Boss BF-3

takes a while,
but if you are not stupid

my setup is: guitar-->535q wah wah-->maxon od9-->rocktron rampage-->big muff us-->BOSS BF3-->marshall vt1-->boss ce20-->akai head rush delay-->amp

sound is great BUT not much more valueable than it costs.
flanger should be most trancparent and this one is not so.
my opinion, becouse theie is a problem finding a good flanger today is to buy the MAXON FL9 which costs about 250$ but it worth it.
and it eats up your tone a bit, not big deal

will never brake - but sound quality is more important issue

no need

ok value, second best flanger

Once you have a quick look at the manual for about five minutes (I read it on the bus home after buying it) you should get sounds you want out of it pretty quickly.

I use a Trace Elliot Boxer 65 for my Warwick Streamer Standard bass and out of the amp it sounds gorgeous but when we miked the amp for recording it sounded a bit icky (although I'd preferably line out of a bass amp but there's no line out on my amp).

An earlier review stated that using the gate/pan mode in mono sounded awful but I found you can get some great sounds out of it.

Also, try manipulating feedback on a mike through it, my friend was messing about and managed to get the French national anthem out of it.

I've been using this pedal for over a year now and not one second of trouble have I had (although I recommend an AC adaptor, batteries get eaten up quite quickly)

No need ever for my Boss pedals

Fits perfectly with what I play (somewhere between Sigur Ros and Tool). I'd definitely buy it again if anything happened to it, it really is a nice pedal. The only thing I will say is that the tempo tap setting is a bit tricky to use at first. I much prefer it to my guitarist's Digitech Turbo Flanger. Don't even look at other brands or models

Hola! Recibi un Flanger como regalo de cumplea?os.
Recomiendo que utilizes un eliminador de baterias durante tus ensayos, porque el BF-3 se come una bateria de 9V en menos de 3 horas. El manual..... que te digo.... Hay que leerlo varias veces si es que es tu primer contacto con los manuales de BOSS. En general el manual es bueno. Te recomiendo pruebes los ejemplos del manual para que descubras las posibilidades del Flanger. Un 8 porque el Flanger exige trabajo hasta encontrar el sonido que buscas.

Squier (barata)+ DS-2 + BF-3 + amp. Como muchos pedales de BOSS, si el eliminador de baterias es ruidoso, pues el BF-3 trabaja ese sonido tambien. El BF-3 tiene dos salidas una que produce estereo y otra que no. Tiene dos entradas, una para bajo y una para guitarra.
Dependiendo de cual salida utilizas puedes ademas variar los efectos.
El controlador de modo a la derecha es una maravilla, pues dependiendo de la eleccion ahi, varian los sonidos en las salidas de mono y estereo. Sin embargo (algo menos positivo tiene que haber) el modo Turbo.... el modo Turbo es cualquier cosa menos lo que tu crees que es. Turbo no significa ni fuerza ni rapidez, en este pedal significa un poco mas alla. Con un buen amp. este pedal es una maravilla.

Como todo los BOSS la caja aguanta cualquier cosa. Como el pedal no esta en funcion todo el tiempo en mi caso, lo utilizo con eliminador de bateria y bateria incluida, por si el eliminador muere a mitad de actuacion.

Todavia no he necesitado hacer uso ni de la garantia ni de tomar contacto con el fabricante.

Aunque no lo crean, este pedal lo utilizo en los solos.
Le doy a la guitarra desde los 16 anos (comenze con una acustica) y ya tengo 50.
Si este BF-3 se perdiera o lo robaran.... compraria otro BF-3!
Lo que no me gusta, ya lo dije, es cierta tendencia a producir ruidos de fondo. Lo que me gusta mas: te obliga a llevar bien el tiempo. Lo utilizo siempre en la posicion de Flanger standard.
No lo he comprado con otros y como ya lo dije, no lo elegi.
Si ayuda a hacer musica? No. Ayuda a darle variacion al sonido de tu musica.
Eso si, este pedal exige HORAS de prueba, hasta que encuentras el sonido para tu guitarra, otros efectos y tu amp.
Un 9 porque este pedal exige.

