Re: [Harp-L] Roland MicroCube Amp

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Christopher B wrote:
<    Has anyone got any experience with a Roland MicroCube amp? I am 
<considering buying one and would appreciate  any comments. I intend to 
<use it for practice at home, playing chromatic and diatonic.

The Microcube sounds fantastic with guitar, which is what is was designed for.  It's far from awful with harmonica, but it's not great, either.  I've never gotten a better than B+ sound out of it using the Mic Preamp setting, which is the best on the machine for harp in my opinion. 

If you own a guitar, the Microcube is a must-have at $125 new.  There are not a lot of things that cost $125 that will make a guitar sound better than it sounds through a Microcube, and the Microcube is a great front end for recording too.  (Although some people seem to think that the Vox competitor is a better sounding box for guitar--I dunno, I've never tried it.)  In that case, you could consider any use you get out of it for harp to be a bonus.  But if you're after something only for the harp, you might be able to do better.   But at that price, maybe not.  Even small used tube amps tend to cost more than $125.

If you already own an amp of some sort, you might consider an amp modeler like a POD or Digitech RP.  The lower-end models sound good through a clean amp, and sell for less than the Microcube.  But you need an amp to use them--the amp modelers don't have a builtin amplifier or speaker, just tone modification circuitry.

Regards, Richard Hunter
hunterharp.com