Ibanez DDL Digital Delay

It ain't rocket science, but the configuration is a little odd on the hold setting. It's not intuitive, it took a little fiddling to understand it fully, but it's useful once you figure it out.

I play a variety of styles from swamp-punk blues to shimmery psychedelia. My rig is full custom, yet simple. Primary axes are '57 and '58 Gibson ES-125 full non-cutaway hollowbodies with fat baseball bat necks. Stock P-90's at the neck position and Duncan '59 humbuckers added to the bridge. I put jumbo frets and Bigsby vibratos on them as well. Amps are Fender tweed Pro Juniors, gutted and point-wired with a bastardized Deluxe circuit using EL-84 power tubes. 15 watts of screaming class-A through 10 inch celestions.
I've always kept my effects minimal, a modded Ibanez TS-9 tube screamer and AD-9 delay were all I used for the last 15 years or so.
Recently, I've been experimenting with a few other pedals, seeking to maximize options with as few tone impediments as possible. I picked up an FL-9 flanger, and turned it's internal delay trim-pot full up. I set it up primarily as a mid-scooping chorus, but with a quick tweak and a Voodoo Lab Tremolo it approximates a swirling Leslie cabinet very well.

The AD-9 delay is warm and lush from slapback up to 300ms, but I wanted longer delay time for extreme space-trippy noodling. I've fiddled with some Boss digitals that sounded very cold and sterile. The RV-3 reverb/delay I bought in the early 90's really only sounds good for vocal applications. I never even considered adding a digital effectto my chain until I came across this DDL pedal. Obviously I'm a fan of the Ibanez 9 series pedals, the DDL is the first digital delay they made in the 10 series. In my opinion, they got it almost perfect the first time, and modern companies would do well to look back to it.

Very few inexpensive non-analog delays allow you to roll the delay time knob for pitch/tempo changes without digital chop and break up. This one does, It repeats endlessly,(perhaps someone already tweaked the internal trim pot, if the previous reviewer is correct?), and can self oscillate to explosive effect. It has a gradual fidelity degradation on repeats that makes it sound more musical than the sterile perfect repitition of other digitals.
They wisely kept the mode settings simple. Ever try finding the right mode setting on a Boss digital delay in dim stage light with a buzz on? 12 settings on one tiny knob? Fuggetabouttit.
This one's just got 3 modes, (1)20-300ish milliseconds, (2)300ish to 1800ms, and (3) hold.
The hold feature is just icing on the cake, once you understand it. It has the same delay range as setting 2. If you put it on hold before you engage the switch, it repeat/holds what you played just before stepping on it. This is pretty useless you have psychic timing powers beyond that of the average human musician.
The functional usage is to have the effect running on mode two, and THEN click it over to hold mode. Now it will repeat hold as long as you keep your foot on the pedal, allowing you to play over the loop. Release the pedal and it continues to delay/decay normally, and the notes you play will be added to the repeat. Step and hold the switch down again to hold and play over it. It can't be killed in the hold mode, so watch your oscillations. To disengage it, hold function, switch the knob back to mode 2 and turn it off.
There is potential for a little pause in the delay signal if you don't switch it on/off hold mode smoothly.
The other odd thing about this baby is when it's set for longer delay in mode 2 and you kick it on, it bounces out what you played just before you engaged the switch. At first this was dissappointing, but it's well worth working around for the analogish qualities of the controls and sound. It would not be my first choice if I were only willing to use one delay pedal, but in tandem with the AD-9 it increases my sonic weirdness potential exponentially. It does not seem to suck any tone, on or off, and is not noisy in a bad way. The delay degredation, cranked from a fast delay time to a slow one, can sound like the wrath of an angry god, but that's righteous.

It's already 25 years old, beat up from previous owners, and seems to function A-OK. It looses a point for the hiccough potential when mode switching, but that's probably design and not damage.

I'd expect to be laughed at if I called Ibanez ******* about an antique pedal not working. But then, I've never had a vintage Ibanez effect die on me, and I use them almost exclusively.

Ibanez got so many things right on this first foray into digital effects. I looked at the DDL-10 and 20 pedals, but it seems that they started falling into the too-many-modes issue. It'd be fine for shorter delays and slapback, if I wasn't already spoiled by a superior analog design. The sweep from .3 to almost 2 seconds of delay is glorious, controls and sound quality are as great as you're likely to find for under a hundred bucks. It's a keeper.

