Roland Blues Cube Hot

T
he notion that you need a certain type of
amp to play your chosen genre is
nonsense – you can, of course, play blues
guitar through any amp you bleedin’ well
like. However, if you really you want to
nail a quintessential, classic blues tone then you’re
probably looking for a low-powered, valve-fuelled
combo that produces a warm overdrive when you
crank it up and reacts to even the subtlest dynamics
of your playing. And that’s where we come in - over
the following pages we’ve picked out four 12-inch
speaker-loaded combos that deliver all that good
stuff – three of them via an arsenal of valves and
one (Roland’s Blues Cube Hot), through the
misunderstood medium of solid-state.
We can just picture the gear snobs clutching their
chests in horror at the inclusion of the fi nal amp on
our list while gasping, ‘You can’t play blues through
a solid-state amp!’ Listen. The late BB King, an icon
who had the most instantly recognisable blues
guitar tone of all time, used a 70s-era solid-state
Lab Series L5 amp. So, let’s agree to approach all
these amplifi ers with an open mind, and we’ll get
you up and playing in no time…
Are you an aspiring blues
guitarist who wants to get
amplified? We’ve found the
right combo for you…
november 2016 ToTal GuiTar
the tg test
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