DigiTech JamMan

For a looper with a few more options it's fairly easy to use.
For two or three things I needed the manual. That's reasonable.

I use it with a roland cm30 (cube monitor).
I use it with a vioin when I'm trying to compose, and I use a guitar and a microphone when I'm teaching music in classrooms. I can record singing children and hear the result instantly.
apart from singing and playing instruments you can record all kinds of things: younger pupils like to record noises and create a house full of ghosts, a beach, a jungle or whatever.
the sound is good enough for all these things.

when you use it at several schools and it's still working after three years, it's reliable.
however, sometimes it does strange things (I too had the 'skipping loop' problem).

it's perfect for what I do with it: straightforward looping.
the undo/redo function is absolutely nessecary in a class room,
also when you compose crappy things from time to time.
and it's great to have an xlr-input.

I really have become a loop-lover so tomorrow I'm going to buy the boss rc50.
the possibility of playing a song that consists of three different loops is very appealing.
most songs have some sort of verse and chorus and a bridge, so being able to play that live would be nice.

the jamman will still be used in the classroom.

maybe this unit was defective from the get go, I had a hard time getting the ins and outs where I wanted them....but this was my first looper so I didn't have anything to compare it with. When it was working it was a blast and I am going to look for a better one to use in my act....something I can depend on...

using a new crate mixer for mics and into the aux input with out going into a BOSE LT-1 I was getting some pretty bad distortion...before I could sort out the problem it quit working all together ....see below

it works and then it dosen't...6 months old...extremely frustrating...just played a gig in front of about 1000 people and it quit on me in the middle of my set,,,aaargh! can't find any trouble shooting info either so I guess it's going in the trash...it was fun while it lasted.

I found this pedal pretty easy to use. I found the more relaxed you are with it and the more you trust it the better it performs.

I spent a couple of nights a week for two months in a rehearsal room playing around with it and eventually i actually started to compose songs based around it. Ultimately the opening and closing songs in my set which I took on tour around Europe were based purely around compositions I had created on the Jamman in rehearsal and I just used it sporadically in between (for some percussion or to have a long droney bass note).

I put a Casio MT70 old skool synth through it to lay down a live drum beat then added bass guitars and loads of stuff. It is tremendous fun and when you pull it off live it is an absolute treat. But you obviously only get one go so practise like hell before you take it out in public.

The sound quality is fine. If you play around with it in advance of performing live with it you get to know what it can and can't do and what it's strengths and weaknesses are. Then play to the strengths of it.

Once you work out the levels for all your equipment that is to go through it the possibilities are endless and i often found myself getting completely lost in it. In a good way.

Hmm. I bought mine from ebay. It worked fine for a while but then i did have a couple of problems with the rec and stop buttons stopping working.

Thankfully a girl I work with was confident enough to open it up, find the problem and perform some DIY repairs that worked a treat. For a while, then I had to open it up again and perform some similar repairs after which it worked great - until I had it stolen a couple of weeks back :-(

Basically we fixed it with a pair of scissors and a standard pencil eraser. the button wasn't clicking on and off so we added a bit of rubber to bridge the gap.

It was second hand and that is the risk you run I guess. Am going to buy a replacement next month and hopefully first hand I will have less problems.

It is a charming pedal. Get to know it really well before you take it out live.

Before I got this I spent some time on YouTube watching videos of people using it - it appeared very straight forward there, and after reading the manual which is online available at the DigiTech website, I had no concerns regarding the ease of use. If you have problems playing along with a metronome or any timing issues, you may have a hard time getting a clean loop. Apart from this, there are no problems to be expected when using the basic features of this product.

The hard time starts when you take the Jam Man onto stage. Without the optional footswitch it is not possible to change over from one prerecorded loop to another, so you are pretty much stuck with one. No drama as you can still ape around on that one until wisdom come, but the crowd will get bored if your performance consists of jams based on a single groove template. Might work once or twice during a show, but that's about it.

But even with the optional footswitch you will not be able to, lets say, start with a verse part, then move on to a NON PRE-RECORDED bridge and/or chorus as the device is unable to store any data while playing a loop - so once you have moved on to a next patch, all unstored stuff from the previous groove will be lost. Baaaaaa. So the footswitch in my opinion is only useful if you use the Jam Man as a "Band-in-a-box", a backing band with (how I use it) a 12-string and acoustic bass. I use the switch to go from song to song, nothing else.

Another thing that makes me almost sure that the Jam Man had never been intended for live use is the fact that both the microphone and the guitar signal get mixed down to the guitar signal, so while there are seperate inputs for mic and guitar, there is only ONE mono (!) out for both together. Now I thought I was wise and split the mic signal before the Jam Man, sending one line directly to the stagebox while the other went through the Jam Man - bad idea, as the microphone input of the Jam Man can not me muted when not recording, meaning that the vocals now eere arriving both via the voc channel AND the guitar channel. The ONLY way around is to have a seperate mic with a switch (!) connected to the Jam Man and to turn it on ONLY when you want to send a signal to the Jam Man.

