Boss DD-20

these controls definitley take a little bit of getting to know, if you really want to know how to use this thing. not bad at all though, once you get it. definitley not just a plug and play, this thing has lots of features, so obviously you have to take some time to figure out how they work.

fender tele deluxe 72 reissue, ernie ball vpj, menatone fish factory, boss tu-2, foxrox octron, EH holy grail, crybaby wah, other assorted goodies, running stereo into a marshall 62 bluesbreaker combo reissue and a peavey classic 50 212 combo.

the delay sound here is really really great. i mean it's digital delay, so if you're expecting warm analog, i'm not sure why you're even reading this, although the analog modler on here aint too shabby. it's not "cold harsh digital" sound, decently natural sounding, and a bunch of different sounds to choose from, all pretty cool. there are a few that you will rarely touch if you are not interested in sound experimenting at all (warp, twist) but they can give you some freaking cool noises when you get the hang of them. the standard and ping pong sound great, analog is good, tape... eh, dual... eh, not really a true dual head because you don't have alot of options with head #1, more like a slap back with a long delay somewhere in there too. i have had this thing for a while now and still don't really get the "smooth" feature. the mod. delay, however is really beautiful, and you have full control over the depth and rate as well as the usual delay controls. sound on sound recording is cool. i would give this a 9, HOWEVER there is some tone intereference. the treble loss is minimal, athough it is there, but even when you have this thing bypassed, there is that dreaded digital HISS that is loud and clear. it sounds like it's raining inside my amp with this thing in my chain. and i tried running it on batteries, which did help a little, but it's pointless, they didn't even last for one hour and failed right in the middle of a performance, really embarrassing. the delay sounds are really good, but you have that horrible hiss and small tone loss to deal with.

i rate this low only because of the poor battery life, other than that, no problems

dont know

my band plays from indie rock/pop to experimental and ambient stuff. i love delay and rely on it heavily as a songwriting tool, not just an effect. this pedal has a lot of great features to offer, memory storage of up to basically 5 settings, very easy to change sounds, you can program in BPM, this comes in handy because we play to a click track, so all i do is dial in the tempo and i'm right in with the song! tap setting and ext. pedal option (you can use your two on board pedals for various functions from switching to tapping to bypassing to many different combinations). and most of these sounds are really good digital delay sounds, along with 23 full seconds of delay or s.o.s. looping. some people may never need that, but it allows me to loop parts live that no other delay pedal will. however, for all the tone freaks out there, myself included, these great features come with a price! TONE. i would say this is killer for live performances and times when you are allowed a little HISS (it totally kicks the Line 6 dl-4's ass in user-friendliness), but if you're going into the studio, this may not be the pedal for you. however if you are one of these full midscoop distortion always on 11 trash-tone dudes, you will not even notice the shortcomings of this pedal on your 'guitar' sound, so go for it. i'll hold on to it and probably just put it in a bypass loop. way better price than that line 6 pedal i might add...

Pretty easy to use right out of the box. A little understanding of the dials is needed to get a good sound, but to use the other features it really helps to read the manual, which is ok, not great.

Prior to getting my DD-20 yesterday, I had a DD-6 for 2 years. I felt it was defintely worth noting that the DD-20 DOES NOT colour the tone, and that I actually noticed an improvement in the tone, particularly the clean signal when I changed over to the DD-20. The DD-6 I found actually affected my tone and I didn't realise it until I used this little gem.

In my opinion, the DD-20 is the most powerfull delay PEDAL on the market. It's rival, the Line 6 DL4 has options that the DD-20 doesn't have and vice versa, but to me the DD-20 sounds just that little bit better.

The Analogue feature is suprisingly good, as is the smooth function.

I have never had a problem with Boss gear in 12 years, and I don't see that ever changing.

As above...

I don't think I will require any more of their support.

I play a style in the midst of Cog, Tool, Karnivool, APC, The Butterfly Effect, etc. and Delay is one of my most important effects. I wanted the best delay I could get, and now it's mine.

As I mentioned earlier, the tone that comes through is squeaky clean which is a very valuable feature of the pedal.

it does take a while to play with every potential thing this pedal can do, but its not hard...

just updating a previous review, and responding to some of the comments here talking about how its "universal" that the 'twist' and 'warp' modes are useless and nobody uses them. WRONG! Those are really the only two modes I use in my live shows. My solos are really to busy to have a lot of repeating notes here and there, I use the twist and warp purely for their intersting sonic capabilities, and there are several. come on, isn't anyone here into noise? twist gives you some of the weirdest noise achievable, and it varies greatly with adjustments to the delay time. a super cool toy. and warp is the best tool for soloing, intensifying a particular part of a solo by maxing out the feedback and increasing the speed - its so useful if you're like me! so, don't listen to people dissing these two functions. don't get me wrong, I love the analog and tape modeling, and the reverse and modulate are great too. and the looping. what I would call 'useless' would be the 'digital' and 'smooth' modes, but they're not useless either, they're just not the noises I'm looking to make. to each his/her own...

super reliable, gig without backup regularly.

n/a

really, this thing is just absolutely superb. some people get noise unless its using its own power supply - I have no such problem. I use a visual sound 1-spot, and I'm powering 8 other pedals simultaneously - no noise. so many capabilities, so many uses, $180 might seem like a lot to spend on a single pedal, but from where I stand, this thing is a great value, and a great musical tool.

