Roland Cubexl80

Michael Remming · Post by **Michael Remming** » 17 Aug 2012 5:56 am

John,

Our band's last 3 gigs have been outside an I have had no problems playing JC Clean and being heard. I acutally believe the tone is better on the Cube playing at louder volumes than say practicing at home.

Mike

Ken Byng · Post by **Ken Byng** » 17 Aug 2012 6:02 am

JC Clean for me too, although the Blackface setting is pretty good also.

Roger Francis · Post by **Roger Francis** » 17 Aug 2012 6:30 am

I've been really experimenting with it in my music room, I tried all kinds of different EQ settings and I settled in on the blk face, I use a blk box with the variable Z and I can't believe how many diff tones you can come up with, from dark to mid to trebly, the settings I'm using rite now are so sweet, the HIs are nice and crispy lows have growl and mids are rich and clear, great separation you can hear, I have the 206 in my Rains so that prob plays a big part too, the only thing i may change is to get a wet reverb, but so far its a kick but little amp

Micky Byrne · Post by **Micky Byrne** » 21 Aug 2012 8:37 am

John (Roache)...I'm not sure what you mean when you say you had to have "both" volumes up and the gain too. If you're on the lead channel to obtain the "black face" you only have the gain and volume....it's nothing to do with the JC-120 setting. I'm with Ken on this, There is massive volume from the Cube. I use the black face...gain on 9-o/clock, and Volume on 12 or more depending on the gig. Huge amount of Volume

Micky Byrne

John Roche · Post by **John Roche** » 21 Aug 2012 9:24 am

Hi Micky, sorry for the confusion, I thought the solo volume was the main overall volume knob as I have found out it's not.
I played with the band in a village hall at the weekend and was lost somewhere in the background, I had to have the foot volume almost to the floor to be heard. I'm playing again tomorrow night at the jam I play every week and should have more idea if it works for me. Saying that on the quiter songs it sounded great. I'm going through a Hilton pedal which is on the factory defaults maybe I'm loosing some volume there.. I using the JC channel as I found the Black face had even less volume .. I'll keep you updated..John

Billy Murdoch · Post by **Billy Murdoch** » 21 Aug 2012 1:22 pm

Until now I have used the JC clean at home and also in a band situation,I usually have the volume at one o'clock for playing with the band.
I have been trying the Blackface at home and if I leave all the "tone" knobs as I do for the JC I cannot hear any marked difference between the JC and the Blackface. I have experimented with the gain and master at various positions when using the blackface and only detect a slight change of "timbre/tone?
Perhaps this will alter in a band situation when playing at higher volume.
Anyway I am very happy with this amp.
Billy

Ken Byng · Post by **Ken Byng** » 22 Aug 2012 10:23 am

I use my 80XL master volume set at 3 quarters max, and there is a load of spare headroom. I can compete with our lead guitar player who has a Fender 4 x 10" Blues DeVille. I'm not saying that I can blow him away with my Roland.........what am I saying - yes I can!!!

John Roche · Post by **John Roche** » 23 Aug 2012 1:23 am

I played last night at the jam , we had no drummer as he was taken ill, so I thought I would record the session and hear what the amp sounded like, as soon as I had to play a solo (JC) if I picked two or more strings the sound broke up, If I played above the 12th fret I got almost a very fine fuzz or fizzing overtone on a single string. After the show while the recorder was still running and no one else was playing I pressed the volume pedal just over half way and played two strings at the 10th fret and low and behold the speaker was breaking up. I had the volume on the cube at 3 quaters on the JC . I thinking that the Hilton is causing the overdrive sound. I have used headphones on the amp and found that there was a quite hum a well as the note being played, Has anyone else used a Hilton with this amp?

