Introduction & questions

[Patricio Murphy <murphy@cvtci.com.ar>]

Hello,
I'm new to the list, and have a couple of questions.
I'm a working musician, currently playing mainly acoustic guitar after
getting pissed off by my Digitech's PMC10 MIDI footcontroller going dead
and a few more gear episodes... :-(
But right now I have a tour ahead that decided me to both get an
electric again and get some real-time control of my fx, and get some
looping capabilities for when I play solo as well. So here are my
questions:
1- What's the sturdiest and more reliable MIDI footcontroller on the
market? I mean one that lets me send any MIDI message over any MIDI
channel, not single channel devices. The only one I've seen down here is
Roland's FC200, which I understand is discontinued.
2- Would it be wiser to invest in something like a Boss GT-5? I've read
its sounds are great, and it has great control capabilities also, is it
true?
3- How does the Lexicon JamMan rate in terms of reliability? I can get
it second hand quite cheap down here.
4- Am I missing something? Maybe there's a multiFX that has built-in
looping capabilities, or another pedalboard option (I know Digitech
RP20, but since my bad experience with the PMC10 and their product
support, I'll pass Digitech this time), or something...

Thanks for any reply
Best regards,
Patricio Murphy
Buenos Aires, Argentina
murphy@cvtci.com.ar