Boss GT-3

Requires some time to get into. After you become familiar with the process it becomes quite intuitive.

Use with American Strat and front end with a stereo power amp to twin Celestian boxes. Sound is nothing short of tremendous. With some tinkering the sounds can be quite realistic (Don't really want to go there!!! What is the right sound?)

Only had for a short period of time. It is built like a tank!!

Haven't req'd any support

Have tried just about everything. I have a background in audio speaker design and just wasn't getting the sound that I LIKED until I decided to go with the seperates approach. Don't think I will look back from here.

I found it very easy to use, though i must admit at first it was intimidating, but once you start porgraming it really isn't all that hard. The manual kinda sucks, i mean it explains everything but to obviously, like it'll say metal1 distortion is a powerful metal distiortion and metal2 is a metal distortion that is harmonically differernt (or something just as useless)That doesn't really help me.

Honestly it's best run in stero. Mono sounds pretty good but stero is 1000 better, even for mono patches. I'm not all that particular i think an effect is an effect, and any effect can be used somewhere. But i think basically everything sounded great to me except for the harmonizer and the preamp sim. The harmonizer's tracking can really drag behind and the pre amps sound great as long as you stick to the low gain models. The soldano and 5150 and such really don't sound that hot at all. One last thing, it has a virtual effects chain which is maybe the best thing i've ever seen in a unit, gives you so many more options. Also it's laid out very well, though it's complicating you have sooooooo much control over the sound it's amazing

yI would gig with out a back up. It's solid as long as you take care of it

never tried

I've been using the Boss GT-3 for about 3 months now and I'd have to
say that it is very easy to use. And I haven't even used the 'EZ edit'
feature. However, I've been playing for quite some time I've had a bit
of experience with using numerous rack mount effects and stomp boxes.
If you're a beginner, you might be a little overwhelmed with the
multitude of choices and parameters at first. But the whole thing is
well engineered and laid out very logically. One particularly nice
feature is the 'manual' mode, where you can turn on/off up to 6
effects in an individual patch, just like you were using a series of
stomp boxes. You can get a lot of mileage out of just one patch! The
instruction manual is helpful so you should read it to make sure
you're set up correctly and to get a good idea of what's available to
you, but it could have been a bit more thorough in some areas.

I'm using Carvin DC-200 and DC-135 guitars into the GT-3 which runs
directly to a Rocktron Velocity 250 power amp and a Marshall 4x12
cabinet. I've seen a few complaints on this site about noise, bad
distortions, lousy pre-sets, etc. Personally, I do not agree. The
preamps and distortions/overdrives all sound accurate for what they
are emulating, and each have lots of variables and EQ to dial in just
what you want. You've got nice overdrives, fat metal distortions,
psychedelic retro fuzz, and everything in between. The factory presets
give you just a taste of what this thing can do. For me, I found a lot
of great sounds right off the bat, but I had to do a bit of tweaking
to get ones that sounded like 'me'. I've been using the Turbo
Overdrive into the 'Clean Twin' preamp to get the general crunchy tone
I was looking for. The flanger, chorus, delay, harmonizer, and phaser
surpass all others I've ever used. The wah is okay, but not as good as
my Cry-Baby. The acoustic simulator does a decent job emulating an
acoustic with a piezo pickup. In the context of a full live band, it
does the job if you don't want to haul a real acoustic around for just
a couple of songs, or if you need to jump to an acoustic right in the
middle of a mainly electric song. The synth sounds are kinda nice to
have available, but be sure to play cleanly and accurately for it to
track correctly. I haven't really delved into some of the other stuff
like the humanizer, slicer, and ring modulator too much yet, but
they're interesting effects that could yield great new sounds in the
hands of the right creative mind. The thing you've got to understand
that this is an extremely versatile unit here, folks. It's designed to
satisfy everyone from an ultra clean country bluegrass picker, to a
screaming death metal maniac, to a general classic rocker or jazzer.
You're not necessarily going to love everything in there. What sounds
like crap to one player may sound perfect to another. It depends on
what you want to hear and what you're used to playing. The key is to
take a little time and patience to get to know the GT-3 and you WILL
find just what you're looking for, plus some other stuff that can spark new ideas.

I've used Boss' products for years without problems, and I'm not
expecting any trouble with this one. It seems built to last. I'd use
it without a back-up.

I haven't had the need for it yet.

I play original progressive rock (in the vein of Marillion, Rush,
Genesis, Yes, Pink Floyd, etc.. Go to www.progrock.net/Bands/Iluvatar
for info) and I found everything I was looking for (and more) in this
unit: excellent sounds (fat smooth overdrives/distortions, brilliant
sparkling clean tones), ultra-flexible programming, simplicity,
reliability, all in one compact unit. It can be used with your amp or
direct into a PA or studio mixer. I even found a Boss GT-3 users site
(http://members.tripod.com/bossgt3/) where you can get more info,
download patches from other users, and get free PC software for the
GT-3 to back up all of your patches. The only thing I struggled with
at first was how to conveniently arrange all my patches for live use.
There's a number of different ways you can set things up for yourself,
you just have to decide what is going to work best for you. My one
concern is wether or not I'll be able to read the display during
occasional outdoor performances. Overall, as an artist, I feel I have
a huge palette of great sounds at my disposal with the Boss GT-3, and
I haven't even begun to tap into it's full potential. You get serious
bang for your buck here. If it was lost or stolen, I'd definitely buy
another.

I personally think it is very easy to get good sounds out of this unit. One important factor, though. I think it is important to have versatile gear.
Editing patches is easy: There are 2 functions.
EZ edit and "normal" edit
EZ edit allows you to have an overall idea of the sound you are looking for.
If you are picky about your sound, you better know what all the parameters do, because there are a lot.
I was disappointed in the manual though. In a way, you don't really need it, but some sections are omitted for some reason. I'm the type of guy that reads the whole manual to see ALL the features. How can you master your gear if you don't have all the info?
I don't think this has been updated. It is an update from the GT-5 in a sense that it has more effects AND better price. The A/D conversion is even better than the GT-5!

