Boss GT-3

I found the GT-3 very easy to get a good sound out of and relatively easy to tweak. I don't use any of the preset patches but editing is fairly simple. I use it only for effects and midi-switching of my amp channels.

I use the GT-3 with various Ibanez guitars, and Peavey amps. My main amp is a Peavey JSX 120 watt head but I also use an Ultra 112 combo. I use the midi out on the GT-3 to an Axxess electronics CFX4 to change channels on both the JSX and Ultra combo. It works fantastic and gives me the quality effects that I need. Reverb, delay, and mod effects plus EQ for a solo boost etc... I run the GT-3 in the effects loop of my amps and it is very quiet and does not affect the tone negatively.

Rock solid. I just purchased a second one used but have had mine for over 10 years without any problems. I have one at our practice space and the second one coming for home use.

Boss is rock solid. Never even had to call them.

The GT-3 works great and to this day I can't find anything better for near the cost you can get them used.

I really need to find a manual (I bought it off a friend) But, Using the presets, It's really easy, and it sounds great. It's great for playing live because you can switch from tone to tone very easily.

I would say it's okay. Personally, I think I've gotten better tones out of individual effects pedals, But, For having so many tones at access with such ease, There really is nothing to compare it to. I'm running it through my Line 6 Spider III, If you own one of these, Leave the channel on Clean (I add a touch of reverb too) Or else it will sound like utter crap.

I've only had it for a week or so, But, I would say it's pretty reliable, I'm not in a position to really judge it on a life or death matter, because most of my songs are played on a slightly distorted channel to begin with (That I can achive with my amp) I really just use it for the cool effects (Flock of Seagulls type effects)

I play Down-Tempo Industrial, and this thing really gets the job done, since 90% of my show is improvised B.S., This thing helps really make it something worth while, I really can't say anything bad about it, except that on some settings it doesn't sound very sharp (Noticebly so) But that's perfect if you're looking for a little bit of dirt. Also, Some of the tones on there are just stupid (Like Casio tones) Telephones, Helicopters, so on and so fourth. I don't personally use them, But if that floats your boat, then by all means, go for it. If you can find one for under $175, I'd say go for it without thinking twice. Don't pay more than $250-$300 for it though, Not that it wasn't worth it at one time, But you can find it for alot cheaper. I bought mine off a co-worker who just needed extra money and really didn't want the thing for $30. He bought it used for $150, From a guy who bought it new at $200, if that gives you any idea.

Its not that easy to use but, once you play around with it you'll get the idea. Editing the patches requires knowledge of the programming behind their make up.
The manual is very technical, it takes some logic to understand. no firmware included in this. Its a straight up stand alone unit

I can definantly achieve the sound of my favorite artists. They include mostly metal performers such Van halen, metallica, As I lay dying, Godsmack, lamb of God but, I can also get Hendrix and clapton on this as well. This unit will give you the sound but, its up to you and your fingers to play it.
I play through a fender front man and it sounds great despite playing through a small practice amp. A lot of people complain that it sounds cold, sterile, and digital however, it sounds that way because those people have no clue on how to properly configure it.
Here is a key tip for you all. On the output setting, use the LIne out headphone setting if your playing through any amp smaller then a Combo or stack (in other words if your playing through a practice amp). If you do set it to combo or stack output setting while playing through a practice amp, set the amp's treble and bass EQ to 1 and playing around with the MID. If you leave all the amps EQ's in the middle at 5 it's going to sound trebly. IT will sound that way since the Stack and Combo setting is meant to be played through 30" speakers which have the boom that even out the treble. Does this make sense now? Once modifying your amps eq's to the way I mentioned before, your unit will have the smoothness and warmth you want. Again, boss produces pro studio quality equipment. This is not a toy like the line 6 POD's. The GT-3 requires precise settings to get your sound and Unlike the line 6 stuff the boss GT-3 has the right balance of depth and volume. I owned the POD xt and although the sound seemed dead on to what I wanted, it lacked a convincing volume presence that can project your sound forward.. Digitech is a joke and bigger toy then line 6. The sound is thick digital and amateur.
I'm giving the Gt-3 an 8 because the GT-6 gets a 10 for having broader features.

