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Home > Effects > Effects Reviews > Boss > DC-3

Boss DC-3

Summary
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Manufacturer URL http://www.bossus.com/
Ease of Use 8.8 (17 responses)
Sound Quality 9.6 (20 responses)
Reliability 9.9 (18 responses)
Customer Support 5.5 (4 responses)
Overall Rating 9.5 (19 responses)
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Product: Boss DC-3
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 12/21/2006 at 08:38am by Mike

Ease of Use : 10
4 knobs :) I find it very easy to get a sound I like :) well, I just love the sound

Sound Quality : 10
Oh yes!! I have an original black label CE-2 which is nice :) but i'm sorry to say, the DC-3 has taken its place on my board! this pedal is sooo warm and you dont get that effect that detune Chorus effect that bugs me!! instead you get a smooth, warm, spacey, clean sound that beats the Chorus thing! so id say, if your not 100 percent happy with chorus pedals, try this one for an alternative choice, its dead quiet and works very well with overdrive :) I have it connected after a modded Boss SD-1 which is my fav Boss overdrive :) check out Monte Allum! this is where to get your mods from :)

it kind of reminds me of that warm Brian May sound found on Queen albums :)


Reliability : 10
its boss

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : 10
I wanted the a Chorus type sound but was never 100 percent happy, the Boss CE-2 is the best one I have played with and I was pretty happy with that until I heard the DC-3! its different, not a chorus but has a sound I think most will definatly prefer in their sound :)


Product: Boss DC-3
Price Paid: US $160
Submitted 04/15/2006 at 02:44am by Joe
Email: esp at myself<dot>com

Ease of Use : 7
PRetty difficult to use because it is very subtle. YOu need patience and a quiet room to get it set right. The DC-2 is a hell of a lot easier to set (obviously). Not really that hard to do but as far as most pedals go this one gets a high difficulty rating for the average user.

Sound Quality : 9
Very clean and quiet. This effect is very subtle and sometimes you can't really tell it's on. I like my DC-2 a lot better. The DC-2 had more of an effect and added a lot more space to the sound in mono. I have not compared the two in stereo yet, so I'm sure it would be rather close there, but as far as my set up goes the DC-2 works better. I am running a pedal board with a BOSS TU-2->PH-2/HR-2->DC-2/DC-3->EH-2->ISP Decimator->Boss DD-3. This is in the effects loop of my amp which is a VHT 100CLX into a VHT cab. Like I said, the DC-2 is easier to set up and more noticeable. I would pick the DC-2 over this.

Reliability : 10
Got it used and it's beat the F*ck up, so yeah it's reliable.

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : 8
Overall I think the DC-3 was kind of a dissapointment after all the searching I did for it. If it were lost or stolen I's be pissed, I mean really pissed, but I could not justify spending another 160-ish for another one. I got a brand-new DC-2 in the box. etc last year for less than I paid for this and I was really expecting a little more out of this one. I will try many more settings but I might wind up selling this one. If you are looking to get into these pedals take my advice and go with the DC-2, it is probably what you are looking for.


Product: Boss DC-3
Price Paid: US $90 used
Submitted 02/20/2006 at 12:32am by Piotr
Email: pekan<at>o2 dot pl

Ease of Use : 10
It's stomp box, 4 knobs, a simple switch and plugs. Amyway, at the beginning I had problems, as it needs proper adaptor with larger capacity. With the adaptor which I use with other Boss stomp effects it was buzzing terribly, sound was tinny and I was very disappointed. I wanted give it back to the guy that sold it to me, because I thought it was damaged, but fortunately my friend gave me proper adaptor and I could hear it at it's full sound without buzz. Now I give it 10.

Sound Quality : 10
My gear is: old tube amp and several guitars (luthier's copies): Les Paul, few PRS's, tele, Axis and strats... My other effects I use are: Pro-Co Rat, Boss OD-1, Ibanez TS-9 (old one), Electro-Harmonix Bad Stone, Ibanez FL-9, MXR Phase 45, Boss CE-2. DC-3 is gorgeus. I set it the following way: E Level at max, EQ at minimum, Rate about 9:00, depth at max. This way I have deep, almost analog, fat and natural effect. The sound is very transparent, swirly, delicate. Rising EQ the sound becomes more digital. I don't like it that much. This guy is absolutely quiet. No noise at all. May seems striange, but with distortion if fattens up the sound and... adds sutain. If you want use it with distortion, you must keeep EQ pot at minimum. At the beginnig (with wrong adaptor) I was disappointed with thin sound and buzz, but with proper adaptor, after one hour of tweaking I got used to it and I felt in love with it. I have Boss CE-2, which I love. I don't say DC-3 is better than CE-2. They are "different animals". CE-2 is analog, warm, deep, lush, full, it's class on it's own. DC-3 is digital, but still warm (if you keep EQ pt all way down). Anyway I'm happy with both. I also had CE-1, which to my taste I consider less than DC-3 and CE-2. I sold it few days ago.

