Boss DD-3 Digital Delay

DD3. Easy, intuitive and efficient. Instant gratification

I love this pedal, specifically because it doesn't contain the fidelity of more modern delay units. It samples @ 8 Bits, which is why it sounds the way it does. Also it contains a unique QUANTIZING component that rounds off delay time to a small ratio in relation to input material.



I give it a 9, because if it was pristine, it would have no character and suck.

After a nuclear war only three things will be left on the face of the planet:

1. Cockroaches,
2. Keith Richards
3. The Boss DD3.

LOL!

You'll never need it. EVER.

Unique application: 2xDD3's in series:

Not even EVENTIDE, Lexicon, TC can even approximate the amazing configuration of two Boss DD3's in SERIES, in mono.

In this configuration, setting the first delay shorter and the second longer (2-3 ratio and effect level slightly louder), the DD3
performs a remarkable SELF OSCILLATION, slightly quantizing the summed output to a profoundly beautiful and unique and dynamic poly-rhythmic tapping that to this day, no other device on god's green earth can replicate... Seriously, no one has ever managed to come even close to this effect, and for that alone, it's worth every cent.


I challenge any company to attempt replication of this application.

Very easy to use, it's simple, my favourie delay. Mine is an original blue label 1980s MIJ (made in Japan) version.

Amazing, the MIJ is noticably much much better sounding than a normal DD3, it's basically more analogue sounding, and a lot warmer, you can get much nicer sounds with the feedback controll, best delay I've ever owned, even over a WEM copycat tape delay from the early 70s. The MIJ version is the one you should be going for though, it's much nicer. I'd give it 12 if that were possible!

It's never let me down, the only slight thing wrong with it, is the circuit has to kind of 'warm up' so it takes about 10 seconds to first come on, but after that it works flawlessly. The MIJ versions were even better made than any new one, and they are bigger, and more rugged around the edges, even the screw and rim has a much better design, and is made form better quality rubber, it's basically indestructable!

I've never delt with the company, but these MIJ version, don't need it, you won't find a better delay than this one!

I paid more than a new one would cost, and I used to own a new one, and the MIJ version really is so much better, mainly in the way it sounds, it's apparently completley different internally, but this pedal is the pedal I was searching for many a year to find. I got mine off ebay, from Canada, one of the finest purchases I've ever bought! It's just so warm, so full, and unlike the normal DD3, the delay fades in tone with each echo, like an analogue one, yet it's still clear and defined.

It's not a difficult effects box to figure out and you can get some great sounds out of this with minimal effort.

Sounds good (warm) with the extended delay times to tinny with the shorter times. Overall great sound, although I'm no David Gilmore at least I can pretend with this one. Also great for shoe-gazer type rhythms (my bloody valentine & slowdive type stuff) that what I used it used it for until it broke.

It broke when I stomped it during a live performance. Started making terrible cracking and popping noises. Really upset at this because of the high price I paid for this and the fact that I only had it for about a year or so. I don't get all this talk about boss boxes being indestructible; I've had two and they both inexplicably broke.

I don't know, I guess I could have called them when it broke but I hate talking on the phone.

sounded good for the short period of time it functioned properly but it is a really expensive paper weight now.

Bought 2nd hand, worked it out pretty quickly.

This pedal is just excellent.
I've used it for vocals, bass and guitar, sucks the batteries, but with the powerpack, never stops bringing the love.

I have had it for I guess 9 years and how old it was before I got it, no idea.
I have thrashed this thing. It's been gigged heaps, recorded in studios for vocals and bass, never had a box, just kept in a bag with leads and other pedals.
The jacks have never even crackled.

Asked the company for a manual via the net and they emailed me it the next day. Only got the manual because I had a needed a manual for my ME-50 which was all in Japanese and thought 2 birds with one stone.

This pedal is just the best.
If you don't have one, you're missing out.
Delay decay on this is one of the underrated and most important features on these pedals.
If I have to replace it, it'll be because it was stolen. It will probably outlive me.
Hopefully not, in hindsight...

It takes a while to get the time right for the song.

There is no sound like boss delay it is very metalic and tingy. I have a Line 6 DL-4 which I love but there are times that pull this pedal out to get certain sounds I just can't get with the DL-4.

BOSS

I have 4 delay pedals this one the DL-4, a Boss PS-3 and an old DOD delay(not certain if it is analog or digital). I might not replace it only because I have the PS-3 which gives the same metallic delay, if not for that I would replace it if it were broken or stolen. It is a great pedal but it will not give you any kind of analog or tape warmth it is very digital.

It's relatively easy to use. All the knobs do exactly what they say they do.