I'm using a Fender Strat made in Mexico, with a Fender Princeton 112 Plus combo. I plug the GT-3 in the power amp in and then control the volume with the knob behind the GT-3.
Well it is noisy for 2 reasons:
1)pickups on Strat hum (but sound better)
2)Excess gain on distortion/OD.
But every guitar player encounters hum when gain goes up, so nothing different so far.
The effects are amazing! The clean sounds are just beautiful! The distortions are not bad either, but the preamps are better. Some presets w/distortion are really, really good! But this unit is probably more efficient in the studio than live. I imagine that if you plug in a Les Paul, you might only want to use the clean sounds, because Les Pauls have so much attitude as is that adding digital distortion to it will be just stupid.
My amp is a Fender Princeton 112 Plus 65W RMS.
You can get pretty much any sound you want. My favorite artists are Dean Deleo, John Petrucci, Joe Pass, ... You can get all those sounds, but don't abuse them! The abuse of effects is what gives bad reviews to these floor processors.
I personally favor all of the COSM vintage/analog sounds on this. They are very realistic! It just feels weird to hear huge sounds on a small cheap amp.

It's made of metal and I think you can depend on it.
I would use it on a gig without a backup for sure, but I haven't tried it out yet. Only in the studio so far.
I give it an 8, because it's a Boss and haven't used it enough yet.

Never had to deal with the company.

I play all kinds of music. I even plan to use this with my bass gear.
It is what I should've bought a long time ago! This is a perfect match considering that I am asked to play in sessions from country to metal, so...
I have been playing guitar for 9 years now. I own: Marshall Stack JCM-900, Les Paul, V-Twin, Rat, DR-202, DD-3, VS-880, Warwick Thumb bolt on, SWR amp,...
I would buy it again because it's a great deal and extremely convenient.
I love the fact that this simple piece of metal takes most of my time, and as soon as I turn it off, I want to plug back in again. I hate the fact that it slightly buzzes or hums and if you touch the unit, it goes away. My favorite feature is probably the preamp section! The fact that you can go from a clean chorus/delay/reverb sound to a fat STP radio OD in a split second.
I compared it to all the floor processors. I tried Digitech but did not like it at all. Even had the money for the GT-5, but opted for the GT-3 because I believe it sounds better. Sound is my priority, and this unit is the one with the highest A/D conversion, the most effects, the best reputation and COSM. If you own a VS, you know how cool and useful this feature is!
I wish it had tubes maybe? But it's hard to tell!
Yes, it definitly helps my music. It brings diversity in songs that pretty much used to have 2 or 3 different sounds.
Make your own opinion on this. Go out and try it for yourself. See if this is what you need. Apply it to what you would use it for. I have read everything I could find on the web and magazines about this unit and even checked these reviews that helped a lot!
GO OUT AND TRY IT FOR YOURSELF!!!

It was delivered at 4:30 PM. I went on stage with it at 8:00 PM. I'd always used stomp boxes - never even seen a processor up close before. Bought it on a whim. Got zillions of presets, so I spent a couple of hours listening to presets, wrote down the ones I pretty much liked, and loaded them up front to be easy to get to. Most of the clean presets were pretty good. Most of the dirty ones were apparently chosen by computer nerds who wouldn't know a good guitar tone if it busted their eardrums. Had a *horrible* time getting the volume levels even enough to use live. Some presets way too quiet, others much too loud, even at the lowest exp pedal setting. It was no sound at all or way too loud, no in between.

The next week I spent a lot of time editing patches. It was easy, but I still read the manual. I don't use the "EZ Edit" feature. The manual isn't that great - maybe because it seems to me that I should be able to do some things that the manual doesn't tell me how to do. Maybe the unit doesn't do what I want it to, I don't know.

PRS or a Strat or a Tele into GT3 into Fender Tube Amp at first. Headphones at home, sometimes. Live shows anymore, I just plug it into the board so I don't have to bring an amp. I still bring my own wah pedal, though. I can't stand the wah on the GT3. Unit is only noisy on high-gain patches. Most preset patches are too over-processed. Too much chorus and delay and stuff. Too much distortion, not enough balls. They *can* be fixed, mostly. Start by ignoring the pedal OD's and use the amp models for drive. They're all good if you treat them like the amp they imitate.

The chorus, delay, tremolo, vibrato effects are super. The flanger and the wah are truly weak. The auto-wah is OK, if you turn off the pedal-pusher and use it as a filter only. The acoustic simulation is a joke, as is the pickup simulation. The harmonizer isn't as good as my HR-2, even though I thought it should be identical (they're both BOSS, right?). The auto-riff, slicer, and most of the other "modulation" effects are wasted chip memory. I wish I could use 2 mod effects or 2 special effects at once, but I don't think I can. I use the synth presets sometimes when I'm feeling silly. Haven't worked up the nerve to try to edit those patches yet, though.

It's heavy, metal, and appears sturdy. But the manual tells you to carry it around in the box it came in, which is like real thick cardboard. Is it that fragile? If so, why don't they make like an anvil case for it? I'm confused!

There's not even a phone # in the manual to call if you need help. The manual appears to be translated from the Japanese (what is an "assumed" expression pedal? Or an "internal control pedal"?). How do you get in touch with these people if you don't have your own computer to access their website? Apparently, they're unlisted...

This pedal works great for the style I play - clean, or clean-on-the-edge country, blues, classic rock. I bought it so I wouldn't have to schlep around two or three suitcases full of stompboxes. It does *not* sound as good as my stompbox chain! It's just more convenient, and that's why I bought it. After 35 years of playing out, I now judge the quality of a show by two parameters: 1- How much does it pay? ;and 2- How easy is it going to be to load in and out? I'll still use my pedals in the studio, where sound quality is the goal. But the GT3 ain't bad. Now I don't even pack an amp - just my guitar, my wah, the GT3, and cables.

