Cube 15X Review

Roland's famous CUBE amp lineup expands with three hot new models: the Cube 15X, 20X, and 30X.

Features:	8.4
Sound:	7.7
Reliability:	9
Impression:	8.3
Overall rating:	8.4
Users rating:	8.1
Comments:	20

overall: 9.3

Featured review by: burntomato, on august 06, 2007

Price paid: $ 103

Purchased from: Tom Lee Hong Kong

Features: This is Roland’s famous new Cube 15X amp. I bought mines a few weeks ago. It has great features like the Power Squeezer, which allows it to achieve the maximum gain and sustain without maximum volume, which is very useful when playing in a bedroom so you can have a better gain sound without putting the volume higher. The Cube 15X also features a mini-jack aux so you can play along with an MP3 or CD player. The Cube 15X (15W) has a 8" speaker, 1 input, treble middle and bass EQ, 2 channels, and a Switch which includes the four different sounds: overdrive, distortion, metal and metal stack. This 15W amp is enough power for a regular room, I play it in my living room and normally I don't put the volume past 1/3 without Power Squeezer. // 9

Sound: I use a Fender '72 Tele Deluxe with 2 humbuckers on the Cube 15X. It suits my style, heavy, punk, rock. Even on clean it gives a really country sound. However on Overdrive and Distortion the sound seems to be very think and flat which is alright for playing stuff like power chords but playing harmonics don't achieve a good result. The overdrive, distortion, metal and metal stack only give a good sound when turned on louder volume (over 1/2 way) even when gain is put on max. This is where the Power Squeezer is useful, it is simply a push button, once turned on you can turn on louder volume so there is better gain and sustain sound, but the real volume given off will be much more quieter which is suitable for environments such as bedrooms when you don't want to play that loud. // 9

Reliability & Durability: The amp is very reliable, but I don't think I'll move it around too much. The amp has never broken down since I bought it a few weeks ago, but everything seems very durable and I think there won't be much problems with it in the future. If it does I'm sure I will post it up to let you guys know. // 10

Impression: I play pop, heavy, punk rock. It's a very good match with the variety of different sounds the Cube 15X gives. I've been playing on another 15W amp which only offered a Drive sound, and the Cube 15X definately sounds much better than that. If it was stolen or lost, I will buy it again. I really love the variety of sound it gives, and the Power Squeezer feature, but I think the sound is sometimes very thick and flat since I use humbucker guitars on it, but I think it would work better with other guitars which has more tonal range. Thanks for reading this review, I hope you guys enjoyed it. // 9

overall: 8

Reviewed by: restless_thrash, on january 07, 2008

Purchased from: International Musicland

Features: This little all-in-wonder has many great features. The most prominent is the power squeezer. It allows you to play with high-gain and sustain at low volumes (if noise is an issue). It has two channels operated by a foot switch (clean and lead). The lead channel features four different distortion levels: overdrive, distortion, metal, and an excellent feature: metal stack. It also has a 3-band EQ, a recording/headphone output, and a mini-jack aux in for playing along to mp3 and CD players. This 15W amp packs an intense punch at top volume, and is quiet when it has to be thanks to the power squeezer. I only wish it carried the many other spectacular features of the Cube series, such as effects (chorus, flanger, phaser, tremolo). This amp is great for metal, rock, and jazz playing. It switches easily over between the channels. // 8

Sound: I use a BC rich Metalmaster warlock with the factory pickups. Playing heavy metal (mostly), it is great for both lead and rythm. The metal stack distortion is very crunchy, and the plain metal setting is well suited for the rythm postion. It's not incredibly noisy, but it can be when it has to. The clean channel is more suited for a bass, though, as the only way to get good treble is with all the settings put towards treble. In a gymnasium or other soundchamber, the amp has quite an echo. In a bedroom or basement, it has very little. It is best used as a practice amp. // 7

Reliability & Durability: This amp is incredibly reliable. It has never borken for me, and the parts sill remain in new condition. I would use this amp at a gig without a backup because there is no way that this thing will break. The parts look like they will withstand quite a bit of punishment. There is no worry of dropping the amp, because it has a very solid construction. It is very durable and reliable. // 9

