FX8 with Roland Blues Cube Artist?

H

hamrhed1

Inspired
I have an AXE FX II FRFR setup that I use at home and love. I was thinking an FX8 and Blues Cube Artist rig might be a good lightweight, loud and portable to-go setup. Anybody tried the FX8 through a Blues Cube Artist?

Thanks!
 
Fender Blues Jr's are hard to beat for a lightweight portable. = 'Good tone/light & easy to dial in & can be worked on in any tech shop ;)

IMHO - Personally; a FX8 is above a Blues Cube


JD
 
I think you guys misunderstood the question (or I misunderstood the answers which could be)

I'm asking if anybody has tried an FX8 with a Blues Cube Artist and if so, how did it sound?
 
OH, I think i read somewhere on this forum that someone did get reasonable results with a blues cube just a couple days ago using 4CM.
 
I have a Blues Cube Artist, just got it the other day. Used it on a gig last night, ran the FX8 in front. Liked it a lot., sounded good. I did try the FX8 4CM through it and really like it too. Didn't use it that way at the gig in that configuration but really thinking about it. Gonna make my own pre/post preset and try it. I also need to work with the amp. Had It on 45w for part of the night and changed it to 80w the other half. 80w really made a difference in the tone to my ears.
 
Thanks for the report! The Blues Cube Artist seems like a good match if you want good-sounding,no-tubes, lightweight and really loud.
I've never owned a multi-power amp that I liked better on the lower settings, the higher settings always sound "bigger"
but it's also nice to have those settings when you need lower volume.
 
I know Chuck Loeb who is one of the artist that Roland worked consulted with during the design phase. He recommended I get one. Been hard to get hold of one. Was on the wait list for Sweetwater for months. Finally came through.
 
BTW, the Amp has a high & low input. I noticed that for my guitar it's better to use the low input to get a cleaner sound. My pickups are pretty hot and they distort in the high input.
 
FYI, I'm finding that the FX8 will not switch between the 'clean' and the 'crunch' channels on the Blues Cube Artist. It will for example, if you are on the 'clean' channel switch to combine them both for what Roland calls 'Duo Tone' , but won't just switch back and forth between the two channels for some reason, unless I'm missing something when it comes to using the relays on the FX8.
 
I ordered one of these BC Artist amps with the EJ tone capsule. I really liked it with the EJ capsule in and didn't like it so much without.
Has lots more gain with the EJ capsule in BUT...it has a ghost sort of tone (not in the "good" way) when you play higher string
single note phrases on high frets. Really annoying, can't unhear it. Must be defective. So I just sent it back. I may look at the Cube 80XL or something that can just blast out a loud clean tone that the FX8 can build on. I think people like the 80XLs too and they're cheap,loud and light. They're also easy to find so I can try one in-person to see if I like it.
 
Don't think they make the 80XL anymore. You can probably find used ones I'm sure. New version is the 80GX & I have one that I've had for about a year. Like it and have used it on some gigs. I worked with the tone and got it sounding pretty good I think. But I A/B it with the BC the other day and the BC sounded way better. Thinking about selling it now...maybe...o_O

Haven't tried the EJ capsule. Heard a guy on YouTube do an A/B of the BC with & w/o the capsule & didn't like it with the EJ at all so don't think I'll be going that route.
 
@dmusic1-Don't mean to hijaclk the thread but I just started a thread asking about the Roland BC Artist. If you get a spare minute could you comment on it since I do not know anyone else that has one-If not that's cool.
 
For me personally, I wanted something that sounded good clean was loud and was easy to drag around. That's why I started looking
into the BC Artist amps and the fact that it had an EJ tone capability was a great thing too. I have a friend who had already gotten one and an EJ capsule. For him, he plays really bright and pretty clean so I didn't expect him to care for the EJ capsule, sure enough he didn't. I really liked this sound on the lead channel and the clean channel was nicer IMO too with the capsule in. I have a Maz 18, 68 Princeton Reverb reissue and Mojave Coyote so the BC wasn't ever going to replace these but it was a really nice sounding SS amp IMO. I had the issue I described earlier with the buzz/funky tone on high-string+high-fret single note passages that ultimately made me send it back. If not for that though, I definitely would have kept it. The downside of the BC Artist is the price point, it puts it in competition with tube amps and then if you add the EJ capsule, that adds on another 300. So for a few extra lbs of weight, you can get lots of tube amps in that price range.
 
I like a clean setting due to the type of music I play and line to get my dirt from pedals. My interest in the BC was 1. Recommended by a friend who reps the amp 2. It is at least 80w . 3. Light weight. 4. Has efx loop so I can 4CM my FX8 5. Switchable channels so I can try try 'crunch' thru the amp as an extra.

Yeah, it's kind of pricey and that def is an issue. My hope is they will make another capsule that is modeled on say a Twin Reverb kind of clean. It kind of sounds good as it is, especially with the FX8, but still trying to get rid of what I think is kind of a midrange 'honk'. Got the idea last night after the gig to use the eq's in the FX8 to help even out the tone for me. I'll experiment and see how it goes.
 
I plan to try using the master eq and then try an eq block. Thinking the eq block would be more amp specific and better than readjusting the master when I switch to another amp. What are your thoughts?
 
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