Roland/Boss has announced that the Cube series of amplifiers are to be rebranded with the Boss name, rather than Roland, and introduced the Boss Cube Street II. The Roland Cube has long been a staple of busking rigs, and this next version carries over a lot of the features that made it so, and introduces a few useful updates.

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The Boss Cube II features two channels: Mic/Instrument and Guitar/Mic. The Mic/Instrument channel has a combo XLR/quarter-inch jack for connecting either a standard microphone or an instrument such as a keyboard. The Guitar/Mic channel has a quarter-inch jack for a guitar, line-level instrument or unbalanced microphone.

Both channels have their own three-band EQ and reverb, and the Guitar/Mic channel has an extra dual-function knob to engage a chorus or a delay effect. The Guitar/Mic channel also has a range of amplifier voices to choose from, with clean, distorted and acoustic tones. There are also options for amplifying acoustic guitars, and the amp can be set to instrument or mic mode too.

Other features include an onboard harmoniser and a looper, switchable power levels, footswitch support, line-out and an auxiliary input with its own discrete volume control. The harmoniser can be set to listen to the guitar chords being played to automatically generate vocal harmonies, or its key can be set beforehand.

The Boss Cube also has double the output power of its predecessor – it drives two 6.5-inch speakers with a total of 10 watts. Its construction has also got an update, now being even lighter thanks to a redesigned ABS injection-moulded enclosure.

Connectivity upgrades now allow for the amp’s sound to be streamed directly via USB, acting as an interface for on-the-fly recording or streaming. The optional Bluetooth Audio MIDI Dual Adaptor allows an accompanying app to control functions of the Boss Cube, stream backing tracks or music, and deep-edit effects and presets.

The Boss Cube lists for $349.99, while the Bluetooth adaptor lists for $49.99. Find out more at boss.info.