This is where I might get a bit nasty. I'm going to subject my overall opionion on (specifically) Korean made boss pedals.
Bottom line is, they are generic sounding comsumer grade pedals meant to satisfy the 'common' consumer. They are good enough, that's it. I have owned this pedal for 3 years and I'm finally ready to get something that will actually make me say 'wow, that sounds REALLY good!' First let me say I own a boss cs-2 compressor (Japanese) and I LOVE it and will play it until one of us dies. I also own a boss ge7 equalizer and it does what it is supposed to do but then again, there is no sound quality involved, only functional value. I recently tried a TC electroncs vintage delay and it made the dd-3 look and sound like a TOY. This is generic delay, period. If gereric, lifeless sound is what your looking for, this will satisfy your pedal board. The first delay I ever owned was a dod dfx-9 and even THAT sounded better to me than this thing. It had more character and a more clear distinct delay sound. I have never been happy with this delay and since delay is my favorite effect, I have to say like many other boss pedals I've owned, this is a big disappointment.

I have to give them credit for this, I've never had a boss pedal break or malfunction on me.

Never had to deal with them, which is a good thing.

I may be a bit of an audiophile snob, probably because I have worked in high end audio stores and I prefer to buy the best once than cycle through several models of the same effect to get what I'm looking for. I'd rather research the best delay for example and pay more than settle for 'boss'. Boss to guitar equipment for me is equivalent to Bose or Denon for a home theatre system. Why would I settle for that if I could put my mind to it and get a Marantz, or better yet a Bryston. If your happy with your dd-3 (and other boss pedals for that matter) take this with a grain of salt and don't attempt to try a REAl delay like a tc electronics. If you own a boss phaser, don't try an EH polyphaser and I could go on for any pedal boss has made in the last 15 years. With everyone loving boss so much, its no wonder that 99.999% of guitarists are always looking for that "Magic" tone but never finding it. To do that you have research and spend a bit extra, not settle for this consumer garbage.

This is extremely easy to use. If you cannot get good sounds out of this, please just put all your guitars away and go back to acoustic.

This can achieve any kind of good quality digital delay, from short repeats to long sounds. It does not colour your signal at all.

Boss!!

N/a

Really good pedal. One of the best for what it does. Very usable (unless you do not like delay)

Very easy to use, manual was written clearly.

My set up is US Strat>BOSS NS2>Cry Baby Wah>DODFX84>MXR phase90>BOSS Ac3>BOSS DS1>BOSS DD3>Marshall 100W 1959 Super Lead head>Marshall 1960A cab. I found the delay quality to be excellent, everything I play is accurately repeated. Great for getting that U2 delay sound. The Hold feature may be useful to som ebut i dont use it.

Its a BOSS pedal ,no more to say!

Never needed to deal with them

Overall this is great pedal for me. I am the only guitarist in my band, we play funk/fusion and I need to cover a lot of ground sonically an this spedal helps me achieve some extra umph when playing lead parts.This pedal really fills out the sound especiallyas we have no second guitarist to play rhthym under the lead parts. If lost I would replace imediately!

maybe 5 minutes and you know whats going on here.
and another 5 to have a practicable setting to use.

Mh, its Ok, its just a digital delay wich exactly repeats the tones you play! without adding there some " warmth " or " noize " or whatever !! Nothing !! Steril repeatings !! But that is what I want !
You know, I play very " warm " sounding equipment, wich has MY Sound
imaginations, perfectly. So I dont need a delay to manipulate my tone, I need it only to repeat my sound as it is, pure !!
Not more not less !
For that its great. I have a " allround setting " at 600 - 700 msc.
and the volumen is set from 11 - 12 oclock !! Notice ; The Delay must be a part of your main sound but not BE youre main sound !!
So, too much delay kills youre tone ( set it at low Volumen ).
I play a Fender std. Strat and a Thinline Tele, a Prs Single Cut and a Music Man Petrucci ( Piezos ) as my new "Baby". These Guitars go to a Korg Dt 10 Tuner and direct in the Input of my Mesa Lonestar or Engl Souvereign 1x12er Combos.
In the effect loops, comes the DD 3, a Roger Mayer Voodoo Vibe, a Maxon Ts9 ( boost ) and a Cry Baby GCB 95 F. Thats it !! Oh, yes, dont forget the Footswitches for Amp chanels.
With this Rig I play anything from 30`Jazz, 40?? Blues, 50` Rock and Roll, 60?? Rootsrock, 70??Psychedelic, 80`Metal, 90`Grunge or 2000 New Metal....And guess what.... I do play all of it !
Live or in the Studio, the DD 3 works fine for me!
So I think 9 points are enough.

A Good one, Its fixed on my Pedal Board since 3 years and I never had any problems. Locks well build, Feels well build. So maybe it is well build ?!