I still think it should allow me to create a patch and use the ctl pedal to change more than one parameter of the patch, then toggle back. Some songs need more than four different guitar sounds, and I'd rather use the ctl pedal than change banks up and down. I wish it had a good wah. I wish I had like an anvil case for it - I carry it wrapped in one of my daughter's old blankies. Does it help me make music? Yeah, I guess some of the zany sounds help get me out of a rut sometimes. Does it get in the way ? Yeah, when I want to make it do something it won't do, and I start pining for my stomp boxes again. But overall, it's a plus and it saves my tired old back. Especially when there's lots of stairs!

This unit was purchased to replace a Digitech RP-5. I did alot of serious research into what would be he best unit for my needs, within a specific price range. During my research, I never once considered ease of use to be a factor. I'm rather technically inclined and I usually figure these things out. Having said that, my initial impression was that the RP-5 was an easier unit to figure out, out of the box. I was very wrong. Within a day or two, I was changing patches and exploring all of the different effects and patches that I could create. The Alphanumeric screen helps a great deal. Digitech went cheapo on their stuff by making most of their screens numeric. The GT-3 hit the other spectrum. You really know what your doing and where you are in this thing. No doubt about it. Easy to get a good sound??? Absolutely!

I use the GT-3 in two specific situations. In rehearsal, I plug into the MAIN IN of a Roland JCM-120. I set the Utility section to "Guitar Combo (Power Amp)" and I'm humming. In performance, the only thing that changes, is that I am using a Peavey Bandit instead of the Roland amp. In both cases, I am using either a HAMER strat or a custom guitar built by myself. They both have DiMarzio pickups (Steve's Special in the bridge and Air Norton in the neck). The Sound Quality is mind boggling. The variety of tones that one can get here is amazing. Not only does BOSS include COSM amp modelings of Marshalls, VOX, Fenders, Soldanos, and the peavey 5150, but you also have the choice of using BOSS distortion pedals. i.e. if you want to use BOSS's Overdrive pedal, there is a digital model of it.

Once you get the tone you want, you have an unbelievably beautiful chorus, a heart wrenching flange, a deep phaser, a very good harmonizer, shitloads of verb and delay.....the list goes on. And they're all quieter than a dead mute.

I play in a Journey tribute band...one of the important parts of my job, is to duplicate Neal Schon's tone as closely as possible. Within 3 days of owning this thing, I was able to NAIL down his tone for the ESCAPE album and get good ones for the others. (However, I plan to sit down and get each tone perfect for each song)

Well, I haven't had it long enough to claim that it's indestructable. One of the things that sold me on this unit, was reading an interview with Victor Johnson (Sammy Hagar's guitarist), who plays the GT-5. He said that his unit has had beer spilled on it, dropped from high heights....etc...etc...That's important to me, I tend to be tough on equipment. I need something that'll survive.

As for what I think of the unit, It's completely encased in metal. Very sturdy construction. Not like the digitech, DOD and ZOOM shit...where it's either all plastic or a combination of plastic and metal.

I've never had to deal with Roland on this unit (Fingers crossed) soI dont have much of an opinion.

As for Rolands web site, it's NOT very informative. It needs to have more information about the unit and a PDF of the instruction manual.

I play rock. However, this thing is good for any style of music. ANY!
If it were stolen, I would track down the son-of-a-bich that stole it, cut off the balls and feed them to him. Once he was done feasting, I'd shot him dead. Then I'd go out and buy another GT-3.

If you're gonna get effects, dont buy DIGITECH, ZOOM or DOD....they're ALL shit compared to the GT-3!!!!!

I've had it for a week. It's simple to use and edit presets but I haven't quite mastered the pedal assignment feature. The manual is OK-but could use more specific examples.

I'll be using two ways. On acoustic duo gigs using a Dano Convertible direct through the PA and, with a band, a Yamaha AES800 through a Peavey Studiopro 112. I love the clean sounds. I'm still working on overdrive.

I play a country, blues, funky hybrid. This thing is near perfect. I've been playing twenty years. The Gt-3 replaced a Line 6 AX2. I'll have more versatility now since I can use for acoustice gigs.

I was browsing through these reviews hoping to find someones comments and insights on this unit. Guess i gotta go first. I'm brand new to multi effects. my prior rig (haven't sold anyof it yet) was- Fender Am. Std. Strat, Vox gold Ltd. ed. Wah,2 Boss Blues Drivers,Voodoo Lab Microvibe, old echoplex, Fender reissue reverb, '65 Fender bassman head w/ 2x12 closeback cab. I'm still learning to use the GT-3, but so far it's very promising. quite easy to get good sound just from the preset patches. very simple also to edit the patches.The manual was surprisingly simple to understand, but I found myself refering back to it quite a bit as I'm still learning. I've played for 30 years (SRV, Hendrix, Blues, Classic Rock) using Boss stomp boxes analog equipment. I have resisted digital multi-effects because of my fear of them being over complicated. I think I've made a change for the better because of all the possibilities this unit has to offer sonically.

So far no problems whatsoever, have done six gigs thus far. Carry a blues driver with me just in case.

Called Roland tech to ask about what I could not find in manuel. It was there I just did not know where to look. They were extremely helpful and courteous. I feel like I can call anytime.

The only issue I have with the unit is that it takes alot of time if you are unfamiliar with digital multi-effects to learn how to get the best sound out of it. There is an incredible amount of variations that can be programmed into it. My blues driver had three knobs. This is like a floor pedal with a thousand knobs. The downside is it takes time, the upside is you can get any sound you are after. I would love to hear fom anybody else that has been working with this unit so possibly we can save each other time if one or the other has found settings for particular sound (srv, hendrix etc.) that we can share.

