Boss Js-8 Anyone Own Or Tried One?

My first question in this forum is whether any of you own a Boss eband JS-8 or have tried one. I got one not so long ago and I can say it is the best piece of equipment I own for practicing. Basically for those who don't know it is kind of like an iPod dock which has around 300 backing tracks stored in it's memory and they are all on loops so the track is about 10 seconds long and just plays continuously.

You can choose many different effects to jam along with and it even comes with recommended effects for all the backing tracks. You can also create unique effects and tones and store them. The unit is built on the GT-10 and has the same interface and many of the effects on the GT-10.

Basically you plug the JS-8 into the mains, plug your guitar into the JS-8 and select backing tracks you want to play along to and then you just start playing. I am actually addicted Its great for developing your improvisation technique.

You can also upload songs and slow the tempo right down if your trying to learn tricky songs by ear. You can also upload your own backing tracks and store them into the memory and then jam along to them (which is great for GMC because now you can download backing tracks )

What is everyone's views? I personally wish something like this was around when I was in the early stages of learning guitar

Here is a link http://www.roland.com/products/en/JS-8/

Hello Gmc :)

Hi everyone my name is Stefano (Stef) from the UK

I used to be a member of this website around 2 years ago (as staticstef) I stopped playing guitar as much because my studies got the better of me. I have come back now to take everything much more seriously. Im at a fairly intermediate level, I have been playing for around 4 1/2 years but around 2 of those years I only played guitar around 1 day per week.

I am now in a band called the transmission we play brit rock and I am the lead guitarist who brings some quite fast paced solos and lead guitar to the band. I am fairly good at playing fast using pull offs and hammer ons but a bit weaker at playing fast using alternate picking (so this will be my primary focus). I can do some simple sweeps but really want to get myself to a level where I can play very complicated sweeps so any help in getting me started here would be great (there are so many videos I get sidetracked quite easily )

To simplify things I want to be at a level where I can play Kristofer Dahl's Noctornal vision final part of the solo with ease I can play everything else but not that part The reason I bring that specific video into the equation is because I remember joining GMC after seeing that video on Ultimate-guitar.com a few years ago and that was my main goal back the; however like I said studies got the better of me. Don't get me wrong I am not here just for that one song but that is the speed I am looking to progress to

My main inspiration comes from Iron maiden, led zeppelin, pink floyd, whitesnake, Dio and pretty much every other rock/metal band from the 70's/80's and early 90's. I also like modern metal bands like killswitch engage, A7X, Disturbed etc

I currently own a standard American Strat (sunburst), Ibanez RGR320EX and a Yamaha electric acoustic. I also have a fender frontman 212R which has a perfect clean channel for me to run my Boss GT-10 through it. I also have the Boss JS-8 which is great for practicing.

I am looking forward to progressing my way through the videos and I am interested in participating in the REC programme and Video Chat.

Anyway this is my introduction . I hope to speak to you all soon through the forum and hopefully I can get to know some of you too