Boss RC-20XL

Need some time but then it is a clear winner!

No hum, no hiss. Great sound

Built like a tank

No need for one. After all it's Boss

I bought this used, but it was in mint shape (the previous owner was stymied by it, I think). At first, even though I had been give a "primer" in it's use by a friend who uses one all the time, I too found it daunting. Then after about an hour I had pretty much mastered it. I love this thing. It is idiosyncratic, the way it operates, so you have to really get down with learning it and "let it train you" somewhat, but the pay off is worth it. I also hooked up a 1/4" stereo Fender Vib/Rev pedal and a non-latching keyboard sustain pedal to it an voila, all those functions are easily foot controllable as well! Boss makes special switches for this that come out to around 75 bucks for both but if you have comparable switches at home try them out. probably one of the trickiest things to figure out is the correct time to stop and start the recording with the pedal in order to get a satisfactory loop that will work the way you want it to time-wise, but this is a talent you have to master through use, the box itself is very predictable and once YOU learn how to do it right you'll get good results. Using the timed loop with quantization will yield better timed results. I'm not the biggest fan of that "click" sound you play along with, but it does the job perfectly. I'm trying to do everything with this box, from setting up 3-5 part loops for songwriting and to play drums with, to making ambient Bill Frisell -like loops on the fly, to making psychedelic reverse sounds to add in where appropriate. It does them all, and with the extra pedals for scrolling up and down through the 11 memory locations and the footswitch for reverse you can really get a lot done without the dreaded "having to bend over". The manual explains everything but like most manuals it probably doesn't explain it 100% exactly like you would like to have it explained, again, like any good box or keyboard or whatever, no matter how intuitive there is the matter of YOU having to acclimate to IT. Go for it, you can handle it!

Good sound quality, doesn't step on the signal/tone. i use it with a variety of telecasters, les pauls, gretsches, danos, etc etc into vintage fender tweed and blackface amps. I wish some of my boutique stomp boxes, which I often love, could achieve the quality and reliability of the Boss line. If I had the balls I'd go ALL BOSS, but they have a tendency to cancel some of their cooler boxes, like the stereo Trem and the VB-2 vibrato and the parametric EQ....wTF?

I have had some Boss boxes go bad and have them repaired, but rarely, and I drag them all over the world. I expect this one will be no different. I'm still not a fan of their tuner, but apparently everyone else is.

When I needed something fixed, they fixed it. Also have gotten good tech answers from them.

I guess unless it became a part of your overall style a box like this could be in danger of being something you only dragged out once in a while, but I expect to get some good use and fun out of it. I love making up a song in it with 4 or 5 overdubbed parts and playing drums with it or lead over it, makes sitting around with yourself practicing or coming up with ideas WAY more fun.

I've read plenty of reviews (on this site and others) stating that the user was boggled by this thing at first attempt. I would say that the most fundamental funcions, i.e looping, were immediately accessable without reading the manual. I took mine out of the box, plugged it in, and looped like. . . well, like a mad-looper. Any functuions that i had diffuculty "getting" were outlined clearly and concisely in the included manual. And the only reason those functions took some time was because I am not hip to much of the Boss lingo. It was a matter of their labeling alone, which is neither good or bad. It's simply arbitrary terms for the unit's functions. Seriously- how some of you couldn't get it rolling is beyond me. I should add that I've only owned this pedal for a week, and I can operate the unit to full capacity.

Sound quality- well, here is my current set-up: Gibson SG standard or Fender Telecaster > DOD FX80B compressor > Vox Cooltron Dual Overdrive > Boss Loop Station > Vox AC30CC2. The bypass is decent, the loop quality is decent, but nothing will sound as true as guitar > amp, if for no other reason than the addition of extra cables for the sound to travel through. That said, there definately is some sound quality lost, but not much. I don't expect anyone listening at a live performance would really notice unless they're a gear head. I don't see myself using this too much for gigs anyway. I bought it mainly as a practice tool.

This is a Boss product, and so far so good. After a week it's been fine. The build quality is such that I could use it as a weapon to thwart a ninja attack. Based soley on my past experiences with Boss products, Boss should build tanks- they'd be indestructible.

I'm sure they're really nice folks. Hopefully, I'll never have to find out.

I love this thing. As a practicing tool and creatice device, this is probably the best investment you could make. It's already improved my playing as well as present me with a new creative pallette to work with.

