Boss DD-20

I think it is easy to use to color my sound(add space), but to get into some U2 Edge type delay sets or anything like that, it would be hard to do with any delay pedal. They aren't that easy unless you have lots of experience with delay pedals. The manual is OK, nothing spectacular. I believe mine is the latest and greatest as far as firmware goes.

I have tried various delay pedals, and this one is great! It is basically a DD-6 with 5 presets you can program. I've tried it in the effects loop and through the front of my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and a Blue Junior, and it sounds equally well through both, so I run it in front just for simplicity. Great sound, I believe that there is no better delay pedal than this. It rivals the Line 6 Delay box so closely, it just came down to price.

Um, it's Boss man. Do they get any more reliable?

I've never dealt with them, becayse I haven't had to. Great products, well built.

I play at church in a Praise and Worship band and we do all of the contemporary music, which sometimes requires some complex delay sets. This unit can do it all, and then some. I don't think there is anything missing from this unit, or anything that I would change. It's great!

In general, the controls and settings on this pedal are the easiest to use amongst any pedal I've tried, save for perhaps the Line 6 DL-4.

I would give it a 10, except that there's one problem I have with the unit. When you power it on, it starts in "Manual" mode. Normally for stage and rehearsal use, I have to set it to "Memory" mode to access my 4 presets, and have the right pedal become the tap tempo switch. In order to do this, you must first tap the right switch, then hold it down to "lock" it into memory mode. Not only is this procedure very annoying but is also very unintuitive and hard to discover when you first start out with it. For this reason, my rating goes down to a 7.

I don't normally play covers, but this pedal is completely capable of getting *any* delay or tape echo sound I've ever heard. The analog delay's breakup and decay can do that dub-style reggae (think Rupie Edwards, Yellow Man). The dotted tempo mode makes getting Edge's syncompated delays a cinch. I use the "modulate" delay with typical "doubling" settings to get that Joey Santiago thick lead sound from several Pixies songs, and the "smooth" delay with slapback settings can cop a really cool rockabilly/surf sound. Many awesome sounds are in this box.
The delay that I use most is the single-head tape echo, and what I really appreciate about it is the "tone" knob that allows you to dial in more murkiness to the repeats. I think the tape sim sounds a little cleaner than the DL-4 - but it's not offensively pristine either. I don't think it'd be a hard choice between the DL-4 and the DD-20 if the tape sound is what you're after - it'd just be a matter of taste.
What makes either of these pedals better than a real tape-echo, in my opinion, is the tap-tempo features. Having a tap tempo allows you to adjust the tempo to the natural flow of music, and just plain makes a delay sound better - more musical. Until now, a feature I've never seen on a pedal is the "dotted" tempo settings that allow for those syncopated delays to be controlled from the tap. This ability to control a syncopated delay so that it actually slows down or speeds up with a song - this makes the DD-20 truly unique.
The main reason I wanted to contribute a review is to counter some of the earlier reviews complaining about noise. I also run this pedal through a homemade bypass box, and it passes my acid test, which is this: I put the pedal in bypass and then stomp on my looper pedal enough times that I can't remember whether it's "in" or not - effectively creating a double blind test for myself. My test results are that there is no possible way for me to detect whether the pedal is "in the loop" or not. There is no noise at all from this pedal, and it seems *perfectly* set at unity gain. There are lots of pedals that fail this test, including many boss pedals and even some purported "true bypass" pedals.
I can only imagine that there are variances in quality control or that other reviewers posting here have some ground-loop problems in their rig. I run this on an MKS pedal pad with the PedalPower module.

After it dies, I'll let you know.

At least Boss has their manuals online now. Not so long ago, Boss/Roland was charging money for their manuals, which was reprehensible in this day and age. Having never had to deal with Boss/Roland, I guess that says something about their product reliablity in general, but doesn't leave me with an inkling of how to rank them for support.

