Roland Micro Cube GX

If you're buying a small amp, you know the problem: small needs to be cheap which usually means nasty. You end up getting a small amp with a sound to match - not exactly what you were after, whether you're jamming in your spare room or warming up in the green room.

The Roland MICRO CUBE is the world's most popular battery-powered amp, mainly because it's small, loud, and built for life on the road (an important point as portable amps end up in all manner of weird and wonderful places). The latest addition to the MICRO CUBE range is the MICROCUBE GX, and although it has remained small, it's now even louder, has a chromatic tuner and a memory function for saving your favourite settings.

And most importantly, because small amps still need to be loud, a high-gain EXTREME mode brings the number of COSM amps onboard to eight, while a HEAVY OCTAVE setting has been added for those thick, ultra-low tones that we all secretly love.

Finally, the i-CUBE LINK connector opens many new opportunities for practice and recording, providing a built-in audio interface for working with music apps on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. You can even connect to the free CUBE Jam app for iOS and learn difficult guitar parts or just record your jamming sessions and email them to the band or the A&R man.

Ultra-compact guitar amp with custom-designed speaker
Weighs 2.7 kg
Eight COSM amp tones, including the ultra-heavy EXTREME amp
Eight DSP effects, including HEAVY OCTAVE and dedicated DELAY/REVERB with spring emulation
MEMORY function for saving favourite amp and effects settings
i-CUBE LINK jack provides simple audio interfacing with Apple's iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch (interface cable included)
Free CUBE JAM app for iOS plays songs and minus-one jam tracks, and lets you record the MICRO CUBE GX's COSM amp tones along with music playback
Chromatic tuner built in
Runs on battery power or supplied AC adapter; carrying strap included