Billy Murdoch · Post by **Billy Murdoch** » 23 Aug 2012 2:04 am

John,
I have not used a Hilton but it does sound like an "overdrive" problem.I use a Telonics and it appears to be ok.
Have You tried it with another pedal? or even without the pedal,it may even be the pickup.Try it too with a six string guitar.
Keep us posted?
Good luck
Billy

John Roche · Post by **John Roche** » 23 Aug 2012 2:23 am

Thanks Billy, I did search here and found this, I think this is the problem, the pedal is set with overdrive at the factory.
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... ght=hilton

Michael Remming · Post by **Michael Remming** » 23 Aug 2012 5:34 am

John,

I swicthed from a pot pedal to a Hilton pedal after I bought my Cube and ended up sending the pedal in to Keith, he added another pot on the bottom so I could dial it down so it wasn't so hot. His older pedals have 3 pots on the bottom and the newer ones just 2. It took some time for me to get used to the Hilton lots of adjustments to the amp. But I am happy with the results now.

Good Luck!

Thomas Ludwig · Post by **Thomas Ludwig** » 24 Aug 2012 1:37 am

I checked the Cube 80XL with my lapsteel at a local music shop. It was easy to dial in a nice clean and full tone.
Then I plugged in a 6-string guitar and tone was also very nice. But then I noticed the low picking dynamics. It's hardly possible to emphasize some notes in a melody line or to shoot in some loud chords. It's all limited to the same level.
IMHO this amp is better for steel guitar where you control volume with a pedal then for 6-string guitar.

Earl Foote · Post by **Earl Foote** » 27 Aug 2012 5:18 am

Thomas,
Try the "Dyna Amp" setting for the amp model. I think it is supposed to be better for picking dynamics.

Doc Hall · Post by **Doc Hall** » 27 Aug 2012 6:18 am

I used the Cube out live again this weekend. Noting that several folks commented about the sensitivity of the EQ, I focused more closely on nuancing the settings. Got it real close to nailing what I want. I was happy with the results. Thanks for your suggestions Micky.

Dick Sexton · Post by **Dick Sexton** » 4 Sep 2012 8:00 am

Just ordered my second one...

Landon Roberson · Post by **Landon Roberson** » 4 Sep 2012 3:30 pm

Played out at the Bristol Race Track a couple of weekends ago, we were in one of the camp grounds and I used my Roland 80XL with an external cabinet that had a 15" speaker and a horn in it fully closed and I turned the volumne up to about 2 O'Clock JC Clean side and it sounded amazing the tone was great for a beginner like me and it was plenty loud enough. I did not even have to mic it and I was still loud enough and had a lot of head room.

Edward Byrne · Post by **Edward Byrne** » 5 Sep 2012 1:00 pm

still experimenting with my new cube 80xl, and what i have found with my strat, on the blackface setting, i found the sound quite thin until i dialled the gain half way up, and adjusted the volume to suit, once the gain was half way up, it thickened up nicely, taking on that fruity kinda clean but slightly gritty tone that ive only experienced on a mesa boogie, sounds amazing for guitar, but breaking up a little too much for steel, think ill stick with JC for steel when i get my second cube, but definately blackface for strat, and i think the acoustic is pretty good too, can anyone suggest a good foot switch for this amp?

Stephen Cowell · Post by **Stephen Cowell** » 5 Sep 2012 1:26 pm

Edward Byrne wrote:(snip) can anyone suggest a good foot switch for this amp?

Roland makes several very flexible FS's... I have the FS-6 which is basically two FS-5's in one box. Downside... it takes a battery and is not cheap. Upside... it is configurable for both momentary or latching on either side. I do believe there are cheaper alternatives out there... be aware that a mechanical switch may not have the 'debounce' that you need for controlling computer-like things that can react to every contact bounce. I'm saying try it before you buy it if it's not Roland made.

Alan Bidmade · Post by **Alan Bidmade** » 23 Sep 2012 1:12 am

In praise of the Roland 40XL
I took the plunge this week when my old Laney guitar amp finally went west. However, as a 'home' player I thought the 80XL would be too much amp for my needs and settled for the 40XL.
I had previously tried an 80X which was in my local pawn shop and was unimpressed but I think it must have been damaged because, from the moment I plugged into the 40XL the sound on my old Sho-Bud improved enormously!
I love the range of tones available - JC clean channel works beautifully, and with a bit of fine tuning, there are great sounds to be had on both clean and lead channels (Blach Face)and on the saved Solo channels. Delay sounds great too and 2 kinds of reverb... a beautiful sounding amp, and it also has a 'power squeezer' which the 80XL doesn't have which brings the volume down to 'household' levels without affecting the overall sound output.
Sounds great too using my Epiphone 'Joe Pass' semi-acoustic. What a great little amp!
I'm in psg heaven!

