Boss DC-3

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

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 :)

its boss

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 :)

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

It's Boss. You can depend on it.

Don't know. Never delt with them

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

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.

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.

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

No idea.

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.

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.

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.

You know the answer to Boss reliability.

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

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!

Easy as pie!, 4 knobs.

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.

Built to last a lifetime!

Boss sucks to deal with.

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.

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).

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!

Absolute reliability. I do gig without a backup.

I've had excellent customer support on other Boss products.

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.

Basic feartures of a Chorus pedal

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 !!!

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.

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.

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.

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)

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.

Never needed it.

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.

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

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.

its a boss for fucks sake!

N/A

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.

This pedal rocks, very straight forward in finding your setting. 4 realtime knobs same as Boss' other chorus pedals (Level, Rate, Depth, Tone).

I use a Custom Stratocaster built from warmoth and various parts, with AGI Lace sensor pickups as well as the LR Baggs X-Bridge for acoustic pickup. This pedal blows away any standard of chorus you've come to know. It is a lot more subtle than any chorus, free of swirling and noise. This pedal is not truly a chorus pedal but more based on doubling the sound to make a chorus, hard to explain. There is a reason that this pedal has one of the highest sound quality ratings out there. People have complained that this is too subtle but if you want thick and creamy buy an ACTUAL chorus pedal, this is for the true tone crazy people. An it definitely blows the DC-2 out of the water, as this can be a full on effect like the DC-2 or you can tame it to just add a touch of brightness to your sound, well worth the money

Everyone says it and everyone is right, Boss = Tank, this pedal is over a decade old without any signs of age, I wish I could say the same about my aging. I'd totally gig without a backup.

Never had to deal with them, proving their reliability since I've owned around 8-10 pedals at a time and never had a problem.

I play anything from rock to alternative to acoustic to everything. This pedal can be used anywhere, the soft nature of this can add shimmer to any styling. I've tried about 75% of all Boss's pedals and this is one pedal that truly lives up to the reviews, GET ONE.

Only four knobs, just like a regular chorus pedal.
Very easy to get a good sound from it.

My current set up is Guitar -> Dunlop 535 Wah -> BossMZ2 Digital Metalizer -> BossPS5 Super Shifter -> BossDC3 Digital Dimension -> BossDD6 Digital Delay -> BossRV5 Reverb -> Marshall Tube Combo.
The MZ2 is running at full gain yet there's no noise (note the lack of noise suppressor in my setup).
Am glad that the DC3 is receiving good reviews. I do not like the over powering chorus effect but a more surround-sound type effect which the DC3 is capable of.

No problems yet.

No need for.

This is a great pedal. The pinkish hue may put some off but the sound more than makes up for the girly look. My only question is why Boss discontinued the make years ago. The DC3 is a made in Japan model if you can find it.

Made in 1980s and discontinued already. Has understandable standard knobs which most chorus pedals have. Rate/Depth/Fx Level etc. Its looks linda wacky with the pink paint, but don;t be baffled by the looks, this chorus pedal is so great. The manual is very helpful as it shows you the extreme limits of this pedal. Configurations like Bright Dimension, Heavy Dimension etc.

I use a Gibson Les Paul along with a crate amp. This chorus pedal gives you a shimmering crystal clear digital chorus. Jeff Beck uses this pedal i think.Though you may think it will sound inferior to the Analog Chorus pedals, its probably own preferance. Its got for fattening up chords. And if the rate and depth knobs are maxed, they even produce a nice tremolo like sound (Cool eh?). Its very quiet and does not produce any noise. This pedal will really make your sound feel dimensional. If you guys think that this pedal is OLD, DISCONTINUED and therefore, LOUSY. You guys are wrong, It is capable of comtemporary songs like Red Hot Chili Peppers "Zephyr Song", the riffs by John Fruciante. ANd this pedal will make your playing sound nice and melodic. I've tried CH-1 (which sounds like generic guitar dust) and Electro-Harmonic Small Clone (which is very limited in variations as it onli has a dumb knob and a stupid switch). THis pedal really blows everything away. Plus, its a stereo chorus!