Never need them....no Points for the unknown

Mh, in my ears, a delay is a " must have ". First comes a great Guitar, second a great Amp and at 3th, a good delay. But the biggest part of making music is youre soul and youre fingers, without that, the biggest Equipment let you sound S*** and nothing can change that, FACT !!!
What can I say ? If you need a " simple " delay and not a tone manipulating - so called " analogue delay " - then Test one of the Boss DD 3`s.
I test it against the DD 5, 6 ( both bad ), the digidelay ( nice toy for only playing home ). Maxon and Ibanez AD 9, AD 900, AD 999 ( good ones but not for my needs ), T REX Replica the same as good ( or better ) as the DD3 but to over priced...And the biggest jokes from Danelectro.
But thats me ! So test your own likings !
Me ? 38 years old, since 16 years Pro ( means I earn enough money to live from music. ), 120 gigs a year, every month working in the Studio, in free times I teache pupils to play....Blabla....

For a delay pedal this is fairly easy: once youve selected the speed range and the effect volume, its just delay time and resonance: if you know what you're after then this is a pretty easy way of getting to it. Delays are a more difficult animal than most effects but this one should be pretty easy to use.

OK, some people are obviously buying this pedal thinking it'll get them that lovely warm tone theyve heard in all those 70s recordings (25 years before digital technology was fast enough to repeat a high quality sound byte within 20 milliseconds) and think that this will do it for them. Theyre thinking of analogue delay pedals (which, in my opinion is a very different effect from digital delay: just coz they both say 'delay' doesnt mean they should be compared).

What this pedal does, what all digital delays do, is repeat exactly what you played at precise intervals whilst degrading at a set gradient. The Boss DD3 is the DADDY of repeating EXACTLY what you played at EXACT time intervals. It doesnt lie and it doesnt cover mistakes and has very different applications from analogue delay pedals, if youre gonna pay #100 for a pedal then you should look into what it does.


My rig goes:
USA Fender Fat Strat/ MIJ Fender Jazzmaster - EHX Big muff-Fulltone fulldrive2-EHX Small clone-EHX Small Stone-EHX Pulsar Tremolo-Boss DM-2 analogue Delay-Boss DD3 Digital Delay-Korg DT10 Tuner-A/B Box with A into a fender hot rod deluxe (clean) and B into a Marshall JCM800 2x12 combo (dirty).

The DD-3 and the DM-2 give me massive variety in delays, where one fails the other can support and both together make the craziest noises ever.The quality of the output has been said to be sterile etc but its just doing what its supposed to, I guess if the 'attack' was lowered it'd sound less mechanical, but for me it does exactly what it says on the tin.If youre rig sounds rubbish this pedal will make it sound worse.

Boss are solid, ive got or had a few of them, and though the japanese ones feel more sturdy (like my DM-2 and ive also got an OC-2) the taiwanese ones are much better built than other similar units. This DD-3 is tiawanese (I think there are only a few japanese DD-3s, but the DD2 was made there and its pretty much the same). Ive gigged and will continue to gig without a backup. IM not rich enough to get another one and i dont think i care enough: if it craps out mid gig ill pull it out and use the dm-2 to compensate and vice versa.

never dealt with them

I like it. Others may not. Im into indie, grunge rock and some other stuff and I really like the smashing pumpkins, sonic youth, nirvana, trail of dead, radiohead, manic street preachers, jeff buckley, PJ harvey, Bloc Party etc etc. this pedal is indespensable: if lost id probably gewt a DD-6 for the tap tempo but I really do like this pedal: boss excel in making stright to the point pedals that do what they are told, thats why the pitch shifters and delays are great but the distortions and modulation pedals suck a bit. If you buy it dont think itll make you sound like gilmour in a second, youve just got to learn to use it. After overdrive this is the most used pedal on my board. Worth it, every penny.

the four controls are pretty self explanitory. this pedal comes with a well thought out manual so you shouldn't have any trouble getting the best out of it.

spot on sound wise. another good one from boss. the signal sounds a little metallic the lower you set the repeat rate but who buys a delay pedal and sets it so you can hear little or no delay. a few people have moaned about the sound of the pedal. these are the people who don't realise that with every new pedal you add to your chain you have to tweak your amp and guitar controls a little. nothing just fits straight in

well its made by boss, you could turn it on and off with a tank

never had to deal with boss as i've never had a problem with there gear.

well worth the money, even at brand new prices this is a total bargain

Only 4 knobs, comes with a manual with how to get a good delay sound. Just step on it to turn it on, step on it again to turn it off. It's not brain surgery.

I cannot really compare the delay sound to any other but the DD-6. To my ears, the delay is very good. It does what it is suppose to do, repeat every note the way it was played. However, I did not buy it for the delay. The only thing I wanted this pedal for was the HOLD feature. The sound I wanted to achieve was the kind of effect Eric Johnson uses on the beginning of "Soulful Terrain". I will say that this pedal does it PERFECTLY and I have no complaints as far as that function is concerned. The ONLY problem I have with this pedal is that you have to keep your foot on the pedal as long as you want the HOLD to last, which if you are on stage can tie you up when you want to change channels/pedals.

