Boss RC-2 or Digitech Jam Man for live work?

[Closed Eye]

Some of my favorite players lately have been Damien Rice, KT Tunstall, and Nick Zinner from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

I don't think it's really because they're fantastic guitarists or anything, but mainly because I like how they use guitar technology to their advantage.

Damien Rice and KT Tunstall use the Akai Headrush II to loop their vocals and guitar bits while Nick Zinner uses the Digitech Jam Man for his guitar layering.

I know they use multiple amp set-ups but I was wondering if anybody here has practical experience with these units in a live setting or could foresee possible pitfalls or problems with the pedals?

I jam with a bass player and we have pretty good chemistry so I'm not sure if a second guitarist is really what we need (unless the singer wants to strum or something) and I think the idea itself is pretty cool. I'd mostly likely be doing a garage/indie rock type thing with some spacey stuff tossed in there. Let me know if there's anything else I should know too!

Thanks for the help, look, info.

 

[Shauggy]

Re: Boss RC-2 or Digitech Jam Man for live work?

The only thing I don't like about them is that you have to hold a footswitch down for 2 secs to undo a loop/overdub. That pretty much ruled either one out for me as far as live work goes.

I haven't messed with the RC-2 but I hear that if you get one you want an external footswitch.

 

[Closed Eye]

Re: Boss RC-2 or Digitech Jam Man for live work?

external footswitch = more looping capabilities?

 

[Shauggy]

Re: Boss RC-2 or Digitech Jam Man for live work?

external footswitch= tap tempo, undo/redo, phrase selection....you can do all that with just the pedal but the footswitch makes it easier.

Does the RC-2 has the fade-out feature like in the RC-20? That's a cool feature.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Boss RC-2 or Digitech Jam Man for live work?

first, check out loopers-delight.com for other options. both of those are more suited to practicing and 'karaoke-style' jamming than live playing or improvisations. they are not intuitive, and you can't get to certain functions easily without buying other pedals.
the problem with rhytmic looping live is the syncing- unless everyone has *amazing* monitor systems, the loop will drift. if you are really dedicated to looping vs a 2nd guitarist, you'd need a looper with midi sync, and play to a click.
both the boss and the digitech also suffer from not having feedback control too...for a live looper in a pedal, check out the Boomerang or the DL4.