Boss RC-20XL

Easy to use. Contstruction is primo. Yes, you have to bend over and turn the knob to go to another loop. So what? You've got so much memory in here (15 minutes) that you can put a whole lot into one loop anyway. I was looking at the Boomerang but it's too large and it isn't totally hands-free, either. Once again, Boss built it like a tank.

I play a Gibson Hummingbird with a Fishman pickup through this loop station live into the house P.A. Rather than make loops on the fly, I have every song in my set already saved in here so I can just switch inbetween songs. I love it. It sounds great. At first I wondered why they didn't make it stereo, but it isn't necessary. This thing rocks. Sounds fabulous. Make sure you get the XL version, though.

Totally dependable.

Very helpful team at Boss.

Great thing, here. If it were stolen I would definitely get another one.

I was hoping this pedal would allow me to become a one man band on stage. But to record "on the fly" to the 11 tracks it needs some kind of auto-write or auto-save function. To save a phrase you have to bend down and press a button. Lack of auto-save is the single reason I returned it.

But I also didn't like the reverse function. If you play a chord progression and then overdub a lead and hit the button it reverses the chord progession as well as the lead.

The manual is okay but has too many sidenotes and not enough visuals.

But yeah, it's relatively easy to use so I rate it a 7.

Maybe only slight deterioration.

Metal housing and medal pedals. Seems well constructed.

RolandUS.com has better info than Boss's own site.

I bought this pedal from Sweetwater with free shipping but since I returned it they charged me the shipping plus I had to pay $15 to ship it back so I'm out $30 total.

On stage I could only work with one loop and overdubs. You could pre-save loops to the 11 tracks and trigger them back at the appropriate time, but I think that's kinda cheesy. You might as well record a backing cd and play along with it.

It's useful for practice but it's so expensive. With the optional footswitch FS-6 ($50) and power adapter ($20) the total was $370! For $30 or $130 more I'm looking at the Digitech GNX 3 or 4 which have the Jam Man Looper built in, as well as a HUGE list of other features. Defintely check out their reviews before you even consider this pedal.

Interesting machine! It pretty much does whatever you do so bone up on your playing or it will be a humbling experience. The manual IS needed so read it. You can pretty much dope out the basics on your own but the manual will let you know how to edit a variety of functions such as how to det the stop modes and recording modes etc. This is the RC-20xl so of course the recording time is 16 minutes long. That can handle a lot of phrases,loops of patterns, or just whatever you input.

I mainly have used it with an acoustic preamp into the unit and it records quite well.I have used the output into a Mesa Boogie amp as well as directly into the board.
The sampling is 24 bit so it sounds pretty accurate. You can also use it to sample phrases,loops from your PC etc. but you lose a bit when playing back because it doesn't output stereo,mono only. I have used it with my old Roland GR-50 guitar synth to overdub bass and drum sounds to go with the acoustic material. It seems to handle it all well but you do have to hit the mark timing wise on the overdubs to get a seamless loop.
The count in or tempo click track seems hard to get the hang of for me. That's not the units fault that's my fault.The undo overdub feature will let you try again so nothings lost. The fade out method of stopping is great for those (never ending) acoustic song endings.
It will take time before I'd try it on a gig to do stuff on the fly but it seems do-able after a bit of practice.
It's not noisy,it has no effects it just repeats! Oh that's right,it's a looper!Stereo would be nice for recording from a disc etc. but for the onstage on the fly looping it's well laid out.

Dependable? It's a Boss pedal. I've got some Boss pedals that are older than most of the people who are reading this.They still work!
A backup? I need a backup set of strings.Everything else had better work.

Everytime I had a question or needed anything from Roland or Boss I have been contacted very quickly. But then I don't have many occasions to hassle them.

