Boss DD-6 Digital Delay

If you don't know what you're doing, can be a bit daunting. The infinite variability of the pedal can seems overpowering. But you soon fiddle with it enough to find what you like.

Bottom line: after an hour its a piece of kate

Love it. Clean delays are sparkling (even more gorgeous when paired with the cs-3), bluesey overdriven riffs sounds great. The pedal is quiet as a mouse, can really get a pumpkins delay sound if you want, and great for old delta blues with the overdrive.

for recording purposes, the reverse delay is useful for production flourishes and slight background tweaking.

my setup is fairly basic. ive got a '62 custom tele with texas special pickups, boss cs-3, boss dd-6, boss bd-2, boss tr-2, fender blues junior combo amp.

just love it.

its a boss: its a brick with an angel inside.

the top of the line boss delay currently available. don't mess with that statistic.

This pedal is very simple to use. There's nothing complicated here, folks. I don't understand all the fuss over the tap tempo function. You step on the pedal and hold it down for 2 seconds at most, then it enters tap tempo mode, with the LED flashing red and green. 2 taps with your foot will set the tempo. Just leave it in this mode if you want to continue changing your tempo in real time. You DO NOT have to shut the pedal off again in order to change tempos. Once in tap tempo mode, just leave it there and change the tempo a million times if you want. Just tap on it twice...that's it! Now if you want to shut the pedal completely off, you will have to hold it down for 2 secs to exit tap tempo mode. It's not that difficult.

This is a digital delay and it does what its supposed to do. I have a hi-cut mod by Analogman on mine and it sounds damn good. Very smooth without muddiness. This little box is very versatile, compact, and dependable. I tour professionally in Nashville and also do numerous sessions. I've seen too many DL4's bite the dust at the worst possible times...I'm a pro and this pedal is fine. You can count on it. If you want something that will hold up over time, don't hesitate to get this. I recommend the mod...it definitely improves the tone.

It's a Boss pedal. No worries here...I don't use a backup.

Never had to deal with them.

Most of the time I play country but I am classically trained and play jazz as well. This pedal is very versatile and the mod really makes it shine. Without the mod it's a little bright but not too bad. I've had the Japanese DD-2 and the DD-6 sounds better...it's smoother and can do more. The tap tempo function is very useful...don't let some of these other reviews scare you off. Go to the store and try it for yourself.

Pretty simple except for tap tempo. If you want tap tempo, go with the DD5. If you can change the tempo in real time without having to turn the pedal off again. The problem with the DD6 is like mentioned in other posts, you have to press and hold the footswitch for 2.5 seconds for tap tempo to engage. The LED will flash and you tap it in, then press and hold the footswitch for another 2.5 seconds. If you need to switch to another tempo, you have to turn it off and press and hold the footswitch and do the process over again unlike the DD5. Other than that it is straight forward.

Sound is robotic. No warmth. No decay. It does a fine job of being a delay stompbox. If you want something with good professional sound and you like good equipment, don't purchase this. No hum or unneccessary noise from the pedal. If you have used a Boss RV3, you know that once you turn the pedal off, you can slightly hear delayed effect very lightly in the background. DD6 does not do that.

It's boss, what do you think?

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I would suggest the line 6 DL4. There are many delay models on it along with tap tempo for each. This is essential for a live situation. For around the home and playing in the band with friends whatnot , the DD6 will work perfectly fine. Even though the line 6 is pricey, go for it, if you can't, i would maybe suggest the DD5 over the DD6

It is easy to get a good sound out of this pedal, but much harder to recreate a sound you've heard or want to recall.
The knobs are a little fiddly to set as depending on the delay mode, they can require very fine adjustment and I'm used to being able to tweek the huge knobs on my EH pedals with my toes!
I didn't get a manual as I bought this pedal off ebay, it's pretty self explanatory if you know how to use a delay pedal.
So overal for ease of use I'd say this pedal is fiddly to set but worth the hassle as they've crammed so much into such a compact box.