I have 2 other Boss pedals, a Blues Driver and Flanger, and both are indestructable.

It is a very cheap delay, considering the prices of most boutique analog, rack mount, and echoplex type delays. You may find a better deal with the Danelectro Reel Echo, Ibanez Tone Lok, or something along those lines, but they do not feature the Hold function. I love how this pedal can make someone sound like a one man band, and is also fantastic for practicing. I know it will make me a better player and sound better and that is what it's all about. Probably the coolest thing about it is how you can hit say, an Am chord, and explore all over the entire neck and find complementary scales and notes that you can use over the key of Am. Overall, a great pedal and a great price.

Ok, this baby is easy to use if you can read the lettering on the dials etc... Simple on off thing as well!

NO! Not good here. My main problem is that I play vintage music, so whatever famous sound I dialed in, it wasn't right. To start of with, Apache by the shads... each repeat was too clean and twangy when compared to the original input sound... I need warmth. Next up would have to be some Gilmour tones from through the ages, but first a little bit of Syd Barrett in there. Syd and Gilmours main delay for years was the Binson echorec, either set to wicked slapback (which tis pedal can just about do!) Or big long swells made of repeats all cascading around. Sadly this pedal cannot deliver. Gilmour used an echrec to flesh out solos (Think Cymbaline from the KQED bootleg DVD). Sadly the clean-ness of the repeats buggers this right up.

Ok it might be good for U2 fans or Radiohead, but I am unimpressed with this gadget. I own a Marshall Echohead which gets slated as a bad unreliable pedal. It might well be! Mine hasn't done a nasty on me yet, and it seems bombproof and much more interesting. This delay pedal is for shred guys afraid of putting emotion in their music.

Damn, this is 5/10 more because people THINK that Boss pedals are bombproof... they go wrong like everything else.

Didn't buy it.

Its on ok pedal for delay in the simplest sense of the word.

One last gripe! When you turn the time knob while its repeating the repeats speed up and change pitch, now this is common for all delay pedals and is cool. But speed up the Boss and yes the pitch changes, but bring it back to original tempo and the signal is depleated rather badly. Shame that this isn't an analogue pedal or anything.

It doesn't get much easier than this - very user friendly. There's nothing worse for me than to have some sort of digital screen that you have to scroll through to get different sounds - this one is as simple as it gets - four knobs that easily adjust everything you need to be able to adjust.

I find the sound quality to be excellent. I use this pedal as part of my acoustic and electric set-ups and it responds excellent to both. The sound for this model is excellent.

Seeing as it was made over 10 years ago, and I've owned it for about half of that - with no problems - I'd say that it's fairly reliable! I do not use a backup for this pedal (granted my night wouldn't be ruined without a delay pedal).

Never had the pleasure to deal with BOSS customer support.

Overall, an all around excellent pedal. If this one ever dies, I'll be on the hunt for another. I've been saying that for over four years now and it shows no signs of slowing down.

Bought it used with an included power supply. It's the older Japanese model. Quite easy to use. Set the deleay time, feedback, level and play.

I use this sparingly to reinforce my reverb and add a bit of echo. The repeats do sound a bit sterile. I modified mine with a tone control on the effect sound/feedbacks. Using this new control to get rid of some treble on the delay repeats helps this unit a lot. With the mod it sounds almost as good as a nice long analog delay (without the pricetag) and gives me a new option to tweak my sound. It's not particularly noisy but it isn't true bypass so it dulls the sound when used with more than a couple of effects in the chain. I use an enhancer at the end to clean up the mud on a long chain.

Very reliable. Never had a problem. I fix a lot of pedals and the only broken Boss ones are either abused beyond belief or are broken as a result of botched modifications. If you don't know what you are doing, please don't waste your time by opening up your effects.

I fix and modify my own stuff so I rarely deal with Boss support. Ordering parts from them is another story. Boss can be very difficult at times to get parts, especially for discontinued/older pedals.

Good quality delay for the money. Easy controls and above average tone (excellent tone with the feedback-tone mod). Boss has been making these forever even though they have made newer models. I would definately replace it if it was lost or stolen.

perfect setup - nice arrangement with the delay time ranges.

Unbeatable for its price range ($99) - any other delay at this price would not sound as good. If you are more advanced though - this will leave you wanting more . . . more something. You get what you pay for, this is ok for the bedroom but i want something amazing. Good sound but not amazing.

