Question about looping & looper pedals w/acoustic

[The Kid!]

Yessir! I use a Boomerang III on my gigs. If there's a mic in your guitar, you can even loop percussion!

[Nama Ensou]

Originally Posted by v32 finish

Can you use the standard, popular looper pedals (Ditto, RC-30, JamMan etc) with an acoustic setup? For instance, my only acoustic-electric is my Gibson which I use with a Loudbox mini. Could I simply buy one of the mentioned loopers, plug it into my setup, and begin laying down loops and playing over them?

That is exactly what I started doing last summer. Bought a couple loopers and ended up settling on using the Ditto x2 which with its 2nd button allows a one-push stop function.

This works perfectly for a non-gimmicky setup where you want the focus on what you're playing and not on what the pedal is doing. For the first time ever I'm now able to play backed guitar solos as an acoustic soloist.

[Kalani]

Yeah, can't go wrong with the Ditto X2---simple and gets the job done!

[Hurricane Ramon]

He's using a Boss RC505

He's really good .

I use a T.C.Helicon Voice Live 3 X this gives you info on how to use their MFX looper :



EZ :

HR

[troggg]

Recently I've heard both a very good electric guitarist and a very good acoustic guitarist doing their solo acts with a Boss RC300. It's a few years old, and it's "only 16 bits" (I've got pretty good ears and never wouldn't have suspected it wasn't 24 bits, the "missing 8 bits" didn't seem to preclude anyone's enjoyment of either artist).

What's to like about it is that you can easily get quite a few loops going, it's setup to EQ and effect both voice and guitar, and the icing on the cake is a built in drum machine which neither guy used on every song but did spice things up when they used it on the occasional song.

It's still the flagship of the Boss line like 5 years later even though for whatever reason no one seems to mention it here.

[slewis]

I gig with a Boomerang III looper and have used the Boss RC2 and RC3, the JmMan and the DittoX2. I do pretty simple looping but for me, the switches make all the difference in the world. I know people successfully use the Boss and JamMan loopers — the ones that look and feel like traditional pedals with a fair amount o “travel” in the pedal — but the time it takes for that pedal to be engaged (and we’re talking milliseconds here, probably) was a monkey wrench for me — the most difficult of all these switch/pedal types to consistently get right. The Boomerang III’s switches (buttons) are crisp and have no travel in them at all. Just a nice little click that enables me to be far more precise with my timing. The Ditto was the next best type of switch of the ones I’ve used, at least for me. Just another factor I thought I’d mention here in the thread that I hadn’t seen brought up.

[Daniel Grenier]

Originally Posted by v32 finish

Ok, so... I will post this here as opposed to a separate thread, since it relates to loopers. I just read a great article on Reverb about picking a looper, and I found that there are more out there than I originally knew about.

In addition to the ditto, ditto x2, and boss' various iterations (rc30, rc300, rc-xyz) there is the EHX Stereo 720, which someone just mentioned, the DigiTech JamMan, the Line 6, something from Pigtronics, and a couple more( !! )

Originally I was leaning towards the Ditto X2, but my experience with that was less than stellar the last time I owned it with the PRS. Part of that can be chalked up to inexperience with it, and using a cheaper solid state amp, but I wasn't a fan of the sometimes severe echo that I got and mild buzzing. Overall I wasn't happy with it so I returned it.

Now I'm leaning towards the EHX Stereo 720 but would love suggestions. I play only acoustic and mainly would use it for practicing lead, laying down different layers, and eventually progressing to singer-songwriter type song tracks (without the singing, anyway, for now). I would love to hear anyone's accounts of why a certain one worked better, etc. think I already mentioned, but I use a Gibson AJ w/ LR Baggs straight into a Loudbox mini without anything else in the chain.

Thanks

I would suggest you look at the Digitech Jamman Stereo. I use mine a lot. It is very easy and simple to use and very powerful. And, it is stereo which for me is a bonus.

[Cuki79]

Read the reviews in this website

http://loopermusic.com/full-list-of-...eviews-so-far/

It really helped me to choose my last looper.

