Roland Micro Cube Bass RX Amp Review (Busking, Guitar, Bass, Violin, Battery-Powered)

I love the Roland RX Bass battery-powered amp and have used it for a little over 6 years (2012-2018) – both on gigs and on the street. 

I play guitar mostly.  My steel string and my nylon string sound good. And my fretless bass sounds good, too.  I like the fullness of the sound. Also, a friend plays violin and viola using this amp, and it sounds good, too.

The Roland Street Cube and most of the other battery-powered amps for guitar sound thinner/tinnier.  The Bass RX Micro Cube is great for duets because it covers the bottom end.  And when I am playing solo, the sound spectrum feels wider than on most guitar amps.  Obviously if you want a lot of high-end, you would look elsewhere.  But I always like mids and bass more than treble.  And it doesn’t really get that muddy either.

I play mostly nylon-string guitar right now.  But with a steel-string, this would sound great, though you might need to EQ out a bit of the bass.

Please note I am Amazon Affiliate and receive a commission for any sales they receive from this site.  Also, please note you may find a cheaper price at Guitar Center, Reverb, or Sweetwater. 

I would recommend trying out the amp first (like any musical gear) – unless you’re comfortable buying something and then returning it.

But if you were to buy a battery-powered amp without trying it first, this might be the amp to get.  There are some newer battery-powered amps on the market that I don’t know much about, though.  If you want an amp to sing and play guitar at the same time, you could use this amp (and plug the guitar into the aux input in the back), but you might want to consider some other options, too.

Roland Micro Cube Bass RX Battery-Powered Bass Combo Amp (Amazon Link)

The Roland Micro Cube Battery-Powered Bass Amp

Pros

• Portable
• Battery powered and easily rechargeable
• Good, full sound for guitar, electric and upright bass, violin, and viola for size of amp
• Decent reverb
• Decent EQ
• Decent compression, though I wish you could adjust it, not just turn on or off
• Stereo input jack
• A metronome and tuner
• Can fit in a backpack
• Loud
• Sturdy
• Output jack you can use it as a preamp for recording or for live sound
• Amp modelers are decent. The octave bass is good, if used ocassionaly.
• Tap time with metronome
• Drum machine is cool – can help with better time
• Looks good – clean, simple design

Cons

• No amplification for stereo input – i.e. the gain doesn’t work for your iPod
• Only one 1/4″ input and no XLR
• Somewhat cheesy beats on the drum machine
• When you use the record out, it mutes the amp, so you can’t use it as a monitor (b/c it’s paired to the headphone out)
• Battery power works, but plugged in sounds better
• I wish you could play with the settings for the compression. (But it’s not really a big deal)

Specs

Battery Power, Rechargeable AA & 9V Batteries, and Chargers

The RX Micro Cube can also run on 6 AA batteries.  I like to use rechargeable batteries.  If I’m ordering on Amazon, I usually get the eneloops.  But I think most brands work well.  I’m using a high-quality isobar connected to .  I recharge the 9V using the EBL.

How Long Do Rechargeable Sound Good?

In general, the sound usually works very well for about an 1 hour.  After an hour, it will sound good but after about 2 hours, you’ll start to hear serious sound degradation, if you’re using rechargeables.

I like to change out the batteries in the amp and preamp about every 90 minutes.  While you’ll get a cleaner sound using a good DC power-source, or new batteries, I use rechargeable because otherwise I’d spend tons of money and throw out a lot of batteries.  I think in the long run I save money, even after the cost of the chargers.

High-Quality Surge Protector, Chargers + Rechargeable Batteries

• Tripp Lite Isobar 8 Outlet Surge Protector Power Strip, 12ft Cord, Right-Angle Plug, Metal Lifetime Limited Warranty & $50,000 INSURANCE (ISOBAR8ULTRA)
• La Crosse Technology BC700-CBP Alpha Power Battery Charger
• Panasonic BK-3MCCA12FA eneloop AA 2100 Cycle Ni-MH Pre-Charged Rechargeable Batteries, 12 Pack
• EBL 840 9V Battery Charger with 4 Pack 600mAh Li-ion Rechargeable 9 Volt Batteries

Note: the above items link to Amazon.

Update – Roland RX Micro Cube – April 2016

I usually play with a violist (on the street).

