latter.) I popped the Boss unit out of its packaging and was up and running in seconds. All I
had to do was plug in the included adaptor (it
doesn’t run on batteries) and jack in my 1965
Stratocaster and I was ready to rock… or jazz,
pop, Latin, ballad, blues, metal, etc. Scrolling
across the top of the LCD screen, I saw the
style of music, name of the groove, instrumentation, and key: in the first case, “Country:
Country Rock (Bs&Dr, Key: D).” Occasionally
the labeling was not entirely accurate. In this
case there was acoustic guitar present as well
as bass and drums, and sometimes the key of C
may turn out to be Am, but for the most part it
was correct. Beginners might need help figuring out the chords in some progressions.
Underneath the scrolling info is the patch number and the type of guitar sound (e.g. “Bluesy
Crunch”). The next row contains Play mode.
Modes can be selected to play the track once
then stop, continuously loop it, or various other
operations. I decided to leave the mode on
“loop” and dive in. Being the self-proclaimed
King of the Power Ballad Solo, I chose “Ballad:
Rock Ballad (Bs&Dr, Key: Am)” from the song
menu (bass and drums also included strings
this time, though not the arpeggiated guitar
of the full version). The track turned out to be
the same chords as Gary Moore’s “Still Got
the Blues,” one of my favorite progressions.
The eBand set me up with a “Stack Lead”
sound that melded nicely with the track. As
you change backing tracks, this Boss device will
automatically change to whatever the programmers deemed to be an appropriate amp and
effects combination. For the most part I found
myself agreeing, but if you have one particular
sound that you wish to use with all the tracks,
you can shut off this “patch sync” effect and
that sound will remain when you switch songs.
Back at my power ballad, I tuned up using
the built-in tuner, hit play, adjusted my guitar
level to sit properly in the track, and began
jamming along. It was then that I encountered
eBand’s major flaw: forty minutes later I hadn’t
stopped playing! My recommendation to Boss:
please put a 20-minute time limit on this thing,
after which it shuts off for five minutes, thus
avoiding carpal tunnel syndrome. This thing
is too much fun. I have been a fan of COSM
amp modeling since I got my Roland Micro
Cube. You can argue about the accuracy of the
modeling (I find it pretty darn good), but these
amps and effects definitely “feel” good to play.
The eBand’s speakers will never be extolled
by audiophiles, but they are good enough to
avoid ear fatigue and provide inspiring sound.
Plugging in headphones improved the sound
further, revealing the quality of both my guitar
sound and the backing tracks.
I wanted to try jamming along with Robben
Ford’s version of “Revelation,” so I loaded it
onto a USB stick and plugged the stick into
eBand, where it instantly showed up in the
song playlist. Using the Center Cancel function
to remove Robben’s guitar part, I found that
it worked about as well as most center cancel
effects, which is to say that it lowered the
lead guitar a bit but didn’t remove it entirely.
According to the manufacturer, the Center
Cancel is adjustable, ulike many others; it can
be finely tuned in degrees of left, right and
center, with high, mid and low frequency ranges to help find and extract parts. The Speed
control was more useful. I combined it with the
A-B control, which allowed me to punch in at
the beginning of one of Ford’s bebop-inflected
licks, punch out at the end, then cycle just that
lick while slowing it down 50 percent. It sounded a bit “underwater” but was clear enough
to master the lick—at 50 percent of Robben’s
speed, anyway. The eBand also allows you to
shift the pitch with or without changing the
tempo, either in half steps, to practice in other
keys, or fine-tuned to match records that have
been slightly sped up or slowed down.
Plugging it into my Mac with a USB cable, I eas-
ily loaded the proper driver from the unit’s SD
card so that I could use the Boss device as an
interface with Ableton Live. The eBand allows
you to record either the whole track with your
playing, just the track, or just your guitar with or
without effects, directly into any DAW except
Pro Tools. You can also reamp clean guitar tracks
through eBand’s effect and amp models.
the Final Mojo
Full disclosure: I am not big on practicing; the
sound of a metronome drives me crazy in about
five minutes. With the Boss eBand, I could
improve my playing by jamming with a tireless
rhythm section possessed of perfect time. It is
hard to think of a groove you might need that
you won’t find here. Progression-wise, I missed
the inclusion of classic “I Got Rhythm” changes
in the jazz section, but not to worry. In describing everything else that it offers, I forgot to
mention that you can always record your own
changes, licks, and solos right into eBand with
a touch of the record button. Just remember to
take a break before your fingers fall off.
Rating:
you want a cool device that will
inspire you to jam and practice
until you drop.
Buy If...
Skip If...
you swear by your metronome.
Boss eBand JS- 8
Street $388
bossus.com
Click here or use a
mobile device to
read this QR code
to hear sound samples of the eBand in
action at
premierguitar.com
ONTHEWeb
