Loop pedals range from £100 stompboxes to £600 flagship floorboards, and the marketing does its best to convince you that you need the big one. You probably don't — but you might. Here's the decision framework I give every guitarist who asks, based on years of using and teaching every looper in this guide.
Start with how you'll actually perform
Ignore the spec sheets for a moment and answer one question: where will this pedal live? Practising in the spare room, busking sets in town, building full multi-instrument arrangements, or looping vocals and beats at a desk — each points at a different pedal. Almost every looping regret I hear comes from buying for an imagined future performance rather than a real, current one.
The simple stompbox: BOSS RC-5
One track, one footswitch, unlimited overdubs on a 32-bit engine, and a genuinely useful LCD loop indicator. The RC-5 is the right answer for most guitarists starting out: it teaches you timing — the skill that actually makes looping sound good — without burying you in routing menus. It also fits on any pedalboard, and everything you learn transfers straight up the BOSS range later.
The gigging sweet spot: BOSS RC-500
Two independent stereo tracks, a proper LCD with real menus, 57 rhythm patterns with an onboard drum machine, and dedicated footswitches for track control. The RC-500 is where looping goes from practice tool to performance instrument — verse on track one, chorus on track two, drums underneath. If you plan to play in front of people, start your search here.
The desktop powerhouse: BOSS RC-505mkII
The RC-505mkII is the beatboxer's and vocalist's looper — five stereo tracks operated with your hands, not your feet. If your instrument leaves a hand free (vocals, keys, electronic setups), the hands-on faders-and-buttons workflow is faster and more expressive than any floor unit. Guitarists with both hands busy should generally stay on the floor.
The flagship floorboard: BOSS RC-600
Six stereo tracks, nine footswitches with three customisable pedal modes, over a hundred onboard effects, and deep MIDI. The RC-600 can run an entire one-person-band show — but all that power lives in menus, and it rewards owners who enjoy configuring their rig. Buy it because your arrangements have outgrown two tracks, not because it's the biggest one.
The Ed Sheeran route: Sheeran Looper + and Looper X
Ed Sheeran's official pedals take the opposite philosophy to BOSS: strip looping back to what a singer-songwriter actually uses on stage. The Looper + is the affordable two-track way in; the Looper X adds the deeper feature set (and the workflow closest to how Ed actually performs). If your goal is acoustic-guitar-and-vocal loop performances rather than experimental sound design, these are the most direct route there.
Quick comparison
| Pedal | Tracks | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| BOSS RC-5 | 1 | Learning to loop, practice, small boards |
| BOSS RC-500 | 2 | First gigging looper |
| BOSS RC-505mkII | 5 | Vocalists, beatboxers, desktop rigs |
| BOSS RC-600 | 6 | Full one-person-band arrangements |
| Sheeran Looper + | 2 | Singer-songwriters on a budget |
| Sheeran Looper X | 4 | The full Ed Sheeran-style live show |
The bottom line
Buy the smallest pedal that covers your current performance, and spend the savings on learning it properly. A player who has mastered an RC-5 will outperform someone lost in an RC-600's menus every single time — and when you do outgrow it, everything you've learned carries straight up the range.
Tip: Whichever pedal you land on, there's a full step-by-step course for it in the course library — every setting, in plain English.