Effects Bay

Last month I talked about the DigiTech JamMan Looper Pedal and the cool things you can do while setting up the loops, etc. Today, I found that DigiTech is releasing a new JamMan Looper Pedal called the DigiTech JamMan Solo Looper. This has some of the similar functionality as it’s big brother, but it’s in a single pedal chassis. The older JamMan was quite large.

Here are the official details:

The JamMan Solo looper is perfect for the guitarist or bassist looking for a full-featured looper in a compact, stompbox-sized design. Store up to 35 minutes of CD-quality loops in 99 onboard positions, or up to 16 hours of material using the SD memory card expansion slot (with optional 8GB or higher SDHC card) to add 99 more slots!

The JamMan Solo looper pedal also has a USB port to transfer loops to and from a computer, a metronome with multiple rhythm sounds and time signatures, automatic recording, and increased Hands-Free™ functionality with optional footswitch. Power supply included.

DigiTech JamMan Solo Looper Guitar Effects Pedal Features:

* Store over 35 minutes of mono, CD-quality loops in 99 internal memories
* Optional SDHC card can store over 16 hours (with optional 8GB or higher SDHC card) of CD-quality audio in 99 additional memories
* Record rhythm loops and solo over them on the fly, completely Hands-Free™
* Connect to your computer via USB and use the JamManager™ Loop Librarian software to organize and archive your loops.
* Aux Input lets you import music from CD and MP3 players
* Load up the JamMan with bass lines, drums, harmonies, and more; create an entire backup band, take it with you, and perform anywhere
* Slow down or speed up any loop without changing pitch
* Metronome with multiple rhythm sounds and time signatures
* Rugged metal chassis
* Power supply included
* Optional footswitch adds additional Hands-Free™ functionality

This pedal is brand new. It officially is available tomorrow (2/12/2010), but you can pre-order it today. You can pick up the DigiTech JamMan Solo Looper for $199.95 at Musician’s Friend!

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Popularity: 15%

The following is a guest post review of the Digitech Hardwire CM-2 Tube Overdrive Pedal by Andrew Elmore. If you are interested in guest posting, please contact me!

A while back i bought a Sony PSP from a friend for the strange price of $65 and a box of Pop Tarts. I am completely serious. I used it about five times and then it sat in my closet collecting dust for several months. On a completely unrelated subject I have recently discovered the Digitech Hardwire CM-2 Tube Overdrive and have fallen in love with it. (Long story short, a dude on craigslist was selling one for $70 and I traded that PSP for it instead. Success.)

I played with it at my local music store and wasn’t super impressed (it was plugged into a Marshall MG15DFX… What could I expect?) but the reviews on the internet were so crazily positive! And the youtube demos made it sound great! What was the deal?!

I ended up trading that PSP (You thought that random intro sentence was completely pointless didn’t you?) for The Hardwire Tube Overdrive on craigslist and took it home and was blown away. It took awhile to find a good spot for it, but i ended up putting it before my other OD pedals and it just sounded beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

You got your basic Level, Low, High, and Gain controls here, as well as a standard bypass switch. There is, however, another mysterious little mini-toggle for either Classic or Modified. Classic sounds very very reminiscent of a TS9 (but with 2 band EQ of course)but the Modified setting is where this pedal really shines. A Gain/Presence boost along with a mid-range boost and a bit more compression give it that TS9DX “Hot Mode” sound but with more creamy, glorious sustain. Beautiful.

