Ease of use is a relative term here. It's easy to plug in and start playing. But getting it right can be a little tricky. You need to e...
Ease of use is a relative term here. It's easy to plug in and start playing. But getting it right can be a little tricky. You need to ensure a couple of things are done right to get this pedal to be noise free and operating like it should.
First, use a larger power supply than recommended. A 200mA 9VDC won't cut it. It will run OK on that, but you'll notice a light hiss and sometimes a high-pitched ringing that's very faint. The draw of that pedal is +\- 200mA, which is maxxing out the standard Boss PSA-120, or most 200mA power supplies for that matter. So I'd go with a 1spot (which I have done) or maybe one of Boss's new PSA models. I didn't want to put this under the sound quality category because I want to talk about the tones in that section.
Second, it turns on by default with a -20db setting. Change that! Even it you're not running it in an effects loop. You have to power up the pedal with left pedal depressed, then you'll see your LCD has a db setting on it. Select the mode that says "Stereo + 4Db" and press the "write" button to save it. I missed that in the manual, and apparently most other people do too.
I've been playing this for well over a year and I just now discovered those two items, which are probably the most critical when considering buying this!
These need to stand out in the manual, but they're barely noticeable. I'm going to give it low marks there. There's no way you could have figured those things out (and more on this thing) without a well written manual, and it just doesn't do a good job explaining everything.
Sound Quality : 7
OK, here's where it does a great job. I love the analog & tape settings, and like that I can change the tone with the knob. I've actually used the Warp & Twist settings live so they're not useless. Never used the SOS (Looping, basically) because I have an RC-20XL. The standard setting sounds just like a plain old DD-3, which I also like. There's multi-head emulators in there too, but I've haven't done the "Edge" thing in a while so I can't comment on those. I was hoping the reverse setting would be more like the old Boss Slow Gear, but it's just really hard to make it sound good. Too bad.
I've also discovered the modulation setting lately, and found I really love it! I don't play with chorus, but having just a little bit of warble added to the repeats only can do some great things. It reminds me of using tremolo arm for vibrato a la SRV Riviera Paradise, but I'm using fixed-bridge guitars. Very nice. I think you can edit the modulation mix and/or waves too. A very useful tool overall!
Now for the bad: I used to swear to everyone that this didn't suck tone. Well, I A/B'd it in 3 scenarios with a True Bypass loop and here's what happened: By itself, with no other pedals in the chain, it hardly changed, but did slightly take off a little top end. With just one other pedal (buffered) before it, it seriously altered the tone. Made everything sound way more sterile. With the DD-20 in the pedalboard, it altered it even worse! I don't think I can recommend this as the greatest digital delay pedal, but still I have to have tap tempo somehow. What to do... If I can find a better digital delay that lets me tap easily and gets a good tape or analog sound out of it, this thing's gone! I'm about to give up on digitals and get a good analog, but I'd miss the tap tempo... sigh.
Reliability : 9
I think so. It's held up well.
Overall Rating : 7
I use an external footswitch for the tap tempo. I use the 2nd footswitch to switch through the 4 + 1 presets, and I use 'em all! The tap tempo is the BEST one I've used. That Line6 Echo Park is such a pain because it's too easy to accidentally turn the effect on or off when tapping. Other than that the Echo Park gives this thing a run for the money, and I'd actually prefer it due to the smaller footprint. But, like all things Line6, it must have it's own dedicated power supply and other stupidities engineered in. I still like the DD-20 better than the Line6 DL4 too. I like that I can light up the display so I can see what time it's set on at a glance. That's saved me a few times.
Needs a better buffer and more clear instructions. Has great tones at hand. Very friendly to use playing live.
