Boss DD-20

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) ;-)

This unit takes quite a while to learn what it is capable of. Getting standard delay sounds is very easy but fine tuning it to do wonderful stuff takes some patience, the manual is OK but could be a little better laid out. Having 4 memory patches is great like the Line 6 DL4 but the Boss is better as it has a 5th setting for on the fly adjustment, which is handy is you've ever used the DL4!!

All in all Ok to use but be patient and search!! I've had this pedal for about 6 months and I'm still discovering stuff on it.

Manipulating the delay sounds is quite easy but read the manual, but once you know, its awesome, changing the modulation intensity is amazing and the tempo settings give an array of different timed delays, you can do everything from U2 settings, to reverb, to stupidly long delay times, 23 seconds?? how useable is that but its cool to say your pedal can do it I suppose!!

Well I love my setup as do most of you and I'm interested in it so you might be too, here it is:

70's Tele Custom > Boss TU2 > Boss OC2 > Boss GE7 > Snarling Dog whino Wah > Hughes and Kettner Tube Factor > EH Small Stone > Boss CE2 > Boss DD20 > Engl Screamer amp.

The pedal adds a tiny bit of noise to my rig but all delay pedals usually do, particularly if your guitar is noisy, as mine is, old 70's fender pickups are often noisy, but I've played a Les Paul through my rig and there isn't much noise at all, depends what you're running into the pedal.

I adore delay in general and this has samples of some famous delays including the Boss DM2 analog delay, the Roland Soace Echo and others. My favourites are the DM2, the Space echo and the modulated delay. You can also get reverb delay, reverse delay, standard delay, dual delay, panning delay and 2 weird ones, warp which is kind of naff but good if you like your rig to sound like a motorbike and twist which just feedbacks the delays for you, could be other way round but I hardly use these other two anyway!

One of the masterstokes of this pedal is that it has a tone control which is so handy, takes the edge (no pun intended!) off the standard delay and can make the analog delay sound really muddy and thick if thats your sort of thing.

The general sound quality I think is excellent and I would say is similar to the Line 6 DL4 some of the settings are better than the DL4, I prefer the analog and modulated settings but the DL4 has more sounds and is still a great delay pedal but the Boss is slightly better in my opinion see below.

The analog delay is a fair recreation in its warmth and lo fi nature, the standard delays are very good but the space ehco and modulated delay are amazing, this pedal is worth the money alone just for those, they are THAT good!

People who says its digital sounding, get out of your own arse! and don't bloody buy the thing and go and pay #150 for a real DM2 and a years wages for a Roland Space Echo and stop complaining!!! I personally love analog sounds and digital ones, and this pedal does a very good job of both is infinitely more useable live than older delay units and many guitarist and your punters in the audience are going to be hard pressed to tell the difference once a band is sounding off and the public most normal dont give a crap anyway, life is not about impressing other guitarists!!

Its Boss people.

Never had to contact them, I reckon their customer support only has one person on it and receives 1 call a year. This gear is unrivalled in this category.

I play rock, funk, some pop all in a kind of riff Hendrix like style. I'm not a fan of the big 1000 notes a seond lead guitar style, more a lover of riffs, rhythems and melodies and ambience. I've been playing for around 20 years (I'm 28 today!) and I simply love expressing myself through my guitar. Effects help me to create an atmosphere or ambience and this pedal is the best one I have come across for this purpose I love it, I prefer it to the Line 6 DL4 but thats just my opinion their both good pedals.

If it were stolen or lost I would not hesitate to buy another one as I believe this is the most versatile and useable for both live and studio purposes that I have come across. There are other rack mount units which are amazing but if you want a pedal for under #1000 that can do more or less the same thing and something you can put on your pedal board and use live for awesome sounds then this will be for you.

Having the memory patches is great but the main thing this pedal has over the Line 6 DL4 is that you can tap tempo all the delay sounds (not just one) to be any timing you like so you can have triplet timing at 120 BPM for example, on all the delay sounds the DL4 does not do this. Although buy an external footswitch other wise you have to press down the right pedal for 2 seconds for it to be tap tempo, its OK but its useful to have a separate pedal for tap tempo and then have the right pedal to change patches, the left one just turns the delay off.

Having a digital readout telling you the delay time is useful for live purposes as it is backlit.

There are so many sounds you can get out of this thing, classic delay sounds, doubling, reverbs, long delays, weirdo delays and a great chorus effect using the modulated delay at 18ms, amazing!

