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Boss DD-2

Summary
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Manufacturer URL http://www.bossus.com/
Ease of Use 9.0 (24 responses)
Sound Quality 9.0 (22 responses)
Reliability 9.0 (24 responses)
Customer Support 3.3 (4 responses)
Overall Rating 9.0 (24 responses)
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Page: 1 2 3 (Show 10 | 25 | 50 | 100 reviews per page) Showing 21 - 27 of 27 reviews
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Product: Boss DD-2
Price Paid: US $69.00
Submitted 06/01/2001 at 08:34pm by Gee-tah Guy
Email: guitartech<at>earthlink dot net

Ease of Use : 9
Simple to use and is one of the better made and sounding digital delay pedals on the market (even though this model is not made anymore). I truly believe this because I've sold many of them. I have worked at quite a few guitar shops in the last 25 years and all of them sold Boss effects. How I hated seeing a DOD or some other crappy delay leave the shop knowing it'd be broken soon and how useless it was as a delay tool.

Sound Quality : No Opinion
As stated above, it is one of the better sounding digital delays out there.

Reliability : 9
Well, here's the problem... while I recommend the DD-2 highly as a great, good-sounding delay pedal, the only broken one I've ever seen... IS MINE! It fell off my Marshall combo amp onto a carpeted floor and is now totally dead. Figures! This pedal was a big (but subtle) part of my sound and I can't find anyone to fix it at a reasonable price. I've checked the input jacks and everything else I can, but no luck. Shes dead!!! So I now look to eBay to find a nasty looking one so I can replace its guts with mine. Wish me luck. Even so I still rate the reliability very high because I know a lot of the ones I sold are still out there workin' hard.

Customer Support : 1
None! Useless customer support on any effects products made over an hour ago.

Overall Rating : 8
I've been playing gee-tah since '72 (gees, am I that old???) I play music of all types and styles. I must replace my broken DD-2 with either another DD-2, DD-3 or DD-5 soon or I'll shrivle up and croak!!! Maybe I'll just get a Roland SDE-3000, which is one of the best sounding stereo rack delays I've ever heard for guitar???


Product: Boss DD-2
Price Paid: US N/A used
Submitted 05/20/2001 at 09:14am by Anonymous

Ease of Use : 9
Lots of options for different delays, spend a little time and your get a good sound.
no manual

Sound Quality : 8
I have a lot of guitars, and play through a Fender Princeton combo ,Pedals include MXR envelope filter,MXR distortion+,Boss DS-1 ,Boss SD-1, Route 66 od/comp.Boss CS-3 ,Boss DD-2,Boss GE-7, Boss TU-2, Boss NS-2, pearl chorus and comp., Arion Analog Delay,Boss RV-3,and others I can't think of at this time!
NOT as warm as my Arion Analog delay, but I can get some usefull good sounds out of it.
Pretty quiet.
I play

Reliability : 10
Boss = solid built boxes ,Boss pedals have never failed me!!!!!

Customer Support : No Opinion
N/A
I have seen better web sites!!!!!

Overall Rating : 8
I play Christian contemporary, Praise&Worship,,,,,,Been playing close to 20 years now,,, I have 10-12 guitars at any time, 2-3 combo amps, and about 20 stomp boxes, and I still have 2 multi FX's "on the floor" boxes!
It's usefull for certain songs but I'll use my Arion Analog Delay for most songs I need delay in,,,,,, it's just a warmer , more musicial delay IMHO


Product: Boss DD-2
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted 12/05/2000 at 10:21pm by Anonymous

Ease of Use : 7
Pretty easy to use- very simple. Allows enough control so you can dial in the right delay times for tap delays. The manual is typical Boss- gives you just about the right amount of information- not too little, not too much. About a 5 minute read.

Sound Quality : 8
Run synths through it. Pretty quiet with a hot signal. The top rolls off a little. Just a good basic delay pedal.

To hear some samples of only the DD-2 see:

http://www.mp3.com/SpiderSounds

Reliability : 7
Not the most solid, but hardly the worst. It will hold up if you take care of it.