Like all good effects it takes a bit to fine-tune one's taste. The 8 i gave this pedal on ease of use, is not a bad thing, all good equipment is hard to use at first.

Though a wider range of sound than the BF-2, the BF-3 only really has about 4 things on the old one... Tap Tempo, Modes, and Stereo sound. They both sound about the same (seeing that they are the same effect), but the BF-3 offers an extra boost (and ultra mode) and a gateing in and out effect. The Gate effect is really cool if you have this pedal setup to go stereo.

Boss... that explains it all

Never needed it

For a flanger this thing is as good as it gets.
Boss will never let you down.
It was worth it to me, but ultimately you'll just have to wander down to your nearest music store and check it out for yourself.

5 knobs, got a quality sound out of it in a matter of minutes. Rate and depth are self explanatory, res goes from dreamy swirl to a roaring swoosh, manual sounds better when set quite low, although it's a bit subtle. standard setting is good enough for me, ultra is insanely good. The momentary is useful, but i havent needed the set tempo or gate/pan mode yet. nice to know its there. all you need from a stompbox really.

I play a '77 ibanez thru an old boss ce-3 -> electro harmonix big muff reissue -> BF-3 -> marshall DSL 401. The amp's being repaired at the mo (see my review on that), but the flanger sounds awesome! on clean, it gives a gorgeous AIC swirl up to the usual sonic whoosh, and a quavering vintage tremolo with the rate cranked up. with the distortion on, there's another load of sounds you can get out of it. sounds like concorde in yer bedroom.

It's a boss with all the reliability that goes with it. this thing will not let you down. just bring a spare battery if you're not using the adaptor socket.

never had to deal with them.

I play a load of 90s alternative/grunge stuff and it's perfect. Tried the BF-3 and the BF-2 in the shop, but the BF-2 sounded a bit thin and weak so i paid the extra #10 and damn it was worth it. i've pinned down the warble on soundgarden's 'black hole sun', the whoosh of alice in chains circa 'dirt' and with my big muff got the sound of the smashing pumpkins 'love'. been playing for bout 5 years, and if it got stolen, i'd replace it straight away. apart from not being able to alter the gate/pan rate independently to the flange rate, the only thing i don't like is the naff purple colour...

its pretty easy, all you have to do is mess with the knobs so theyre at a setting you like and then stomp it to turn it on. I did need to look at the manual when i got it because it is a little complicated to get to know the pedal's full potential. I really wish you could store patches for different flange sounds like on the Line 6 modelers. I also wish you could access the tap tempo faster and easier like the Line 6 delay modeler. On the BF-3 pedal you have to hold the button down for 2 seconds then you tap your tempo and hold it down for another 2 seconds to turn it off.

ABSOLUTELY MARVELOUS! i tried many flange pedals before i got it and this one took the cake baby. very smooth and warm or brash, depending on your personal tastes.

hasn't failed. metal chassis, hard rubber bottom, you can't go wrong.

i've never had the need to deal with boss or roland customer support in the many years that i have been playing

this pedal is fricken great! ive been playing for 8 years and play gigs about every weekend. ive tried many different flange pedal and this one tops them all. the line 6 modulation modeler is also a great pedal, but i like the sound quality of my boss better.

It took me awhile to get to know what all the knobs and settings do. I've mastered it now.

You can sound like:
Flanger
Chorus
Siren
Univibe
Vibrato
UFO
Tremolo (the Gate thing is really cool)
Sitar
Etc.
I love this pedal.

Great pedal. Makes a better Chorus sound than the Boss Chorus pedals (CE-5, CH-1). This may be the best Boss pedal ever.

At the beginning it was hard to find how each knob affect the sound but with the manuel, it was more easy to understand. After 10 minutes with the manuel, it was easy to use.(It was my first pedal)

Set-up: Peavey rage 158, Ibanez Ds7, Bf-3 Flanger and Vantage guitar.

