I went to Guitar Center to see if they had any Squire ’51’s in stock that I could try. I also wanted to try out the Roland Micro-Cube. I tried out a few other cool amps including the Vox DA5 and Vox Valvetronix AD15VT, The Epiphone Valve Junior and a few others.

I was totally impressed by the Microcube and scored a mint condition used one for $69.

This little amp totally rocks. Everyone that hears it is impressed. It’s tiny but rugged.

The Micro-cube is a solid state amp modelerwith 7 amp simulations. The models include an Acoustic Sim, a Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus, Fender Blackface, Vox AC30, A Marshall Stack JMP1987, Mesa Rectifier and a setting for a microphone input.

There are also 7 built in effects including chorus, flanger, phaser, tremelo, delay and reverb. The modulation effects and the ambient effects are on separate knobs as seen below.

The amp is 2watts with a 5 inch speaker. It looks like cabinet has a tuned port to enhance bass response. The amp is powerful enough to drown out a conversation with other people in the room.

My favorite amp sim is the Marshall Stack. The JC-120 is also very good.

The effects are designed in a smart way. For example as you increase the setting of the delay multiple parameters in the delay precessing are also changef. For example instead of just increasing the delay time it also increase the feedback rate as you rotate the dial. This is pretty much how I would adjust a normal delay. For shorter delay times I really don’t want multiple echos. For longer delays I like to have about 4 echos.

There is also a Jack for plugging in a MP3 player for practicing along to songs and a headphone jack. The headphone jack also doubles as an output jack for recording. The direct sound out of course sounds better that the amp.

No other amp in the sub $200 price range I tried was as versatile or better sounding. It really is an amazing amp that is in the same price range as some single effect pedals.

The hype is real. Look no further for a beginner or a practice amp.

Here is a video of me playing through some of the presets. The amp sounds better in real life with more bass and body.