Boss DD-200

T
he release of the
compact 200 series
pedals from Boss makes
sense. It’s been a couple
of years since their
fl agship 500-series models came
out, leaving their older dual-
footswitch pedals like the DD-20
in need of an update. Enter the
DD-200; with the powerful
processor of the larger DD-500,
but a reduced footprint, it’s
designed to be a pedal you might
choose over the 500 for practical
reasons, rather than questions of
budget alone.
As you’d expect, the sounds
are all here, from digital delays
to tape recreations. As with the
DD-500, we found the reverse
delay to be good, but somehow
less usable than it feels on the
discontinued DD-6 and current
DD-7 compact pedals. There are
no such issues with the
‘standard’ delay modes,
however, which are excellent.
We spent a lot of time on the
dual mode, which as you’d
expect shines in stereo, and
found it easy to dial in
compelling rhythmic delays
using the dotted eighth
subdivision setting. The patch
we kept returning to, however,
was the shimmer mode. With
the mix up past twelve o’clock, a
high feedback level and the tone
pulled back, we found it
incredibly expressive for slow,
picked arpeggios and even
quicker chord-based lines. For
busier work and post-rock
tremolo picking the tape delay
sounds were our go-to. Here the
Boss unit stacks up pretty well
against competitors like the
Strymon El Capistan. The pad
echo and tera echo modes also
proved eff ective for more
ambient chord work, especially
combined with swells using the
guitar volume knob, though
these days those kinds of
expansive reverb-delay sounds
are outclassed by the software
available for studio use. Finally,
although we’re fans the pattern
delay on the larger DD-500, it’s a
bit harder to dial in on the
smaller pedal, which reduced our
willingness to fi ddle with it.
The DD-200 is an impressive
piece of kit, and the trade-off
between interface and pedal size
is mostly worthwhile.Though
admittedly we had to reach for
the manual several times, and
the pedal obviously doesn’t off er
the same capacity to easily tweak
parameters on the fl y that its
larger sibling does. Moreover,
with a fi rmware patch, the
DD-500 can be confi gured to run
three delays from one patch, one
at a time, or two in either series
or parallel, and for us that makes
the DD-500 the more desirable
option. Doubly so, as the
diff erence in street price is
under a hundred pounds from
most retailers.
Alex Lynham
BOSS DD-200
The DD-500 has a new younger brother. So, are the kids alright?
1
SCREEN
Without the deep
menu system of the
DD-500, sometimes
the manual is called for
2
REAR PORTS
There are
expansion jacks for
expression and stereo
in and out
3
DIVISIONS
CONTROLS
Tap subdivisions and
preset recall are neatly
arranged on the front
of the pedal
TYPE: Delay pedal with
2-bit AD/DA, 32-bit
processing,
96 kHz sampling rate
MODES: 12 delay
modes and 60 second
looper
CONTROLS: Bypass
and Tap footswitches,
with room for
expansion
footswitches and
expression on the rear
POWER: 9V DC or 3 x AA
batteries
CONTACT:
Roland UK
roland.com/uk
AT A GLANCE
ALL IN ALL, THE DD-200 IS AN
IMPRESSIVE PIECE OF KIT
FEATURES
SOUND QUALITY
VALUE FOR MONEY
BUILD QUALITY
USABILITY
OVERALL RATING
SUMMARY
Photography: Olly Curtis
1
2
3
£219
REVIEW
105
NOVEMBER 2019 TOTAL GUITAR
TGR325.gear_boss.indd 105 10/10/2019 16:53