Boss GT-3

First of all. I read through these submissions and it looks like some people are technically expierenced and others are not. You can get whatever sound you want with this. You just have to know how to set up good effects from the ground up. Pay attention to the effects chain as you would if you had several stomp boxes in a row, this is critical in getting the right sound. This is a PRE amp, meaning don't use it in a effects loop, that would be using it as a In between amp. How do think that is going to work right?

Sound quality can be achieved if you have any expierience using processors. Using it with a Tubeworks stereo power amp. Can get the Preamp tones to work just fine.

Very sturdy. Have owned this since they first came out 4 yrs ago. All the new effects have all this useless space cadet sounds that I would never need, unless you were on acid all the time.

Never had to ask anyone about this.

Editing each patch is incredibly user friendly and easy. I often throw my shoes off and edit the patches with my toes.IN THEORY one should be able to get any sound out of the GT-3. There is the COSM, an EQ, a SUB EQ, amp simulators, multiple distortions, utility settings, etc. not to mention their online advice and tutorials. But if you're like me you don't want to spend hours and hours perfecting one patch much less multiple patches. I have spent many evenings sitting down with my Marshall VS100 and headphones and (four years later) finally created a patch I like. So if you don't mind the headaches of fine tuning and tweaking numerous variable of each of your patches then it may not be as much of an annoyance as it has been to me. I find stomp boxes easier to edit; I find it confusing to not have knobs but just numbers on a screen. The manual is very large at about 80 pages, but I would have liked for it to go more in depth with the effects and uses.

I play a Gibson Les Paul Standard and a Fender Strat to the GT-3 and through a Marshall VS100 valvestate (big mistake) combo. I am a fan of BOSS sounds. Always have been, since I started playing 11 years ago, and always will be. I like many bands from Smashing Pumpkins to PropellerHeads to U2, but I'd say the sounds I most like to replicate would be bands like Delirious or Tom Petty or any good crunchy rhythm sound. The only way I've found to get this is with the MS1956I amp simulator and I just adjust the VOLUME and GAIN settings. While I love the SD-1, BD-2 or even the Metal Zone pedals for some nice rich warm distortions I DO NOT like the distortions of the GT-3. They are all too shreddy and high pitched; I won't use the distortions even when I'm just having fun in a jam, they're terrible. I always use the LINE OUT setting otherwise I feel that I will kill my ears. As with BOSS single stomp boxes, the modulations, delays and other effects are beautiful.

Built like a TANK! Never had any technical problems.

Never had to use them.

I've been playing for 11 years and have managed to use the GT-3 for 4 of those years, but now I'm looking to get rid of it. The GT-3 just helped to solidify my belief that no digital module can fully replicate any good analog sound (the only thing to change my views has been the Fender Cyber Twin) Possibly if I had a tube amp I may find that the sounds of the GT-3 may be de-shredded. Very nice if you want it just for the delay and modulation effects. In fact, its great if you don't ever want to use the amp simulators or the distortions. The amp simulators sound nothing like they are named and the distortions all sound like death metal shred. Now if you want to spend hours and hours and hours studying and modifying each parameter then this is a great project for you, but if you want to "set it and forget it" Invest in some single pedals. If it were stolen I'd collect the money and put it towards a Mesa Boogie. Happy shoppin!

easy if you just go with the preset settings, and fairly easy if you want to tweek the parameters of each effect. on some effects there seems to be an excess of parameters to tweek, e.g there only needs to be 2 or 3 parameters (i.e. 'depth','rate'&'level' virtual knobs) for chorus but there's about 6! i can't get the external overdrive pedal socket thing to work either - i've tried various ways at plugging in my route 66 pedal to no avail.

average. i originally bought it to use as a fancy headphone practice amp but have even given up on that idea. even after months of tweeking i couldn't get any sounds i really liked. 98% of the factory presets are awful - no subtlety whatsoever, a real mess of too much fx piled on each cliched preset. i ended up spending so much time tweeking that i didn't have time left for much actual playing practice - so WARNING! This unit will cause your playing chops to go downhill! i feel that they should've left out the silly fx that no one uses ('slicer' anyone?) and concentrated on better quality 'bread and butter' fx. btw, the delay on it is better sounding than a dd2 but there's no 'hold' function.

well built. hasn't broken. but then i hardly ever use it.

don't know

had for 4 years and only get it out the cupboard every few months or so. not bad value if you want all the fx without the price tag of buying individual pedals or racks...but at what price if you you don't like the end result? you'll find yourself buying those good quality individual pedals eventually anyway when you start to become more savvy about 'tone'. multi fx is not the all in one solution the manufacturers would like you to believe.