The sound is really good. I find a lot of combination and still finding more combinations. The stereo mode make the flange better than with the mono output, the ultra mode is good with the distorsion and make the flange harder. With the gate/pan mode, you can tremolo sound with a little flange if you want with the mono output. The momentary knob can be useful but I don't really use it. I love all the modes.

With a good distorsion, you can make really good music with the BF-3. You will always hear the airplane sound with palm mute and it can make you distorsion a better sound. With my setting, when I use the disortion and the BF-3, it make some noise but with a ns-2 noise suppressor the noise's gone.

I try my BF-3 Flanger with other amps, guitars, effects and the sound is always good.

As others have said, it is a BOSS and last longer than you.

I never dealt with them.

I play most of the time alternative music and it is a good match. I have been playing for one year and half and the BF-3 is my favorite pedal. I love all of is feature because I can always make new sounds and I like that. The fourth mode are useful and always sound well. I think it was the best purchase I did and I don't regret to have spend a lot of money for my BF-3.

Spend some time with this wee toy, I have never had a Flanger befor and found it strange for the first 30mins or so. When you know what knob does what its easy.

Jag, FlextoneIIplus,Twin + other boss pedals.

I think the sound on this Flanger is good, I enjoy the ULTRA setting as it is all whooshy. The GATE/PAN seeting is good for creating smooth, warm rhythum sounds. Havent really used the momentary setting much, havent found a use for it within the context of my playing. The STANDARD setting is just what it ses on the tin.

As others have said, Its a BOSS.

N/A

i play lots of stuff from the Primus covers band Im in to the Psychedelic/Industriual band I play in. This pedal gives me great sounds for solos and whooshy chords, just what I wanted it for. My only reservation is that it was a little expencive, I would have rather paid #70 rather than #80 (it would have got me lunch and few pints that day).
My bands site is www.bastardsquad.tk
Cheers

Pretty easy if you know what flange sound youre looking for. If you dont then tweak it has it.

The sound quality is awsome. The bf-2 was the first flange I used. It didnt impress me much. It seemed like the flange swirl wasnt loud enough, so I took it back and tried the bf-3. prob. solved it kicked ASS. I love the ultra setting.

I have BOSS pedals,ge-7, ac-2 mt-2, ns-2, and now the bf-3 and they all work great.

Never dealt with them.

Ive been playing around 13 years, and have tried lots of stuff. I spent fortunes on things that I thought would work that didnt. Do yourself, a favor and save time and money. Try BOSS effects first. PS NO, I DONT WORK FOR THEM.

Easy to use, 5 knobs, not too difficult

great sound quality, not a big fan of flange though. My neighbor said to get one so i did. You get the airplane sound, some weirdo techno sounds. Not to my taste.

Boss, last longer than you.

never dealt with em

As I said above, pedal is not for me. I play rock and metal. I have next to no use for it. Only thing I could use it for is if I was doing some sort of riff in harmonics. BF-3 sounds awesome in ultra mode with harmonics. But other than that, it'll just collect dust. If you know your gonna use it and want a great flanger, buy it. If you play rock mostly, not Incubus spacey rock, don't buy it. Save your money.
Great tone, easy to use. If its what your into, good investment.

This is a great pedal. Its simple to say, its also easy to get different amounts of swirl and sparkle ot of it. The settings are easy to distinguish as you change them. I dont know what everyone is talking about when they say the tap tempo setting is hard to grasp. Its as easy as hold, release, tap twice and hold again.

The sound can go from bright and sparkly to deeper and very juicy.
The manual and ultra can enhance the sound to get a very rich and swirly Flange. The effect itself is a quiet type. it goes great with multi-picked bar chord sorta stuff. Tve mostly used this with a strat and ashton 40 watt thing. Clear and crisp sound is achieved with every amp and guitar ive used sofar.

