Boss BF-3

It has 5 knobs. The best way to set this pedal is to listen for it.

This is the coolest modulation stompbox ever built. It revisits and sums up all of Boss's previous Flanger incarnations. In adition to that, the knobs can be stretched in all directions to create a wide variety of modulation sounds. This thing covers phase shifter, flanger, chorus, vibrato, tremolo, and ring modulator sounds effectively, and all without a bit of background noise. I have close to 50 effect processors, and this pedal works well when layered up with distortion, reverb, and delay, etc. I have an all tube 35 watt "custom" 5F6 Bassman head and a 2x12 cab with Eminence Red Coat speakers. The BF-3 sounds really alive through this rig.

I bought it used, and it was in perfect condition. I don't do any shows, as I am just a hobbyist, so none of my gear is put through strenuous physical challenges. But I do own some Boss pedals that are almost as old as me, and they are still perfect.

I have never had to deal with Boss customer support, but in that sense, their website is a great resource for questions and contact information.

My main musical interests are grunge rock and techno (but not at the same time). This pedal goes great with any style. I've even hooked it up to my DJ setup with favorable results. Of all the pedals I own, this is the one I consistently recommend to anyone looking for modulation to put into their sound signal chain. One pedal that is almost as versatile and a little cheaper is the Ibanez CF-7. Of the simulated effects I mentioned earlier, the CF-7 is just not able to create tremolo effects as the BF-3 can. Also, there are a lot of complaints that the CF-7 and other from the Ibanez Tone-Lok series sound unnatural (I love them for this reason). With it's wide sonic capabilities, the Boss BF-3 sounds consistently natural and clean on any setting. Even when dialing in a ring modulator setting, the tone can be tuned like with a real ring modulator.

Let me begin this review by reminding you that I just VERY recently got this pedal (last night to be exact). I figured it wouldn't really matter, seeing as I've already managed to find the good parts of this pedal, and it shorting out on me isn't an issue-it's a Boss! It's not that easy to get a good sound out of it right off. In fact, for me it seemed damn near impossible. Thanks to the well-presented manual and a lot of trial and error on my part, I've managed to get a lot of good sounds out of it. This is the first flanger I've ever played or owned, so yeah, it took me a little extra time to figure out what everything did even with the manual's help. If you're familiar with flangers this will probably be a cakewalk to figure out.

God I was unsure about this thing at first. I started off with this pedal getting like 90% flange, 10% original note. If it wasn't that, it was too subtle. I didn't buy a flanger to get a chorus sound. If I wanted chorus, I'd buy a chorus pedal or use my amp's built-in chorus. Thankfully, after tweaking the knobs enough, I've found a few really good but note-discernable lush, deep, flanging sounds. I'm sure there are more in there. Be aware (at least in my case) with the depth knob up, when the flange is at and around its crest, it will distort the note HORRIBLY, and at and around the trough, it'll make this god-awful buzz. I have gotten no volume boost like many people here speak of, none whatsoever, with or without distortion. A little noise, but it's a flanger, you're gonna hear a little background flange. I should be getting a noise suppressor soon, thank god (need to tame my MXR ZW-44 Overdrive. Nice pedal but noisy with amp distortion)


Standard

Very nice flanging sound, but not quite deep enough for what I want to use the pedal for. I've gotten a number of good flanging sounds out of it so far. It'll probably suit most peoples' flanging needs very well though.

Ultra

This is what draws me back to this pedal when I try to keep it turned off. It sounds very deep, lush, NOT CHORUS-Y! Just what I wanted out of this flanger.

Gate

Cool little effect, but I wish the gate would actually start in sync with when I started playing and apparently not always be gating, even when I'm not playing. Put it on gate, start playing a phrase, and be amazed as you see what Ian sees. I'm sure I'll find a way around this sooner or later. And if not, that's why they make tremolo pedals, isn't it?

Pan

Can't really say, as I don't have another cable to run into my Epiphone Studio 10 Practice amp.

Momentary

I imagine it'd be very useful on stage or even otherwise. Just press and hold for as long as you want the Standard flange mode to be on. Release foot, goodbye flange. Not a big issue for me, seeing as I have enough time and room to press the pedal twice to turn it on and off.


Sounds very nice. This is my rig so far.

Gibson Les Paul Vintage Mahogany => MXR ZW-44 Overdrive => Boss BF-3 Flanger => Boss DD-6 Digital Delay => Fender Princeton Chorus (not the DSP one)

Can't say, haven't had it that long as I mentioned before. However, reliability-wise, I've heard nothing but good things about Boss. If I gigged, I'd do it without a backup.

