1st some background. I have had a Roland Blues Cube Artist amp for about 7 years now. I primarily play on the clean channel and use pedals if I need OD. I have other amps, but this amp has done at lot of heavy lifting for me over the the last 7 years. I primarily play blues, smooth jazz and some classic rock. I use both single coil anf humbucker pickups. I was looking for a way to get just a bit more clean headroom out of the amp when I play at gigs. At home clean headroom is not an issue. I like Kirk Fletcher's tone so I decide to buy one. Long and short is that this tone capsule fit the bill if you are looking for a bit more clean headroom vs the stock amp. I did not notice much of a change in tone vs the stock amp, but to be honest, it was too difficult for me to do a direct A-B comparison. The capsule was easy to install. For a guy like me who barely knows a screw drive from a wrench, this is important.

The only negative I have is the cost, which I think is a bit on the high side...

I considered buying a Fender Tonemaster Deluxe but decided to try the UBTC first, as a less expensive option. I followed reviewer suggestions on how to set the amp's controls and then tweaked his settings just a bit. I play old-style Americana (The Band, G. Dead, etc), Blues and Country on a PRS S2 Mira semi-hollow and am very happy about the way the UBTC has revoiced the amp, including the much-improved headroom. Note-- I'm not sure how well the UBTC would work on the Blues Cube Stage-- the Stage lacks a presence control and I found this to be a crucial feature for getting a good tone with the tone capsule.

Sounds great. Very Blackface 6v6, like the description. I"ve only had it a week or so but very happy with the purchase. I would have given it 5 stars but it took a lot of force to install and I wish it had a switch to bypass if you wanted to go back to the original blues cube sound. Would buy again tho.

Let me start off by saying that the Blues cube amp is a great amp! I have the Blues cube artist, I performed using this amp (stock) from small bar to a big music hall. If for whatever reason I can"t get any tone capsule, I will still be happy with the amp.

That being said, getting this tone capsule elevates it even more! I play a wide variety of genre, from sparking clean to heavy metal. The stock itself is already great from cleans to up until mid gain. The limitation of the stock amp becomes apparent when you start using high gain pedals or stacking overdrives as it gets too compressed and you loose a lot of highs as the gain goes up.... I can"t really blame the amp for this though since the amp is made mainly for blues (as the name of the amp suggests

I was sold after several online videos showed an A/B comparison of with/without this tone capsule and I couldn"t be happier. The amp is absolutely incredible on its own, but this makes it even better. Without a doubt, the best tone I"ve ever heard from any amp.

My Roland Blues Cube definitely sounded more like a tube amps with more natural tones with the capsule installed.
However, it required a lot of efforts to inserting the capsule contact pins into the pins sockets on the amp.

Installed a couple of days ago in my Blues Cube Artist. It comes in a nice box with instructions. Remove a roundish plate cover (2 screws) from the chassis bottom to expose a hole and tube-like socket much like a 12ax7. The label on the TC faces outward so the pins line up properly. Be careful as the TC is not keyed like a tube. A clear cover is provided that serves to protect the TC and uses the same cover plate screws. As I've read in other places, the clean channel now has more headroom and a Blackface Fender character very-very close to a Super Reverb I owned many years ago. I also like the crunch channel too and will use it, but it's character is markedly different than the clean channel so it requires different gain and volume settings from the stock amp. Overall the UBTC stays installed. Great service once again from Mark Stein. Thanks!

I use this in an 80 watt 1x12 Artist combo. Basically it mimics the response of 6v6 tubes as opposed to the 6L6 tubes the amp is based on. It causes the amp to sag and compress a little bit earlier and seems like it brings out pick dynamics a little more. Haven't used it live yet but so far, as I said, it does what it says it would. A cool device that lends another dimension to an already versatile amp.

Not sure what the other 5* reviews heard? I have a Blues Cube Stage that I having been playing out with for the last 2 years playing everything from Funk, Soul, Blues Rock its a versatile amp that I get nothing by compliments on. I was mostly looking for a little more headroom on the clean channel. After playing with it in and out several dozen times + I basically heard very little change maybe a hint of less high end. I found no more head room that I had previously and as I said very little noticeable change in sound. I Tried it the clean and crunch channels and all the wattage's. For $ I want to "hear" not try and hear the changes made!