Tommy Boswell · Post by **Tommy Boswell** » 23 Sep 2012 5:02 pm

Edward Byrne wrote:...sounds amazing for guitar, but breaking up a little too much for steel, think ill stick with JC for steel...

Played my 1st loud gig last week and noticed some not nice sounds from my Cube when I got down on the volume pedal. I was using Blackface setting because I like that tone for at-home practice. Should I switch to JC Clean when I need to crank the volume?

Jan Viljoen · Post by **Jan Viljoen** » 25 Sep 2012 8:37 pm

Hi Blokes,

You are the most efficient persuaders I have seen.

I got my 2 months old Cube 80 XL only yesterday for half price and spent all evening testing all kinds of things.
Many musicians here in SA are unaware of internet info on instruments and amps, so I knew what to hunt for and I concluded the safari.
I have the same model as Veli-Pekka Haanmäki from Finland.

Splitting headache this morning though.

Ok, the black panel setting with reverb is probable the best and sounded just like my Fender Super Twin.

I also tested my electric and acoustic mandolins. The acoustic mando sounded reasonable.
I would have liked it better, because I wanted an universal amp that can be used for various instruments.
I bought it for the psg though as the mando can be run through the PA system.
All mando's snarled well with the Lead setting.

My Gibson lap steel and jazz guitar also sounded good.

Overall sofar I am satisfied with this growling leopard. It packs a healthy punch for its size.
Apparently more than 1 million had been sold worldwide.

Steel on!

Jan Viljoen · Post by **Jan Viljoen** » 7 Oct 2012 12:02 am

I discovered this explanation on the features of the Cube 80XL.
My setting on my Stage One tends to be more like Dick Sexton's with low gain, etc.

Copied:
" The amp has 10 COSM® amp models (same technology used in Boss® Multi-effects processors such as the GT-8 and the GT-10) which I will list briefly:

1) JC Clean: Based on the Roland® Jazz Chorus "JC 120" amp, and this is the clean channel, it has a "bright" button which produces richer mids and highs.

2) Acoustic Sim: an Acoustic simulator model

3) Black Panel: Based on the classic "Fender® Twin Reverb" amplifier, suitable for country, blues, jazz, and Rock

4) DLX combo: Based on the classic "Fender® Deluxe Reverb" amplifier, this has higher overdrive than the Black Panel, and suitable for same genres

5) BRIT combo: Based on the "Vox® AC-30TB" amp, for that classic British Rock sound

6) Tweed: Based on the Vintage "Fender® Tweed Bassman 4x10" Combo, suitable for blues and rock

7) Classic Stack: Based on the "Marshall® JMP 1987" stack, and it's truely Perfect for the top rock sound of the 80's.

Metal Stack: Based on the "Peavy® EVH 5150", with high gain and heavy distortion and sustain, great for Metal

9) R-Fier stack: my personal favorite, based on the "Mesa-Boogie® Dual Rectifier" with super high gain, this it the ultimate model for metal, extreme metal, and that brutal crushing and screaming sound!

10) Dyna amp: an amp type that changes tone according to picking dynamics, if you pick softly it'll sound clean and if you apply more force it'll sound distorted (you can use your volume knob with your pinky too to perfect the use of this amp model).

So, this amp is basically perfect for any musical style you could possibly think of, it can have a very nice and clear clean tone, or a crushing brutal distortion based on your needs. // "

Gary Dilley · Post by **Gary Dilley** » 12 Oct 2012 3:34 am

WOOHOO! MINE WILL BE HERE TODAY!

Dick Sexton · Post by **Dick Sexton** » 12 Oct 2012 4:27 am

I've found these settings to be a good starting place. I make slight changes for the room, if needed.
Lead Channel, Black Panel... Note: The controls are sensitive...

Thomas Ludwig · Post by **Thomas Ludwig** » 12 Oct 2012 9:44 am

I couldn't resist I also bought me a cube 80XL and used it for one gig.
The amp really suprised me how well it works on stage. Clean and loud with a great tone.

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