I purchased the GT-3 from musician's friend catalog and had to wait for 2 months to get it! It was back ordered, and there were 60 other people in front of me on the order list. The wait was worth it though, because when I opened the box and went to playing with it, I got a pretty good sound right off the bat. The manual was easy to read, and in just a few minutes I was editing variables with ease. It was much easier to program than an old Digitech rackmount with MIDI footswitch a friend of mine had that I used to borrow.

My setup is an ESP M-250 LTD guitar and a M-80 Pro Fender half-stack. I also sent the GT-3 through a Fender Champion 110 small amp. It sounded better with the stack, but the little amp still had a decent sound when the EQ was tweaked just right(bring up the low end). The unit was incredibly quiet on most settings. The only settings that were a little loud were those that emulated other amps that I know are a little noisy anyway (you have to be true to the sims!) I think that most of the effects are really of a good quality. I record in a home project studio direct into a computer through a mixer, and the GT-3 has produced some of the best tones (after tweaking presets of course) I have recorded to date. The best thing was that it gave me that thick distortion that I like. It also had a good clean sound for chords and the like. You can get good metallica, Korn, NIN, and ministry sounds if you know what preset to start from. I like a lot of gothic and dark music that is melodic also and the crunches give about the right amount of dist and clean to not overdrive this type of music. The only thing I could do without was the country settings and some of the synth and ring modulators (I don't see the use of the telephone other than getting your friends to go "what is that!?!"). All of the other effects come on handy depending on what you want (overdrive, blues, jazz) and with a little work do well for those styles.

I have not taken it on a gig because I have been in the studio working on a demo. For this purpose it has been great. I can really torque the expression pedal, and it takes the abuse just fine. The only thing I would suggest is maybe dropping the display further down into the machine to help prevent scratches. I would probably use it without a backup, but I hate to be unprepared so would have something in reserve just in case. It is DEFINITELY tougher than any other of the plastic pedals I have tried though.

I haven't dealt with them, but I think that the amount of time the unit was on back-order should have been shorter.

I play a lot of melodic mixed with heavy rhythym music. I have found that this unit fits my needs really well. I have been playing for about 5 years, and have tried a lot of styles before finding my own and the GT-3 just helps me develop that further. If it were stolen or lost, I would probably get the insurance money and order it that day. It's quality is the reason for this. I have not found another all-in-one unit that has the sonic quality of the GT-3, and I tried a ton before ordering it. The only thing that would make this unit better would be a dedicated tuner/bypass pedal (I know this has been a subject of controversy, but I like to have the CTL do it's true function for the patch) and have the pedals revert to the previous patch when you hit it again. All in all, if you are looking for a good project-studio quality pedal, the GT-3 is the way to go.

Have to say that I am not a BIG techno geek. The manual and color coding on the board are outstanding

Awesome sound. I play a Fender Strat with a Fender chorus amp. This is a very quiet clean sound anyway. The effects pedal takes it to another limit. People are complaining about the distortion but I find it to be OK. These people must be metal heads or something. The only complaint that I have is that variances on sound levels when switching sounds.

Rock STEADY, even my bassett hound steps on it without any problems

N/A

Best effects pedal on the market today. You get Roland quality sound with a bullet proof case. I would buy this again. I can't wait to take it out an play some gigs with it.

Not easy to get a good sound out of it, espeacially if you don't understand how each individual effect works. The manual is lack of first hand information. Boss should not only tell us how to operate, but also provide more information about how to get a good sound out of it, it's a effect pedal, we bought it for good sounds!

I'm using a Jackson Professional, and a pair of Audio-Technica Studio monitor. It's not noisy, but when my guitar get closer to the GT-3, the noise gets louder! Clean sounds are impressive. For distortion sound, I always have to put a EQ at the beginning of any effect in the chain to EQ down the muddy bass part in order to get a warm distortion sound. And I am still working on other effects.

It looks dependable...

I called and email Roland several times, they a helpful and friendly, only when you find the right person, not every one of them knows every one of all.

I play Blusy Rock, Metal, Pop. GT-3 can pretty much does it all. If you only play Metal alternative stuff do not buy it, 'cause you will waste its beautiful clean sound and whole bounch of fancy features. Another factor that made me bought it was its cool looking!

Editing interface is easy enough?but turning the data wheel can get fatiguing after a while. Editing parameters are deep enough for a product in this price range.

It may seem strange, but currently I am using the GT-3 to add lo-fi grit to my drum loops and samples. I am not using it on guitar. But when I first tried the unit, I was disgusted by the noise level. It was MUCH louder than my Zoom 1201. A little tinkering with the noise suppressor cleaned things up considerably. Still, you have to wonder why Roland would still produce equipment as potentially noisy as this. For my purposes, the humanizer filter is great and the distortions work. But if your looking for traditional amp sounds, I don't know if this will help you.

Solid metal. Extremely robust.

Too early to tell. Again, it appears very sturdy,

I play mostly trip hop and techno, and try to use effects in ways they weren't intended. For this purpose, the GT-3 appears to be a steal. The humanizer and ring modulator add great lo-fi textures to my sounds. And the distortion/eq offers lots of tweakable parameters. Btw: The acoustic guitar simulators and "guitar synth" sounds are utter shite. And if you use them on recordings, you should know better.