I loved the Blues Cube as it is. It is small and light and covers more bases than I thought possible. I tried the Eric Johnson Tone Capsule and was disappointed - not for me, I guess. I read good reviews and heard samples of the Ultimate Blues Cube, so I thought it was worth trying. Turns out it was perfect. My first serious guitar amps was a '67 Fender Super Reverb. I loved it, but it was loud and heavy. It sounded best turned up to 7 r higher - enough to make your ears bleed. Tried other amps and got close. This one did it for me. Got the tones I want at the volumes I need now. Happy with this purchase.

As good as the Blues Cube is right out of the box, this literally makes the amp better in EVERY WAY.

If you use pedals you will LOVE this capsule! The stock amp starts to get a little warm around '3', gets a touch of hair at '4' and is breaking up at '5'. This generally means that if you need a higher stage volume you need to run your master and/or power scale a lot higher to get the volume you want. With this tone capsule installed your headroom goes WAY up. I use to like the tone of the stock amp at 3.5 on the channel volume; I run the volume with the tone capsule installed at 6. This increased my headroom and output so much that the last couple of gigs I did I used to power scale and turned it all the way back to 15 watts, and I had no trouble being heard over the other guitar the bass, the keys or the drummer!

If you liked the stock amp with the clean channel having more dirt just be aware that with the higher headroom you need to turn it way up - the dirt is in there, just higher up with more volume!

The crunch channel with this capsule installed is truly superior in every way - better, smoother gain, more cutting through a mix, the 'tone' and 'boost' buttons are a greater affect on the sound. If you're a guitar straight into amp kind of guy then this capsule will MAKE this amp for you.

Now when you first plug it in you may notice a change in the tone and at first it might seem jarring, but let me explain to you what is going on and it will not only make sense, but turn your amp into a beautiful tone machine.

The UBTC essentially makes the amp a Fender Super Reverb. If you've never had the pleasure of playing a Fender super reverb, then it is worth noting this is one of those amps that really benefits form the "magic 6" as a starting point. This is a great starting point, but from here we can improve it a bit.

Now Fender Super reverbs tend to have enough bass to make your bas player quit, and/or blow your speakers if you're not careful. Often guys run their bass on these in the 2-4 region - sounds very low, but this is actually where it sounds right. Now I don't personally like the traditional blackface "fender scooped" tone, so I don't keep the mids at 3 like the "magic six" suggests; I move them on up to 7 and it suddenly sounds like "clean tweed super reverb" if that makes sense. Treble being high seems like it would be icepick city, but again - not on a super reverb [FWIW Derek Trucks uses a super reverb and his settings are bass 2.5, mid 4.5, treble 7.5, volume on 8, so as you can see his settings are not all that different from mine, I just have more mids].

Part of the magic of a super reverb is that as the volume on the amp goes up [in our case its the "channel volume"] the mids and bass go up, and the treble gets softer and more musical and almost becomes more like "high mids" than actual treble. The presence knob becomes more like treble, although it too is softened. So as this amp gets up to volume, it develops a throaty roar that makes it sit perfect in a mix and is THE classic "warm amp" tone. You just have to remember to go easy with that bass - its a killer!

Now I keep the master around 3-5; at the 80 watts on my artist I can't imagine I'll ever need it over that, and I don't want to lose the immediate attack that can happen with too much "sag". Reverb at 3 for a touch of air - its more felt than really heard; it just lets the sound breathe a bit. I then use the amps built in power scale to tune my overall volume for actual stage volume needed. Then I hang my mic on the amp and I'm set [I use and prefer a Sennheiser E906, FWIW].

So should you get the UBTC? I can't fathom at this point why anyone wouldn't want this tone capsule unless you really are in love with the Bassman sound and do not want to use pedals at all. Otherwise, the bassman sound is in there with enough volume, but you get a much better gain channel and a LOT higher headroom.

I have had The Ultimate Blues Tone Capsule in my Blues Cube Artist for a couple of weeks now. I must say Roland got this right, I am not familiar with vintage Fender amps and their cranked tone, so I can't say if Roland achieved their goal of simulating a fully cranked-up small amp with 6V6 tubes, notably the small blackface amps. But I love the new tone this gives the Artist, it is warm and sweet and easy on the ears. One thing I noticed is that my Strat sounds really good to my ears for the first time (humbucker guy), but it also sounds great with my humbucking guitars. My playing is in the studio at the 15-watt setting.