Try as I might, I could not get a bad sound out of this pedal! Contrary to popular belief, this is not just a glorified Digitech Bad Monkey. It’s a whole ‘nother animal. The CM-2 uses higher voltage operation than any pedal I’ve ever heard of, allowing for amazing headroom so you won’t overload this pedal with any pregain stages or active pickups. Like it’s namesake, it’s hardwired true bypass and won’t affect your tone when off. One of the features I’m glad for in the Hardwire series is an overall use of much better parts. The knobs are solid and well, different. (Play with one, you’ll get what I mean.) The bypass switch is an overall better quality than the standard digitech pedal (I’m comparing this to my Hot Head.) and this thing could survive a freaking nuclear holocaust. It’s even olive drab which makes it extra hardcore! It comes with a Glow In The Dark sticker for the stomp switch so it’s easy to see on a dark stage (very helpful!) and a seperate, all velcro backplate
to replace the standard rubber one. Bright blue blind-you-for-days LED and a sick, sick tone. This pedal is the definition of sexy.

It was once said on TGP somewhere: “If it ain’t hand-painted, it ain’t worth playin’.” I guarantee if you shoot this out with hand made boutique overdrives it will still blow their overinflated pricetags out their butts. Long story short, this thing sounds PHENOMENAL and is a flat hundred bucks new! Don’t take my word for it. Go play one. This has become my main overdrive pedal for lead AND rhythm! My SD-1 and BD-2 are essentially just gain boosts now!

Anyway yeah. Digitech Hardwire CM-2 Tube Overdrive, You succeed on all levels of awesome.

About the author:

I’m a christian guitarist with a bad bad case of “Pedal Acquisition Syndrome” I’ve been playing for about 6 years. My current set up is as follows:
Ibanez AX-S 42 > Dunlop Standard Crybaby GCB-95 > Boss AC-3 Acoustic Simulator > Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive > Digitech Hot Head Distortion > Danelectro Tuna Melt Tremolo > Digitech RP50 Processor (Piece of crap, only used as a tuner) > Boss DD-7 Digital Delay > Fender FM212R
You can follow Andrew on Twitter (@AndrewElmore)

You can pick up the Digitech Hardwire CM-2 Tube Overdrive pedal for $99.95 at Musician’s Friend!

Popularity: 10%

Today, @disandroid asked about the DigiTech JamMan Looper pedal. He was looking for a looper (ie: Akai Headrush, Line 6 DL4, etc) where he could solo onto of rhythm stuff. I haven’t looked at DigiTech stuff for a while, and didn’t know much about this pedal, so I wanted to take a closer look this morning.

I’d like to point you to a couple of posts illustrating how you can loop and create great music using pedals like this. If you have some time, check out these two earlier posts:
Reggie Watts rockin’ the loops
Cool Line 6 DL 4 delay video
Akai E2 Headrush Delay/Looper Pedal

As you can see, you can make some cool/fun music with these loopers! But let’s take a closer look at the DigiTech JamMan Looper. Here is the official pedal description:

The legend continues. When DigiTech invented the PDS8000 pedal almost twenty years ago, it stored eight seconds of audio. Now they’ve reinvented it using removable CompactFlash memory to store up to 6.5 hours*! A wide range of features combined with ease of use make the DigiTech JamMan the perfect looper/phrase sampler for practicing, composing, and performing. The JamMan new comes with 1GB Compact Flash to hold over 3 hours of loops, all stored in 99 memory locations. The JamMan features; instrument input, balanced XLR input, and stereo 1/8 auxiliary input jacks. Guitars, bass, vocals and audio from MP3 players can be sampled, looped and overdubbed at 44.1 kHz 16-bit wave file format for superb CD quality audio. Spice up your performance with audio clips, backing tracks or take it on the road as a one man performance.

Here is another great video by ProGuitarShopDemos showing what this pedal can do:

I also wanted to include this video where MismatchedSockGuy creates a song on the fly using the DigiTech JamMan.

Currently, the DigiTech JamMan Looper is on sale at Musician’s Friend for $249.95. The pedal normally lists for $449.95, so that’s $200 (44%) off of list price. Also there is a Mail-In rebate included with this pedal which expires on 1/15/10

Remember, if you like reading about pedals and seeing videos reviews from others, please subscribe to the RSS feed and get notified via email when there are new postings!

Popularity: 11%