Boss Dual Cube (Roland Micro Cube Upgrade?) 

CORRECTION: The amp does have a battery compartment. I thought it didn't. My bad. Check out affordable alternatives to this amp: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-r92cswgqOgw.html

The most honest reviewer on RU-vid.

Thank you for this review Elmo! I was waiting for your opinion on this amp for two weeks, couldn't wait loger, bought one and sent it back. It's really that bad! Love your reviews, every single one 🙂 Cheers

I have an old Roland Micro Cube and it's a fun little practice amp. I take it with me when I head out of town to visit family or friends so I can annoy them too with my awful stuck in the 70s guitar playing. It gets an incredible level of gain with the Recto setting. I barely use a fraction of the gain.

My Micro Cube has seen off THRs, Voxes, little Fenders, and lots of 'low powered' valve amps. It's a great, great amp.

USE TWO MICRO CUBES with an A/B switch. Unbelievable stereo sounds and endless mixes between them!!

Hi Elmo, I have bought this amp recently; I have seen that for each amp model there are two possible variations (A and B) ; default factory setting are set for variation A ; with the editor I have cheanged to B and I must say that for almost all the amp models the variaton B is much better ; they reminds me amp models of the Roland Micro Cube (now discontinued); the best one in imho is the Hi-Gain Stack model which in the variation B is really reminiscent an hot rodded JCM 800 Now I have set the variation B as default and I appreciate much more this little amp than at the beginning

My Roland Cube 20xl amp selector switch failed.So,cuz i got the amp on the cheap,I pulled the amp section out,and installed a micro cube INSIDE!!(electronics only).Sounds fantastic!!(Constructed a new back plate).

This was surprisingly not quite what I had hoped. Great review man.

It’s… fine? For what it is? But at 300 United States Greenbacks, I can’t understand why anyone would choose this over a Katana 50, Fender Mustang LT25/50, Blackstar ID:core… or even a Blackstar Fly if you absolutely had nothing bigger than a bookshelf to put it on. 300 bucks is a lot of dough for very little amp. Great demo!

Thanks for the review Elmo!😊😎🎸🎶✌️

I just bought the Dual Cube LX, and after a few days working with it, I'm really starting to like it. BUT, reviews like this that make is sound bad (as it will "out of the box") are really important, because that is much more likely to be your experience than whatever you see in a professional and/or sponsored review video. BOSS did makes some shocking weird choices with the stock tones in this amp, and his criticism of the delay knob changing delay TIME when you already have a tap tempo was very well made. However, did you say at the 14:15 mark that the amp "ISN'T portable because it CAN'T run on batteries"? I had to play it back again because I thought I misheard you. Please check the bottom of the amp and locate the battery compartment holding 8 AA batteries. These provide 8-10 hours of life, which is an impressive bit of engineering with all the effects on board. Your criticisms are totally valid, but if you somehow missed that this is a battery-powered amp and that its portability is the whole point of the product, I wonder if that skews your impressions somewhat. What are my impressions? It sounds terrible out of the box, but if you go into the software, you can find two variations of most amps, and I really wish they had defaulted to the "alternate" version when they sold the product. The default Variation A of HI-GAIN STACK is muddy garbage, but I think Variation B is excellent - it's articulate and expressive, not fizzy, and even cleans up with guitar volume. Dual Cube LX is an imperfect product, but if you are willing to work with it, it has a lot to offer as a PORTABLE lunchbox amp.

Happy you are doing a review of this

Excellent review Elmo, as always, a educational experience for me. Blessings.

I have an old Micro Cube that I got 2nd hand about 10 years ago and I won't ever get rid of it

So... Roland micro cube always at the top for appartement playing ! i got one too ! Very good !

For me the THR10 series from Yamaha was (is) the best practice amp, BUT, you need to open it and take away two lil cables from each other, this 2 seconds thing that will made all of those amps sound so much better, combined with my Ibanez nuTube TS (with the blend knob) sounds just evil beauty, specially using the phaser low end trick and the delay filter tricks on the editor, but you can get nice stuff out ot the box also.

