Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom

Hi Tomo, and friends,

Can you recommend a good stereo looper?

I have been looking at the Boss RC-5 mostly. It seems to have good review which suggest it can be easy to use, has many looper-centric features, and seems to be future proof, using 32-bit processors and enough space for loops.

For stereo, I have been using two combo amps, the Silktone amp and the Swart Mod 84. I am using a UAFX Starlight delay pedal to implement stereo.

Thank you!
Sunil

Hi Sunil - I like my RC5 as a practice tool. I use it for both looping and also as a simple drum machine / metronome.
If you just want a home practice tool, then it's great, but I think it's less well suited for live playing as it only has one footswitch which can make some features a bit difficult to control quickly. It also only has one loop track (you can't record a separate loop for a verse and chorus and easily switch between them as you can on multi track loopers. I use mine with an external footswitch which makes it easier to use.

Thank you Paul!

I also use a foot switch for "Stop" "Erasing without any sound"

RC3 is good, up to 99 tracks can be assigned. A workhorse.

Thank you Sunil!

I have a RC1 and it’s great. It does everything I need. In fact when my band was together, I recorded an airplane to it from my iPad and would play it at beginning and end of Back in the USSR.

I think RC3 (and RC2?) was replaced by RC5, around 2022. So I’m back to RC5, about 150 on used market (reverb), resale might be still good in 2-3 years also, I’m hoping.

Also found if I want two separate stereo loops I need to go to RC10r or above in their current lineup. It sounds like RC10r has an emphasis on performance instead of practice. Also anything higher than RC10r gets pricey even in the used market. I might look for an RC-600 in 2-3 years.

I found these helpful:
* https://articles.boss.info/10-ways-a-boss-loop-station-will-make-you-a-better-musician/
* https://articles.boss.info/navigating-the-boss-loop-station-lineup-a-guide-to-picking-the-perfect-pedal/
* https://www.guitarworld.com/features/best-looper-pedals

I’m keeping Boss choices close because they’ve been around a long time and they’re big.

Thanks friends!

Matt, that’s really cool! These looping machines are all really neat, seems like there’s a lot we can do with all them!

Tomo, thank you so much for your replies.
My pleasure to add any useful information! GW, and your free YouTube videos have helped me so much! I watched them for a few years before signing up here. :)

Whoa you have a lot of loopers! Do they have midi inputs and outputs? The manuals for RC-5 and RC-10r both mention you can connect them with midi using with a similar device and have them synched. I wonder if different devices in the same family can do the same?

I really like the RC-1 interface. The big round wheel seems more clear to me than the bars on the small screen the RC-5 (and RC-3) have.

I was skimming the owner manuals, firmware update notes, parameters guides, on the boss/roland sites, for RC-1,5, and 10r. And I kept watching this video,

(I’m sorry I had to delete the video. If you search for how to use these loopers there are many videos)

Thinking this is what I wanted, and how easy it looks. Then last night I found a really good price on reverb for RC-10r (“mint” for $180 and free shipping) and FS-7 (new $67 and free shipping). After taxes (~10% sales tax in California) it came to about $275 for both which was almost twice what I was expecting.

But I think I will be able to use it for quite a while.