Roland AC-33 or Fishman Loudbox Mini?

Gillian

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Now that I have a uke with a pickup, I've sort of narrowed my choice of amp down to these two.

The Roland has great reviews, but so does the Fishman. The Roland is about half the weight (11 vs 19 lbs.) The Fishman has twice the wattage therefore more "headroom", plus it is $50 cheaper than the Roland. The Roland has lots of cool stuff, like that 40 second phrase looper, but I don't know if I'd ever use that function. I also don't think I'll need to run the amp off batteries.

I'm having trouble finding a store in my area that carries both amps in order to compare them.

I'd appreciate any comments.
 
The Fishman is solidly built and sounds like a million bucks. Roland products are great as well but there are alot of functions in the AC-33 and sometimes that can be troublesome in a live setting. Hey, just my two cents
 
Haven't played that particular Fishman, but I'm not wild about the Roland, so I say the mini. Unless you can be convinced to save awhile longer and get a powered pa speaker that you'll never grow out of... like the QSC K series.
 
I have an AC-33 that I love. I don't use the looper function but it sounds great. The store I work at has the Loudbox Mini but I haven't tried it out yet. I'll give it a try sometime this weekend and report back.
 
I have an AC-33 and love it....the Loudbox mini wasn't out yet when I got it. I would say it depends on where you plan on using it due to the output differences.
 
I have an AC-33 that I love. I don't use the looper function but it sounds great. The store I work at has the Loudbox Mini but I haven't tried it out yet. I'll give it a try sometime this weekend and report back.

Okay, tried both out back to back at work today (although with a guitar, not a uke). The Loudbox Mini was definitely louder than the AC-33. With both amps set with a flat EQ (bass, mids, and highs all pointing to 12:00), the Loudbox Mini sounded better...wasn't as thin sounding as the AC-33 (of course you can easily make the AC-33 sound fuller by adding some bass with the EQ). On the AC-33 there is a switchable chorus on both channels...on the Loudbox Mini, it appears the chorus is only on channel 1. On the AC-33, both channels share 1 reverb control. On the Loudbox Mini each channel gets its own reverb control. The AC-33 has a 40 second looper and can run on batteries...the Loudbox Mini has neither. My store sells the AC-33 for $399 and the Loudbox Mini for $299.

So, for pure sound quality, go for the Fishman (sounded better and louder and it's $100 cheaper). I still love my AC-33 as I use the battery powered operation pretty often (and it still sounds pretty damn good).
 
been thinking about an amp along these lines , played an Ibanez Troubador T-20 [$200] at my LMS. sounded nice with my Kala. The T-35 for another $80 is 35w, but they didn't have one to compare. also thinking about the Fishman but they didn't have one . what do folks think about Ibanez.
 
Thanks to everyone for your input.

I bought the AC-33. It seems that with the sound being pretty much equal with a little bit of bass tweaking, I was influenced by the lighter weight (by almost half), the looper (a cool thing to play with) and the ability to run on batteries. Although I don't know when that situation might arise, but if it does, I'll be ready.
 
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