Never dealt with them.

Style-wise, I'll play almost anything. I like everything from Duke Ellington to the Beatles to Steely Dan to Megadeth. Mostly, though, I play classic rock and thrash metal. I went CRAZY a few times improvising some thrash and rock solos and let me say, it adds some definite depth to it. Even in a metal rhythm setting, this pedal has a lot to offer to to the open-minded. What do I love about it? The ultra setting. Very rich, full flanging. Suits me very well. Hate about it? The fact I don't have 2 decent amps and another cable to try out the pan mode. If this thing got stolen, I'd be tracking him or her down and beating them down with the pedal. A little expensive, but in my opinion, worth it.

Not too hard, only four modes & one of those is momentary.

Apart from that you have you regular speed, depth, man & res controls

Im rating this pretty high for what it is, a digital flanger giving you a few options.

It is quite overpowering and doesn't sound as lush as an anolog flanger like my FL301, however i find this Boss flanger to go really well with distortion.

Standard mode is like a BF-2, the ultra mode is really full on for tripped out sounds etc. The gate mode give a panning effect & when you use it in mono it sounds like a flanged Tremelo.

Like i said it's pretty overpowering, so if your after a subtle flange to just do a light chorus effect i'd look elsewhere

Boss needs no words here

Again, no words needed

Great value flanger!

I use it in the effects loop & it works great, nice jet plane woosh with distortion.

If it were stolen i'd get another.

Once again Boss has falled to install a volume knob on their Flanger. My trust old BF-2 has the same problem in that when activated the volume shoots up a bit and I gotta turn my guitar down at the same time I activate the Flanger!

Has 4 different modes but only one foot switch!

It sure does more than the old BF-2 but at twice the price!

I returned the little gem to Guitar Center and stuck with my BF-2 as the price was just not warranted.

I'm giving this a lower score for ease of use cause I gotta bend over to switch modes and for $150 ....that's retarded!

Sounds exactly like the old BF-2 in regular mode.
The Ultra mode is cool.
The tremelo mode is cool for some things.
I didn't bother to hear the stereo option.

Hey, it's cool if you're limited on space but it's too impractical and expensive if you're not limited on space.

Why not just score another old BF-2 and a Tremelo pedal and for the same price you'll have tons of tonal variations AND THREE FOOTPEDALS!

I did use both flangers at the same time and got really cool sounds.

I've been playing for 35 years....everyday since 1979.

I have 5 old Marshall half stacks and a host of vintage Les Pauls and Stratocasters.

Too expensive!!!!!!

Easy enough just play with stuff until it makes sense,but i can see why new players or not "not very technicaly minded players" could have some trouble

Good i mainly use the Mono inputs but having the two choices is helpfull,but i did find some settings not very transulent and nice as i have on my Ibanez FL-9 or my Rocktron Hypno chick.

havent had any trouble

dont know

I feel its an over rated pedal,i prefer the Ibanez FL-9 much more

very easy pedal to use, read the instruction manual the whole way throug h and with a little tweaking here and there, you should be able to the get the flange sound youre looking for in no time

this pedal sounds great. ive used in my crate with an ibanez rg series, and a fender strat, and it sounds great with both. this pedal is also very versitale, i tried out basically every other flanger pedal on the market, and none came anywhere near in terms of versitility and crisp clear sound as this one did

ive owned it for about 9 months, done shows with it, hasnt given me any problems at all

i play all types of rock, mainly metal, punk, and classic rock, whichever flange sound youre looking for, you can find it in this pedal, if someone stole this pedal i would definitely go out and buy another one

the BF 3 is fairly simple to use, once you read the manual and understand what the knobs do. the manual explains the unit very thoroughly. I gave it an 8 because the tap tempo mode is somewhat confusing to use, its very reliable but can be difficult, go try out the pedal and see what i mean. awesome pedal :)

to me, this is the best flanger i have ever heard. it is not noisy at all, and on clean channel there is hardly any audible noise difference when the effect is switched on, at least that's what my pedals like. and with distortion, the lower frequencies are made more audible as well.
my effect loop is fairly simple, because i dont like using tons of effects, to show i dont have to rely on them to play well. from left to right: BOSS DS - 1 distortion , BOSS BF 3 flanger.
I play through an ibanez jet king guitar, and a small marshall practise amp. I can get most of kurt cobain's flanging sounds, including those on Smells Like Teen Spirit, and many other phasing and chorus sounds as well. The chorus and lighter flanging sounds are awesome too, never weak and full tones.

