If you’re buying a small amp, you know the problem: small needs to be cheap which usually means nasty. You end up getting a small amp with a sound to match – not exactly what you were after, whether you’re jamming in your spare room or warming up in the green room.
The Roland MICRO CUBE is the world’s most popular battery-powered amp, mainly because it’s small, loud, and built for life on the road (an important point as portable amps end up in all manner of weird and wonderful places). The latest addition to the MICRO CUBE range is the MICROCUBE GX, and although it has remained small, it’s now even louder, has a chromatic tuner and a memory function for saving your favourite settings.
And most importantly, because small amps still need to be loud, a high-gain EXTREME mode brings the number of COSM amps onboard to eight, while a HEAVY OCTAVE setting has been added for those thick, ultra-low tones that we all secretly love.
Finally, the i-CUBE LINK connector opens many new opportunities for practice and recording, providing a built-in audio interface for working with music apps on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. You can even connect to the free CUBE Jam app for iOS and learn difficult guitar parts or just record your jamming sessions and email them to the band or the A&R man.
When choosing a small-format amp, remember the three Ps: power, portability and performance. Let’s think of power in terms of tone and playing time (when used with batteries). The MICROCUBE GX provides enough gutsy tone to keep the neighbours unhappy, yet this extra power doesn’t come at the expense of battery life: you’ll get up to 25 hours of playing time using six NiMH AA-size batteries. And if you’re the type of person who can’t be without a guitar even on holidays, the MICRO CUBE GX includes a chromatic tuner, eliminating the need to carry an external tuner when you play. You’ll also appreciate that the GX weighs well under 3kg, so it can even come on the plane as hand luggage.