I try to run the gammut of styles, playing original music only. From rudimentary jazz to "alternative" to new age to eighties metal to nu-metal to alt.country. I just love to play. A good pedal is one that doesn't get in the way, and a good delay pedal with lots of flexibility is key to so many music styles. I love this pedal.
As I wrote earlier, I can only use delay pedals with tap-tempo. That said, at the time of purchase, I only compared to the DL-4 and the Wasabi delay pedal. The Wasabi was far more limited in sounds and those cheesy tail-lights were just too embarrasing. The DL-4 has so many issues from the strange power conectors to switch failures to noise issue that I had to steer away, as cool as the true bypass feature seemed to me.
If it were stolen or lost, I'd prolly buy it again - the price is really great for all these features, some of which can't be had elsewhere.

Just an update to my review (which is the one below).

I got my DD20 replaced as I suspected that something was wrong with it, and the new unit works fine. Merest hint of some white noise at higher volume levels, but that's it. No more whine.

Perhaps just an issue for people to be aware of - if your unit is noisy, it is probably faulty, as mine was.

Lots of bits & pieces to find your way around, although OK once you've worked them out. Two nice big stomps that are hard to miss.

Two parts to this...

The first part is that this unit does add a little extra hum when in your signal chain, even when not on. I have had quieter delays - my little Guyatone MD3 was better in terms of no white noise until you turned it on. The DD20 scores there in that there is no discernible increase in hiss when engaged as opposed to when off.

Second thing, if you stick this at the end of your signal chain, and you happen to use other pedals in front - such as overdrives - be prepared to pick up a whole heap of noise. I got a lot of whining sound (like when you have a TV on) and a clicking noise in time with the tempo.

However, when I moved the delay to the front of my chain, this largely disappeared, so I presume that this DD20 doesn't like have its input signal pushed hard. I tried with batteries and cable power - no change.

Like the stereo outs and all the settings - very tweakable. They've all been described already, and i'll add my voice to those praising them. They do their job and do it well.

The hiss is the one thing that lets it down - the fact that I have to have it at the front of my chain removes some flexibility from it as it means my delayed signal is effected by what follows, rather than having the DD20 repeat what has gone before, if that makes sense.

Haven't had it long enough to find out. Boss are usually sturdy enough - and it came with a 3 year guarantee.

NA.

Think it's good if you require a very flexible delay, and it does what it does well. I've used the memory man, guyatone MD3, and the other Boss DD delays, and whilst the Guyatone was quieter and far easier to use, the DD20 definitely tops the others and has far greater potential.

As for me, i've been playing for almost 10 years, use G&L ASATs and a Comanche through an Orange AD30 amp and a heap of other effects such as Banzai, Maxon, Aphex & EHX. I play rock, indie/alternative, gospel music & contemporary church worship. As I said, the damn' thing is so versatile you can use it for whatever you want.

If only it didn't hiss a bit, then it would be great. As it is, i'm going to check out the Line DL4.

Very obvious and easy to use. Anything not obvious is well covered in the mannual, output and pedal modes are detailed on the back of the unit. Good to have delay time readout in both S/MS and BPM, very useful. My previous delay pedal was a Yamaha DDS-20M which had a sound on sound function but was quite fiddly to use. Have also used Zoom multieffects which I have been very unimpressed with. This unit is wonderfully easy by comparison.

All modes except warp & twist,(see below,) sound great. I especially like the modulate setting, not because I'm a big fan of modulation effects but because I don't like modulation effects enough to buy a dedicated unit. This unit gives me the modulation effect for the few times I need it without having yet another box in the signal chain.
The biggest criticism I have of this unit is the twist effect, which works the wrong way for me. It would be wonderful if when you press the pedal it slowed down the delay and dropped the pitch, That would earn it a 10 insted of a 9.

Only had it a week but Boss are generally pretty reliable.

never had to deal with them. Website is good for manuals & specs.

