^^^ +1, get a tube amp.
Think of this, when ever you go the guitar shop, what is the first thing the guy plugs you into??? Yep, a decent tube amp and then he lets you rip.
Get your tone from your giutar and amp first then go worry about your pedals.

Thanks a lot for all the respond! But please excuse me. So I was thinking about it, and I agree the pickup swap should come last. Apparently majority of the people suggested that the biggest problem I have now, and before making any other changes, is to change my amp, which makes me start to regret of buying this Roland Micro Cube Amp just few weeks ago : ( I actually just bought this cube amp recently as a small practice amp since I'm going back from Bangkok to my hometown Taiwan soon for university. And in university, I'd say most of the time I will be wearing headphone, and even if not, I can't really play at loud volume. So in my situation, I don't see the point of buying a tube amp, at least not for now. It might be a waste and perhaps it's not a good idea to put such an expensive amp in the dorm. In the future, when I graduate from university and not staying in a dorm with others anymore. I think that's when I should get a decent tube amp like what almost everyone suggested, and be able to make good use of it.

I was wondering, how do you guys manage to carry these big amps around to gig room / stage / different places? Part of the reason I bought the micro cube was because I thought it's really small that I can easily carry it from school dorm to home during weekend. Anyways, I think for performance and band gig, I would just stick with whatever amp they got on stage / practice room for now due to limited budget. And invest my little money on a better practice set up, for example a pod, an interface, multi effect, or a pedal. Something to keep me interested in the dorm room through headphones. Point is, these pod / interface / multi effect / pedal, are they going to do a good job (effective) on my Roland Micro Cube amp? I think unfortunately I can't make the most out of these stuffs if it's on a Roland Micro Cube amp...? Which now it comes down to changing my amp again... sigh. I mean I just bought the cube amp, and I did a lot of research and comparison, and I thought this amp got good reviews at a cheap affordable price : (

Planning on buying a compressor pedal for now... But I heard this pedal is the worst buy and most useless pedal out of all, because it makes it sound pretty much the same and doesn't help much? BTW I play blues, jazz, funk, and rock. Other effect pedals probably won't be necessary for now since the cube amp already has many built-in effects, but then again, these pedal may not work well on my micro cube amp.... What should I do... Also, does the noise gate pedal work well on canceling the single coil hum? Because I'm worry my ears will get hurt by wearing headphone with those buzz so close to my ears, and I might find the buzz annoying and decrease my practice time as a result.

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Jimmy:

You know roland IMHO make awesome amps... In fact, I own a JC-77 which is a great amp... For your purposes, your micro cube will do just fine... If you have access to stage amps, then by all means, use them... I don't have access to stage amps and I live in a house where I can turn up loud... Hence, I have a Deluxe Reverb tube amp....

Maybe I read your initial post wrong... Sorry... The micro cube is a great amp for low volume situations... The fender PRO junior is also a good choice (tube amp)...

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In Reference to Blues Legend RL Burnside:
After a heart attack in 2001, Burnside's doctor advised him to stop drinking; Burnside did, but he reported that change left him unable to play.

I sounds like you made a good amp purchase for your specific set of circumstances.

Just the living in a dorm room thing is a huge problem. You are likely to have another person living in the same room and many people not much more than 20 feet from where you practice and in college there will always be someone trying to sleep no matter what time of day it is. The micro cube allows you to put on headphones or.... put batteries in it and go somewhere else including outside.

I was going to suggest a Champ 600 or a Vox AC4 but even these are going to be enough to annoy your dormmates and get compliants filed against you. I just don't think there is much you can do to get more tonal options than you already have. I think you will be spending at least again as much as you spent on your micro cube if not a lot more with little to no improvement in tone.

I recommend you keep what you have and maybe invest in a good set of headphones something like Sennhieser HD 280's or something similar and work on tweaknig the effects in the amp and the tone knobs on the guitar to get closer to the sounds you want.

It sounds like you will have to ability to use studio equipment at you school.? If that is the case take advantage of that every chance you get.

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'09 Am Deluxe Ash Strat
'09 Mex Standard Strat
'10 Mex Standard Tele
Champ 600
Blues jr.
'65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue

I would invest in some practice time with the instrument. Good tone starts with your hands and is effected by the precise way in which your fingertips interact with the strings on the fretboard. I like to practice my scales and exercises very slowly and try to hear the sound I'm trying to create in my head before I actually play anything on the guitar. This really helps me get a big, clear sound. I'm not trying to discount the value of good gear, just offering another perspective.

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David Irelan, Community Leader, http://www.sharemyguitar.com

In your case you Cube is perfect....If its a budget thing, If you budget changes check out the Swart tone atom that a beautiful little tube amp that would work in your current situation.... For the moment buy a Pod to go with the cube and you will have damn close to saturated tube tone anyways at ultra low volume.... Enjoy!!

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That is a good list. I'd add QUALITY INSTRUMENT CABLE to the list. That is an often overlooked way to improve tone. Cheap cables will handicap you no matter how good your instrument or amp may be. If you use pedals, you need quality pedal cables too.

Just remember a cable with too low a capacitance can make your tone sound brittle. There is a fine line. But quality cables are a must with quality plugs are a must. Those amazing tones created ages ago weren't made with oxygen free copper and gold tipped plugs. They were whatever were around. I still have some of the old Fender cables with the solderless plugs that still sound decent today.

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