Boss DD-5 Digital Delay

its got loads of knobs and features, maybe iam just dumb but i found it slightly confusing. iam sure any one with expereince with delays will be ok

its just so...........uninspiring!!! i know its digital but its a dull typeof dry noise, does nothing for me. i had a marshall echohead that i loved but it broke and i got this. never liked it from the day i got it so iam getting a memory boy next.maybe i should just getanother echohead

boss are throught my experience pretty good.

never used em!

considering bosses and there delays reputation i was, and still am dissapointed and largly underwhelmed with this pedal. ive heard the mxr delay and it sounds amazing. i get a bit sick of people saying its digital wot do you expect!!!! i expect to be inspired to play in a way i never usualy do, regardless of wots in the box!!! apparently this pedal is quite collectable now its been discontinued??? id sell it in a heart beat and buy a memory boy

I have to tell you, I gave it a five but It can be a ten. The delay time is easy to set and so is the mix as long as you are using 8 or 4. The rest well, the hold function is hard to use and to short the other sounds, they all sound so fake and week why would you want to even turn them on.

I wish i never bought one, but at the same time I know so many people that have one what the hell how could I give it any other rating. I???m just one man. It just a digital sound, fake, if this don???t bug you fine, but it does bug me.

it???s a boss petal. They???ll be around longer then cockroaches

there a big company, they act like one, just ask (the death to original gear)guitar center

if you have one you understand

I just read my old review which was two years ago, realised how bad the grammar and judgement was, so heres my second attempt, a little more detailed.

The DD-5 is as simple as it gets. However if you have never touched a delay unit before, dont expect to be able to manipulate it straight away. 30 minutes with the DD-5 and you'll have mastered it.
Your basic generic 3 knob controls with an extra control for different settings ie: milliseconds. (Just make sure your familiar with these settings)
External tap for me is essential. Very accurate with the DD-5. 4 Clicks, and your perfectly in time.

Sound quality (dispite previous reviews) is more than acceptable. Yes it's digital and no, it isn't true bypass, but as long as its in the right order with pedals that dont manipulate your signal path too much, it sounds fine. No hissing at all. If there is complaining about noise, I can almost completely guarentee you, its what else is in your signal path or the order of pedals in your signal path. Eg: For perfect performance from your DD-5, you should make sure you dont have too many digital effects in your signal path. Digitech pedals do not work well with Boss Digital delays. I have a simple rig of A ernie ball volume pedal, a vox true bypass wah, A visual sound jeckyll and Hyde, MI Audio Blue boy deluxe, Ibanez TS9, Moen Truebypass chorus,Carl Martin analog delay, my DD-5 and a DD-7. (I run two delays often at the same time. Can do some crazy stuff running them together.) Also have a Boss Tuner pedal that runs through the Volume pedal tuner input. That is the exact order, and my tone is hardly touched. I play through a 1993 Fender blues deluxe.
It's all up to preference really. I love analog delay tone but also realise that in the type of music I play, especially at Hills, analog delay isn't suitable. The DD-5 is by far the most popular delay at church. In comparison to say a TC electronics Nova delay, I find the DD-5 sounds a little less artificial. Most of the guys I know that bought a Nova Delay, have sold them and gone back to the DD-5.
Modding this pedal and installing a wet dry signal switch by Analogman is very beneficial.

Reliable? Extremely. Infact I can't find a digital delay that is even remotely as reliable. As stated previously, the settings are simple. Very easy to adjust in a hurry.
4 clicks of the tempo tap and your in.
Never had any technical issues. Not one.
What else can I say? 10/10 reliability.

Never had to deal with them. Can't imagine they would be all that helpful for a pedal this old though.

Note, this is my personal oppinion and I respect everyones judgment. It's all up to preference however I feel I've been honest in describing my 5 year ownership of this pedal.

Played countless brands of delay and I am involved in a fair bit of studio recording. The DD-5 has always came out on top for me in terms of reliablity and sound quality.

If it was stolen, I would buy one with the Analogman mods or Perhaps go to another extreme and blow my money on a diamond memory lane.

I don't think you can get a good sound out of this. You can have various delays, just not a good sound. It sounds incredibly flat to my ears.

I bought mine years ago, and never liked it. Enough said! I've used it with various amps--Fender Concert, Peavey Triple XXX super 40, and a Line 6 Flextone. It didn't sound good with any of them. I know some people could bash me for being hard on this product. I think it's too expensive for how it sounds. Good delay units are more expensive than a typical pedal. However, if you buy something for a purpose, and the tone sucks, what's the point? I never used mine, even though I like a nice delay. I recently bought a digitech hardwire delay pedal, which destroys my DD-5 in the quality of the delay sound provided. It was more money $150.00, but worth the extra because I'm able to actually use a delay now!

Boss is great with reliability.

If it were stolen, I would thank the thief because I suppose it's just going to sit in the corner of my closet anyway. I've owned lots of gear. Not so much these days. I do have an assortment of Boss distortion pedals, which I like very much. I think I will buy a Boss Chorus in the future. Anything I wish it had? Yeah, a good sound! This product is useable for players that just want a delay, and really don't care about the sound quality. I don't own high-end gear, so don't think I'm bashing it for that reason. I just always disliked this pedal greatly after turning it on! I bought it for the same reason a lot of players do: I wanted an affordable delay. However, it sounds too bad to like.

I find that all Boss pedals are pretty easy to use but for this pedal I had to download a manual, not that it's a bad thing because I bought it used. Once I played around with it I was on my way to delay funess.