I've been playing Classic rock,country or whatever the customer tells me to play for the last 25 years. My gear list is ridiculous. When I move I'm burning the place and starting new.
I would buy this piece again if it were gone just so I could get better at using it. It seems to be a very intuitive piece of gear that will make learning parts of songs easier. It also will be a hoot just messing around. If you don't have a new toy once in a while why bother?
I like the sound quality and the phrasing aspect of it and I hate the click track. I'm just not used to a count in in this style. I like the fact I can sing a verse of a song or play the same into it on the fly and then solo or dub harmony vocals on top of it with out a computer and a bunch of outboard gear.
I wish it had a regular mic socket instead of an extra 1/4 inch jack.I wish it had a stereo output as well but that's really a minor gripe.
I compared it to several other devices but the extended sample time and compactness of this unit seemed better suited to my needs.
I love just plugging an acoustic guitar into the thing and playing over the top of a phrase. It makes it easier to figure out a different run or pattern when you can repeat it without the hassle of actually recording on the PC and playing it back,saving it etc. Just strum out a part then overdub another. It's just more natural to hit a pedal and start inventing a new riff etc. If you don't like it just hold the pedal down and it goes away. It makes me want to play more .I guess that's as good a reason to get one as any other.

(NOTE:this is a second posting.my first review was done in haste,skipped important points,and was basically a big ugly run-on paragraph.this one should be more useful.)

the looping part itself is easy:left pedal begins loop,right pedal stops and erases when held down for about 3 secs.
your own personal ease of use may vary from mine but i keep the manual handy(i.e.:strown among my pedals and cables)and learned quickly how to save and delete phrases.
the functions meant only for manual use have actualy become easy with my bare feet ,mind you ,i am seated in my room,not on a dark stage.

users and shop employees tend to agree that the actual sound quality is better than a boomerang.
my setup:fender tele/rat pedal/dd3 delay/rc-20xl/rv3 reverb-delay/blues cube 30.having tested 3 of these out in different stores i detected no noise,my high end hearing isnt up to par FWIW.if youre running a lot of dist. thru this however you will hear a slightly pnging noise.this noise is what i assume to be simply the sounds of the machine at work.for this price range of looper i think it is only a minor flaw.i have no acoustic amp,so FWIW ,i often run my S&P acoustic(b-band pickup)thru my blues cube and not a trace of noise is detectable.
i am not familiar with the music of kaki king,but she uses the rc20 model for live looping,this may be a good indicator of sound quality.

i think you can definitely depend on this thing ,and there is the one pro i mentioned who uses it live,of course youd have to ask her.
a guit. center person told me a lot of jazz players,especially guys with solo gigs are saying this is better than a boomerang,heresay of course but it sounds about right.
actually one musician told me he plans to get one of these just for fading stuff in and out between his bands songs(i.e.:soundbytes,soundtrack music,etc.),until now relying on a complex c.d.player,mixer configuration in a suitcase.this little box, about the size of 2 boss pedals side by side,would be much easier to use of course,and with sixteen minutes of memory(my friends all double take on that)you can have tones of loops,beats,sound effects,drones and such to supplement a band.i personally love seeing a band that seems to have a "ghost" member.

havent dealt with boss,cant say.

my previous review ,below,goes into long detail of my personal use of this device.i should add though that a friend of mine ,with no loop experience ,laid down a nice droning piece within a few minutes,we ran this in reverse, and improvised an acoustic duet over this,with one room mic picking up both guitars and my droning guitar amp.if youre tastes lean toward "free improv"give that setup a try.i recommend placing your delay pedal after this to blur and seams or abrupt cut offs ,but if you have 2 dealays ,like me, i place one in front of this to create sound of the loop itself.i hope my review has been helpful.