Yes, it's easy to use overall. I believe I've figured everything out without using the manual (which I tried reading, but it wasn't very engaging). The GT-3 is not easy to use, however, if you actually want to get trully applicable and good sound quickly. The good sounds, however, ARE IN THERE. Boss should have not stressed the "weird" effects so much. Auto Riff and various other effects have little, if any, practical use compared to the clean, practical, and (i thought surprisingly) warm tones this affordable box has to offer. The GT-3 is versatile. I use a cheap fender tele, a nice takimine ac/elec, and a couple of old metal style guitars (my Heartfield Talon has Dimarzio PAF humbuckers). I was able to set up patches for each of my guitars and get some surprisingly great tones (more on this later). But I can't say it's been easy. Boss should have made the first 20 patches all similar in volume, and all practical in their usage. This would have made for a good plug in and play experience. Also, would someone explain the od/ds efx loop on the back panel? please email me or something. I put my boss overdrive pedal in there, stepped on it....nothing. And yes i know: send to input and output to return....Is my Gt-3 defective? Do you have to program to use the loop? HELP (i suppose i could read the manual, but i don't want to)

A little noisy on certain settings. Mastering this is just a matter of combining the right preamp sims with the right efx. Use the noise supressor, but its not all that effective. I'm using the GT3 straight into the efx return of a Tube Works combo. I liked it better into the efx return of my friends Crate tube half stack--much warmer, prbably because there were more tubes. I recommend using this unit in the efx return, and not with your amps preamp. It makes it easier to avoid excessive noise and feedback and also cuts down on having too many choices. Better to avoid having to tweak your amp and the unit at the same time. Also, in spite of what some have said in their reviews, I found that there were some great distortion tones in there. The trick is to crank it up. Things that sound whimpy on low volume kick @$$ when turned up loud (and unfortunately, the opposite is also true). Major tweaking is needed. By a bottle of aspirin and invest two days somewhere you can crank the volume. The acoustic preamp is cool too. I can use it with my Takamine and get surprisingly loud with the use of the anti-feedback feature ( i assign it on the ctrl pedal) when i get hum. BIG PLUS for me. The JC-120 electric clean sounds are accurate and respond well to tweaking. I recommend you focus on evening out the volume levels (I found I ended up boosting for the most part) on the various patches. I think BOSS kept them low for those who plan to use this unit in their effects loop (although some are surprisingly loud). I don't mean to sound overly enthusiastic, but I had no idea I'd like this unit as much as I do. I feel affordable efx have come along way, as has the sound quality of digital technology. For 399 this is a bargain, and I can tell that I'll continue finding new sounds for a long while. I'd love to hear email from those who are using this unit. Especially those using it in their amplifier's efx loop. I almost did that cus I love my amps distortion, but I decided that going direct would give me the most versatility. Also, I haven't heard many people make mention of the use of the manual mode. This mode allows you to use the tuner at muted levels without having to bend down to hit the tuner button (I noticed some complaints). Also, my advice is to explore and create YOUR OWN sound. IF you want to copy other artists this unit may not do the job for you (depending on the artists, I imagine). Keep in mind, your favorite artists have a lot more money behind them to pay for their sound(s), and the money they spend on vintage gear and top of the line signal processors is probably more than you will ever be able to afford. I've been playing various styles (metal, rock, emo,jazz, acoustic/folk) for over 10 years and I find the quality for the $ absolutely remarkable on this unit. If you have a cheaper guitar you should also know that this unit also somehow makes my cheap guitars ($300 range) sound about as good as my expensive ones ($800-1200 range).

I've covered this in my last section, but I'll say this in answer to the given questions I haven't covered. If mine was stolen, I'd buy it again. That was an excellent question as is "Does it help you make music, or does it get in the way?" I mainly write songs on acoustic because I find electric guitar, in general, gets in the way of songwriting. I have written a few riffs with this unit, but I have to admit I've forgotten them while spending my time tweaking. Take that for what it's worth. Perhaps after I get my sounds set the units tone will inspire some new songs....

Yes, it's easy to use overall. I believe I've figured everything out without using the manual (which I tried reading, but it wasn't very engaging). The GT-3 is not easy to use, however, if you actually want to get trully applicable and good sound quickly. The good sounds, however, ARE IN THERE. Boss should have not stressed the "weird" effects so much. Auto Riff and various other effects have little, if any, practical use compared to the clean, practical, and (i thought surprisingly) warm tones this affordable box has to offer. The GT-3 is versatile. I use a cheap fender tele, a nice takimine ac/elec, and a couple of old metal style guitars (my Heartfield Talon has Dimarzio PAF humbuckers). I was able to set up patches for each of my guitars and get some surprisingly great tones (more on this later). But I can't say it's been easy. Boss should have made the first 20 patches all similar in volume, and all practical in their usage. This would have made for a good plug in and play experience. Also, would someone explain the od/ds efx loop on the back panel? please email me or something. I put my boss overdrive pedal in there, stepped on it....nothing. And yes i know: send to input and output to return....Is my Gt-3 defective? Do you have to program to use the loop? HELP (i suppose i could read the manual, but i don't want to)

A little noisy on certain settings. Mastering this is just a matter of combining the right preamp sims with the right efx. Use the noise supressor, but its not all that effective. I'm using the GT3 straight into the efx return of a Tube Works combo. I liked it better into the efx return of my friends Crate tube half stack--much warmer, prbably because there were more tubes. I recommend using this unit in the efx return, and not with your amps preamp. It makes it easier to avoid excessive noise and feedback and also cuts down on having too many choices. Better to avoid having to tweak your amp and the unit at the same time. Also, in spite of what some have said in their reviews, I found that there were some great distortion tones in there. The trick is to crank it up. Things that sound whimpy on low volume kick @$$ when turned up loud (and unfortunately, the opposite is also true). Major tweaking is needed. By a bottle of aspirin and invest two days somewhere you can crank the volume. The acoustic preamp is cool too. I can use it with my Takamine and get surprisingly loud with the use of the anti-feedback feature ( i assign it on the ctrl pedal) when i get hum. BIG PLUS for me. The JC-120 electric clean sounds are accurate and respond well to tweaking. I recommend you focus on evening out the volume levels (I found I ended up boosting for the most part) on the various patches. I think BOSS kept them low for those who plan to use this unit in their effects loop (although some are surprisingly loud). I don't mean to sound overly enthusiastic, but I had no idea I'd like this unit as much as I do. I feel affordable efx have come along way, as has the sound quality of digital technology. For 399 this is a bargain, and I can tell that I'll continue finding new sounds for a long while. I'd love to hear email from those who are using this unit. Especially those using it in their amplifier's efx loop. I almost did that cus I love my amps distortion, but I decided that going direct would give me the most versatility. Also, I haven't heard many people make mention of the use of the manual mode. This mode allows you to use the tuner at muted levels without having to bend down to hit the tuner button (I noticed some complaints). Also, my advice is to explore and create YOUR OWN sound. IF you want to copy other artists this unit may not do the job for you (depending on the artists, I imagine). Keep in mind, your favorite artists have a lot more money behind them to pay for their sound(s), and the money they spend on vintage gear and top of the line signal processors is probably more than you will ever be able to afford. I've been playing various styles (metal, rock, emo,jazz, acoustic/folk) for over 10 years and I find the quality for the $ absolutely remarkable on this unit. If you have a cheaper guitar you should also know that this unit also somehow makes my cheap guitars ($300 range) sound about as good as my expensive ones ($800-1200 range).