I use an Epi Les Paul Custom thru a battered Peavey Blazer 158 which is usually overdriven even on clean. Basically my set up is tempromental so even though I know this pedal does crystal clear repeats it still has an analog growl to it - so my advice is to use some grungy overdrive, especially on the 300ms setting which often sounds just like my bandmates vintage DOD analog delay!
This pedal loves other pedals, it bubbles and gurgles beautifully when introduced to my EH small stone, and has high pitched feedback arguments with my EH big muff!
You've got the full range of delay times from slap back to quasi-infinite soundscapery. Couple this with reverse delay and a 5sec looper, not to mention the on-the-fly insanity of warp mode, and you've got a hell of lot of options for your money.
Overall for this category I'd say that yes this pedal is digital and sparkly, but can easily be darkened with other pedals to suit your tastes and the bredth of sounds avalible is often overwhelming (and noisy!).

Can't see how anything would go wrong. Boss pedals really are built to last and I couldn't see this baby cutting out on my unless I subjected it to some serious abuse. I would definitely gig without a backup because the notion of a backup seems rather luxurious which isn't very rock n roll...

Seems built to last so hopefully i'll not have to find out what Boss's cusstomer service is like.

Great pedal. I play space/experimental/psycedelic rock which this pedal seems to be made for. Over-the-top wooshing noises and crazy feedback loops are easy to create (but difficult to control without blowing the audiences ears!) and equally subtle layers of shimmering sound can be conjured from this little box of magic.
If you're trying to create your own sound, this pedal is a great place to start. If you're tryint to imitate, the chances are that you can get the DD6 to recreate it!
Not the most fully featured pedal avalible but defintely the best sound and most usuable features for the money.

Plenty easy to use.

Sounds great. Good quality delay. backwards is the best thing that ever happened to me. i call it the solo saver, especially in a "jam" type setting.

boss.

don't know

here's my gripe. I should have known this before buying the pedal, and it doesn't take an owner of the pedal to realize it: something this versatile shouldn't be this compact. one footswitch is not enough for what this thing has to offer. I might keep it around for recording and back-up, or i might sell it, but i'm buying a line 6 delay. same/similar features that you can actually trigger at the same time on a gig. what's the use of a backwards delay (which, on this thing, by the way, is fantastic) if you can't have it on the same gig as your standard delay without crouching down and changing it between tunes. same gripe i have with my digitech synth wah, except that chances are i only need one sound out of that thing on a given gig. this is a fine pedal, but i guess i'm reminding potential buyers that the versatility that this thing has to offer might come better in a more footswitch-laden package like the line six or the new boss double pedal delay. (the latter of which i know nothing about - i'm just suggesting something with a little more on the fly versatility to go along with it's inherent versatility)

Takes a bit of fiddleing but its really not that hard. Just learn what each function is and which ones you're likely to use.

For some reason you get these stickers with it which lay out what each funtion does, but they are about the size of a postage stamp. Im not sure what they are for; there's no way you'll be able to read them on stage/in the dark.

The tempo tapping is stupid. I can't use it. You have to hold down the pedal for about 3 seconds, then tap your tempo for 4 beats, then hold down the pedal again. All of this takes way too long and if you have to press other pedals as well its just not possible. I use a DD5 with a footswitch for tempo delays, its a much better idea. But you cant get the stereo inputs for that one.

The manual is great though.

Sounds pretty decent to me.

It is reasonably good. It hasn't stopped working yet, after about 3 years. BUT, as i have found with all my boss effects so far, the LED indicator is very unreliable. Sometimes it works fine, but other times its slightly dim when the unit is off and bright when its on. Or it just doesn't go off at all.

Another issue. If the frequency is set to full I would expect an infinate delay, but after about 2-3 mins its starts to speed up and fade out. Im not sure if this is how its supposed to work but I find it annoying. The hold function can help a little here though.

That said, the unit is damn strong. Its been in an aeroplane cargo hold a few times and been subjected to temperatures of -50 degrees C and worse! It still works fine.