i have never reviewed gear before but others comments on here have been so valuable ,i feel that i owe it to my fellow noisemakers.this review is geared especially towards folks who arent what most call "professional" and by this ,i mean we use solid state amps,only buy stuff secondhand,use crappy microphones from goodwill,you know what i mean.i must say the rc20xl is the first pedal device i purchased new,the first one ive paid over 75 bucks for and the first looping device ive ever had.before this if i wanted an ambient background behind ,oh say an acoustic song of just voice and guitar,i would have to fuck around with delay and reverb for about 20 mins and then fade that in and out of my final mix.not only is this pedal superb for ambient backgrounds,when i do a folky song (just voice and acoustic)i run the acoustic pickup and vocal mic into the rc20.if youre really concerned about sound quality this might not work for you,but for my low-fi shit this has proved invaluable:instead of plugging guitar into trk 1 and vocal mic in trk 2,theyre both running into track 1 via the rc20,plus ,the overdub function(you will fall in love with this function)allows me to instantly dub a little extra rythm guitar and a little backup vocals as well.its like adding trk 2 and you never even had to rewind the tape,you still got 3 tracks left(assuming youre on 4 trk like me)and in some cases you may tap into a little extra inspiration that could have left you while waiting for tape rewind.this pedal makes me laugh at the years ive spent running an organ thru a tremolo pedal and scotch taping down a bass note.if, like myself ,you've always wanted to try your hand at some epic soundscaping ala eno ,yet thought you would have to buy a computer ,pricey sampler,etc. ,i strongly urge you to buy this,most places will let you try it for 30 days ,just take good care of it.people love to bash guitar center,but the rep. with me admitted his lack of looper knowledge and stressed that i should just it take home where i could try it without distraction (or 5 or 6 people playing shredder guitar in the background),and without even asking, the nice girl at the counter knocked it from 299 to 279,i even saw one at a shop for 269 after i bought mine.i guess i'm stressing all this because after i saw a portland,OR based band called NICE NICE,i had to,just had to,have a boomerang.well, i couldnt afford one,and even after extensively trying one out(a friend of mine owned one)i still didnt think it was for me,plus you never even see them for less than 400.the guitarist from nice nice even told me that his was crapping out ,unreliable,and ,in his own words "on its last leg" after owning it less than a year.i dont want to restate myself with any of this info,i simply want to drill all these points home for people(like me)on a serious gear budget,we dont have "backup" anything(amps ,pedals,those things with 6 strings on them,etc.).sorry ,in all this typing i neglected the actual "ease of use":your right pedal stops a loop,hold it down for about 3 secs it erases loop,youre left pedal starts recording a loop,hit it again to end recording and the looping begins,hit it again and you are now overdubbing.want to save a loop, switch to an empty slot(1-11),hit write button,it will flah,hit it again,the loop is saved.if youre sitting in your bedroom(or maybe even on a stage)you can work some functions meant only for manual operation ,with your bare piggies.i personally control manual volume of metro.,reverse,instrument and vocl level ,doing fade ins and outs while recording.this only gets a nine becase i havent yet learned all the stuff you can do.

most say it sounds way better than boomerang.

i cant afford a backup so i guess it gets my faith by default.

dont know.

i honestly dont know what style i am.i like these guys:devandra banhart,spacemen 3,WOLF EYES,black dice ,six organs,charlambides,neil young,joni mitchell,neubaten, and ,the legendary IRON KITE!

Looping device, so plug-in and play.
No patches, so editing there. But you can easily screw things up.
Manual is pretty good except a bit confusing in the Auto-Stop function and right pedal fade0out explanation

Good, strong, clean replication of what sound foes into it.
No noise.
I use a Fender HotRod Deluxe, and you know Fenders are clean, so if there was any noise I would hear and there was none.
I love the Reverse function to get copy some of Kevin Shields tricks.

It's Boss, so no worries.
Could definitely handle live gigs w/o a backup.

Haven't ever had to use Boss/Roland customer support

I play what some consider shoegaze and having a looping device is very helpful to fll-out your sound. This pedal does exactly what it's supposed to and nothing more or less. It will fit-in well with my analog delay and multi FX pedal and expand my playability as well. I love that this pedal can store 11 loops and doesn't lose them when the power is off (as long as they're written to memory). I have used short loops before in my 10+ yrs of playing guitar, but being able to loop an entire song or measure is fantastic! I chose this one for the multiple loop storage, sound quality, durability, price (compared the Boomerang) and size (also compared to the Boomerang).

This pedal is extremely easy to use as far as loopers go. The manual is very good at showing you the features and once you use them, it couldn't be simpler! The added features on the XL are AWESOME, thanks BOSS! With the XL you can save all 11 slots as a "One Shot" or as a loop. The fadeout feature was necessary in my opinion and I wouldn't like this pedal half as much without it. The auto-start record ROCKS, but this is where I wish Boss did 1 more thing. This pedal really needs an auto-stop record function, or some way to edit the loop after without quantizing it. Oh, and the "Flat amp" simulate is a feature that I didn't think I would use... I was WRONG, this feature is awesome. The people who made this pedal definitly use it themselves and made it simple and powerful.

