Best Looper Pedals for Acoustic Guitars – Which One Is Right For You?
To fatten and power up your live performances, one of the best investments that you can make as a guitarist is invested in the best looper. In this post we look at the Best Looper Pedals for Acoustic Guitars. We look at their key features, design, performance, price and more.
If you wonder how Ed Sheeran gets to sell out whole world class stadiums with only his acoustic guitar, the answer is the looper (plus his guitar, of course).
A looper is one of the most important pedals for acoustic guitars as it allows a guitarist to record their sings while they play.
Then the pedal will keep looping infinitely, meaning that you can play different parts of a song over the top recorded part, and the result of this is that you can overdub as many times as you wish.
This process allows you to build up even more complex music layers, and at the end the day, your recording will feel as if there was more than one player playing.
Given the power, versatility, and the importance of pedal looper, musical instruments manufacturers have, over the years, come up with a huge variety of what would be the best acoustic guitar loopers on the market. Below, we’ll take a look at some of these loopers.
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How Do You Choose The Best Looper Pedal?
While there are numerous features that point to excellent loopers; some of the important considerations you need to keep in mind.
These include an unlimited number of overdubs which allows for an unlimited number of tracks for stacking over the others, and undo/redo function allowing cancellation of recent overdubs or restoring it back, and the play/stop function.
On top of these functions, the other deciding factor is the number of songs that you want to be playing from the feet.
Note that this single-song looper, for example, would be a good option for you if you need to spruce up the song’s odd sections or if you are need to use certain sections on one or two songs within a set.
A looper with 2/3/4 tracks is, on the other hand, a good fit for you if you prefer live shows looping of your tracks because such loopers allow for the easy set up and alignment of different sections of your songs like the bridge, chorus, and verse, and you can switch between these sections in a fly.
The other considerations you need to have in mind include the number of footswitches you could have within your feet, the storage needed, the stereo playback (If you will run your looper into the PA or the guitar amp).
You might also consider whether you’ll integrate your backing tracks in the DAW, as well as the expandable/ external storage.
Note that if you are planning run this looper into the guitar amp, you must have a dual-output looper for sound expansiveness.
With these features and factors out of the way, which are the best looper pedals for acoustic guitars?
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Best Acoustic Guitar Looper Pedals
Boss RC-1 Loop Station (Best For Beginners)
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This loop station by BOSS is the industry standard looper pedal for all acoustic guitarists. The primary reason for its popularity has to do with the fact that this looper is very user-friendly.
It boasts the big ol ‘clock face’ dial system, which means that you will always know just how far your current playing loop is at. You also have only one single-level looping control to think of.
As would be expected, the Boss RC-1 (Check Price) features a solitary footswitch that handles the basic undo/redo and the play/stop functions.
These are excellent features for anyone trying to figure out the whole guitar-looper pedal-footswitch ecosystem, but you could add extra external footswitches later if you are looking to enhance the functionality of the looper.
You might also like it because it has the stereo output and input functions, not to mention the 12-minutes recording time on your set features. This looper also allows the storage of the last loop within the looper pedal, even after switching off the looper.
Pros
- 12-minute recording time
- User-friendly
- Expandable footswitch system
Cons
- It has a few features
TC Electronic Ditto X4 Looper (Best Overall)
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A 2-track electronic X4 looper pedal, this looper pedal is regarded as the best looper pedals if you are looking for something that’s super easy to use while boasting a huge range of functions.
As with any other TC electronic you might have had your hands on, the quality of this looper pedal is outstanding, and it’s a great fit for advanced and techy guitarists.
The looper is quite honestly a robust X4 looper serving up 2 high-quality stereo loops and each of these loops with its dedicated footswitch, and also the dedicated FX and Stop switches.
The FX switch is quite intuitive, and you could use it to make the looping stop when the cycle ends, to stop automatically, or to slow down via fade or the cool reel-esque functions.
The FX switch also makes it possible for you to reverse or to half or even double down on the speed of the loop.
The functionality of this guitar looper is enhanced by the loop and the MIDI sync transfer functionalities, as well as the configuration of the overdubs and the serial loop recordings.
The Ditto X4 (Check Price) is an excellent looper and one of the best looper pedals for acoustic guitars available right now.