it is made of solid steel, no boss pedal has ever died on me and i doubt they ever will. tyhe one drawback with the BF 3 is, because its all digital, it eats batteries VERY quickly, for example, while my DS 1 can last around 90 hours on an alkaline 9 volt battery, the flanger can last only 10 tops. Both BOSS and I recommend getting an adaptor

i have never had to deal with boss/ roland customer support,so i do not know. but i have heard they can be difficult to deal with at times.

over all, this pedal rocks!! it can be used for all genres of music. I play mostly hard rock and gothic metal, and i can get some pretty creepy sounds out of the BF 3, its awesome.
I've been playing for about 3 years now, and i own a BOSS DS 1, the BF 3, an ibanez jetking, and a marshall practise amp. this pedal has all the features i would want in a good flanger, plus more. if it was stolen, yes i would buy it again. the only drawback would be the battery consumption.
my favourite feature is the ultra mode, which boosts the flanger's output a little more. very useful. none of the flangers effects get in the way. ever. AWESOME PEDAL :)

Nothing to add.

I think this is one of Boss's best pedals. It improves on the BF-2 and my old HF-2 particularly with regards to headroom. I can now put this in my amp effects loop. The only problem, as pointed out below there is a severe volume boost with the effect on, so placed after the preamp you find yourself trying to play more quietly which is pointless with high gain settings. I have used it a lot in front of the amp and its great for the Dave Gilmour, The Wall sounds. I was hoping to buy another hoping the output was lower but it sounds like they are all that way. Very stupid if you ask me.

Probably the best compact Flanger ever made but I do wish they would put an output level control on this and a few other Boss pedals like the TR-2.

Quite easy to tweak in a nice sound. Manual is very complete and shows you some good setting samples to start from. The tap-tempo setting is not very usable on a stage i think. If you want a long sweep you first have to press the pedal down for 2 sec. Then if you want a sweep of around 2 sec you need another 2 sec. to tap in the right speed meaning you are at least 4 sec. busy to get your right setting. Not very handy in the middle of a song... The momentary function which allows you to just kick in a flanging part by just pressing down the pedal and releasing it when you want it out is very cool though for soloing...

It is not noisy at all and it doesn't really "suck" your tone when bypassed. Sounds best in fx loop. The main problem i have with it that IT IS NOT VERY TRANSPARENT!!! When you activate the pedal there's not much left of your original guitar sound and you have a completely different, very digital sounding guitar sound with a flanger over it. There is also a volume boost. Now some people might dig this but i just want to add some effect to my sound rather than change my whole guitar tone. I have to say that on clean guitar sound it's very ok indeed but when using lots of gain/distortion you hear this very well. I use my amp's (diezel vh-4 and Marshall DSL100) gain for distortion, maybe it sounds better if you use a distortion pedal and place the flanger behind the distortion and in front of the amp. The ultra mode is a bit too much for me but it doesn't sound crappy.

It's a Boss... Will probably survive armageddon...

Who needs customer support when it's a Boss? It won't break down and everything you need to know is in the manual...

I've been playing pop/rock to metal for 14 years now. I have owned quite a lot of different flangers and this one is not bad at all for the music i play. My first choice was a Ibanez DFL flanger but they are very rare here in the Netherlands. 'Till i find one this baby will be the flanger on my board. It is the 4th Boss pedal on my board now out of the 7 i own. I still think Boss is the standard for guitar pedals...

First off. I bought this pedal ONLY for the bass. It has a bass input which handles the sound differently to guitar. Anyway, it took me about 20 minutes to read the manual, become acustomed to all the controls, and learn how to get any flanger sound i wanted in secs. I dont need the manual anymore practically. The controls look a bit complex, but once u have an understanding of how flangers work, its easy as pie.

This pedal is one of the sweetest flangers on the market for the bass guitar (and guitar probably.) the sound is classic phycadelic. very warm and subtle if u want. u cant have a rather odd sound which sounds like your signal being put thru an ashmatic smoker's lungs. lol, wen u use this pedal subtly, u can mimic some chorus-y sounds and phasers. I really like this pedal.

As usual, boss have made another tank-like pedal. in fact, all their stompboxes r built the same. very sturdy. i would gig without a backup, but i dont like the battery compartment, the wires seem rather flimsy.

N/A.

I play in several groups. this pedal is very sweet sounding, so nice! the main problem is the practicle use of it. It's hard to find a place to use it on bass in a song. It's like this: would u drive a F1 car, full speed in a 20km limit street? okay, bad example but its the easiest way to explain. I like it alot, i would probably buy another one if this got lost or stolen. It doesnt go well with other effects. LOL, i think the colour (purple) is pretty groovy too!