I really think the sound quality of this is better than the Boomerang, at least it's much easier to dial in the gain. I was surprised at how well it sounded with my electric setup, however, my acoustic setup running into a Fender Acoustasonic SFX-II lost some depth and sparkle while using this pedal. It's not that is sounds bad, but once you hear how crisp and clean a direct acoustic to this amp sounds, you miss it when it's gone. With my electric guitar (SG to Marshall amp), it was not nearly as noticable. Like the reviewer before me said, I am a tone freak, so this may not be an issue to many of you.

I have only owned this for a few months so I'm not sure yet. It seems tough though!

Never dealt with Boss.

I will never be selling this pedal, unless it's to buy another newer version of it. The major issue I have with the pedal is that if you create a nice loop on your computer (that loops seemlessly) and record it into the pedal, you have to "earball" the whole thing and hit the "stop record" in the perfect millisecond if you want a seemless loop. This is pretty much impossible to do, but if there was an edit function to remove silence from the end of the loop (like an auto-stop) or some way to edit it, this pedal would be everything I need in a loop box. (or if there was a digital input to copy WAV files directly, it would be even better!) If you are recording loops with a beat, you won't notice it, but I'm talking about an airy sustained drone I like to use for background effects and you will hear that "click" sound when the loop repeats. All in all, I would buy this pedal if you are looking for a looper.

This is the newer model... "XL". The upgrade has 16 minutes of memory (old version has about 5 min.) and has more editing capacity. You can delete mistakes of loops that have not yet been saved. (Very cool!) Manual seems pretty straight forward

American Strat Floyd Rose Classic, G&L S-500, Gibson Les Paul, Orange AD1510. To be honest, I wasn't expecting a lot from this unit. I read the reviews of the first version and had heard that the preamp was poor and produced hiss. When I heard the XL version came out, the additional memory and editability drew me into the local retailer to check one out. Keep in mind, I'm a tone freak and all of the other 8 pedals on my board have true bypass switching. I was skeptical about the RC-20XL because it wasn't a true bypass stompbox and was reputed for noisy bypass. No worries... I'd say the XL clearly surpassed my expectations. I could not detect any noise (although I only tried it on my guitar amp and a powered PA speaker). It was as close to transparent as what I need anyway. I have an Analogman true bypass looper which allows me to bypass all of the effects in my chain and the difference in my signal (including my other stompboxes in the chain) were hardley audible if at all. I also doubted that it would accurately recreate the tonal quality of my signal through my other effects. Again, no worries. Even the crunchy overdrive from my SIB Varidrive recorded suprisingly accurately.

Only owned it for a week... can't comment.

Haven't contacted them.

I have a one person band and have been researching phrase samplers for a while. Until I checked this one out, I thought none on the market would suit my needs. Since I have 8 other stompboxes, 1 drum trigger pedal and a 1 octave foot activated bass module, my floor space is limited and I already have plenty to keep track of with my feet. Here's the good and bad of all the other ones I considered. Oberheim Echoplex: The Good: Versitile, great sounding, lots of memory. The Bad: Expensive, pedal board is too big. Line 6 DL4: Good: Small pedal board, true bypass, stereo in/out. Bad: only 14.5 seconds of memory, can't save loops. Boomerang: Good: Can control everything with your feet. Bad: mono in/out, not true bypass can't save loops, pedal board too big.

With the RC-20XL, it takes up very little floor space and you can store 10 loops and 1 single shot phrase... 16 minutes of memory (fantastic!) Some complain there are too many buttons that you can't operate with your feet. I don't have an issue with that. Start, Stop, Record, Overdub and Reverse are all I need to control with my feet and since I perform on a drum throne, crouching over isn't a big deal for me. You can even set your stop pedal to fade out (cool). I thought I wouldn't like the mono output but it worked out that it wasn't an issue. I first tried running my line mix through it to my PA speaker (drum triggers, bass pedal, etc.) but since I'm not a "real" drummer those loops were rather uninspiring anyway (no fault of the pedal) but it did recreate a very good mono signal through full frequency amplification. Since I'm most proficient at guitar, I moved it to the end on my guitar effect chain and have been very please with the results. All in all, it has completely surpassed my expectations.