Boss GT-3

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.

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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.