Its a BOSS. Build like a tank. I just bought it Brand new from this guitar shop. Though its an old pedal, non in production now. It is like other BOSS pedal, super reliable, until now its in super good stomping condition. Well worth money spent

No problems till now. Need not contact them

Its an old pedal and i am lucky to have found it. I play anything that sounds good to my ears. This pedal is even better than CH-1 or CE-5 which is in production now. PLus i need not buy a tremolo pedal now this effect also features a tremolo effect in a rate + depth maxed configuration. If it is lost, i will try to find it again. But this pedal is hard to find. Not seened nowadays. Its money very well spent,

I think this pedal is very easy to use if you have some idea on how does the Chorus Effect work. Rate knob, Depht Knob ( the Chorus main control sets ) Effects Level Knob ( to adjust the Intensity of the Effect ) and Equalizer Knob ( to give you a brighter or a smoother sound, i don't reccomend using this setting on too high levels )

this is the Best Chorus Pedal I've tried so far. Many years ago I bought an older Chorus Pedal of Boss and I remeber that it sounded OK, but it did took OFF the "Punch" of the distorted guitar. I mean, It losed the "intensity"of the Palm Muting/picking "Heaviness" and Punch that I love so much. this doesn't happen with this pedal. you can use the effect with very high levels and it doesn't affect the strenght of Palm Muttings and Pickings. And its still a great Chorus Pedal with great stereo effect

I play Melodic Heavy Metal and sometimes heavier styles like Thrash Metal and I found this as the perfect model of Chorus pedal for Heavy Metal guitarrists. I only compared it with an older Chorus Pedal of Boss, but I fairly prefer the Digital Dimension one. I am not sure if Boss still fabricate this pedal, but if I was Stolen I'd certainly want to buy it once again.

My DC-3 was made in 1987. It came with orignal box and manual. Seemed easy to use if you have a basic chorus understanding.

Sound quality is excellent. Stereo is killer.I'll take the DC-3 over a Choralfalnge or a TC SCF anyday. Not because of price but sound. Not noisy. I use the DC-3 with a Fulltone Clyde/Distortion Pro/and a FD-2 along with a Visual RT66.

Well this pedal was made in 1987. Seems good o go.

Customer support is shakey. If you call them they tell you to call your nearest dealer. Why are they there???

Excellent pedal. Made in Japan. Best chorus I have heard. Hands down.

Not the easiest pedal to use as this effect is very subtle. It takes a while to find "your" sound but once you do the effect is magical.

This is an amazing spatial, lush, transparent chorus. It won't do the syrupy, wet old school thing but, instead, gives you a sparkly, airy three-D dimension to your sound.

I had a TC Electronics chorus, compared it side to side with the DC-3, and actually sold the TC unit. The sounds were that close. I figured I could use the extra $300 I got for the TC when I only spent $90 for the DC-3.

It's a boss. It will be on EBAY someday when I am 90.

No support available for this product as it has been discontinued due to the incredible cost of manufacturing.

I am NOT a chorus guy, BUT... This thing is so much fun to play with. I'm sure it would be amazing in stereo. You have got to hear this to believe it.

Pretty straightforward ... good explanation in manual

I recently did a guitar part direct with my Guild Nightbird with EMG pickups ... almost an acoustic type sound .... I used my recently purchased ARION chorus for tone and then split the signal to two channels with the DC-3 ... great stereo!

Just got it ... Boss generally is great quality

This pedal is basically a stereo chorus pedal. There's about one chorus sound I like, so I rarely touch the knobs on this guy. However, the knobs do what they're labelled, so I rate it high in ease of use.

I love this bugger. I run one output straight into a tube amp and the other channel I run through some delay and phasing into another amp. The two amps are about 8 feet apart and facing the middle of my living room. From what I can tell, the pedal puts out your basic chorus sound. BUT the two channels are out of phase, so it really messes with your ears and gives your sound a LOT of depth. Use this pedal to give stereo dimension and a delay for time dimension and you get a very wide open sound. I dunno how it works live or on recordings, but in my apartment it's the bee's knees.

