Inexpensive looper pedal
- Thread starter pgj
- Start date
CandidPicker
Tone Matters. Use It Well.
Sometimes you can find the Hi & Lois special pedal (the Ditto Looper standard, my bad 
) on eBay or Reverb used for about that price.
) on eBay or Reverb used for about that price.
Ovibos
Naughty Wood Librarian
Joyo Iron Loop
BrianC
more toys than talent
You get what you pay for. IMHO I have always regretted buying on the cheap.
I have a 2 pedal Digitech looper. I have had it for years since it first came out. It is built like a tank and has lots of cool features that are really usable.
Get a good one used.
I have a 2 pedal Digitech looper. I have had it for years since it first came out. It is built like a tank and has lots of cool features that are really usable.
Get a good one used.
Birdsofprey
PRS Tesseract
Zoom G1 four, little pocket/case stomp box with looper, drum machine, effects fun on the road for cheap. 90/100 sometimes find them used on Reverb.
RaySachs
New Member
I think looper pedals are an exception. My first looper was a cheap little $35 Aamoon pedal from Amazon, a simple Ditto knockoff but a LOT smaller than the Ditto, which is pretty small itself. I still have it, it still works fine. And it was how I affordably figured out if looper pedals were for me. It was all I used for quite a while. Decided I liked it, bought a Boss RC-3, which has 100 slots to save loops an auto-on feature that I use sometimes, and about a zillion other features I never do. But nothing can kill a spontaneous idea deader or faster than having to look around for an empty track to loop onto. So now I have the RC-3 for stored loops, but still just have a little on button looper in front of it and I do almost all of my spontaneous looping on that. And then if I like something I've come up with on that enough, I'll just loop it into the RC-3, which is really easy to do using the auto-on feature of the RC-3. You still have to time the restart point and end of the recording, but that's pretty easy to hear coming.
I think the cheap little one button loopers are a great way to find out if looping is something you're gonna enjoy. If it's not, nothing lost. If it is, they don't suck, but if you decide to move up to something pricier and with more features, again, nothing lost.
-Ray
pgj
New Member
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- Mar 3, 2020
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Exactly. This is my first ever pedal. I'm at the point where I got all the open chords down, pretty solid on bar chords and my strumming is OK. The next step for me is to record some simple progressions and then work on simple lead work. Don't want to spend $100+ just yet on a fancy looper.
sergiodeblanc
New Member
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- Apr 26, 2012
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- 28,867
I swear I just keep my Zoom G3 for the looper. I use that and my little Blackstar Fly amp for my at home “guitar entertainment system”.
alantig
Zombie Four, DFZ
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2012
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- 15,450
I always preferred a multiple-pedal looper - seemed easier for the start/stop function, especially because timing is sensitive. I started w/the Boss RC-20XL and eventually moved on to the RC-50 (I think that's the model). I watched a guy using a Boomerang, and I thought that was very cool, but it was a pretty steep jump into looping. By the time I was ready for that kind of commitment, the RC-50 seemed like the better value. I went Boss over the Jamman because the Boss has a reverse function - the first time I test drove one, I had a really cool reverse loop thing going.
To get back to a point @RaySachs made, having a lot of storage is great, but it can make it difficult to find a particular loop, or more often for me, a blank loop. The RC-20 XL is great for that - only 11 slots, so it's pretty easy to jump to a particular slot. The RC-50 has a lot of storage, like the RC-3. What's helped me is to not store loops in the next available slot - maybe store loops in 12, 13, 14, then jump to 19 or 20. That makes an empty slot only a couple of clicks away.
To get back to a point @RaySachs made, having a lot of storage is great, but it can make it difficult to find a particular loop, or more often for me, a blank loop. The RC-20 XL is great for that - only 11 slots, so it's pretty easy to jump to a particular slot. The RC-50 has a lot of storage, like the RC-3. What's helped me is to not store loops in the next available slot - maybe store loops in 12, 13, 14, then jump to 19 or 20. That makes an empty slot only a couple of clicks away.
D
Deleted member 5962
Guest
I have a Ditto. Couldn’t wait to get it and thought it would be THE greatest thing ever for me, my chops, my jam time, etc. It only took me a couple days to know it’s probably the trickiest pedal EVER to use. Why? Well, what happens if you hit your solo boost pedal 1/10 of one second too late? Nuttin. What if you turn an effect on or off even 4/10 of a second too early or too late? Nuttin. What happens if you are so sloppy, you hit your channel switch button almost a whole second too late? NUTTIN!
But boy, if you aren’t dead nuts on with that looper, your whole use of the loop is off. I watched the demos and they made it look SO easy to put one loop over another, over another and basically have a jam track to solo over in just SECONDS. I found the timing of the stomp so important that it distracted me from my playing. I don’t think I’ve plugged the thing in for 4-5 years. I need too. I can. I should. But after thinking it would be the greatest thing ever, my initial use turned me off to them completely
But boy, if you aren’t dead nuts on with that looper, your whole use of the loop is off. I watched the demos and they made it look SO easy to put one loop over another, over another and basically have a jam track to solo over in just SECONDS. I found the timing of the stomp so important that it distracted me from my playing. I don’t think I’ve plugged the thing in for 4-5 years. I need too. I can. I should. But after thinking it would be the greatest thing ever, my initial use turned me off to them completely
jxe
babe en der wood
order a pizza and you’ll soon have a real drummer.
LEscanilla
I hear dead people
I have a Boss RC-2 that’s been sitting in a box forever. Every once in a while I open it up and try to figure out how to use it; after a an hour it goes back in the box and I tell myself I’m going to learn how to use it next week. I’ve been repeating this pattern for years. It’s in excellent condition and looks brand new. You can have it for $40 if you’re interested.
pgj
New Member
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- Mar 3, 2020
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I just sent you a PM.
Wakester
Re Member
I bought one of those $40 Donner loopers from Amazon (China). It worked for 5 minutes then went silent. Tried to get it replaced, no luck. I bought a Boss RC1 looper for $100. Best thing since Betty White.
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D
Deleted member 5962
Guest
See, NOW you understand my issue with loopers. Notice, you did not say "Best thing since Julie Bowen."
That is why loopers are the next best thing to metronomes...
I had the same issue with loopers at first. Used a metronome with it and it made a whole lot of difference.
D
Deleted member 5962
Guest
Funny, I was thinking when posting that "you need a metronome sitting right next to it." LOL Thing is, it goes against everything we've learned about using pedals in the past. If you're going to hit some form of solo boost, when do you hit it? Right before your solo begins. But the looper... dead on the beat or it's messed up.
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