hey rahock

[nofi]

what's your opinion on the roland cube 30 for my olympia. reviews are good but i know you have some experience with roland stuff.

nofi

[rahock]

I never played a 30 watt cube but I think the emulation/effects electronics is the same as their bigger stuff. A guitar player buddy of mine has a  5 watt,30 watt , 60 watt,and 120 watt guitar amps and they are the same in everything but power and a few updates based on what year they were made.  He also has the 100 watt bass amp with a single 12 . He is not just a Roland junkie either. He has several other amps too, including a couple Fenders and some real pricey tube Boutique stuff. He just likes quality stuff and he's pretty darn picky.
I like everything they make . That little 5 watt he bought me is a gas. Extremely large watts. I have an old Gibson Atlas that is 35-40 watts and my 5 watt Roland is close in volume and head and shoulders better in tone.

The only issue either one of of us has ever experienced with Roland stuff is a one time incident with his 60 watt guitar amp and my 5 watt bass amp. A one time only thing for both of us. Kinda weird. After 4 or 5 hours with the volume cranked up they started to disort,  feedback and in general just get noisey. I thought I had big problems, but the next time I tried it , everything was fine . I've heated it with 4-5 hours plus several times since and had no problems. No clue what happened.

The effects and emulation stuff is nice. I don't use much of it , but it's cool. For guitar players and bass players who are die hard tube heads, Rolands emulation electronics may change a lot of their opinions on solid states.

Roland has a pretty good reputation for being rock solid. Their old 60 watt orange guitar amps were indestructible. I know several players who beat the hell out of them for 10 years plus and never spent a dime on them.

Again, I never played a 30 watt but I imagine they're good. If you're out shopping around for Roland stuff, give their 5 watt micro cube a try.

Rick

[nofi]

thank you, sir!

[rahock]

Hey nofi, I hope you see this. I have an update on that "one time only" problem with my Roland Micro cube. Last night I had the acoustic squad over for a jam and I was playing my Olympia through my Seymour Duncan 400watt head and Avatar 2 12" w/tweeter cab  . Son of a gun .....after 5-6 hours , I started breaking up, getting feedback , weird noises and all that other crap.
Apparently it was the freakin' Olympia that gooned out on me . I don't know if the preamp heated up or it just needs a new battery. I  switched basses and everything was fine.  I can't remember for sure, but I think when my Guitar player bud had similar issues he was playing his new Strat with a preamp. So, I'm thinking my one and only Roland issue just disappeared

Have you ever had your Olympia go into "goon out mode" like that? Mine was plugged in and turned on for at least 5  , maybe over 6 hours. I wish I was watching the clock a little better
BTW; How's your Roland quest going?

Rick

[nofi]

hi rick and thanks for the update. my cube quest is on hold due to sudden unemployment. my olympia has never gone down so far. i have never even come close to playing plugged in for that period of time plus i use an acoustic preamp/DI when i do play electric to smooth out the piezo noise.

i do have a roland, however. it's the world's heaviest practice amp. a 25 year old roland combo with 70 watts and one 15" speaker. it sounds ok but is a real boat anchor.

[rahock]

Sudden unemployment I'm pretty familiar with the concept, I'm in the Detroit area. I'm retired/disabled ,but this economy is kickin' me in the ass too. Like many others, I'm worth about 40% less than I was a year ago and  that's not counting a freakin'  nice new house that's worth a whole lot less than I paid for it  three years ago .      WTF.....it beats living in a refridgerator box under a viaduct . Of course that might tighten up my blues chops
If you don't mind my asking, what do you ... or perhaps I should say, DID you do?

Rick

[nofi]

ha, now this is a funny  story. i worked for a family roofing company for 6 years. i never took a vacation or a sick day until i lost a kidney to cancer 1 1/2 years ago. but that's not the reason. the owners little sex felon brother.(true story) needed a job so in a few months he had my mine and i was gone.

in retrospect it worked out ok because my wife can't work because of severe back problems and more surgery is in her future. luckily it's a workman's comp beef so we pay nothing. so i am mr. mom. knock wood it could always be worse. btw i ordered a new set of labella tapes today because that's the only spare money i forsee for a long time.

i bet this is more of a story than you reckoned on.

[Dave W]

Oof. Sorry to hear about all this, Tom. Sounds like it will work out. Best wishes.

[nofi]

thanks, dave. 

[Lightyear]

Sorry to hear it.  If it had of happened three months ago you could come down to Houston/Galveston and made out like a freakin" bandit.  I've seen roofers from as far away as Alaska - some of them are still here and there are still plenty of blue "Fema" tarps to be seen as well.

Hope things work out for you - hang in there.

[rahock]

That pretty much sucks   Working for a family business can, and often does, get like that. Don't go getting crazy and doing something like trying to apply logic to the situation. That never works in a family business situation.
Hang in there, something good will come around
Rick

[nofi]

yeah, they can be weird. out of nine people who worked in the office i was the only non family member. on a brighter note my wife who manages a law firm can retire and barely lose any money beacause of  disability, social security, etc. i on the other hand hope for a rewarding job as a wal mart greeter.

thank you all for your kind words.