Thanks man, good and honest video as always!

Good review, but my experience is that it is a surprisingly good amp given its small size. I primarily use it for cleans, and have no use for heavy distortion, so perhaps that is why it works for me. I agree that for the money a Katana or Catalyst is more amp, but if portability and ease of use is what you need most, this Dual Cube works very nicely. After seeing your review I was expecting to hate this amp when it arrived, but I will be keeping it and using it daily for practicing. I will also be buying the Bluetooth adapter to use the app, and to stream audio to my amp when in the yard or at the beach.

Hi Elmo nice review...like you always do ;) ...I have this Boss dual cube (but just now is more cheaper than you say , actually here in Spanish web-shops it costs since 169€) ...well i use it for practice playing jazz,funk ,soul,50s etc with batteries in the garden or everywhere outdors where i haven´t any socket ,I feel it´s much louder and fuller than micro cube rx and much much more than micro cube ...sometimes comes to my house a friend who plays tenor saxo and we play together , but then the Boss cannot cope enought volume clearly....I was thinking about an other battery amp a bit more louder in clean sounds ...what you think is more louder for my pourpose ,this dual cube or Yamaha thr10? Thanks a lot friend¡¡ ;)

Probably you were on a bad trip, even not noting the amp has battery compartment under. I think it’s not the best amp in the world 🌎 but better than positive grid spark for home and hobby purpose. Greetings from Italy 🇮🇹

Thx for the review!

230€ quite a price (germany). But can do quite a lot In a little package. From clean to metal all i need. My home is tiny. Everything above 15 watt is to loud. And i cant find anything more versetile this size. Katana air is to expensive Katana mini dosn't cover the same specs. And i need something more than an ampplug sometimes.

Thanks will stick with my micro-cube. Still sounds great even when I run an overdrive pedal into it

THIS....with an MXR FULLBORE METAL pedal would sound EPIC!!!....That would be an awesome sound test. Great review Elmo...SKAAL!!!!!

Thank you for the review. I see now the price is around 180, a lot cheaper than in the beginning (?)

Shame they don't put in built lithium batteries in like all the others though, this would be more convenient than buying batteries and chargers, time Roland woke up to this. They make great amps but sadly there lagging behind in important features. Oh and the Mic input wont work same time as the guitar input so that's not busking friendly.

Here's me trying out my delay button on the keyboard... wai wai wai wait for it Good review, honest as always, which helps us save money!

One more honest review. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

For the money I'd check out a Marshall DSL-1, 2 channels and reverb.

I'll just leave my 2c here. I bought this amp during cyber week for 140 Euro. I use it for a variety of things, like monitoring a keyboard, listening to backing tracks while playing the violin, practicing guitar and just listening to music. Since it does a decent job at music playback, and for the size and price it's an okay keyboard monitor (not good though. it lacks treble and is a bit harsh) I'm happy with the purchase. As a guitar amp, I like the cleans, I like the low gain stuff, and I even like the high gain stuff. The crunch though, sounds terrible to me. It's harsh. It's unusable. The Brit stack sounds good at low gain levels, but at mid gain, nope. I did test the b version of the amps, and it didn't help me. I don't think this amp is worth the 200 bucks asking price at all, but for 140, I don't think there's anything better. but if you're looking for that edge of breakup crunch sound, this amp just isn't it imo. I don't even know how boss messed this up this bad, because I like my old GT10 multi effects. Boss has good algorithms, but they messed something up in this specific amp. I didn't spend a ton of time dialing in the eq in the software, so maybe that could help. I don't know. I'll just keep using this as a low gain amp, MP3 Playback and keyboard monitor. I didn't test it with my GT 10 yet, but the GT 10 is huge and not portable at all, it's pointless to combine it with a tiny amp, I'd just use ny valve amp at that point. Cheers.

I'd rather stick with my Cube 10GX, used for 80 euros. Great for at home and without much programming. But good that you introduced the Dual Cube 👍

Good work Elmo!