Looks fairly sturdy but i trust my digitech pedals much more - i wouldn't trust it traveling - kind of sounds like tin if you tap it. A little cheap if you ask me - i would probably buy something better sounding if i had a gig booked . . .

i play rock - i want a huge saturated stereo-chorus sound and this doesn't do it - this is too trasparent - i think i will exchange it for something else.

Takes a little experimentation to learn how to dial in. Very easy once you've got used to it. It's nice being able to snap to different ranges of delay time. Feedback knob is brilliant. You can go for infinate, noisey feedback by cranking it on full. Or be really carefull nd get it to just the point where it doesn't overload....and be in bliss.
Hold function is nice....but SHOULD BE A LOT LONGER!!!! then agin, its hold, not loop.

Ok.
I have a new taiwan made version.

It's stupidly noisy! even at the first rep. Set the volume on full, delay time long, and feedback to wherever and listen out for the first rep. You can instantly notice a hiss.
Crank the feedback on full and you can hear this noise build up. Now i paid for a digital pedal. So no noise please. If i wanted noise I would have bought an analogue pedal. But even then....the noise would sound awesome.

The processed sound is weak and lacks charecter..

because of its sound quality, I use it AS my backup.
But, Boss' sturdy, tank like designes have never failed me...the same cannot be said for other boss users.

Only for novice ears... or students.

It's worth looking into getting an older one...one which is made in Japan I believe. They appear to sound fantastic....and have no noise!

Get a second hand DD-6, or an old japanese made DD-3... don't buy a new one...

ive had this pedal for a while now and ive found it real easy to use. its really simple and just takes a little bit of time to get used to it when you first use it. there is so much you can do with this pedal and so many different sounds you can make. the more you play around with it the more you find out about it.

i use a fender strat with it and you can create some awsome psychadelic sounds with it alone. it ranges from some really creepy spacy sounds to buitifal magical sounds. its real awsome if you love that kind of stuff. its also great for sweetening up solos.

when using try hitting some notes with your finger and turning the rate dial at the same time, depending witch way you can make cool doiyng type noises or diehw type noises.

the sound is perfect. there is nothing special to it every note simply sounds how the played note was repeated. it is great for using other effects with. to me it can sound very white and dark blue, or it can sound very clear and watery/dreamy, or blue or purple with some sweet fuzz or something. great sound.

you can deffinetly depend on this pedal. it is extremely tough. ive kicked mine around a bit and its better than ever. it even lookes better to me the more i use it. the only thing is the black rubber thing has ripped a bit on the back were you screw the pedal in. but it doesnt effect it, it just means i gotta keep it screwed all the way in. but this is nothing to worry about.

you wouldnt need a back up at all. just maybe a spare battery.

i tried to get it repaired just after i bought it but i found out it was the adapter i was using.

its fine, i havent had any problems with it and the support was good.

this is a perfect match for my type of music. our band plays original music, and by that i mean original, not ripping off someone elses style but creating our own. its the way everyone who is serious about music and what its all about should play. i love this pedal for our band because it is just so needed. youl have to listen to find out.

been playing 7 years.
yeah id buy it again.
havent compared, dont need to.
the only thing i wish it had was a reverse option, but ill sus out something else for that.
it only helps, unless i over use it or abuse it.
my band is called luph, we are from adelaide and we are on: http://www.myspace.com

Dirt simple. Could have been even simpler if they didn't have the extra knob to select the range of delay time, but what this does do is allow you to have much finer control over the delay time than if you had one knob that covered the full sweep from 50ms all the way to 800ms. I haven't gotten the hang of the HOLD feature yet, but I really didn't purchase this pedal for fancy tricks, just a simply delay to fatten up the sound.

OK, I've been on a search for the Holy Grail of delay/echo pedals for about a year now. I was previously using a Line 6 DL4, which is a digital delay pedal that emulates different classic digital, tape, and analog delay effects. The DL4 has some geat sounds, but after a while I found I really didn't want or need a dozen different delay models. What I wanted was ONE good delay sound that was pleasing to the ears and didn't mess with my tone too much. I also wanted something with a much smaller footprint that would allow more room on my pedal board. In my quest I tried many analog and digital delays including the T-Rex Replica, Maxon AD-999 abalog delay, and Line 6 Echo Park. Well, I finally sucked it up and decided to try the common, garden variety Boss DD-3. The verdict: this is the perfect delay for my needs. My search for a delay is now over! I found that many of the (much more expensive) boutique delay pedals have special effects and tricks that I don't want. The Boss DD-3 is just a basic, simple delay that to my ears does not sound cold and sterile like most of us assume a digital delay will sound. If you check out the Analogman.com website, there is an explanation of the technology in the DD-3 and why it sounds "better" than many other modern digital delays. Apparently, the DD-3 uses the same compresser/expander circuit that Boss used in their previous analog delay pedals, which re-samples each repeat and accounts for the fact that it is "warmer" sounding than most other modern digital delays (including the DD-5 and DD-6) which just spit out exact carbon copies of the original bit-stream signal. Do I completely understand this technical talk? No. But what I do understand is that this pedal does not sound cold, shrill, or sterile to my ears. Sure, it doesn't have the warm, fuzzy repeats of a true analog delay, but after much experimentation I've decided that I really didn't want that kind of sound, anyway. Just a few soft repeats to add some spaciousness to my dry signal. For this the Boss DD-3 suits my needs perfectly. I also used to be obsessed with having all of my effects be true bypass, but what I've come to realize is that when I'm after a pure guitar sound I tend to just plu straight into the amp, anyway. So true bypass, buffered output, it doesn't matter to me anymore, just as long as the pedal sounds good. And the Boss DD-3 sounds good!