It get easier to use with time. When I first got it I was just excited to fiddle with the effects, so it was a little confusing, but after about a month or two I had it down to a science.

Over the years I've gone through a few different rigs, but now that I've found my dream rig I can say this thing is a monster. I've got two Kustom Quad 100 Heads with two Kustom 4x12 cabs, and you really couldn't tell the difference between this and a Marshall. I grew up on analog and tube amplifiars, so I'm a huge fan of vintage sounds (such as old Fenders and Marshalls from the 60's and 70's.) I play mostly metal but I love havin a vintage hard rock sound. After some work, this thing gets me a great vintage sound with new componants. I will admit though, as much as I love this unit it's really hard to get an internal distortion sound that sounds really good. So I added a Metal Zone and a lot of EQ and got my dream sound. Virtually anything is possibly with this unit if you apply yourself. The really cool thing: switches sounds almost instantaniously. I've heard so many pedals take a long time (upwards of half a second) to switch to another sound even within it's own bank. This thing switches sounds fast. Also, worth noting: the acoustic simulator is pretty damn good, and the delays are amazing. Great phaser/flanger sounds too, and the EQ is one of the best. Only thing I'd like to see more flexability in is the Wah sounds.

This thing is a freakin beast. Hands-down the most dependable effects box on the market. Been using it almost every day for the past three years, no problems. Has never died on me and works perfect every single time I tuen it on.

Haven't had to talk to support. This thing rocks.

This is hands down the best pedal on the market. Most guitarists preffer to use individual pedals, and yes in most cases that's the best way to go. But this thing does a great job of creating a beautiful and natural sound for any style of music. But, here's the thing: you have to make it sound good. If you know how you want to sound, then you will sound that way, garaunteed. If you just mess with it and try to find something cool you may be disapointed.

Its quite easy to use after you are familiar with it.

I play this unit on my CS Strat and Les Paul,I find this processor sound too digital & crispy to my ears.Modulations are good,reverb & delays are not so bad,Distortions are not impressive.Amp simulations are bad except for the clean tones,they're ok.acoustic sim,wahs,comps,limiters are average,lots of sfxs(not useful though).

I must admit that this thing is very reliable.

never dealt.

I mostly play rock and blues & been doin that for almost 15 yrs.I think this gear is for beginner/intermediate guitarists who seeks for a wide varieties of effects/sound for his/her live showsThis unit is user friendly and you can create a lots of sounds with it,has a large memory capacity(banks) and there are many useful functions such as the assianable pedal,control switch,manual function,eff.chain set etc.this thing would be great if the amp sims and the distortions sounded better.The worst thing about this gear is it reacts totally different to a headphone and to an amp.this thing is great for headphone practicing at the middle of the night.I wonder if this gear sounds great for a versatile player.Anyway a good player always rely on separate pedals than these all in one type multi effects processors.

Very easy to use, although narrowing down to an exact tone can take hours. There is a very useful GT-3 yahoo group though which can help those who are stuck.

I have a mid-high range Ibanez and a Marshall AVT100. I put the FX unit infront of the amp and use the clean channel. Doing this takes alot of my amp's sound away but when I have a good effect I don't want the amp messing it up :). This thing has so many FX and parameters that you could spend a lifetime tweaking. The distortion is a little poor on it's own but if you have it low with the amp simulator it can sound very good. I've nailed an 80's Metallica sound on it so it can't be bad. The time effects (Delay, Reverb, chorus etc.) are excellant. I now wouldn't get rid of this for the world (maybe for a newer version).

I haven't gigged it just yet but soon will. I've had it for 5 years and it's still in good as new condition. I've never had any problem whatsover with it.

Never needed to contact Boss.

I've been playing on and off for 5 years and I mostly play metal but I also play some other stuff. This machine can get some excellant blues tones too as well as heavy thrash and the like. If it were stolen I'd probably go buy a newer version (GT-6 I think we're on now). What I love about this pedal is the amount of FX you can have going at the same time and the fact you can use the cntrl pedal to change parameters/fx within each patch, it's like you have 4 patches in each patch. The only thing I hate is that it has so many things that it takes along time of tweaking to get what you want. Anybody that has the opportunity to get one of these cheap should get it. It owns any other multi-FX machines I tried in the price range (when I bought it that is in 99).

