Discover why so many Guitarists find it Impossible to Live without Guitar Loop Pedals
The Need For Guitar Loop Pedal was Born Long Before The First Guitar Loop Pedal Was Produced
Check out some Of the First Guitar Loop Effects
Now that you have enjoyed in this 3 minute video showcasing Frippertronics, one of the precursor Guitar Loop Pedal let us Dig Into the world of Modern Guitar Loop Pedals that are Designed to bring your Guitar Playing to the Next Level
Guitar Loop Pedal To Ignite your Creative Spark
To give you an insight into guitar loop pedal I will first ask you to imagine having a rhythm guitarist that will play whatever you want and for as long as you want without ever getting bored. Or even better, imagine having an orchestra of guitar players that will do anything you wish sound wise and playing wise. Takes an effort even to imagine such obedient players. Or perhaps you feel like jamming over two specific chords for few hours but unfortunately no one wants to play those chords for you for the most of the evening. Or you wish to experiment with different phrases in poly-rhythmic but you are half a dozen guitar players short so you can’t really hear how they sound together. Yes, you can always go into a recording studio, but by the time you get there that inspiring moment is usually gone. I am the only guitar player in my band, and we play a lot of different styles some of which are pretty complex. Many times we found there is something missing and even more often we tried to bring another guitarists. Some of them were fine musicians, but the vibe just wasn’t there, it just didn’t work. Creative differences, you know…
Guitar Loop Pedal or a Guitar Loop Station to Eliminate the Sound Void
Some time ago I started using guitar loop pedal. Wow! Since then we sound like a six piece band instead of a trio. Sometimes I put few ambiental chords together that a loop pedal will repeat over and over and then squeeze some psychedelic note out of my guitar. Sometimes I put a jazz chord progression and jam, and sometimes it is a straight rock riff that I solo over. My band mates stopped telling me to shorten my solos because there is no more void in our sound. Guitar loop pedal is a great tool that can really expand your creativity and every guitar player should give it a try. If you record two phrases together one over another, the third phrase will most probably come up in a second, and the best thing is you get to hear instantly how they sound together. It is also great for working on your solos as the loop pedal doesn’t get bored of playing the same rhythm line over and over. Or you can even record the whole song and work on the details. It’s all there right under your foot.
Many great guitarists such as Robert Fripp, Steve Vai, Adrian Belew, Andy Summers etc. used loopers and developed their looping technique to perfection.
Choosing the guitar loop pedal from different guitar loop pedal brands
There are numerous brands of guitar loop pedals and it is no wonder that so many guitar players are spending much time researching them, testing and talking about how they finally found the latest and greatest guitar loop pedal. Some of the most recognized brands that made their name on guitar loop pedal market are Akai, BOSS, DigiTech, Electro-Harmonix and Line 6.
Buying a Guitar Loop Pedal Online | Easily reveal the Best Guitar Loop Pedals on the Market
When you decide to look for the guitar loop pedal to buy online you have many great reputation high quality stores to choose from. Among the most prominent ones are Amazon, Guitar Center, Musicians Friend, Sam Ash and finally eBay where you can find different used guitar loop pedals for the affordable price.
Personally, I prefer shopping at Amazon because it is a unique place where customers have the ability to come back and rate the products they have purchased. What’s even better is that Amazon is not removing or editing negative customer feed back which gives you the unique opportunity to actually see first hand what the real guitarists who used the particular guitar pedal are saying. This is the best way to find out if the actual guitar loop pedal is worth your money. Besides that, being such a large store, Amazon also tends to offer specific guitar loop pedal at huge discounts not available anywhere else.
So, if you decided to give a guitar loop pedal a try here are some of them I found very good and certainly worth to take a closer look.
Guitar Loop Pedal Comparison | Choosing the Best Guitar Loop Pedal For You
Boss RC 50 Loop Station gives a new meaning to Guitar Loop Pedals
This one is a true loop workstation. If you are into creating a wall of sound and complexed and massive arrangements, Boss RC 50 Loop Station is a tool for you. There are three simultaneous stereo phrase tracks on the RC-50, each with a dedicated foot-switch and each track can contain dozens of loops/phrases that you stack one by one. It also offers 379 play-along Rhythm Guide Patterns in a wide variety of time signatures, more than enough for anybody. You can also use it to create grooves with your voice, keyboards, well, pretty much any instrument you can think of. Add some unique features like the possibility of backward playing of the phrases, re-triggering the phrases in “free time” or on a time-aligned grid, possibility of correcting errors on the fly with the Undo/Redo switch etc. The downside for those that desire simplicity is that it has seven foot-switches and you need to acquire some skills to use this tool live. Here are few examples of what you can do with Boss RC 50.
DigiTech Jamman – Guitar Loop Pedal For All your Needs
This is a great loop/sampler pedal. It allows you to save 99 independent loops, store over 24 minutes of looping time or even 6,5 hours of music if you upgrade to 2GB card, connect it to your computer to save all your loops and create backup, load the pedal with bass lines, drums and whole backing tracks. You can even slow down or speed up any song without changing a pitch so you can master even the fastest tunes. This is a twin pedal which makes on the fly operating very easy. You have a built in kick-drum and can choose between a single or infinite repeat of the recorded line. Separate guitar and microphone inputs (the microphone input allows you to mike your amp) included.
Boss RC 20 Guitar Loop Pedal
A downsized version of the RC 50. A twin pedal with all features you could possibly need from a loop pedal. Real time Tempo Change function allows for changing recorded samples’ tempo without changing pitch while the overdub function allows for creation of “sound-on-sound” loops. It can store up to 10 looped phrases and 1 “one-shot” phrase, even after power-off. Total sampling time is as long as 5,5 minutes and you have a Mic input, Instrument input and Auxiliary input for sampling vocals or pre-recorded audio–even simultaneously and the possibility of reverse sample playback.
Now of course, it is nice to have a band-mate and to play with different people as it adds to your experience and can be fun. But loop pedal has some advances of it own. First of all, it is never off beat or out of time (unless you are). Second, it will always play exactly what you want and third, it never asks a pay check after a gig.
Even if you do have the whole band and you do not have to use the guitar loop pedal live, it will always be a great tool for practicing, composing and experimenting.