Next: there is no reverb/delay option for the mic input, forcing you to use the same effect for both the guitar and the microphone. I therefore have a Digi Verb pedal between the mic and the Jam Man.

Last, the entire thing is MONO, so whatever stereo fx you might be using on the guitar will get mixed down to mono.

More on this and other thoughts below.

I am using quite expensive gear and would not tolerate anything down the lane to the mixer to have a negative effect on the sound. What I found out was that if you set the input levels correctly and unless you use more than 8-9 overdubs you will get very little negative impact on your sound. The included drum sounds are not very convincing, but then again, these are only meant to be used as a metronome, so why bother.

On stage things are a bit more tricky though: while there are no problems when using ONE guitar and ONE percussion instrument, as soon as you change gear (e.g. grab a bass guitar to lay down a bass line onto a loop) it will become neccessary to re-adjust the input level of that instrument, otherwise it will be either too loud or too soft on the loop. It might be easier to crank up the input of the Jam Man and adjust the instruments output instead (can be done before the show).

When using various percussion instruments via the microphone you must keep in mind that they too have various volume levels, so keeping the correct distance to the microphone becomes very important in terms of matching volumes in the mix. I use my own in-ear monitoring system which helps a lot to get the volumes right.

You definitely have to spend some time with the Jam Man under live conditions (rehearsal room) before you can take it on stage.

One reads occasionally that the Jam Man sometimes tends to "stumble" while playing a loop. I had this occur once so far in the very beginning. I have read than users had their devices sent in for repair, and when it returned it still had the same flaw - but as I said, there are only a few such incidents reported on the web, and I didn't have this happen ever since.

The unit looks and feels very sturdy and weights as much as a brick.

Never had to deal with them, however the official German DigiTech board is very well organized and issues seem to be looked into very quickly and friendly by the staff.

What I liked A LOT about DigiTech was the fact that my unit came with a 1GB DigiTech Memory Card instead of the standard 128MB. All other companies I know still ship their products with poopy 128MB or 512MB cards. Thumbs up!

I play acoustic rock (when using the Jam Man), and the Jam Man is mostly used as a backing band for another guitar and a bass. I record the tracks using Cubase and send them to the Jam Man via USB. The reason why I use Cubase is because it offers a better control over the volume levels.

The Jam Man is great for practicing as it offers speed changes without pitch change, and it helps big deal in tweaking riffs and difficult lines. If you have the optional footswitch, you can also check out a certain chorus with various bridge versions etc. Much easier to set up than a multitracker, but then again also very limited (why no headphone jack? why no bpm readout for the metronome? arrrgh!).

Live on stage it *can* be a real weapon, but as with every weapon you should really, really know what you are doing. Practice every little thing you intend to do - the art is to let things *look* improvised. This box bears a lot of slings and arrows, it can embaress you in no time but also let you shine like the star you are. Learn how to use it and adapt your show to overcome it's little flaws.

You have to understand how this thing works. That's the secret. I've heard about problems with reliability and I can't comment on that but some of the problems come down to the sequence of operation. If you want to start from the beginning by playing directly into it then when you lay down the first track, you need to tap out the tempo and make sure that the tempo beat is audible. From there, when you step on the record pedal, you need to wait one bar before starting. It makes sense but it is not obvious. When you overdub, you have your original rhythm guide. Here is a typical exercise.

. Turn up the tempo metronome volume.
. Choose a new track.
. Tap the tempo with the stop/tempo pedal.
. Press the record pedal and wait a bar of tempo beats.
. Record your masterpiece.
. Stop pedal to stop.
. Undo is press and hold the stop pedal.
. To overdub, press the start button then when your loop comes around again, press the start pedal again (there are other ways too).

As far as loading wav files via the PC is concerned, you must copy one of the .xml files into the same folder as that which you want to transfer to. Secondly, in order for the wav to synchronize properly, you need to open it up and edit the tempo value. Yhe way to do this is simple and requires a simple use of a calculator but a superb dewcription of how to do this is found at the following web address: http://www_dot_normbowler_dot_com/jamman/. No, I don't know the guy. Thirdly, you must convert any stereo wav files to mono or you'll have problems. Use a freeware program to do this.

Well, here's another thing. 44.1kHz...fine if you allow a little headroom. You see, if you are maxing out all the time then you will meet some distortion. The manual says that you should just let the input peak LED flicker occasionally when you are recording. I disagree. I believe that you should just turn the volume down enough that you barely DON'T clip at max strumming power. Maybe others have had faulty gear but thankfully, I haven't. I'm actually really happy with the sound.

Here's one I can't answer yet. All works fine so far.

Can't comment, as it ain't broke. Here's a hint though. Buy a Laney amp. Their quality of customer care is 10/10. I had a problem with the FX loop and also (seperately) whinged about my reverb being too quiet. They fixed the FX loop problem and as a personal touch, changed the balance on the reverb. Fair play (I appreciate their work).

