Boss DD-5 Digital Delay

I bought this 2nd hand and so have no manual. As other users have mentioned the knobs are a little small to handle all the functions. However mine does allow you to change delay range/type while playing so not sure what a previous reviwere was referring to. With over 10 functions it is not simple but that's not why you buy these multi delays - lot's of stuff to play with! It would be nice if the tap tempo could be operated on the pedal and not need another footswith to operate.

Right, this is a large-scale manufactured DIGITAL Delay and sounds like one. If you crave the warmth and decay of a boutique analogue delay run as far away from this as you can, they are very different animals. If your idea of tone ecstacy is the purest signal going into valves polished on the thigh of a cuban virgin driven amp this pedal will not cheer you up.

However, if you want a reliable & practical delay this is a very useful pedal. There is a massive range of delay (upto 2secs) as well as reverse and hold function. The hold function is pretty useful for lonely guitarists as it allows you to loop upto 2secs and then play over the top. Unfortunalty you can't totally cut the dry signal when using the reverse but it's still fun to piss around with.

From a reasonable "slap echo" to non-sense runaway etheral feedback this pedal wil capapbly look after you everyday needs.

Mine is old, still works. Boss are pretty consistent

No manual avaliable from Boss. I know you don't make it any-more but that's hardly fair!

I bought this to make huge long swooshy noises and it suits this pupose admirably. As delay tends to radically change your whole tone I can't say any of my kit seems to get along with it any beeter than others. Humbuckers and Single coils all get the same treatment. I have found that using huge delaytimes and feedback can be a bit much for my little 5W combo and it's 8" speaker. If you going for noise, you'll need a bigger boat!

There are a huge number of things to change and set, so nope, this stomp box is not easy to use, but it's a whole load of fun playing with all the settings. Well you can't expect to have just ONE control on your digital delay, it's not a phaser or a simple volume pedal, so in all fairness I'll give this a 8.

I use it with a standard Japanese strat with 011 gauge strings. It is not noisy, just very clean and nice sounding. Remember folks this is a DIGITAL delay, yes d.i.g.i.t.a.l, not analog, so don't expect this to sound like your old analog delay unit. I used a capacitor across the feedback pot and got a bit of high rolloff and it does sound like an analog delay after that change, though it's a real right royal pain to unscrew everything and access those leads.

It does what it's supposed to, and does a great job. I've had mine ... I dunno how many years, probably 6-7 (?) and it has never given me a problem.

Never any problem so far, I'd gig with it.

Never needed.

This is a great delay, but my only concern is power consumption. When I measured using an ammeter, this baby was up to 59 milliamps, while most other pedals were around 8-15mA. I believe the DD-6 consumes less power. This may be a concern when daisy chaining the power supply. I looked at the Boss charts and it says this pedal takes 62mA, so mine is in the ballpark.

Yeah, it's a great pedal, but if lost, I'll take a look at the bazillion other delays out there, maybe there's something which I'll like more.

Mine is a Humphrey Audio analog MOD unit, MUCH better tone!
Easy to use if you know anything at all about what you want in a delay unit.

I own 6 of his modded pedals. JUST DO IT!
He can get all the best out of your stuff. He also sells new and used pedals that are modded.

5humphrey@charter.net is the contact.

I use an original Dean ML, A newer Fender MIM Strat, A Carvin Bolt, and a Gibson FireBrand SG from the early 80's.

I use a Carvin Legacy combo as my primary amp

Mark Humphrey has taken what was an OK delay and made it great with his Analog MOD. Now the repeats are a little darker sounding and that digital /Thing' is gone.

Very heavy pedal, well built.
I trust Humphrey's internals also, so I'm not worried.

Mark Humphrey answered every question I had before, during, and after I purchased pedals from him, or had him work on mine.

I know I have a friend in tone!

I play southern rock and blues stuff all the way to '3 Doors Down' and everything in between.
Started playing in the mid 70's, haven't let up yet. Had about every guitar, amp, and effect out there.
This is the best sounding delay I've had by far.
Now that Humphrey took the edge off it, it sits sweet in the mix.
It's a keeper.