It's a digital delay with very analog-ish controls. I got mine used with no sight of a manual, but if you have an IQ that's over 100 you can figure it out. Time, Level, Repeats, and Mode (short, long, hold.)

Open up the case to expose 5! internal trimpots, the only one I tweaked was labeled 'repeats,' so this lil critter would infinitely repeat. Otherwise your repeat volume will diminish even with the repeat knob maxed.

7 for this tweak, otherwise a no brainer!??!

This delay is amazing. Digital to be sure, but with an impeccable buffer and warm sampling (repeats,) no... it's not a sampler pedal, but digital delays are [i]samples[/i] after all!! X[P>

Well I got mine used, and I take care of it, but who knows how it was treated before it got to me!! It's a relic of a time when digital technology was newly accessible to the middle-class consumer, and it's still kicking serious ***.

Don't even know. Their guitars are effen hideous.

Get one if you care about your tone. Analog maybe the epitome, but this will get you close... You may reach the very limit. This is the only digital device in my entire rig, and it does not in any capacity compromise my tone or performance. This pedal is a feat of modern engineering. 1.8 seconds of delay and a heart.

If your not brain dead this pedal is WAY easy to use.

No better delay pedal..I have played just about every effects pedal there is ... I am the origanal ower of this pedal... I would never get rid of it because it can not be replaced... Top sound quality.

I bought it in the 80's.... I still use it to this day... Over 20 years and its just as good today as the day I pulled it out of the box.....Big DUHHHH!!! on the battety comment ... Get a power addapter ... I have never bought a pedal with out buying the adapter.

I never needed support

I play everything from Blues to Heavy metal... This pedal has allways done exactly what I needed of it. Beautiful sound...It has inspired many of my songs. Good luck finding one... If you do .. dont let it go

Pretty easy. You have to do some tweaking to get the right sounds.

A little bit of treblish hum, but I also have a medium-grade combo amp (Carvin x-100). Less hum than my Ibanez SF10 (swell flanger), which is in the same series.

Honestly, this pedal is somewhat broken/injured, but I like it. I may never know what the original sounds like, because this thing is either a little worn and torn inside, or it's just a very unique pedal. I can't even explain in detail. When I change the settings, especially the delay time, but really any of the knobs, I get these wacky, vocal, gremlinish, gnomish, out of this universe sounds. I'm not saying this always works in my favor, but it just happens. In general, as long as I turn the knobs slow enough, I get the desired sound, and everything that is described in the reviews below. But I know I'm getting something else. Sometimes when this pedal is "acting up" on me, I drop it on the ground, and it either works or doesn't work.

The slapback sounds are kind of fun. No matter what, it has a very soft sound. Very glossy. when I am in the Hold position, I get some beautiful repeating. I will just take a nice lungful or two of sparkly herbal product and get lost for an hour or so with this pedal alone. I've played the Boss DD-6 with the footswitch and enjoyed it, but there is a big difference. This is just a different kind of delay with unique features. No better or worse IMHO. I've played the Memory Man as well. Same thing. This thing is in a class of it's own. All I have to do is stay in one key, like D, and just let the notes attack each other and create their own little rhythm, and then play around with that rhythm.

Other than the fact that this thing has some inner circuity issues, it still works normally (I'm assuming) as long as I am careful. I'd definately bring this to a show if I had a band.

I payed $20 for two old 1980's Ibanez pedals at a flea market, this pedal and the SF10. I got a lot more than I was expecting. I assumed it would be some cheapo delay (judging by the looks), but this thing is quite interesting. I'm not saying get this over an Electro Harmonix 16-second, but if you have whatever they are asking for on eBay or your local music store, you might want to pick this thing up, or at least try it out. I have some material that I've recorded with it that I will send via Instant Messenger (I can't send large files through my e-mail) if you are interested.

Bought it second hand just this morning without instructions so I had a bit a trouble understanding the hold function and why the light wouldn't stay on unless I held it down; but as soon as it clicked in my brain I cried with joy.
I don't get the L>Hold, Off>Hold, On>S.O.S. inscription though, I'm sure I'll figure it out.

Sounds ace! I've been playing with it all day and after the obligatory short delay "apache" test I tried everything. Quite distorted with infinite delay sounds cool especially if you twiddle the D-Time whilst notes are ringing out. Tried making a little drum beat by scratching the strings, smapling it and then playing over it. Tried a mic through it, this is even better!! Shouting into the mic and then sampling the shouting and altering it with all that feedback swirling round. Oh!
p.s. I used a Fender Jaguar through a Peavey Backstage combo.

