Roland Micro Cube question

[Turdus]

Looking for something, CHEAP, that would allow me to practice some bass, with headphones, that also has a 1/8" input for an IPOD.

Looks like the Micro Cube may satisfy the requirements. If my line 6 pod had the input, I'd be set. But it does not.

Anybody use that aux input on the Micro Cube, and does it work OK?

Any other cheap alternatives?

[Jason01]

The aux in is a 1/4", i never even noticed it until you mentioned it. I always ran it the other way with the rec out into the line in on my computer speakers.

I checked it out and plugged my phone into it and the headphones and it seems to work fine for playing along with stuff through the headphones. I tried the speaker too but don't expect spectacular sound through the speaker. The only gripe is trying to adjust the mp3 player volume and the amp volume separately to find that happy balance.

[Kurt L]

Mine has a 1/4" and 1/8" aux input. The 1/8" works fine with an ipod - you just have to use the ipod's volume control to set the balance between recorded music and your guitar.

Sometimes the MicroCube really surprises me. They can sound really good.

[Jimbilly]

Korg Pandoras are still useful, I have a 1st generation I bought new in about '94, I still use it for bass practice. For guitar it sounds pretty crappy, I used to like it for guitar 15 years ago. It has the 1/8" input, it's very functional for a headphone amp, I run the headphone out from my computer and play along to Pandora.com. I paid about $150 new way back then, one of the pawn shops I frequent sells them for $4.50 (no kidding) when they get them in. The newer ones are supposed to be better, but the 1st Gen models use a pair of AAs, I get quite a few hours out of a charge.

Both my microcubes had 1/4" and 1/8" aux ins, but I always seem to reach for the Korg for bass practice. I have two Microcubes because they work great for 'music band' with my kids, they'll take a microphone and I can put some echo or reverb on there, my kids love the microcubes, and only one speaker is partially blown up.

[Turdus]

Thanks for the input... sometimes the answer is in front of my face, and I fail to see it... probably comes from relating more to computers than humans. I was thinking that a small mixing board may also work. I've got larger consoles, but don't want to devote an entire desk top to the mission.

A small mixer may actually end up costing less than the micro cube... throw in USB, and I'm probably around the same price. Then I can further frustrate myself by trying to record via USB and chase the noisy signal.

[Thundernotes]

not to mention, the speaker in a microcube would probably die in 30 seconds using a bass. I think Roland makes a small bass practice amp that's decent, but the regular guitar microcube would be inadequate..

[Turdus]

Understood... was not interested in using the speaker... this was for headphone practice use.. combining bass + ipod signals.

[Nathan of Brainfertilizer Fame]

Understood... was not interested in using the speaker... this was for headphone practice use.. combining bass + ipod signals.

I didn't answer because although I love my Microcube (my only amp for the last 6 years, until I just bought a Crate 2-speaker combo), I thought you were asking about the bass version of a Microcube.

If you aren't planning on using the speaker, if you just want headphone + ipod signals, why not go for a headphone amp?

Something like this (other choices for bass headphone amps are on the page if you scroll down)?