So far, I'd buy it again if it was stolen. It's a nice bit of kit. One thing I like is that it doesn't have amp modelling to mess you about. Also, in a parallel FX loop, it doesn't seem to suffer from phase cancellation. It's solidly built too. My gripe is that it doesn't have an On/Off switch.

I bought a Digitech 'JamMan' looper/phrase sampler after selling an Epiphone Les Paul Custom about 15 months ago. As far as using it, recording loops and over dubbing new tracks onto the original was fairly easy. the manual is pretty clear, and explains what all the buttons do. I did find that quite a few had several functions, which made it difficult to memorise without having to refer to the manual. This thing didn't work long enough for me to really explore its settings.

Originally, I was using a Washburn w-166 pro through a boss ME-50 effects processor, into the Jamman, and output to my VOX AD30-VT amp. "Is it noisy?" it's the opposite, after just over a year there's no sound whatsoever coming out of it!

Ahh, this is the catagory I was waiting for!!! I bought this thing just over a year ago on an impulse buy. I'm just learning how to play guitar and couldn't really get much out of this product so it went into the cubbard ready for a time when I could actually play and make use of it. I'd say in total I've used this maybe 10 times in all.

I can play a little now so I thought I'd have another go with it, only to find when I got it all setup there's no output coming from it. If I turned the loop level right up full and my amp right up I could just make out the saved loops, that was when I first tried it... now it's dead completely! I got in touch with Digitech by email explaining it was just out of warranty, they give me an address and number for the UK which turned out to be a probation service!!

This thing cost me ??250 just over a year ago, Ive hardly used it and now all it's good for is the bin! I'm finished with anything Digitech, I'll never buy another thing made by them.

As stated above.. dunno about if it had still been within the warranty period, but now... I tried to get it repaired by taking it back to my local dealer, he had no luck with contacting Digitech either. An address I was given by Digitech for their UK distribution turned out to be a Probation Service! all I can assume here is the firm has changed address and telephone number, or shut down.

I play moslty classic rock/blues, and have been playing for a couple of years. I've changed my gear more times than I can remember. At the minute I own a new Michael Kelly Patriot Premium with EMG's (its the guitar I'll be burried with!), a no name plywood Les Paul look alike with a bolt on neck!, and a no name Parlour acoustic. a VOX AD30VT amp, Boss ME-50 floor effects, just bought a Boss BR-600 8 track recording studio and I also own a VOX 'JamVox' guitar/computer interface.

I would pay someone to steal it! and put the insurance money towards a Boss GT-10. I love nothing about it and hate everything. (Q: "Does it help you make music"?) pah yeah right... "Anything else you'd like to share?" yeah DON'T BUY ONE, IT'LL BREAK JUST OUT OF WARRANTY!!! there are far better products out there for recording/looping, I can't see me ever recomending anything made by Digitech based on my experiences with this product.

Loopers aren't nearly as straight forward as other pedals but this is easy enough once you figure out the process. The LCD display is something the Boss RC-20XL doesn't have but I wish it did.

This was the first looper I bought (I ended up returning it for a Boss RC-20XL) and I wasn't very excited about the sound quality. I know it has 44.1 kHz sampling but the playback from the JamMan just sounds lifeless to me. On top of that, I also had a lot of trouble matching the beginning and end of a loop - a problem I haven't really had with the Boss looper. And unlike the Boss looper, the JamMan doesn't seem to have a "fade out" stop mode - just "stop when I press stop" and "stop at the end of the loop". I have two more gripes about this pedal but I'll get to those later.

I didn't keep around long enough to find out. When you register your pedal, DigiTech extends your warranty to 5 years. I assume you could rely on it.

Never dealt with them.

In addition to my sound quality concerns, I was also disappointed with the actual build quality of the looper. Maybe mine was a fluke but the blue paint job was inconsistent and the pots had a lot of "dead space" in them. You had to turn the loop level up to 3 or 4 before the audio actually started to come in. And that problem wasn't just with the loop level knob, it was with all of them.

My final gripe is the XLR input. When I first bought this pedal, I thought that was a nice feature but now that I have had a chance to fool around with loopers more, I prefer having a second 1/4" phono input. That way, you can connect more than one instrument at once. Bass or keyboard anyone? If I ever want to use an XLR mic, I'll connect mic->mixer->looper. If you have an XLR mic, you probably own a mixer or some sort of converter.

On a positive note, I do like that the JamMan is expandable and comes with 24 minutes worth of memory. I also think the rhythms might be a little better than the ones built into the Boss loopers and I think the time signatures are more flexible too. Too bad those were the only redeeming factors for me. I had high hopes for this pedal.

I own both the JM and the Boss RC20XL. Interface design is very similar. 90% of what you want to do can be done with the 2 footswitches which control loop start/stop, tempo set, play/overdub, undo, and erase. I also have the optional footswitch for the JM which lets me change loop numbers with my feet.

