Boss DD-5 Digital Delay

this is a follow up to the review I posted yesterday comparing the dd-5 and dd-6. I played with them a bit more and realised you CAN set note values for the tap on the dd-6. I still like the dd-5 more though because the dd-6 is clumsy to operate.

This pedal is easy to use, but it's versatility means that it takes awhile to discover all that it can do. Good owner's manual. This pedal does a TON of stuff.

I play an american strat or les paul w/p90s thru either a boss dual overdrive or big muff pi into the dd5 to my marshall valvestate 8240. very versatile setup. the dd5 adds no noise. It also adds punch to the signal when I'm already very distorted (as with the muff).
I mainly wanted to share what I've learned re: the reverse mode -- it is excellent for long, slow bends a la albert king. It is especially effective paired with the boss overdrive. the slapback, reverby and edge-like tones are already well-documented.

Eats batteries like oprah eats donuts. I've had the unit for four years. No other problems. (I'm buying a power supply.)

n/a

I have been play blues and rock for 12 years, but this pedal would be great for any type of music.
If somebody stole this, I would poke my eyes out with a pencil, then get another.
I got it to experiment with edge-y delays and found much more. For slow blues/ballad solos, TRY the reverse delay.

ok...so i gave it a 4...not that its HARD to use, but for a boss stompbox, its pretty complex.

Agile Hornet lefty--->ns2-->cs3-->mt2-->sd1-->hf2-->eh2-->dd5--Marshall 15watt. sounds great mixed with every one of my other effects. as far as i can tell, it reproduces the sound perfectly. on light delay, you can get a real nice reverb.

im sure someone has already mentioned what all the settings do...but i have to add that i find the reverse delay to be completely useless. BUT the 2 second loop or hold i think they call it is very cool if ya wanna lay down a 2 second rhythym and lead on top of it. i dont own the footswitch so modes 8-11 are useless to me. also, the "fade out" feature is nice, so when you shut the pedal off, the delay will fade out, and not just cut off.

i also want to comment on the manual...it tells you everything you need to know, and also gives you preset suggestions which sound good.

BOSS! take more stomping than a cockroach

i heard they're shitty, and not to deal with them. personally ive never had to so NA.

i play everything, but mostly metal...sounds very cool with arpeggios. if it were stolen or lost, i might just go for the dd3, since its cheaper and i dont use the dd5 footswitch modes. ive been meaning to get a delay for 2 years now, and i finally broke down and bought one. very happy with the purchase, has more than what i need, and sounds great so 10

only problem i really have with it is that to switch modes, you have to bend over and turn the knob...definately one of those pedals you put up on a stool to tinker with.

NOTE - if using a noise supressor, just make sure to put the dd5 AFTER the OUT on your ns2, and not in between the send/receive.

This is my first delay pedal. It's pretty good and it's easy to dial in your sounds. I flipped through the manual briefly and it took me less than a minute to find the sounds I wanted. It offers quite a lot of delay features too, which is always nice. I primarily bought this for the delay effect itself, but mainly the reverse mode.

OK first off, unlike everyone else I am *not* a guitarist. I play piano and I use this pedal on my Yamaha CS1x synth. I also have a small, maybe primative MIDI studio running too. My current setup is: Yamaha Synth -> Boss DS-1 -> DD-5 -> Roland KC-300 keyboard amp. The synth's MIDI in/out is wired to my PC running Fruity Loops and various VST plugins/softsynths. The quality on this pedal is pretty good, I'd give it a 10, but it's an 8 for making random "popping" noises, regardless if the pedal is on or not. Even if I leave my synth OFF, but the amp is still plugged in and the pedal connected, I still get popping noises. Other than that, this pedal sounds pretty wild on a synth, especially if I'm running a patch with a delay already on it.

So far I haven't done any shows with it, and I probably won't. Like other people have mentioned before, this thing eats batteries. It goes through batteries so fast, it's ridiculous! I saved some money by buying the power supply. also, one day I was playing and it just crapped out on me. I had it for about a month and it just died. I thought it might have been the battery, so I poppedd a new 9V in. It would barely turn on. I didn't touch it for a couple of days, then I got the power supply. It's working fine, except for that annoying popping noise. I thinking of selling it and getting the DD-6 instead. That has stereo inputs, so I'd definitely benefit from that.

Never dealt with them.