With line outs (stereo) it sounds pretty nice.

The micro cube rules!

Hi, cool video. Just wanted to ask, bass guitar plugged into roland micro cube + acoustic guitar duo, will the bass be loud enough?

Not faffing with apps to play with my feet up , others are having bad days with that amp to

Hi elmo, i like the channel and honest review. One thing im still curious is if the modelling amp in clean mode could take distortion or overdrive pedal? Or is it compressed and still sound clean?

Been a minute since I've seen a scalloped neck played.

Glad I still have my mk1 micro cube! This sounds very much like a cheap digital practice amp, except it’s not very cheap. I’m a little disappointed

Hi Elmo. Love your videos even when I disagree with them. You are one of the very, very few people on RU-vid with genuinely honest guitar reviews and I always respect that above all else, no matter what. My question is simple, I like the sound of the old Roland cubes a lot for what they are and there is one of these boss cubes available second hand. The thing that I like about the boss cube is the stereo effects and also the fact you can hook up backing tracks via Bluetooth (I know you have to pay, but still) - Bluetooth for backing tracks is a huge thing for me. So considering that, despite the price, do you think this would work for me. What I mean to say, do you think the sound is on a par with the old Roland cubes even if they are a lot cheaper?

Hey Elmo, I am curious as to what pick you are using? Looks quite meaty

i have the Micro Cube GX and this Dual Cube LX. You're right, the new Dual Cube is worse. The delay knob is terrible as you said, it should change the level, but it changes the time instead. All the amp models sound worse than the Micro Cube GX, they are flatter and less alive (except for the "Acoustic Sim", that's really nice and realistic!). You can have little improvement with the software. I tried it but my old Micro Cube GX still sounds better: rounder and fuller in the clean, more biting in the distorted. .. The Micro Cube GX has a 5" speaker, while the Dual has a 4" speaker.. maybe that's part of the problem.

It sounded like an amp with a cold ! Nasal and boxy , I have a laney 6 watt mini supergroup, with just delay but otherwise analog and it sounds way better than that and there about 99/100 euros?

Hello! In your opinion, does it sound better or worse than the boss katana mini? Great video!

Is this much louder than the old Microcube? I am looking to upgrade from 15yr old Microcube. What would be best upgrade? Need louder.

so, if i need a single practicing amp suitable both for guitar and bass (or even keyboard), just for playing it in my bedroom alone with recordered music, trying some effects or connecting it to a PC...i better find an old roland street cube?? (please, i'm going crazy, nothing seems to be suitable for my needs)

Nice vid Elmo - I managed to demo one of these a few weeks ago in my local guitar store. Like any other digital practice amp, it does the extremes ok ; JC Clean and the Extreme amps are usable as I could teach easily with both. It's the inbetween sounds that it just sucks at (US Combo, Brit Combo) ; just terrible lifeless sounds... I guess that's the problem with the Boss Dual Cube LX it's just "meh" for the money that Boss want. The Boss Dual Cube LX is also at the same price point as the Boss Katana 50 MK2 ; no idea why Boss would do this as I cant imagine anyone picking the Dual Cube LX over the Boss Katana 50 MK2 at the same price point (heck, I've seen the Katana cheaper)! And you are totally right - there are dozens of other practice amplifier options that work just as well (if not better) for way less money. Ironically, I have a fair few students and colleagues that have gone back to using simple analogue solid-state practice amps as many of them just want a clean platform for their pedals (things like the Peavey Rage, Orange Crush, Roland Cube, etc.) ; all of which are amps found for peanuts!

