Boss GT-3

This is my first unit and I think it is quite easy to use. The manual is very detailed, and the unit itself contains logical diagrams to help you out. The unit has about 85 banks with 4 selectable patches in each bank. You can change bank with up and down pedals and change the patch with pedals 1-4. About 35 banks are programmable. If you own a computer, you can download patches from the internet created by others and send them to your GT-3 using a Midi interface, very simple and cool. The unit also features a CTRL pedal for switching and an expression pedal. The CTRL pedal and expression are fuly programmable with everything you want, so you are not restricted to, e.g., WAH and volume only. Also multiple effects, up till 7 or 9, don't remember exactly, can be assigned to the pedals, which is quite awesome. A disadvantage is that the effects cannot be fully controlled by the large pedals, you have to get down and use your fingers to look for a new sounds. There is a manual mode to turn off/on basic effects with the pedal, but to change the values, you need to get down on your knees. The effects are easy and fast to set up though, a disc can be turned to quickly change the values of the effects.

I use a Ibanez JS100, and that sounds very good . The unit has lots of effects (32), some basic and useful, some less useful, but fun for intro's or special effects. The preamp simulator is very cool and I use it to get my distortions and the best clean sounds. I play a lot with headphones and I don't like the distortion/overdrive effect that much, the preamps sound much better. With an amplifier, the OD/DS sounds good, though. The acoustic simulator is quite nice for background chords. Delay, reverb and chorus are perfect, with lots of options to fine tune. Phaser and flanger are OK. The double harmonizer can shift up 2+ or 2- octaves, sounds cool, but doesn't always know how to handle multiple strings together. The guitar synth is too slow and sounds cheap, but I like to play with it and hold a synth tone as background noise. The wah is quite good, especially for clean sounds, but seperate pedals like the cry baby are better. The problem with the wah is that it changes the sound of your patch a lot. This can be compensated with the two build in equalizers. There are also some less useful effects, but fun for special effects or intro's. These are the ring modulator, auto-riff, slicer. The vibrato doesn't seem to do much. The enormous amount of patches are all of good quality, but I prefer some patches I found on the internet. Overall, you can create a lot of good sounds with the unit, for all kind of musical styles. The ability to change the order of the effect, makes the unit perfect to find an unlimited number of different sounds and experiment forever.

The unit has a metal casing and is very heavy because of that, it doesn't run away when you step on it. The expression pedal is a bit light to use, but very solid.

No experience with it.

Well, it's perfect for me. I've been playing electrical guitar for about a year now, played acoustical guitar for about 9 years. I used to be not that much of an active guitar player, but this device gave me a new spirit. I play almost every day now, preferably late in the evening when it is dark outside :-)

I skimmed through a few of the reviews of this unit and found that a few people have problems with the distortion sounds. It's taken me 2 months of tweaking and playing with the unit, and I'm just getting to grips with it, but the work has paid off, and now I'm getting some great driven sounds. Editing patches caused me no problems. The manual isn't too hot - I found out much more from the manual that is on the gt-3 users site.

I use a Fender USA Tele and a Yamaha Pacifica 812, into a crybaby wah, into the GT-3, and out to 2 Trace Elliot Speed Twin C100 amps. At first I combined gain from the amps with the od/dist on the GT-3, but am getting better tones having the amps on the clean channel and getting all my distortion from the GT-3. I don't need to use the noise suppressor, the unit isn't too noisy. I'm into Stone Temple Pilots, Black Crowes, anything with passion and groove but try to come up with my own sounds and not copy anybody else. I never use the preamp models-they just don't sound good to me. Wah is not good - I use a crybaby. Guitar synth is unusable for what i do. There are various other effects in there that aren't for me but the things I do use on it are great.

I can depend on it. I would use it without backup.

I play original music with 3 other badasses. We laugh at how good we are. You will be hearing from us. I've been playing since the age of 7. I'm now 24. If it was stolen it would be a pisser reprogramming it, but I would get another one. I like it 'cos it's a solid unit and I'm very heavy footed on stage. I don't like the fact that you can't mix fx from the mod group. One more thing...smile, you look perplexed.

This thing is probably one of the easier units out there. The manual was long, but it described everything in detail. Nice setup, patch changing is quite simple, it helps to have the bank up and bank down that isnt found on some other pedals (The GT-5 and the Korg AX1000G). Editing your sounds are easy as pie and finding a good sound takes minutes after you are familiar with the unit.

