Roland extends Blues Cube Hot series with ‘British EL84 Modified’ amp
New British flavoured flexible 30w valve amp
4,5 / 5,0 | 
The Blues Cube Hot ‘British EL84 Modified’ is part of Roland’s roll-out of a slew of new products over the next few weeks. Roland says this new EL84-based guitar amp has a distinctly British tone, yet have equipped it with some modern functions like USB recording. This might be one to check out if you’re looking for a combo with classic rock tones and some modern features.
‘British EL84 Modified’
The marketing campaign for this Japanese amp is based around its ‘British’ tonality, so expect Vox like tones and a bit of grit for the drive tone. The Blues Cube Hot amps are normally voiced towards a Fender-like tweed tone and so this new iteration is a welcome addition to the Roland line-up.
Roland Blues Cube Hot ‘British EL84 Modified’ guitar amp with Tube Logic · Source: Roland
Tube Logic
The model is rated at 30W of power using a Class-A circuit design through a custom 12” speaker, all wrapped up in a neat-looking cab. So it should be able to handle a quiet drummer for live gigs without mic’ing it up if youÄre playing a smaller venue. The Roland Blues Cube Hot has the company’s Tube Logic design circuit from the previous models. The Tube Logic design emulates the interactive tones of famous vintage tube amps, including preamp, output tube saturation characteristics and also power supply compression.
It’s got a three-band EQ to help you shape your sound as well as boost and tone switches, plus an onboard reverb. There’s also a very handy variable power control, which is ideal when you need the gain, but not the volume.
Roland Blues Cube Hot ‘British EL84 Modified’ guitar amp with power output selector · Source: Roland/YouTube
Flexible
It’s pretty reasonably priced for such a flexible little amp and as it also includes a USB output to connect to your DAW for direct recording, you are getting a lot for your money.
So if you require a slightly more British tone and like having a few useful onboard options this model could be one to check out. I have yet to try any of the Roland Blues Cube amps myself, but I have a few friends that have tried them and they all rate them quite highly. I think the demo sounds pretty good and I like the whole idea of having a flexible, portable map solution like these.
RRP GBP 529
Roland Blues Cube Hot ‘British EL84 Modified’ product page
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2 responses to “Roland extends Blues Cube Hot series with ‘British EL84 Modified’ amp”
In this case, British means Vox, not Marshall. I would’ve thought Gear News would know that. You know, based on EL84 being in the name.
I sometimes miss the obvious and go into ‘autopilot mode’ when writing!
Will update.
Cheers!