What switchers/loopers are you guys using?

[fuzzypumpkins]

I'm acquiring a lot of pedals and hope to put a board together soon. I will be using at least 10 pedals but probably more, and I don't want my signal to be running through them at all times. I know it's overkill, but I've always wanted a huge board where I can create some crazy textures and ambient loops.

I've looked into the GigRig stuff, Carl Martin Octaswitch II, MusicomLab MKIII, and WOBO custom stuff. ANy others I should know about? I want to have the option of changing amp channels if possible. (also what buffers are you using?)

Please post up your boards if you're using switchers! Thanks.

[sonidero]

I have a two channel Hopper Looper that's pretty cool... It 's just a bypass loop and doesn't channel switch though... Sounds like you need something bigger... People on here could probably make you one if you asked...

[skullservant]

I used a bypass looper that I built for a good while before I simplified my board down:



When I did narrow down my board, I ended up building a 2 channel looper with a buffer after the 2 loops that was then fed into a Super Hard On Clone clean boost at the end:

[ALLisNOISE]

I just recently got a Road Rage 9 channel looper and some lava cables when tone factor was shutting down. I'm still in the process of wiring it all up, but I'm super excited. It means no more toe tapping in the Tetris maze of death!
I've tested it out off the board and I'm impressed with how solid it feels underfoot. Plus the switches are far enough apart that there's no danger of activating more than one loop unless you want too.
Mine doesn't include amp switching, but I believe it's an option available.
I want the OctaSwitcher more than anything though. That one has been on my radar since the first one!

[goroth]

Road Rage all the way. My custom looper was not that much more expensive than a regular loop strip and they can do pretty much anything. The email contact with Jeff was quick and easy; they delivered on time, and quickly. The looper is really well constructed and designed, as ALLisNOISE said. And most importantly the custom enclosures they use are fucking awesome looking. One way I've always used my loopers is by putting combinations of pedals in each loop, not just one loop for each pedal. That way I can choose a number of pedals at once (either pre-song or during a part that is easier to tap dance to) and turn em all on with one click.

[CBA]

I've done Loopmaster a few times... I'd go somewhere else first.

Just got a great A/B box from American Loopers... great little builders.


C

[fuzzypumpkins]

Thanks for the replies! Never heard of Road Rage but I'll def check em out. Skullservant, your Dirge builds look awesome! Nice pedals you're using (or were using) too.

[skullservant]

Thanks for the kind words duder, and welcome

[univalve]

i have a loooper ( http://www.loooper.com/ ) and two british ones which are super cheap and work quite fine for me ( http://www.markoneaudio.co.uk/ ). Here are the markone on my board:

loooper seems to be out of business so told Shannon about the roadrage stuff. He got one and is quite happy with it. Here is it on his epic BILF 2012 BOARD:

[fuzzypumpkins]

Good Lord!

[hbombgraphics]

When I first put together a big board (more than 10 Pedals) I thought I needed TB Loops for everything, and over time i have added more pedals and done away with all the loops. To me the idea of jamming every pedal or group of pedals in a loop gets pretty limiting creatively. I have a three channel TB Loop and a single one and the only advantage I see is if I wanted to turn on several pedals in a chain at once, or create a board where I really only wanted three tones (A TGP Board).

True bypass loops are pretty basic and you should have someone here build you one if you really want one,

As far as the buffers are concerned, the MI Audio boost-n-buff is an awesome pedal that offers a great buffer along with a really nice boost, I love mine and it always finds a home on boards.

Another awesome use for a TB loop is the throw stereo rack gear into a mess of noises or to put inside a feedback loop and control banks of oscillating pedals (obviously the purpose of TB loops is to create more noises not reduce them)

pictured is an example of an old board with some TB loops
The tree is a TB loop and the black and white pedal is a double, looking back this one seems kindof silly

[sonidero]

Truff... This man knows what he preaches... Just find less pedals that fulfill the same purpose or hire a roadie... Hindsight is always 20/20...

[hbombgraphics]

The top board would have been dead quiet with no TB loops If I dumped the JeckylnHyde and the Uber Metal, the buffers in those suck.

I forgot to mention that Loopers mean piles of extra cables, mean more that can go wrong, mean a less intuitive jamming experience.

[goroth]

I couldn't play the music I do live without my looper. And the way everything is set up I can still combine any pedal I want with any other pedal.

But yeah, cabling is a bitch. I'm changing from Lava Cable solderless to soldering my own with Switchcraft 380s and GLS pancakes.

One of the advantages of loopers, despite the complexity, is that if one pedal dies, or one cable dies my signal path is still ok. If the looper dies I can just bypass it (mine has a master bypass - which rules). So I feel in a live situation I've got a bunch of extremely quick debug options and a bunch of ways to get round an eventual failure. I would hate to try and sort out a problem board with more than a couple of pedals live.

[excane]

David Boggs from loooper.com is an awesome dude.... he built me whatever I needed.

loopmaster makes some great stuff too. I've owned and gigged with both.