Impression: I play jazz, rock and metal, and it's suits my styles quite well. I have played for four years, and this has been my best amp for it's size. I wish I had asked whether or not I can add effects before I bought it, because I can't. If this amp was stolen, I would hunt down and kill the person responsible. If I lost it, I would buy a larger model. I love the distortion on this model, and I hope for an improvement in the clean department. This is a great guitar to practice with. // 8

overall: 7.5

Reviewed by: Scorpexv, on december 25, 2007

Price paid: $ 167.2

Purchased from: Allans

Features: 15 watt amp with clean or lead, lead has 4 modes: OD, dist, metal and metal stack. Power Squeezer (which manual indicates takes it from 15 to 2 watts, also helps with clarity.) Aux in (3.5mm) and headphone socket. Classic Roland Styling and my first amp. Standard 3-way EQ (bass, mid and treb). Lead has gain also. Feature rich for what it is. // 9

Sound: I'm using this with a Squier Fat Strat Standard. Maybe just me, but I don't like it a all. Clean is clean, but wherever I go this amp just seems to lack character. I liked it when I bought it, but have since tried many amps so maybe my opinion has somewhat waned. OD is flat, Dist is crunchier OD, although metal and metal stack do what they do very well. Also, I found that the clean starts to pop after about 12 o'clock. in volume. Very much a practice amp. Power squeezer adds a lot of quality to Lead channel, but cuts volume to about 1/4. Good for practice for metalheads maybe, but not being one, doesn't serve me much purpose. // 4

Reliability & Durability: Would not gig with it (c'mon) but seems pretty sturdy. Roland = Boss so I would probably use this as a bullet shield if it wasn't my amp. Seems very well built and would last decades if I intended to keep it that long. I want to upgrade, so I'll have to think about what I'm going to do with this one. Otherwise bulletproof. // 10

Impression: I'm a grunge monkey, whom dabbles in psychedelic rock, prog rock, and occasionally some blues. The Roland, while an attractive package, should only be considered by up and coming metalers. I found it very digital like in sound (it is a modelling amp to a degree) but the clean sounds just too flat for me. It's a solid beginner's amp, but will never, ever reach any good volume for practice or gigging. A true bedroom amp. 7 because I know people use these (and like them) I am not one of them. Oh well. // 7

overall: 8

Reviewed by: Captain Zan, on october 07, 2009

Price paid: A$ 125

Purchased from: Ebay

Features: My Roland Cube 15X was manufactured in 2008.the Roland Cube15x is a popular solid state amp with Features including 2 channels: Clean and lead, although the lead channel has four different settings. These being Overdrive, Distortion, Metal and Metal Stack. This amp has an AUX input, headphone jack, Equalization with bass, mids and treble controls. One of the main features of this amp is the power squeezer which lowers the wattage to about 2 watts. This works well for maintaining tone at lower volumes. Feature wise this amp differs from the 30x in built in effects and a foot Switch jack. // 8

Sound: I am using a Takamine eg510ssc Acoustic and Freedom starter pack single coil guitar to play through this amp. This amp is of high proficiency in the classic rock to metal sounds although packs lack luster clean and bluesy sounds. A lot of the style of music I play is classic rock, alternative and blues, and I feel I chose the wrong amp for my music preferences, due to this being a metal amp. On the rare occasion that I have rolled over onto the metal stack option I have heard good authentic (to me) metal sounds. The distortion is TEH BROOTALS. The amp has good EQ and you can find a variety of different tones on the lead settings although on the clean I have found it very difficult to find a tone that sounds nice. This meaning it is pretty much always lifeless. // 7

Reliability & Durability: This amp is built like a brick. I wouldn't ever gig with it because by the time I'm gigging I would hope to have maybe a tube amp of some sort but it also probably lacks the volume to get over the drummer. I have jammed with my friend who is a drummer and he was really overpowering. // 9

Impression: This amp is of high quality and especially for the price I paid, as it was just like new. I have been playing for almost a year and feel that when I started I thought I would be heavier stuff than I have ended up being, hence my disappointment in this amp. The Power squeezer is a good feature - especially seeing as though I don't enjoy destroying my eardrums, and was one of the main reasons I chose this amp. If this amp was stolen or lost I wouldn't be too distressed and I would probably by a nicer amp e.g Blackstar HT5 or new Marshall Class 5 (yummy). I wish this amp had nice cleans because if it did it would be perfect. // 8

overall: 9

Reviewed by: Xx aLi N 123 xX, on august 04, 2009

Purchased from: Merchant City Music

Features: I play rock and metal and his amp is pretty good. It isn't very versatile but it is good enough for a beginner, especially if they are practising in the house, thanks to the power squeezer feature which turns down the volume but keeps the sustain. It has a plain clean channel and 4 distorted channels - Metal Stack, Metal, Distortion and Overdrive. It has a headphone input jack and an auxillary input jack, which I use quite a lot. The only features I don't use are the Distortion and Overdrive effects. // 8