I give it a 9 instead of a 10 becasue loopign can get complicated and you need to read the manual to use all the advanced features. But ease of use overall is great.

It also has a missing feature -- the Boss pedal has an auto fadeout which the JM lacks and I miss.

Sound quality is excellent. The JM samples at 44.1kHz, which is CD quality. it has a low impedance (XLR) mic input in addition to the instrument input, so you can do high quality vocal looping.

I gave it a 9 instead of 10 because it is mono, not stereo. Stereo would be perfect!

Metal case, built like a tank. I have had zero problems.

Digitech offers excellent customer support through their website. http://www.digitech.com/products/JamMan/JamMan.htm

I love the JM and recommend it highly. Check out my web article on advasnced looping techniques using the JM. Includes explanation of some of the mysterious settings in the LOOP.XML file.

http://www.normbowler.com/jamman/

10 This unit is very easy too use. I agree with other reviewers that what you put in is basically what comes out. I have the optional pedal which allows you to scroll up and down between loops. You can also press another loop before the loop that is playing ends and that loop will play when the first loop finishes.

I had the Boss RC20 and I compared it with this unit when I first got it. I thought that the loops were alot clearer on the digitech. I also found the pedal easier to get a more accurate loop. If you find that the unit is changing your sound then you may want to look at how you have it wired up. If you set the levels correctly you will get the same sound you put in. I use this with electrics and acoustics, vocal mics and electronic keyboards. It is a great way to do backing tracks with a keyboard. For a mono unit your loops remain amazingly clear dispite several overdubs. I recently did a show where all the backup tracks were on the looper. It was in a church. It worked great. Another use for this unit is transfering old records to your computer. Handy

So far so good. I have the 2 gb card and that opens up alot of possibities.

I am a music educator as well as a gigging musician. This unit is a must have tool for a music teacher or for any musician. There is nothing like having the ability to instantly hear yourself. A great learning tool.

Once you start and get comfortable with this product it can be invalueable

I have had problems with two units, both same problem. In the middle of practicing I will lose my guitar input. I can play with the amp for months and never have a problem and then when I start using my Jam Man more frequent the input from my guitar will be lost while the background loop will continue playing.It doesn't happen all the time just enough to piss you off.

The company doesn't really see your product they send it to a contractor to fix it

I wish I could do something about it, I payed $300 and I just want it to work like its supposed to.

Easy to use, The boss is better though.

Does not change sound at all.

I have had this thing for 2 years and it has broken twice to the point of having to send it back for repair.

It's ok but it will cost you to get the unit fixed.

I bought the Boss and the digitech at the same time because I wanted one for bass and one for guitar and coulden't make up my mind. I was intruiged by the lexicon techmology in the digitech but Boss is a way better pedal in general. Now I really wish I would have got 2 boss pedals. Do not buy this hunk of crap.

After a few minutes I was up and running with the jamman and had no issues. Pretty simple.

Manual is very clear.

The one thing I have seen others say is "It changes your tone"......
I dont see were they are getting this from....?
Everything that goes in comes out the same for me.

I am using this with a Yamaha 335 style set neck electric and a '68 fender champ as well as a USA big muff.

I havent really had an issue at all.
I had experianced the same issue someone said about the unit sounding like a record skipping....
That can come from the audio quantising function on the Jamman.
WHich can be bypassed.

I would go without a backup.

Never delt with them. so 5.

I give this unit high marks for the extra options and such.
I bought the $40 pedal an am happy I did it provides a few needed foot control options.

I only wish it had a MIDI sync jack of some kind for syncing to a drum machine.

I had a Boss RC-20XL and disliked it very much.

This thing is well worth the money and the time it takes to learn it.
Like all looper's it can be temperamental if your not patient with it.

Get one dang it!

this pedal is a little tricky. you definitely have to read the manual on this one.

I found that this pedal sucked my tone right out. I play a g&l LB-100 bass through a 70's Ampeg SVT and an Ampeg 810e cabinet. Through the jamman my tone is thinned-out and less distinct. I also notice a slight air hum coming throught the jamman. Maybe this pedal can reproduce guitar signals better than bass, but I haven't tryed. All the digitech material I've read said that this pedal is suitable for bass but I definitely would not use it for a performance. Like an earlier review said, this would be an excellent songwriting tool. Since tone doesn't really matter. It's really one of the most versatile pedals I've ever used, it just doesn't reproduce my tone very well.

I only had this pedal for about six months and never had any problems, but who knows shen it will break down.

never had to deal with DigiTech.

Like I said earlier, this pedal is an excellent songwriting tool. It's pretty user-friendly. But it's tone reproduction is less than ideal. It would be great for jamming in your bedroom, but not onstage.

