Boss BF-3

I don't have much time, but Boss has done me right for years, and I have a lot of experience with playing, recording, effects in general. I feel like I owe it to them and you to review this incredible flanger. It's not that easy to use on the tap mode, and getting a particular sound takes a little tweaking, but once you've dialed in the sound you're looking for, this Flanger makes it happen.

Set-up - Modded Fender Strat, modded Fender amp, a handful of Boss pedals and a Dunlop wah.

It seems like Boss made the BF-3 more transparent than its predecessors. It still does the jet plane if you've got a lot of distortion, but don't all flanges.

Man, I've tried a lot of flanges, and owned a lot (see below). This thing kicks ass on every setting. It doesn't seem like it has weak spots unlike its predecessors. I can get a chorus sound, a deep chorus sound, a Jimmy Page fast and deep chorus, and all sorts of flange sounds, and this flanger kicks ass on all of them. It kicks ass. It's the best flanger I've ever had by far.

This Flanger can do a lot of different sounds nicely. I have had Boss effects for years, I've owned 2 of their flanges - one from the ME-5 multi-effects unit and the BF-2. I didn't like either one of them, and I would call them passible at best. I also owned an Ibanez Flanger which sounded like a jet plane all the time. I also have tried the Electro-harmonix version out, and it's none of these are even close to this one. I wonder if boss will take it off the market because it's so good. I don't see them in the 2002 catalog.

Boss kicks ass on reliability. I could run over it with my car and it would work. I've thrown these pedals down on the floor at gigs for years while I'm setting up, and they have never ever failed me. You could throw it out of the window of a 10 story building and I bet it would still work.

With my ME-5, I had to change out some switches, and Boss is set up through their dealers to take care of you.

Anyone in the market for a flange should consider or buy this. The only reason I wouldn't buy this one over another brand is if I was looking for a specific and distinct sound, a certain wave form which translates into a certain sound. But a pedal like that isn't going to take you far. The BF-3 will do just about any chorus or flanging very nicely. No weird shit. It's way better than the past versions of Boss flangers.

Duh it's a stompbox. Twist knobs and step on it. I've only had one previously flanger, the DodFX72 which sucked. It took me a while to get the right sound, a slow sweep that didn't vary to extremes, but that 'while' was only like half an hour at the most.

I have little experience with 'high end' flangers, but it sounds great to my ears. You can make all sorts of sounds with it, and the options are there to boot. Though tap tempo is tricky, at least it's there. I wish it had an exp/ctrl jack for the FS-5U to do tap tempo on the fly like the PH-3 does. However, I am VERY thankful for the bass input (as I play bass). Very useful. I'm sure the stereo outs would be too, but i have a mono setup. Which renders the gate/pan feature useless, but it's nice to know it's there in case i want to use it someday. Ultra and Standard sound very different to me, and it's cool to have that 'extreme' option. Also i would consider buying another just for the momentary feature - i like the sound of cranking all 4 knobs and using the momentary switch just for the end of a riff. However for now i'm sticking with the slow sweepy flange, i have everything set at 12:00 and it sounds good to me.

Duh it's a boss. Never broke on me unlike crappy DOD pedals. Boss to me seems like the perfect middle road - not cheapo crap like danelectro, the tones are actual worthwhile, tweakable and readily available, the options are there, the features are there, and the prices aren't ridiculous compared to some other companies. However i think the ibanez toneloks are tough competition, as they seem just as solid if not more (except for the switches) and the PD7 i own sounds much much better than the boss odb3. Back to the point anyway it's reliable.

Never had to deal with boss, or Roland. But as one other reviewer said quite wisely - Boss has the best customer support in that they make their products so finely that you don't NEED customer support, cause they don't break.

Great pedal, i'd recommend it for anyone wanting a flanger, whether it be their first or just a new tone to experiment with. Has all the options i'd want and ever need. However I hope Boss starts making more and more new pedals of the twin pedal type... i like being able to store more than one sound and flip through them like on the CE-20. A phaser like that would be great that could flip through 4, 8, 12 stage, and rise/fall or step. I oughta work for boss or something. Oh well they rock anyway. Great pedal, great sounds, tolerable price.