I play most styles you can play on the guitar, been playing twenty five years. I chose this unit mainly for the memory function and general wealth of features. I play modified strat with EMG PUPs, home made baritone, Hohner electro-acoustic. Signal chain is,

"guitars->guitar-selector->Award/Session_Overdrive/preamp->DD-20->Dry_into_Valvestate_8080:Dry_&_Effect_DI'd_via_Behringer_ultra-G_into_desk."

The twist effect works the wrong way for me. It would be wonderful if when you press the pedal it slowed down the delay and dropped the pitch.

Another function which would be very useful to have would be the ability to copy patches stored in memory to the current manual setting. This would make it much easier and quicker to set up for each song for live work.

Would certainly replace if lost/broken.

Pretty intuitive to use if you're familiar w/ digital delay. I will say it's easier to program than my ZOOM 508 delay, which is already pretty easy. Editing is simple enough. Easy to store settings. The manual is well written.

I think if you do-do's out there would just read the stinking manual BEFORE you plug it in, you wouldn't be sitting there knocking the features out of ignorance. The twist and warp functions do work, and they're unique. I think they sound pretty cool, you just need to open up your mind a little bit. You're not going to incorporate those effects immediately, but I can see them coming in handy. Still, THEY WORK JUST FINE. Read the manual.

I use a Bespeco (Boss knock off) for the tap function. I use left for on/off, and right to select. Simple. I like having knobs and the LCD screen. SO helpful. What's up with the Line 6 dl4 having "tweak" and "tweez" knobs? Isn't that something you do in your pubic region? Anyway...

Let's talk about noise a little bit. I set this up to A/B in a true bypass loop with nothing else in the chain. I absolutely could not tell any difference. I've read about the signal (meaning the familiar "Boss buffer") being upgraded to some kind of specs for Rolands high-end buffer. Regardless of what they did, they got it right! This thing is 100% quiet and suffers no coloration or volume loss whatsoever. This is why I sold the Line 6 DL4: Bad volume drop and tone coloration.

I'm truly impressed. I bought the RC-20XL a couple of months before that, and experienced the same results on the signal, but I was still skeptical since the DD-20 is, after all, a delay pedal. I have no worries. The pure signal is untainted. They really did get it right.

For the effects, analog sounds really good, and sounds like an old DOD I once had 15 years ago. I'm impressed. Tape won't pass for an echoplex, but it's supposedly modeled after a Roland Space Station or something like that. It may model it very well, but I can't say for sure. I'm mostly just using plain old "standard" which is fine by me. Some guys hate the "digital" part of digital delays, but as long as it doesn't color my tone and I can tame down the tone of the effect w/ the tone knob, I'm happy.

The SOS is like having my old Boomerang back, minus a few seconds recording time and that nasty hiss. Truly a helpful feature. Combine that w/ my RC-20XL and I'm set!

I can't believe I'm giving this a 10, but for the pure signal alone I give it an 8! Top it off with all the selections, and I have to give it high marks. Come on, if there isn't ONE mode you like, then you're not even playing a delay. For the price I paid, it seems like it should have cost twice as much. I'm just really satisfied!

I hope I can depend on this. The RC-20XL I have is reliable so far. It seems to be built as well as their single stomp boxes.

I quickly got rid of my DL4 because of the reliability factor. I made more than enough to purchase the DD-20 w/ those funds. I kept reading about the DL4's crapping out after six months. Who wants a $250.00 door stop?

Couldn't tell ya.

I play so many different styles. I set this pedal to have the presets like this: 1) subtle delay 2) stronger delay 3) multi-tap/wash 4) reverse. Since I can tap the pattern on any one of those, I essentially have a hundred different options in that one pedal.

I LOVE this thing. I was using two pedals to get only half of these features, and it's 10 times quieter. I'm done searching for delays. Period.

This pedal has many functions. You will probably need to read the manual to use it to its full extent, but it is very user friendly. Apart from presets etc..the operation of this pedal is simple as pie.

