Best Looper Pedals Under £100
A looper pedal records a phrase you play and plays it back in a continuous loop — allowing you to jam over yourself, practice scales over chord progressions, and build layered arrangements solo.
Best Looper Pedals Under £100
TC Electronic Ditto Looper — £80 | Best Budget Looper
5 minutes recording time, unlimited overdubs, true bypass, single-footswitch operation (record/play/overdub/stop). The Ditto is the simplest, most intuitive looper pedal available — one knob (loop level), one footswitch, no menus.
How to use:
- Press once to start recording
- Press again to stop recording and start playback
- Press again while playing to overdub (layer on top)
- Hold to clear the loop
Best for: Practice, jamming, learning to improvise over chord progressions, simple live use.
Boss RC-1 Loop Station — £100 | Best Beginner Boss Looper
12 minutes of recording time, single footswitch, LED level ring (visual progress indicator), stereo input/output. Boss quality construction — the RC-1 is slightly simpler than Ditto in operation with added visual feedback and more recording time.
vs Ditto: Same basic concept; RC-1 has more recording time (12 min vs 5 min) and a more informative LED ring. Ditto is more compact and has true bypass.
Best for: Players who want Boss reliability and visual looping feedback.
Electro-Harmonix 720 Stereo Looper — £90 | Best Feature-Rich Budget Looper
6 minutes recording, two footswitches (record and stop are separate), stereo in/out, reverse, speed (half-time), 10 preset save slots. More features than the Ditto or RC-1 — the 720 allows stopping the loop without erasing (record and stop are separate), saving loops to presets.
Best for: Players who want more control and loop saving at a budget price.
Looper Pedal Features Explained
Recording time: How long a single loop can be. 5–12 minutes covers 99% of practice and live use.
Overdubs: Adding layers on top of the initial loop. Unlimited overdubs (Ditto, RC-1) allow building complex arrangements.
Undo/redo: Remove the last overdub without erasing the full loop — useful for live error recovery.
Reverse: Plays the loop backwards — creative/experimental effect.
Half-time: Slows the loop to half speed (also pitch drops an octave) — useful for practice at slower tempos.
Choosing Between the Three
Want the simplest possible learning curve? The TC Electronic Ditto's single knob and single footswitch make it the easiest looper to pick up with zero manual-reading required — ideal for a first looper or for players who just want to jam without thinking about the gear.
Want more recording time and clearer visual feedback? The Boss RC-1's LED progress ring and 12-minute capacity (versus the Ditto's 5) make it easier to track where you are in a longer loop, useful for building more extended practice or songwriting sessions.
Want to save loops and control stop/start independently? The EHX 720's separate record and stop footswitches plus 10 preset save slots are genuinely useful if you're building up a set of loops to return to across practice sessions, rather than starting fresh every time.
Common Mistakes
Buying a feature-rich looper before learning basic loop technique. Timing a loop's start and end cleanly (so it repeats without an audible gap or stutter) is a skill that takes practice regardless of which pedal is used — starting with the simpler Ditto or RC-1 before moving to a feature-heavy looper avoids feature overload while still learning the fundamental technique.
Expecting a single-footswitch looper to allow stopping without erasing. As covered above, the Ditto and RC-1 use the same footswitch for record/play/overdub/stop in sequence — to stop and preserve a loop without erasing it, a looper with separate record and stop controls (like the EHX 720) is necessary.
Overlooking recording time limits for songwriting use. 5 minutes (Ditto) is plenty for most practice loops but can be limiting for capturing longer songwriting ideas — the RC-1's 12-minute capacity is worth the modest price difference for players using the looper as a songwriting tool rather than purely a practice aid.
Ignoring true bypass when chaining other pedals. The Ditto's true bypass means it doesn't color your tone when not actively looping, which matters if it's placed in a pedalboard alongside other effects — a looper without true bypass can subtly affect tone even when its loop function is unused.
ToneStakr's Take
For most guitarists buying their first looper, the TC Electronic Ditto remains the strongest recommendation — its near-zero learning curve means the pedal gets out of the way and lets practice or jamming happen immediately, which matters more for most players than extra recording time or preset slots. Players who already know they'll use looping as a serious songwriting or live-performance tool, rather than primarily a practice aid, are better served by the EHX 720's independent stop control and preset saving.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best looper pedal under £100?
The TC Electronic Ditto Looper (£80) is the best overall choice — the simplest, most reliable, and most intuitive budget looper available, with true bypass and straightforward single-footswitch operation.
What is a looper pedal used for?
Three main uses: practice (jamming over your own recorded chord progressions), songwriting (building layered arrangements solo without a full band), and live performance (creating backing loops to solo or sing over during a solo performance).
How do I use a looper pedal?
On a single-footswitch looper like the TC Ditto: press once to start recording, press again to stop recording and begin playback looping, press again while it's playing to add an overdub layer, and hold the footswitch to erase the loop and start over.
Can I use more than one loop with these budget loopers?
Generally no, not simultaneously — the Ditto and RC-1 work with a single loop at a time (though the RC-1 allows saving between sessions via its memory). The EHX 720's preset save slots come closest to a multi-loop workflow at this price, letting you store and recall different loops rather than running several at once.
Do I need a looper pedal with drum patterns or backing tracks built in?
Not for the core looping use case — the pedals covered here are pure audio loopers with no built-in rhythm tracks. Players wanting integrated drum patterns alongside looping should look at more advanced multi-effects or dedicated loop-station units, which cost significantly more than this budget tier.
Is a stereo looper worth it over mono for a solo guitarist?
Usually not essential — stereo input/output (available on the EHX 720 and Boss RC-1) matters more for players running stereo effects chains or recording setups. A guitarist looping through a single mono amp gets no practical benefit from the stereo capability.