The small "Boss knobs" do not suit this pedal very well. It can be frustrating selecting between 8-10 modes with a small knob that isn't labeled. Well labeled knobs and a digital screen are a necessity in a pedal that has this many functions. See the Boss DD-20 Delay Pedal. The ability to use the Stereo Outputs is a nice feature.

This pedal gives your clean guitar signal a sterile robotic sound. When switching through the modes, the sound is cut off. That makes on the fly delay changes impossible. A very poor design.
After playing the Boss DD-20 I've realised that all Digital Delays are not created equal in the tone dept. The Boss DD-20 has a much fuller and more natural sound. It also has a "Tone" knob that allows you to change the color of your sound a bit. If you play strictly distorted notes through this pedal you may not notice. But clean guitar suffers coming through this unit.

Boss pedals are built like tanks. I've never had one die on me. But be careful with the knobs. They could break off fairly easy.

Boss has a nice website. I've never had to deal with them. 10 pts. for an imformative website.

I've been playing guitar and creating music for over 7yrs now. I'm a versatile guitarist, but I really enjoy playing music in the vein of Bloc Party, Coldplay, U2, Doves, and Blur. I play 2 Fender Teles through a Fender Blues Jr. at practise, and a Fender Hot Rod Deville live. I'm very picky about my gear. I look at Build Quality, Sound Quality, and Price. I found that you always get what u pay for. But I always find the best equipment used.
I bought this delay because of its multiple functions such as: Reverse, Stereo Outputs, ability to plug in external pedal for tap tempo. Currently I've found the Boss DD-20 and it blows this pedal away hands down in every category.

If you want a digital delay that has many functions, I highly recommend the Boss DD-20

If you want the digital delay sound, it can be had for much cheaper than this unit.

Use your ears and decide for yourself. Good luck.

Easy enough to get it to work at all. Utterly simple to make it sound like The Edge. A lot trickier to make it sound in any way good.

I use a Tele, a Marshall Ed-1 Compressor, a standard CryBaby and a Boss OD-1 through a Marshall AVT20. First of all, this thing is indeed robotic and mechanical if you don't treat it like the snivelling little electronic scumbag that it is. At settings 1-2, if you're trying for that 50s-retro slapback echo Sun Studios thing, it sounds, frankly, terrible - not retro at all but with horrible clipped digital distortion. Open up the delay time and crank up the effect level and you just sound like U2, which is not my idea of fun (when I was in school in ireland in the 1980s every guitarist except me wanted one of these damn things). Turn down the effect level, until it's just a faint whisper in the background, and it's quite nice for that I'm-in-a-poodle-rock-band-wailing-away-in-a-stadium feel. Like John Sykes on a late Thin Lizzy album. I can't get the damn sample/hold thing to work rhythmically at all, having neglected to learn to play guitar with my feet.

My favourite effect is probably the much-hated reverse echo. Turn up the volume and have a go at playing "Within You Without You" and it's almost like there's a sitarist in the room! But not really. It's slightly nauseating in a bad-acid-trip kind of way that I like.

Neat trick: if you turn the effect level and feedback up to max, and the delay time down to minimum, then play a phrase, it will repeat as a very slow-decay backwards loop - and if you now turn the delay knob all the way up to maximum, the loop will slow down in speed and drop an octave lower! The opposite is also true, in that if you start the delay time at maximum, play something and turn the delay to minimum, your little loop will speed up to amphetamined chipmunk velocity. Oh how we laughed.

Eats batteries. I wouldn't use it at all without a power supply. Seems pretty sturdy though.

I can't quite remember why I bought this. Now I own it, I can only imagine using it for very recondite purposes. The digital distortion and "stepping"effect as the echoes die away is remarkably ugly, and it gobbles up battery power. But if I ever find myself in some sort of trance/ambient/coffee table electronica ensemble, I'm sure it'll come into its own. The older I get (been playing for 20 years) the more I just want to plug a guitar straight into an amp and do all the rest with my hands.

This pedal is so simple to figure out. The manual is easy to understand. The tap tempo pedal(FS-5U) is easy to install. Just tap 4 times to set your desired tempo.

