Beginners Looper/drum pedals

Anyone give me some advice on purchasing a budget Looper/Drum pedal in the UK,
I need something not too techy, more straightforward to use for home practice and cost no more than around £100 ,
Thanks,
Brian

@Carreta got one of these and I think he liked it. It is on my list to get. https://community.justinguitar.com/t/ngeard-nux-loop-core-stereo/408788?u=ajski2fly

NU-X Loop Core Stereo Pedal | High-Definition Looper with 99 Save Slots, Stereo Inputs/Outputs, MIDI Control & Built-in Drum Machine

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I’ve got a Donner Circle Looper (US Amazon link). Definitely fits in your price range and it’s pretty versatile with plenty of storage. It may or may not be ā€œnot too techyā€. There are undoubtedly higher quality and more versatile loopers out there but this is a fine ā€œget startedā€ option, IMO. I need to spend more time with mine. :slightly_smiling_face:

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I bought a used Boss RC-5 that would certainly fit in your price range. It does everything you want. It’s got a lot of features, though, and I certainly don’t have it all worked out (not that I’ve spent the time to try just yet). But unless you’re after a very specific pedal you don’t find on the used market much, I see pedals as great things to buy used.

This one seemed good.

If you are getting one with drums I would recommend a unit with separate volume control knobs for the loop and the drum track. Not hidden away in the menus… something you can adjust quickly.

I wouldn’t call that one ā€œnot too techyā€ though. It has a fairly steep learning curve.

I’m interested in loopers so I’ve just been checking out the Nux and the Donner. I think either of those or the Valeton would suit you as a first looper + drums. Here’s how they compare.

Nux has the most features and I think it is right at the top of your price limit. Great display that clearly shows where you are on the loop. Double tap to stop, which can be a bit tricky. You can add an external pedal to do this (and everything else), but only via midi. Small form factor. Adjusting loop/drum levels looks fairly straighforward.

Donner is a very simple unit. I imagine it would be super easy to use straight out of the box. It has a separate stop button, which is good for beginners. But it has an extremely basic display that doesn’t tell you much. Easy to adjust the drum level.

Valeton is described in the post I linked. It is a larger unit and has 2 tracks, which may be a complication you don’t need. Double tap to stop. Separate physical controls for loop and drum volume. Very basic display - there doesn’t seem to be any indication of where you are in the loop at all, apart from the light flashing at the end.

I’d be going for the Nux if you can afford it, but if you want something cheap and super simple then the Donner will certainly do the job.

One thing to consider with loopers is the number of buttons they have. When I did my research some years ago, and in recent discussions with friends, the single button ones are a fair bit harder to get started with. Having to single and double tap can be problematic.

I bought the Ditto X2 looper as it has 2 buttons and as a complete newbie with loopers was able to use it easily right from the get go. Sure, a couple of my first attempts weren’t usable but it didn’t take long.

Yes, I’ve never liked that double-tap thing. But keep in mind that many loopers have provision for an external pedal that can be set up to do stop with one tap.

The Ditto X2 looper is a popular and user-friendly 2 button unit, but it doesn’t have drums.

@AJSki2fly Thank you for tag, Adrian. :slight_smile:

@Bluesboy_Bri Hey Brian! As mentioned… I am really happy with my Nux.
There are lot of loopers, but for my personal use - its best value/price. I really like there are many features. Really good one is you can control the volume of backing track and looped section just with one button, so you can adjust it anytime you want!
There is tempo, drums, metronome, ā€œprebeatā€ for drums and metronome… just check out some review. 99 slots for save/store your recorded things and I have not tried it yet, but it should be possible to upload your own backing track via computer.
To me it seems like no brainer, but it really depends on your needs.

I cant offer you that much of sample, because I am not that good yet, but I used it simply for my Grade 2 Final Exam in the beginning. So you can hear drum and my backing rhythm.

Edit: I forgot this unit is 24hz, it means it buffer the sound quality better than 16hz. But I am just ā€œparrotingā€ this here, I dont understand it much. I heard the difference in some video.
And really big plus is you can see loop lenght and I think that is really great feature.

Grade 2 Final Exam - Loop in the beginning

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I’ve had a few loopers over the years including a ditto an RC5 and an Nux.

The ditto (single button) was real simple and inexpensive but as mentioned above has no drums. Sadly it broke, but I don’t think that’s endemic to the unit.

The Nux and RC5 are still on my pedal boards (one on each). RC5 has better sounding drums, but the Nux is absolutely fine in this regard, just not as good.

Two things that might be worth considering -

The Nux is the only inexpensive pedal I could find where I could send the drums to a different output from the guitar. This is useful for me because I want the guitar going to a valve amp and the rhythm to an FRFR speaker - I can also put these feeds into a mixer for easy fine control of the balance. This is the feature that sold me on the Nux.

If you come to sell the units then the RC5 will probably hold it’s value better - Boss units generally do pretty well in this regard and they have a reputation for build quality. That said, I do get the occasional ā€˜glitch’ with my RC5 and need to reboot it. I do use it with the additional Boss FS7 switch which I’ve set up for tap tempo and rhythm start/stop.

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Yes, the RC5 certainly holds its resale value. I know 'cos I just sold mine. :wink:

It was a great looper and I loved the display, but what wore me down was having to dive into the menus to adjust the drum volume. That is something you want to tweak on the fly. And the default levels on the thing are crazy loud.

That Nux looks like a great little unit. I bought the Boss RC10R but I think I would be perfectly happy with the Nux.

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This is a good point, and another advantage of the dual output on the nux - although using that nux feature does require more kit as you would need a mixer and/or second amp/frfr.

(I should note that the nux can send the drums to the same output as guitar and operate in the same way as other loopers in this regard if you want)

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Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it, I think I’ll check out the Nux range, I’m at grade 3 on Justin’s course and starting to explore playing blues licks and simple solos in different positions as I learn the notes on the all over the neck, I just want to make my own rhythm tracks to practice over and it would be nice to add some drums instead of metronome ,
Thanks again ,
Brian.

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