Reliability : 10
It's Boss. You can depend on it.

Customer Support : No Opinion
Don't know. Never delt with them

Overall Rating : 10
I play blues and rock. DC-3 is special kind of chorus which is very delicate, but influences your sound in very good way.


Product: Boss DC-3
Price Paid: 900 (SEK) used
Submitted 12/03/2004 at 05:00am by Mats

Ease of Use : 7
At first you may be frustrated with this thing, since some settings sound very tinny and artificial and some don't seem to affect your sound at all. But soon you will find the sweet spots (and learn to avoid the tinny ones). To get any noticeable effect at all, the level control has to be past 1 o'clock.

Sound Quality : 8
I play a Fender strat into a small tube amp. I prefer using this effect without distortion. Don't expect a thick chorus - the sound will turn metallic if you try to tweak it that way - but a subtle, shimmering dimension. It sounds absolutely fantastic with clean chord work, especially arpeggio! It's like stepping into some fairy dream...

I usually keep the level at about 3, eq at 10 and both rate and depth at 11 - 12. But of course there are other useful settings.

It works fine when soloing and with distortion too, but you have to be more careful with the controls, or the sound can get rather cheesy.

The clean, dreamy sound is definitely a 10, but in all I have to be more modest.

Reliability : 10
Had no problem with this one, except that it eats batteries (65 mA according to bossarea.com)! You have to use an adapter.

Customer Support : No Opinion
No idea.

Overall Rating : 8
Mostly I play some blues oriented classic rock like Hendrix, Free, Ten Years After, Zeppelin... This pedal is not really that kind of sound, but I still love it for that extra dimension i gives to my clean channel! And even though it does not sound exactly as my heroes, I think it works fine with those 35 year old songs (Little Wing, I'd Love to Change the world for instance). The sound is truly something special and it can keep me playing for hours. I often use it with a compressor and sometimes with a little reverb, but it's fine on it's own too.


Product: Boss DC-3
Price Paid: US $210.00 used
Submitted 10/23/2004 at 01:30pm by Anonymous

Ease of Use : No Opinion
If you are a wanker you will not be able to get a good sound out of this pedal because garbage in is garbage out - If you can play, I mean really play, you will get not only a good sound out of this pedal you just might be able to get a great sound out of it. Becaue of its unique features, one might not be able at first to hear what it is capable of, but if you give it a little time to tweak you will be rewarded.

Sound Quality : 10
This pedal is one of the best pedals of its kind ever made. It was marketed in Japan for the Japanese and not for export. Westerners were not worthy! Although it is called a kind of a chorus and it can do some traditional chorus sounds, it is really like what it is named - a Space D - D for dimension - It adds a dimensional space to ones sound. Ya, it does. It is a pedal one can turn on and leave it on all the time.

Reliability : 10
You know the answer to Boss reliability.

Customer Support : 10
The folks at Boss were more than friendly when I asked then about this pedal.

Overall Rating : 10
Nothing at all sounds like this. The DC-2 comes close but you only have 4 settings that you can't adjust where as this pedal you can tweak. Any guitar based music can be enhanced by this pedal. I don't understand why people wil spend alot of money on a guitar and amp but not on pedals. They are instruments and I feel they are remarkably cheap for the most part!


Product: Boss DC-3
Price Paid: US $185 used
Submitted 04/05/2004 at 11:26pm by Saltyjoe

Ease of Use : 10
Easy as pie!, 4 knobs.

Sound Quality : 10
This is easily the best sounding stereo chorus effect ever made, believe me, I've tried them all. It is actually a "dimensional" effect, not just a chorus pedal. It shimmers incredibly in stereo, pristine tone! I have raelly tried all the major Chorus pedals on the market (I've been playing 28 years, and am a gear hound!), and there's nothing that sounds even remotely like this one. It really does add tons of space, it can go from warm to sparkling. Boss was crazy to stop making these, their other chorus pedals sound underdevoleped compared to this.

Reliability : 10
Built to last a lifetime!

Customer Support : 2
Boss sucks to deal with.

Overall Rating : 10
Unfortunately, people are getting hip to these, you can't find them for $90 anymore. I overpaid, but I really wanted this for a recording, I had been borrowing a friend's, and had to give it up. Once you try one of these, you'll never want another chorus pedal.


Product: Boss DC-3
Price Paid: US $115 used
Submitted 01/30/2004 at 01:09pm by Tommy Tremolo
Email: spy_fi at hotmail<dot>com

Ease of Use : 9
Very easy to use. I use the pedal in a stereo setup. For a mono setup, I use the CE-2 (the baby blue one).

Sound Quality : 10
I use a Fender Concert w/o reverb for my left channel and a Fender Super Reverb for the right. The latter has the reverb on it, and I use the DC-3 in stereo mode, it's outputs straight into the amps. Try separating the amps by a few (5-6) feet, and you'll get a huge sound. If onstage, tell the sound person to mike each amp separately, and to pan them left-right. The audience will hear the difference!

