Boss RC-3 Loop Station Guitar Effects Pedal Bundle with AC Adapter, 10-Foot Instrument Cable, Patch Cable, Pick Card, and Polishing Cloth

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Price: $199.00    

Product Feature

• Compact and powerful stereo stompbox looper
• Massive internal memory with up to three hours of stereo recording time
• 99 onboard memories for storing loops
• USB 2. port allows you to connect to a PC and import/export WAV audio
• Rhythm guide with real drums

Product Description

Compact and powerful stereo stompbox looperMassive internal memory with up to three hours of stereo recording time99 onboard memories for storing loopsUSB 2.0 port allows you to connect to a PC and import/export WAV audioRhythm guide with real drumsThe RC-3 is powerfully equipped yet conveniently housed in a compact pedal. Enjoy up to three hours of stereo recording time, storage for 99 loops, a "real drums" rhythm guide, and USB 2.0 compatibility all in a small BOSS stompbox.

Boss RC-3 Loop Station Guitar Effects Pedal Bundle with AC Adapter, 10-Foot Instrument Cable, Patch Cable, Pick Card, and Polishing Cloth Review

3-1/2 stars, really. It's almost a great product, but considering the relatively high price it's disappointing that Boss cut corners and didn't get some of the details right.

The good stuff about the RC-3 is obvious and easy to find online--it loops, has lots of memory and I/O, is easy to use, and is excellent for practicing and song writing--so I'm focusing on the less obvious bad stuff:

- Various online sources, including, until recently, the Boss and Roland websites, claim you can specify tempo incrementally. Unfortunately this is not true. There is no tempo display and it's tap tempo only, which is a ridiculous pain in the neck and @#$%*& me off, especially because it was one of the few things I was careful to check on the Boss site. At the very least one should be able to fine tune the tempo in 1 BPM increments with the increase/decrease buttons, even if the tempo isn't also displayed, but you can't even do that. And no, you can't use the pedal to tap in the tempo--you have to get down on the floor and use the dinky little button.

- The drum beat and tempo reset to their defaults if you change the phrase number, even if you move to a blank phrase. Sorry, but that is plain dumb--it means you can't record several versions of the same thing, or different parts of a song, without re-setting the beat and tempo. BUT, as noted above, you can't set the @#$%^&* tempo numerically, so it's impossible to get the same @#$%^&* tempo. Great. (Please tell me I'm wrong on this.)

- Built-in time signatures are 3/4 and 4/4 only. No 7/8, 5/4, etc. Boss's marketing department was inspired on how to play this--the web site says, "You can also specify the time signature." Uh, thanks, but the choices, which Boss conveniently neglects to mention, are almost as limited as the color of a Ford Model T. ("Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.") I should add that one of the 4/4 beats is a 12/8 shuffle, and that one of the 3/4 beats is a 6/8 shuffle and another is 9/8, but that doesn't excuse Boss's mendacity. It's clear they are trying to hide their product's shortcomings.

- The 10 built-in drum beats are very basic and are not adequate. There's a reason you can't listen to them on the Boss site, but as a public service I have made recordings available [links deleted by amazon. Try searching soundcloud for Boss RC-3 Drums]. There are actually 20 beats, since there are versions for 3/4 and 4/4, but with all the storage space on this thing, surely Boss could have included more. Even the previous model, the RC-2, had 30 (?) beats.

(Yes, you can go to the trouble of recording and importing your own rhythms to get any time signature and pattern, but you lose the pedal's convenience advantage. Besides, recorded rhythms are part of a loop--they can't be re-used without re-importing, the number of measures can't be changed, and the volume can't be adjusted independently of the guitar playback. Maybe there's a way to hook a drum machine up to the second input, but I can't think of how you would sync/trigger it.)

- The 5 year warranty is parts only. Labor is only 90 days. Labor rates are $40/hour. Return shipping is on you, and if you choose not to get the repair after receiving an estimate, then you are charged $25 anyway. It seems that warranty information is hidden on purpose. I could not locate it on the Boss site and even the documentation that comes with the pedal does not state the warranty period or detailed terms. It's a wonder of obfuscation: "... this product will be free from defect in materials and/or workmanship from the date of purchase until the period of time indicated for this product." Uh huh. And what "period of time" would that be and where would it be "indicated"? Well, I eventually found the actual warranty terms on rolandus.com: [URL deleted by Amazon. Try googling rolandus warranty]

- Power supply is not included by Boss, although some retailers include one.

- When you switch between phrases, there is a short lag, so you can't string together phrases to make a song in real time. See this youtube video: TlKDHsauvos

- Buttons are mushy, rubbery stuff like a tv remote. Probably saved on costs, but the durability is questionable.

One other note: I'm using the RC-3 in a Line 6 Flextone I guitar amp effects loop. That way I can overlay loops using different amp effects and amp models. Unlike the Jamman Solo, this is not a mode that is mentioned in the instructions. I think the RC-3 is designed to go before the amp. Amp effects loops are usually line level, while stomp boxes are usually instrument level, so whether it works probably depends on the effect loop's impedance (line level can mean different things and likely varies by amp) and whether the RC-3 can handle the signal coming out of the preamp. Well, nothing's fried yet.

UPDATE 2/21/12:
A minor issue: When a recorded loop is transferred to a computer, a drum/tempo track is not included. You get a Stereo WAV (41.1 KHz, 16 bit) of the guitar. So, if you want to use the loop in, say, Garage Band, or import it back into the RC-3, you will have to add drums. Getting drums to sync up on the RC-3 is difficult unless the loop was recorded at the default tempo (120 bpm) or is relatively short. If not, eventually the drums go out of sync, because, as noted above, there is no way to dial in a tempo.

UPDATE 7/27/12:
- Supposedly cannot be used with headphones. There is a dire warning in the instructions that the headphones could be damaged, but Boss does not elucidate how. I tried it anyway. It works, but you need a mono to stereo adapter to hear the output in both ears (or something more complicated if you are using both of the RC-3 inputs), and the output is weak. You have to turn the volume up all the way up to get a barely reasonable volume, so I don't see how the headphones would be damaged.

- Do not try using this with a power supply daisy-chained to other pedals or a headphone amp. It generates all kinds of horrible electronic noise, including a high pitched oscillation and in-tempo thunks.

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