I currently use two Micro Cube bass amps as a battery-powered PA.  I use a battery-powered mixer, and a battery-powered reverb pedal.  Since I was usually using this amp as a part of a duet that plays commonly on the street, I figure we might as well try it as a PA.  The mixer (Behringer Xenyx 1002B) costs about $100, the rechargeable 9V batteries cost about $30, and I already had a stereo reverb pedal.

Street Setup (aka Busking)

The improvised PA sounds way better than the two MicroCubes individually. Total cost – about $1000.  And about $350 to upgrade from the two Cubes to the mixer.

I’m actually planning on taking up the street sound another notch.  I hope to get a deep-cycle boat battery and DC-to-AC inverter and then use my regular PA, which is another step-or-two up the chain of live sound.  Some people like the sound from whatever source the sound comes from.  And it is true music does come from the fingers and heart.  But having good sound reinforcement usually really helps both the musicians and the music.

Solo Guitar Setup (as of about 2015)

One of my musician friends told me that the playing acoustic guitar through the Cube didn’t really sound that good on the gig.  It’s true.  The Bass Micro Cube doesn’t sound as good as a $700 amp with a $300 preamp.

So I decided to up my game.  Since I alreay had a great speaker in the form a PA (RCF FD12A Powered DJ Speaker), I got an acoustic guitar preamp with XLR output and effects loop (Fishman Platinum Pro EQ) and a stereo reverb pedal (TC Electronic Hall of Fame Reverb Pedal).  It sounds great!

The MicroCube sounds good in smaller places (without drums).  When I’m playing mostly acoustically, but I need a little extra boost but not that of full-on-sound-system, the microCube is great! Or when I need a purely battery-powered amp, it’s a great choice. I do think if you spent more money (had a bit more space), you could get a better sound out the large portable PAs, but I don’t know for sure – I’ve never tried them, etc.

More Details

I just discovered that I can use the octave bass effect and my jazz guitar sounds like an organ.  It adds an octave below the low notes so you can get decent walking basslines.

It’s light-weight (15lbs plus another pound for battery weight) and runs on 6AA batteries.  I got the eneloop rechargeables and I’m set for 8-12 hours at a time, though I generally recharge after every other use.  It fits in a grocery bag.  In fact, I carry the RX around in a reusable grocery bag.

Today besides using it to play outside, I used it as a boom box hooked up to my phone using an 1/8″ cord.  It sounds pretty good, though it doesn’t amplify the signal very much, so your phone’s batteries might get drained.

Review Update August 2018

I still use the MicroBass Cube for gigs and on the street. I still like it!

I recently played with a saxophonist/clarinetist/singer at a retirement home.  With my guitar (that’s pretty loud acoustically), I just added a little bit of juice from the amp and it sat at about the same volume level as the acoustic saxophone. I did plug in and didn’t play acoustically.

I saw my friend at the beach!  He still has his MicroCube, but it stopped working after about 3 years of sand, salt, motorcycle rides and rainy seasons.  I would say he definitely push the envelope.  But the fact that it lasted that long is a pretty good sign.  I don’t think most electronics would last much longer anyways.

My friend who plays viola still uses his amp.  He’s had it for maybe 5 years now (actually 7 as of 2020).  It seems to work well.  A couple of things have broken, but everything still functions well.  The thing that probably “breaks” first is the strap.  It doesn’t break but it’s not really attached, so you can remove it when you want and people sometimes end up losing it.

I also used with a viola and bass trio on the street.  Those guys ran through a bass amp and I played acoustic guitar through the microcube, plugged into an electric source.  It sounded good! In general, plugging in the amp (versus using batteries) while help the sound quality.

Solo Guitar Setup

It’s still the same as 2016.  I use the (updated) RCF speaker with the preamp and the reverb pedal. Or, I’ll run the guitar through a good mixing board with some reverb (and 2 speakers for stereo!)

Roland Micro Cube Bass RX Battery-Powered Bass Combo Amp (Amazon Link)

Update Fall 2020

I haven’t really used it much this year – I skipped out on busking and am just practicing (guitar, piano, voice, drums, violin/viola, congas, etc).

In any case, my cube is still working and I used it a lot in 2019. I did switch over to using a PA Speaker for some of my gigs because I wasn’t getting quite the sound quality I wanted (a fancy setup with a PA and preamp with a reverb pedal does sound great).

But it’s still a great amp for busking, smaller acoustic sets and busking (if you don’t have a car battery haha). I am definitely looking forward to playing some gigs with it in the future!

All best and peace and love!

If you have any questions, comments and/or ideas, please leave a comment or contact me!