Reliability : 9
Absolute reliability. I do gig without a backup.

Customer Support : 9
I've had excellent customer support on other Boss products.

Overall Rating : 10
I use the pedal for each of the two bands of which I'm a member. One band plays blues/blues rock and the other spy/detective. The DC-3 is excellent for SRV type material, as well as the James Bond Theme. I tend to favor its use on clean settings, while arpeggiating chords, or playing hooks, riffs, or melody lines. I usally run the pedal with full effect on, with a very low rate, to obtain the biggest sound.


Product: Boss DC-3
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted 01/04/2004 at 12:16am by Jose

Ease of Use : No Opinion
Basic feartures of a Chorus pedal

Sound Quality : 9
A Great Digital Chorus, as Ive heard out there, not as " strong " as analog ones, but its fine with me, since I play Metal and I am one of the few guys I know that really likes to use Chorus along with heavy crunch distortion. Some of the harshness of the dist is lost as you put more and more rate on it, however, not in a way that I'd consider as " bad " to my sound. the Punch of your distortion remains intact ( unlike some other Choruses Ive tried out there ). I first bought this pedal around April 1997 or so, but Last year ( 2003 ) it broke ( problems with the input jack only ) and I tried to fix the stuff myself and ended up on worsing the situation. I literally destroyed my so beloved pedal, and I was really sad I tought about taking it to a technician to repair, or to replace it with as CE - 5 but then ... I found a brand NEW on a store, there ... waiting for me. I even tried the CE - 5 and still found that DC 3 is miles away at least for my preference, its my chorus sound. So I got my " almost useless" NS -2 and traded with this one ( with a little addidtion of money ) and here I am lucky and glad by having this pedal once again with the original box !!!

Reliability : 9
Its reliable . I broke my older one just because I am incompetent. when anything goes wrong with a gear its always better to take it to specialists rather than trying to fix it yourself.

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : 9
I m quite glad that I recovered my pedal. :) of course that there are some great other Chorus pedals, but this one has always been a fave of mine as I think its perfect to use with distortions ( if you like DIST with CHORUSES like me ) . I use this pedal all the time turned ON, because I generally don't have any pedals that I use only on bits and pieces of songs, I generally leave them all on ON positions. But if this was stolen or lost I'd go for a Boss CE - 5 or a Digitech Polychorus from their new X - Series, because this pedal is nowadays too rare.


Product: Boss DC-3
Price Paid: N/A used
Submitted 08/12/2003 at 06:15pm by Anonymous

Ease of Use : 9
Very easy to use. Four knobs: E. Level for balance between dry/effect; EQ to make the effect warmer or brighter; Rate and Depth in the standard chorus fashion. Has stereo outputs, and like most digital pedals eats batteries.

Sound Quality : 9
I use a Tom Anderson Pro Am and a Mesa/Boogie Rocket 440.

This pedal sounds beautiful. As the name suggests, it adds a gorgeous, shimmering, transparent dimension to clean sounds. Not as thick sounding as a CE-1 or CE-2, but those units are analog. The Effect Level knob has to be set to at least 2 o'clock to get any noticeable effect, but it's nice to be able to add a very subtle shimmer. Diming the Rate and Depth knobs results in mild seasickness, again not as warbly as an analog unit. It can sound warmer if you roll the EQ knob to the left.

A good pedal to get if you're after those 80s shoegazer sounds. (The Church, Cocteau Twins etc)

Reliability : 10
Whether you like the sound or not, BOSS pedals are just SO well designed and built. The switching is silent, the battery is easy to access, the quality control is generally very high. If they ever incorporate true bypass switching, they'll get an 11. But I'm not holding my breath.

I've never had a BOSS pedal fail me. I have, however, had overpriced and overhyped "boutique" pedals crap out at the most inconvenient time. Go figure.

Customer Support : No Opinion
Never needed it.

Overall Rating : 9
I agree with other users - it's a real head scratcher as to why BOSS discontinued this pedal. It sounds so good. They aren't very common, but can be purchased for a reasonable price if you hunt around a bit.

Interestingly, mine is called the "Digital Space-D" as opposed to the more common "Digital Dimension" name. The same model is featured on the cover of The BOSS Book.


Product: Boss DC-3
Price Paid: 45 (pounds sterling)
Submitted 06/20/2003 at 12:33pm by Anonymous

Ease of Use : 9
piece of piss to use as there is 4 knobs- e.level, eq, rate, depth. not rocket science is it?

Sound Quality : 8
really nice sound- i usually use it on a clean setting with a fender strat (neck & middle pickups) or epi les paul (both pickups) through a small marshall amp and it sounds sweet as a mother bitch.

Reliability : 10
its a boss for fucks sake!

Customer Support : No Opinion
N/A

Overall Rating : 9
basically i saw it in a guitar shop for #45 and thought "hmmm, thats a bit cheap for something old and discontinued" so i bought it and it blew my scrotes off. i use it all the time.

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