Looper Scoop?

I'm looking for a delay pedal with a "hold" or infanite repeat setting. I bought an old DOD dfx9 on ebay - it has the hold feature but works only 60 % of the time. I'm getting a kick out of holding or looping a blues or jazz lick and then jamming with it or practing scales to the looped lick.

I have two good delay pedals but again - it's the loop or hold setting that I want.

Any reccomendations? Any sleepers that I can look for on e-bay??

Thanks,
John

The Line6 Delay modeller (DL4) has a looping function. It's pretty cool. You can layer tracks, slow the speed to half, play it backwards etc.

When I first got mine, I was goofing around with it at my folks' place. I recorded the four-bar rhythm pattern for "Ramblin' Man". I then recorded a bassline. Then I layered on the harmony parts. Finally, I just soloed over the whole thing. It was at this point that my father came into the room to see "just what the hell I was doing." :)

If you set the sampler at half speed before you start recording, you get about 20 seconds of sampling. (ie. enough to record a fairly fast 12-bar blues to solo over.)

Another option to consider would be the Boomerang phrase sampler. It's got longer sampling times and more sampling options than the Line6, but it doesn't have all the cool delays that the DL4 has.

Later...

The AKAI delay had a looping fuction, I think it was called the Headrush.

I use a ZVEX loop junky pedal- it has the ability to store a 20 second loop. The loop is intenetionally grainy sounding, and you can add tremelo. ITs a bit pricey though.

Digitech made a few diffeent delays in the late 80's with loop function. times varied from 2 to 8 seconds.

The Boss DD3 has the 'hold' function and has been around for a long time. There are lots of used ones out there for well under $100. I think some of the other Boss delays may have the hold function as well but I know the DD3 does.

-Tim Pruitt

Might be a little overkill for what you are looking for but I tried one the other day and WOW! Hours of self indulgence and amusement.

I'll second the rec for the Line6 DL4- I like that you can add delay to the looped stuff. Also, it's just a great collection of delays.

I have the Line 6 and like it, mostly as a delay pedal.

I want the Boss RC20 Loop Station becuase it has a lot more memory than the Line6 (i.e., it will hold long samples, 12 bars or slow blues etc.)

The other choice is the Boomerang which MAY be the easiest to play with in a live situation. It's not for me though becuase it doesn;t retain the loops in memory like the Boss does. It is pretty big too. John Scofield uses one. The owner of Boomerang is a pretty nice guy who answer an email question when I had one. (Good luck talking to someone at Boss. LOL)

May I recommend the Boss DD20 Giga Delay? It offers 23 seconds of delay time, Sound on Sound w/ dubbing, which is the loop feature you're after. Not to mention 4 presets plus a manual setting, so you have 5 settings available on call. It sounds great as well. Too many features to get into here, look it up, you won't be disappointed. I bought mine new for $230, but you can get them on eBay for less.

Steve

The Boss RC20 Loop Station is a great practice and performance tool. You can record loops up to 5 minutes long. When I practice I record full chord progressions into it and jam for hours.

I found a cheap pedal that I really like - an older DOD DFX 94 - digital delay-sampler-looper; only 4 seconds max but I bought it on e-bay for $35.00.

4 seconds is enough time to play and loop a really smooth lick and play along with it. I have a Boss delay and an Ibanez delay and this is a warm sounding delay. Very clean e-bay purchase. I'm having fun with it.