Les Paul Classic=Crybaby Wah=TS9=Fulldrive 2=Boss TR-2=Ernie Ball Volume Pedal=Boss DD-5(taptempo)=Digitech XDD delay====Behringer AC112 Vintager(65 watts)

This pedal sounds awesome, it's very clear. It's not noisy at all.
You can get the sounds of U2 & Coldplay with the tap tempo. It compliments my overdrive. It's sounds awesome with volume swells and with the Ebow.

It's built very well, like every other Boss pedal.
I've done many gigs with it and it never fails me!!!!!!

I have never dealt with the company.

I play alot of colplay, u2, and hillsong songs, so it's perfect for me. GET THE TAP TEMPO PEDAL!!! I can't live without. I always leave it on mode 9, which is a dotted quarter note. 8,10,and 11 are good too. The reverse is cool, u just need to master it at the right tempo. I have a Digitech XDD delay too and it sucks compared to the DD-5. You have to hold the pedal down for 3 seconds inorder to use the tap tempo, which is a pain in the ass when your playing live. The DD-5 can be bypassed, and you can set the tempo even when the pedal is off and it will save it when you turn it on. I LOVE IT!!!
I will be buying another one very soon and I will get rid of my Digitech XDD!

For the number of thing which are possible with this pedal, the knobs are too small and it's hard to see which position your switches are in. I was looking for something a little simpler.

This is wher the thing really falls apart. I've got a THD UniValve and usually play my Ernie Ball Music Man John Petrucci guitar through it...once in awhile I'll play my Peavey Wolfgang. Alone I just love these combos but plug the DD-5 in and all hell breaks loose. The sound isn't predictable any more. As you turn the volume up on your guitar, theres a brash raspy sound that comes up with it. Almost sounds like the snares on the bottom of a snare drum buzzing in the background. It totally destroys the sweet tube sound of an over driven amp. The sound gets very harsh but not in a good metal or rock way...just nasty.

I'll bet this thing lasts for ever. It's sturdy for sure.

Didn't try it.

I play mostly classic style rock. I've been playing for about 15 years.

Amps: Peavey, Mesa Dual Rect., THD Univalve (excellent amp!), ZVex Nano-head
Guitars: too many to list, 17 electrics and 4 acoustics.

If it were stolen, I would not replace it. I was looking to simply add a little ambiance in my dry recording studio but this thing is not usefull for that pupose.

I tried a couple others,...Line 6 stomp and the GigaDelay but it was in a very noisey guitar center (you guess which one). The sales guy said take it home, if you don't like it, bring it back...gues what's happening tomorrow.

I also bought the Digital Reverb DV-5 and yes, I do know the difference between reverb and delay. For what it's worth, the reverb unit isn't much better but is a little truer to it's implied use.

Not very difficult to use. If you are player using pedals, then it's just another delay else ask some guitar buddies to help you out.

This is where Digital Delay sucks. It sounds extremely artificial and the repeats are so distinct without adding that slight ambience that Analog Delays do. The decays are not natural and it decays in exact fixed steps like it's being programmed. The fact is it must be that way. There is no ambience or warmth added. No reverb kind of feeling. If you play like a lifeless mechanical robot then please go ahead and buy this one. It will suit you. If you think life exists in music, then throw this shit brick.

Solid. Built like a tank, blah, blah, ...

Never dealt with them.

If you just want a pedal that is built like a tank then get this one. If you expect it to sound good, then forget this stuff. Total junk. I have a Rocktron Short Timer which is also a Digital Delay. The feel is totally different and pretty much closer to the sound of Analog Delays. This one is 100% junk. No wonder only mindless shredders use this and are happy about it. Suits their lifeless music.

4 knobs. Delay level, Feedback, Delay time, Mode. 1 Input, 2 Outputs for Stereo delay, Tap tempo input.

Mode 1-4: Delay times 1 ms - 2000 ms
Mode 5: Hold mode, Loop over yourself
Mode 6: Reverse Delay
Mode 7: Stereo Delay
Mode 8-11: 4 different types w/ tap tempo, doesn't use delay time knob.

Very simple delay. Just decide how loud you want delays to be, delay time (1 ms - 2000 ms), how many delay repeats you want, and which mode you'd like.

