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Writer's pictureSam Goffen

BOSS SDE-3 DUAL DELAY!

About damn TIME!


boss SDE-3 digital delay



Boss have been dealing out their DD (Digital Delay) pedals for decades, with the first DD-2 coming out in 1983! But it's taken them a long time to bring out a Dual delay in their standard compact enclosure.


Boss have always been innovative with their Delays and pretty much market leading, which is why you find them on so many pedal boards, professional and hobbyist alike.



Unfortunately in the world of guitar, it always seems that we are encouraged to chase the latest fad; seek the mythical tone that can only come with the secret sauce oozing from the newest and best and select pedals.


This has lead to some brands like Boss being overlooked as a boring option, makes them maybe perceived as 'beginners' pedals'.


However, we shouldn't forget for one second how influential Boss have been in the world of guitar pedals.


Here's a brief history lesson on their delays alone which shows how incredible Boss really is:


  • 1978 - The DM-1 - Used a CCD (Charged-Couple Device) to achieve up to 500ms of delay time

  • 1981 - The Dm-2 - This was a BBD (Bucket Brigade Device) to achieve 300ms of delay. The first use of their smaller enclosures we are so familiar with in one of their delay pedals.

  • 1983 - The DD-2 - The First Ever Digital pedal from Boss, and the World's first digital delay in stompbox form.

  • 1984 - The DM-3 - A slight upgrade (maybe) of the DM-2. Nothing to write home about but it did include a wet/dry signal path.

  • 1985 - The DSD-2 - This can be seen as one of the earliest loopers with record time of 800ms it could record and repeat a whole phrase.

  • 1986 - DD-3 - The availability of cheaper electronic components due to the more common use of them meant that Boss could update their DD-2 slightly and sell it at a cheaper price.

  • 1995 - DD-5 - Oh yes! the DD-5. 2 seconds of delay time! 11 different delay modes. First time for Reverse Delay to appear and it could operate as a 2 second looper! Stereo Outs. Tap tempo via another foot switch - This one was amazing!

  • 2002 - DD-6 - 5.2 second max delay. Tap tempo with the standard foot switch. 5.2 second looper with overdubbing. New WARP mode - tape style warbles etc. Awesome pedal.




  • 2003 - DD-20 - Twin foot switch format. Included all the main delays developed so far. 23 seconds of delay time. LED display. Four presets. With the two foot pedals came more functionality - tap tempo, memory selection, and more.

  • 2007 - RE-20 - Space Echo - OOOooooh yeah! A digital re-imagining of the legendary Roland RE-201 Tape Space Echo.

  • 2008 - DD-7 - Max delay time now increased to 6.4 seconds. Expression pedal could be used for parameters like delay time and feedback. Now there was also 40 seconds of recording / looping time. And also two new modes taken from the DD-20, Analog and Modulate.

  • 2013 - TE-2 Tera Echo - Only worth mentionign here as it was the first use of Boss's Multi-Dimensional Processing technology. Oh and it was the 100th different pedal that used the compact Boss enclosure.

  • 2015 - the DD-500 - a powerhouse digital delay pedal. This behemoth included eveything Boss knew about digital delay. It can recreate the sound of all the previous delay units.

  • 2019 - DD-200 Delay - All the power of the DD-500 but a smaller enclosure.

  • 2019 - the DD-8 - 11 delay modes, new Warm and Glitch. RV that blends delay and reverb for the first time in a dedicated delay from Boss.

  • 2022 - RE-202 Space Echo - Stunning! Has all the vintage vibe and modern accoutrement you could need if after a tape delay. There was also the RE-2 which was a simpler version of this in the standard compact enclosure.

  • 2023 - SDE-3000D Dual Digital Delay - WHAT? Oh yes, this thing kicks ass! a full recreation of the Roland SDE-3000 in a floor based platform. Two fully independent stereo delays. Loads of routing options and I/O.

  • 2023 - DM-101 Delay Machine - A recreation of the DM-1 or at least heavily inspired by it. A beautiful thing. 8 BBDs, CPU control, 100% analog but with digital control. So you still get all the useful things digital gets us ie presets, midi etc.




And the next step in the evolution?


The Boss SDE-3 Dual Digital Delay.



This beauty comes in the standard boss enlosure and emulate 2! Roland SDE-3000 rack unites. That's crazy!


BOSS SDE-3

One of the most intersting features of this unit is that these two emulations run in parallel. You basically set the delay time as you like it, then you use the offset control to change the time of the second delay in relation to the first. The offset control also has the 1/4 note and dotted 8th note settings.


This can be subtle at lower settings - providing a thickening aspect to your sound, or more obvious as you increase the milliseconds. If you don't want this effect at all, simply move the control fully -counter clockwise to the off position get a regular single delay.


The SDE-3 also gets the same modulation and low pass filter as the orginal Roland racks.


It has plenty of I/O given its small size - mono in and out; mono in, stereo out; stereo in and stereo out. Great for wet / dry rigs.


There are a few other very interesting features to this pedal, like -


  • dialing down the repeats but turning up the modulation creates a very cool chorus style effect without the delay repeats.

  • using an expression pedal to control the SDE-3 in real time lets you mess around with tremolo style effects by adjusting the level, depth and rate controls.

  • Tap tempo of course and midi clock

  • Panning the two different delay signals to two different amps for interesting stereo results.


This is a unit which is going to be absoultey loved by many guitarsits and other instrumentalists. I believe it will be considered another absolute classic in the line up covered above.


Check it out!


















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