Like the previous reviewer said, the BF-3 is a BF-2 plus added features. It's very easy to use if you've played a flanger before (especially a Boss), although the gate/pan mode does require more tweaking. Ultra mode is extra thick and dense, standard you've already heard, gate/pan is icing on the cake (as an added effect choice) and momentary lets you kick it on and off by stepping on and off of the pedal. It's also set up to be used in stereo, which the BF-2 didn't allow for.

I've played all sorts of effects (from TC Electronic to Electro Harmonix to Lexicon to Rocktron to Boss) and there's nothing wrong with the way Boss pedals sound. While they may be more of a "garden variety" as effects go, they always sound great, are reliable, durable, and easy to use. The BF-3 is no exception. You can control rate, depth, resonance, and manual to achieve a huge variety of flanging effects. Personally I like a slow deep sweep so once I get it set, I keep it there. But I can tweak it to my heart's desire when I get the bug as well. The flanging effect sounds great clean and also loves distortion. By itself, it's not noisy at all and distortion only adds a slight audible swoosh if you're not playing. I use my Boss effects in an acoustic set up with a Peavey Ecoustic 112 amp and a Takamine LTD 98 acoustic-electric. The effect also does well in an electric rig.

Right now I have a dozen Boss pedals, a loop station, and a BR-8 and have never had a problem.

Great web site but never needed to deal with 'em.

I read reviews from people who rag on Boss gear, but personally I love the tones and ease of use and reliability of Boss. Over 25 years I've used close to everything that's out there and Boss always sounds very good to excellent and has NEVER crapped out on me. I can't say that about all effects companies I've bought from. Sure there are "better" sounding effects available, but for the money you's have to spend to get them ... In other words, how many of us are audiophiles? I like great tone but I'm not willing or able to spend hundreds of dollars for each piece of gear that I want to use. For a fraction of the cost of the "top of the line" gear. I can set myself up with a pedalboard that has everything I want in it that sounds awesome to boot. Boss lets me accomplish that and keeps my set up simple and compact. Listen to everybody's opinion but make up your own mind and use your own ears. Cost doesn't always mean best quality.

ok...
This pedal is essentially a Boss BF-2 with Stereo Out, Bass input, and a mode switch. Pretty easy to figure out in standard and ultra modes, momentary mode is, well, uh, momentary, but Pan/Gate is a bit of a bitch. If you're running mono, it can produce some very strange square-wave tremolo-like effects, since it tries to pan stereo and only gets one output.... weird and pretty useless... but still fun to mess with. The only real complaint is the method for setting tap tempo. The whole "depress pedal for 2 seconds then release and tap again" method drives me nuts. Understandably, you gotta do it somehow with a single pedal stompbox, but I wish there was another way...

Aside from the above weirdness in the pan/gate mode, some great basic flanging sounds. Ultra mode seems to just kick it up a notch. The momentary switch is kinda useless for my situation, but I can see how someone could set this thing to a really strange setting and just kick it in now and then for one of those strange blurbs of sound.

The stereo flange is absolutely beautiful. That's all I have to say.

The true test of any stomp box is this....

Could you use it to crush somebody's skull?

Bricks, Sovtek Big Muffs (only the green ones), Marshall stompboxes, and Boss pedals all pass.

uh....
not that it really applies to this, but I work at a music store, and I deal with Roland regularly.. and they are extremely easy to work with. Helpful beyond belief whenever something gets screwed up... They even let me keep a couple of pieces that they over-shipped once (please don't tell my boss - I'd like to keep my job)...

This is just an upgraded BF-2. If ya liked the BF-2, but wanted to tack on a stereo mode, you'll love it. If you're a bass player who liked the BF-2 but wished it was EQ'd a little better for the bass (like me), you'll love it.