A family member asked for a loop pedal type of thing that would allow him to stack parts kind of like you can see on Live Looping 101? Well, it turns out that the the word “Loop” can mean something entirely different in the music world.

Most modern guitar amps have an “effects loop”. An effects loops allows a person to put reverb, chorus, and various other guitar effects after the distortion on their amps. If the reverb was put on first, the reverb would end up being just as distorted as the guitar is.

So, we have a dilema here. When your mom goes to musicalfriend.com (yes, it's supposed to be www.musiciansfriend.com ) and searches for “Loop” she is going to get products that do live looping as demonstrated up above and she is going to see products for the effects loops of guitar amps.

It turns out this family member ordered this

Radial Loopbone Dual Effects Loop

I noticed right away that the company was Radial, which I usually think of DI boxes, multi-amp switchers, and things like that. I was surprised that Radial had gotten into the live looping business. Well, it turns out that they are not in the live looping business. The Radio Loopbone Effects Loops has nothing to do with live looping per say. The Radial Loopbone allows you to switch between two completely different groups of pedals. This is a great idea. In fact, I built one of these when I was in college, but that damn thing was too noisy and I eventually gave up on it and started tinkering with recording.

The idea of having two totally different effects is useful for all kinds of things. For example, you could have a solo volume booster, a delay, and reverb all kick in with the press of a single button on the Tonebone. This is a big deal to anyone who doesn't have a Bradshaw guitar pedal switching system and likes to put effects on their lead. There is no way you have time to hit 4 pedals and still play the damn solo. It just doesn't work that way.

When She Really Wanted This

Boss RC-20XL Loop Station

Since this family member was wanting to do live looping, the Radial Loopbone Dual Effects Loop was not the right product. She was looking for something more like the Boss RC-20XL Loop Station. The Boss RC-20XL lets you stack track after track to create wild loops all with one person playing.

Conclusion

Before you hop into buying an “loop” product, make sure you know what you are getting. Of course, you can always ask on the Home Recording Forum.