review
Radial Loopbone
Effects pedals play a big role in modern guitar playing, and many players have large pedalboards full of their favorites. While using a large number of “stompboxes” offers a lot of sonic options, it also requires a lot of fancy footwork to produce the desired effect, and running through a long chain of pedals can compromise your tone. With this in mind, Radial Engineering has created the Loopbone, a pedal that allows you to set up two separate effects loops and switch between them, use them in unison, or bypass them both for that pure “guitar straight into amp” tone. It also offers extra features such as a tuner output, a boost switch, and channel switching for most amps.
Features
The Loopbone is designed primarily as a loop controller and allows you to control two individual effects loops. This approach allows you to set up two unique “sounds” and quickly switch between them without a flury of pedal tapping. You simply click a switch to select loop 1 or loop 2. This approach also allows you to prepare a new sound in loop 2 while you are using loop 1, and vise versa. But that is just the beginning. You can also use the loops in unison if you need effects from both loops, and you can bypass both loops for pure amp tone. This is especially nice if you have older, noisy pedals that you want to switch out of the signal path. There is also a boost switch, which comes in handy for solos or providing extra gain to overdrive your amp. And if this wasn’t enough, a feature called “slingshot remote” allows you to use the Loopbone to switch channels on your amp.
The slingshot remote feature works on most footswitch-able amps that use a 1/4” cable/jack to connect to a footswitch. There is no separate switch for the slingshot remote, it requires you to choose one the three available switches (Loop 1, Loop 2, Boost) to do the channel switching. Having to use one of the loop or boost switches to change channels didn’t make sense to me at first, but I eventually began to see the possibilities. For example, you could set up one loop (Loop 1) for use with the clean channel on your amp and the other loop (Loop 2) for use with the overdrive channel. Now if you assign Loop 2 to also change channels on your amp, when you step on the Loop 2 switch, you kick in the Loop 2 effects and the overdrive channel of your amp with a single click. Pretty cool. Of course, you can always use the footswitch that came with your amp if you want to switch amp channels when using both loops.
Another nice feature is the tuner out jack. You can have a tuner hooked up, turned on, and always ready regardless of which loop (or neither loop) you are using. The Loopbone sends a separate buffered signal to the tuner, so it never weakens you signal or sits in the audio chain.
Here is an example setup showing the Loopbone’s many features.
Controls
In addition to the three switches on the Loopbone (Loop 1, Loop 2, and Boost) that allow you to select loops, run loops in series (loop 1 always runs into loop 2), bypass both loops, or boost the signal, the Loopbone has two small dials that allow you to set the amount of boost and the signal “drag.”
The Boost dial controls the amount of gain for the Boost switch and can be set from 0 to 15dB. The boost is a high quality, Class A, variable gain booster that enters the signal chain after the loops, just before the output jack. This allows you to add boost without overloading the effects loops. The boost control offers a significant amount of gain, so you should start with a small amount and increase to taste.
In order for Loopbone to be able control two effects loops, a tuner, the slingshot remote, boost the signal, and drive long cable loops, it requires the use of signal buffering. However, buffering a signal can make it sound slightly different (“sterile” or “too clean” are a common descriptions.) The “Drag” control lets you adjust the buffered signal to reintroduce a load on the pickups so you will get a more natural sound. You simply set up your effects loops and then adjust the drag control until your signal sounds the same through the effects loops as it does when you are playing directly into your amp with no pedals.
The control dials look like screw heads, but can be easily turned with a guitar pick, so no special tools are required. These are basically a one-time adjustments, unless you want to fine tune things for each guitar you own.
Construction
The Loopbone uses heavy duty steel construction, metal jacks and switches (with the exception of the plastic switches that select the remote slingshot assignments) and should easily stand up to gigging. Each switch has its own color coded LED making it easy to see what is active. My only concern is the non-standard 15v power adapter (required for Class A circuitry) with its somewhat fragile looking cable. If you have the Loopbone safely tucked away on a pedalboard, the adapter cable shouldn’t be a problem. Still, since you can’t use a standard 9v adaptor, it may be a wise idea to purchase a spare adapter from Radial before hitting the road.
Manual
The Loopbone comes with a good printed manual that explains the Loopbone’s features and how to use them in simple, easy-to-understand English. It also offers tips and has a FAQ section.
In Use
I normally use a streamlined effects setup that consists of a single multi-effects unit, a wah-wah, and a volume pedal. This along with a Traynor channel switching tube amp gives me a compact setup with a decent variety of tones. Sometimes, though, a gig requires a bit more variety in tones and effects.
Once a year, I play guitar in a band for my church’s youth group summer camp. We play three times a day and typically do around 70 songs in a wide variety of styles from heavy to mellow. Having owned a PODxt for a while, I wanted to use some of its high gain settings and delay effects during the gig. I created a number of presets on the PODxt for individual songs and gave them the same name as the songs for easy selection. Since the PODxt is not physically designed for live use (and I didn’t want to pony up $400 for the new PODxt live), I bought a POD Mount which slides under your amp handle and allows you to mount the PODxt on your amp for quick preset changes. This was not the perfect setup but was workable. The problem was, the PODxt definitely alters the tone of your guitar and I didn’t want to run through it all the time. The Loopbone seemed like the perfect answer, and it was.
I set up one loop with my multi-effects unit and wah, and the other loop with the PODxt. I then ran the Loopbone into the volume pedal so I could control the volume on either loop. This worked great and had the added bonus of allowing me to cut both effects loops from my signal chain when I just wanted straight amp tones. The more I used the Loopbone, the more possibilities I began to envision.
Final Thoughts
The Loopbone is a versatile and very powerful effects loop controller that offers many possibilities for managing effects. As a basic effects loop selector, it excels, but it offers much more with its boost, slingshot remote feature, and tuner out. It is dead quiet and a breeze to use live. It’s built like a tank and cost about the same as an average high quality effects pedal. If you are tired of tap dancing on your pedalboard between songs, the Loopbone is definitely worthy of your consideration.
Reader Comments
Better Guitar encourages your input. Agree with this review? Think I’m crazy? If you have used a Radial Loopbone, email me your comments and I’ll post them below. The more opinions we have available, the better our buying decisions will be.
stats
- • Master control for pedal boards
- • Insert & combine two separate effects loops
- • Built-in variable gain power booster
- • Unique Drag control pickup load correction
- • Separate tuner output is always on
- • SlingShot remote control output
- • 100% discreet class-A circuit design
- • Compact design
Positives
- Allows quick switching between effects setups; quiet; includes boost and amp switching features; tuner output.
Negatives
- Requires 15v adapter.
Rating
- Performance: 10
- Sound Quality: 10
- Construction: 9
- Overall: 9.7
Ratings Key
- 0 = Worthless
- 10 = Excellent
Approximate Street Price
- $229
Available At Guitar Center
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Radial Loopbone Dual Effects Loop Standard
Company
- Radial Engineering