Easy to get great sounds from the presets. Editing is fairly simple for basic parameters if you have exp. with multi FX. The manual is confusing and incomplete, even though it is huge. It took me years to figure some things out. Didn't know about upgrades.

Mostly I use my fernandes dragonfly pro(awesome gtr!) into gt-3, into fender hot rod deville for gigs and it sounds great and has every effect. Only pedal I use is a crybaby. This unit sounds great with every amp I have, peavey classic 30, fender princeton, carvin x60 tube head, epiphone galaxy 10( really cool tube amp for practice and recording) and my peavey rages. The fx all sound good except for wah but thats with all multis and I wouldnt want to wear out the exp. pedal anyway. You can get close to almost any sound and if you cant practice more. It has a global(effects all patches) eq and reverb levels for quick changes to work with different gtrs, rooms. Nice feature!

TANK. PERIOD. Never a problem in 7 years and never a backup.

Don't know.

I play all kinds of rock and blues. Been playing 13 years. I own a few other multi fx, zoom, korg and boss that don't compare to the gt-3. also boss pedals metal zone,comp.,delay, eq, ds-1, and ibanez tubescreamer, fuzz, chorus. this pedal would be good for any style, level player. Just take some time to set up some patches and build from them. this is also the best way to set cuz' the factory settings vary in volume. Manual mode is handy for stomp box style stomping. Now, WHY such a small volume knob and WHY on the back!? Hate that! I might buy the gt-6 if lost just cuz its got knobs instead of buttons. I play in bar bands doing covers and originals and it helps me simplify my set up and make quick and extreme sound changes required when covering a lot of styles. If you stick with one style just get a couple stompboxes cuz you don't need all this and I think individual fx generally sound a little better. It does have extension dist jacks that allow you to put your fav. boxes through the gt-3! You can also use this for tube pre-amps! My deville's pre-amp can be patched thru the gt-3 then the unit's out put goes to the power amp/fx return in!!! this requires 5 cables but is great if you want to use your amps distortion or the gt-3's dist. or amp modeling. I wish it had true bypass function, and a master volume KNOB on front for quick adjustments cuz the patch volumes are hard to even out. A great unit, especially for less than 200 ebay price.

Slightly low score on this 'cos it takes a year or two to get good at setting & editing patches. Also don't expect to get killer valve-type tones when you up the gain. The COSM amp modelling is quite good for clean but doesn't cut the mustard for producing that clipped tone that you get from those dodgy old glass tubes. I've found a tone that sounds a bit like plugging straight in to an Orange and turning the volume up to ten - a typical British Noel Gallagher style overdrive, but that's about it. Something else I've noticed - the crappiest amp model of the lot is "MS1959" - which we all know is supposed to be a Marshall stack. It's just about unusable, & given that Marshall is the sound most guitarists aspire to, why feck it up so royally? Sour grapes from the boys at Roland? That might explain why "JC120" is one of the best! The manual is pants (long johns, with one of those cat-flaps & porcelaine buttons). Your best bet is get on the internet & google it for loads of info from other users. I'm not sure what version of software mine has but I reckon it's about 4 years old now - I bought it used.

I'm using a Telecaster & an Epi Les Paul. If you thought the difference in tone between guitars was subtle, try using a patch for a Les Paul & playing a Tele through it, or vice-versa. Any high gain stuff set for the LP will buzz like a bastard with the Tele's single coils, and anything else sounds thin & reedy. The other way round everything just disappears in mush. I don't often amp the GT-3, & this raises another point. If, like me, you normally use headphones for practice & set the patches that way, as soon as you put it through an amp - any amp - as Boss recommend, your patches will sound bloody awful. I've heard the best set up is straight into the power amp of a Peavey Bandit using the line out (headphones) setting & this will allow you to keep the settings you've got & sound pretty true to what you were trying to achieve. Never been able to try it, though. If I amp it at all I use the guitar amp (combo) setting through my crappy Kramer 15W solid state doo-dah. It sounds OK-ish. Apart from the poor distortions (which I've already mentioned) the wah is pretty awful, too. It sounds better on clean patches, but who ever wants to wah-wah without plenty of sustain? I set a patch recommended by some website or other to supposedly improve the pre-set wah, but it's still too sudden & shallow. The delay is quite good - I've got a killer patch for playing Waterfall by the Stone Roses - sounds like you're on the opposite side of the grand canyon. Reverb is quite nice for a digi-box too. Oh, & the acoustic simulator. I've got an acoustic guitar & I'd like to know how this sounds different to an electric guitar played clean with the EQ tweaked for bass & treble - the only realistic simulation is when you put some chorus on to sound like an electro-acoustic. Oh yes - there's some effects here which I'll probably never use, but there's a pitch shifter which I've used to play the intro to Radiohead's My Iron Lung & it sounds exactly right. Dunno what Johnnie's using but my bet is it's more expensive than 2% of a GT-3's capability.