If you read the little manual-booklet it's very easy to use.
I even learned something I didnt know about some types of delay while reading the manual.
Editing patches is also quite simple. Almost too simple (don't press on the write-button twice accidentally).
As always, experiment a little and use your ears in order to get good sounds.

No problems here. It's just fine.
Only thing is: it makes you want to have effects on the loops.
But that can hardly be called a problem.

This was one of the main reasons to buy Boss.

I play the violin.
I've just made the decision not to buy 19" rack-units but good pedals instead.
On www.pluwin.nl (as soon as the sound clips are there) there's no boss to be heard. But I've used my old trustworthy roland re800 on some of it.
These days I also use a LRBaggs para di preamp and a 1929 violin.

This is the first time I've ever picked up a pedal like this. It looks intimidating when you look at pictures online or in catalogs, but ANYONE can figure out how to program different settings and presets in minutes. Most of the other pedals I've used were singles that were pretty much brainless, this one is just as easy to use as any single on the market. One pedal changes between delay modes while the other turns the effects on or off. Setting the delay time is made easier with a push knob so you can program a subtle delay, a full-out echo, or even use it as a loop since it has up to 23 seconds of delay.

SETUP:Peavey 8x10 with a MAX 700 head and a Dean Edge Pro 5.

As a bass player, I was very concerned with my pedals sucking tone from my signal, but this thing pumps every bit of sound right back into my amp. Also, it's like having several different pedals at your feet. It has 11 delay modes built into it with four programmable settings and a manual setting. You can set the delay signal to decay (like an analog delay) or you can just keep it going. All of the modes on it have a lot of possibility for a wide range of sound, none of which will negatively affect the tone of your setup.

I haven't been able to try it out yet, I've only had it for a week. However, I'm concerned Boss pedals could easily survive a nuclear holocaust.

Haven't had to deal with them yet. I hope I won't have to.

I can see how guitar players would love this, and I think a lot of bass players should give this a shot, too. Having a delay can add so much to any style of music and really bring a new depth to your sound. If your local music shop has one of these in stock, mess around with it some. It's better than any single delay on the market, it's like having four delays at your feet, and for the money it can't be beat. I'd hunt down anyone who dared steal this from me, and I'd certainly buy it again should I have to. This pedal has opened new doors for my music, and it will do the same for anyone else who buys it.

it takes practice, but you can get any sound you were expecting to get out of it

i think if the level/tone wasn't recorded in the presets, it would make switching easier

it's solid.
don't depend on batteries though. i had them die on me during a show once

never needed to

when i bought this pedal, i wanted to be able to have looping abilities as well as normal delay. from playing this for countless hours i found that for looping, the sound over sound mode isn't necessarily the best. with that you can record one track and have it repeat, then go only to your first preset, and not being able to switch anything else after that.
i set it on standard mode and use the tap tempo to record the entire guitar line as one long measure, then set the feedback all the way up. if you get the timing right, it does the same as the s.o.s. function, except you can turn the effect on and off while it's repeating. so that means as long as it is on, you can add track over track for as long as you want.
i use that same method while taking advantage of the stereo inputs and outputs. if you have a guitar line looping, you can plug in a bass and that out to a seperate amp, and it will loop the bass line into the bass amp. then i'll sit down and play drums.
this is perfect for when i'm writing

just for that capability alone, if anything happened to this pedal, i'd buy one the same day.

it's easy.

les paul> dunlop 535> univibe> ns2> sd1> tu2> marshall dsl 50> dd20 (in loop)> mesa 2x12. It was noisy when I tried to power the dd20 off of a boss daisy chain. After I plugged it in to it's own psa 120 the noise was gone. not a big deal.

-tape, analog, standard, dual, and smooth all sound very realistic. typical boss sound.


-reverse is cool but i use it for a different purpose. If you set the delay time really short (10 to 40ms) you get a pitch modulation sound similar to an EH frequency analyzer. You can't fine tune it like the EH but if you mix the signal right it's very realistic. I can get a good "The Hollow" sound by APC.

- I don't use the rest of the settings. so I cant' comment on them.

For the money I don't think you can beat this pedal. It's like having 5 delay pedals in one. And changing between presets IS seamless.

so far so good. I've never had a boss crap out on me.

I don't thinnk I will ever need another delay. If something happened to this one I would definitely buy it again.

This review is a follow-up to the review I did a little while back. The reason is because I was really critical of the CHORUS function in the DD-20 but I have since discovered how to get EXACTLY the sounds I was looking for out of the DD-20. My bad BOSS... Read on...

Read the manual. It is pretty well laid out and there are a few functions in this baby that won't just reach out and grab ya. Like tap-tempo and the chorus + delay function.

