The Steel Guitar Forum

Brad
Glad you are happy. Everyone that I am aware who has bought one of these amps has been pleased with their purchase. It depends upon the brightness of the guitar that you put through it, but for my push pull Emmons I have the Bright Switch set on off. The rest of the EQ controls are set as follows;

Bass.........3 o'clock
Treble.......11 o'clock
Middle.......10.30
Presence.....12.00

This is all through the JC Clean channel. I will use a camcorder today and record my 10 string lap steel through the amp and put it on YouTube.

It really is dead easy to dial in a good tone with this this amp, as the tone controls are very straight forward and intuitive. The delay settings require the user to tap the speed of the repeats, and the delay knob sets the intensity.

The frightening thing is that if Roland produced a basic 80 watt Cube with no amp modeling, just the JC Clean channel, the price of the amp could be reduced even further. That would make it even more attractive to steel players.

How hard is it to adjust tone, reverb, delay, change patches, etc on the fly?
I'm thinking about a lighter rig, but I still love having those controls at my fingertip like I have with a POD.

Chris
The 80XL Cube is similar to the POD in several ways.

There is a single reverb rotary knob for increasing/decreasing the amount of reverb, which can be either a spring reverb or plate reverb.

Likewise the separate delay intensity can be altered via a rotary knob, and like the POD there is a tap facility to change the tempo of the delay. Dead easy.

The Tone controls are very straight forward (like the POD) and the good thing is that if you alter one of the tone controls it doesn't affect the other controllable frequencies.

One of the guys has just bought a Roland 80XL for $360. That is a real bargain for what you get for your money. I am only using a tenth of its capability when I play steel guitar through it as I don't need the modeling side of the amp. However I would say that the amp emulations have the POD beaten all round, at least the POD V2 which I own.

Ken B. Thanks for your reply...One feature I like about the delay is that if you hold down the tap button for one second then press the rec/play/dub button you set the delay for 30 milli sec...press the button again for 50 ms, again for 70ms and again for 90 ms...these are called short delays which are of use to us steel guys..the longer delays are set with the tap button which are probably not much use most of the time. YMMV. Anyway, there are a lot of features packed in this amp...As Micky B said this amp has so much more than you get with the Peavey Nashville 112...Guys, you owe it to yourselves to at least take a look at it..I cannot believe that they managed to put so much in a 35 pound amp..all I can say is WOW!.

Yep, Ive got 2 of them...Really easy on the back, and great tone...At a very affordable price...!!

Yep, Ive got 2 of them...Really easy on the back, and great tone...At a very affordable price...!!<<

Mickey, I just got mine yesterday from American Musical Supply...like you say, great tone and so many features..makes one wonder how they could get so much in a 35 pound Amp..but they did..I still have my Peavey Nashville 1000 and 112..Oh Yeah, I forgot, my Session 400 Limited...Four Amps...more than I need but what the heck, we only live once.

Brad...welcome to the Cube 80 XL club My tone settings are "Exactly" the same as Ken's. I'm on the Clean channel too. When I turn the amp on, I tap the Delay button twice, but quite quickly, so it's almost a slap back delay. I don't set the depth of the delay too high...you can test this by just plucking a muted note on the steel. I use the plate reverb at about 3 o/clock. I guess Steel players may slightly vary their own individual tones on the clean channel. I have a Wallace TT pickup on my Uni. I recon for a normal sized gig the volume on the clean channel at 12 o/clock would be well sufficent. I bought a little fold up stand at "Pound streachers" a store over here. It sits the amp about 16 inchess off the ground. It's light Ali and black padded top. Only cost £8.00. Ken let's know when you've done the youtube. Brad ...enjoy "your" new toy, I know you will. I'm quite long in the tooth in my steel playing, but I can honestly say, this is about one of the best amps I've used...not just the tone, but also for the amazing "usable" FX on it. and also for the rear panel facilities for line out etc etc etc. Have fun...I guarantee you will

Micky Byrne U.K.

