Boss DD-20

The DD-20 is a breeze to navigate. Any confusion can be aleviated with the excellent manual.

The Giga Delay is a great pedal, but the main reason for this review: I recently compared my Giga Delay to a T-Rex Replica delay (which I spent a weekend A/B-ing next to the Giga Delay and for which my dealer was asking $240 for the used one he'd recently acquired-they're $400 new). Anyway, save your cash and get the DD-20! It's $220 new. They're both digital, they both sound awesome, and to my ears I couldn't discern any difference in sound/tone quality. The Boss has many more options and its tape, analog, and digital settings easily matched the T-Rex. The only thing the Replica has that the DD-20 doesn't is a volume knob to control overall output. That's it. So anyway, if you've heard how great the T-Rex was (and is) and want some strange, look elsewhere. It ain't worth the money. By the way, I've been playing for over 30 years, am a major gearhead, and do play out on a semi-regular basis if that matters. And, I currently use Fishman amps, Takamine acoustic-electric guitars, as well as a variety of Damage Control, Pigtronix, Moogerfooger, BBE, Z Vex, Boss, and Line 6 pedals.

NEVER had an issue with a Boss pedal.

What's that?

See above.

The best delay to be found and ITS LINE LEVEL optioned.
Read the manual (available on-line) you cannot understand how this works by hitting buttons.

Supurb sound, HD,very verstile delay for any application or effect.
23 sec delay with readout of exact ms, 11 modes; sound on sound (looper), twist mode (speeds up tempo and repeats to a critical mass, good for song endings), warp (infinite repeat), tape (vintage tape warble, also available with two heads for multi tap delay effect), analog (warm vintage DM-2 tone), standard (hi-fi digital delay), dual (a long and short delay at the same time), pan (stereo panner), smooth (spread out delay, natural sounding, very musical), modulate (chorus type modulation applied to repeats, adjustable), reverse (up to 23 secs with direct mute if desired). Also a tone knob to roll off or boose highs, NOT to mention a 4 bank position memory to hold your personal echo/delay settings, really sweet! This is the best delay, I tried everything, also it has a +4db line level toggle for putting it in a loop. I got a little hiss, but I realized it was coming from the tube circuit in my amp loop, and the BBE was enhancing the hiss, nothing bad but when you strive to get dead quite, a little annoying, can't hear it playing, the StoN is high. The JS-DL Vox time machine is a great echo but not line level and this has more ms and features. For $220 this is the delay unit, hard to imagine anything sounding better with competing features.

Boss is great quality. This unit has a 5 year factory warranty.
Now here is something important. Plugging this into my BBE power brick on my board, no power, drove me nuts trouble shooting, batteries are new, works, power supply, zip. Problem I found is that the brick supplies (all) are not putting out a high current milivolt 9v supply, they are like a weak battery and some effects will not run. When I plugged in a isolated supply wart, it worked. I recommend getting a 500 mv 9v wart for this, you can go higher mv but not lower.

No idea. All I could find on the power supply issue was buy theirs, it's only a 200mv which is not so amazing. It works but I am going to run a 500mv so I am sue I have no problems. You can go more mv without problems but not less.

The best delay, if you're an experienced player this unit can be really amazing and versitile. If you're a young player you can make a lot of weird noises to amaze your pets. I went through 5 echos before I just gave up and tossed the $220 for this one. Few things exceed my expectations, this is one.

Pretty easy to use. Similar to any other delay but with two footswitches. Time knob is very easy to use to dial in exact time. Tap tempo I usually don't use but one of the pedals can be assigned to do that. I use it for browsing through patches. Din't really read the manual so I don't know if it's any good, it's easy enough to use.
What I found a bit confusing is the way dual delay works, but if I read the manual maybe it wouldn't be :)
It's very handy that it has backlit display that shows delay time.
I find it a bit awkward that it uses 6 AA batteries instead of a single 9V. It would probably suck it dry very fast though. Anyways, I'm using it with a power supply.

I've got ibanez RG prestige, heavily modified squier strat and custom shred guitar. I use it either with my home brew 5W SLO clone or directly into boss micro recorder.
There isn't any noticeable added noise or sucking tone. Sound quality is where it really shines. I really can't think of any delay effect this pedal cannot cover. The way I use it is in normal mode, delay 420ms to 600ms, just few repeats and level at 30-40%. This adds that liquid feel to solos.
SOS is cool, but it could use more memory, it only saves up to 23sec. Some rhythm patterns are longer than that which makes it impossible to play both rhythm and lead on one guitar.

It's boss so it's made like tank. I got it very lightly used and used it for over 6 months so far. Not a single problem.

Don't know, never dealt with them.