Just a correction: you can use it with batteries, battery hatch is located on the bottom :)

So as a beginner (played a bit in 1996 as a teen w/fender squire strat/Marshall 5w tube amp) I got a Epiphone LP Special ii player pack and I love it!! *Short question: is the included Epiphone Electar 10w amp better than a Roland Micro Cube GX? The Epiphone amp seemed lacking definition at lower volumes (I play pretty low bedroom volumes to not disturb) so I got the Roland Micro Cube GX and so far it’s pretty awesome but I know nothing about sound profile. I’m trying to play *Sublime Santeria solo* and without mids or even a treble knob, I feel like I’m missing something (probably don’t understand the tone knob) or it’s just my lack of a musical ear?! The amp is so cool for what it is and I *LOVE* the VOX, Marshall and Mesa Boogie settings. To my understanding Sublime used a Mesa Boogie Rec on Santeria. I play almost everything… classic rock Eagles, Skynyrd, Beatles, Stones and Metallica/GNR and 90’s rock etc. So the Roland Micro Cube was highly recommended on so many channels including this one. Does anyone have a setting recommendation? I’m probably overthinking but, should sell the micro cube for a Yamaha THR10 that has a 3/band EQ… or is it just my lack of ear? To be fair I got the micro cube yesterday and played for 3/hours last night Lol

Love your gear reviews! (No problems pronouncing your name!)

Ehhh, $300... seems I could put that elsewhere. I do have a Microcube and it delivers.

I agree that this isn't great sounding. Everything sounds super compressed, the acoustics were terrible, etc. There are much better options whether new or used for the same amount of money or less. Ty for sharing your review!

Between Roland Cube 10GX and Boss Dual Cube,what would you recommend?I can’t decide

Hey that guy with the tricky to pronounce name ;) thank you and keep it up ..!!! :)

Sorry but those 4" speakers kill it for me.

300e is 2 times too expensive, at this price on occasion there are all-tube combos and similar things like old cube - katana - blackstar etc ... for a small price.

Hey Elmo! I'm currently looking for a good practice amp for home use, no plans to play gigs currently. I wondered if you have a recommendation for a stellar amp that just beats most other amps right now? (I tend to play cleaner stuff, more jazz, funk, Soul and blues rather than metal etc.) I've watched most of your videos on the topic but i'm still not sure which one would be great. Maybe you could help me out and recommend one :)

Bra recension. Är lite trött på att ha min 4x12 stående i vardagsrummet emellanåt, så den lille minimalistdjävulen i mig blir lite sugen på en "downgrade". Men en del av ljuden känns inte som deras legendariska Micro cube 🤔. Vi pratar aldrig om Utd-Spurs igen. Vi ser det som enhörningar. Rena sagor 😉.

just bought the old microcube..the ac clean to brit combo sounds good to me . rectifier not so much ..i thought the speaker is the culprit but its not. it's the modelling itself that sound like shit..i put amplug metal through aux. .the speaker sounds just fine for its size..

Thx Elmo, great vid!

The Boss Dual Cube is cool, but not worth the price of upgrade. I'm happy with my old Roland Micro Cube. It's very loud for such a tiny amp.

Still the best? When was it ever the best lol

Katana 50 or this for home practice? Which is best?

The same amp at Sweetwater is 299.oo which is here in Indiana USA. ♥️ It didn't sound to me as good as my old 50 watt Katana, at least via my pixel phone with headphones. I'd still just buy that 100 dollar version that had out originally. Just FYI my friend. That paint job on that guitar and those lights about blinded me. 😂😂. That body is glaring. 😂😂 What humbucker did you have in the bridge may I ask? I thought you had 3 Yngwie stacked hums? Must be a different guitar that looks similar. still a cool axe.. ♥️🤘🤘 Thanks man.. ♥️🤘♥️ Be safe sir.. ♥️🤘♥️

Looks like Boss / Roland messed up

Sounds pretty disgusting :) compared to my Yamaha THR30II. Thanks for the review Elmo. Great playing skills!

PLEASE HELP! how do I stream backing tracks wirelessly to this amp?? I have the blue tooth attachment, i have the app, but I do not see any way to stream music... which is pretty annoying since I bought that stupid dongle just so I could do this, and it doesn't seem to work. If there is a way to do it, how?

Hi, could you use this for busking?

nice

What is the riff you start playing at 13.08?

