Public guitar playing was once the exclusive domain of acoustic guitars. Long-haired tree-huggers playing Kumbaya outside a coffee shop. Some wanna-be Romeo serenading his girl in the park. Now guys who pick an electric axe can rock out outside. Without lugging heavy amps, or needing to plug into a power outlet.

Roland's new micro-CUBE amp has many of the features of their larger Cube amp, squeezed into a compact package weighing less than 8 pounds.

They've included seven amp modes from their Composite Object Sound Modeling (COSM), that give you the some of the same sound models as their full size amps. No need to pack pedals either. There are six DSP effects including tremelo and phaser, with a separate control for reverb and delay. And a built in tuning fork feature lets you make sure you're not off-key.

A carrying strap makes the Micro-CUBE truly portable and six AA batteries will let you jam in the fresh air for about 20 hours. Or until someone calls the cops.

Comes in Black, Red and White
About $125
www.roland.com