Guitar Looper Pedal guide, and the best options that are available to add these effects to your guitar playing. The guitar loop pedal is a fun gear that allows guitar players to come up with interesting audio loops. Learn also how to use the loop pedal as a guitar practice and performance tool.
What is a Guitar Loop Pedal?
So what exactly is a guitar looping pedal? You may say its the easiest way to create a backing tack, something on which you can play along. Its one of the most popular guitar effects pedals.
A looper pedal records short passages, played on a musical instrument, and plays them back in a repeating loop. The result is a catchy rhythm, which can be enhanced further. The best loop pedal allows you to create complex rhythms and harmonies.
Here are some more characteristics of these stompboxes:
- This gear allows you to record and then play a phrase or passage from a song.
- You can either pre-record loops or create them on the fly as you perform.
- The best guitar looper pedals let you layer multiple loops thus creating a rich sounding rhythm
- High-end boutique tape loop effects can create varied effects and are used by studios who want a vintage sound.
How to Use the Guitar Loop Pedal?
You have to operate the loop pedal with your feet, the good thing about that is it frees up your hands to play your guitar.
Checkout the video to see how these stompboxes are used:
Improving Your Music Skills Using the Looping Pedal
You can do so many things using the loop pedal (practice better, perform better, compose interesting tracks), here are some ideas worth exploring if you have one.
Practice Better
Here are some ideas to use the looping pedal as a guitar practice aid.
Become a One man Band
Most electronic keyboards has features that lets you function as a one-man orchestra. You can now do the same (create interesting performances) using the guitar looping pedal.
Besides being an effective practice tool, a guitar loop pedal also helps you transform into a one man band allowing you to play multi-instrument songs all by yourself. You can give impressive song performances by first recording percussive rhythm sounds, bass lines and backing chords. Once that is done, you can either play solo or sing over the resulting mix.
Watch: One man band using the guitar looper. You’ll find many more such inspiring videos on Youtube, just search for “loop pedal” on YouTube.
Improve Composing Skills
You can also use these foot pedals to compose music, to capture musical ideas and to create your own harmonies and even to compose new songs.
These foot boxes have become quite flexible now, and offer you the ability to record loops of different length. That’s right! You can layer loops of different lengths.
With most of the earlier looper pedal models, you could only layer two loops over each other and they had to be of the same length. However, the best loop models nowadays are more flexible.
You can now record a loop and then using the foot-pedal you can shift over to another blank patch where you can then record the next loop of a different length of time. So you can basically record two separate loops of different lengths and alternate between them.
Best Guitar Loop Pedals
The guitar looper is indeed one of the most popular creative tools for musicians (especially for guitarists). Whether you are a guitar player, DJ, vocalist, you will love the flexibility and features available in today’s pedals.
When shopping for the best guitar looper, pay attention to record times and features such as vocal effects and harmonizing. Some loop pedals also offer several different inputs so you can also record samples with a microphone or from a CD or mp3 player to mix with your guitar.
Some of our favorites looper makes/models include the ones from Boss, Digitech, Ditto, and more. If you are in the market for a looping pedal, check out the reviews on these popular looper pedals and see which guitar looper is best suited for you and your rig.
- TC Electronic DITTO X2 Looper (compact, easy to use)
- Boss RC-3 Loop Station Pedal (lots of memory and I/O)
- Boss RC-300 Loop Station (packed with features)
You can check-out these bestselling Guitar Looper Pedal models here.
- TC Electronic DITTO X2 Looper
- Boss RC-3 Loop Station Pedal
- Boss RC-300 Loop Station
You can check-out more best Guitar Looping Pedal models here.
Summary
You’re definitely going to love the guitar loop pedal (especially when you use it for the first time). No doubt its fun, but its also quite versatile, and can be used as a practice and performance tool to further enhance your musical skills. You can use the looping pedal to create backing tracks to practice with, or to give impressive performances as a one man orchestra, or use the looper as a recording device for composing interesting rhythmic tracks.
KeytarHQ editorial team includes musicians who write and review products for pianists, keyboardists, guitarists & other musicians. KeytarHQ is the best online resource for information on keyboards, pianos, synths, keytars, guitars and music gear for musicians of all abilities, ages and interests.
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