Considering how many options this baby gives you it's actually fairly easy to use. I found it much more intuitive than the DL-4 for instance.

The DD-20 sounds very nice. In my previous review I was really critical of the chorus + delay function in the Modulate mode. Because there is no level control for the chorus just rate and depth. But I have since discovered that by playing with the rate and depth controls I could get about any chorus sound I was looking for. And I mean spot on nailing the tones I was looking for. The thing is that the settings won't look anything like the settings on any stand-alone chorus pedal you've used before, but the sounds are still in there.

And the real kicker is that the chorus in this baby sounds better than most any chorus pedal I've ever used (and I've used quite a few). Once you figure out how to dial it in that is. Doh!!! So just ignore my ranting about that issue in the previous post. This is the best delay pedal I've ever owned, hands down!!! There is no noticeable "tone-sucking" whatsoever and the thing is dead quiet.

Boss really nailed tha analog delay sound in the DD-20. And unlike a real analog delay the DD-20 doesn't add any noise to your signal. You U2 heads will like this baby. The other Sims are cool too. Except the warp and twist which are useless.

Built like a tank like all boss pedals.

Like I said this is the best delay pedal I've ever owned, hands down. All of the models sound great except the warp and twist which are useless. And having the LED screen on a unit this deep is a must for me.

The sound on sound mode is a huge bonus and the reverse delays are a knockout but you have to find the right settings there too. The Tape mode could be a hair "slicker" but it simulates the tape "flutter" and high end roll off of a real tape delay well. And it "stays out of the way" of your straight signal similar to the way a real tape delay does.

This is a Pro quality and Pro sounding unit. No regrets here!!!

Without the manual this thing would be fairly difficult to crack. It has a tone of features but all need exploring to be fully appreciated.

One of the best delays I've used. Great sound, doesnt colour tone too much. One query is the ridiculous warp and twist function.. what the?? reallly dont know what Boss were thinking that but man do they sound crap. Apart from that, the unit sounds great.

It's like a brick.

Great twin pedal with excellen functions made to withstand a bomb. Just watchout for that battery consumption if you are not powering it with an adaptor.

The DD-20 while not as easy to use as a DD6 it is pretty intuitive for a Delay/looper with so many features. You must read the manual though because there are some features that you won't realize are there unless you read the manual. Like how to change the rate and time on the chorus effect on the modulated delay setting. The manual is ok.

Ive had mine for about a year now so I've had a reasonable amount of time to really get to know it. I usually don't like Boss effects only because they are not true bypass. I tried a DD6 once and though I actually liked the sound of the delay I couldn't handle the fact that it changed my original guitar tone so much with the effect on or off. I'm really picky about that though. For you metal heads it might not make that much difference I guess. Through all that distortion it's hard to tell what's really going on sometimes.

All that beaing said the DD-20 does not effect my guitar tone at all, even though it is not true bypass. I think this has to do with the quality of the A/D and D/A converters inside. Reportedly the same ones Roland use on their high-end VS digital recorders.

The delays are fantastic!!! I especially like the analog, tape delay, smooth (delay with reverb added, really cool), Modulate (for U2 type sounds), And the reverse is really good once you figure out the right settings. AND I LOVE the 23 second looper, that's a great feature of this thing. The 14 seconds of the DL4 just isn't enough for a looper in my opinion. With this delay don't forget to use the TONE knob it really helps shape the delays to your liking.

And the backlit LCD screen really is professinal and a MUST for any delay this deep in my opinion. And the fact that you can have essentially 5 stored sounds (with one tweakable on the fly) beats the DL4 in my opinion. My gripes will be in the Overall section.

Could it be better? Yes. Is it damn good? YES!!!!. Could the DL4 be better? yes. But for all of the felxibility and reliability the DD-20 gives me and the fact that it doesn't alter my guitars original tone I'll give it a 9.

seems really rugged like most Boss effects.


Probably a little extra care needed because of the LCD screen. But that's a small price to pay for such a usefull feature. No problems with it yet and don't anticipate any.

Never dealt with them. Maybe that says it all though?

I play all styles except country and classical. Th DD20 would work for any style that calls for delay. Great warm, professional sounding delays. No, they may not be exactly like the originals but NO they don't sound "digital". So shut up already!!!

I do have a couple of gripes though. First I think it's nearly unanimous that the Twist and Warp modes are pretty useless. Would have been better for Boss to use those spaces for something useable. Like maybe a "swell" setting and a second tape delay Sim.

But my biggest gripe is on the Modulate setting. It sounds fantastic for U2 over the top kinds of delays. But there should be a seperate LEVEL control for the chorus. Because if you want to get a more moderate delay setting with the chorus on, then the chorus all but dissapears. I had an EH Memory Man many many moons ago and it had a BLEND control to adjust the delay/chorus ratio in the signal. That way you can get the U2 ping pong + chorus effect and you can also get more subtle delays WITH a lush chorus. Maybe you guys at Boss should upgrade the software on this beauty to include that feature in the future. -1 point for that. (feature in the future; sorry) ;-)