I play metal, rock, classic rock. The GT=3 small and can produce any sound you want, heck of a good match for me.
Been playing for 8 years, own a bunch of ESP EC guitars and an epiphone gothic all of which sound great through this. As mentioned before boss really blows away line 6, digitech or korg.
Only thing I wish it had was step activation wah but, programming the control button to activate the wah during a patch can compensate for that. In fact it motivates me to use the wah even more.
Definantly inspires me to play music. The sound projects and cuts through the mix. this is a great unit. I'm never abandoning boss ever again. Took Boss for granted before because I had an untrained ear but, I'm a much better player now and can hear the difference boss makes against their competitors

This is an update, of sorts: I reviewed the GT-3 a long time ago, and I was surprised to see that people were stil interested in the old box, so I thought I'd stick my nose in again.

If you're used to multi-effects, the GT-3 is pretty straightforward; if you're used to pedals, it's kind of weird. Most effects have more parameters than pedals have knobs; the Phaser has 8 parameters, but an old Phase 90 has one knob. The Guitar Synth menu will mean nothing to anyone who hasn't played or programmed a synth, and then there are submenus you access with the Utility button. It's deep. BTW, I recently progammed a GT-8 for a friend; the knobs don't help all that much, they get you some quick control, but bypass a lot of parameters.

Editing can be tough; again, it's digital multi-effects processor depth vs. pedal simplicity. You'll want the manual; it's helpful, but not comprehensive. Boss/Roland manuals have gotten better over time, but this sentence is classic Boss/Roland, from page 43, describing the Fuzz effect: "This produces a basic fuzz sound with." I found the same line in the manual for the GT-5, and the GT-8! There's an Unofficial GT-3 manual out there, along with a bunch of user sites. You'll find a lot of help quickly, with any search on "GT-3".

Experienced users have been giving the GT-3 9's and 10's, while less-experienced users have rated it 4 or 5. I'll give it a 7, depending on your experience.

I'm not going to review ALL the effects, I really just wanted to address some problems people have described.

First, forget the presets. Make a BLANK patch for yourself, and copy it as many times as you can stand pushing the same buttons over and over. It's a pain at first, but it saves you wondering if you're about to overwrite a good patch. You can always copy a few prestets from the factory bank.

Second, dig in to the Utility menu; this is where you can select your output (Line, Guitar Combo, etc.), check all your levels, do your MIDI setup, and program new riffs for the Auto-Riff and custom scales for the Harmonist. Selcting the right Output is crucial to your sound; for example, if your have "Line" selected as your Output setting, the Speaker emulator is always on! If you're having tone problems, most of the solutions are probably in the Utility menu.

Third, it's very easy to over-EQ your sound with the GT-3. The compressor has a Tone parameter, there's an EQ effect, and a Sub-EQ in the Modulation bank, the Dist/OD effects have Bass/Treble, the Pre-Amp has Bass, Middle, Treble, Presence and Bright controls, the Delay & Chorus both have High Cut, and Reverb has both Low- & High Cut. If you tweaked ALL of those EQ's it's like chopping your tone into bunches of little frequency bands that you cut or boost. Roll back the EQ's as much as possible when crafting your tones, especially if you're running into a guitar amp, after the GT-3. Less is more, inthis case, less EQ, more tone.

Fourth, the GT-3 sounds best into a really clean guitar amp, like a JC-120, or a Keyboard/PA rig. Maybe a Polytone.

The distortion can be tweaked into some usable sounds, but if you have a favorite dist/OD pedal that's crucial to your sound, patch it in through the Ext OD loop. Don't make yourself crazy over it.

If you have an amp that's the heart of your sound, why would you use the GT-3's Pre-Amp effect, anyway, unless you use it as a sort of pre-amp/overdrive. Use the effects you need, and forget the ones you don't.

I tend to stick with the JC-120 & Clean Twin models for most things. I use all of the effects except the Sub-EQ, and maybe the Humanizer. The Harmonist effect isn't as lame as the Harmonist pedal, but if you need a serious Harmonizer/Pitch-Shifter, this isn't it. The 2X2 Chorus is much cooler-sounding than the regular Chorus. Live, I run my GT-3 into a JC-90 or a house PA. There are so many sound options in the GT-3, it's hard to rate; dig deep, and you might get 9 or 10 quality sounds; stick with the factory sounds, and you're down around 5 or 6.

