Anyone own or try a Roland blues cube hot?

Gear & Tools Talk 🔊 Amplification & Effects
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Hi,

Wondering if anyone owns or has tried a Roland Blues Cube Hot? It’s a 30W solid state amp that Roland built to try and mimic the sound of a Fender Blues junior. It’s 30W with a 12" speaker and, importantly for me, an attenuator. New, it costs about $550 equivalent where I live.

I currently have an Orange Crush 35RT. It’s a really good sounding 2 channel solid state 35W combo and didn’t cost much ($ US 240 equivalent). I like it and it’s simple. However, it has one drawback for me. It’s way too loud as I only play in a small spare bedroom in my apartment in Switzerland. The Orange Crush has no attenuator and I have neighbours who I really don’t want to disturb (they are nice people!). I find that the Orange sounds really good turned from 9 o’clock upwards, but that’s already way too loud. It doesn’t really sound great below that. Also, below 9 o’clock the volume goes down rapidly so it’s quite difficult to adjust the volume to a good level. On the dirty channel, it just sounds fizzy or like a bee in a jam jar at low volumes and TBH just sounds a bit pathetic. Turned up, the dirty channel sounds great.

I would like an amp that is very simple (I don’t need lots of models and effects), sounds nice clean and also at that break-up point between clean and dirty, but without being too loud. The Roland looks good. Good reviews and with an attenuator. If anyone has experience with this amp, I would be interested to know what it’s like. Reviews are all very good, but reviews for most combos from the main brands are mostly good TBH.

Alternatively, are there other simple, lower power/output amps that sound good? Obviously, for playing in my bedroom, I do not need 30W. So is it possible to go with a small output amp that can then be cranked up without it being too loud. My impression is that the lower power output amps often have a smaller speaker too. At my house in France I have my 20 year old Vox Valvetronix with a 12" that I picked up for $50 with an attenuator that sounds great on the low output modes.

Before anyone has suggestions:

  1. No a Katana 50 is not an option. It may be good value with a lot of sounds and effects (most of which I don’t need), and I guess probably has an attenuator (?) But I know my wife won’t be happy having something looking like that in the flat. It’s better to spend more on something she isn’t going to complain about. She wouldn’t complain about the Roland - it looks nice. She doesn’t complain about my Orange either.

  2. No I don’t really want to go down the route of feeding the guitar into my computer and using software and monitors. I spend all day with my computer and its nice to have something else to use that doesn’t feel like work and where I can ignore the mails that are arriving.

Thanks for any advice/comments.

Ian

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I can’t help you with the blues cube hot. I don’t know it.

However I play at bedroom levels, mostly. Bedroom levels for me is where it’s not so loud that it brings my wife out of the bedroom when she’s watching tv. My amps on in my main dining room. The main part of the house.

The first amp I got when I got back into guitar is a supro blues king 12. It was either that or the blues jr. You say this blues cube hot is trying to mimic this amp so perhaps this blues king 12 could fill your bill as I thought the blues jr and blues king were similar amps.

The blues king 12 is a 15w tube amp. So yes, it can get too loud. But I don’t play it that way.
I like clean and this amp excels at clean as much as it can be more dirty than I have any use for.
It has the bell like tones I like.
While it has no attenuation, it is a master vol. amp. So you can control either pre amp distortion or power amp distortion, which ever your wanting. It has a nice reverb to me and a three band eq.
If your wanting dirt ya can dial it in with the vol. controls or there’s two switches on it , boost and gain. Boost just kinda increases the mids I think. With that switch on it goes into breakup a bit sooner I think. The gain switch does add volume, but mostly it’s a built in distortion pedal I think. It can be near fuzz. I personally don’t use that switch much. But it is there if distortion is your thing. You can dial in this distortion at very low volume too.
I don’t find this amp particularly boxy sounding either. It has a big sound to it considering it’s a very small cab. The whole thing weights 28lbs. So easy to transport if ya need. Which I kinda do. I transport into my backyard in the summer and play it outside. So far, I’ve been able to keep the vol. low enough that the neighbors have not complained. I shoot for acoustic guitar vol which I find most folks don’t find an offensive vol.