Epiphone Les Paul Standard - Vox V848 - Pro Co. Rat II - Ibanez TS9 - Boss BD2 - Boss DD5 - MXR Micro Amp - Fender Hot Rod Deluxe (1x12 tube).

No noise.
Modes 1-4 sounds good
Mode 5 is hard to control and only has 2 seconds of loop time
Mode 6 is terrible
Mode 7 is useful only if you have 2 amps
Modes 8-11 sound exactly the same as Modes 1-4 except you use the tap tempo to set your delay time instead of the knob.

I only use Modes 8-11 with the tap tempo. It's a must for me to be able to have quarter note, eighth note, or triplet delays that much up with the tempo. If you're not gonna use the tap tempo feature, I'd suggest getting the Boss DD-3 Delay instead. It's cheaper and still has all of the useful features of the DD-5 except for the tap tempo.

The Boss DD5 doesn't have the warm Analog delay sound. The DD5 is much more bright and precise. The DD5 sounds best clean but can still sound good with a little overdrive. The slapback on these doesn't sound the best. I'd want to use an analog delay if I was going for that sound.

Very dependable. They don't make these delays anymore. Because there's about 10 new ones selling on eBay every week, you can see that these delays will last because these aren't new s. I just got mine made which was made in 1995.

Great for all types of music. If all you're looking for is a little slapback or reverbish-delay, I would definetly go with an analog instead. Been playing for 4 years. This is my first delay I've owned but I've tried 3 others out. If it were stolen, I'd buy this one again.

I love the tap tempo feature on this pedal. If it wasn't for this feature, I wouldn't have bought the pedal. I only use the quarter note, eighth note, and triplet modes on this pedal (modes 8, 10, 11). I don't like the reverse delay. I wish Boss would've done a better job in making this mode. I wish you could choose which type of delay you wanted to use like on the Line 6 Echo Park Delay. For instance, you can choose Digital, Analog, or Tape delays.

I've have used the Boss RV-3 Digital Reverb/Delay, Boss DM-3 Analog Delay, Line 6 DL4 Delay er.
-The RV-3 sounds just like the DD5 except there is no tap tempo insert.
-The DM-3 has a great sound but only allows 300 ms of delay, no tap tempo, only has 1 standard mode, unnatural cutoff of delay when turned off, and is much more expensive.
-The Line 6 DL4 has many delays and features, but costs $250, runs off of it's own power supply, and is very big and bulky.

These are the reasons I ended up choosing the Boss DD5. If you're looking for the best digital delay made, this is it. Just find one cheap on eBay. And don't buy the DD6 instead.

To me, this pedal is pretty much a no-brainer, with the exception of the added features from the DD-3. A player could easily not know where to start with all of the features here, however, they are not difficult to figure out how to use.

It's kind of hard to screw up delay -- After all, it is just reproduction of the sound. Hell, Boss does a pretty damn good job here; this is a favorite pedal of mine. However, the sound reproduction is admittedly very quantized, which shows up very clearly if you are not running this in front of a guitar amp (otherwise, it's not so obvious). It kind of sucked when I tried doing some ambient and was recording direct -- very compressed. But, as a pedal in front of an amp, it does the trick. B+

It's a Boss.

Never dealt.

I kind of wish the features option were available in the effects reviews, since that is what I base most of my judgment on this pedal on -- personally, I think this is the best bang-for-the-buck delay pedal Boss has made (it's a shame they're no longer in production!). While I prefer my DD-3 for knob and pitch-twisting (since that has been "fixed" in all settings for the DD-5 except the reverse delay), my DD-5 lets me attach the external footswitch for tap tempo, has a decent reverse delay (if hard to use -- the delay doesn't have any kind of dynamic filter like the rest of the delays on this pedal), has more than enough delay time, and reproduces the signal decently. I've always believed that delay is the most versatile effect a guitarist can have, and Boss really had a gem with this pedal. It's really too bad they're no longer in production, especially since the DD-6 is so damn awkward to operate (that "built-in" tap tempo feature is likely one of the worst things Boss has ever integrated into their pedals -- My PH-3 has glitches with this feature).