This is built like a brick shit-house.

Never dealt with.

As I'm a relative novice playing indie-rock style stuff for my own entertainment through headphones, the GT-3 is ideal for giving me all the sounds I want without the expense & complication of seperate stomp boxes. On the odd occasions I've been jamming/rehearsing I spent as long trying to get a good sound as actually playing the damn guitar, much to everybody elses frustration. In the end it was easier to plug straight into the amp. I briefly owned a Laney VC50 valve amp & it was a total waste of the GT-3's abilities & the amp's natural tone to try to pair them up. If you're gigging, either set it up through a solid state power amp and get all those lovely sounds cheaply, or go for the real thing & use a valve amp with stomp boxes. I doubt wether your audience will notice the difference or give a toss, but I'm inclined to think the GT-3 is more of a toy for the bedroom guitarist than a serious pice of kit.

For as much as you can do with this unit, it's actually really easy to use (with help from the manuel of corse) everythings laid out in a very user friendly fassion

the versitility

The versitility of this unit is Amazing. Surpassed only by the GT-6.
There is so much you can do. You can efect parameters of effects that you didn't know were there. The internal pedle controls make for even more versitility. I seriouse. Ive had this thinf for about 4 years now and it still amazes me how crazy of sound you can make.

The tone

The tone is another matter. All though all the effects are pretty cool sounding, this thing does Tone suck. It's not the worst in the world but if you have a good amp you'll notice (i run it through a Rivera M120, killer amp) In my opinion, the versitility far makes up for the lack in tone. And In a live situation you'll never notice.

I wouldn't suggest using this for extensive studio use though. It's good for making wierd sounds and unique effects, but not for it's tone

One thing, the noise gate is pretty good and, if using the built-in pre amp models it's almost silent

This thing flew out of the back of my friends truck and smashed into a curb 3-1/2 years ago and put a big dent in it but the thing never stoped. It's built like a freaking tank man!!! Not a single glitch. The pedals still work and everything.

Rad unit, but not exactly pro quality. It's close though. I use it for strange sounds and radicall effects but not much else. It's a killer unit for pre or post effects. the effects sound really good. But the thing sucks just enough tone to start to be anoying.

it's practically IMPOSSIBLE to get a decent sound out of this piece of shit on it's own;
if ya use the knobs on the guitar, ya can hear the terrible noise gate working...high frequency artifacts that sound fuckin' HORRIBLE, and if ya turn it off, the thing has all the background noise of a waterfall!
Editing patches is a pain, and the manual is THE WORST PIECE OF SHIT I HAVE EVER SEEN!!!
it has every bauble and bead you'll prolly never need, and most of the "analog (not) " stuff sounds horrid.
the delays are ok, i like the tap function, tho i rarely use it...
some of the reverbs are ok, the harmonizer is adequate but difficult to program realistically, and EVERYTHING sounds digital, in a BAD way.
the "cosm" sims of various preamps totally suck..i do amp tech work , and most of the models just don't cut it unless you run the shit around half way up...then they SOUND KINDA like what they represent, but in a very harsh and sterile way.
the comp is noisy, the gate sucks, the preamp models suck, the overdrives/distortions suck, but i DO use it live...