It is pretty easy to use - I'd say it's got a learning curve of about an hour or two, if you have read the manual and are paying attention. My only real gripe so far is that, if you set the tempo and then record your first track, but mess it up, you have to erase it all and re-set the tempo again. Not a big deal, but it would be nice to be able to undo the first take too.

If you're planning on using this for live performances or recording, you really, REALLY need to go try this unit out. It will DEFINITELY change your tone (as in, I can roll the tone knob from one extreme to the other on my strat and hear no difference when I'm running through the JamMan). Some may be okay with this - most people will not notice, and it will really only affect the subtleties of your playing. If you're planning (as I was/am) on using this pedal simply for songwriting, then this really isn't a big deal - it helps you sketch out how you want your song to sound, and it's more portable than aa computer with an audio interface, and much more convenient. For this purpose, the pedal does quite well. But try it out, and listen for tone-suck.

Seems pretty sturdy. I've only have mine a few months now, but it's been perfect so far, and I see no cause for concern.

No idea.

I've been playing about 7 years on electric, and 10 years on acoustic. I play everything from shred to soft rock.
I run a strat through the GT8 with this pedal in the GT8's effects loop (works beautifully that way, I can pull the Looper in and out of my signal chain with the touch of one button, and when it's out of the chain, it won't affect my tone at all) into a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe.

This can be a great unit, depending on what you want it for. I feel that three things could be added to make this pedal almost perfect.
1) A tempo input in bpm. It would make it so much more useful as a songwriting aid if I didn't have to use a metronome/my computer to determine what tempo my riffs are played at.
2) Stereo-freaking-inputs and outputs! I also use a boss GT8, which can create some really awesome stereo effects, and I lose it all when I run through the looper.
3) No more tone suck. But i've also tried the Boss LoopStation RC20XL (basically the exact same looper, but in red, with less storage space), and it sucks the tone just as bad, if not worse. If it were lost or stolen, I'd probably go A/B this JamMan with a LoopStation to see which one is clearest, and then buy that one.

Although it does have its weaknesses, the LoopStation can be an excellent songwriting aid, if that's what you're looking for. You will have SERIOUS trouble using it with a drummer, unless the drummer somehow has a metronome playing right next to his/her ear, due to the auto-quantize feature.

Basic operations are quite easy. But more sophisticated stuff, like changing the tempo of your loop without changing the pitch requires a bit of twinking through the manual, which is very clear by the way.

Sound is pristine, crystal clear. A human ear cannot tell the difference between the Jamman's playback, and the original sound that you record.
The only issue with the Jamman is the fact that it is a mono machine all the way through. It has an input for stereo devices (like your CD player, for example), but it converts everything to mono. This is a serious disadvantage, because you cannot use it as a sampler machine, in a band context. If it had stereo signal, you could send the sampler you want to add to your band to one channel of the mixer and to one side of your drummer's headphones, and the metronome to the other side. But because it is mono, if your drummer wants a metronome, the entire signal goes with it (and the crowd would have to hear an anoying tic tac along with the sound). No need here to talk about trying to add samplers to your band without a metronome for the drummer. It's a huge risk of screwing up. I know that boss top loop station, the RC50, has stereo output, but you would have to go to the 500 bucks territory.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS MACHINE.
i got it 3 hours ago. and you need to buy one if you're thinking about it.

sound is great, manual helps very much. i'm just excited about this and i felt like sharing that with the world

sound quality is very clear - there is not much noise at all. by that, i mean when i loop and loop and loop things on top of other things, it still stays clear.

i've only had it for 3 hours.

3 hours.

it's wonderful.
go find $250 and buy it on ebay (i bought mine from samedaymusic.com BLEMISHED) or if you want new, drop the $300.

INVEST IN YOUR HAPPINESS.
INVEST IN YOUR MUSIC CAREER.

The JamMan is easy to use, although the minmum 3 seconds for a loop is a drag - I had a Boomerang and didn't have to deal with this. Getting started with this is fairly straightforward.

Sound quality is excellent, very quiet, no hiss.

I have had one major problem that I cannot solve that is driving me nuts. Creating and storing loops is easy and works great, backing up the the computer works great. However, when I begin stacking parts (overdubbing) on top of my loops sometimes the loop 'skips' like a record player with the needle caught in a groove. I can wipe the overdub but if I try to redo the overdub I run into the same problem. There is no rhyme or reason to this. I have tried two different CF cards (the one that came with it and a larger memory one that I bought) but the problem is repeating itself. Since it is so intermittent I cannot play it live, which is what I bought it for.

I have not dealt with support yet.

If I can solve the skipping problem then the JamMan is a dream, however, I usually don't like to spend a lot of time having to fix something when I can bu something else. My fiddle player friend has one and has never had a problem so I guess it depends on luck whether you get a good model or not. I'm not inclined to recommend it at this point.

Exceedingly easy to use. Records exactly what I put into it. It connects to the PC to download recordings in a WAV file. I convert it to Mp3 and send it out to my friends just to drive the crazy.
The wav files can be burned into a CD or recorded on my ipod by the PC of course. I'm an old nontechy guy and this is simple for me!

