Roland CUBE Street MINI review: a busker’s bestie at an equally friendly price point
$199/£169, roland.com
It’s no exaggeration to say without the Roland Micro CUBE I wouldn’t be the guitarist I am today. My teenage years were defined by coming home from school, plugging in my Ibanez SA Series, and cranking that 2-watt beauty until it was time to go to bed.
All over the world there are countless guitarists with a similar story about the CUBE series, which has been a staple of the Roland product lineup for decades. According to Roland, over three million of these combo amps have been sold worldwide since the first CUBE’s launch in 1978.
READ MORE: Orange Outlowd ES3 review: is Ed Sheeran’s signature amp the best compact acoustic combo out there?
And there’s a good reason for this – they might never be the coolest amps on the market, but as a young Sam found out, they do what they do very well indeed, and their ease of use and reliability means that they remain the default choice for many buskers and solo players.
The CUBE has enjoyed various major and not-so-major updates over its long life, with a variety of variants now in the line, but this latest one is tiny, mighty and a little bit different. Let’s get up close with the confusingly capitalised CUBE Street MINI.
Image: Press
Roland CUBE Street MINI – what is it?
The CUBE Street MINI is designed, says Roland, to be the most sophisticated busker-friendly CUBE amp yet, and it does that by packing in such mod cons as a USB-C-rechargeable battery offering up to seven hours of continuous unplugged use, Bluetooth connectivity for backing track playback, a suite of onboard effects and more, all wrapped up in a package weighing no more than 2.2kg and being small enough to fit in a backpack.
The CUBE Street MINI boasts a dual-channel design, with the first channel supporting guitar, microphone or a stereo instrument, and the second – the mic channel – featuring an XLR/TRS combo input for a dynamic microphone. As such, it’s aimed squarely at solo buskers and content creators looking to talk or sing while playing guitar or another solo instrument.
An all-in-one PA solution for buskers and guitarists on the move, the CUBE Street MINI is designed to keep things as streamlined as possible, with a suite of onboard effects – including reverb, delay, chorus and echo – as well as an onboard tuner with panel indicators, and Bluetooth audio for streaming songs or backing tracks from a smartphone.
Of course, if you’re busking there’s a good chance you’ll be placing the CUBE Street MINI right on the floor, so it’s handy that there’s an integrated tilt stand for increased projection – and even an integrated mic stand mount. If you don’t want to shove it in a rucksack, it also has an optional soft case that will keep it scratch-free on public transport or in the back of your car.
Image: Press
Roland CUBE Street MINI – build quality and usability
Like all Roland Cube amplifiers I’ve tried over the years, the CUBE Street MINI feels rock-solid, despite its uber-light weight. With any amp or pedal, or any other music gear, for that matter – there’s a certain resistance to the travel that you’re looking for in the knobs that reassures you about the quality; too loose and the device feels a little cheap, too stiff, likewise. Roland seems to get this right every time, and it’s no exception with the CUBE Street MINI. In fact, the robustness of the design in general makes you confident it could withstand the elements – perfect for a high street performance on a rainy autumn day..
The control panel is beautifully intuitive. After all, this is an amp aimed at buskers looking to plug and play, so there’s no need for it to be endlessly complex. Per-channel volume and tone controls, plus easy-to-understand effects knobs: everything you need and nothing you don’t.
With the exception of the charging port and headphone in, all the inputs are located on the side of the unit – a convenient design choice to get cables out of the way of the top control panel, and perfect for on-the-fly tone adjustments while performing. You get a single combi jack for vocal mics, and a pair of stereo line-level inputs for guitar and keys.
Where the CUBE Street MINI really sets itself apart as a busker’s amp, though, is the addition of a tilt-back stand. With an amp of this size, it’s crucial for the sweet spot of the amplified sound to hit the ears of passers-by rather than their feet, and the tilt-back stand makes this possible while keeping the profile small.
It’s a reassuringly sturdy little stand, too – though not one that is immune from being knocked over, at least compared to the angled bomb-proof stability of the regular CUBE Street. If you want to keep it out of harm’s way, it also has a socket on the bottom for mounting on a mic stand.
Image: Press
Roland CUBE Street MINI – sounds
Part of the reason why the CUBE series has remained so popular is its unflappable ability to deliver rock-solid digital tones at an affordable price point, and the CUBE Street Mini is no different. Projection is brilliant thanks to 10W of power and a 2.1 speaker system (one 5” woofer and two tweeters), so it makes enough noise to have a chance to be heard in busy environments like town centres, for example.
The first channel allows you to select between clean and overdriven lead guitar, Flat and Bright options for acoustic guitar, a flat, full-range instrument setting for keyboards and other instruments, and a mic channel optimised for vocal clarity.
The lead guitar setting feels pretty powerful, but while you can crank up the overdrive via the tone knob, I can’t help feeling that it doesn’t have quite the same oomph as some of Roland’s previous CUBE models. Of course, you could run an external overdrive pedal, but as an amp marketed as something of an all-in-one performing solution, it feels like a little bit is missing here. Meanwhile, the clean channel sounds beautiful – particularly when paired with the onboard effects like chorus, reverb and delay.
On the acoustic front, it’s nice to have two unique settings to play with. I find myself going back time and again to the Bright setting, as it offers superb clarity while maintaining the sonic character of my acoustic guitar.
Image: Press
Roland CUBE Street MINI – should I buy one?
If the regular CUBE Street is a reliable if somewhat unspectacular van, the MINI is effectively its sleek, EV equivalent. It might not be quite as outwardly robust as its sibling, but it packs in enough useful technology to make it a valid option.
With up to seven hours of battery life, Bluetooth backing track playback, a reliable onboard tuner and a healthy palette of sounds catering to electric and acoustic guitarists alike, Roland has pretty much hit on all bases a street performer would look for. My only recommendation would be to ensure you have an overdrive pedal if you’re primarily into higher-gain playing.
And at just $199/£169, you can’t really go wrong with the CUBE Street MINI if you’re in the market for a portable performance amp that can handle both vocals and guitar on a budget.
Image: Press
Roland CUBE Street MINI – alternatives
At $199/£149, the new 3W Orange Outlowd ES3 – developed with busking veteran-turned-worldwide superstar Ed Sheeran – is an obvious alternative here. However, it’s geared squarely towards acoustic guitarists with the absence of a high-gain channel and simple volume, tone and spring reverb controls, so if electric guitar is your weapon of choice, you’ll be better off sticking with the CUBE Street Mini. Either that or go for the Positive Grid Spark Mini ($199/£171), a solid all-rounder offering both electric and acoustic sounds.
If you’ve got more budget to play with, the Katana Air ($499/£329) – from Roland’s subsidiary BOSS – could be a contender. It might be a bit overkill for street performance, but it’s completely wireless with a transmitter that plugs into your guitar, so no annoying cables while performing. That, and the impressive Katana amp models it offers, makes it worthy of consideration.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
