ROLAND
Blues Cube Hot
By Charles Saufley
F
ew companies have done more to
serve the cause of solid-state amps
than Roland. The company’s Jazz
Chorus, for instance, is a misunderstood
legend. And while the new Blues Cube
Hot lacks the light years of headroom
and liquid chorus that made the JC
series famous, you don’t have to listen
hard to hear that pedigree. At its best,
the 30-watt Blues Cube Hot is chimey,
sparkling, and present—often exhibiting qualities that make a clean Fender
Princeton or Deluxe satisfying.
More Boom for Your Room
Unlike a lot of amps that could fall
into our loosely defined practiceamp category, the Blues Cube Hot
comes with a 12" speaker. It’s a big
I conjured several
ultra-low-wattage
tones that I wouldn't
hesitate to use
in the studio.
part of communicating the amp’s best
attributes, and it’s good at projecting
bassy, round, clean, and not-too-spiky
sounds. It can feel a little antiseptic and
touchy on the high-mid and treble side
of the spectrum, but it’s excellent for
clean Stratocaster rhythms, atmospheric
sounds with lots of delay, modulation,
and reverb, or just capturing an
accurate, not-too-colored image of your
guitar’s basic voice.
126 PREMIER GUITAR SEPTEMBER 2016
Despite the “Hot” portion of its
moniker—derived from the onboard
boost (footswitch not included)—this
Cube's high-gain tones aren’t the most
flattering. Cranking the volume and
master summons a sometimes-harsh
midrange that’s especially pronounced
with single-coils. Humbuckers fare better,
though both single-coils and humbuckers
will likely need aggressive mid attenuation
at higher volume and gain settings.
One of the Blues Cube Hot's best
features is its variable wattage, which
goes from 30 to 25, 5, or .5 watts.
Lower-wattage settings provide some
of the best sonic surprises. The .5-watt
setting is probably designed with
practice in mind, but I conjured several
ultra-low-wattage tones that I wouldn't
hesitate to use in the studio. My favorite
was a boosted, reverb-on-10, scoopedmids, Stratocaster-neck-pickup tone that
was silky, with a little bite.
At maximum wattage, clean rhythm
tones sound great. In a pinch, the Cube
could probably stand in pretty well for a
Princeton or Deluxe (or a Jazz Chorus,
for that matter). Clean-ish lead tones
can impress, too. They’re snappy and
capture a lot of single-coil character,
though you won’t hear or feel the picking
or volume-control dynamics you’d get
from a good tube amp. Running the amp
hot and at maximum wattage is where
you encounter limitations. These settings
reveal a little solid-state harshness and the
speaker’s more clinical side.
The Verdict
The Roland Blues Cube Hot's clean tones
sound sweet at full power, and the .5 watt
setting is a blast for practice—enabling
expressive tones without dominating
a room. This is the kind of amp that
makes recording fairly robust demos in a
city apartment possible, and in the right
context the Blues Cube Hot can sound
much bigger than it is.
Roland Blues Cube Hot
$499 street
rolandus.com
Tones
Ease of Use
Build/Design
Value
PROS Effective variable-wattage
control. True practice-to-stage flexibility.
12" speaker enhances bass tones.
CONS Speaker can sound antiseptic
at high volumes. High mids can be harsh.
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