Boss DD-20 Giga Delay

This is Boss' double pedal delay. It has an LCD display showing the delay settings. I am a gigging guitarist in a country rock band.

I looked at many different delay pedals before purchasing this one. I borrowed a friends for a few weeks before deciding. I paid $180 on eBay.

The various types of delay provide many different tones and effects including a nice tape delay and a well done reverse delay. It also has a dual, analog, pan, smooth, and some crazy ones including, twist, warp, and modulation. The SOS setting which is basically a loop, gives up to 23 seconds of delay. You can layer on it as well. The basic controls; feedback, effect level, tone, and delay time are all very straight forward. The tap tempo is nice and absolutely essential in a live setting. My favorite part about this pedal is it has memory banks to set delay to certain tempos and save your settings so they can be recalled with the stomp of a box.

The more advanced controls are not very user friendly. It takes a bit to change settings like display and output mode. But once you learn the functions they are easy to do.

Its a Boss, so it is built like a tank. I haven't had a lick of trouble with it yet.

This is a great delay pedal, it is much smaller and less expensive than the Line-6 delay and has more features than the comparably priced T.C. electronics Nova Delay.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

# BOSS' most powerful delay pedal with up to 23 seconds of delay
# 11 delay modes including classic tape delay and sound-on-sound recording
# New “Smooth” and “Twist” modes for subtle or radical delay effects
# Memory function for changing delay modes seamlessly
# New push-button knob for setting delay time in fine or coarse adjustments


* E. LEVEL/F. BACK/TONE knobs are set to the center position
Display Custom LCD (with backlit)
Controls ON/OFF Pedal, MEMORY/TAP Pedal, DELAY TIME Knob, E.LEVEL Knob, F. BACK Knob, TONE Knob, MODE Knob, TAP Button, TEMPO Button, MEMORY WRITE Button, MEMORY SELECT Button
Connectors INPUT A (MONO) Jack (1/4 inch phone type)
INPUT B Jack (1/4 inch phone type)
PHONES Jack (stereo 1/4 inch phone type)
CTL PEDAL Jack (1/4 inch phone type)
OUTPUT A (MONO) Jack (1/4 inch phone type)
OUTPUT B Jack (1/4 inch phone type)
AC Adaptor Jack

This is a pretty well thought out digital delay pedal. It's sort of meant to be the all-in-one delay pedal with everything included. Meaning all types of delay effects including a tap tempo as well as 4 banks that you can have your preset delays set to. It also has spillover, so when you turn it off or on you'll hear the left over echo.


UTILIZATION

Not TOO simple to use, since it's a dual pedal it's got quite a few functions so it'll take a little longer to properly figure out. But after a few twists and turns and experimenting, any guitar player should be able to figure out how to work it on a regular basis!

The manual is very necessary to understand all the little things that you might not get from just playing around with it. EG for the presets, you can change the how the lighting pattern is, things like that.

You can run the pedal as a stereo setup or mono setup, it has enough ins and outs for both depending on what kind of rig you have and whatnot.


SOUND QUALITY

I think it sounds great. I've heard this used live and used it live myself and haven't had many problems with it. The LED screen is big and legible, though the brightness could be brighter as I always prefer it to be brighter for live stage use.

Otherwise majority of the delay sounds are quite good. I use the regular digital, analog and tape echo quite a few times. The SOS not so much, it seemed to be more of an afterthought idea to add onto the pedal so it isn't very tweakable.

The tone is generally very crisp and clear, and thus 'digital' however there's also the tone knob available on the unit so you can actually EQ it a bit to make it sound warmer, duller or brighter and even more pristine! How cool is that?





OVERALL OPINION

Overall, great all-in-one delay pedal. Loads of variety, and good sounding overall delay. A lot of thought has been put into this to make this a programmable and usable live pedal as well. There are lots of functions and lots to go through, if you want to get the best out of this I'd definitely recommend skimming through the manual.

The BOSS DD-20 is a digital delay featuring a straight forward looper along with 10 different delay types from standard delay to other unique sounds like tape emulation and reverse.

It can store 4 user presets and has an extra spot for a manual set-up for on the fly tweaking.

Tap tempo with the option to use an external button, millisecond or BPM readout, 1/4" stereo ins and outs, headphone jack, and the ability to use it at line level for rack applications or standard guitar level makes it easy to integrate into many setups

UTILIZATION

What I like best about this delay is how simple it is to get a good sound that works within a song. There are no sub menus or complicated settings to program and the BPM readout makes it a breeze if you use a click track in your band. It is laid out like a typical single delay stompbox but with the added flexibility of multiple delay types accessible with a quick turn of a knob. The manual easily explains how to get the unit up and running and once you've determined your level setting (+4 or -10 db) it remembers them so you can plug and play the next time. If you use a stereo set-up you can also change how the delay signal is sent to the two outputs allowing you to create some nice wide sounds.

SOUND QUALITY

I use this pedal in the loop of A Framus cobra and it works great. I don't hear any significant degradation in sound although there is a slight volume drop when compared to having the amp's loop level at 0. I believe this is the amp's fault because it uses a parallel loop at an odd return level.

I mainly use the standard, tape, and modulate modes along with the looper. The standard mode is just a regular digital repeat very clean basically what you put in is what you put out. The analog and modulate modes have more character. Analog has a nice high end roll off to emulate old delays and the modulate allows you to add movement to the delay time creating a chorus effect. Sure there are better actual analog delays but 90% of your crowd probably can't tell the difference. The looper is very simple. Some people may want more options but if all you're looking for is a simple way to layer loops this one is very easy to time and does not drift.

I found the other more special effects to be rather useless. The twist mode is supposed to emulate the spaceship sounds you'd get from playing with the time knob on an old analog delay but it lacks the character and sounds cheesy. Warp same deal minus the pitch modulation. The smooth just sounds like the analog with more high end rolled off and I've never been able to use a reverse mode to much success.




OVERALL OPINION

Overall this is a great bang for the buck type pedal that's not too much more than the single stomp boss delays (dd7 etc..) . There are other delays with more features but if you just need a few simple sounds in a good sized box it's hard to beat. I personally run mine along with an Eventide Timefactor to get the more wild sounds and also because I really like having all my presets ready to go. I've got enough pedals to fiddle with and I don't want to be entering delay times before every song. If it ever broke which is doubtful I would definitely buy one again.

The Boss DD-20 Giga Delay is one of the most powerful delay pedals for the price. The features on this machine are remarkable. Stereo ins and outs are cool as well as the option for an external tap tempo and headphones. The backlit screen is great for reading the display in a live setting and the twin pedal set up is rather convenient.

UTILIZATION

The Giga Delay has a boat load of modes, that are all easy to use and very manageable. The pedal can be configured to work a couple different ways and with 23 seconds of delay you will alway have enough delay time. The different tempo types are something not commonly seen on cheaper units and the 4 presets are easy to use and very convenient to switch through. The "Sound on Sound" feature is very nice and works great as well.

SOUND QUALITY

The sound quality on these units are very nice. Some say there is a dark quality to them, but I noticed it doesn't affect my tone when the pedal is active. Some of my other delays I have own didn't work too well with dirt pedals. This one keeps your signal clean and clear. I have used this delay for vocals, bass, guitar and keys since I've had it and it fairs well with all of the above.

OVERALL OPINION

The Boss DD-20 Giga Delay is one of my favourite delay pedals on the market. It has a nice price and a ton of very usable features. Delay in itself is my favourite effect, and this thing nails just about all of my delay needs. Really great delay, I would get a new one if this one ever got stolen or destroyed. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a really nice delay with lots of features on a pretty solid budget. It truly is a great delay.