Think I’ve had this amp now for 4 years round abouts w/o issue. I take that back, the handle broke off while I was moving it from outside to inside after a days worth of use. Unbelievably I was able to hold on when it broke and it never touched the floor. Supro replaced the handle w/o cost. Free to me short of I had to R&R it. 4 exposed screws.

I’d recomend this amp to anyone. I have really enjoyed it and still dig the tones I get from it. My preferred settings are edge of breakup to clean. At edge of breakup I can dial the master vol. back so it’s not bothering other folks (my wife).

fwiw, the blues kings were only produced for a couple of years. They are superseded by Delta kings. They also come in a 5w version with a 10 inch speaker instead of the 12 inch speaker the bk12 comes with. The bk10 also has a 6v6 power tube instead of a 6L6 in the bk12 if that makes any difference to you.

fwiw, my bk12 still didn’t satisfy me for tone, I thought. I later got a princeton reverb reissue which I also love. But there’s a huge price difference between the 2 and the prri being way more expensive. The prri is also only kinda tameable volume wise as it has no master volume.

In the end. I probably play my bk12 more than my prri. While I think I like the tones of the prri just slightly better, the master vol. on the bk12 comes in for the win for me at volumes that are reasonable for my wife (perhaps your neighbors).

I really do like the bk12 and has suited me just fine for my home playing.

Finally, if ya get the chance to play loud, the bk12 gets louder than I wanna play at. It can bother people with being to loud would be my guess. It’s just that I don’t have to and don’t want to play loud, so the bk12 seems to fit my needs.

supro website.

fwiw, their amulet may fit your needs too. I played one when I was buying. Played it next to the prri. I liked the prri tones better, but I liked the attenuator on the amulet. More controllable volume. But I was going for tone, not attenuation.

I’ve no plans to sell my bk12, I like it that much. I’ll likely play it till it dies. No idea if it is worth fixing at that point or not, my suspicion would be not.
Check out them supros over on their website. They seem to be good enough amps for me. I think they are China made. For sure the blues king 12 is.

Enjoy the hunt wherever you land at. It’s exciting to think about getting a new amp… :wink:

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Thanks for the suggestion but it seems unlikely that going from a non-attenuated 35W solid state to a non-attenuated 15W tube amp is going to solve the problem.

There’s also the looming trade war and since the US just slappped a 32% tariff on Swiss imports I imagine there is going to soon be a fairly stiff tariff placed on US goods coming into here, although if it’s made elsewhere and not shipped from the US then I imagine that doesn’t apply (?)

  • please note that this isn’t a political statement, just a fact. I’m not trying to start a discussion or rant about the current US - European trade issue.
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I have one. Nice amp. I prefer my Mesa Boogie 6v6, because I like to dial in my own sounds. But the Cube is a nice solid state amp. You won’t go wrong with it.

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Have you looked at any of the desktop amps?

Something like the Yamaha THRs would be my recommendation. I used one in my apartment in Singapore and it was perfect for that.

Yes, it has some capabilities you won’t want to use, but you don’t have to use them. It has far fewer effects than the Katana (for example) and, in my case, the only one I really ever used was reverb.

You can plug it into a PC or use an app but that is entirely optional and it’s more than useable without any of that (unlike a lot of similar models which do tie you to using an app).

They also look kind of cool, and can also be used as a decent Bluetooth speaker.

Cheers,

Keith

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And can be used wirelessly, so can be chucked into the car or played in the garden.
I don’t use mine that often, but am growing increasingly fond of it :grinning_face:

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@Majik @brianlarsen Yes, the Yamaha desktops look nice, Actually, there’s someone selling one 2nd hand in my area at the moment. A friend of mine has one, so I could try out his. I know that he likes it.

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Please ensure you are familiar with Community etiquette… no politics

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You could check out the Spark Mini. Very small and loud enough for a flat, and a very good sound.