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : 8
A good solid digital delay. Hold feature is an added bonus.


Product: Boss DD-2
Price Paid: US $58.00
Submitted 09/27/1999 at 08:42am by Matt
Email: Mattp<at>rpsautomation dot com

Ease of Use : 10
Four control knobs that are extremely effective (no wasted knobs). Simple to use assuming your familiar with anykind of delay.

Sound Quality : 9
Simply killer! I have never been impressed with rackmount or the fancy delays, as they sound too "perfect" for my tastes. I've always loved the sounds that players like Dave Navarro got from simple stomp-box delays. I like the slightly distorted mix between the direct signal and the delayed signal. The sounds achieved with this are fantastic and reach far beyond what I wanted. The unit is very quiet and doesn't suck tone from the instrument. Doesn't clip, and won't "hickup" or "burb" when high tones are squeezed into it. My only complaint is that I would have like to acheived a more "kettle drum" effect when using short delay times with high feedback settings. This effect can be achieved, but not as convincing as on more flexable units.

Reliability : 9
A metal box. An effective footswitch. Secure knobs and pots. Hell, what more could you ask for? But, my battery contacts ripped out after a days use. But, anything that has had a battery in and out of it for years is bound to fail sometime. I use an AC Adapter now anyways, so personally, I could have cared less.

Customer Support : 1
Who knows? I'd like to assume if a company has a history of poor customer support then the company would suffer. BOSS has been around since dirt, and I'm pretty sure they have a damn fine customer support crew.

Overall Rating : 10
I'll be buying another one. I'd never waste my money on an elaborate rack unit, as you can nearly achieve the same sounds with this $60.00 pedal.


Product: Boss DD-2
Price Paid: US $80 used
Submitted 09/22/1998 at 03:29pm by Ryan M.
Email: xrist at primenet<dot>com

Ease of Use : 7
My DD-2 was used and in questionable shape when I bought it, but I worked on it to the point where I think I can rate it fairly! The controls are fairly self explanatory (level, echo, feedback, delay?) with a couple of exceptions...I didn't have the luxury of documentation, so maybe this is obvious if you have a manual. First, don't crank the level too high -- anything over halfway will make the echo louder than the original note. Second, the "Hold" option (the last setting on the delay time knob) isn't an off switch, it's for sampling the note played when you depress the pedal. In other words, you still need to unplug the pedal when it's on hold, or it'll still be using power, just less of it!
Other than that, the DD-2 is pretty simple. The trick is in the setup below.

Sound Quality : 7
Sound quality will depend a lot on what you have before this pedal in your signal. If you are going straight from guitar to amp (ie. don't have/use a separate effects I/O loop in your rig), put the delay AFTER a distortion pedal...if the delay is first, the echo will get distorted and turn your tone to mud. You wouldn't have a distortion pedal in an effects loop, but put things like tremolo, wah-wah or flange before the delay as well. My DD-2 seems more prone to hissing than some of the newer pedals, but I'm also using the max hold time for my guitar leads. It doesn't behave nicely with a lot of chorus or reverb effects around it...you never know where you're going to get clicks from your pick or finger-tapping. Still, most of the problems are from the original signal, not this pedal. It's an older model, so you're not going to get eternal echo without holding down the pedal. With feedback and echo set at about 50% and level just a little lower, I get the ideal sound for Maiden-style solos (this is what Dave Murray uses on "Live After Death")at about 800ms hold time. Those settings will give that nice, shimmering "liquid" sound on the clean channel if you back off the tone and switch to single-coils. But when the solo is over or I want some really thick crunch, I step off and use amp or processor reverb instead of the pedal.
Note that it will also do an acceptable job for bass guitar if your amp doesn't have decent reverb...I can get David Ellefson's lead bass tone from "Dawn Patrol" on my crusty old Randall RB-60 with it.

