Tech 21 Boost D.L.A.

The Boost DLA from Tech 21 is a boost and delay pedal in one. It offers around 1000 ms of delay and a healthy amount of volume boost. It’s a sturdy pedal with an all metal chassis metal footswitch and metal jacks. The bypass switch is a soft switch style and the pedal requires 9 volts of power. Controls allow you to change the decay of the delay, the time of the delay, the mix of the delay, the amount of boost, and the amount of modulation or “flutter” as they call it on the delays. You can set the pedal as a boost or as a basic delay, but boost and delay are not available separately via footswitches.

UTILIZATION

The idea behind this pedal is great; it’s the perfect solo pedal for me. Before I had the DLA I had to engage the delay and boost separately so either the boost was later than the first note of the solo or the delay was late, this pedal solves this problem and saves space on my board to boot. The soft switch is great and allows the pedal to be turned on and off seamlessly without the dreaded click coming through your amp like you get from some pedals. The pedal is built like a brick so I have no issues with using it live and I do so all the time with no problems whatsoever. The layout of the pedal is straightforward and the knobs are not in a position where they will be bumped easily by your foot when you engage it, but they also are very easy to bend over and tweak if needed. It gives you several options for changing the delay sound and more boost than you’ll need to cut through the mix.

SOUND QUALITY

This pedal just sounds great. It’s fairly simple to use and the warmth of the delays is great. I roll off a little of the tone and get a nice analog sound, but you can crank the tone and get a crisp digital sounding delay if that is what you are after. There is plenty of delay on tap for every application that I’ve used it for (slapback, rhythm, solos) but I guess some people out there may need more than 1000 ms of delay for some reason. I’ve never felt the need to even max the pedal in that department though. The boost is great and doesn’t really color you base tone, it just increases the volume as it should. I use my pedal in the effects loop and that gives me more of a volume boost than a gritty gain boost like it would in front of the amp. The “Flutter” control sounds nice for atmospheric textures, but I generally don’t use it for solos unless I want something a little different, I like an unmodulated tone, but it’s there if I ever feel the need to pull out some Pink Floyd tones.

OVERALL OPINION

Overall this is a great pedal for certain applications. It makes a great solo tool to boost your overall volume and add some dimension and space in your solos. I play in a three piece so this really helps fill the gap when I drop from rhythm playing into a solo. The modulation is nice, though I rarely use it. I would buy this pedal again, but I would probably go for the newest version of the pedal. It adds a tap tempo and triplet button, which honestly I probably wouldn’t use, but if also adds a trails button which is the only thing I’d add to the original. The only thing I don’t like about the V1 is the cutoff of the delays. I think you can get a delay that has these tones for less money, but I have yet to see one that also incorporates the boost for less. If you think you’ll use both the boost and delay as I do on solos, then grab this pedal. If you want delay and boost separate you have to look somewhere else.