N/A

I mainly play psychedelic rock. Honestly I use this unit on the mic more often than my guitar. If you can do without the 8.5(or whatever) sec hold function then you're probably better off buying a DD5 and a footswitch. Mt footswtich cost me around $30 (not a boss one though). The DD5's aren't manufactured any more but there are plenty of used ones around.

On the whole not too bad.

I found this a very simple pedal to use, a quick read through the manual and you should be fine. If you're using delay for the first time you may need some practice but it's pretty straight forward.

I really do love this pedal, I'm a big fan of U2, Radiohead etc, I used to be in a band with a U2 freak and he had all Edge's stuff and this really is up there. I like all the modes, I use the general delay for filling out rhythm/picking parts and the hold mode for some ambient parts etc. I have used other modes in the studio but for me this mainly a live pedal

can't fault boss on this, I've never had any problems and this is no exeption. I never have a backup live..

never needed them

I'm the singer in a rock and roll band and play the guitar in 50% of our songs this works very well for what I do, the tap tempo is the best feature, it just means you can do whatever you want live ad not worry about sticking to preset tempo's.. it has some cool out there effects too like the warp mode.. all in all I will never get rid of this pedal. My set up is an ebony Gibson ES-135 <<(My best friend) a blonde'52 fender telecaster reissue into a/b switch, boss tu-12, proco rat distortion, route 66 overdrive and the dd6, through a 70's fender pro reverb, this is all I need, I get all the tones I want in the world and the dd-6 really rounds up my setup nicely.

pretty easy to use once you learn what each knob's function is.

My personal favourite use for the DD-6 is adding echo to leads, and for that it is flawless. I also use it for some subtle echo to clean fingerpicked seven string. Other than that I don't use this pedal for much, except for the random bassline here or there, or in an all-out attempt to annoy bandmates with the warp or reverse.

it's a boss. I've never had a boss crap out on me yet. It's been used daily in various situations (band, home jamming, etc) It does eat batteries pretty quickly though.

no clue

In all it's an excellent pedal.The only thing i disliked about the pedal was how fast it went through batteries, so i grabbed the 9v adaptor.
I play technical death metal/thrash with fingerstyle classical interludes thrown in. I play this using a few different Godin, ESP/LTD and washburn 6 and 7 strings.
If it was stolen i might shop around a little more, but i'd probably end up buying another DD-6.

This is a follow up to a previous review. I didn't know how to use the tap tempo and I have since figured it out. You hold the pedal down until the LED starts flasihing red and green. Then, you can tap the tempo. The problem I still have is that it takes awhile to turn the delay off...Kind of a drag. Boss should have come up with a better way of engaging the tap tempo.

In my opinion this is an easy pedal to use, the manual is helpful and i found it very easy to find the right delay time using the tap tempo function. it sounds best in the effects loop of the amp and has the option of stereo delay, but it may take a bit of time to get it sounding perfect, but this is the case for any pedal.

I play a PRS Santana Se through a Vox Wah, Ts-808 tubescreamer and Marshall Guvnor plus pedal into Marshall DSL401. When i first got the DD-6 i put it at the front of the signal chain, it sounded great for clean sounds but it mushed up the distorted sounds and was slightly noisy. However i transfered it to the effects loop and it sounded fantastic on both channels and was completely silent. it is excellent for adding depth and ambience to clean sounds, providing a small-club like slapback delay or filling out a distorted rock tone.

Built like a Tank, very reliable ive had no problems with it.

Ive never had to send this pedal back or deal with customer services. When i registered it online to get the longer warranty BOSS sent me a free magazine, which had some interesting stuff in it. It showed me how to connect this pedal to the effects loops of two different amps in order to get a stereo sound out of both without any degradation of tone, they get 10 just for this!

Overall this is an excellent pedal that suits my playing needs exactly. HOWEVER i would urge prospective buyers who do not have an effects loop on their amp to try one first as the tone in front of the amp is not quite so good. It may have been my cables/gear/order of effects which degraded it but i would still recomend trying one first. This aside it is an excellent delay pedal.