this for yourself and the Micro Cube for your son or daughter because it will enforce even stricter volume limitations but has much of the same excellent tone. I like this so much I am probably also going to buy the micro bass version.

Greg Williams
from Brighton,Ont. Canada
March 1, 2012Music Background:
Hobbyist

Roland Cube Street Amp.

Sounds great! Only drawback is the controls are backwards.

Ricardo Amaya R
from Medellín, Colombia (Suramerica)
September 13, 2011Music Background:
Music hobbyist (Electronic engineer)

An excelent product

Portability, good sound, stereo, it was the characteristics i was searching and the CUBE Street give me thats. The effects are very good and especially the clean amp with the chorus offers a very warm and sweet sound. The microphone amp reproduce very well the voice, and the effects included offers an excelent extra good feeling. As guitarist, the aux stereo in, give me the chance to reproduce songs with good quality while i am studing (A volume knob or a mute button may have been good because the stereo in has full gain by default, but is ok). The inputs for switching pedals, are a very good option to take advantage of the effects set. Definitely the CUBE Street is a very good tool for studing, sound monitoring and amplification in little spaces.

BuleriaChk
from Santa Barbara, CA
August 3, 2008Music Background:
Flamenco Guitarist for 35+ years

Underwhelming

The sound from this amp is very disappointing - very thin, and the effects aren't very good. It is not FRFR (so even a CD sounds colored); like all Roland Cubes (except the new Mobile Cube) the preamps/speakers seem voiced for electric guitars, and ignore the necessary response for electro acoustic guitars.

But check out the new Roland Mobile Cube - IMO, the sound is incredible; FRFR (so you can use modelers with it), and sounds fantastic with acoustic guitars plugged straight in (even my nylon string Flamenco)

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