Boss GT-3

Ok...here is the follow up to my previous review. It is EASY to use once you mess with it for over 5 minutes. All the functions are layed out so well it just seems natural to work with. I am VERY impressed! The individual presets for each effect are almost always REALLY good. Th amnual is HUGE! 75 well written, very detailed pages! It still only gets a 9 because you can't set the individual on/off pedals for each preset, but if you program by bank (like one song one bank...with 4 different tones)..that is not really much of a problem. One big plus also is the cord...it is about 15' long and does NOT have a wall wart...this is a HUGE plus. They also included a cord wrap on the unit to prevent it from unplugging during a gig.

I haved taken it home now and had some time to tinker with it...after pretty much building my own presets I can say it produces a stellar sound. I have been using it with my Blues Junior and a Strat Plus Deluxe and a AMST Tele and getting unbelievable sounds. Some of the stuf makes me turn and go "that is my guitar?!?"...the synth effect is REALLY cool, but I will have to find the right song and place for it. I have made some great sounds and some cool noises too. I especially like the step phaser and the tremlo. The natural OD sounds pretty good to push my amp into overdrive, but the other distortions pretty much suck (but then again so do all processor distortions..its a tube thing). I am REALLY happy in this department. Oh one last thing...the pitch shifter is pretty impressive too...I normally hate them but I found myself playing with it alot today...

Its a rock...period.

NA

This really is a top notch unit. I bought it to replace a rack mounted ART SGX -2000 Express and X-15 and it blows them away in every department period end of story. If it got stolen, I would buy it again in a heartbeat. IF you are tired of your rack or mass of pedals, buy this unit NOW!!!!!!!!!!!

I was quite surprised by the absolute ease of operating this effects pedal. I just stepped up to the GT3 from the ME-30, and was expecting some difficulty in moving to the more higher-tech processor. In fact, the 3 is even easier to operate than the ME-30. Any questions i had were easily answered by the manual, which was surprisingly easy to understand. I am very pleased

I'm running a American Tele into the power amp in of a Fender Deluxe 112 plus, and using the Matchless Preamp in the GT-3 and the sound quality of the distortions and cleans are truly remarkable. While it can at times get noisy, the noise supressor helps it out for the most part. What is really beautiful about this unit are the digital effects, especially the chorus. It is sweet and superb. The much lambasted Acoustic Simulator effect can actually work quite well with a little tweaking. One final note, the distortions in the unit are alright, but if you really want it to sound good use the amp sims and the distortions from them, overall it is excellent, very warm and tubelike.

No problems, won't have any, this thing has more metal on it than a volkswagon. As always built like a tank. That is one thing i considered in deciding between the Digitech RP-20 and the GT-3. The 20 was very light, and felt kind of not sturdy, while the really feels like the machine it is.

I play music ranging from alternative rock, to emo, to hard rock, and this unit can cover it all. The beauty of the amazing delays, chorus' and thick reverbs clashes wonderfully with the fury of the amp sim distortions. Perhaps even more impressive is the amazing amount of real-time control you have over the patch. Within one patch you can modify all the parameters as you play by assinging effect settings to the expression pedal and 3 control pedals. One great machine.

Well, art first the controls are a little difficult, but after around 10 minutes of fiddling with it and not reqading the manual, I was getting some really good tones. After you get past the intital learning, it seems easy and intuitive to program...much more so than my rack. Also, a good feature is the dedicated buttons on the front for each effect. This makes doing a quick, say, delay tweak very easy because you don't have to scroll through effects to select the one you want to modify. The volume/expression pedal is very nice and I like the fact that by setting the tuner to one of the pedals and turning the volume pedal down, you can get silent tuning on stage....very nice. The display is a step above many you will see such as those on my old ART...much easier to read.

I am planning on buying the unit this week and did an extensive sound test today in Guitar Center with my guitar (a 97' AMSTAND Tele) and a clonbe of one of my small amps (a Fender Blues Junior). I was really impressed with the sounds I got with minor tweaking of the presets. I know once I get that baby home and start building some programs that it will be easy to get the EXACT tones i need. Oh, I was plugging straight into the amp through the GT-3...(NO FX loop on amp). I am still curious to see how it will sound in the effects loop of my 5150 combo.

