Boss DD-5 Delay

The Boss DD-5 is a digital delay pedal released by Boss in 1995¹. It offers up to two seconds of delay time and 11 different delay modes, which Boss's own history calls "the most advanced pedal" of its time in the DD line¹. Its standout features for players today are its reverse delay, the first on a Boss pedal, and its Tap Input Jack, which opens the door to external tap tempo and even MIDI clock syncing¹².

The DD-5 is discontinued. It was followed by the Boss DD-6 Digital Delay in 2002³, and Boss itself refers to it as "the discontinued BOSS classic"⁴. It remains a common sight on used boards, and a small industry of mod shops still works on it.

What it does and how it sounds

The DD-5's delay times range from 1ms to 2000ms (2 full seconds) across its delay modes⁶. The stock pedal is a "bright and sharp digital delay," as Pedal of the Day's reviewer Mike B put it⁶, which is the character many players associate with 1990s Boss digital delays and the reason analog-style tone mods (covered below) became popular for this pedal.

The mode set is where the DD-5 earned its reputation. Boss's history of its delay pedals, written by Jim Bybee, summarizes it¹²⁶:

Reverse delay and Hold

Reverse delay appeared here for the first time on a Boss pedal¹. In a 2001 ToneQuest Report interview republished by Analog Man, the reverse mode was explained in practical terms: the pedal "takes these discrete chunks of sound and plays them backwards," with up to 2 seconds of delay time, though you also hear what you are playing forwards along with the reversed repeats⁷. That forward bleed is why mod shops later offered a "dry kill" modification for reverse mode (see below).

Mode 5 is the Hold function, a looper-style feature that Pedal of the Day's reviewer found "can be useful sometimes"². Boss describes Hold as working as a simple two-second looper¹.

Tap input and MIDI clock sync

The DD-5 was built for tempo-synced delay. Boss's history notes that "tempo-sync delays were also available, with the ability to tap in the time via an external footswitch"¹. Pedal of the Day details the control: the last dial offers 4 different tap tempo selections, quarter, dotted eighth, eighth and quarter note triplet, for use with an external tap tempo switch like the Boss FS-5U².

The Tap Input Jack also gives the DD-5 a route into MIDI clock sync, something the pedal does not support natively. Molten Voltage's CTL-Sync device drives pedals with tap inputs from a MIDI clock, and the DD-5 is one of the pedals listed as syncable this way⁸. For players running tempo from a sequencer or DAW, that turns a 1995 pedal into a tempo-locked delay.

Mods: JHS, Loophole Pedals and Analog Man

The DD-5's discontinued status and mod-friendly circuit have kept several modification services alive for it⁴⁹⁵.

Pedal of the Day reviewed a JHS-modded DD-5 and found the mod worthwhile⁶²:

The same reviewer returned to the stock pedal, noting the earlier review had covered the JHS-modded version². Loophole Pedals' 2019 build combined the Tap Mod, Analog Mod and Reverse Mode Dry Kill Mod in one pedal; the reviewer reported "the Analog modes sound great, adding a darker element to the repeats"⁵. The Loophole Tap Mod slot can also carry Feedback and Preset Mods instead⁵. JHS offers DD-5 owners a discount for combining the Dual Mode Mod with the Analog Tone Mod⁹.

Where it came from and who used it

The DD-5 arrived in 1995 as part of Boss's DD series of digital delays¹³. Radiohead's Ed O'Brien is documented as a long-time user; a Boss interview article on his rig refers to "his enduring fondness for the discontinued BOSS classic"⁴.

In Boss's delay lineage it sits between the Boss DD-3 Digital Delay and the DD-6, and its reverse and Hold functions carried forward into later Boss digital delays such as the Boss DD-7 Digital Delay and Boss DD-8³¹².

Videos

Click to load

Click to load

Click to load

Questions