February 10, 2008

Getting a delay pedal?

So, I've been wanting a good delay pedal for a while. A pedal that can do tap tempo, can store a few delay settings, have different types of delays, not suck tone when not on, and not cost a fortune.

Why a delay pedal? Well, I have always liked a little bit of delay when playing leads. I have used a PB & J and a DOD delay for a long time, and although they are okay, most of the features mentioned are missing.

I narrowed things down to either a Eventide Timefactor, a T.C. Electronic Nova Delay or a BOSS DD-20. After asking questions on forums and doing my research, I was mostly interested in the Timefactor. It seems like a terrific pedal. However, it's quite expensive. The Nova is a good pedal too, and most feedback I've seen for this pedal is usually positive.

I bought a BOSS DD-20

I also noticed a of happy users of the DD-20 on guitar forums. So, cutting to the chase - my local music store Music Centre Canada had a BOSS DD-20 in stock - the price was right, so I bought it.

BOSS DD-20

Boss DD-20 Giga Delay

It's a nice pedal! Wow, it is a lot of fun. It's the first time for me to have such delays at hand in a pedal. Some people find that it's very limiting that you can only store four settings, but I doubt I will have much issues with that. I'm used to only one setting anyway, so four favourite delays saved should be oodles for me.

I have yet to learn the ins and outs of this thing, but the first thing that struck me is how clean the delays sound. It really sounds a lot better in general than my old delay pedals.

There are a total of eleven effects in this thing. You can create 23-second long delay, which is cool for loop playing and sound-on-sound recording. You also get seamless switching - the delay you are using continues to ring out, as you switch to a new delay setting. No abrupt cutoff off that way - very nice function.

I'll be back with a more in-depth review and some videos once I've familiarized myself more with the unit. My initial reaction is that this delay pedal is very good.

By Robert Renman - www.dolphinstreet.com

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Posted by Robert Renman on February 10, 2008