The 16 minutes of sample time is nice. I typically layer about 7 instrument tracks on one patch during a performance. Editing and ease of use are intuitive, except for erasing patches. I don't have a manual and I can use every function after one day of use. For guitar and analog instruments this is a great unit. The layers tend to fade when multiple layers are stacked on top of them. If you are a one man band as I am, you might want to wait for some improvements. The biggest issue for me is that I cannot get it to accurately reproduce arpeggiated synth patches. I play them and the tempo feature freaks out. The unit locks on to your tempo while recording and holds it. This is great for instruments with an analog attack, but not so good for smooth digital signal. The tempo feature freaks out on the arpeggiated patches from my Kurzweil K2500. I was trying to record an arp2500 patch into the unit and it couldn't seem to lock on. It would reduce the patch and cut out all of the quieter subtleties of the sound. That said I am still happy that I bought the unit and will enjoy playing analog instruments through it. I do wish that the reverse function was foot controlled and it had multiple ins and outs.

What you put in is what you get out, until you layer half a dozen patches. Great for up to four layers if they have a hot signal. Not too digital sounding.

It's a boss!

Hope to never need them. I haven't in the 15 years I have been using their products.

This is a good match for me to play with a band. To do my one man band I will need some upgrades or a laptop. This should do it in theory, but the lack of response to digital signal isn't going to let that happen. It is alot of fun to use for creating bass and guitar parts. I am going to wear out the inputs by constantly switching between bass and guitar. If you are a guitarist looking for a cool toy to create textures I don't think you will find a better option out there. I may just have to give up on the synth idea and use my other boss effects to create similar sounds. I would definitely replace this if it were lost or stolen though I might go for the rc-50 for its hands off approach and the ability to have three patches available simultaneously. I bought this because the rc-50 is also mono and just doesn't support its potential.

Really easy to use. Straight out of the box it's pretty straightforward. As other players have mentioned - once you've read the manual you're up and running. It's a great starter loop device - I'm only just getting into it (can't be bothered finding yet another rhythm guitarist) and it's worked live and in the studio so far. I've already figured out the quantize button and, for my money, this FX works best on Auto Start. Tempos are pretty easy to set up too. Hooked up with an FS-6 and I'm in looping heaven!

There is a slight loss of tone. I use this nearly at the end of a GT8 loop (just before reverb) and you can notice when you first hear the loop. However, seeing as I'm looping so I can overdub then that's not that much of an issue - the rest of the band make up for the slight tone loss.

I would have liked to have seen this with stereo outs (I play stereo out to two amps - VOXAC30 and Spider112) though - IMO that would have sorted the tone loss. For that reason I've set the assigns on the GT8 so that I can cut the Loop out when not in use - instant stereo again. If you're playing in mono I can't see this being an issue at all.

It's Boss. I expect it to last a long time and to do what I want it to do on command.

Never had a problem with Boss gear.

It's pretty good. I'm sure the RC-50 is totally fab but this will do me for a while I think.

This unit takes a little time to find all the features and only has two pedals for real time use. The manuel was OK. I did not purchase this as a on stage pedal but more for practice and an idea recorder.

I am very happy with the sound quality for my purposes. I do think it colors your bypassed tone though. Again I use it for practice purposes and live to check my front of house tone. I have owned a boomerang and a Line 3 DL4 and I like this unit more due to the ability to save things the looped sound is better than the boomerang which has problems with clipping and input volume. The DL4 loops are too short and you cannot save anything. I know they are different products in thems of features but the RC-20XL does the best for what I need.

I think boss pedals are built like a tank and road proven. Although I only have this boss pedal due the tone coloration of the pedal bypassed.

I have not dealt with them.

I am in a original funk and jam band and this pedal allows me to record song ideas throughout the week. I use a dumble clone, Warmoth Strat, Briggs Saturn Deluxe, Tone Junkie TS9, Voodoo Labs Ground control pro, micro vibe, TC G major, etc. I use a lot of pro gear and this pedal is my favorite looper. Again I have owned a DL4 and a Boomerang (I have actually owned 2 boomerangs including the latest version). I wish it had another button to swich between loops but I think that I could get a momentary switch to do that on this unit but I do not have room on my pedal board. I use HC reviews often so here is my 2 cents.

For the first hour and half of having it i was very confused, but now that i know how to use it it is good.
The manual is full of instructions, and if you actually read it you will understand the unit.
The only problem that i have found so far is when using the loops on the CD that came with it, it is really hard to time the push off the pedal to make it loop.

I have found that my tone is more distorted when using the unit.

After having the pedal for 1 and half months, the pedal randomly broke and needed to be rreprogamed by boss.

When the pedal was sent to boss to be repaired, it took them two and a half months to get it back to me.
Boss are good at making pedals that work and are reliable, but when one breaks they don't know what to do.

I play alot of improvised jazz, and this pedal is great for doing that sort of thing. I have never used it anywhere besides at home, but i dont imagine it would be good onstage.

This thing is pretty easy to use (at least at a most basic level). Anything more then recording and overdubbing can be looked up in the manual no problem.

