Boss DD-20 Giga Delay

The Boss DD-20 Giga Delay is a digital delay pedal from Boss, released in 2003 in the company's Twin Pedal format: a wider, two-footswitch enclosure rather than the familiar compact Boss box¹. Its headline feature is delay time of up to 23 seconds, along with a choice of 11 modes, including the "Smooth" and "Twist" delays and sound-on-sound recording².

Boss built it as a do-everything delay workstation: a handy LED display, memories for storing four delay settings in addition to the current manual setting, and two onboard pedal switches giving easy access to tap tempo, memory selection, and other delay operations, plus an external footswitch input for additional control¹.

What it does and how it sounds

The 11 modes cover the standard delay ground plus several creative options. The DIY Fever reviewer called the modulate mode interesting, since it adds modulation to the echoes and makes the sound bigger, and noted that pan mode alternates echoes between the two output jacks, which pays off with the stereo outputs³.

Not every mode is self-explanatory. The reviewer found that to make the best of some delay modes, specifically dual, twist, and wrap, you really need to read the manual, because setting them up is not intuitive³. Pedal of the Day's Mike B made a similar point about the documentation: the manual is about as thick as a phone book⁴.

On delay time, the reviewer's verdict was simple:

They did add one wish: 23 seconds is enough for delay, but they would like to see more time for the sound-on-sound feature³.

Controls, presets, and tap tempo

Delay time can be set two ways: quickly with the push-button knob, or via tap tempo². The Time knob itself has a two-speed behavior the reviewer appreciated: normally it moves in fine increments, but when pushed it switches to coarse increments, which makes it easy and fast to dial in a time³.

The four user memories sit alongside the current manual setting¹. The DIY Fever reviewer found this genuinely useful:

They felt four presets seems enough for the way they use the pedal³.

If you want tap tempo on a separate switch, note the switch type. Vein-Tap.com lists the DD-20 among the pedals that require a normally closed tap tempo unit, so an external switch with the wrong polarity will not work⁵.

Power, batteries, and connections

The DD-20 runs on 9V DC, center negative, with a 200mA current draw². It can also run on 6 AA 1.5V batteries³, though the DIY Fever reviewer reported that it goes through batteries very fast³.

Connections are stereo: stereo input and stereo output, plus a headphone output for silent practice or direct monitoring³. The metal enclosure is, in the reviewer's words, very well built³.

Bypass

The DD-20 is not true bypass. The DIY Fever reviewer found the bypass mode a bit louder with more mids, so it is not transparent. They later retracted the complaint, concluding the coloration was probably due to the difference in output impedance of the DD-20 compared with their other pedals, and not the bypass circuit itself³.

Where it came from

Boss introduced the DD-20 Giga Delay as part of its Twin Pedal line, bringing digital delay to the Twin Pedal format¹. Pedal of the Day's Mike B noted the Twin Pedal Collection from Boss has produced some interesting and quite useful pedals, and the DD-20 fits that lineage⁴.

Among its modes is a Tape mode that recreates sounds produced by the classic Roland RE-201 Tape Echo⁴. Players who want that flavor in a current pedal can look at Boss's RE-series emulations, such as the Boss RE-2 Space Echo and the Boss RE-202 Space Echo.

The DIY Fever reviewer observed that the DD-20 had been on the market for 7 years as of their review, which makes it easy to find good deals on used pedals³. For players comparing Boss delays, the compact Boss DD-7 Digital Delay and Boss DD-8 Digital Delay cover similar ground in a smaller box, while the Boss DD-200 Digital Delay is the later Twin Pedal successor.

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