Had mine long enough that I've forgotten exactly when I got it. I've used it for years, without a backup, but I might get another now that they're so cheap.

The Roland reps who come around and do in-store demos are knowledgable, and helpful. On the phone, you might get anybody; they'll try to help, sometimes you just can't get there.

The GT-3 is a pretty deep box, for about the price of a Metal Zone, maybe less. If you're willing to spend time programming it, you can probably get most of the sounds you want, or pretty close. Some players will be better off with one good Dist/OD, maybe a Delay pedal, and a killer amp. I've been playing for a long time, have used tons of effects, and I'm pretty satisfied with the GT-3. I've been a Boss user for a long time, and it's cool to have most of the classic Boss boxes all in one box, even if some of them have mutated. If you love knobs, don't be fooled by the GT-8. It's a very different box, and the knobs don't tell the whole story.

Takes a short time to learn how this unit programs, the manual is some help, after a few edits you see that it isn't all that difficult.

A great all in one unit that I've used for 8 years, I even returned a GT-6 to hang on to the GT-3. It will react differently with any amp, I use it will a Line 6 2-12 or a Line 6 1-12, set for clean. 57 re-issue Strat with Duncans is the guitar of choice. You'll experience some noise with some of the high gain type setting, OD, Dist, and the out of the box pre-sets are ok but you'll want to edit those.

I do own 2 of these and have never had to use the backup....yet

It's great if you play a lot of different styles, clean, OD, Compressed Straty tone. I gig 5 nights a week and have been for many years, a great all in one unit

I spent a lot of time modifying parameters here and came up with nothing close to what sounds like what they say it represents.

I can get that sound that makes me feel bad or sad depending on what bank I choose from. It dont matter which number im on its really weird uhmmm 1-4 to 50-3 just pick any assignment and modify till your enjoying the process of tweaking and forgot about guitar, its really funny. marshall fender cabs guitars chords you know the style i used this stuff in conjunction with gt-3.

The chorus sounded good at instances but it was facsimile of a good chorus pedal. Boss makes descent chorus and delay pedals so I wondered if gt-3 cosm could nail the representations of them accurately?

These dayz I just put on one of the infinite looping fx banks and it puts a smile on my face, interesting sorta like hiphop being heard from the neighbours place down the street or like putting a video cartridge in a game console and hearing the opening track repeat. Its all the same.

Gt-3 makes me feel like guitar was a bad choice I should quit while their still is time but still I insist their is hope in this unit even I failed the moment I got sucked into its purchase. Complete doom.
Entertaining the pleasures of what gt-3 is capable of.

You can get every sound possible except the one your looking for that resonates well with your rig. You really must have boutique ears to give it anything close to a 10.

Im just so happy boss crammed every pedal model they could in gt-3 so I could gock at the digital screen and think to myself in comfort that I have access to all their effects! I feel jaded and want to seduce myself to escape the harsh reality of bad tone.

This gear made me read the celestine prophecy just so I could remember the section on co-dependancy because i felt alone and forgot everything about having great solid tone was.

Uninspiring gt-3 beat me.

At first glance its a multi fx board ... so expect to brain pick at this unit for longer than a minute till it makes sense to you. I got this GT-3 without a manual. If your a tweak nut your constantly going to use using the parameter push buttons and jog wheel buttons etc just to get to what your trying to adjust. Its to be expected since its digital apparatus.

Ok first i have a 100 watt marshall from the 1970s with four inputs. Its into a 4x12 cab. Im using my fav guitar a fender tele deluxe.

Im going from the mono(left) output on gt-3 into the front input of the marshall(no fx loop here). Suddenly I noticed a whole new world of sound thats wet and colorful but not necessarily good to my ears.

Boss(roland) has always given out a generous amount of fx with any of their fx products. Most units they make are solid and good.

With the gt-3 your great tube amp you own might just might lose all of its rich and organic signal. You might try the fx loop on your boogie soldano orange or whatever but you better shut off everything like gt-3's preamps, overdrives and eq and let your amp do its thing and use the gt-3 just for the reverbs, chorus and delays and modulation fx otherwise your tone might suck.

See what I mean??? you might be better off getting stand alone pedals that will enhance your sound. Think fulltone, roger mayer fx, foxrox pedals, mxr, boss, dunlop or any boutiqueness... take like 3 and chain em up old skool and Im sure you'll agree it still sounds better than this digital representation of the real deal.