Thank you Elmo, this is why I like this channel so much. Honest reviews that can be negative at times when appropriate. By the way, does a Roland Microcube work well with effect pedals or is it not recommended?

2 x 5W is not enough for solid state. It did not sound good when gain is up. Upvoted and subscribed.

If I can recommend something, like Elmo said without saying what I gonna say, just buy something used. New stuff is becoming ridiculous way overpriced (our fault) and sounding at the end not better than the older stuff, even some multi fx, I almost prefer the Zoom G1xon (hacked) than the new G11. The "real" good stuff, or it's not portable, also too too much expensive for what it is, with the price one Quad Cortex I can buy PC parts to build a gamer and also engineer workhorse computer, leaving space to use vst for your audio proposes.

Have you tried the Roland Mobile Cube? Wondering if it's as good as the Micro Cube?

if the line out is connected will the cube still produce sound or will it become mute

Hi Elmo, I got the question, sorry if sounds silly but I’m new in guitar world, should I buy this amp or multi effect boss gt1 ? Thanks

For some reason,to my tin ears;Boss overdrives&distortions/amps ALL sound Harsh!!Roland Micro cube,Classic stack setting is my FAVE!!(But i agree with EK,it DOES need a little extra gain)

I own this thing. It sounds bad for me. I also own a 15 W Peavey Rage 158 v2 from 1995 Transistor Amp. It sound x times better. The Boss Pedals are really good. So shame on boss for this device. I have seen other reviews where they use the stereo out (and did post processing, I guess) where it sounds great. But that is not the way to test an combo amp. So you did it right with the mike in front. And even with the miked up recordring it sounds better as if you sit in front of the amp.

Apiculture's finest PS: Rectumfire 🤣🤣🤣

Are you going to review nux mighty plug pro MP3?

lol what a gizmo!

I find your tests quite muddy and the sound with lot's of bass compared to some other reviews of that amp made on other channels ... would you had an issue with this specific one ?

If i wanted to put a floyd rose on a music man axis type body or a strat body could i just stick the two things into the body and call it a day and not need to cut the body?!?

Have the original cube and the bigger Cube 40gx..the original micro cube just sounds better on the gain channels, the gain channels actually suck imo on the 40GX

Price update: this is no longer 311 euros, it costs 199 euros (checked today at Thomann) which is probably a more reasonable price.

It's not just you Elmo. The amp models are somehow worse than 15 years ago and the delay is comically bad. This thing absolutely sucks. Spark Mini a far better option

Too pricey. There is katana, roland cube second hand, mini, artist line... Not portable, no batteries but still small but still pricey. Sometimes I cannot understand these big companies and their production supervising.

I prefer Micro Cube RX with 4 speakers

This guy is hilarious and he looks like Axel from guns and roses

you can buy the Roland Cube with four speakers

211 euros for two four inch speakers is 26 euros per inch of speaker....that doesnt sound good. Ill pass on that. Good job Elmo.

Why they ever chose to discontinue the original Microcube with inferior sounding products is just entirely beyond me.

In my opinion a beginner electric guitar player can't do better than get a second hand Roland Microcube. I've been using mine a lot lately - with a second hand Zoom G2 effects, which has a good drum machine - for metronome practice with headphones (AKG K52) from the microcube socket. Great fun!

Is this the LX version?

After listening that amp was really horrible. Elmo, your playing was inspiring same as always but that thing sounded like junk. The high gain settings sounded really thin and harsh, and normally clean tones are even solid state amps can get right but not that one. I honestly didn't hear anything redeeming about that particular amp and especially for that price. For the same amount of money I can get a hughes and kettner stompman and a small cab that will sound so much better.

Doesnt sound that great. I know its not the same, but for the money you can buy a Katana 50 or a Marshall DSL1... Cheers from Portugal 🤘🍺🇵🇹

I have the spark amp, it’s amazing and their had software upgrades and these included new amp settings. Great review it doesn’t sound great especially the acoustic and delay sounds

Well if you’re a metal head I guess this amp is for you.

Get a Spark 40 less money and way better.