I run the GT-3 from my Les Paul Studio or Jay Turser Strat copy (P.O.S.) to my Peavey MX and my Kustom practice amp. The GT-3 sounds better in stereo so its worth the extra amp. There is no noise from the unit. I dont use the distortion that often, instead using the amp models for distortion. You can get a very convincing overdriven Fender sound with this. I play all sorts of styles, Jazz, Blues, Hard Rock, Metal to name a few and this lets me nail everything. I have found that you can really nail some good tones with this unit (Santana, Pat Metheny, SRV to name a few) The distortion and amp modeling is great, as well with the modulation effects. The accoustic simulator isnt too hot but of well. I have found some good uses for the guitar synth (U2-style). The Ring modulator and auto-riff are pretty useless except if you play acid rock. The delay is quite good and I have tweaked the Space Echo patch to get some nice eerie lines. The wah sucks. It doesnt even come close to gettinga good sound, hell, it doesnt even come close to a DOD and thats pitifull. Instead, I use the auto-wah and use the expression to control the sweep. The unit itself is pretty impressive and picks up picking dynamics well but doesnt respond well to your guitars volume control.

This thing is built like a tank. The only thing that could break are the switches and youd have to jump on them. I gig without a backup all the time. I wouldnt have bought it if I wasnt sure it would hold up.

Never dealt with them. I dont like the fact that you have to live in the US to register the warranty on-line.

This pedal is the best thing in its prrice range. I compared it to the RP-7, Korgs AX1000G, a bunch of Zoom Pedals and even the GT-5. The others didnt come close (except for the GT-5). Ive been playing for about 2 years now. If it were lost or stolen, Id probably buy it again or a nice Rocktron rackmount. My only gripe is that the wah sucked. That isnt too much of a problem though, Im looking into a Budda or Teese wah now (I cant stand Crybabys). I can easily recommend this pedal to anyone who is looking for a good multi-effects unit.

When I first got this pedal, it looked VERY indimidating to program. I had to read the manual more than once and get the very feel of working this thing. The manual deal didn't help much throughout the whole learning experience of programming the pedal but I managed to get good sounds after a few weeks of tinkering and tweaking it. Once that was accomplished, programming each presets is a breeze. The manual generally just gave basic descriptions on how each effect work and blah... doesn't really give a clear detail on acheiving good sounds. On the other hand, you really have to tweak with this unit for a long while along with the amp you're currently playing it to compliment each other and get great tone.

I'm currently playing an Ibanez RG470 with EMG 85 in the neck, EMG-S in the middle, and an EMG 81 in the bridge and by far, the guitar sounds extremely good with this pedal. With my setup, I can get a lot of tones and depth with the unit. Although I have yet to explore the other features in this thing, it certainly has a lot of features that I would need in the future. Distortion(s) are excellent! From blues to death metal, this processor will definitely suit your needs! Other effects include EQ, Slowgear, Anti-feedback, Compressor, Limiter, Sub-EQ, Harmonizer, Guitar Synth, Chorus, Delay, Reverb, Humanizer, Vibrato, and a whole lot more. Effects such as the Chorus and Delay are definitely great for solos... especially when I have the guitar set on the neck position. The Acoustic Simulator is awesome whenever I have my guitar set in the middle position... great acoustic sounds! The Noise suppressor does the job right w/o use of external noise suppression units.
Practicing with it along with the Crate 15W amp actually made it sound brutal! Practicing at the studios with a Crate BV120 and 2 Amepeg 4x12 cabs is a whole different story!

It's a Boss. This will pedal will stay with me for a while unless a far more better version come out, which I doubt. Made out of blue steel, this pedal will certainly last gig after gig after gig. Although I can not find a gig bag for this, the LCD display can be a little hassle to carry around since it's the *most sensitive part of the unit*.

Never bothered cause Boss products are too good to get any complaints.

I play death / black metal. I like to experiment with the sounds involved with this unit and use these sounds as an additive to my band's music. I've been playing for the past 6 years or so. I've upgraded from an ME-30 to a GT-3 in December as a b-day present and I was definitely happy with the GT-3. The ME-30 had it's moments but by far, the GT-3 is the next best thing in the affordable great quality processors category. I debated between ths GT-3 and the recent Digitech RP2000 processor and the GT-3 gives ya all the freedom to program effects in any way you want... even changing the arrangement of these effects within the *pedal chain* of the unit. This was a major advantage for my purchase because I don't like my sound to be limited into the same *pedal chain* arrangement for every bank (which has about 86 with 4 presets per bank). I definitely love the CTL pedal because you can set it up to anything in the effects chain and control your sound within a stomp of your feet.