I have had a Boss DD6 prior to this and this pedal does all that that one does and a whole lot more. As I have said the Line 6 DL4 is the main rival here and I prefer the DD20, I think the sounds are slightly better quality and I presonally find the delay timing thing on the DD20 much better, but some people don't bother with delay timing and just have on beat delay, in which case the DL4 might a your better bet.

This pedal does help me to make music and can give a wonderful ambience to your sound, you won't be dissapointed if you buy this thing but be patient with it and it will work for you and turn heads!

Enjoy....

Its easy once you read the manual and mess with it for about 2 hours. You can get a great sound with it right away, but to get something unique you have to spend a little time. The manual is great, very thorough (i dunno how to spell)

I think it sounds great on all of the settings except Reverse. I cant figure that out. I think its easy to get the Incubus type sound out of this pedal, very spacey or whatever. The analog delay sounds awesome, it fades away really nicely. Its not noisy for me at all. I've never played any other delays, but this one seems pretty top of the line.

Dude, this thing looks pretty tough to me. But seriously... who doesnt take care of their 200 dollar pedals?

NA

I play progressive stuff, I dont really like to copy other people's styles. I guess I come closest to the style of Incubus. The effects-lathered rock kind of stuff. I love everything so far, but some of the settings sound pretty similar. I think everyone can find something they love about this pedal.

The pedal is pretty easy to use. It's not as easy as something like the DD-6, but that's because it has so many different features. The one thing i dont like about it is that you have to choose which function you want the right switch to have. You can choose between functioning as tap tempo, or selecing your settings. I wound up just getting the boss footswitch to control tempo so i can choose my setting much easier. You might want to read the manual for some of the settings.

This is the best sounding delay i have used. This is my 3rd delay pedal. the first one was a Boss DD-6. i liked it but i wanted to try the Line 6 DL4. at first i was pleased with it, but like many other people on here, the stupid thing just died on me. One minute it worked, the next minute it was dead nomatter what i did. so i wound up just getting this and i wish i had gotten this in the first place because it just sounds really really good. it has a ridiculous amount of delay time and features. i don't really like the looping on this pedal though, because you can't save your loop like on the line 6.

I have never had even the slightest problem with any of the 20 something boss pedals i have ever owned.

i can't really tell. i've never had a problem with any products they make, so i haven't needed them.

i play funky, jazzy, soulful kinda music and the delay works really well. it seems to work well with all my other effects too. (come on now i have to list my setup!) i use an Ernie Ball Volume, Vox Clyde McCoy Wah, digitech synth wah, boss octave, ibanez tubescreamer, MXR Phase 90, digitech talker, in to the DD-20, in to a vintage fender pro reverb. what can i say? i love my sound.

despite the way it looks, its very easy! i did have to read the manual on one or two of the functions, but other than that, its pretty straight forward. the manual was very helpful too

this is the best part of this pedal! this is by far the best sounding delay i have ever heard or played with. i use this pedal every time i play. its THAT essential to my sound. i generally run this thru my effects loop in my mesa lonestar playing with my parker fly mojo. now that is a dreamy sound! i've even run it direct with my acoustic into the dd20 into a DI box. oh, and there is no noise coming out of this thing either. when i was shopping for a delay, i checked out the DL4 and a couple of smaller boss delays, the DL4 sounded to harsh and sterile to me, and the layout was counterintuitive. what does "tweaz" mean? the dd20 has settings like "digital", "analog", "tape". thats pretty simple to understand. the dd20 beat the DL4 hands down. some of my favorite settings:

analog set with the feedback about 8 o'clock the level about 1 or 2, tone at 12, and tempo set at quater note triplets (the black note with the 3 beside it). thats a sweet u2 type sound.

modulate with the feedback at 9, and the level at 1 or 2, tone at 12, and with the rate set at 60hz. THAT is my favorite clean sound. thats what i consider my signature clean sound.

the next thing i like is the fact that if you hold down the "tempo" button near the LED panel, it will change the time from milliseconds to BPM. this is priceless in the studio. i've used it a number of times.

i've actually banged it up quite a bit, nicked the paint, dropped it, cracked the faceplate (just a small crack) from taking it everywhere. i just consider them battle scars from the war of tone that it is undoubtedly the victor. if i lost it, i would have to buy another that day. i cant imagine playing without it now

i havent had to talk with them really (thats probably a testimony in itself), but i talk with the roland rep for the guitar center i work for and he's the most helpful rep of any company anywhere. joey arata you rock!

if you are even thinking about a serious delay pedal, this is it. like i mentioned above, i work at a guitar center, and i sell a lot of these because i love 'em so much! i've talked to people that wanted to buy a DL4 and i talk them out of it! when you compare the 2, theres really no contest. its even cheaper! i'll talk with them later on and ask how they like (love) their dd20 and they give me this response " *sigh*...ah man, i love that pedal. that pedal is awesome."