live, i use what seems an insanely complex rig with this thing;
i DON'T use any of the cosm or distortions at all, they fucking SUCK.
anyone with ears will notice that, unless they've been raised on "digital models" and have never had the chance to play thru any of the amps this thing lamely attempts to model.
i run it like this, i've seen it since called the four cable method, but mine is a little more complex...
the signal path goes like this:gtr> hot rodded crybaby wah (thanks to Geofex' R.G. Keene for the jelp, BTW!)> dano french fries auto wah > dano chicken salad vibe > Boss Super Overdrive > Big Muff Pi > GT-3 input >GT-3 send > Roland GP-8 in >gp-8 send >line input, Marshall 9001 tube preamp >marshall send >gp8 return >gp-8 outs to Marshall stereo returns > marshall output (mono) >GT-3 return > gt stereo outs > left goes to market electronics echoplex >input marshall valvestate 8008 power amp, right to other input on the power amp.
By turning off the cosm preamps, and setting the distortion to external and having the marshall in it's place, i don't need that lame ass digital distortion/preamp modeling, i can use actual TUBES to get my tone, and use the good sounding digital stuff after the tubes like they belong.
i like being able to put the "loop" of the GT anywhere i want,
and expressive control on the thing can be the bomb, if ya can figure out the exceedingly cryptic manual.
heavily processed, the accoustic sim is good, i use it live a couple times a night.
mostly i only need like three patches live.
versatility wise, there is an awesome amount of stuff ya can do with this pedal...but there's a lotta bullshit in it, too....
arranging effects however you like is handy tho, gotta admit...
you can do things "wrong" to great effect!
tho by itself, i can't stand this blue piece of crap, it's been a great addition to my live rig...once i turned off all the bullshit!!
seems to run best on the "line/headphones" setting.
but honestly, if ya want TONE, yer better off with an old ME-5, unless you're bonged outta yer mind or play with so much distortion ya wouldn't know a decent tone if it bit you in yo ass.
if yer not very discriminating, this thing could be your wet dream.
some of the shit in there, like the humanizer and auto riff function, just sound...well, DUMB!!!!!!!

it fucks up frequently on gigs, and pisses me off!!
prone to oscillation, doesn't like sitting in the truck.
very susceptable to atmospheric moisture and to a lesser degree temperature.
every couple gigs, i need to completely unplug it and repatch it to get it to work, seems prone to oxidation.
it lives in a pedal board, so it's not being unpatched unless it fucks up...
which again, it does every couple gigs.
but it IS a boss, and can take some physical abuse.

never dealt with boss on this one other than to ask why the manual sucked so very, very hard!
they couldn't tell me why, and were reasonably clueless when i asked about specific functions.
again, they dropped the ball on this thing IMnot-particularlyHO

i play classic rock and blues.
it's adequate for my uses with an assload of outboard gear.
been playing since'69, own a buncha gtrs, mostly strats and gibsons.
use fender and marshall amps most of the time, depending on my mood and the gig.
if it were stolen, i doubt i'd buy another, honestly.
just not worth it; every sound but the RIGHT one, tho you can tweak it eventually to be usefull.
i don't love anything about it; but it DOES have enough options to keep ya busy for a while before you realize just how badly BOSS dropped the ball in so many ways.
i just wish it could sound good on it's own' cuz MAN, would it be useful!!
i wish Boss would go back to using an ANALOG front end, and the noise gate they had in the ME-5..then it would be useful.
by itself, without serious tweaking, it's difficult to really get a useful sound out of this thing, but it shines for the most part in my setup; but mostly i use it as a hub to control my rig, and use the verb and ddl.
using the exp pedal as the master volume for a cranked up marshall is a gas...
but them digital high frequency aliasising artifacts ruin the things tone, they are incredibley noticeable and annoying if ya use the volume knobs on your gtr.
for what it is, it's ok, but by no means is it a holy grail of gtr tone like some may lead you to believe.
ya gotta jump thru hoops to use it , and the manual just plain sux pud.
BUT.....it DOES have some useful, meat and potatoes effects, and a buncha shit most will probably never need, like the arpeggiator auto riff thing, the slicer, stuff like that.
basically, what SHOULD be digital sounds pretty good, but what SHOULD be analog sounds like doo doo.
and don't make the mistake of trying to use the cosm preamp models as an overdrive into a distorted amp.
FUCKIN' 'ORRIBLE!!!
yech.
might as well be a zoom pedal.
yes, that bad.
but creatively programmed, and with a decent preamp, it can sound really good if your gain structures are right.
but getting any tone you can imagine?
hardly..
keep looking!
need i say more?