Manual can be vague on some subjects. Editing is about the same as most units. I did like the EZ editing mode to get a general sound without lots of tweaking, then you could refine that. Low rating mostly for the manual.

I upgraded to the GT3 from a Digitech RP-7. The GT3 seems quieter, and some effects seem more refined, but... my opiniion is the sound is very compressed - the RP-7 sounded much "fatter" to me. Perhaps the tube (valve) in the RP-7 makes that much of a difference! I really didn't think any of the amp emulations were that realistic. Might be OK for some amp rigs, but I use a power amp stereo setup, and it just didn't cut it for me. Ended up trading it for a ART SGX 2000 Express rackmount - much happier now!

Built like a tank. I can't see how you could break it unless it fell out of the van on the way to the gig (and even then...). Note - I only used this for about 6 months before trading it in.

Never had to deal with them.

I play mostly classic rock type originals, 50-50 clean and dirty. Have used many floor type multi-effects, I thought the GT-3 was comparable to most, but really nothing special. It did seem a little less noisy than most units, but then again I really didn't care for the sound. It does offer many functions, but in my opinion many of them don't lend themselves to realistic live playing. For the amount of money this thing costs, I would reccomend going for a used rack mount setup- much better sound.

Fairly easy to operate. If you want to get into specific sounds and matching artists sounds, you can get lost pretty easy in the gazillion options (but they are nice to have, though). Very easy to get a good clean sound (what isn't, though). Distortions will drive you crazy trying to get what you want. Editing is simple overall. the manual is dry and boring and will make you want to write your own. Big surprise there.

I use a '79 Hamer standard with a Peavey heritage (2 speakers) amplifier. Noise was very controllable with the noise suppressor effect except the sustain would suffer horribly no matter how you chained it or altered tone values and cuts. My old crappy DOD G7 sustained better. The overall effects and selection are fantastic and most sound great to excellant. But....If you recognize a common complaint throughout these reviews it is the distortion and overdrives. Wow, are they weak! You can get a decent sound, but you have to work your ass off to get it, and the next day when you come back to listen to it, it sounds bad. Anyone who truly likes to have a full range of hard, grinding, good sounding distortions will be dissapointed overall. It's almost surprising they were included with the awesome sounds that make up the other effects. Yes, you can add in the amp sim (some are excellant) but you really have to work to get what you want and for me in the end it didnt cut it. Otherwise, the effects sound as good as I've heard (I really enjoy the harmony and pitch shifting). I believe you can get the sounds of many artists but for the heavier stuff (and I'm not talking "death metal" here), I think it sounds either too much/uneven or way too little (very little punch to it). If it wasnt for the lame distortions this pedal would be perfect. I really believe this. But once again, people prefer different types of sound to others, so it may suit you, but listen to the pattern and if this area is important to you..... Overall, I think this thing sounds like an 8, but the distortion and overdrives alone, are about a 5.

I think this this thing as is reliable as your going to get for the money. It truly is built solidly and I have not seen anything that has a look that makes you want to play. It's weirdo blue, but nice and classy in it's own way.

No dealings with 'em.

Like I said, this thing would be a 10 if it werent for the distortions that will bother a lot of players. I've been playing for 17 years now and do not want to have 18 stomp boxes to get the whole job done. This gizmo almost corrects all of that. If it were lost or stolen, it would have to have happened at the store where I bought and returned it back to based on the annoyances of "trying to find that sound". There was more tweaking and tinkering than playing for me and that is when things get the boot around here. If you do not care much for a lot of tinkering, tweaking, and twaking to get what you want or something even closs to it, do not buy this item. This is what bothered me the most as I just couldnt quite find it! Blah!. It is remarkable in a million ways and dissapointing in a few areas in a major big way. I am truly upset about not keeping it, because it is really a nice little gadget with plenty of surprises and sounds within for the money, and you can get a lot of great sounds out of it. You shouldnt have to always have to work to get it though. Why can't true guitar players design these things? Not techno pilots (horrendous presets!). It's too bad the little things of this model turned me off to an otherwise amazing product in the end, but Boss should be commended overall for a very complete and well built product.