Have never heard of one breaking.

I currently play several guitars depending on my mood or the specific sounds I'm after: PRS Custom 24, Gibson Custom Shop '58 Les Paul, Fender Custom Shop '60 Strat, and Ibanez Prestige RG2550 (for playing Vai/Satriani type stuff). Amps are all low wattage, vintage style, single-channel, non-master volume types. When I use my pedal board I generally keep them turned low for a cleaner sound. My effects chain is GUITAR > Fulltone Clyde Wah > Fulltone mini-Deja Vibe > Fulltone Fulldrive II > Boss/Keeley DS-1 Ultra Distortion > Boss DD-3 > AMP. Effects are all powered by a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2 and cabling is George L's. Considering this is the cheapest delay/echo pedal of all the ones I tried, and in my opinion has the best tone with no extraneous features that I don't need, I consider it a fantastic value. If you want an analog sound, get a Maxon. If you want a tape sound, get a Fulltone TTE. If you just want a simple, clean sounding delay and don't need special effects or more than one second of delay time, this is the best route to go and will save you $$ for that next toy you just gotta have. After years of shunning Boss because they weren't a small boutique manufacturer, I've recently come back to them. Some of their pedals need some work to sound their best (the DS-1 is greatly improved with mods from Robert Keeley or Analogman). However, the DD-3 is a real winner right out of the box. My next purchase will be a Boss OD-3 overdrive. Very warm and natural sounding, with enough volume boost to push a slightly dirty Tweed Deluxe into SRV territory!

Easy 4 knob pedal to use, sounds good right out of the box! Little bit of tweaking will get you the sound and speed you want.

This pedal sounds very good to me and the amp I had before had on-board delay and this delay sounds so much better to have a separate pedal going through my Tele and Deville 212. This pedal is very spacy and atmospheric sounding, you can get all kinds of weird sounds from it and experiment with already existing songs you have. The thing about this pedal is that it doesn't take away from the tone of your amp or guitar, it sounds like it should on or off.

It's like any other pedal really as far as being sturdy. It also sucks up battery life so buy an adaptor for it because the sounds do change when the battery is low...

i dunno

I am very happy I bought this pedal over all. I was looking at buying an echo park but heard it was noisy and the boss dd-6 was too much and sounded the same to me anyway. I like playing this thing more than my Distortion pedals! Delay is very fun and this pedal was very simple to use to allow me to enjoy my first Delay pedal. I play alternative indie rock and this pedal would be made for anyone into whatever really, so go get a boss Duh Duh Duh, Delay! Today! (OK that was stupid) I also love the color of this pedal as well somthing about "white" going with what this pedal does...I'd buy another pedal like this one if I lost it, yes sir

Very easy to use.

Only a small noticable change in quality and tone, although this is only 16 bit I believe.
Also it only trails behind the dry louder notes anyway.

Are you joking, its buggered.
You have to turn the volume of the delay full to get just half the volume of the dry sound.
When the volume knob is at half you can't hardly hear any delay.
Boss are absolutly useless in customer support if your pedal is out of the 3 year warranty.
If its under guarantee Boss throw your fautly one away and just send you a new one.
BUT if it not in warrantee they charge #78 AN HOUR to repair it, and thats if after who knows how many hours they find it CAN be repaired.

So as the pedal only costs a bit more to buy, they expect you to just throw it away and buy another one.

Thanks Boss.

I and tired of seeing "Its a boss what can I say" in this section, Boss pedals DO go wrong and I have seen plenty of Boss pedals on ebay which need repairing.

USELESS VOMIT.

Boufgt in 1990, never been gigged, now broken, hardly used because I bought several multi effects machines soon after I bought it.
I have never been happy with the delay length, I need about 1.5 seconds and at the time NO pedal did that.
There are now better pedals than the Boss which do not cut off the delay when you switch it off, like the boss.

Three sweep rotary knobs and one incremental mode knob. All clearly labelled and unambiguous in what they do. And, of course, that great slab of a Boss footswitch plate. This unit is delay made easy.