I write and play a lot of electronic music. I do a lot of Detroit Techno, ambient, soundscapes, and some downtempo as well. The DD-5 works out very well, not just for the reverse delay, but some of the shorter delay modes too. Lost or stolen? I'd feel bummed because it is a pretty good delay pedal, except for the popping. If I still wanted a stompbox-type delay, I'd probably go with the DD-6, only because it's stereo, and that helps when you're a keyboard player. Tap tempo on a stompbox doesn't serve a purpose for me since I'm running FX and softsynths on the computer.

www.acidplanet.com/piccolo_pete to hear some of my stuff.

I messed around with this pedal for about a week and I got familiar with its capabilities. Its really fun to use and not to difficult to understand if your new to delays. For some a dd-3 would be fine, but if your into getting a bit weirder an arty with your guitar this one would be the way better choice.

Im using it with a mid 70's fender quad reverb (not twin) and a tele it sounds really cool. The repeats have a tiny bit of high frequencies to them but thats digital for you. The pedal sounds great to whatever i play with

never EVER had any problem with boss products and if i ever do i won't trust in anything anymore.

never had to talk to mr. boss about anything

I love this pedal and pretty much everytime i plug into play it gets used. if it were stolen or lost i would replace it with a dd-5 for sure. I couldnt imagine playing with out it. The hold feature is kind of a tease becuase its only 2 seconds long but still serves a good enough purpose to be on the pedal. good overall I LOVE THIS PEDAL

if you dont understand how simple this pedal is, you're a retard and you should stop playing guitar. the pedal doesnt suck, you probably suck. that simple.

the sound is amazing. but in your pedal chain of command have it go before any distortions or choruses. but after your noise supressor and octave.

so ive owned a DD-5 for a long time now. but when the DD-6 came out, i had to borrow it. The DD-6 is CRAP compared to the DD-5. to get the right tap tempo, you have to do much more than plug a sustain footswitch into a jack. other than that, its the same effin' pedal.

this pedal is the best delay. i even like it better than the line 6 green monster that everyone is now buying. its simple, and great. just make sure you buy a cheap yamaha sustain footswitch for like $15 and plug that sucker into the tempo input and youre set.

You know the core. Standard delay fare. See reviews below.

Love it. Doesn't color sound, it's quiet and all that other jazz. This pedal is a permanent fixture in my rig. I also use a DD-3 for slap back delay in place of reverb ('cause I think reverb is messy in live situations) but the DD-5 won a place in my heart because of the tap tempo capability. Nothing like a sweet sounding delay that's in time with the back beat. Perfect for sloppy wet sounds and sexy washes. I love this pedal. For me, this pedal can do no wrong.

Doesn't get a 10 'cause heck, nothings perfect.

I agree with one poster who said this thing eats batteries really fast. 'Cause it does. Although, no problems now, I got a Pedal Power 2. Thank you Voodoo lab.

2 years constant gigging no problmes. I gig without a backup.

n/a

I play mostly alternative type rock and blues. Think Radiohead meets SRV. Playing 9 years and counting.

My favorite feature has got to be the tap tempo. My least favorite is the reverse mode. It sounds cool, but there's no way for me to effectively use that live.

If I lost it I'd be pissed 'cause Boss came out with that lame-O DD-6 with no external tap tempo support. Then I'd hit ebay up for another one.

It's easy to use if you know how to use a delay pedal. If you have never used one, it may be a bit more difficult. I bought this pedal when I had no idea what i was doing and just fooled around with it. I find it very easy to use now of course (years later) and the tap tempo is probably what sets it apart from other digital delays.

I find this pedal to be very transparent in my taste. I never thought it would be after reading some of the other reviews on it but it is actually one of the main pedals of my guitar sound/tone. I use all sorts of pedals in my pedalboard but I play a '68 Tele through a '66 Blackface Deluxe Reverb. I find this pedal to be a great asset for me. The main thing about this pedal is how CLEAN it is. Its incredible for that; it's also reacts/works very well with the Boss RV5's hall, room and spring reverbs. I do not find it to be hollow sounding on its own, it is a digital delay though so it will not be as warm as an analog delay of course. I have the line 6 dl4 as well and I actually use the DD5 for all my digital delay sounds still because it the DL4 colors my tone more and reacts weird coming after my TS808. The reasons to buy this pedal: transparent, clean, not noisy, U2-ish, great digital delay sound. It may lack some warmth but you can make that up in other ways for your overall tone.

It's boss...you see beat up 20 year old boss pedals on eBay and they are still kickin hard. It must be reliable.

I give it an A. I think I said it all in the sound quality part.