It's a digital delay and also can affect your tone since it's not true bypass but I've figured out a way around this. I run it through my Psionic Audio Triad (look that pedal up also). The only section where this pedal can be glitchy is in the 2 second sample mode, it's kind of difficult to get a perfect loop, but I don't really play around with that section all too much. The reverse, all delay modes and the tap tempo option are great. I've recently put in an order for a Red Rocket Box "Star Box Tap Tempo" switch. I use it with my Hagstrom Viking and fender Jagstang through a Fender 4x10 Deville. I do get some cool Pink Floyd spacey delays out of this thing and it works great for soloing also. Of course mine sounds a bit cleaner because of the fact that I run it through my Triad. The only effect I have found that it sounds muddy through is intense fuzz, but then again it's fuzz.

I bought this pedal used and it has not given me any problems, but I have own a numerous collection os Boss pedals where they have gone glitchy. But I've always replaced them or sold them. This is my only delay at the moment.

Never had any experience with Boss customer service.

I play psychedelic rock which it works great for. I've been playing for 16 years and also play Psionic Audio pedals, Vintage FX pedals, Korg Tuner, Urso Music pedals, Fuzzie Bro pedals, Farndurk pedals, Vox wah, Hagstrom guitars, Fender guitars and amps. I did compare this pedal to the Line-6 DL4 and it wasn't hard to choose this delay over it. I've played shows and recorded with it, it's a good pedal overall.

You'll need to read the manual 'cuz there are lots of settings. It will take you some time otherwise. The manual is descriptive, and mine came with a sticker with all the settings which goes on the side of the pedal for easy reference.

This was my first delay pedal and I didn't know better. After playing other better pedals I must say the sounds from this one are thin and brittle. Sort of sterile. It's ok for that "brick in the wall" sort of thing if you're into it, but not for much else.

Mine was brand new but after a year and half there was a problem with the power. It would refuse to switch on at random. I've not seen this sort of a problem with other boss pedals. However my older DS-1 also died after 3 and a half years so maybe the QC is going downhill these days. I would look elsewhere.

What customer support?

Sort of OK pedal for a beginner but not something I'd trust for a gig.

You can't get easier to operate.

A bit sterile, but acceptable...

Monte Allums has a DIY mod to make it more 'analogish' but...

No pitch alteration whilst twiddling the delay knob?!Q?

OUtLANDixsh!!!

Don't use a PS with 500ma or more. This pedal will fail...

Boss PSU is 9v and 200ma... learn. X{P>

?

Does Boss supply actual people?

I hate it...

Bought on premise that I loved the DD-3 my friend had. Loved the pitch bend of the delay knob, but the DD-5 'fixed' this 'problem'?!?!

The pedal crams too many features onto a stomp box. The knobs are small and very difficult to change on the fly. You can forget about using tap tempo.

I play a Baker into a Reverend Kingsnake.
My pedal setup is: Budda Wah > Maxon OD-9 > Ernie Ball Volume Pedal > Pigtronix EP-1 > Pigtronix Echolution

The pedal doesn't suck tone or create noise, it sounds like a standard digital delay. If you like the pedal you can improve the tone with a high-cut mod by Analogman.

Features:
There isn't enough delay time (5 seconds) for looping to be constructive. The reverse delay does its job. The short delay times work well for reverb emulation. The tap tempo verges on being useless; it takes too much time to get going. I used the pedal for standard delay and it didn't fail me. Pray that you never have to change the settings on this pedal.

Despite conventional wisdom, BOSS pedals are not the sturdiest. I had no problems with it in terms of reliability.

I play jazz, blues, classic rock, and funk. I have played guitar for 11 years.
The pedal is inexpensive, packed with features, and will seem attractive to many. The pedal, however, is too difficult to use on the fly. I'd recommend investing extra money in a pedal that isn???t mediocre.

The ease of use is the main appeal for this pedal. The external tap tempo is super convenient for keeping up to the live tempo of a song, particularly when using the delay as a short-timed delay. I primarily use it for Christian rock/worship music.

Disappointing. The DD-5 reminds me of the RV-3 which has a thin brittle tone which I absolutely detest. A big reason these are selling for top $ on ebay is for the external tap tempo capabilities (w/o having to hold down the pedal for 2 seconds like the DD6). I don't mind the "clean" repeats that replicate a pristine delay. I just hate the trebly top end it creates on the repeats. Don't get me wrong, I use a Line 6 DL4 for more atmospheric analog stuff, so I don't want the DD-5 for that. I guess I wanted something close to the DD-2 which I currently use, but with an external tap tempo. The DD-2 is a better delay pedal by far tone-wise. In fact, I'm going to radioshack tomorrow to do a high-cut mod in one of my pedal mod ebooks from indyguitarist to try and get the pedal to sound less brittle and warm and more punchy like the DD-2. I will definitely a/b them side-by-side to try and tweak it to just the right treble roll off.

Boss pedals last forever.

I bought this pedal because a lot of well-known christian bands use it. Now I wonder if they like the convenience more than the tone. I think I'd like the pedal more if I never had the DD-2 to compare it with.

I've been playing guitar for a little over 10 years (blues, rock, christian worship/rock, funk) and I confess I am a gear junky. I do a lot of modding to pedals and tweaking to taste and have thus reached a point where I love all the pedals I have currently on my pedalboard. So, I definitely know what I like and do my comparisons based on these. If this were stolen, I don't know if I'd replace it... probably would if I dig the tone after I mod it, can't say otherwise.

It was really easy to use.

It sounds good. Used it to play some Mars Volta and it sounded nice.

For Sure.

Haven't had to yet.

Best pedal ive ever bought....and the only one. Sorry guys I kind of got a steal on this one.