I've recorded nearly one hundred tunes so far with no issues. Some with up to nine overdubs! Where the hell was this thing in the 60's when I was learning to play? Well, I'm still learning to play...........

Good in, Good out. Bad in, Bad out. No noise, absolutely seamless overdubs.

I ahve had NO issues with hundreds of hours so far.

I called the company to ask about various sound inputs for the JamMan and talked to "Bill". He took several minutes to explain more about it's capabilities than I had asked about. Truly friendly and determined to make me understand things.

It is essential for the home guitarist (or other instrument) for practice, lay, recording, etc.
If it ever poops out, I'll send it in for repair and buy another one while I'm waiting.
Couple this thing to a Fender G-DEC amp and you can never exhaust your creative well.

I received this little beauty only 15 hours ago but have had no trouble grasping the basic functions after reading the manual which is concise and easy to follow. My only critism of the manual is that it it strictly "no frills". Compare this to the manuals for, say Tascam Portastudios, which are full of tips on alternate signal routing and other means of getting the most out of the machine.
First attempts resulted in less than seamless looping and I've learned the importance of setting up the tempo function and playing the first phrase right on the beat then stopping the recording just prior to the first beat of the next bar, to avoid a noticable gap before the loop repeats.

The loops are rendered in good quality audio without noticable loss of tone or added noise. Of course the tone will be coloured by effects further down the chain and your amp settings, which leads me to my number one item on the wishlist for this pedal - a seperate direct out (a foldback from the instrument in). Say you've recorded a clean rythm track and wish to play a blistering lead over the top of it (not overdubbing, just playing along).Well, it ain't gonna happen. The JamMans single mono out will combine your rhythm and lead and direct them to a single channel of you amp/mixer. Apart from selecting a diffent pickup for rhythm and lead or placing an effects pedal in front of the looper, you're stuck with the same tone for each part.
My setup is as follows:'89 PRS Custom/'75 Strat/'69 SG/current Flying V/'99 G&L legacy/'85 Charvel Model 4 --> Digitech Hendrix --> JamMan --> Boss GT-8 (as preamp)--> Marshall 9100 Monoblock power amp, Marshall cabs.
I can't place the Boss in front of the JamMan since it is acting as a stereo preamp for the Marshall.

I've owned the Digitech Hendrix pedal for over a year and never had the slightest problem with reliability. Like the Jimi, the JamMan is very solidly built and I don't anticipate any issues.
I rarely play outside of home so don't need a backup.

I've had no dealings with the company. Not eligible for warranty support here in Australia so I hope I never need them.

I play a fairly broad range of old school stuff - Hendrix, Santana, Steely Dan, Zeppelin, Kinks, Sabbath, Tull with the occasional tune from this millenium. So far I've only laid down a few backing tracks on the looper but will be trying it out with a synth for something as bit more avante garde.
I've been playing for 35+ years and own a 100W tranny Marshall from the 70s (good keyboard amp, less than ideal for guitar), A modded 50W Tube Marshall, some Systech pedals from the 70s (anyone remember them?),2 synths, 2 mixers, a hard-disk recorder and a 244 Portastudio which would work perfectly if I could find a rubber band that fits it.
Plus the gear mentioned above.
If lost or stolen I would replace it as I believe it's the best looper available at this price.
I love its ease of use although it needs the the optional footswitch for ideal operation. I got a bargain on the JamMan by importing it. To buy the footswitch (3 switches, a metal case and a cable) will cost me a third of what I paid for the looper, in this country.
I love it's compact, rugged build and the ease and speed of laying down backing tracks compared to using a recorder
There's nothing to hate about this unit, although there are extra features to wish for.

This rating says more about me that it does about the jamman. I am not good with buttons and knobs, I prefer menu driven stuff. But, for the price there is no way a gadget such as this could do that, or do it well. It is not too hard to get used to though. I am not sure I would find getting into the deeper uses of jamman that easy. The instruction manual is very well thought out though.

Great. I am a play at home only guitarist. I have been playing for a few years and my aim was simply to have something to help improve my practice. Now I can record my own little jams and lesson and noodle along to my heart's content. I use the following, relatively basic setup:

American standard strat -> seymour duncan pickup driver ->wah -> chandler tube driver/rat -> holy grail reverb -> jamman -> Laney LC15

I am no setup/tone snob. I think there is too much rubbish talked about tone these days. (I know guys who sound like the mutt's nuts with a ts-9 and giys who stink with ts-808's). However, I am not an all in one box multi-effect fan, which is what digitech are famous for. So I was sceptical about the jamman.I think that the jamman does a bloody good job of not tainting sound too much. That might be because I use a pickup booster. Whatever, diminution there is to the sound is nothing that you would not expect if you were jamming anyway.

I have not had it long so I can't say, but it feels like a tank. I am careful with gear anyway. So I will give it full marks on build quality alone.