Reliability : 6
I'm a little concerned about how my pedal can handle abuse, but the previous owner kicked the living $#*! out of it, so it might need more repair than what I can give before it's roadworthy. The main problem seems to be that it doesn't always respond on the first stomp, which I've heard a lot about various BOSS pedals. Also, you better have an AC adapter for power, because this thing eats batteries like crazy. I left it plugged in overnight once and it was dead in the morning. I'll still use it live for now since I need a dedicated delay pedal and don't want to shell out hundreds of dollars for something better. Like all BOSS pedals, it's metal and feels pretty solid, so I trust it for practice and studio work...but a backup NEVER hurts.

Customer Support : No Opinion
I've never contacted Roland, but I've had it for six years and if it dies, it's from old age.

Overall Rating : 7
My taste in music is purely metal, but delay pedals are for everyone, at least where lead guitar is concerned. If you use it for clean playing like I mentioned above, it's great. I've been using this pedal for bass as well, and it's even seen some use as a vocal echo box.
Since the most current model is the $200 DD-5, that would be the logical upgrade. BOSS wrote the book on digital delay, and the DD-5 has a better sampling feature. But for a fairly simple delay pedal with stereo outputs and considerable durability, this DD-2 was a bargain. If you have the opportunity to get one for fairly cheap, you might find that it does what you need without paying through the nose for something fancy!


Product: Boss DD-2
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted 09/25/1997 at 09:08pm by Chris Lawrence

Overall Rating : No Opinion
Just wanted to clear up the mistakes in my previous submission: The Echo Level knob controls the volume of the Echo (imagine that...), the F. Back knob controls how many times it echoes, and the 3rd knob handles the speed of the delay. The 4th is obviously for choosing how many milliseconds of delay you want. And the Hold function is pretty neat, too. With the pedal off, play a phrase, then click the pedal on, and HOLD it down (in Hold mode). It will continuously echo what you played and allow you to play overtop.


Product: Boss DD-2
Price Paid: Canadian $100 (too much) used
Submitted 08/08/1996 at 09:10pm by Chris Lawrence

Ease of Use : 5
WEll, I think that there is something wrong with mine, because I have to stomp on it multiple times as HARD as I can to get it to turn on. But once it's on, watch out! Knobs are Echo Level, which I haven't really figured out yet, but just adds Reverb or something (?), Feedback determines how many times it echos back, and Delay signifies the Delay time. And there is a switch for 200 milliseconds, 400 milliseconds, and 800 milliseconds, along with a hold switch, which I THINK bypasses the effect (?).

Sound Quality : 9
It sounds amazing! It's the only delay pedal I've ever owned, however, so perhaps I'm speaking out of ignorance. But it really sounds scary!!!! With all of the knobs rolled up, it echoes endlessly! But, it only has up to 800 millisecond delay, no 2 seconds or anything. But that's fine for me, and if you play in a Sonic Youth type band and want heavy, thick noise, try it out! Sounds kinda like the Beatles' Revolution 9! Especially in Drop-D, cuz the pedal will turn the lows into an amazing, spooky organ sound that gets more intense every 800 milliseconds (I guess). Mixing high D's and Low D's is a breeze, and sounds amazing! On 400 milliseconds, it's very easy to get a quick, wild echo, and on 200 ms (?) you get a very odd chimelike percussionistic (yes I made that up) ring. Definitely cool. On a bad note, it repeats everything! If you tap the headstock, it repeats a clunky wooden sound. If you scrape your pick or slide your hand up the strings accidentally, get ready to hear it played back endlessly...

Reliability : 7
Well, like I said, Mine sometimes fails to come on...but I think that's something wrong with just mine, cuz I bought it used. It often it'll not turn OFF when I want it to, so... It's a BOSS though, so don't worry about breaking it.

Customer Support : No Opinion
Never had to deal with the company.

Overall Rating : 8
I only wish that mine would work when I wanted it to. Other than taht, it sucks batteries like you wouldn't believe!!!! But it sounds great, but I think that if I had the choice, I'd buy a DD-3 or maybe even a DD-5, but that's a little unnecessary (P.S. What happened to the DD-4?) Ultimately though, I'm glad I made this investment, and I think it'll last me a long time.

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