It feels solid as a rock, and from what I hear of Boss, it probably is. 1 year parts and 90 day labor seems a little skimpy though.

NA

I think I will like this unit very much. It is very straight forward and integrated, perfect for a lazy ass like me. I got a good vibe from the unit from the second I pulled it out of the box and I was happy with the tones I got, considering the lack of time I spent on tweaking. I will follow up with a new review after putting it through its paces.

I found the layout of the GT3 very simple compared to many other footcontrollers I've owned including the RP12 and even the GT5. It is fairly easy to edit patches on the GT3 considering the easy layout. My only gripe is the fact that it is difficult to make realtime changes on the fly without having to get down on your knees and press buttons or to assign that effect to the expression pedal beforehand, but that is no fault of the GT3 just a disadvantage of footpedals in general. I wish there was a bypass footswitch for the tuner. I don't like having to push a little button, especially in the dark, in order to tune. The manual is very thorough I thought. I especially appreciated the glossary of patches in the back.

I hook either my telecaster with EMGs or my Gibson archtop to the input of the GT3. Then either to the Yamaha DSP Factory or a Carvin 100 Watt tube amplifier. I love the clean sounds on the GT3, they work great with the kind of music I create. The choruses are some of the best I think I've heard in a floor unit. You can get great Policeish (a la Andy Summers) fat chorus/flange noises. The delays are nice and quiet and very useable. I think the 20/24 bit A/D conversion makes the GT3 the quietest unit I've ever used. I think a few of the distortion sounds are a little too present and sterile to plug straight into the board or a multitrack. I've tried working with the preamp/speaker emulation and that helps a bit. A lot of the harshness can be removed with some eq as well. I wish that more of the options for output were present on the GT3 that are on the GT5.

I've never had a problem with BOSS/Roland products and judging from the construction of the GT3 it looks like I won't have a problem with this unit either.

For the money, the GT3 is one of the best mid-priced floor units you can buy. It is versatile and easy to use and its built like a Hummer.

Extraordinarily easy to get very impressive clean sounds out of. But distortion sounds will take you a while...a very long while...as a matter of fact I don't think I've heard a good one since I've been using it. Editing is easy for patient people. I was raised on a digitech so its a little complicated for me. The manual is pretty good but is not in the elusive "lamans terms".

As stated above, the clean sounds rock. But the distortions are horrible. However I know the owner of a local music store who just lets me sit there and jam for hours. Out of boredom I plugged a Triaxis into the external distortion jacks and also setup a quick midi thing. This combo works really well. Its really cool this way but If you plan on making the GT-3 your main effects tool I would seriously reconsider.

I trust boss not to build shit so I would trust it.

A very good clean tool and a switch army knife with a Triaxis. A very bad distortion tool and the noise gate sucks too.

Fairly easy to just plug in and play. Choosing the banks and patches is fairly self explanatory. Programming your own sounds is confusing at first, but becomes second nature quickly. The manual is informative, if not a little "dry."

I have about 5 different guitars, but I chose my Les Paul Custom to test this product. I plugged into my Marshall JCM 800 and went through every single preset bank and patch. First off, believe all you have read about the factory pre-sets - they blow chunks!! The distortion sounds are a joke, weak and buzzy sounding (SORT OF LIKE THE OLD MUFF FUZZ!), and you have to laugh when it's supposed to simulating a 70's era Marshall for example!! I found some to be ok, such as "Pop Metal", which sounds like Dokken era George Lynch. The clean sounds are a different story, lot's of nice stuff here. I really like the Twangy Tele and just about all of the Chorus-laden clean sounds. The Acoustic simulator is'nt going to fool anyone, but it could come in useful. It reminds me more of an effect Jimmy Page employed on his "Outrider" album (check out "Emerald Eyes"), then a genuine acoustic. The special effects?? In a word...useless. The unit is surprisngly silent, even when employing lots of effects. Now, about the lame distortion presets. I toyed with one of them (Power Stack, I believe) for only 3 minutes, and I dialed in a really nice crunchy sound that destroyed every other overdrive preset. This restored my confidence in the unit - lot's of flexibility, but I can't stress enough - PROGRAM YOUR OWN SOUNDS!!!!