It's a big pedal but with a little time youll learn how to master it. when i first got it, it would take a long time to edit patches. but now ive gotten pretty fast at it.its well worth the extra work to edit because this pedal has some awesome fx.and how u select effects to change is really easy. all the buttons are right there on the front of the thing with all the fx listed for you.and also, this pedal being slow to edit is a good thing because it will teach you all about fx and how to use them.

i use my gt3 through my yamaha pacifica 112(a good guitar,yamaha can make anything) and through a peavy studio pro 112 65w amp.i plan on getting a marshall valvestate halfstack soon though.the fx on this thing surprised me. almost every other processor i heard sounded very digital but this pedal is exactly opposite. if you like boss fx pedals than youll like the gt3. the fx are just as good quality. they dont sound digital at all.the fx are even set up like the little boss pedals.for example, the same parameters you edit in the processor are the same as the boss compact pedals knobs.its also a very quiet pedal which is very good when it comes to my style of playing. i play hard, i play stuff like fear factory,pantera,sepultura,slayer,slipknot,white zombie and other heavy stuff and this pedal can get all the sounds you want for that kind of music.i especially like that this pedal has analog distortion and not just the digital preamp. i personally dont think the preamp distortions are that great but the analog are amazing. most processors have horrible distortion but not this one.all it takes is a little editing.the only way you cant get a good sound of this thing is your own lack of creativity.

it is very reliable. its solid metal like boss pedals so it can withstand some scracthes and dents. i plan going into a band and i am definetly going to use this pedal live.

if you play HEAVY metal like i do, and dont mind a little editing than this pedal is for you.the parametric eq is the key to the good sounds.it keeps the pedal extra quiet and sounding crystal clear.ive been playing for about 4 years and ive owned a zoom 505,boss metal zone,and a boss ge7 eq but after i got this pedal i didnt need those anymore. not even the eq pedal makes it sound better. it sounds great by itself. the only thing that would make sound even better would be a seperate parametric eq. they are the best(alot better than graphic eqs).if this pedal ever got stolen i would first track down the person who did it, kill them, and definetly buy another one. and dont fall for the boss gt5. it is older. the gt3 has what it has and then some.and it costs less.

Obviously, it takes a while to get good sounds, but it is worthwhile. Editing patches is easy in most of the fx (chorus, eq, comp, pre, wah, delay, etc) but it is not very easy to edit modulation fx, cause they have many parameters, I'm still not-knowing about some of them. The manual explain very well except the control-assign part cause it has so many technical lenguaje. I never use the EZ edit funtion, instead I 'd like this unit has some knobs to real time editing (like Roland GP100). The CTL and assign funtion are very usable, it can affect every fx parameter! The LCD display (with lot of characters) helps so much.

I use it directly to a Mackie console and Peavey power amps and my main guitar is an Ibanez FGM100. The GT3 is able to sound as good as I was playing through a real guitar amp when I use it on "Line(Headphones)" setting which works like kind of speaker simulator. In certain guitar/unit position you can hear some noise. The OD/DS stomp boxes fx sound really awful, but in combination with a driven preamp you can obtain interesting distored sounds. The quality sound of this unit is as good as other Roland devices like GP100, I'm impressed by the quality of effects (clean and driven), the acoustic sim is amazing only takes a little adjust; the pick up sim is realistic (if compare with ME30) it has enough preamps and their drives are so good and traited. You have so many possibilities with the modulation fx, humanizer is so cool. The Guitar Synth is amazing, but has lot of parameters, my favorite wave tipe is Brass, it is very fast and accept guitar technics like bendings, and tapping. you can sound like kind of Jhon McLaughlin's Axon synth....I love it! The expression pedal is not very accurate, it doesn't have a linear ratio, so I'm not very happy with the wah (which only has one kind of that) . As usually, this unit has unuseful stuff like AutoRiff funtion. There are enough preamps and fx to find the color of your favorite artist, just have to spend a while. You can get really great distortions.

Solid hardware, but maybe the digital part could be delicated. I had to send it back to repair.

I live in South America, so my main contact source is internet. Roland website doesn't has any e-mail address to ask for. I had tech troubles and I couldn't found help from them! I appealed to the retailer in Connecticut.