I've been playing for 6-7 years so far, mostly hard rock and instrumental stuff - Satriani, Vai, Dream Theater...this thing is the only delay I'll ever need. I had two more delays - home built rebote delay and one in boss multi effect pedal. Since I got dd-20 I never used them.
As I mentioned before the only thing I'd add is more time to SOS feature.
When I was buying it the new vox time machine came out. I was torn between that and dd-20. Boss was more expensive new but I got a great deal on it used so it was a no-brainer.

easy, but takes some time to figure out

pristine - unbeatable, completely clear, immaculate

this is why i wanted to post.
I first posted for DD-20 on 02/11/2004, and i was so enthused about this pedal. In fairness i must say in the last 5 years that ive owned this, it has lived up to all my predictions of how awesome it was when i bought it (it truly is an awesome pedal - my favorite), except for the BOSS durability. I always thought boss pedals were indestructable, turns out i was wrong. Keep in mind i take this pedal around in my backpack probably bi-weekly with some other stuff, but i generally treat it gently. After several years, the knob that changes the tempo no longer works properly (increases time in both directions, totally flips out, just kind of messed up). I can still get it to the time i want but it really is kind of messed up and i dont think its any trauma that i caused to the pedal. Anyway, jsut bear in mind when buying that after a few years the knob on this thing may get messed up (but still kind of functional). Also my double distortion pedal is broken too in a much worse way.

So just buyer beware, boss's double pedals are more fragile than the single. after 2 or 3 years you may have some issues. after 4 or 5 i think you are guaranteed to have issues. but they are pretty sweet while they last... im just dissapointed cuz for over 200 bucks i wanted something a bit more durable...

oh and even a broken DD-20 pedal is better than line 6's worthless delay. that rectangular green thing.

havent tried them

*11* for functionality and sound quality. the addition to you music is unparalleled.

5 for reliability after a few years

averages to about an 8...

It does complicated things, and for the things it does, it is remarkably intuitive. You really (really) should get a footswitch for tap tempo to avoid having to hold the right pedal down for 2 seconds to cycle between the memory select and tap tempo--it's worth it.

I am not experiencing any noise issues. Rumley Cactus Thinline=>Boss TU-2=>Maxon OSD-9=>Voodoo Lab Tremolo=>Line 6 Verbzilla=>Boss DD-20=>Guild Thunder I Amp. I am powering them all with a Visual Sound One Spot Adapter. NO noise. None. Delays sound fantastic, and do what they're supposed to. Tone knob is brilliant. Modulation sounds really really good.

Boss obviously has a reputation for products that last. Seems this is no exception. Have had no issues. Would use without backup.

Honestly don't know. Manuals are available online.

I can't imagine this not working for anything you would want delay for-it covers it all. It REALLY excels as a looper, though, and not just in the S.O.S. mode. For more detail, scroll down to a submission by Colin-I am SO glad I saw this. He explains how you can loop in all of the modes for 23 seconds (46 for pan, evidently, but I haven't tried yet). You need the external switch to do this, I think--get one anyway. Cheap and makes a big difference. Some cool things about doing this are:
1) You no longer have to hold down the pedal for overdubs, you can simply turn the delay on or off to decide what to record, and use the tap tempo pedal to start and stop the first loop.
2) Your loops are effected by whatever mode you are in--the modulation is cool, as are smooth, analog, and tape.
3) You now have control over the feedback, and can have things fade out or not. You can not do this in S.O.S. mode.
4) You can store these as presets. You can switch to the next setting and the first loop keeps going--but only once. If you switch again, it disappears.
-Scroll down to Colin's submission to see more details.
-I would buy this again, and I may buy another anyway.
-It would be unstoppable if you could attach a 4-(or 5-)button footwitch to access presets on the fly, plus tap tempo. This would really put it over the DL-4.

needed to read the manual for some of the features and basic operation (holding down the pedal and pressing the knob to get to certain functions)

I love this thing! I've never really used much delay but this thing's got me inspired. I really like the Analog setting for short delays, gives a really nice slapback ambience, with that nice analog goo (the tone knob is nice here). the Smooth is also quite beautiful at medium settings... sounds better than plain reverb, to me. what makes me love this pedal even more is the ability to get musical sound effects other than delay. I picked up a few tricks from this page... if you do Reverse delay at 1-40 milliseconds, you can get a really nice ring modulation or "frequency analyzer" (Tortoise style) sound, kind of like a warbly tremolo/vibrato effect...quite nice. I also am fond of the Reverse delay at moderate delay times for some really sweet organ type choppy volume swells when playing chords. if you set the delay time low and the mix to full wet, using the Modulation, you can get chorus! and it sounds pretty good. the best part of all this is you have 4 save-patches (plus the manual which will do whatever you have the knobs left on) so you can save 4 or 5 sounds without having to re-dial the effects every time...very useful. the sound on sound/looper is fun too if you've never used that kind of thing. I love the delay effect in general because it makes your guitar sound like a brewing storm, like lightning in the broad sky, brooding ominously. I'm just floored with this thing. I had a hard time knowing what to expect from these reviews...you really must try it, and find your own settings to suit your taste