This thing is solid as a rock - I have no doubt it would withstand the rigors of gigging, rehearsing etc.

N/A

I play mainly rock, Zep, Bad Co, Jethro Tull, Van Halen, Rush, Rainbow etc - and this thing could easily dial in any of the sounds needed. However - I am still uncertain if the same sounds could be acheived with a simple stomp box set up, and a few tweaks of the Amps tone controls. What I like best about the G-3, is the flexibilty and the consolidation of all these effects into one unit. I doubt that "simple stomp box setup" would be this quiet either.

Like most other multi-effects units, the presets are almost useless. In order to get good sound out of this thing, you have to make up a patch from scratch. Creating patches is fairly easy (depending on your level of basic effects settings) I'm giving it a 7 because it is not as easy for beginners, however the ez-edit function would probably help out those who don't have much fx experience. note: if you can figure out how to program without ez-edit, it will GREATLY increase your quality of sound!

Im using a Hamer Archtop (2 humbuckers) into the GT-3 and into a Roland Blues Cube BC60 amp. I use the GT-3 for my distortion, and go straight into the clean channel on my amp. I started using my Crybaby wah pedal in front of the GT-3 because its easier to get at (don't have to program the control pedal to switch wah on/off and expression pedal for wah...that way i can still use the expression pedal for volume, and control pedal for other stuff) I find the built in wah sounds ok, its just easier this way. If i had another expression and control pedal, (there are jacks to hook them up) i would probably just use the GT3's wah. Anyways, I find that the preamp section sounds really good. The amp models sound accurate, you just have to adjust the preamp volume (which is actually the gain) and fiddle around with the EQ. The Delay is great, the guitar synth is useful sometimes, but it often sounds out of tune. I don't understand the purpose of the auto riff function, the only use i see for it is to impress your non-guitar-playing friends "wow how do you play that fast without even moving your fingers?" however actual guitar players would not be amused! This unit is very versatile, and has great potential if you are willing to program it yourself

like everyone else mentioned, this thing is built like a tank. The only thing that you'd want to watch for is not to scratch up the LCD display. (as if thats not obvious) I can't imagine the day when i would turn this thing on and it wouldn't work, it is built very solid. The only complaint I have is about the clip on the back to hook your power cable though so it doesn't pull out--mine broke off the first time I took it somewhere (and I even had it wrapped in a towel in a bag) But other than that, this thing isn't going to break!

haven't had to contact them yet...probably won't ever...

I find that this unit helps me play more creatively. If I am playing with a good sound, the music just flows, and this processor helps me do that. I've been playing for about 2 years, and can play fairly well for the time that i've been playing. I used to have a Zoom 505 and that thing totally sucked compared to this thing! I can play almost every kind of music with the GT-3 and make it sound convincing!

i had a me-8 for about 2 years, and after some initial hassling (too lazy to plough through manuals i'm afraid) i found the gt-3 very easy to program. no opinion on the ez-edit mode since i've never used it. the manual proved to be very informative, with some interesting japanese opinions on english, although i found it somewhat lacking in some areas...but things are never hard to find out through experimentation. the lcd-screen really helps a lot, organizing the effects chain is laughably easy.

I play a gibson firebird through a peavey 5150 stack, so i have no real use for the gt-3's preamp and distortion section, though sometimes i add a little crunch to the clean channel with it. the gt-3 is surprisingly quiet, except when the signal is really drenched with effects (say, pedal pitch shifting, really heavy chorusing, short delay), but that is easily remedied by the 5150's effects loop footswitch. i really dig the vibrato, and the synth and ring modulator effects are really great when combined with the internal pedal system. i'm yet to find a practical use for the auto-riff function though :). i don't know about getting other people's sounds since that is not what i'm going for, but i certainly can get almost any sound i want out of this baby. i found the pitch shifter a little less accurate than the one on the me-8, though this could be because i never got around to really polish up the sound. oh yeah, and sometimes when i switch over to a patch using the guitar synth emulator, the unit can't find or just doesn't want to co-operate and i have to switch between channels before it starts working properly. no biggie tho.