Sound: I use a Westfield E1000 (I reveiwed that when I was unregistered, check it out if you want.) with stock pickups and a crap Les Paul copy which also has stock pickups. It suit my music style well, which is rock and metal as I said earlier. It is noisy but that is only because of my guitar. It can make good clean sounds like any other amp but unlike my Marshall 15CDR, it has nice crunchy distortion. The clean goes a bit fuzzy on high volumes, but this a practise amp so you won't need high volumes. The ditortion is nice and crunchy and it's good for rock and metal, but DON'T use the Distortion or Overdrive effects. They sound muddy, even at full gain. But otherwise it's all very good. // 9

Reliability & Durability: Yeah, I can definatly depend on it it hasn't gone wrong since I got it. I wouldn't use Live though, because it's too quiet. It occasionally pops but thats not very noticeable and I've found it only happens at high volumes. I don't neglect it at all, but even if someone did I doubt it woould break, it seems pretty solid. // 10

Impression: This is a good match to my playing style. I have been playing for two years now. I also have a Westfield E1000, a Les Paul copy (it's unbranded), a Marshall 15CDR and a Zoom A2 pedal. If it were stolen I would buy it again because I mostly just practise guitar and this is a very good amp for it. I like the Metal Stack and Metal effects but hate the Distortion and Overdrive. My favourite feature is the power squeezer. The only thing I wish it had was better distortion or overdrive effects. Overall, I would recommend this to people wanting to practise in there house or for beginners. // 9

Reviewed by: unregistered, on february 03, 2009

Price paid: $ 99.99

Purchased from: Musicians Friend

Features: This amp is Brand New (2008) This amp is very versatile. The clean channel is just that-clean. The four effects on the lead channel are awesome. It has overdrive, distortion, metal, and metal stack. I put an Ibanez GRX20 through it and they match well. Nice clean bright sounds and then heavy, chunky distorted sounds through each of the four effects. I jam at the house and it is perfect, this is where the power squeezer comes in handy. If you read the owners manual they say that is what the power squeezer is for- an average size home. Roland did not intend this amp to be gigged with Live. Practice amp, and a sweet one at that. // 9

Sound: As I stated earlier, I use an Ibanez GRX20 which has two open coil humbuckers and they sing together (for my style of music). I love Death/Thrash and this amp was made for that, I think. Very little noise, even when cranked-I woke my wife up, yeah she wasn't happy. This amp has a fairly good amount of sounds it can make. The clean channel stays clean and the OD and other effects are awesome. By the way Roland and Boss are like together so you get the Boss OD on this amp-which is cool. // 10

Reliability & Durability: If I was playing a gig in like a garage or small bingo hall, this baby would do the trick. It seems very dependable. It is a new amp so it has not broken down, nor do I think it will. I really like this amp alot.This amp is a beast for this price and this wattage. // 10

Impression: I play the heavy stuff and this amp was built for that. I have only been playing for a short time, but have heard many other amps, this amp by far blows any other 15w amps out of the water. Do not waste your time buying this amp if you are not a metal head. It is not intended for a Strat or some other single coils. Do your self a favor and buy an instrument built to shred and check this puppy out. // 9

overall: 7.3

Reviewed by: LezPaulEpiphone, on may 14, 2009

Purchased from: GAK

Features: I brought this amp about 2 years ago, it is a Solid state and it is very versatile and can play almost any genre. Personally, I play mainly Rock and Some Metal (Metallica, + some other thrash, also the occasional Lamb Of God, and also stuff like GNR) some other guy I know comes round, and plays a lot of blues, the amp suit's this very well. It has "Overdrive, Distortion, Metal, and Metal stack" as well as a "Clean" channel. You can Switch from the "Overdrive, Distortion, Metal, and Metal stack" setting back to the "Clean" setting. There is a headphone jack, but I have never used it.

