Brain Fertilizer

I purchased a guitar amp last week:

The Roland Micro Cube.

I was thinking about buying a tiny amp for about $30 that I could take on my next deployment to the Middle East (coming up soon...), but the salesman said I should check out the Roland. For 4-5 times the price, I wasn't sure...

...but I was sure as soon as I tried it out. This is an awesome guitar amp! It puts out just about as much sound as my other practice amp, but is a fraction of the size and weight. The sound is every bit as good as they claim; I sound like a better guitarist on this amp, and that encourages me to play more often for longer periods.

Sure, it's too small for a jam session; but my old method was to use the practice amp as a head plugged into a 4-speaker 200-watt bass amp anyway, and this will do the same thing. I can now sell my digital effects processor and larger practice amp for about what it cost to buy this one.

Yeah, yeah, the digital effects pedal can create a wider range of sounds, and has an auto-wah, so I'll be restricting myself somewhat if I seel it. And one thing I would say is a drawback on the Micro-Cube is that you have to reach out and twist knobs to change a sound...you can't just step on a pedal to get an instant sound change.

But those two drawbacks really don't bother me that much. Because, to be honest, the digital effects processor had a whole host of sounds I never really wanted or needed. Messing around with it never really made me itch to play, and certainly never made me sound any better. Even with fewer sounds on the Micro-Amp, I'll use the ones I have to greater effect...every sound I want to make can be produced with just this little amp. And with only 6 "AA" batteries, I can play even without an outlet. The versatility that allows is amazing. It's a great buy, and I'd recommend to any guitarist who can spare $125 that s/he go try one out ASAP.

It's that good.

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