I dunno, I'm a bit scared by all the comments about it's battery drainage, I suppose I ought to use it carefully, the battery was a bugger to get in by the way.

I'll be using in my Post-Rock band for chiming notes that ascend the loudness of the music and ring on forever. I'm going to write a song using the hold function to play my scratch drum beat. I definitely want another one for my fellow guitarist. I wish I had instructions.
I love the fact that I've never seen one of these before and that it's not a Boss DD-3 which EVERYONE seems to have, it can't be any better than this, surely?

My biggest complaint is the way it goes through a battery. One hour was the most it lasted with a new heavy duty battery; 15 miniutes is the least. Ibanez shouldn't be selling this product if it can't work properly for any length of time with a battery.

4 knobs (D-Time, D-Level, D-Mode, Repeat) and each knob greatly affects the delay that can be very short to very long. The hold function can be mysterious at first but when you find out how it works, the pedal is amazing. The pedal can even be used as a reverb pedal.

I have used this pedal with guitar or harmonica into a variety of solid state and tube amps. I now only have tube amps. The pedal adds absolutely no noise and does not affect the sound of my equipment. The pedal does exactly what it is supposed to do and does it perfectly, which is repeat a sound. From a very subtle reverb effect to an infinite echo almost 2 seconds long.

It works perfectly. However, it has the heart stopping quirk of taking about 2 seconds for it to charge up when the power adapter is first plugged in. After that, as soon as the footswitch is pressed, the delay effect is on. You can even strum a chord, use the hold function by pressing the footswitch and play lead over the strummed chord. I have had this pedal for 3 years now and it has not even flinched once.

VERY IMPORTANT : This is not the DDL-10!!!! There are dummies who cannot read what is written on their pedals that have posted their opinion about other pedals on this page and have degraded this fine pedal. This is the DDL. Again to be clear. This is the DDL. This is about the best digital delay pedal you can find at any price. It eats batteries so use an adapter. I use this pedal for all kinds of slap echoes to delayed echoes for guitar, harmonica and even voice. If I did not already have some good reverbs, I would even use this pedal as a digital reverb. If you want some weird sounds, strum some notes and tweak the D-Time knob at the same time.

Well, it's a digital delay made by Ibanez. DDL-10: It has 4 knobs, one being a 4-position switch which selects the delay range. Delay time, repeat and level are controlled by 3 pots. Goes up to 900ms Delay time. It comes in a great metal case in silver sparkle. And it has a dry-out, too.

I placed it as the last effect in my chain. It isn't noisy, it doesn't even alter the sound. So it will not add any warmth to your sound; it's all digital and preserves the sound it receives. Sounds good to me - even distortion sounds good. (FX-Chain: Gibson SG Gothic -> Dunlop Crybaby Wah -> H&K Tube Factor -> Ibanez EQ10 -> Ibanez DDL-10 -> Fender Vibrosonic Reverb).

Bought it used and looks like new. It still works after 10 years or so. I think it's pretty reliable.

They don't even build it anymore.

It's a digital delay and it does what I expect a delay to do. I like it's noiseless operation. Wasn't seeking something that colours my sound - and it doesn't colour it. Good!

Ibanez DDL digital delay. Not the DDL-10. Made in Japan. Light green in colour. Four knobs (D-time, D-hold, D-level, repeat). From 2 seconds to 1800m seconds of delay plus infinite repeat when on hold. Endless assortement of delays, easy to tweak.

Absolutely no noise. No gain and no loss in the signal. The delay is exactly the same sound as the original note.

Great construction. Made of metal. Big footswitch. Knobs well protected. Works as well as the day it was made. But when was it made?

I mostly play blues on humbucking solid body guitar. This is my first, only delay and probably my last delay pedal. Suits me perfectly. Not looking for anything more. Fantastic value. I mostly use it for slap echo but is sure is fun dialing in some guitar licks or for some haunting twinkling sounds. Definitely has a place on my pedal board.

Just for clarity, this is the model DDL (NOT THE DL10, which has its own catagory!) that comes in a green, metal case and has 4 control knobs that include a 3-way switch for short range/long range/hold, depth, delay time and repeat. It's very easy to use and completely obvious in function, with a slight exception for the hold effect. But that can be figured out within seconds of playing around with it. Just play a bit and press the footswitch (which will now act as a momentary switch) to infinitly repeat what you just played, as you add new sounds on top of that - even with more echo. Nice touch!