This is by far one of the best delay units i've played. I own or have owned a EH Memory Man, Line 6 DL4, Roland SDE1000, and a Korg SDD2000 and i must say the sound on this pedal is outstanding. I mainly use the modulated setting on this pedal as i play alot of U2 stuff. If your choosing between this and a DL4, do yourself a favour and by the Boss its far superior to the DL4. I've tried several guitars through this pedal: Epi LP Goldtop, Fender Strat, and Epi Explorer. Really like how the Strat rings on the modulated setting of this pedal. Amp wise i'm running it through a Vox Valvetronix AD30 for recording. For live use, i run it through a Vox AC30CC. I run the following signal for a nice shimmer effect:


output 1 > AC30
Strat > effects > Boss DD-20 >
output 2 > Line 6 Verbzilla > Amp2

Adds a very very cool shimmer effect! Note: you need the Verbzilla for the shimmer though ;)

Its a Boss. Should be enough said. If it holds up as well as my other Boss pedals, then life will be grand.

Never had to deal with them.

I play an assortment of music, rock, alternative and alot of U2 stuff. This pedal suits it all.

If you cant figure this thing out within 5 minutes you shouldnt be playing pedals, its straight forward take a look at the manual real fast if u have too but its prett ymuch set tempo how much feedback u want and the effect level i keep the tone in the middle and select ur delay of choice and ur set. The manaual is awsome its like the how to for dummies boss always has awsome manauals.

I use Schecter C-1 PLus and S-1 elite guitars both with 81 and 85 emgs. my set up goes guitar into my dunlop classic wah which then goes in my tu-2 boss tuner, i go through bypass and got boss flanger, boss tremolo, boss phaser, boss super shifter, and boss dd-20 delay, into the ns-2 noise supressors returns jack, and the tuners output goes into the nosie supressors input that way my guitar tone gets cleaned and so do my effects it sounds beautiful and everything goes into a mesa triple recitifer. I have only had this pedal for a day but would recommend it before the dl4 ive know 3 people with them and borrowed it form them each and tryed to get to like it but i just wasnt sold on the price tag. plus the reviews for the line 6 dl4 they all breakdown so i dont wanna blow 250 bucks for something that will break boss never fails.

Its boss you dont need a back up or anything its a tank.

Havent had to deal with them ever and i own like 7 or 8 boss pedals and always will becuase boss is the only brand i feel i can trust.

It is an awsome pedal you should try it when your trying out the Line 6 dl 4 most the same features and this one to me has better delay options and it wont breakdown on you. I play post hardcore/rock type stuff and im always using my guitar to do weird sounds or something new and fresh and all the kids love it at shows. If i lost this pedal id probably buy another one asap without thinkings twice. To me its sounds better then all the other boss pedals and it has all the same features if you look hard enough online you can find it for like 10 bucks more then the dd-6 which to me was crap, at least for me it isnt a bad pedal i just want a little more for my money you know.

There is definitely a learning curve when it comes to operating and editing this puppy because it can do so much, but it's well worth it. Once you've read the manual, plan on lots of experimenting in a well lit area and plan on logging your presets as you create them. The controls are fairly simple to master and the LED display is easy to read, but that's where need to grab a pencil and start logging everything else.

As you save your presets, the DD-20 remembers the echo volume, repeat, tone and mode settings, but once you've toggled though the other presets, if you've moved the nobs, there's no way of telling where they were when you saved that preset in the first place. This is all leading to what I think BOSS should do is create a method of saving data to a memory card that could interface with a computer where you could save and load presets.

The DD-20 is quiet as a mouse. It's not a tape echo, but at a fraction of the cost, it can do some things tape can't touch. It's got eleven different echo modes, some of which, even after five months I have yet to use. For my money, the unit is worth the price just for the SMOOTH, ANALOG, TAPE and WARP modes.

