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BOSS Loop Pedal

admin — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:12:00 +0000

A loop station effect pedal is a great way to practice your improvisation techniques, put together entire songs, do some jamming or perform impressive compositions of live music. The loop pedal I am going to review today is the RC-2 Loop Station by Boss. It does everything that a great loop station should do, and is available at a very reasonable price. The pedal allows you to record, layer and loop samples of your guitar playing. Its other features, such as, tap tempo, auto start and advanced undo/redo make it a really easy piece of gear to use as well.

BOSS RC-2 Loop Station

One of the main things I liked about this pedal was it’s user friendly interface. Everything that you need is right under your fingertips, and there are no confusing menus and sub-menus to navigate through. This makes a very viable piece of equipment to use when playing live. It’s size also allows it to fit in right beside your other stomp boxes without taking up precious space.

This stomp box is capable of recording and storing around 16 minutes of audio. The RC-2 will accept inputs from either your own musical instruments, or from external devices like MP3 players.

The sounds of the recorded audio samples stay entirely true to their recorded source. There is no loss of tone or presence at all. It sounds like you have a couple buddies jamming with you right in the room.

Boss RC-2 Feature List:

Capable of recording and storing up to 16 minutes of audio
Advanced loop timing functionality
Has built in realistic drum patterns that are easily accessible
Easy to use interface
Can capture audio from external devices
Allows you to record, loop, layer and store your tracks.

Below is a video demonstration of the BOSS RC-2 Loop Station Effect Pedal:

Find the BOSS RC-2 on sale at EBay here

Boss BD-2 Blues Driver Pedal

admin — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 21:50:34 +0000

I recently had the chance to try this distortion pedal out, and it was really impressive. I love to play the blues and as soon as I kicked the Boss BD-2 into action, I was in heaven. This effects pedal by Boss faithfully recreates the classic sound of a vintage tube amp, and it just screams blues tone. I really liked the wide range of tones that I could capture with the Boss BD-2. It provides really warm distortion and thick sounding chords, while also allowing you to make your guitar scream. The Boss BD-2 is the perfect effects pedal for any blues or rock player.

The Boss BD-2 features a heavy sounding low end with really edgy sounding highs
The distortion tones it creates really accentuate the dynamics of your playing
It can deliver really thick sounding chords
It has responsive tone, volume and drive controls
Perfect for playing blues or rock music

Top 5 Distortion Pedals for Under 100 Dollars

admin — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 00:16:34 +0000

A good quality distortion pedal is a necessity for any serious guitar player, but finding a stellar distortion pedal in your price range can sometimes be difficult. This is why I’ve done the research for you and compiled a list of the top 5 selling distortion pedals for under 100 bucks. These are all great effects pedals that I have had the privilege to play over the years, and they all produce a great sound.

1. Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer Effects Pedal ($99.99)

This Ibanez distortion pedal is a reissue of the early Vintage Tube Screamers that carried a larger price tag, but has many of the same components and classic tones that made the original such a popular choice among guitarists.It produces great tones, and is perfect for playing classic rock.

Features:

Classic Overdrive Tone
Responsive Control Knobs (Tone, Volume, Drive)

2. Electro-Harmonix XO Metal Muff ($89.25)

This pedal delivers awesome heavy metal distortion. It is perfect for anyone looking for a pedal that can deliver really high gain distortion sounds as well as warm over driven distortion tones. This pedal by Electro-Harmonix is able to achieve this wide range of sounds because of its customizable EQ settings and tone controls.

Features:

Heavy Distortion Tones
Responsive Controls
Top Boost switch that will elevate the high gain and make your solos scream

3. DigiTech XMM Metal Master ($89.95)

This pedal can produce a near limitless variety of distortion tones thanks to its morphing ability. It creates heavy metal distortion tones and has high quality responsive EQ controls. The DigiTech Metal Master is an ideal fit for the stage, or the studio.

Features:

Heavy Metal Distortion Tones
Morph between pedal sounds similar to BOSS, DOD and Rectifier distortion pedals
Level control, EQ controls and Morph control
High quality sound
Additional clean output signal jack

4. Boss BD-2 Blues Driver Pedal ($89.00)

This pedal produces some awesome Blues tones and it gives your guitar the classic sound of a vintage tube amp on overdrive. If you want to play Blues, this pedal is a must.

Features:

Produces class over-driven tube amp sound perfect for Blues guitar
Controls for Gain, Tone and Level

5. Electro-Harmonix Classics USA Big Muff ($76.50)

This effects pedal is a reissued model of the legendary Electro-Harmonix USA Big Muff Pi Distortion/Sustainer Pedal made popular in the 70’s. It’s claim to fame is the harmonic like distortion, and near limitless sustain it can produce. It creates an awesome fuzz tone, and is used by Jack White of the White Stripes.

Features:

Awesome Fuzz tone
Great sustain
High quality sound

Well that’s it. Those are the top 5 Distortion Pedals for the guitar that you can get for under 100 bucks. These are all high quality effects pedals, and each create their own unique tones that will take your playing to the next level.