As previously mentioned, this unit has a long 1800ms (nearly 2 secs) total delay length, which is very nice. And actually, if you go inside of the case you can adjust the trim pot near the control pots to get delay lengths up in the 10-15 seconds area, but the frequency response falls to mush. NOT RECOMMENDED, but an interesting point, in my eyes. My units appears to be very old and the frequency response is a direct reflection of the delay length. Longer settings lose a little off the top (at the 12k range - not noticable in most situations), but the shorter delay lengths have very good range (for cymbals and such)! Also, on my old unit, switching delay ranges and taking hold on and off can make incidental noise that is undesirable. But the unit is very quiet, on and off.

Well, mine is an old one that has seen a good bit of abuse (even some rust inside). And I do need to replace the trim pot that adjusts overall delay range. But I believe this unit is designed and constructed very well. Boss products come to mind!

I'm sure they're very nice when they say, "Are you kidding!?"

I love it! I've had mine for many years now and it's always ready to do what I need. I often set it up for a long delay with lotsa repeats and relax by strolling through some Steve Hillage style echoed ramblings, or zone out with some sweet Steve Howe/Steve Hackett volume pedal swell type guitar singing. Like all the fun of a tape echo without the hassles and noise. It's inspirational! I also love to use it with synth tracks - playing off the rhythm of the echo on bass and percussive lines and then singing a wailing lead line and letting the echos fade out into space... It's also great for all kinds of slapaback/sprongy/reverby madness! If I had to get another one, I'd look for a unit that was as similar to this as possible, but with a few improvements of the modern age, of course.

DL10 pedal. 4 knobs. Not difficult to use if you go by ear and don't look at the markings around the knobs, but it is difficult to get a good sound out of it because it is digital. I didn't get a manual with mine as I bought it used.

Cheese. This pedal is good for one thing: Subtle echo/slapback. The repeated tones sounds like crap, especially if you are using overdrive or distortion. I know a blues player who uses one of these and he makes it sound good (a testament to his awesome playing), but he is only using it for a barely audible echo.

This is the worst delay I ever owned. My Zoom 9000's delay effects are 100x better. I took it back and traded it in for an olive Big Muff and 5 bucks, and even though I still ended up losing money in the deal it's the best trade I ever made.

Sucks batteries like you would not believe! If the batteries aren't fresh the repeats will start to sound like farts. If you buy this better plan on buying an adapter, too.

Not an issue on this one.

I play blues, rock, hard rock, psychedelic. I've come to the conclusion that a versatile and great sounding delay cannot be crammed into a pedal. I had a DOD delay pedal that cost far less and sounded much better than the DDL (plus it had a "hold" feature). I generally love Ibanez effects, especially pre-9 series, the 9 series, and the 10 series. I gave this pedal every chance I could but it just wasn't useful to me. A major disappointment from an otherwise fantastic product line (and company).

I give it a 3 for stereo outputs (otherwise it'd be a 2).

Fairly easy to use to set up for slapback or reverb sounds and various echos. I bought this unit used hence no instruction manual. The pedal has a hold function which takes some getting used to. The pedal has four controls : delay time, delay level, delay mode and repeat. The three delay modes are short from 28ms-224ms, long from 224ms to 1800 ms and the hold function 224ms to 1800 ms. There is an out and a dry out and an in. As usual it requires a 9v or adapter.

Very clean digital delays. I prefer the sound of analog over digital delays but that is a personal preference. There is a whopping amount of delay times in this pedal!!! Almost two seconds worth of delay more than enough for most applications.The pedal is very quiet and adds no noise. The hold functions allows you to infinitely repeat a phrase by holding down on the switch.

An Ibanez 10 series pedal. Very dependable and should last a long timeif not abused.

Don't know. Bought it used and never dealt with Ibanez.

A good delay pedal although the hold function is a plus. A repeat hold used to be found only in higher end digital delays and is nice to have in a pedal if you ever want to play Eric Johnson's " Soulful Terrain" live!!

it is sort of confusing having 4 knobs 1 of witch being a 3 pos switch but it is easy to figure out after fiddeling around wwith it

good sound you can get a reverb sound with a litle tweaking i got it used and it sounded good to me!! if you turn the delay time knob wihle it is on it wil do sort of a pitch bend effect but is hard to use..

never broke but you might want to pick up an ac adaptor for it it drains batteries like crazy with is a down fall.

never broke

i love this pedal and use it for anythin and everything i even use it with a mic when playing acustic.. never seen or even herd anything about it but i love it.. all i really know about how old it that it came out before the sound tanks did..