SOS: * (sounds great, but I don't use it)

TWIST: * weird spacy swirling thing (I don't use it)

WARP: ***** Really cool layering echo effect! Totally awesome and duh bomb.

TAPE: ***** Modeled after the Roland-201 Space Echo. Multi-head feature can let you create driving rhythms akin to The Edge.

ANALOG: ***** Modeled after the BOSS DM-2. Sounds excellent. Very cool retro echo effect.

STANDARD: *** Standard digital echo (sounds great, but I don't use it)

DUAL: *** You can set two delay times. a) 1-100ms b) 4ms-23seconds (haven't messed with this to much yet)

PAN: * (stereo... I don't use it)

SMOOTH: ***** Excellent voicing, kinda in between the Analog and Digital modes. Use it all the time.

MODULATE: * (haven't messed with this one at all)

REVERSE: * (don't know where I would use this one)

Built like a rock! I've owned many Roland/BOSS products over the years and have yet to have one break.

Don't need it.

This is really incredible unit. Amazing, considering the racks of stuff you use to have to tote around. My band plays everything from rockabilly to surf to swing, so a good echo unit is an intrical part of the sound and the DD-20 can do it all. I use a VooDoo Lab Pedal Power 2 to power it and the rest of my stomp boxes, so batteries aren't an issue. This is without a doubt the most powerful echo pedal I've ever used. My only wish is that in the future BOSS would include some kinda of computer interface/memory card and double the presets from four to eight.

Considering the amount of options on this pedal, it is amazingly easy to use. Each mode works quite similarly for setting up and the saving feature works easily. There are a few little tricks for each setting that you NEED to read the manual to find, like holding down the left footswitch to change the rate and depth of the modulated setting or how to access the 4db output boost. But for 90% of the ability, it's dead simple and well layed out. The manual is long which is great to fully explain everything this can do.

I play two main guitar setups: Fender Ash Tele or Warmoth H/S/H -> Boss GE-7 -> Doobtone Boss BD-2 -> Barber Direct Drive -> Indyguitarist Boss TR-> Boss DD-20 -> Fender Hot Rod Deluxe.
Top notch! This pedal is so full of features and it does 99% of them so well. The analog and tape delays are beautiful. I can honestly say (as I was able to compare at home) it nails the DM-3 sound AND it can give much longer delay times. I don't know how the tape delay holds up but it is a very nice sound. The modulated mode is just plain gorgeous, but make sure to lower the depth and rate as the stock is a little over the top in the beginning. I do wish the dual delay setting could get a longer short delay time to get some of the dual sounds of the Edge like on Bad. I love that the saved memory banks setting can be changed temporarily, so you can touch up tempo or effect level when playing live. The specs say this pedal takes 160ma to run so it should be run off a good power supply, but it will work (and is how I use it) off a daisy chain which amazed me. The daisy chain does occasionally (and I haven't totally figured out what makes it come or go) allow a noise tick in the background in time with the blue tempo light. This is due to the daisy chain so you can't get mad at that and it really cannot be heard (way less noticeable than any overdrive pedal noise). Other than that, no noise to complain of whatsoever. The pedal works well with other pedals, so it's great to add ambiance or full out layers.

The thing is incredibly solid, with that same Boss feel. No problems with it at all.

Never had to deal with them.

I can't say enough good things about this pedal. Between the analog and the modulation, you can nail U2 sounds right on, in perfectly dialed times to match the recordings, and saved in the memory banks for easy call up. With 23 seconds of delay you've got more than you'll ever need for delay stuff. I could ask for a few more memory banks but then it wouldn't be as easy to switch up on stage, so I'll keep the 4 (plus the non saved one). If it were lost, I'd buy another one immediately. It takes less space than the Line 6, accepts normal power supplies, has a visual display of time, and has one more memory bank. However, the line 6 does have a couple more modes though. I'd still take the Boss any day.