Pros
- Excellent sound quality
- It’s easy to use even with the advanced features
- The loop controls work seamlessly
Cons
- Syncing MIDI is a little complicated
Boss RC-300 (Best Performing)
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If you are looking for an elite-level looper pedal, then this Boss RC-300 might be exactly what you are looking for, and as you can tell from its features and reviews, this is the looper pedal go-to for most (if not all) big-name musicians/ loop stations.
It can hold 3 tracks; it comes with a 3X loop level slider, as well as 3X edit buttons all designed to enhance your performance.
One of the main reasons why this is one of the most reputable looper pedals is that the Boss RC-300 (Check Price) comes with the flagship loop station by Boss, a high-end function that allows you to enjoy up to 3 synchronized tracks all with a dedicated play/rec/dub/ as well as stop footswitches.
Thanks to these features, this is the best looper pedals for professionals/ artists worldwide. The other top-notch features of this looper pedal include the stage-ready functions for auto-recording – this means that the pedal starts to record automatically when you begin playing.
It also has a count-in and the expression pedal, which I versatile, and you could use it to assign a whole load of important parameters.
You might also like this looper pedal because it allows you to quantize all your loops, and you could also add effects like the phaser, modulator, flanger, transpose, and different vocal effects while playing with a whole range of rhythms and patterns.
Pros
- AUX input level
- Write/ system/ exit functions
- It has stage-ready features
- Top-notch recording function
- Many options of rhythm patterns
- Loop FX button
- Mic and instrument inputs
- Memory edit
- Great controls including the master level 3X loop-level sliders, and the 3X edit buttons
Cons
- It’s expensive
Pigtronix Infinity Guitar Looper (Cheaper High Performing Alternative)
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For a looper that works well for loop merchants experts, this Pigtronix Infinity Looper Pedal might be a great option for you.
With 2 tracks, and controls in the form of a master volume, stop mode, 2X loop volume, the input split, preset, sync multi, and the input split, this looper pedal promises exceptional performance. You could think of this looper pedal as a veteran’s stompbox.
As a triple-footswitched looper pedal, it comes with the Sync Multi-feature, which allows for easy setting of the loop length 1, 2, 3, 4, or even 6 times the first loop’s length. This feature is also the reason why this looper is a great option for loop masters.
If you are into complicated arrangements, then this looper is an excellent fit for you (Check Price). You might also like it because it allows you to easily set up loops in either series or parallel, allowing one loop to start the moment another one stops.
Therefore, this is an excellent option for chorus or verse-structured songs. Then there’s the fact that this looper allows you to store up to 9 preset slots. It also has MIDI and USB connections and synchronization options.
Pros
- Ideal for loop masters
- and veterans
- It stores up to 9 loop presets
- A good fit for complicated arrangements
- Loops could be set in parallel or series
- Triple footswitched
Cons
- It’s too complex for beginners
Digitech Jam Man Express XT Guitar Pedal (Alternative For Beginners)
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If you are looking for a looper pedal that’s been tried and tested and is also simple and quite affordable, this Digitech Jamman Express XT Guitar Pedal might be a great option for you.
In addition to the budget-friendliness and simplicity, this looper pedal with one footswitch takes over its predecessor, and it boasts 10 minutes of storage for stereo I/O and loops.
It also comes with an important JamSync function, which allows for the chaining of multiples in the smaller pedals, hence the expansion of the loops.
Note that this looper pedal has a single-button design. While this means that recording is a breezy affair thanks to the simple record buttons.
Tap once for recording, once again to end that loop, and then start playback functions, there the issue of the unit being unable to make clean stops.
There’s also the double-tap-to-stop function, which is imperfect and could mess up your live performance.
Pros
- Affordable
- Easy to use
- 10-minute looping
- JamSync for loop chaining
- It runs multiple units at the same time
Cons
- The single-button operation could sabotage your performance
- The stops aren’t clean
- You need great coordination
Conclusion
Your options are limitless, but to ensure excellent performance, you need to make sure that the looper pedal you choose has all the nice features for a flawless performance, whether you will be using the looper in your bedroom or live on stage.
Some of these features include memory, number of pedals, stereo/ mono output, multiple loops, reverse looping, true bypass, inputs, and the price should also be right for you.
If we had to choose one looper pedal for acoustic guitars that is the right fit for performance, quality and of course price; I think it would have to be the TC Electronic Ditto X4 Looper.
Winner: Best Acoustic Guitar Looper Pedal
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I hope you enjoyed this post discussing the Best Looper Pedals for Acoustic Guitars and that it provided you with enough information to help with your buying decision.
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