As it is mounted on my pedalboard it is powered from a mains converter, so failing batteries are not a consideration. HOWEVER when I first acquired it I did notice how willingly it ate PP3 9 volt cells. There is no way I would use this pedal without mains power.

I generally use the DD-3 to colour clean blues solos, so it is used in a fairly subtle way. But when the mood takes me I like nothing better than to crank up the delay and feedback and have a bash at some John Martyn Inside Out-type stuff. Getting the sound? no problem. Hitting the right notes? well that's nothing to do with the DD-3...

The HOLD function I played with at home but would never risk using it in a live situation. Come to think of it, I can't think of any reason why I would need to use the HOLD function in a live situation.

Very transparent sound, with little or no sound colouring as far as I can tell.

The DD-3 is the final processing stage in my pedalboard. Like the other FX units it is powered by a 9 volt 1,000 mA stabilised power supply. Why it took me so long to put a pedalboard together is beyond me! Apart from mains power, secure patch leads, a safe, robust flight case to protect the stompboxes and much reduced setting up/breaking down times, what have the Romans ever done for us?!?

But I digress. Guitars {2x Les Paul, 1x HSS Strat) go into:-

Boss CS-3 >> Morley Power Wah >> Rat II >> Boss DD-3 which then feeds either a Hiwatt Dr103 or a Marshall 30 watt combo, depending on venue size.

When I fitted the DD-3 to my pedalboard I didn't tell the rest of the band. At the first gig when I used used it for the first time on a Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac number, our keyboard player was seen leaning forward over his keys mouthing "what the f*ck was THAT?"

I assume he was taken aback by the fattening and sweetening of a clean out-of-phase Les Paul sound. It really does make a massive difference to clean sounds. I don't tend to use the DD with huge overdrive.

It is a pretty versatile unit, I can easily get a good Shadows approximation to seriously upset our drummer when the Apache lick is thrown into a solo. Mostly I don't want an overly intrusive "daaaang-yaaang" delay. A more subtle, atmospheric quality to simple yet emotive blues lines is all I seek. The DD-3 delivers but I can't always say the same for the guitarist!

Overall I am impressed with the DD-3 and find its quietness and lack of colouring as satisfying as its versatility and ease of use.

This pedal was bought second-hand, albeit only six weeks after it was initially sold. Being a Boss played a big part in my decision to buy second-hand. They are known for being rugged and reliable, and working pretty well. I can't ignore the fact I paid half RRP for it though!

I play regular gigs with a blues band and the odd pick-up rock'n'roll band with some mates.

I find that four FX units (or five if I opt to use my old Electo Harmonix talkbox) are enough to give me plenty of total variety for the blues band. Compression, wah, distortion and delay provide the principal characteristics. Pickup selection and use of guitar volume and tone pots provide the subtleties.

The DD-3 has added an extra dimension to my sound that is both subtle yet noticeable. When I need a bit of slap-back for some good old Rock'n'Roll I am confident it is easy to set up the sound and the DD will deliver. I would have little hesitation in having another DD-3 if my current one were lost or stolen. The chances of it actually failing are pretty remote. And the fightcased pedalboard means that knobs, switches etc. are far, far less vulnerable to damage.

It's a Boss. It does what it says on the tin. Yeah, I'd have another one! Actually I'm quite happy with the one I have...

easy enough to use 4 knobs . i pulled this one out of the drawer after my 4 month old sib mr echo switch went bad.and after not using this pedal for a while i forgot how weak it was......oh did i mention it is dark and weak?

i use about 6 different guitars through a fender hotrod deluxe and vox ad30vt.this is the 2nd dd3 ive owned.the first one back in 1993 wish i still had that one because i really liked the realtime feedback control it had.......now the new taiwan made one is weak, dark,and just all around crappy sound.it is next to useless. the repeats dont have any umph at all.

it is a boss ive never had any realibabilty problems i will give them that.

n/a

i play psycadellic rock and like to add feedback while changing the delay time in real time this pedal is not up to the task.i also use an sib"mr echo" which is much mor bright and musical and smokes the dd3 by a mile.but this pedal needs a new switch which is a common problem with that model...i also have a ds1 distortion which does not sound like the old ones......in short all their taiwan made stuff is junk. boss has declined from a top notch company to making useless crap...i could go on about the me50 multieffects processor but thats another story.i need a good delay for my pedalboard and may get a digitech digdelay as the line6 is noisy.

It is pretty easy to get the sound you might want out of this pedal. I had no problem getting what I wanted and don't even have the manual ! Pink Floyd/Radiohead sounds are super easy to get.

The sound kicks A$$ for what I have as far as gear, which isn't that much. I play through a 2004 American Deluxe Tele to a Fender Twin Reverb, my pedals in order from left to right are DD-3, PS-5, Mt-2, and BD-2 (Keeley mod), what can i say, i like Boss.