When I turn the amp on, I tap the Delay button twice, but quite quickly, so it's almost a slap back delay. I don't set the depth of the delay too high...you can test this by just plucking a muted note on the steel. I use the plate reverb at about 3 o/clock.<

Hey Micky, Looks like you found the sweet spot for the amp. I don't know how many milli seconds two quick taps of the delay is but it works like a charm. I also like the 3 o'clock setting for the plate reverb. Again, thanks for taking your time to reply..I'm a happy camper...OBTW, I also have a Wallace TruTone PU on my Williams model 600 Wide body S-10.

Ken Byng wrote:Chris
The 80XL Cube is similar to the POD in several ways.

There is a single reverb rotary knob for increasing/decreasing the amount of reverb, which can be either a spring reverb or plate reverb.

Likewise the separate delay intensity can be altered via a rotary knob, and like the POD there is a tap facility to change the tempo of the delay. Dead easy.

The Tone controls are very straight forward (like the POD) and the good thing is that if you alter one of the tone controls it doesn't affect the other controllable frequencies.

Thanks. I notice there are no knobs on the front. Are they on top?
Seems I would have to stand up to adjust a knob or change a patch.

interesting thread Micky... makes me want to try one.. but still don`t think I will part with my Fender twins....

Your back might appreciate it John. My ticker certainly does.

Chris Schlotzhauer wrote:

Ken Byng wrote:Chris
The 80XL Cube is similar to the POD in several ways.

There is a single reverb rotary knob for increasing/decreasing the amount of reverb, which can be either a spring reverb or plate reverb.

Likewise the separate delay intensity can be altered via a rotary knob, and like the POD there is a tap facility to change the tempo of the delay. Dead easy.

The Tone controls are very straight forward (like the POD) and the good thing is that if you alter one of the tone controls it doesn't affect the other controllable frequencies.

Thanks. I notice there are no knobs on the front. Are they on top?
Seems I would have to stand up to adjust a knob or change a patch.

Chris
The controls are on the top of the amp, and the control panel and knobs are countersunk so there is no likelihood of the knobs being vulnerable to being broken like the NV 112. Here is a pic.

Hmmm....looks pretty straight forward.

Thanks for posting that Ken

I can honestly say that the Roland Cube 80XL amp has been one of my most satisfying purchases...the amp has great tone, the effects are right in the amp...it only weighs 36 pounds..it is the right tool for most small clubs and for home practice...IMHO

I got mine a week ago, I've only played it in the music room and so far it sounds good, I've been running a drum machine through mine some trying to get the speaker broke in I need a little more bass reponce out of it, this weekend will be a good test for it I have three outside gigs to do so I'm going to use it along with my Nashville 112 and see how things go. I hooked up an external 1203 -4 cabinet to it but don't know if that would be enough for the gigs

OK Ken you talked me into it! I am gonna give it a try.... twill be delivered next Saturday.... Got a gig on an open topped bus travelling from St.Ives (Cambs.) to Luton, we will be one hour in front of the olympic torch playing some gospel toons...Are you sure I won`t need two of`em?? it seems a mite small??

John - don't sit too close to that torch!

I would try one at first as they have quite a bit of poke. Two would give you the Phil Spector wall of sound!

They are a cracking little amp, and I bet you will be chuffed with it. That 335 of yours would sound a treat through it too.

Ken

John, as Ken said, his and your back will love it...Mine does. Regards your twin, there is a "black face" twin setting on there. It's so damn accurate. Most use the JC setting...but the other usuable ones (for steel) I've found are obvious the "Black face" twin ... and the Tweed..which simulates the Fender 4-10 combo. I could go on all day about this little marvel

Micky Byrne U.K.