Got it used on eBay and I don't gig but it hasn't hiccuped yet.

I have a Danelectro Milkshake Chorus pedal that I don't use because I have this one... I honestly don't really care much for chorus, but this thing is so cool because it's STEREO and it makes me want to cry (or take a big hit from the b0n&) it's so lush and deep.

Easy? Four knobs - Effect Level, EQ (basically a tone control, cuts highs), Rate, and Depht. The latter two _seem_ to interact semi-mysteriously, in any case they do not respond linearly. See below. Straightforward and easy to use, but then... the sound

Sounds great. Push the idea of a chorus effect a bit aside, you can't read 'chorus' anywhere on the pedal. On the other hand, it's no 'I mean COOL, this IS a dark horse must-have wonder' either. But it is interesting and have a life of it's own. With the rate control in the range below 9 o'clock and depth (about) below half past nine, you get something reminiscent of a micronic detune, and thus not unlike mild phasing. Very dreamy. As you turn depth and rate up, a more traditional 'chorus' sound springs to mind. But wait a minute. I just turned rate down, and ??? what the **** happened? It hung there for a while. And did'nt it 'cough' in a chock of relief when it catched up? Let's try it again. Yep, no ghosts here. But I like it. Last, it sounds even better if you use it in a send loop and feed it back on itself. (Setup that way it's also easier to hear what it is doing, for those _really_ curious about it's nature.) In all, try one out if you get the chance.

A conversation year 2500 AD; Insect #1: We're short on metal again. Need more fast, gotta get some civilization going again. Insect (#2): What about those.. here.. (kicking up a boss pedal from the soil)
Insect #1: Sorry, but they've already ruined three major recycling plants up north. Won't melt, won't chrush, and we've tried both plasma and some middle-sized cities run over heaps of 'em.
Insect #2: Those humans sure did'nt know anything about civilization. Guitar pedals though..

Apart from a nice solo effect, it's maybe even better used as a spice or 'spacer' for other effects.

Set up with 4 knobs just like a CH-1 Chorus. Level, EQ, rate, depth.
I had no problem dialing in a nice effect.

I think this is one of the best units out there. Also know as the "Digital Dimension". My Boss CH-1 is now on its way out the door. Previously my favorite Chorus was with my Yamaha SPX-900 rack unit, that I would add to the dry track in the studio. The DC-3 can do the job in a pedal. My old CH-1 gave a sweep to the tone, but the EQ change just sounded to thin. The DC-3 makes it bigger. More of a combination of doubling and sweep. You can tell the delay time is quite a bitter longer than most Chorus units. Unit is quiet, and sound great with my Fenders, Gibsons, and Fender and Marshall amps. The sound is definately on the subtle side, so don't buy one if you need to really Warp your sound. Noise is not a problem, and when you kick it in, the basic EQ of your sound stays relatively untouched.

Never had a problem with Boss pedals. I have no backup, and will keep it at that.

Never had to deal with 'em. Sure would like to tell them to reintroduce this long ago discontinued model. However, judging by the 2 FULL circuit boards inside, with many BIG chips, this was an expensive unit for Boss to produce, and might be why it was discontinued. I hear when it was new it was quite expensive. However, what's up with the on/off status with all Boss pedals? While running on AC adapter some power up "on" some "off". Seems like a random condition with all of their pedals? I've exchanged pedals to find ones that power up in the "off" status. My used DC-3 powers up "off" (like they all should) however the LED status light doesn't even work at all on batteries!?

I've been playing guitar for 28 years, 18 years professionally. I play Rock, Blues, Country, Pop. For many years I never used pedals at all, I liked the purity of Guitar-Amp. After moving to Nashville it has been a new challenge to "wear many hats", and get many sounds quickly. This pedal has quite a reputation around town, so I bought one on Ebay without even hearing it first. Luckly, it turned out to be exactly what I needed. I've never heard the more rare and costly 4 preset button "Dimension C", but I was told by several pros that the later 4 knob DC-3 was the better one to have anyway. And what the heck, it is the coolest color I've seen on a Boss pedal yet...