I guess as I go along I will frequent this blog with updates that apply to my guitar rig. I have recently come into a Digitech JamMan that I traded a Digitech DigiDelay, DOD FX-25, and a Boss DS-2. A quite fair trade I might say indeed :)
I have been looking for a looper for a good amount of time. I have been tossing between Boss and Digitech as I am most familiar with them and (depending on the sound I want) I can gauge what to expect. Boss tends to be best, but for the price, Digitech won out. In the single pedal alone the Boss could hold up to 11 minutes, while the Digitech Solo could hold 35 minutes! I went with the bigger daddy and it can hold up to 6.5 hours after adding a 2gig compact flash for under $20!
Being that I am mostly a "jam" musician, meaning that I play based on what is around me. Since I mostly play on my own, I needed to be able to loop a second line to play against. Though guitar is glorious in its own right, a single guitar track can make things pretty boring (esp. on an electric). My main purpose for this pedal was to be able to record between 8-10 seconds (the DigiDelay would loop 4 seconds). Let's just say the JamMan was fully able to do this :)
The reason I decided to go with Digitech was because I have no intention to mod this pedal. Boss builds their pedals on perfboard and use true capacitors and diodes. Digitech builds their circuit boards with chips running most of the operation. This makes them much more solid in their electronics, but notoriously difficult to mod. I have owned several and tried to generate a proper mod and have been entirely unsuccessful. The only mod for Digitech that I am aware of is the Bad Monkey Mod, and that mod is different from the ones I usually perform. The concept for this pedal is simply to repeat whatever I dump into the input. This made the Digitech the ideal choice.
What I found that impressed me most was the features I get to enjoy. Auto-Record is a true blessing (push the pedal and it won't begin to record until you begin playing). I use this primarily because I will write a loop that I want to continuously repeat, and any pause or break before the loop begins is a major problem for me. It can store up to 99 loops, of any length, or until the 6.5 hours is reached. I like this because I often will write a great song in 5 minutes, and forget it the next day. The rhythm is often off, and with this pedal I no longer have to worry!
I have not yet been able to fully tap into everything. It has a USB that allows you to import your loops onto your computer, and in turn put loops onto the pedal from your computer. This pedal was slated to be a "band in box". The ability to run a drum loop and bass loop, while you play over top is seems slightly grandiose. You would have to be able to mass produce before hand, and the foot sensors do not seem to hit for me 100%. That prevents me from having confidence in playing it live, but then again I don't play live very often. DigiTech also decided to switch from their traditional stomp-box design to the old (I call them true-bypass because they are most often used for that now) Electro Harmonix style switches in the newer model. These seem like they would be more dependable.
In all I was impressed with the JamMan, but I got a good deal and I am prone to using a looper. I would suggest looking at what you need in a looper (time, effects, inputs, etc.) and what you are willing to spend, and go from there. If your needs are similar to mine, I would recommend this pedal.
If you would like to comment on this review, or any others in the future please feel free. Please keep in mind there is a difference between constructive criticism and destructive criticism.
