I found loopers to be a pain in the butt. Beat boxes the same. My view of solo acoustic gigs, (probably 95% of the gigs I've played,) is that they are a tough gig because you're the only one there to "take the heat" so to speak. If a mistake is made, everyone knows who made it!

I took a slightly different tack... Having a studio allowed me to put together backup tracks. Drums, bass, keys, guitars where needed. (Though I used to switch through instruments too. A solo gig for me meant dragging ALL the damned gear and setting up as if a band was playing. I've gotten too old for that so haven't done it in about 5 years.) Playing to the backups was cool because you had the "whole band" there and they were never going to make a mistake in timing. I also mixed the backups so I could play whatever instrument I wanted to them. If I wanted to do a drum bit, I'd just use the sans drums mixes. A lot of flexibility and I never felt like it was cheating because I'd played all the backup parts to record them in the first place.

If you haven't practiced with a looper, don't bring that hassle to the gig. See what you can do, where solos occur, to combine lead and rhythm, (what I typically do,) OR, if that's not really possible, it's a solo gig! Just "sing" the lead part... DO BE DOO... Again, most people aren't there to critique you. (Unless it's really a headline solo gig where they've actually come to see YOU!) They won't notice as long as you fill the background.

No better suggestions man. Pretty much all I did was solo, so everything I do is practiced that way. You don't appear to have that much time to "rework" your playlist for solo gigs. Still, don't sweat it. You're a pro, right? I mean if you can slip in a Strat where you've always used a Gib before this should be a piece of cake!

Have you ever used this particular loop machine before? Are you good at grabbing the loop and then shutting the thing up when you no longer need it?

What kind of looper is it?

I have a RC-2 loop station by Boss. It works great for what I do with it but I don't think I could use it in a live gig situation.

If you decide to use the looper you really need to practice with it.

You only have until Friday???

I suggest doing as much as you can with one guitar and adding an additional song or two into your set to fill the time. Tell a story between songs or something... The bass player in the last band I was in would stand behind the mike and deliver these rediculous stories about how we had just finished a world tour and how Slash asked him for a light for his cigarette, and things like that. He was good at that stuff and could eat away any amount of flex time needed.

My suggestion is to pre-record the parts you want, and use the looper like a trigger. That way, you *know* they're put in there right.

I have done this on solo acoustic gigs before. When I did it, I just pre-recorded the entire rhythm guitar part in Audacity, stored it as a .wav, and played it through my PA using iTunes and an RCA cable. Some songs just need 2 guitar parts, so I'll record myself playing nothing but rhythm with no vocals or anything. Then, when I play, I'll just double the rhythm track until it's time for the solos.

You can have a lot of fun with this...make the gig sound HUGE. I once tried it by recorded a 6-string track panned left and a 12-string track panned right.