Solid metal. Extremely robust.

Too early to tell. Again, it appears very sturdy,

This right here is a prime example of me putting my foot in my mouth. I made a submission for this thing a while ago when I borrwoed it from my friend. Well I recently traded in my Rectifier and got a TriAxis. I borrowed it again and stuck the TriAxis in the external effects loop and midi linked them. THIS IS THE MOST GODLY SETUP ON THE PLANET!!! I traded in over $4500 dollars worth of high tech rack toys for this puny little $400 dollar box, a dunlop 535Q and a Boogie Simul 2:90! It kick ass!!! so easy to use and so awesome sounding!!!

The Boss GT-3 is somewhat of a paradox in this category.......if one has a general knowledge of typical processor parameter editing, then it is fairly easy to navigate around the GT-3. However........ trying to get good distorted sounds out can be a nightmare........trying to combine the built-in distortion pedals with the preamp simulators can create some very ugly tones. This unit requires a great deal tinkering, but let me emphasize this... I'm one that LIKES to tinker....I enjoy messing around with guitar toys almost as much as playing. If you put in your time and get to know this unit, IT WILL DEFINIETLY BE WORTH YOUR EFFORT. This unit can sound INCREDIBLE!!! It just will take some time to learn how get the best out of it. The manual explains the functions perfectly, but it does little in giving advice for getting good sounds. Also to consider is the sheer amount of parameters there are to edit in this thing.........it really can be mind blowing when you consider that there are literally hundreds of VIRTUAL knobs to tweak.

I'm giving this thing a 10 because, although it can sound extremely bad, it rewards you with amazing sound and versatility when you take time to get familiar with it. I'm using an Ibanez RG570. I plug the the GT-3 into the FX return of a Peavey Studio Pro 112 combo amp and it sounds incredible.....I'm getting all of my preamp sounds straight from the GT-3, making my combo amp act similarly to a PA system. I have NO problem with noise. The Preamp simulators truly sound like those that they're modeled after.......the store where I work also sells the Peavey 5150's and the GT-3's simulation is amazing at recreating the subtle ways that the 5150 reacts to your playing.

I've yet to have any problems whatsoever with a boss product, EVER!

Never dealt with Boss

I play in three separate bands.......your basic Rock cover band, a Jazz band that does mostly fake book standards, and my own original band which sounds like a cross between DMB, living color, and Sting. I have an amazing need for versatility, as you could imagine, and the GT-3 handles every task I ask of it with ease. I can't blame the company for the difficulty of getting good tones at first, since the box responds literally exactly like the Distortion pedals and Preamps it emulates....I probably just need more understanding of pedal setups.....

I bought mine ummm....5 days ago, and I have pretty much got the whole thing down.But I don't think I know anymore about it now than I did 3 hours after I got it out of the box, very strait forward and simple to use. I'm not one for manuals-i.e. I didn't read it until after I started playing with it. I don't think it told me anything I hadn't already figured out. I don't like giving it a 10 just because it seems too blazing but I really don't see how this many opeions could be any easier to use.

Here in lies the problem. Its not great. Some things are pretty good, others are just horrible. I haven't been playing for too long, but I played so much thats I'm better than most people eho have played 3 or 4 times as long as I have. No joke, I recently started taking lessons to learn to read music and my instructor told me I was way ahead of my years. Anyway...I usually only play during the school year because I got to a boarding school, whichi is 20 mins from me. This is no prolme for me, but I met all the other members there at school. Our Bass player is from ohio and our drummer is from guatamaula of all places. Our singer and other guitarist and I all live within 45 mins of each other. This summer (I've been out for a month) I've filled in on guitar 3 times for 2 different bands from around pittsburgh. Now as I said I have very mixed feelings about this beast. We'll start wit the good. The wah isn't bad at all, contrary to what alot of people say on here. It can't really be tweeked like the rest of features, but its not too bad. The phaser and flanger pretty good. I own a stompbox Boss flanger I got a while ago and I love that thing, and the gt-3's flanger is pretty close. The chorus is ok, its especially cool in stereo. I have to use head phones to get this effect cause I only have one amp I can use on stage. By the way, I'm playing this thorugh a Cort strat copy with bucker at the bridge(I hate the call it that cause its one of the best guitars I've ever played, alot of people, including me say it sounds better than a fender) And I have never played a guitar with lighter action. I use this guitar for anything I play clean, and it sound pretty nice with distotion on the neck pick up. I also play an Epiphone Les Paul. I use this in Drop D tuning for most applications this overdrive or distorion. I run these into a Crate Blue Voodoo 100 Watt half-stack. All tube-sounds liek a marshall with better clean. Wich brings me to the next point-the bad. The amp emulations. Holy jeez, someone had hit the happy weed pretty hard when he made these. A couple of them are ok. But if play for me, I couldn't tell you what amp model you were using as I could with the real thing. One thats ok is Roland JCM-somethingh or nother. It sounds nice, its very bight, and sound pretty good with some chorus. Then turn the knob to switch to the "twin" which is supposed to be fender. It sounds liek the JCM with the bass turned up. If you swich to the "voxy drive" it sounds remotly like a vox. It has the kinda clear distortion thing goin on. The soldano sound just like my crate only-bad, and the peavy also sound like my crate with more gain, but-bad. This also has a veriety of differnt "stompbox Ods and distortions. To be honest, I never found one I liked-never. I dunno, people say you gotta tweek the thing to kame it sound good, but godamn, I tweeked the fucker and I can't get anything-the distortions sound like you put your amp in a metal garbage can. Hence-only garbage comes out. Its painfull. Now I can't knock this thing completely. Its fun as hell to sit in your bed room with you little practice amp or headphones, and sit there wail away on this thing. You can sit there for hours, just playing through the presets. Some are pretty cool....one I'm pretty fond of sounds exactly liek an organ(might be why they call it "organ")And there's alot of syntrh effects, but most of those just sound liek a shitty keyboard. Sometimes this thing get over-whelming, there are so many differnt kinds of over drive and chorus and shit that it drove me insane. There should just be one or two, and if you need to get a slightly differnt sound, it should be tweekable. I've about run myself dry here so I'm gonna move on.

