RE: why do people think looping is just for guitar?

["Michael P. Hughes, Ph.D." <pycraft@elec.gla.ac.uk>]

Kim:
>My recurring experience is that the average, non-looper musician sees this
>as "just a thing for guitarists". (a statement I heard from some dance 
>music
>producers when I asked them about the idea.) I find it curious that this
is so. 

Well, guitarists don't have samplers (and have our hands too tied up to use
them).  

>I've seen several store displays of loopers where the store placed it in 
>the
>guitar section, between a guitar and a guitar amp. Now that's certainly
>useful, since lots of guitar players will interested. But other people who
>also might be interested probably won't see it there. 
...
>Same with mail order catalogs. Loopers usually turn up in the guitar 
>effects
>section. Why? Is it really just savvy marketing, thinking that guitar
>players will buy the most, let's stick it right under their nose, or is it
>because they really think it's just a guitar effect?
...
>Manufacturers ad campaigns, same story. They talk about how you can record
>the rhythm guitar part in the looper and play the guitar solo along with 
>it.
>They mention various interesting guitarists into looping. No doubt that's
>appealing to guitar players, but a somewhat different presentation would
>make it appealing to a much wider audience. Why does one get chosen over 
>the
>other?
...
>I guess that's where the question of "how do we change this perception?"
>comes in. We all know this is a fun and interesting way to create music, 
>and
>that that's true whether you are playing accordian or triangle or guitar.
>How do we show the musical general public that it's fun and interesting 
>for
>anyone? If we want the idea to grow and spread about, what do we show the
>world about ourselves, and how do we do it?

I actually think most (certainly many) more imaginative musicians look out
for cool stuff like this.  Example: many electric violinists will look at
Guitar FX for their violins.  They know that Zoom have no plans for a 50X:
Violin.  Most electric musicians know that the guitar section is where the
performance FX end up.  Ditto the electric harpists etc etc etc.  The
smaller interests know where to get information on products which are
applicable to _them_, and are quite able to interpret the results.  Perhaps
the "guitar effects" section should be re-labelled the "performance
effects" section;  but then, the guitarists would never buy anything...  ;)

>So I wonder why the
>store managers perceived it that way, why they chose to put it there. Why 
>is
>that choice made over the home studio section, or the electronic 
>instrument
>section, or anywhere else in the store?

Maybe this is just me, but the EDP/JM/Rang are far more performance than
studio processors.  Probably the BIG loss is that the Electronic Instrument
guys don't see the ad.  

Michael