Ok, so heres where the problem lies... this thing sucks tone like no tomorrow. My setup is as follows: Tele->Tonebone Trimode (true bypass, so it's not the problem)-> RC-20XL-> amp. when I unplug the looper and go through the trimode the tone is way, way better. The pedal also renders the tone control on your guitar useless, and i didnt notice any changes whatsoever when switching through pickups.

so, I will never gig with this thing, but for home use and practice, where tone isnt the biggest thing on your mind, its absolutely great.

haven't had it long enough to say.

...

Overall, this is a great looper. It does what it says, and is pretty easy to use (especially when you use the auto-start). If it didnt suck tone so much (or if it had true bypass), I would definitely give it a higher rating.

Borrowed my friends RC-20XL to try out because I wanted to buy the little brother, the RC-2, coming out soon.

The RC-20XL comes with a CD of loops for you to sample, but I found it impossible to catch the end of a loop. Always a bit too much or too little. The problem seems to be the footpedal; it's action is OK if you want to switch a stompbox on or off, but it's very difficult to predict at which point of that not inconsiderable travel distance it's going to actually switch. The old AKAI Headrush has a far more positive switch action and is much better for this type of application. Boss have simply used their stomp box type switches here. Not good.

Sound quality seemed fine. I didn't have it long enough to discover any odd glitches or clicks others seem to be experiencing. The flat amp reverse simulation is a clever addition.

I can depend on most Boss gear, but I cannot rely on getting the loop when I need it.

It has a guide click for you to play along with, and if you want, it will quantize the end of what you play to the click if you cannot hit the footswitch accurately. That's fine for practising at home, but trying to record some riffs I'd recorded on a portastudio for a gig just proved impossible.

Quantize only works with the click, so the only reliable way to catch the end of a riff is to sync the click with the recording.

But getting the click on time with recorded material nearly drove me mad, no matter how carefully I tapped the tempo (both with foot switch AND panel button), it always was off.

Summary:
There is no tempo knob for fine tempo adjustment and there is no way of trimming a loop, and catching the end of a loop reliably with the footswitch takes more skill than I possess, so for my purposes it's near useless.

Guess I'll pass on that RC-2.

It's fairly simple to use. I think the instructions could be better. They're good, don't let me misguide you. I found some mistakes...that's all. I think the TAP TEMPO should be a dial knob, or technically speaking, a potentiometer. To me, the whole tempo setup is odd, useless, the tones suck, and a pain in the ass to use. You have to hope your tapping intervals are right on the money! But close enough for praticing.

Sound quality is fine for what I use it for. Playing at home, making loops. Which means strumming chords so I can pratice solos. At the same time, learn more scales. It's a great learning tool. I don't play out with it, and probably wouldn't. It has a built in TEMPO, or metronome. The sounds suck. Everyone will agree to that

Here's what I ABSOLUTELY HATE...there's isn't a power button. That's right, no way to turn it on or off. OK, so now you're in a situation where you would have unplug the unit, and take the cables and re-cable everything to bypass that unit. You can leave it on the whole time, no problem. BUT...here's the problem. The INST (instrument) Dial controls the volume of your guitar to your amp now. And it has a gain effect. So turning it up increases gain, not only the volume!! I HATE that. I don't want this thing altering tone in anyway. So for now I'm dealing with it. I have a pedal board, so I can't just unplug and re-cable very easily. When I want to get just tone. I plug in direct. Sure would be alot easier like the rest of my pedals to stomp on them to turn them on or off. And what about if you're using batteries? I don't get it.....

Seems solid. Well constructed. Nice and Heavy. Looks good. I was going to buy the RC-2, that's the single pedal version, but glad i don't so far. I wouln't gig with it personally. I'm not a one man band. But I don't see a need for it if you play rock-n-roll. Get a rhythm guitarist instead. I think it's too new of a product to get a good response for reliability. maybe the owners of the non XL (the RC-20 original) users could help.

Well, I thought that BOSS would have an email address for support. I wanted to know more about this invisible power knob. They don't have one. I think they gave a telephone number and a fax number. But I work during business hours. And this day in age, everyone has an email address. Owners of store bought products that have them registered should have email support. VERY DISAPPOINTED :(

If I'm playing other people's music, it's Alice in Chains, The Beatles, AC/DC, John Lennon, and tons of others, but those are my influences I would say. Been playing @ 6 years. I have a AM. Deluxe Strat, an Epiphone Les Paul, MArshall 2555 head, 1960TV cab, a Fender Frontman 25R ( cheap amp but I can't get distortion out of my Marshall at lower volumes...and sometimes I need to play through headphones while my girlfriend is sleeping. I have a few pedals, a crybaby wah, chorus, flanger, delay, and an acoustic simulator. If it were lost or stolen, probably get another. I love what it does, makes loops. I stated what I hated above...no power knob. love 2 seperate pedals. Great music making tool. A necessity for all trying to get better soloing. Wish it had a power knob, if it did, it would be perfect. A drum machine, and wow, it'd be the best thing ever.