The Repair Bench: Roland Micro Cube

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guitarkitbuilder
23:06 Saturday.01 October 2011
TJ,

The first question is what was the voltage and polarity of the power supply (PS) you accidentally used? It should be marked on the body of the power supply, and there should be a small illustration of the polarity, showing either or – as the center. Let me know what you find on this.

Now as to why the original PS isn’t working anymore, I’m just guessing here, but I’m wondering if the second PS connector was of a larger size, and perhaps stretched out the inside of the power jack on the amp, so that the original PS doesn’t make contact anymore? Are the power connectors from the two supplies identical in size?

guitarkitbuilder
06:50 Tuesday.13 December 2011
I’m happy to try to help diagnose the problem but I need some clarification. How do you know you’re having a problem with the COSM switch? I have the owner’s manual in front of me and there is a Tuner switch, a “SelectĆ¢ā‚¬Ā switch, and the rotary knob for the different COSM sounds. The select switch changes between the clean lead channel and the COSM effects I believe. I think you’re saying that the tuner switch is working. What happens with the select switch Ć¢ā‚¬ā€œ does it change between the clean lead and the COSM effects (which I understand you to say are stuck on Black Panel)? With the tuner on, try the manual tuning mode – does the rotary knob work in terms of changing the string being tuned?

Couple of other things Ć¢ā‚¬ā€œ make sure there is no footswitch plugged in, since this interacts with the rotary knob setting. Also, do a factory reset to make sure that the solo feature is not getting in the way. To do the factory reset, Hold down the [TAP/STOP] switch and the SOLO [ON/OFF] switch at the same time and switch on the power. The SOLO indicator blinks and the settings saved with the SOLO function are returned to their factory defaults.

OK let me know what you find

guitarkitbuilder
23:20 Tuesday.21 June 2011
Forest,

It sounds like your amp was in a similar condition to the one we repaired, with the jack pushed in and the potentiometer separated. How did you repair the jack? Did you replace it? Can you send us some clear photos of the input board so we can see what’s happening?

guitarkitbuilder
23:44 Tuesday.14 June 2011
Dennis,

First I’m assuming that you’ve tried the sound across all the settings and controls and are getting nothing. The fact that you are getting the tuner sound suggests that much of the amp is working, but perhaps just not the input section, and perhaps just not the input jack. Have you tried the auxiliary input jacks on the back? Try feeding an iPod or similar signal in there and see if you get sound, and let me know. Does the input jack for the guitar seem loose? With a jack inserted and a little rotational pressure applied does anything change – any brief sound, scratchiness, clicks, pops, etc? I doubt that the amp is a goner.

Jeff

anonymous
23:02 Saturday.06 September 2014
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The Repair Bench: Roland Micro Cube – GuitarKitBuilder

fisherdennis
03:32 Wednesday.15 June 2011
My Roland Micro Cube, hardly used and just off warranty will make no sound, except for the ā€œAā€ tuner sound. So I figure the speaker is ok and connected, getting power, etc. The in jack seems like new. I am not skilled in electronics but do have an electrical meter and can use that. Any hope? or is this a goner?

Thanks for any help I can get.

Forest90
01:31 Sunday.19 June 2011
HI, I got this micro cube a few weeks ago that a renter left behind when they moved and I was wondering if you can help me find out whats wrong with it or at least point me in the right direction. I got it home and set it up to play but the thing doesn’t turn on. I looked inside and the only problems I had were that the input jack was pushed in and the gain pot came off. I fixed both of those problems, but it still doesn’t work. I don’t see anything obviously wrong with it from just looking. So I was wondering what should I look at or check first? to maybe find the problem. I think that its a lost cause but it would be awesome if I could get it working.

Thank you.

Doc
23:44 Saturday.10 December 2011
Hi crew, Know you are featuring work on the micro but wonder if you would have a thought re a problem I’m having with the cosm swithch on my Roland Cube 80XL. The switch doubles as a tuner which works just fine, but after a bumpy ride to a gig, the amp model stays on the same amp in all positions (seems to be stuck on black panel). No outer evidence of any damage and I have only had the amp for a few months.

Any suggestions would be helpful as I am not able to get the amp in for service with Roland.
Thanks,
Doc

Liz Williams
04:02 Wednesday.21 May 2014
Hi Jeff – Thanks for taking questions about the microcube. Mine is having the same problem Paul’s did: Today it suddenly got very quiet on the acoustic, JC clean and black panel settings. While I’ve been looking on the internet, it’smigrated to the brit combo setting as well. Classic stack and Rifier still scream. I’ve tried battery power and AC (and yes, it’s 9volt and the tip and jacket polarities match), and there is no change. It was in fine form yesterday, and today, it just wimped out.

If I turn the volume to 10 and the gain to 5, I can get enough volume, but it won’t give the clean tone I’m looking for and volume. It’s as though the volume has a governor switch on it, but only on certain am modeling settings. Bizarre.

smurfitt
08:51 Saturday.22 October 2016

COSM and EFX not working so only get clean channel. Anyone know what is wrong?

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