Cuki

[Nymuso]

Originally Posted by gfirob

I just use the looper to do a sound check so i can walk around and listen to myself play and check the levels. Works great for that.

I do the same thing. I only use the looper in one song, and there a very short repeating phase that works. I get bored listening to someone laying down layer after layer of nonsense to build to this great orchestra that they use for maybe four measures. Then it becomes about the process of looping rather than the song. A little of that goes a long way for me.

[Chriscom]

Originally Posted by slewis

I gig with a Boomerang III looper and have used the Boss RC2 and RC3, the JmMan and the DittoX2. I do pretty simple looping but for me, the switches make all the difference in the world. I know people successfully use the Boss and JamMan loopers — the ones that look and feel like traditional pedals with a fair amount o “travel” in the pedal — but the time it takes for that pedal to be engaged (and we’re talking milliseconds here, probably) was a monkey wrench for me — the most difficult of all these switch/pedal types to consistently get right. The Boomerang III’s switches (buttons) are crisp and have no travel in them at all. Just a nice little click that enables me to be far more precise with my timing. The Ditto was the next best type of switch of the ones I’ve used, at least for me. Just another factor I thought I’d mention here in the thread that I hadn’t seen brought up.

Thanks for those comments. I've toyed with the very basic (but welcome) looper on the Boss VE-8, and while my inexperience doesn't help I have a really hard time getting the timing right on those buttons. When kicking in the vocal harmonizer or chorus guitar it's never a problem, just a much larger margin of error.

[Nymuso]

Originally Posted by Hurricane Ramon

He's really good .

He is also really boring. I bailed at 1:17.

[slewis]

Originally Posted by Nymuso

I do the same thing. I only use the looper in one song, and there a very short repeating phase that works. I get bored listening to someone laying down layer after layer of nonsense to build to this great orchestra that they use for maybe four measures. Then it becomes about the process of looping rather than the song. A little of that goes a long way for me.

Live looping doesn’t at all have to be layer upon layer upon layer! Not that you’d care for that any more, but just sayin’..... and by the way, I totally agree with you.

[Nama Ensou]

Originally Posted by Nymuso

I only use the looper in one song, and there a very short repeating phase that works. I get bored listening to someone laying down layer after layer of nonsense to build to this great orchestra that they use for maybe four measures. Then it becomes about the process of looping rather than the song. A little of that goes a long way for me.

Yes, this exactly. I've seen a few players make it interesting, but for the most part I see a bunch of narcissism going on with a lot of these players.

I'll use my Ditto X2 a lot some nights when I'm in the mood to play a lot of solos, then weeks will go by with my hardly using it at all. I guess the atmosphere of the room makes the decision for me more than anything else though.

Originally Posted by Nymuso

He is also really boring. I bailed at 1:17.

I concur. I made it longer than you did, trying to appreciate him, but nothing interesting about watching someone diddling with pedals.

[Nama Ensou]

Originally Posted by Chriscom

I've toyed with the very basic (but welcome) looper on the Boss VE-8, and while my inexperience doesn't help I have a really hard time getting the timing right on those buttons.

I hated dealing with the timing on my VE-8 and ended up trading it off after I bought a Ditto X2. Much nicer having a dedicated stop button.

[v32 finish]

Totally torn, now, between the Ditto x2, the RC30 (which seems to have good reviews generally, except for people switching from other Boss loopers), the EHX 720, the JamMan, or the RC-3 with a footswitch.

I don't need a crazy amount of memory or optipns, but visiting that site that someone linked and reading the review really highlighted how limited the Ditto x2 is, feature-wise. I don't need a tremendous amount of stuff, but the answer to every* question was "no"..

I don't want to spend 300 bucks, but I'm leaning towards the RC 30 , mainly due to the style of the pedal switch itself, but someone on this thread even complained about the amount of travel re: timing. I found the Ditto x2 footswitch awkward and the sound terrible, to the point that I think I may have had a bad unit.

I am probably making this harder than it needs to be. I don't need to be able to do a full live set, seamlessly, but would like a smooth experience and the ability to save and import/export loop segments that I like.. I will probably just go to GC tomorrow and see what they have in stock and walk out with whatever my gut tells me.