it won't do the radiohead pitch shift/spaceship noise by tweaking the time knob with no decay setting...you'll need another pedal for that. but the other sounds more than make up for this

boss is great for this

I can't imagine a better digital delay pedal. I used to own an RV-3 reverb/delay combo pedal, and this thing is quite a bit more useful and fun. the twist setting is a total waste of time... unless you want your guitar to sound like a motorcycle... yeah... real cool (you can hear it on musiciansfriend in the sound clips. it makes one sound and you can't change it). I wish the loop could be set for 46 seconds mono (instead of just 23 seconds in stereo). they say there's some way to accomplish this using the "pan" setting but I can't figure it out. I don't even feel the need to buy an analog (or tape--yeah right) delay any more.

I also have a danelectro wasabi rock-a-bye delay/overdrive, and that pedal has a "thicker" delay sound...more low end on the repeats than the boss. I think it's perfect (a little better than the boss) for that jimmy page "I can't quit you" tape slap-back doubling sound. on the other hand, the boss does rockabilly slapback a little better, it's a little leaner and leaves a little more room for the dry signal. I don't play rockabilly, though, and I don't really use that sound. I think the boss will meet just about any delay need, especially if you want options and tweakability. I still might get an AD-9 someday, just because they sound so dang cool and funky

Lots of features, really everything you could want from a delay. I had hoped that this would be THE definitive delay and i'd never need to buy another one.

Sound quality is good in my opinion, but there is one big massive problem i have with it, which prevents me from using it altogether. If you are using a Dunlop DC Brick i'd urge you to try out the pedal through the DC Brick before buying it, because for me it generates a LOT of digital noise that is completely unacceptable in either a live or studio situation. I've tried all sorts of routing options, and as the only digital pedal on the board it is definitely the cause. My pedalboard is silent when i remove the DD20, but when it's in the chain, it actually causes my OD pedals to generate noise too. They're MI Audio ODs so as you might expect they are completely silent under normal circumstances.

Seems well built, you couldn't break it without intentionally trying

Not sure

I guess it's back to my trusty Visual Sound H2O, which contains about a tenth of the features, for about a tenth the noise. As i said earlier you're best off trying this pedal, the noise might not be a problem, or your tolerance for a high frequency ringing may be a lot higher than mine! If not for this little unfortunate aspect, the DD20 would definitely be my first choice for delay.
Unlike some of the other delays like TC Electronic and Eventide, it uses 9V power, which is big plus in my book.

als reines delay supereinfach zu bedienen. es bedarf einiger ??bung, wenn man experimentieren m??chte. denn es gibt ziemlich viele m??glichkeiten, wie sich loop(SOS sound-on-sound) und delays miteinander verquicken lassen. es ist z.b. m??glich einen loop einzuspielen und dar??ber per delay zu spielen. das ist nicht gaanz so komfortabel, denn man muss vorher den delay modus auf einen speicherplatz legen. der loop ist dann auch nicht mehr ver??nderbar. im SOS-modus gibt es leider keine undo m??glichkeit und ein gestoppter loop ist auch nicht wieder hervorzuzaubern. daf??r ist die bedienung sehr eins zu eins und damit ??bersichtlich. ??bung brauche ich noch mit den umstellungen zwischen den modi und den memory pl??tzen. ich habe aber die anleitung auch noch nicht gelesen.

prima. die diversen modi sind aber etwas verspielt und boss gibt sich nat??rlich den anforderungen des marktes hin. z.b. der analog modus ist ein schlechtes beispiel f??r ein digital erzeugtes analog-delay. das ganze klingt dann (man hat ja auch nicht ein ger??t vor augen, welches aus einer anderen zeit kommt) irgendwie so, als w??re das teil defekt. f??r mich viel zu dumpf und wenn die delays ausklingen wird es harsch und kurioserweise viel digitaler als alles andere. warp ist ganz lustig, da kann das feedback zart eingestellt werden und per gehaltenem fusstaster kann das feedback auf voll eingestellt werden. wenn schon tape-modus, dann doch mit 4 virtuellen tonk??pfen und nicht mit wahlweise einem oder zweien, oder? den unterschied zwischen smooth und normal muss ich noch entdecken. pan ist prima. reverse kapiere ich nicht. modulate kann auch spass machen. f??r mich ist derzeit grossartig: superkurze delayzeiten f??r sitar und steeldrum kl??nge mit diesen sch??nen resonanzen die hier millisekundengenau justiert werden k??nnen. entschieden habe ich mich f??r den DD-20, weil ich lange loops langsam ausblenden wollte um einen sich stets neu generierenden klang/rhythmus zu schaffen. funktioniert prima und die resultate sind qualit??tsm??ssig klasse!

ich glaube daran.

ich nutze das teil zum lernen und experimentieren mit theremin, gitarre und percussion. funktioniert! statt der diversen und zumeist nicht wirklich nutzbaren modi h??tte ich lieber speicherpl??tze f??r loops wie bei den RC loopern, eine undo option und sehr sch??n w??re auch, eineingestelltes delay als loop spielen zu k??nnen.

