TC Electronic Ditto Looper Guitar Effects Pedal

Most Liked Negative Review

Good in its day, but it's been superseded by the competition

Guitarist love vintage gear. We love our old TubeScreamers and original CryBabys. There are reasons why old does equal better in some cases, when it comes to loopers there is no value in what was good yesterday... Dadly the Ditto has been replaced. I can think of absolutely no good reason to buy this product over the competition. Here is my story and how I qualify the statements above. I was torn between the Ditto Looper and this products leading competitor, the DigiTech JamMan Express XT. From the moment I arrived home with the Ditto Looper I regretted my decision. The Ditto looper has in the past been given a lot respect, In fact for a low-cost looper designed for guitarist by guitarist, the Ditto was the "go to" product. Sadly, TC Electronic's Ditto product has been superseded in every category by the JamMan Express XT. DigiTech has innovated in every category and the JamMan Express losses nothing in comparison to the Ditto. Here are the differences: The JamMan Express XT has a more intuitive interface (it's actually simpler than the Ditto thanks to the's multi-LED light display which makes it clear what's going on). The JamMan Express XT offers twice the loop time (10 minutes vs 5 with the Ditto) the JamMan Express is stereo out, the Ditto mono. The JamMan Express XT does not require an AC adapter. When you get it home and realize the music store is closed and you have a gig in half an hour, you can simply go buy a 9V battery. The Ditto in contrast only works with a 9V AC adapter. What's more, TC Electronic doesn't even make a proper AC adapter for this unit. The manual (which I had to find on-line) states "use a general purpose 9V AC adapter". On the bottom of the Ditto it states that it wants DC/100mA. You can't buy one of those in the US. Good luck finding a perfect adapter, the best I could do was a 9V DC/300mA which seems to work ok but it's a generic AC adapter that cost me eight dollars. Multi-adapters like those sold at most big-box retailers with an electronics section cause noise and do not work properly. I would be ok with the Ditto not coming with an AC adapter if it had a battery option, but it does not. So this is a huge inconvenience, annoyance and huge design flaw by a company with enough experience to know much better. Three more important things that make the JamMan Express XT a superior buy IMO. The JamMan Express XT comes with a product manual. The product isn't difficult to operate at all, but at least you get a piece of paper in the box that explains how the device works. The Ditto Looper does not come with any printed manual. You have to go to the manufactures website and download a PDF. The JamMan Express XT lets you sync with other JamMan looper products so your bass player, second guitarist, etc... can keep loops in sync on stage (awesome, awesome feature... yeah the Ditto Looper doesn't do that). Last but not least, the Ditto Looper cost 30% more than the JamMan Express. Across the board, the Ditto looper has been turned into a dinosaur by competition. If you are reading positive reviews, note that the JamMan Express XT was released late 2013. TC Electronic knew this was coming and simply did not have the engineering expertise to compete or perhaps they were too arrogant to think the extra features of the competitors product made it worth their time. Regardless, It's too expensive and it's lack of certain basic things (product manual, battery powered option) make it a infuriating product to own. I've written the manufacture and expressed by views in both tactful and tactless ways because the Ditto has made be very, very angry. I'm giving it two stars instead of one only because the build quality is high as with most TC Electronic products, but that is not enough here. Any product on the market has to be reviewed in contrast to the competition and this little guy just doesn't stack up anymore.