BOSS DUAL CUBE LX | REVIEW

Boss Dual Cube LX

MSRP (UK) £249 (US) $299

The BOSS Dual Cube LX Amplifier keeps the fantastic Cube series alive with a range of features. Keeping up with the now famous Cube name this amp has a lot to live up to and it doesn't fall short. A foundation of great tone is set out with 8 newly developed guitar amp models. On top of this there are a host of effects to create fantastic tones which can then be recorded easily thanks to the USB and Stereo line output. In short, this may be a practice amp but it provides so much more for any player looking to record and play at home. Sam Bell reviews.

It's 2005, I’m at college. I’m in a practice room, working on some Racer X Paul Gilbert thing (badly), and the amp I’m practicing through is a ‘Roland Cube’ from the 80s. It was a simple amp, volume and EQ, totally clean. It was brutal for practice, but I loved it. Rolling the clock forward, BOSS (which is Roland) released the Micro Cube. This was a smaller, lighter version of the old cube with a few different amp models and FX. It could be taken anywhere with batteries. I took it on holidays, I did a lot of teaching with it, I even used it in a few recording sessions and miced it up once for a theatre show. It was epic. I still have it, it still works, it still sounds very good! 

Since then, there have been different iterations of the Cube, the street cube, the bass cube and so on. Boss have also re-vamped their technology several times, and they have included app controllability with most of their recent amps, meaning you can go ‘beyond’ the onboard controls and really dial in your FX and tones and recall them on the unit itself. That’s what we can now do with the Cube! 

In this review I’m taking a look at the Dual Cube LX which doesn’t look like a Cube, but it’s the same principle. A small practice amp, with lots of great sounds and features, all killer with no filler. 

First of all, for those new to the CUBE, the DCLX features a handful of quality amp models, from Acoustic Sim, American Classic, Stack, metal and extreme. There’s a wide range of tonal possibilities with these amp models. Coupled with the 3 band EQ, independent volume and gain options. There’s more than enough here for most schools of guitarist to work with as their base tone. Then we have modulations, including Chorus, Flanger, Phaser and a mean octave! We also have time based FX such as Reverb, Delay and Spring Reverb. If this isn’t enough, there’s also a built-in looper (which I’m assuming you need a footswitch to work smoothly) 

What makes the DCLX unique is that it features two speakers, and a stereo input and output. For the review we ran it direct in stereo and it sounded HUGE! You could potentially gig this with thethe right set up, but as a practice amp, it punches way above its weight. We also miced it up so you can hear a rough approximation of how it may sound at home in the living room, kitchen or practice room! 

The sounds are classic boss sounds, they feel great to play through, they respond in all the ways you’d want them to respond, and they have depth, it never feels too narrow to play through, especially with the newly added stereo speakers. The build quality is brilliant as always, I can’t recount the amount of times I dropped my old cube when loading a car or walking downstairs and it still works and barely shows any scars. The DCLX I’d imagine is the same, its sturdy and looks fantastic. 

I’m a big fan of the BOSS cube series of practice amps. Every guitarist should have one tucked away at home for practice, in the car ready for impromptu practice sessions. You can also plug in headphones so neighbours don’t have to hear your 30th repetition of Parisian Walkways (however, it runs nicely at low volume of course!) If your still reading this, maybe you already have a cube and are wondering what the DCLX is about and I think if that is you, just check one out, they’re great! 

For more information, please visit:

boss.info/uk/