Again not applicable. I have had no need to get in touch. Will give them the benefit of the doubt on the basis that their website is really helful.

I play (or try to play) along the lines of Eric Johnson, Jeff Beck, Billy Gibbons and Santana. If it were stolen I would buy it again.

For once I really like the presets. They are great to practice with. It really helps me to make music, as I am not in a band I can now have the sense of being in a band.

All in all a great bit of kit. I would recommend it for any stay at home guitar player like myself. Two things that stand out for me, are the metronome/tempo facility and the separate volumes for loop, instrument and rythm, means I can go for it at low volumes.

I read ovner's manuel of this machine before buy.Not problem very very easy.

really good.not noisy.I tried my all guitars (yamaha sa2200, fender american strat,yamaha apx9na, cort lcs1) without effects.Sound quality enough for me.

I dont know.It's very new now.

I don't seen any good customer before.

I play fingerstyle jazz.This baby like medicine for me.composition and practise very easy.there is one problem,this machine is mono.WHY digitech?

All my friends and audiences agree - this is the best-sounding device I ever looped with. That's because I know how to use it easily.
I don't use a patch.
I don't read manuals, but this one has lots of fine graphics. My tech set it up before sound check and I was good to go.
My unit doesn't need upgrading

Yes! Ivor Stavinski, Bananarama, Jello Bifra, Beastie Boys (Pre Rubin), Kaki King, Air Supply, RockBitch. All these sounds can be faithfully reproduced on this little blue pup.
The Jimi Hendrix effect is weak.
I'm currently utilizing: Benedetto Venesia, A-4 Gibson mandolin repro., Squier Telecasters.
Noisy as f*ck. And I like it that way.
Weak effects if played through the laptop.
Using a Pignose Battery-Operated Amp., Mic'd for the larger arenas.

N/A
I have several. ALL TRAVEL WITH ME.

The nice man who answered the phone told me to press certain buttons, depending on which option I wanted. He was soo cool, sounded almost like a robot.
No upgrade, these little blue pups are going straight vintage!!!!

Excellent match for my styles; Christian Rock, Psychograss, Dub, Hip Hop, Electronica, Classical Baroque, Jazz, Death Metal, and Children's songs.
I've been playing since 1978. I own guitars, keyboards, and an oboe.
I wish the unit had an on-board PC.
This sucka' is seamless - never gets in the way.

To plug and play normal looping this thing is pretty intuitive. To use the more advanced features and move loops on board it takes a little bit of fiddling (not a lot, mind you). The sound is great! Absolutely transparent and the loops are seamless in tone. It would be nice to be able to adjust the loop and instrument volume a little easier with your feet (knobs are small and hard to manipulate cleanly with your feet). The miracle of this thing comes once you've laid down a loop and start playing over it. I can play the way I've always wanted to in my living room all by myself!

Great, clear, transparent sound. Faithful reproduction of loops. Everything I put in comes right back out.
- Quality LP clone into loopmaster 4 loop, Behringer eq, Sabine Fuzzstortion, ts9 (mod), ds-1, Fab distortion, Black Cat Moan Wah, Zoom G2, Digitech Delay, Ernie Ball volume, Jamman -- ABY'd into a Fender Ultimate Chorus, and portable PA.

Built like a well-built brick. Solid case, sturdy feeling dials, and great feel to the pedals (enough give for the sometimes necessary acrobatic tap, yet a solid feeling stomp with a clear feel at the switch point). I have, and would gig w/o backup. I don't see this thing breaking.

Not necessary yet.

I play rock, blues, classical, pop, a little of everything else mixed in. For blues and rock it is a great practice tool and a greater tool for the solo musician like myself to take solos and orchestrate good textures live. For classical hybrids it is great to lay down the counterpoint and build on it or input an accompaniment and play full solo pieces at a tap of a toe (yes your expression is quite limited when playing with a machine, even if you recorded the accomp., but it's pretty good anyway).
I've been playing for 14 years, am a classical bassist, play quite a few other instruments, and this is, by far, the coolest musical toy I own (yes it's a powerful tool, but only toys can be this fun). I would definatly buy another if broken or stolen.
I have a Akai Headrush which turned me on to loopers, and it is fantastic in its own niche (the best delay I've ever played, a great feature that Digitech should adopt that allows you to erase all overdubs and return to the first loop at a stomp) but the loop time is way too small (around 24 secs). The Jamman is great for lots of time for loops and upgradeable memory. The $300 price tag is a bargain and worthwhile investment.

Digitech Jamman. Ease of use - it dpends what you intend to use it for.
Sampling is at 44.1 16k CD quality. What goes in is what comes out.