I never really use the "overdrive" setting, as I don't like the sound of it, and I don't use it with the genres that I play. I use this amp as a bedroom practise amp, It has just about enough volume, but when played along with stereo, it does get drowned out. It also looses sound quality when pushed up to higher levels. // 8

Sound: I'm using it with a Vintage V100 and a Squire Fat Strat. It suit's my style quite well (metal + as stated above, it suit's most styles, very versatile. It can get quite noisy, Especially when guitar is left horizontally. The amp has quite good cleans, and I am very impressed with the "Metal stack" effect. The clean channel gets a tiny bit distorted at high volumes, but not very noticeable. The Distortion isn't very brutal, but you can get some good high gain sounds out of it. Very good value for a practise amp. // 8

Reliability & Durability: I have had it for about 2 years, and the first one I got, the speaker blew. I went back to the shop, got a completely new amp, very good service from GAK. I have had the new amp for about a year and 10 months, it hasn't broken down since then.

I wouldn't gig with the amp, as it isn't loud enough. // 5

Impression: I play mainly some metal, it suit's my style well. I have been playing for about 3 years, and I have only ever had this amp (I played classical for a year), it has served me well, but I am looking to get a new amp as it isn't loud enough. If it was stolen, I would buy something different.

I love the "Metal stack" channel, but I hate the "Overdrive" channel. Compared to other practise amps, such as the small line6 spiders, it is very nice sounding, and doesn't over-do the effects. // 8

Comments

[bigMaor]

Its a great amp for practice!
my firts amp . and it worked well with a few guitars I tryed.
I like the effects on this thing, Boss sound is great

[screenaged]

Not loud enough for practice? Where do you practice, on a building site?

[screenaged]

Not loud enough for practice? Where on earth do you practice, on a building site?

[bigMaor]

its loud... I dont get him.
I think its the guitar, thse pickups sucks so you dont get a good sound out of it.
I have the same problem with my Squier (and whats why I need a new guitar lol)

[fretburn]

this amp is really awesome i manage to get allkinds of tone from it to suit any style.The four distortion effects are very good the dist effect gives classic santana,gilmour tonesand every thing else you can even pla metallica on this amp.the 3 band eq is very useful
you can set it using the ultimate guitar setting thread at.i use a strat

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/forum/showthread.php ?t=294480

[dean749]

its loud... I dont get him.
I think its the guitar, thse pickups sucks so you dont get a good sound out of it.
I have the same problem with my Squier (and whats why I need a new guitar lol)

I have squier as well i think its black and white haha
and i have the same problem
i need new amp and guitar

and im going for this amp
and a Epiphone les paul studio
because my squier if thats what it is sucks =P

[fretburn]

check if the guitar cable your using contains resistors

[Baasoromyuu]

Can you use a footswitch with this like one of the reviewers said? I've heard elsewhere that you can't.

[Astronnilath]

This amp rocks. I don't use the power squeeser, because I think, it makes the sound go a bit muddy....

[Roven31]

This amp rocks, it gives off great sound for my guitar. I love it :3

[yaaarp]

This is my first amp. I haven't tried many but I'm satisfied with this one. It can definitely go loud.

[Ultra9k]

It has no earth connection, so it's always buzzing. I solved it by earthing a metal screw from the back to the power plug though. It's ridiculous it doesn't come with an earth connection from the factory anyway...

[alex.bueno]

awsome amp for practice. sweet squeels!!

[hungryhobo741]

It's a good amp, it was my first but with the knowledge I have now i'dd go with a microcube instead
it's good but is the lesser of the cube-X and microcube lines

[RockOnZeppelin]

Great to use in practice, but the sound doesn't do it for me

[cody57]

I have one it's a great amp for me ,but one hundred dollars is a little high. I got one for $60. it is a good practice amp. I wish i had a better one

[Aceituna]

Hello,
I have just bought a Cube 15x.
I am absolute beginner.
I am starting my jazz guitar classes.
I would like to know the better way to configure this ampli for jazz music. It is going to be connected to my Ibanez AF75.
Thanks a lot.

[C_guitarhero]

I have this amp and it has great performance and variable settings. I especially like the was I can connect my MP3,iPod,Phon..etc to it so i can play along with the songs I like.

[C_guitarhero]

sorry spelling mistake..the WAY I can connect my MP3

[etguitar]

I have this amp and I think its a great amp to get u started but if you are more serious about playing guitar and become a more advanced player you might want to think about buying a new amp after a few year of having this one since it does not have a good enough sound. Marshalls and Fender amps are what you need when your an advanced player. But beginners go for this...its a good investment.