This unit is plug in and play as well as a real challenge for tweakers. There's TONS of features if you want to go into it but it's also quite simple if you just want to set two or three different "normal" delays.

The manual is clear and very simple to understand, and editing and memorizing most settings is as easy as it can be. Some (like modulation) are a little harder due to extra parameters which are not direcly accessible with a destined knob but nothing too difficult, just a couple more steps to remember.

I'm using it with either a Les Paul Studio '95 or a 52ri Telecaster into pedals into either ENGL Classic combo or a Brunetti MC2 combo..

It sounds good. I bet it's not in the league of a T-rex Replica, but the flexibility and tweakability of this delay is something I've never even tought of. I bought it because I wanted a delay that allowed me to rotate between three or so presets, but I've bought much more.

It's not true bypass obviously, but at the same time I don't think this is as bad as some reviewers say. As a matter of fact, I don't think it's a tone sucker.

If you use quality cables and not too many buffered pedals there's nothing you should complain about. Sure, it's only 99,5 % of the original tone, but as a matter of fact I like a buffered pedal after od/dist/fuzzes, and in the end of my pedal chain.

Some people complain about pedals not being true bypass, and the you see them using cheap connection cables that REALLY SUCk THE HELL out of what you're sending into them. At this point, every complaint about sound quality is bull**t.

And afterall this unit can't be made tbp (unless you use a looper) so if you want the amazing (and afaik unique - at least in one single box) features that this pedal has, you shouldn' t worry about it.

THe tape echo setting sounds really great with cleans, most of the settings are spot-on, and some are pretty much useless, but for the price it's worth every penny.

It's sturdy and reliable, I've never had a single problem with it in 4 or 5 months that I've owned it, and gigged with it.

No experience in this area

This stomp is great. Of all the stomps I've bought, it's the one I'm most satisfied with. I'd buy it again in an instant, without even thinking about getting a different delay.

It's not perfect (it's not tbp and it doesn't have a separate preset selector and tap tempo, but you can add a footswitch), but it's not pricey either and it has such features that you can keep exploring on and on. It even has a chorus setting hidden inside. It has a level knob. A TONE knob. It's delay can go up to 23 seconds. You can set the time in bpms o msecs (which is VERY useful if you play with a click or when recording..). Every now and then someone comes up with a new and very cool - and useful for some people - hidden use for it.

I think Boss did it right with this one. I'm not a huge fan of their products (it's the only boss stomp on my pedal board) but I think that they nailed it right with this one. I see VERY LITTLE room for improvement (tbp, another switch for tap tempo, the analog setting being REALLY analog - still it's analog sounding)and all in all I don't think you can pretend much more out of it.

If you just want a delay to store up to 5 settings (one is the manual), or a delay to do all sorts of strange stuff, or just a fun pedal to explore nearly endless features, get it. Even better if used because it's very reliable.

There is a bit of a learning curve. But that is only because it has so many extra options and features. You can learn the basics in under twenty minutes by just skimming the manual. Tapping into some of it's different modes and output options can take some reading though.

I've been using this unit for about a year now. I was really excited when I got it and it has opened me up to some different sounds. I'm totally sold on have a delay with a tap tempo feature now and don't want to live without it but... I'm going back to my Maxon AD9 for the time being. WHY? Well for the first time since I got the unit I unplugged it from my signal chain to try out a reverb pedal that I thought I might want to use. When I did that it was like lifting a vail from off my tone. I wanted to cry. I totally loved this pedal and really thought it was the be all end all for me.

So don't believe the reviews that say this thing doesn't color your tone. Believe the reviewers who mention how the unit sucks out tone, cuts your highs, muffels your tone, goofs with the bass frequencies... Etc. Listen to them. They're right. You may not be able to tell at low volumes or when you first plug it in. But in a practice setting the difference is night and day. And I can't go back to it now. My amp and other effects sound way too good with out it.

That said I will say that the DD-20 is better than others. I like it better than all the other Boss Delay units I've tried and it hands down beats the Line 6 (the big green one).

Boss. While their stuff isn't always the best sounding, at least it never breaks.

I've delt with them on occasion and they're usually pretty nice and helpful.

Well, I use it for a year and never really disliked it. So I guess it is at least an average pedal. Too bad that that is all it is. I'm back on my quest for the perfect delay pedal. Any suggestions?