Swindon Music

Saw the boss RC-2 a while ago and thought it was a neat idea, but only useful to say "look what I can do " and then you promptly put the pedal away and sell it after a year or so.

Since then I've seen it used live and on some youtube videos and I've started to think more and more about how I could use it live. I've started to think it might be useful to add phrases or rhythms to songs to add a bit of depth and change of sound to some of the songs in a set.

Does anyone already have one of these pedals, or used one? Is it worth the £130?

Opinions please.

Si has one, i think unless you get really good and slick at using it, can use it lots and not make it into a gimmick, and not make it the one off highlight of your set, and not go over the top with it. then its a great little thing. But KT Tunstall is very good at using them, so if you cant do it better than her or differently then i would think you run the risk of looking a bit second rate.

Zoe Mead uses one, and hadnt quite mastered it when i saw her at the vic some time ago and it struck me as a bit of a "what can i take from other middle of the road singer songwriters that ive seen" scenario, and as such left me decidedly unimpressed. Tunstall blew me away when i first saw her using it, cos she puts her vocals and rythms and over dubs through it and by the end she has a whole band playing there (sonically).

ultimately, personally, i think it would be something that you'd use for a bit, have lots of bedroom fun with, perhaps take out for one or two gigs, but end up getting rid of.

like a good looking girl with no personality.

Yeah I have seen KT Tunstall use one and was impressed. Equally I see the potential for disaster.

I would never attempt it on a gig unless I was pretty confident I could get it all to work.

On my meagre pHD allowance though a £130 is a lot of money to shell out to see if I like the pedal and if it adds anything to my songs.

I shall have to think some more.

yeah can just imagine a nightmare of getting one loop wrong, then accidentally deleting them all and having to start over, or getting one note wrong and hearing it over and over for the rest of the song. sort of thing id do then end up looking like a right dick. lol, god it'd be awful! haha! the kefuffle you could get yourself in. best to go and have a fiddle in the shop. they are great fun for a larking about when no-one is listening though. like so many things, you're liable to get one based on how much fun it is, then never actually properly use it.

plus one more thing to go wrong on stage! but thats just my technophobia talking

how did your gig go by the way? the boss was amazing!

i would like to get involved....i use the long delay on my dd6 and layer shit.......and you have to be on the fucking money with the timing..a loopey type affair would be ace.

Does that guy at the back actually fall over?

David Celia uses a stomp sampler (not sure if it's this one) to blinding effect. Did a gig with him and at one point closed my eyes whilst (unknowingly) he'd sampled himself. Opened them only to see him standing back and smiling, whilst sneaking a pint! Brilliant.

There's a guy in the Beehive this Thursday called Mal Webb who uses one for vocal beatboxing and stuff. Check out the vid - pretty cool.

I've got an RC-20. Bloody worth it. Best toy I've got. Had some excellent reception at gigs with it as well. buy it.


go on!

I've got an Akai Headrush - does a similar thing, however it also serves as a really nice delay pedal with tap tempo.. £99 on GAK last time I looked

I'd personally only ever use the looping thing if I was playing to a metronome to be sure the timing isn't out...

Get another guitarist if you want to do all that stuff

I like them. They do what YOU want and WHEN you want. Unlike another guitarist. Takes a bit of practice setting the little blighters up. The one I had had a built in drum machine which included a click track so you could practice keeping in synch. If little Theo Altieri can use one, and to great effect (he's only 11) then I'm sure a man studying for a Phd should have no problem with it.

Don't listen to Anstey, he talks bollocks.

Thats what I like about it. I would only have to worry about me when it comes to when to practice or gigs (if I get some....) availability. Also it won't tell me it doesn't like the song, it will just dutifully play back whatever I give it.

Also another guitarist is likely to be better than I, and I don't need to be reminded that I suck.



Do not underestimate how dumb people studying for a pHD are. You get far too focused in one area. Been doing physics / engineering at a higher level for 10 years now and managed to get fundamental questions wrong on a GCSE science revision quiz on monday.

I guess it depends how you look at it - from my perspective, ie playing in a band with others, then another guitarist is easier than using a loop pedal, else you'd have to be playing to a click to get your loops accurate. However, as a solo performer, like young Theo, then a loop pedal is a viable choice.

You don't need to play to a click when you're recording, unless you are likely to speed up or slow down during the recording of the loop, in which case it's probably better to spend your £130 pounds on getting some lessons.
They're great solo tools, and often a lot more interesting for an audience than 2 guitarists.
Mistakes are inevitable, just make sure your first gigs are to small crowds.
If you do want to play to a click, you can!

In my opinion, the thing about the Boss which wins over the Akai in the race for best-looping-pedal-under-£150 is it's got two jack inputs, so I get my XLR-jack lead and plug in my mic as well as my guitar, and then you can do 6 part harmonies as well as beatboxing and anything else you may like to. oooh yeah.

Haha - depends how long you're looping for I suppose. It's another thing to go wrong in my eyes, I like to keep the list of things that could potentially go wrong to a minimum personally.

The akai is more a delay than a looper, but it's looping is awesome, maybe not able to do all that stuff, but it's £30 cheaper and it has 4 outputs for tape delays and shit... I'm still yet to find four amps to test that on though... :D

You can borrow my 3.