Micky Byrne wrote>>I could go on all day about this little marvel<<

I back Micky up 100%..this is the best Amp I ever bought..it has tone to the bone, It does not break up when pushed..I do not know the make of the speaker they use but I know it produces great tone..I like it so much that I even went out to Lowe's today and purchased one of those tough plastic milk crates ( 13.75x15.5x10.5) (WLH) to set it on..cost me $6.87..You can see I'm a very big spender..LOL...Now I have to call American Musical supply and see if they have a cover for it..hope it doesn't cost more than $20..I don't want to baby it.

I gotta chime in here....
I was enticed bay all the posts here so I took the plunge also....Here's my opinion, YMMV

1. JC setting- yup-just as described. I have only plugged my old ShoBud into it so far but I am able to get it way louder than I'll ever use it and it was still plenty clean...nice.
2. Black Face- SWEET! This is a great all around setting not only for steel, but every guitar I plugged into it sounded great- even my baritone! That baritone has always been hard to amplify and have sound nice.
Classic- GREAT for that vintage stack at 11 vibe. I was rippin' it up on that setting- pick squeals just jump out at you. I gotta plug in one of my cabs and get that 'stack' thing going...where's my earplugs?.....
3. Metal/R-Fier..I don't know about these settings...I AM a big fan of metal and all it's brutal-ness, but after only 5 minutes of these settings I noticed my ears starting to fatigue and compress the sound- and all this was at a very tolerable level-not loud in any sense of the word...I went back to the classic setting and it sounded dull...it took another 5 minutes or so for my ears to recover....so you may want to watch out on those settings.
4. The other amp settings were ok, but didn't get my 'thing going'...so no comment on those for right now, I'll save comment on the other amp models for a later time after I've had time to thoroughly go through them.
5. FX- Very nice sounding, very usable.
6.Looper- No footswitches (yet) Maybe later
All around impression- I can't believe that this amp can be made at this high of quality for the $$$ they ask for it. Without a doubt the best 'bang for the buck' of any amp I've ever came in contact with. Not only in price, but in quality of sound.
For you guys doing double-duty with guitar/steel- this is an amp you should try out. It is a channel switching amp-you can set up one channel for guitar and one for steel.
I've read this amp takes pedals well, that'll be the next thing I do with it.

I have no affiliation whatsoever with Roland/Boss, I believe when something this cool and affordable comes around, we need to share the info!

So thanks all for the heads up! I am so happy I bought this amp.

Jay

Edited to add- The DLX Combo setting ended up working out great for tic-tac bass. Just enough grit to make it pop out without being muddy- I think I had the gain about half or so....add that to the list!
Jay

Jay, I'm so happy you took the plunge to get the Cube...you'll find the more you play it the more you'll like it. Plus as you said "Bang for the buck"
What I am enclosing here is a slight twist of the thread, but is about Roland. Listen to the tone this kid's getting, and there doesn't seem to be an extra amp in sight... You can't go wrong with Roland.



http://chookaparker.com.au/

Micky Byrne ... U.K.

Jay, Welcome to the growing list of Roland Cube 80XL converts..we have Micky Byrne to thank for bringing this Amp. to our attention. I agree with your following statement: "Without a doubt the best 'bang for the buck' of any amp I've ever came in contact with. Not only in price, but in quality of sound".

Well I took the plunge as well, being my 112 was flabbin out. Got the Cube and three hours later right out of the box I gigged with it outside. Luckily I read the posts so i knew how to use it. I was miked and steel sounded clear and strong on the JC at 5 which I preferred over the amp sims.The models sound authentic though, especially the Blackface. It cleared my board of the RV3.Bandmate's concurred and were happy. Got me a great cover from Tuki covers, made just for it! This forum sure has gotton me to spend my hard earned dollars for gear over the years!

Got me a great cover from Tuki covers, made just for it!<<

Mitch A. Thanks for the heads up on Tukicovers.com...did you get the padded or the vinyl cover?

Hi Brad,
Padded is the only way to go. Ten year warranty. I got three for all my amps over the years.Just look up your amp model and they make it. More bucks than the vinyl but much better. That top panel looks vulnerable so I bit the bullet spent the 62 bucks plus shipping and got a padded.Perfect fit!