Like i said above, very easy to get Radiohead/Pink Floyd sounds, The BD-2 going through the DD-3 sounds great when playing "Comfortably Numb"

With the PS-5 and DD-3 together you can get somw Bad ass RADiohead sounds, spacey,spacey,weird, great stuff.

Boss has always been reliable, extremely, but i never had to call them or anything.

Never had to call

I play just about everything exept death metal. I've been playing guitar for 6 years. With my gear it sounds awesome BUT it is the only delay pedal i have owned but i dont think i'm missing anything by not getting DD-5 or DD-6, IT suits my just fine with the style i have which i pretty broad.

Not too hard to use. I imagine if you need to sync to midi gear your clocks would wander, but thats the beausty of live sound.

I would play this through any set up. It does sound very good, however keep in mind it is a digital pedal. i took this thing apart and looked at and I was like, WOW this is a serious work of circuitry. It may be digital, but it has all the integrity of a botique shop analog pedal. This is made in Japan.

Made in Japan. Rock solid

No need.

Glad to own a pedal like this!!!!!!1

its real easy to get good sounds out of it. takes a little getting used to how to dial in what you want it to do, but that makes sense since delay pedals are a bit more in depth than your standard 3 knob overdrive pedals. the manual is alright. okay, i never read it. i guess that goes to show how easy it is to use this.

my main setup is as follows: Les Paul > Maxon OD808 > Boss DD3 > Blues Junior. it isn't noisy, so thats a huge plus. the effect sounds great. i got this for a few reasons. one being that i'm a lone guitarist and i wanted to make my sound a bit bigger in some songs. i also wanted to add some atmosphere in a few tunes. also, i just think that delay, when used sparingly, is an awesome effect. i picked this unit because its been around for so many years and there are a few bands that i love that use this pedal. also, it was in my price range. i bought it without trying it and its absolutely a keeper.

seeing as though there are about 120ish reviews for this pedal and only 15 people put down scores for customer support and i'm sure that out of the 15, not even half of them contacted the company because of a defective dd3, i think this is very reliable. also, i've had several boss pedals before. boss doesnt always make the best sounding pedals, but they are among the most reliable.

never had to contact them, which is how i like it

I play brit-rock and the like. Influenced by Oasis, The Beatles, Coldplay, Dave Matthews Band, BRMC, Interpol, and other bands. I've been playing for almost 6 years and have owned a lot of gear for only playing for <6 years. Aside from multi fx units, i've only had one other delay/echo pedal and that was the Danelectro Dan-echo. It sounded great, but i could never get exactly what i wanted out of it. Not knocking it though. I did have it a few years back, I'm sure if i had it now i'd be more capable of finding use for it. If it were lost, i'd definitely by another one. this pedal has given me a lot of inspiration. I was contemplating either this or the Line 6 Delay (whatever its called...) but went with this for a few reasons. One is that its Boss and I know that it wont break on me (unlike EHX pedals). Another being that there are a few bands whose delay sound i wanted to somewhat emulate use this pedal, and it wouldnt have been smart to get any other delay pedal other than the one i'm trying to emulate.

Very easy to use, simple and straight forward. Didn't even look at the manual, there's pretty much no reason to.

The DD-3 is probably THE most popular digital delay floor pedal of all time. It's easy to use and gives you a good range of delay setting to work with. Not noisy, doesn't color the guitar's sound when off. The repeats on the delays have a specific sound to them though. I can tell the DD-3 apart very easily - the repeats have a hint of coldness to them. It's a digital delay after all, but the point is that digital is supposed to copy the note exactly as it comes in and it doesn't. Some people like the sound of it, I don't. It's a matter of taste I guess, but the point is that it definitely has it's own digital/cold sound.

It's a BOSS. Don't need to say much more :)

Never needed it for BOSS.

I play everything from jazz to rock, funk and blues. I play on recording session of all kinds, on my own projects and live. I'm a professional musician in Los Angeles. I've been playing for about 15 years and have owned and played A LOT of effects - I'm very picky about sounds :)

You kind of have to learn how to use it, but once you do its very easy to get a desired sound out of it.

Use this with my Fender stratocaster and a charvel 15 watt amp. It doesnt create any extra noise. The sounds are always great! I can always get the exact sound I am looking for and its beautiful. It repeats sounds perfectly. I also sometimes plug this in through my microphone and it creates a perfect echo of my voice. Perfect for many uses.

It will never break, but the battery will die after about an hour of playing. But that doesnt mean you'll actually get an hour of playing in, since the quality starts to go down after a half hour and you'll have to re-adjust the knobs to get the desired sound again. Basiclly, if you get this you MUST get the boss power adapter. If you do, this pedal is perfect.