Same old Boss pedal quality. they give a warranty cos they know u wont need it. Simple. Most expensive and best sounding electric BRICK ive ever played really.
No backup would be needed. just keep an eye on battery power if u dont have a pack.

never needed it

I dont really have a set style. But this is a fairly flexible pedal anyway.
If it were stolen and i had the money i would replace it, but as far as im concerned they would have to prize it out of my fingers to get it.
I love the depth u can swirl with this pedal. i dont have any gripes. The ultra boost has got to be my favorite. It gives that bit more depth.
as far as flangers are i dont think its missing anything.
This pedal is a plus if your knocking up songs, it gives a tone that u otherwise wouldnt have. It can really fill up the background.

This pedal is a must For Flange Fans, anyone who likes the Flange
sound, or anyone who just likes a good pedal. Recommended for softer parts of songs mostly.

I'm a real pedal fanatic and Boss was my first choice i had looked at the market and tried loads but this was the one for me. The ease of use is great its soo simple and easy to change with the different modes although the tap tempo is difficult to get used to. But there is so much to do on it and spent and 1hour and a half playing around with and it also works for bass and has a double output. The manual is pretty helpful as well.

The sound on this is great, my guitar isn't to good but it goes great with my amp (Laney TF300) it works great with distrtion and you even mix it in with other effects and if you do it rite u don't get one big blur of sounds. And its great set with the gate mode and the swirling chorus, and good sound to tweak those rhythem guitar riffs as well.

This baby is tough you can step on it a 100 thousand times and it still won't break, and it won't break in a gig or even you u smash your guitar to it. However a big down point is if u don't have a power pack the batteries will run out very quicklly. So u always need a back up.

I've never had to deal with the company or send it back, but its a great upgrade from the BF2 i'm just waiting for the next one now.

Over in England it was great value, and it great for people hwo like getting Tom Morrello type solos and Incubus type riffs. If i ever lost it it would be worth getting again, compared to other Flangers its the best by far. However it would be nice if the gate and pan effects were seperate modes, becuase if u won't to change between the two u have change the outputs.

The BF-3 is just as easy to use as the other Boss pedals, although it does require a little tweaking to get a good tone. Like everyone else stated the tap mode is a little hard to use, but the manual did a great job of explaining the mode.

I've never tried any other Flanger, except messing with the BF-2 a bit, but this is a far step above the BF-2. I like combining the ultra mode with the Metal Zone for an awesome jet plane effect. The swirling chorus is cool as well. This will give you the sound of about any artist, especially for you Incubus fans. (Although personally I don't like Incubus or any other band that uses effects as a crutch. Learn how to play, then apply the bells and whistles.)

I dropped it in the parking lot today. Seriously. It still works great.

Never needed it.

This is a great flanger pedal, although right now I'm beginning to question why exactly I bought it. It's a cool effect, but unless you like the spacey new school rock, (which I do, but prefer straight hard rock and metal), I recommend saving your money. I have yet to find a practical use for the effect in a song I've written. I enjoy writing my own music rather than covering other songs. Despite the infrequent use this pedal gets, I'm sure once I find a cool riff to use a flanger for it will become awesome.

The BF-3 is really easy to get a great sound out of it. I only dropped the rating a little because the tap mode is a little tricky and tough to do while playing live. I plugged it in with all knobs at 12 o'clock and it sounded beatiful... so imagine how much better it was after some tweaking!

Very rich and full flange! The Ultra mode is really rockin'! I never tried the BF-2, so I cannot compare, but it does sound much better than the DOD that I tried. I am very impressed with this pedal. It's very quiet. I love Boss pedals, they don't hum, buzz, or hiss... ever!

Rock solid!

I use it my effects loop of my Fender Princeton Chorus. It sound very sweet, especially when running the stereo returns. The gate/pan sounds awesome and so does the Ultra mode. Excellent stereo effect. There is not a thing that I hate about... not even the raspberry color.

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.