Built like a rock, if it sounded good enough to gid with, I'd take it without a backup, I can't friggin afford a backup anyway.

Haven't dealt with them. But my music store has a one year plan where they will do anywork on anything bought at the store for free for a year-verynice

Overall I don't know what to say. Its good for any style of music I think, especially if you like to use alot of shitty overdrive in you bed room. Its kind of a shame, I'd say 80% of the presets have overdrive of somesort. It kinda ruins alot of them. And some of them are fucking loud, you just chill and play something, then you switch patches and blows your ear drums out. And Vice versa. If it was stolen would I replace it? Its not terrible, but I could do alot better. So....no.....I'd just flip out cause I'm going to take it in next saturday to exchange it for a digitech rp-7.

If your anything like me and you never read directions, you'll have a hard time getting around on the GT-3 at first. But spend about 10-20 minutes with the manul and you'll be making music. The 200 factory presets or actually pretty good but there are some useless ones also. There's 140 user presents that you can create yourself to your likings. There's so much on the GT-3 that it will take me a few months to get it all down and become a pro.

I use a Ibanez Artist series AR250 with a Fender Ultimate Chorus. The GT-3 is very quiet and accurate. When you select one of the preamps such as the Peavey 5150 amp, you'll here a slight hiss and buzz, which is how the real 5150 behaves. Same thing with the Mesa/Boogie and Marshall preamps on the GT-3. It actually behaves as if it was the real thing. The sound of the effects and patches are superb! You can get the cleanest of clean acoustic sounds to the heaviest of heavy death metal sounds. There's also a Guitar Synth. which is pretty cool. Using the Guitar Synth. I can get the ring of the large tower bell from AC/DC's Hell's Bells song. Theres also a Pickup simulator wich if you have single coil pickups you can use the Pickup Simulator and make it sound like the warm sweet sound of humbuckers.

You can depend on this hause! I would definitely use it in a gig without a backup.

Never dealt with them.

I'm totally pleased with the GT-3. If I wanted to upgrade later down the road I would have to get the $1,600 Roland VG-8 processor. 340 presets with superb and accurate sound quality and ease of use for a total list price of $549 and a street price of $399 is a heck of a deal. If it were stolen I would definitely buy the GT-3 again.

i've read a lot of every one else's comments complaining about having to get down on your knees and work on your sounds. i think you'd pretty much have to invest some time on to working on tweaking any processor to your liking. my suggestion - put it on your coffee table and save your back! in all seriousness, it's a breeze to get some great sounds from the GT-3.

i play either an 86 PRS, 87 PRS, or a Parker Nite Fly through it into a 4x10 Peavey Classic 50. i thought it sounded great. i'm not the person to ask about distortion, i'm a tube amp distortion guy. but the distortion from the unit was definitely a step up from the ME-30's. i've been impressed with both the number and quality of the effects. the wah's (auto and normal) are great. the delays are fantastic. chorus and other mods sound killer. the phaser is impressive. the pitch shifter is actually pretty useful. the amp simulators are great. this unit's noise is a big improvement over the ME-30 too. all in all, you might find yourself experimenting with some of the effects you haven't used before just because they sound so good.

unquestionably boss makes great reliable pedals. i've owned them for years and they sound great, they never break (knock on wood), i've never had a problem

couldn't tell you, i don't expect to ever call them

i play alternative pop, and this unit is perfect for me. the CTL pedal and the expression pedal are a much needed improvement for me (coming from an ME-30). i've only had it for a few days, but this is one of those pieces of gear you guy and you know the engineers did it right. i agree with the others that a dedicated pedal for the tuner would be nice, but you can also assign that to the expression or CTL pedal. it might be worth it to buy an external expression or CTL pedal for that alone. all in all i love it, i would buy another one in a heartbeat.

The Boss GT-3 was an (major) upgrade from the ME-30 that I traded it in for. I haven't read the manual yet, but by simple button pressing I was able to edit patches, change parameters, etc... I could only see two flaws on this particular unit. The first is that the tuner can only be turned on with a small button, and the second is that you better have all your patches set before playing because that also involves getting down on your knees to do. Other than those two gripes, the gt-3 is easy to operate

I am currently using a Jackson DR3 into a Marshall VS265. The reason I wanted a great preamp with lots of flexability is that the Marshalls overdrive is somewhat weak and needs some more balls and chunk. I found that the GT-3 has a formadable preamp with many many options that you can do, and you can have just about any sound that you can imagine. The neat thing is that the cosm based preamp really does sound very similar to the amps that it is copying. I have always been a fan of the Mesa gear, but was never good enough to warrant dropping over a grand for some of their stuff, and when I heard a preset of MB solo, it had that same Mesa sound that really rocks!!! No need to mention the digital effects which Boss has nailed!!! Very nice indeed.

I have had many different Boss gear and pedals, and to date there has never been a failure. You can't say that about to many other companies.

Haven't had to deal with them, and don't think that I ever will.