Editing patches using just the Jamman is limited to tempo change. That is it. You can 'undo' a recording or overdub but actual editing - none to speak of.
Third party developers have already created a basic looper editing software program but it doesn't edit tempo within the Jamman, it just alters the metronome. Talking of the Jamman's internal metronome, it leaves a lot to be desired. It does have a flashing light, Red for on beat and green for the others and an audible, volume changable metronome with several different sounds to choose from. When it comes to actually use the metronome you will find it very limited. There is NO READOUT so you virtually guess what the tempo should be. You can tap a tempo in but this is very hit and miss. If you mess up a sample recording and need to do it again, deleting the flawed sample also deleted the tempo so you have to start all over again tapping in the tempo time after time until you think it's right. This is both time consuming and frustrating.
The user manual is adequate. I'll say no more on this subject.
Saving a sample to the internal card memory is a simple matter of pressing the 'store' button. Once stored, you can not accidentally lose your sample when using the foot pedals - the pressing of buttons is required. This is a good feature 'cause we all make mistakes and it would be hell to accidentally erase a sample on stage.

Despite that fact that I can suggest some additional functions, the unit appears to be steady, reliable and reasonably easy to use. It's a matter of getting used to it ansd working around the few limitations.

If I could have found a small sampler with a simple foot pedal trigger mechanism, that would hold 20 minutes or more of samples I would gone for that instead but there simply 'Ain't no such beast'

This unit is the same size as two stomp boxes stuck together. It's quite heavy and feels robust. It should be easy to carry around.
It comes with the mains adaptor and has no battery facility.
I believe the actual switch mechanism arte connected direct to a printed circuit board and this worries me. If one breaks, it may be cheaper to buy another than try to sort out a repair or replacement part. Fingers crossed on this and I hope I've been misinformed (but I don't think so)

The Digitech Jamman is meant to be a guitarists tool for creating and playing loops. With this in mind, the fact that the samples are mono only should not be a major problem, however it would have been nice to have a stereo option to increase the range of use.

Sampling is at 44.1 16k CD quality. What goes in is what comes out.
No perceptible noise added during recording. Once the tempo is sorted out, recording is fairly simple and will loop easily providing that you press the 'stop' pedal on the beat. The start (when you use the 'record' left footswitch) allows a brief 1,2,3,4 count-in before recording starts - this allows you time to stomp the switch then get ready. The record light comes on to show that it is in fact recording. You can have the metronome turned up or turned off, using the flashing tempo lights for recording
This unit carries no internal effects - think of it as a mono sampler in a pedal - that's it.

My intended use it as a pseudo second guitarist because I just could not find a suitable second guitar player for my band.
I will not be recording loops in live play, simply recording my own guitar parts before hand (one or two at most in a song) and triggering them via a seperate amplifier. The tricky bit is ensuring the track is in tempo with the sample without the drummer having to use an earpiece, but practise should make perfect on this. With this useage in mind, it would have been very nice to have an earpiece 'out' feed for the metronome so that, if needed, an earpiece could be used.

What amp or guitar I use has no relevance here - except to say that what you record into the Jamman is what comes out. If you record an overdriven sample, it's no good playing it back through an overdriven channel as it will be overdriven twice and sound like an old fuzz box. You need to record the samples in the sound you want to hear, then trigger them back through a clean amp. However if you are using it as a looper in a live situation, the sound you use on your amp is what will come back because you are plugged into your amp via the Jamman. In this situation, the Jamman is recording your guitar signal, not the amp signal.

Had it less than one week. No problems so far.
I will gig with it IF and WHEN I'm satisfied it will do the job intended. As for a back up - what, at this price? I don't think so....

I have so say that there appears to be nothing else around currently that performs this task. The datacard that comers with the Jamman will hold 24 minutes worth of CD sampling. This is certainly enough for my needs.
Sample editing can be done by connecting the card to a computer and importing the WAV files. The Jamman has a USB connection - this is one of the reaosns I chose this unit. Samples/loopes can be saved and edited in your PC so back up cards can be made too.

Never dealt with them. I have owned other Digitech products and had no problems. (Touch wood)

Style of music does not matter.
I've been playing for 36 years, part as a pro. Still spending too much of my hard earned cash on 'gear' Sigh!!!
If it does what I want it to do, it will be invaluable to me. If it doesn't I will sell it on - probably at a substantial loss, as with almost all technology gear.

Very easy to use. Take a glance at the manual and away you go.
Nice if there was some kind of simple loop editing here, like that available on the Roland sp 404.

Using this with an acoustic guitar going to a Fisman Loudbox. All sounds very sweet.

Only had it a couple of weeks. So far all OK. It weighs a ton and seems to be built like a tank.

Play all types of music and this box has been inspirering so far. Easy connection with the computer e.t.c.
I do, however, wish you could record in stereo, especially if you intend to use backing tracks of other instruments. Also I can't understand why there is no BPM read out when setting tempos. This makes things more difficult when trying to match tempos between memory locations. If you want to record a whole song using different locations for verse, chorus e.t.c make sure you copy the blank (no recording but tempo set)
patch to all the locations you want to record at before doing any playing.
Even with this slight annoyance this is still a good piece of gear and is great fun to use