Comments on: Roland Mobilecube Battery Powered Stereo Musical Instrument Amp

By: Orpharion

Orpharion — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:11:05 +0000

This review concentrates on the Roland Mobilecube and its ability to work as an ACOUSTIC GUITAR amp, so these comments are directed *only* to its ability to sound clean and undistorted. There are other reviews on Amazon, YouTube, and Harmony Central that look at the amp as a rock and jazz amp. So this review is aimed at the acoustic players out there.

I am a professional musician and play acoustic electric nylon string fingerstyle guitar. For several years I've searched for a battery powered amp that can faithfully reproduce the sound of a classical guitar. I'm happy to report that the Roland Mobilecube does the job wonderfully and with excellent clarity. The reverb and delay circuits are very nice additions for adding depth to the sound of the guitar. I very seldom use the chorus effect, but it too has a pleasant sound. The unit comes with a preset tone selection for acoustic guitar and one knob for adjusting the end stage EQ. It also has presets for keyboards and electric guitars.

1) The unit sounds best when mounted on a mic stand. This eliminates vibration induced cabinet rattle, gets the speakers up to ear level, and makes it sound much louder. Mic Stand-Tripod Base-Folding-Black

2) Use rechargeable batteries and get a quality charger. I've been able to play for over 10 hours on a set of 6 rechargeable AA batteries. I use a La Crosse battery charger. La Crosse Technology BC-9009 AlphaPower Battery Charger

3) Be sure to roll off the highs and presence a bit on your acoustic guitar's preamp to get a balanced sound, as the small speakers will favour the high end. Once you dial in a good preamp sound, the unit will sound very even from bass to treble, even with Dropped D tuning.

TO SUM UP: This amp is perfect for intimate settings, since the sound quality is fantastic. I've used it in coffee houses, living room concerts, and even outdoors in a busking situation. Rating: 5 / 5

By: Ms. Piper Valentine

Ms. Piper Valentine — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:03:34 +0000

This little amp is very cute and small but it’s super loud. I use it to plug my Ipod into and play music outside in the park. I used to have Logitech speaker system for my ipod but it wasn’t loud enough. The only drawback is it goes through batteries really fast. I actually just bought some rechargeable batteries for it to save money. It gets progressively less powerful after about an hour with new batteries so be prepared to make an extra investment if you plan on using the battery function.

It also has a pretty good karaoke setting, so you might want to get a mike as well. It doesn’t come with a AC/DC adapter either to plug it in so you might want to get one of those too.
Rating: 4 / 5

By: Eric Mortensen

Eric Mortensen — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:35:36 +0000

This is a solid little stereo amp with big sound. I bought it for my theremin, but also use it as a keyboard and guitar amp. It may be small, but it is not a toy.
Rating: 4 / 5

By: hot4hypatia

hot4hypatia — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:55:36 +0000

I recently added several toys to my collection: The Roland Mobilecube, the Vox AC4TV8 tube amp ( which I also reviewed), and the JamVox( review to come ).

I have previously owned a Roland JC120 amp and this little amp sound just as good as the JC120 at low volumes. In fact, it sounds cleaner than the big amp!!

The clean solid state sound of the Roland complements the tube sound of the Vox AC4TV8 very nicely. Additionally, although the effects on the Roland have limited 'tweakability', they are all quality sounds. I have always been a fan of the lush sound of the Roland chorus while the delay and reverb are perfectly adequate as well. The overdrive and distortion sounds are acceptable and add to the versatility of the amp. I have not tried the 'guitar cancelling' feature of this amp, so I cannot comment yet on that feature. The acoustic guitar setting also sounds great.
I have only played my Epiphone Sheraton (1970s model) through this amp, but other reviewers have other models listed that have performed well on this amp.
I added the adapter (JR Electronics was cheapest) so that I can save my batteries for road trips.

Highly recommended! Rating: 5 / 5

By: Nestor

Nestor — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:37:45 +0000

I was shopping for a small, portable amp to help adding sound to our

presentations in a small room. Looked at various products and could

not decide as they were looking cheap and fragile. Until I found in

the musical instruments section various cubes. I decided that this

“Mobile Cube” had all the possible audio inputs while adding a bit

of space with reverb and delay so I ordered it. Initially I did not

expect much from 2.5W+2.5W, but it has such a big sound that I am

thrilled by this purchase – and I am no amateur in the audio matters.

Rating: 5 / 5