I've been playing on and off for the last 7 years and play mostly hard rock/prog rock. I have read other opinions about this preamp, and some say that the distortions aren't distorted enough. I live in a townhouse and don't have the luxury of turning up the amp higher than 2 or 3, and the grind that I get from this is incredible. Maybe it's a good combination of guitar, amp, and processor, or maybe I just realized that I paid $350 for this thing that can duplicate over 20 amps that if you had to buy them all would cost about the same as a luxury car...and life is good.

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.

Not to hard to pull sounds out of. I only borrowed it from a friend...for three weeks. The distortion section in a word...sucks. Any of you who have used a digitech RP of somekind and fiddled with it long enough and found "that sound" (as in that crazy awesome sounding distortion) you know what I'm talking about. I would prefer that lower priced RP-3 collecting dust in my bedroom over this stupid thing. I do however have to give it snaps in the mods section. Its got a lot of really cool sound effects. But they are just that sound effects. Real guitar players shouldn't need tons of effects unless they add to the flavor of the song. Editing is fairly easy it does take a while to get used to. The manual isn't really necessary so long as you have a little bit fo common sense and knowledge of boss gear.

I tried it straight into the poweramp of my dual rectifier. It is very quiet but that boss noise suppressor is just...gay. It never works right. Well not so much right but more like as it should. Some effects are slightly weak but others are truly kick ass (like the pitchshifter. Artists tones are kinda hard to grab. Very good for original stuff. DISTORTION, PREAMP, AND EQ PARAMETERS TOTALLY SUCK ROYAL ASS!

It is a boss so I know i can depend on it... to never not provide crappy tone.

N/A

I play almost any thing except rap, and country/western. It is horrible for--- well I really shouldn't say horrible. It is unpleasant to MY ear. It is a pretty cool piece of equipment if it worked the way I wanted it to

I haven't touched my ME-30 or my AX1G since I bought the GT-3. The people who will get the most out ot the GT-3 are serious musicians. It has a _LOT_ of features which makes it not as simple as, say, the AX1G. But, the effort you put into learning the box will pay off the first time you wail on it in public.
For a quick easy setting to impress your friends, set it to Bank 1, patch 4 (Auto Riff) and check out how easy it is to sound like you are ripping off lightning fast hammer ons and offs ala Steve Vai.

I jack my Ibanez JS-100 thru a BadHorsey wah pedal to the GT-3. I run the GT-3's stereo L and R to my two combo amps (1 ReverbRocket and 1 Crate GFX).

I have tried DI-ing the GT-3 directly into my PC using CakeWalk to do multi-track digital audio recordings. No problems so far. The Noise Level is certainly lower than with my ME-30 or AX1G.
I have had no problems at all doing MIDI dumps, but from comments I read on alt.guitar.effects, my advice for MIDI users is to use MIDI software which someone else has already verified works with the GT-3.

I have bought Boss and Roland products for years. I have never had one die on me and this one is built like a Sherman tank. I did have my local Roland dealer (Sam Ash) contact Roland about the MIDI Implementation Manual mentioned in the user's manual. I got a response back in a couple of days telling me the manual hadn't made it out of Japan wasn't out yet but will be free for download when available. For now, use the MIDI chart towards the end of the user's manual.

I play jazz-rock fusion. The GT-3 has an unbelievable 340 patches from the factory which allows me to pretty easily bounce back and forth from Ritenour rhythms to Satch leads. You can effectively consider it to have unlimited patch capability since you can store and write as many patches as you like to your PC thru the MIDI interface. I would be surprised if a GT-3 plug-in doesn't show up soon to allow you to control it from CakeWalk's Guitar Studio software. I honestly expect this box to become the industry standard for multi-effects pedals.

Everything works as expected. I've look at the manual just a few times. For everything this thing does, it's laid out clearly and simply. Because it can do so much, there is a certain amount of complexity. There's an EZ edit mode which I havn't used much, but it could be handy for last minute, onstage changes.

The key to this thing is to build your own sounds from the ground up. Ignore the presets! They're generally mediocre (too much reverb, delay and compression).
I use this with a Parker Nitefly direct into the PA. With this $1400 dollar setup, I can nail 90% of all known guitar sounds. This thing is that good and versatile. The virtual "amps" are distinct and a lot of fun to play around with. The Marshall sounds a little dark, and the Blues & 5150 sound ugly to me, but everything else is useful. The Mesa Boogie preamp is my favorite for "everyday" sounds. It also includes all the basic distortion "pedals". You can set up a "clean amp" with a pedal, or an overdriven amp, or a combination of both. It also includes Boss's new 2X2 chorus, which lets you divide up the chorus according to frequency. It also has an acoustic preamp, which minimizes harsh piezo "quack" when you hammer on an acoustic.
Almost Every effect is good sounding and useful, providing you dig in and adjust to taste. Some of the "distortion pedals" are pretty buzzy, but that's how some "real" pedals are. The comp/limiter is great on clean sounds, but there is no ratio control. The modulation effects are also great.
Boss did include some junk, as usual. The artificial feedbacker and auto phrase are profoundly cheesy. The synth stuff ain't much better. Another gripe is there's no dedicated foot pedal for tuning/muting. You can assign the control or expression pedal for this, but this is limiting. Also, Boss should give up on the "acoustic simulator" stuff. No one is going to be fooled.

As a former ME-30 user, this thing is reassuringly solid. Plus, who can fault the Boss reputation?

I'm the music director at a church and we play any and every style (recent artists we've covered: Alabama, Everclear, Goo Goo Dolls, Jim Croce, Alanis Morrisette, Paula Cole, Joe Satrioni). This thing covers it all easily. If you need versatility, this is the best I've tried. At under $400, it's an excellant value (only $150 more than the ME30!)
One cool thing is the control pedal, which can affect any parameter. I have it set up to boost my volume 4 db so when I solo, I don't have to depend on the soundman turning me up.
To sum up: buy it.