The Giga Delay is very straightforward like all Boss products, but it is also the
deepest, most flexible and inspiring stomper I have ever run across.
The manual is clear, but it hardly hints at the things the DD-20 can do.
It will take time to discover the many things it can do. This is
perhaps its only drawback. The DD-20 would be overkill for anyone
who just needs a basic delay sound.

Tap tempo was the most important feature for me, and I could
operate it right out of the box. So is standard 9VDC power input.
Many boutique pedals use their own power supplies, which is an annoyance
when you have a pedalboard.

I do a lot of improvising in a band context and I was able to grab
some cool stuff easily on my first gig with it, after owning it
for only a couple of days. I read through the little manual
twice and now I think I know all the controls.

It sounds wonderful on practically any setting. Really.
It depends on what you play into it. <g>

All of the controls are scaled perfectly, and the available
effects run the gamut from subtle to emulations to over-the-top.

I am using the DD-20 with a Fender Twin and various other
stompers. The DD-20 is at the end of the chain before a volume pedal.

The mode settings, briefly:

- Standard is like any Boss digital delay pedal. This sound
plus the tap tempo would have been worth $199 to me
without the rest.

- Analog emulation is spot on. I sold my analog pedal decades
ago. Now I have it back, sort of.

- Tape. This is likewise accurate and possibly my favorite.
There's a bit of tape slippage in there, as well as a darkening
and distorting of the echoes, especially with feedback up.
Using Tape on a slapback setting is great.

- Warp and Twist are special fx, and don't appear very useful
until you experiment a bit. By holding a pedal down in warp mode,
the feedback ramps up to max. I found that at longer delay settings,
this created a loop that could be overdubbed. Twist does the same
while changing the delay time, causing the pitch to ascend; when you
release the pedal the pitch drops down to a motorboat. The jury is
still out on this....

- SOS is a looper. It allows overdubbing, and soloing over your
creation while using an echo effect. Not for dedicated loopists,
but a very nice feature well implemented.

- Modulate allows you to do two things not mentioned in the manual:
chorus and flange. By using short delay times and adjusting
the modulation speed and depth, you can achieve a nice flange and
a room-y chorus.

- Reverse is just that! Set the wet/dry control to full wet and go.
Big fun, if you like that sort of thing. I do.

- Smooth smoothes the attack of the echo. It sounds dreamier. A nice and
unique flavor.

I have no reason to think this Boss pedal will be less dependable than
any other. Boss pedals have been absolutely reliable in my experience.

Haven't dealt with Boss directly, ever.

I needed a delay pedal with tap tempo for onstage jams. I first bought
a Line 6 Echo Park, which was a huge disappointment. It was returned quickly.
I tried a number of boutique pedals, (the best of them was the DLS Echo Tap.
It sounded beautiful, but it would not go extreme. For someone just looking
for a pretty echo, I would recommend the DLS) I felt at home with the Boss immediately, and a little fiddling in the store revealed the DD-20 to be very deep.

This has been an exciting purchase.

Got to master this incredible pedal. Just might be THE BEST DELAY UNIT known to mankind. This thing is almost too good to be true.

As far as I can tell,this thing flat out beats out all of the delay toys that I have played with,and that is dating back to the mid 70's Analog snob? Well, I used to have an old Boss stomper,but the sound quality was so close that I could not justifiy having two delay pedals.Sold the old and it almost made up the difference for the DD-20.

Hopefully will last for ever!

No contact,no comment.

I play mostly blues oriented music. I also like to play ECM styles(Bill Frisell, I really love).I have this thing nested in a three line effects loop(about 20 effects all together).IT IS ABSOLUTELLY THE ESSENTIAL PIECE OF GEAR for me. Boss has made quite a few pedals both good and bad,but they certainly got this one right.