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Roland Blues Cube Stage – 2014 Summer NAMM

Roland introduces the 60-Watt amp Blues Cube Stage, a blues-friendly addition to their popular Cube amp series.

Roland Blues Cube Stage

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This amp is part of the company’s reinvented Blues Cube series, which they claim better reproduces the tone and feel of the tube amps that helped shape the blues guitar sound.

Amp modeling technology is getting better and better, thanks to the stiff competition between amp and effects manufacturers. With so many new amp models released this year, Roland is not about to let up, expanding their line of guitar amplifiers.

The Blues Cube series is quite ambitious because it targets blues guitar players. These are players that rely less on effects, so they are more particular with tone, feel, dynamics and amp response. Roland knows how to price their products competitively but in order to capture this market, the brand has to come up with a convincing tube-like amp.

To recreate the behavior of tube amps, the company equipped the new Blues Cube Stage with their latest “Tube Logic” technology. It is described as a design philosophy that carefully reproduces the inner workings of tweed-era tube amps down to the minor details. All the components of the amp, from the guitar input to the speaker were analyzed and modeled.

Tube Logic according to Roland: “Dramatically evolved from the first-generation sound of the original Blues Cube amps from the ’90s, today’s Tube Logic accurately provides the complex, highly interactive behavior of classic tube designs in meticulous detail, providing the magical “it” factor that takes a guitar amp from a simple sound system to a living, breathing musical instrument. Great feel, distortion control with touch and volume, bloom, sparkle, power supply “sag,” and more—everything that players love about a finely tuned vintage tube amp is present in abundance with the Blues Cube.”

Following traditional blues amp design, this amp has two independent channels, Clean and Crunch. Each channel has its own Boost and Tone switches for shaping your sound. The Clean channel has a single volume knob that according to Roland, reproduces the natural bite found on tube amps when cranked. The Crunch channel gives you gain control that lets you go from mild to aggressive overdrive. As a bonus, the amp has a Dual Tone mode that lets you blend both channels together.

Blues Cube Stage comes with 60 watts of power, and it drives a 12-inch speaker that is custom designed to work with Tube Logic technology. The amp is enclosed inside an open-back cabinet built using poplar plywood. Since it is modeled after vintage tube amps, the Blues Cube is designed to work well with stompboxes.

Blues Cube Stage Features:

  • Performance-ready 60-watt combo guitar amplifier with authentic tube tone and touch response
  • Roland’s comprehensive Tube Logic design delivers the interactive tonal behaviors of famous fine-tuned vintage tube amps, including preamp and output tube distortion characteristics, power supply compression, and much more
  • Independent Clean and Crunch channels, plus unique Dual Tone mode for blending channels to expand tonal possibilities
  • Master volume and three-band EQ, plus Boost and Tone switches on each channel
  • Four-way Power Control (0.5 W, 15 W, 45 W, Max) allows for cranked-amp tones at any volume
  • Onboard high-quality reverb
  • Classic open-back design with custom 12-inch speaker and poplar cabinet for enhanced presence on stage
  • Stylish, modern look with a vintage vibe
  • Efficient, lightweight design provides easy portability without sacrificing tone quality
  • USB output for high-quality direct recording to a computer
  • Channel selection and Dual Tone can be controlled with optional footswitches

The Blues Cube Stage is expected to start shipping in October, and will be on display at Roland’s booth at the 2014 Summer NAMM. The suggested retail price for this amp will be around $750. For more information, visit Roland.

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