Compared to the me-8, the metal chassis seems really sturdy, and the tread-pattern on the rocker pedal oozes testosterone (brownie points for that).

i play some kinda industial pop-metal with really distortion-rich parts mixed with completely clean ones. i've been playing guitar for 8 years now, and this is by far the best effects pedal i've had for myself so far - i've really loved the sounds i've got from some rack units i've tried but i never really wanted such complicated setups, i try to keep the setup comparatively simple. i'm looking to buy a vg-8 (or equivalent) in the future, but time will tell. the gt-3 certainly helps me make music, since everytime i punch up a new, great-sounding patch inspiration seems to flow through me...and if i can't come up with anything original, i'll program a patch so that it doesn't even remotely sound like a guitar anymore :). The price is certainly right for an effects unit of this caliber.

It has the best effects I've heard. I don't really have a lot to compare to, but they are very good. Editting patches seems easy. You have total control over all effects, you can really pinpoint what you want to do with this thing. Very precise. I like that. The only effect that I don't like would be some of the distortions, they are kind of weak. Try hooking up a Daddy O "Fab Tone" through the external overdrive jack, that's what it's for. Danelectro is cheap but that pedal rocks. The manual is very good, very informative. Never had any upgrades.

I am playing an Epiphone Les Paul Triple Pick up through a Peavey Bandit 112(Scorpion equipped). Not nearly as loud as the Zoom 505 that I traded in for it. That was really hissy, the GT-3 is totally silent when you're not using it. Very cool. Distortion is a little weak, but tollerable, other effects are totally awesome. I love the delays!! I can get good sounds, the onlu sounds that I am really trying to copy are Glenn Pearce from most of the Brownsville worship CD's. He rocks!! Other than that I try to make my own sounds. Again, all effects are wonderful, except for some of the distortions.

This thing is built like a 500 pound Russian mother. You could have King Kong Bundy jump on it and it wouldn't phase this thing. Very solidly built. I play at a church and we do some wild stuff, I don't ever worry about a backup.

See reliability.

Christian praise and worship is all I play. It's a great match for this. I've been playing for about 10 years. If it were stolen or lost, I would probably buy it again, I would be saving up for a while though. Man, I love the chorus, flange, phaser, delay, it's all awesome. The distortion just needs more bite, that's it. It doesn't give you that from the gut gripping distortion. Other than that it's great get one. I'm really looking for a GT-3 patch site. If you know of any let me know.

The EZ Edit mode is intuitive and easy to use, but if you're like me you'll want to get down to some in-depth programming. The editing process can be a little confusing at first, but afer reading the manual it all became clear. The patches are easily edited. There are 340 total; 140 user, 200 factory. The manual is great very good and pretty long (35 pages). I just wish that they would make these manuals hardcover so that they wouldn't deteriorate so quickly.

Great sound quality, nice and clear. I pickups jam with it running through a Crate G260 XL, record going direct in to a computer. Sounds great either way. I play using an Epiphone Les Paul with Seymour Duncan humbucking pickups (Full Shred in bridge position, '59 in neck position) and I've heard it with a Blade with active EMG single-coils. All the effects sound great. The signal processing is 24 bit, 20Hz-20kHz, 100dB dynamic range. The acoustic simulation is great, wonderful distortion, cool analog-synth effects, and the Slicer is pretty neat for electronic music styles. Some effects (delay, slicer, phaser, synth, auto-wah, tremolo) can be synced to the master BMP of the patch.

Works extremely well without a problem.

It's new, I have no need to call them.

I play mostly electronic music, but I can use this for any style. The more unusual effects help my music style by giving me more possibilities with my guitar, and just switching to a strange patch can inspire a tune. This is a great processor, the best thing that Boss has ever made. For all that it does, at $430 it's a steal.