Review: Roland CUBE 15XL Amplifier

After a failed attempt at fixing a years-old broken down practice amp I bought for $15 online, I found this little beauty on eBay selling brand-new for quite a bit less than retail price. The Roland CUBE series is one I'd had multiple conversations about with various guitarists around the time that I bought it. I even had the pleasure of trying out the 20XL at my local music store. While the 15XL isn't quite as exciting as the 20XL, this little all-in-wonder has many great features, perhaps one of the most notable being the power squeezer which allows you to play with high-gain and sustain at low volumes (a nice feature for us bedroom guitarists). The amp has two channels - clean and drive. The clean channel has one knob (volume) while the drive channel features volume, gain and four different modes: overdrive, distortion, metal and extreme. There are no other effects, a disappointment in comparison to it's big brothers that boast chorus, flanger, phaser and tremolo. The Cube 15XL has an 8" speaker, one input and one output jack, a treble, middle and bass EQ, and finally a mini-jack aux so you can play along with an MP3 or CD player.

I play an Ernie Ball Axis with factory pickups. I'm more of a blues guitarist, though I do play quite a bit of rock, reggae and a little bit of metal. The 15XL is built with BOSS pedal circuits which is easily discernible when plugged into the distortion setting. It sounds a lot like a Boss DS-1; ideal for rock soloing or heavy chord work. I love the overdrive setting, perfect for blues and classic rock, with more than enough gain available if you're going for more vintage lead sounds. The metal stack/extreme setting is very crunchy and would do anyone a nice option for lead, while the basic metal setting is well suited for rhythm-playing. The 15XL's clean channel is very bassy...there's not much high-end shimmer to brag about. It's certainly passable for practice, and jazz players might dig the warm roundness.

All-in-all I think this would do any guitarist a nice practice amp, especially if you're not big on effects. If you are into effects, then I would definitely save up a little bit extra cash to put down on a 20XL. Keep in mind, this is a practice amp. If you're wanting something to gig with, the 40XL or 80XL are both great options to consider. Roland is a company that makes very tough, reliable effects and the Roland CUBE 15XL is no exception.

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