It's a pretty standard delay pedal. Fx level, feedback, and delay time with a seperate knob that controls different functions that switch between delay time ranges to sample/hold to reverse to tap tempo. It's not too hard to get a good sound out of it, especially if you use the presets the manual provides. Swithcing between several different delay time ranges is a great idea since it would be difficult to dial in a good delay time between 0 ms and 2 seconds with just a tiny knob.

It doesn't get a 10 because as with all Boss pedals, they cram a lot of stuff into their pedals, and in order to modify it (see below) I ran into some problems taking it apart and putting it back together. A few wires popped loose, and it took me a lot of time to figure out where they went.

I run a modified sheraton or modified strat through an array of pedals which always includes a Visual Sound Jekyll and Hyde and either ends with an old Peavey classic amp or a Behringer V amp. The pedal sounds ok through both, but as with any digital delay, it sounds tinny and dry, BUT...

I added a .01 uf capacitor to the feedback knob to cut a bit of treble out of the mix, and it has worked miracles. It even sounds analog through my V amp, which is odd, because that's all digital. It doesn't sound as nice and warm as a real analog, but if you want the versatility and long delay times that digital pedals offer, this is probably the best sound you'll get for the money.

I give the sound quality a 7 because it needs to be modified to get a good sound.

It's a boss, so no questions on its reliability. I give it a 9 because of the mods I made with it, that the accidents I made and had to fix probably brought the reliabililty down a bit. As we all know, Boss is the standard in this category, so it only loses a point because my work on it wasn't perfect. But I'd certainly gig without a backup (actually, my V-amp is my backup).

I had a few other pedals that are out of production that I found that Boss parts fit, so I found it was easier to order replacemant jacks and other parts from Boss than to try and find vintage parts. In ordering components, customer support has been superb and their prices include shipping. They also have an option where you can send a boss pedal back to them and they'll fix it.

Long story short, it only takes a few minutes on the web to find the customer service number, and calling it usually puts you in touch with a rep fairly quickly, and that rep can get you components and service manuals from them (for a fee). I give these guys a 9 because for the quality of pedals boss makes, they shouldn't need to man those phones at all.

I play just about anything from rock to blues to jazz to bluegrass in a contemporary Christian praise band. I don't use the DD5 enough to warrant buying a new one were it stolen (plus they just released a DD6, so I might upgrade to that or pick up a DD3), but if I did, I certainly would do the "analog-esque" mod to cut a bit of the treble.

If you already own one of these, or any digital delay, I seriously recommend you do a treble-cut mod.

the pedal is fairly easy to use. You can get just about any kind of delay youd want out of it, including reverb-like sounds. The tap tempo feature is nice, but takes a little getting used to. Hence, the 7. The reverse delay is useless in stock form, check into the AnalogMan "KILL" mod. BEWARE: This thing eats batteries faster than any pedal I've ever seen!

I've used this pedal with a variety of amps, and my EVH-ized Yamaha Strat copy. Mainly though, I use my Peavey Rage 158. Don't laugh, I built a custom enclosure for it with a 12" to replace the 8". I get probably better tone than anyone out of that little transistor board. IT'S ALL IN THE PLAYER! The pedal is not noisy, it's digital, duh! I bought this pedal for mainly one thing, getting U2 Edge-like sounds. Set the Level at 3 o'clock, Feedback at 10 o'clock, and Mode on 9 (dotted eighth), use the tap tempo, and voila, you have the perfect "Where The Streets Have No Name" delay with the help of a compressor. (I use my CS-3 with the attack and sustain at around 10-11 o'clock.) My other favorite setting is courtesy of Satch. Set the Level and Feedback at 11 o'clock, D.Time at 9 o'clock, and Mode on 3. It gives a nice airy reverb-like delay that's not too short and not too long. On longer delays 600-800 I can get those Petrucci live solo sounds pretty easily. (If you've heard them, you know what I'm talking about.) Because it's not analog, I'm not going to compare the sound quality to analog.

It's a Boss. It would survive WW III.

Never dealt with them.

I play all kings of music from blues, to jazz fusion, to shred. This pedal is a great match for my setup because it's so versatile. I've been playing for about 7 years and it's had a home on my pedal board for the last 3. As my usual amp does not have built in reverb, I usually keep it on the Satch setting I mentioned above. If it were stolen, I'd probably beat the guy's head in who took it with either my TS9 or CS9, then go buy the replacement DD-6.

I looked at this and an old analog AD9 when I was shopping. For the same price, I got much longer delay times and the addition of the nice tap tempo. Sure, I may have lost that warm analog sound, but the tradeoff was worth it in my opinion.