Gt-3 is noisey and the noise suppressor really wants to kick in so the natural decay of tone is now suffering to. Ok lets shut off the suppressor right?. Lets fiddle with the eg, preamps, and overdrives we could modify the parameters or turn off stuff we dont need so much of and adjust the db of the eq etc etc. Still wtf am I doing wasting my time! Tone became weak anyhow and i lost most all of the marshalls original great signal. Its as if im listening to my amp with a layer of glass over top and its raining on it as well LOL!!! Total abuction!

Boss fx have always made great individual pedals ive owned most and since the ce-2 came out in the day! The gt-3 is unit is ok from an illusion of what fx can be but not quite the same animal though. Thats what im saying. If i was a guitar noob and didnt understand tone i would be in heaven with this.

Im giving a 6 just because I would feel bad for giving roland boss a lower score cause I like their pedals and hope they investigate digital artifacts and read harmony reviews.

You could depend on it its made tough enough but i would never bring it out in public cause i wouldnt be proud of it being associated with my sound. Pretty convenient eh? to have everything in one mfx to do the job. That is reliability within itself.

I was happy more than anything bringing this to a friend who could appreciate this for what it was. We tried it on his fender amp and same thing i was convinced it wasn't my fx board and quickly put it in the past very fast! He liked it and was sold on it which tells me many things. Its not a very musical sounding piece of equipment IMHO.

I use this for chorus, reverbs ect and i use my treble booster in send and return for my rock sounds, This is a great sounding pedal i use my gt3 through my brian may deaky amp.

It's a little difficult to find what you are looking for. But then, most players have no idea what sound they really want. After you figure out how to dial up the effect you're seeking, it really can be an very functional pedal.

I guess this depends. I play a mixture of Southern Rock, Jazz, Blues and Funk. It's not that hard to come up with something on this pedal to fit those descriptions. Since there are many different types of preamps and distortions, it's hard to find a good clear consistent sound that doesn't feeback too often. I run this through a Marshall 1959 SLP and a JC-120 as a stereo output. I get good tone but it did take awhile to fine tune the settings. The only issue I have with the pedal is that on some patches, when you switch the control pedal to add or subract an effect within a patch, sometimes it decreases the sound momentarily like it can't figure out what to do for a second. All in all though, if you want any effect to mess around with, this has it.

Very dependable because it's Boss. I've been using it for about six years. A backup is a good idea but I haven't needed one yet.

Never dealt with the company as I have not needed to. This thing does not break easily.

Since I stick to more rock and jazz tones, I tend to want warmer sounds. To make my overdrive sound more consistent I have gone to a Fulltone Fulldrive 2 so that I can depend on the sound better. I may upgrade to a few new pedals and use them in conjunction with the GT-3. I am a control freak and it's hard to be consistent with this processor if you like a lot of different tones.

This unit takes some time to really get to grips with, although te interface is logical enough. If you like tweaking, this is a good'un!
Advise: get the manual. Its fairly easy to get started with the G3, but its a good thing to have the manual to 'go deeper'into the unit.

With time, patience, and knowledge of sound and what you want spent on it this unit DOES deliver. Modulation effects are easy, typical Boss strongholds, but the overdrives available are more tricky. Use these together with the EQ and the Pre- amp options, and remember that less is more. Also, set your relative volume levels correctly, balances those patches/ sounds right.
This gets used with a 1979 Gibson The Paul and a Squier Tele, into a vintage Roland Bolt 30 Hybrid ad an Epiphone valve junior head. Results are very good, but it takes some effort! Worth it though.

Bulletproof. Very solid steel chassis, good old Boss switches. Excellent.

No idea.

I like playing classic rock, everything from Led Zeppelin to britrock. Like the sound of valves being given a good thrashing. But: like a bit of Pink Floyd/ stonerrock too, so decent effect are what I need as well. The GT3 has those, it was relatively cheap at the time and I have no regrets buying it. Delivers all I need. Does whacky stuff as well ( synth, etc) but thats just very gimmicky. Stick to what this unit is good at , and that's providing rock solid reliability, good sounds, plenty of options and a lot of hours well spent! Not for the starting musician this one, but a good choice. They go for not much money these days.