I've been playing guitar 6 years ago, I'm playing in a christian church, we play many kinds of music (pop, gospel, rock, blues-rock, swing, latin fusions) and I'm an early jazz student, This unit is able to cover all of that styles with no problem. I've tried Zoom 3030, 505, Boss ME30 and Digitech RP12 and it was from earth to heaven! I think I will be with GT3 for long. I play a GP100 from a friend and their sound qualityes are comparable, but GT3 is lots most practical. If stolen, I maybe watch the new-born similar units (RP2000, Korg AX1000, Zoom GFX8) but I think I would back to GT3. Coming from ME30 I miss stuff like phrase trainer, patch exchange and jam-along. Speaker Sim was reduced to mic positions, I want more (like GT5). It is a great device and a good price, I'll play it for long.

If you know anything about editting effects, then you won't have any problem navigating on this machine. I've seen a LOT worse! The editing is rather intuitive actually, and I spent more of my time just following my nose (and ears) through the editting features. I like the fact that it edits in real-time, just like you were twiddling a knob on a stompbox. I don't use the quick-edit function, just because so far I haven't hound a need for it. The manual is good as manuals go, but as I stated, it's more fun and easier to learn by just going through and doing it. There is a nice bit about each effect and what it does in the manual.

I play a '93 Gibson CHet Atkins SST through a Roland AC-100 Acoustic Amp. Not your average Rock and Roll set-up, for sure, so finding a good processor for my sound was very hard. The GT-3 does the trick, and here's why: Because I can use it through my effects loop on the amp, I am able to still retain the character of my amp and guitar tone without having to rely on the pre-amps in the GT-3. I completely bypass the pre-amps altogether and just use the effects. THe COSM technology and speaker/pick-up simulations I have tried out just sound wrong with my guitar, since it's a Piezo pick up versus a Coil, but I have been able to tweak some nice distort-o-tones jsut by using the OD/DIST effect. I like all the effects, even the more bizarre ones, and by using them in conjunction with my non-rawk-guitar set-up, I am finding even more unique possibilities and tonal range than an average electric guitar.

It's a TANK! One of the reasons I bought it was because I want something to stick with me. I may play acoustic guitar, but there's still some rockin' going on onstage! It was a definate selling feature that it was in such a nice sturdy package. It hasn't farted out on me, so I have no reason to think I'd need a back up. It takes a lot of juice, but I have a high grade computer power strip to plug into.

Um, I had to deal with Roland about my amp once, but never with a Boss product yet, but I hope I don't have to! It was a real hassle dealing with the Roland rep, and although I'd hate for it to ever happen, I'd quicker go to an independent authorized repair place than go through Roland/Boss. Love the Product, not the service!

I play in a band that bills itself as Dark, Electro-Acoustic Pop. I had been sorely looking for something that could enhance my toanl spectrum without sacrificing hte acoustic qualities of my instrument. This unit is just right for that. If something happened to it, I'd get another one immediately. I did a lot of research on it compared to all the Digitech, Korg and other floor multi effects and really this was just the best sounding of them all for what I do. I really don't have any complaints about it, as it is veratile, sturdy and sounds great in my rig. It's really an inspriring product and has taken my playing to a new level and enhanced the voice of the band I play in. I haven't used it for recording yet, but it seems like the cleanliness of the tone would lend itself well to it. If you're an acousitc instrument player and need something to really enhance without ruining the uniqueness of your instrument's tone, I recommend it. It's not a beginner's product though, and a good idea of how effects processor works definately helps.

It's easy to get started, and doesn't look that much harder to tweak. I've had it for about 4 months. I would say the biggest barrier to tweaking is the fact that the presets are a bit exaggerated, to say the least, so you know once you sit down, you're going to replace at least 75% of them.

I was just mucking with the POD, and my feeling is for amp sounds, that has the GT-3 beat. However, I'm relatively new to playing (a year and a half) and this thing has a great collection of sounds, above and way beyond what the pod offers. synth, phaser, ring mod, etc. They may not all be perfect sounding, but they're pretty good, and there's a lot of them. It's a great toy, probably better for live than direct, but I'm sure it'll do me for both for a while (and my drummer has a POD, so I'll just borrow that when I feel picky about direct amp sounds).

It's a great metal monster. You could kill someone with it. You could probably spray it with a beer hose (if such a thing exists).

haven't had to.

Very cool overall. I'm happy. Probably better for live than direct, and the presets tend towards the dramatic, so you'll probably want to replace some and move them around.