Boss GT-3

If you've never used a processor before they can be tricky so I think in this category they could never exceed 9.

this gets a 7 because you have to scroll through many screens to program each parameter, that being said, the screen is easy to read, and intuitively set out. they could have made it possible to set your own presets for each effect, maybe the gt 6 does this, i don't know, but the gt 6 has knobs on it for commonly accessed parameters, so it at least would get an 8 from me for that.

In the SFX and mod screens there are many effects to scroll through and that is sometimes a pain, do your programing in practice and make do while your playing with others, especially if for instance you are trying to fine tune your harmonist settings and switching patches a lot.

It is easier to synch time based effects with on of these than with many separate effects units though.

First of all, I have to say it is worth the money to have your guitar set up by a professional, this digital processor sounded way better after I did that. I did the set ups myself with regular amps myself and never noticed the difference I think this thing "assumes" that your guitar is set up to an "industry standard"to work properly tone wise.


I haven't owned any of the amps this unit is purported to model. I have played through some of them in stores and at the homes of friends.

They sound pretty darn nice to me though. I do about half and half, composition and jamming rock and modern psychedelia, and this thing can keep me entertained for hours, as well as productive. very useful tool for creating many different feels and sounds.

It sounds great through a nice set of headphones, and with some tweaking even shitty little guitar amps can sound nice with one of these, in my experience any how.
It has preset global output settings under utilities, really helps.
I also recommend not using the speaker simulations when running into a guitar combo amp.

For the most part this isn't an instant tone machine, adjusting the mic setting in the speaker sim can be dramatic.

because of the work that it can take to program and my own doubts that it sounds "exactly" like the amps that it is supposed to model it gets an 8, very strong modeling, very close to the real thing in my opinion, not exact. strong and very useable digital effects, not the best that's possible, but the best at the price i bought it for and considering how fast the models improve in the market, a 4 year old unit that still competes strongly is impressive.

Some people have said that the wah is weak, I disagree, but it isn't extreme, it does a very strong but generic wah effect.

I find the gain to be useful and pleasing but I also don't use extreme gain settings. I use high gain but I don't play nu-metal or punk or heavy metal, I play psychedelic rock, ranging fro the 60's to the present, and blues based mid to fast tempo songs. if you play a lot of power ballads you can program some very big sounds here as well as spares understated settings.

Better reverb and quieter compressor would have earnd it a 9. i don't have the money to buy a 10 product. if this review was placed in a 3 to 500 dollar products only database it would get a nine and 10 with better reverb.

Same old story here. It's 4 years old, I think it was a floor model at the store I bought it at. working great so far. I've heard there is a bug in either this unit or the gt 5, but I haven't noticed it yet.

Owned for about 3 or 4 months now, used and programed most every day.

I once owned a VF 1, I didn't like it at the time, but I never had my guitar set up by a professional.
To my great shock, it died on me! It froze in the "boot" menu and never reached the user mode on start up.

Luckily, I bought it new under warranty, I took it back to the store I bought it, they sent it to Roland, a few weeks later I got it back "like new."

They held up their warranty agreement in a generally timely manner.
Nothing special about the experience though.

no problems with the gt 3.

This is my first product review ever, I have searched the reviews in this site for many things, it has always been helpful, so I figure it's time to give back some.

first of all i have to say that i am very inspired by this product. i bought it used for $200, i am on a very tight budget, living in an apartment and without a band. i sold my nice tube amp, because i couldn't play it most of the time in my apartment. i picked this up to replace my amp and effects pedals on the basis that some of my favorite guitarists are said to find the gt 5 useful.

I've been playing about 12 years, but mostly because of money and life just happening to me constantly I would say I only have about 4 or 5 real years of playing, and most of that is on acoustic guitar. I would say that a beginner to intermediate guitar player could instantly put this to great use, and experience the tip of the iceberg of "professional" studio equipment. A more advanced or working guitarist might only find it useful as a practice or righting tool.

also if you want an amp but have no idea what kind, a unit like this can give you a real idea of what some of these amps sound like.

when this unit stops workin(if i get a year i'l be happy) i plan to get a gt 6.

In my case, I could control most of the functions at once with manual book.
somebody says it is hard to control this gear. but I recommend them to read manual book first
only one thing is fastidious. EQ control! this gear doesn't provide graphic eq...
you just have to depend on your ears.

I like reverb, delay, chorus sound from the gear.
It sounds a bit cold but clean and clear.
but overdrive-distortion sound don't do their jobs.
Its sound is very weak, I want to call this 'empty-centered sound'.
At live situation, gt-3 sound is overwhelmed by other analog gears if you don't really concern about your setting.

it is strong...
I dropped it by mistake 2 or 3 times very strongly.
but its function is alright until now.
but its painting is a bit weak.

I have not contact with Boss yet.

if you can control this one correctly, it gives you cool sounds
but it is something hard to make especially at live situation.
I recommend this to beginners who have to understand functions of a lot of effectors.

I have the GT-3 pedal now for two weeks, I 've bought it second hand. I've read the user manual. Editing the parameters is very easy.

The first time I switched used the Gt-3. I was not really impressed about the sound, there are many factory presets in the pedal, but the most of this preset are not very usefull, or sound thin. But if you tweak the sounds by changing the equalizer and filters, the sounds will sound very-very good. The most impressive sound is the acoustic simulation, very usefull for clean sound. Also the Twang preset. I heard people decline about the wah of this pedal. At first I was also not impressed about the wah. But when you are using wah, there are still 8 freely defined parameters that can be coupled to the expression(exp) pedal. What I've done was coupled all frequency parameters of the equalizer to this exp-pedal. e.g. Parameter 1: Source EXP, target EQ Mid freq. Set all mid/hi/lo gains of equalizer to its max dB. Using the exp-pedal will create the Wah effect, and at same time the equalizer frequency will be changed from low to high, or if you like from high to low. This will create a GREAT Wah, even the best I've ever heard from a digital device, It sounds like nearly the same as the Jimmy Dunlop wah. If it is not deep enough, you can also do the same trick on the Sub-Equ for more depth. For the best wah effect the chain must be OD-Wah-EQ, but you can change it they way you like it sounds best. The expression pedal is very flexible, and there are many parameters that can be changed at once.
I've always programmed the CTL pedal to manual. So it is possible to switch on/off the effects independently using the foot switches.

It looks very dependable, and it is heavy. Very good.

Never dealt with the company. But on the site of boss they should be place information, and patches of the GT-3.

my previous pedal was an Korg AX100, also a great pedal. I've bought the Gt-3 pedal second hand. Maybe I better did buy the new Gt-6. The possibilities of the Gt-3 are really great and really flexible.

To get a good sound out of it take a little while
Editing the patches was a little tricky at first but got the hang of
it after a few trials
The manual is a must have otherwise you'll be pulling your hair out trying to work it out

The setup ive got is a fender strat MIM with a fender 100w combo silver face 70's
At first i found it very noisy on all distortions and they sound like shit and some chorus aswell
and found that they are weak but over time with tweaking it
Ive got some awesome sound
hendrix . srv . jeff healy .the cars. george thorogood. stray cats.
joe walsh. cream. rolling stones. radiohead . chuck berry . dire straits . tom petty and shitloads of blues sounds

Im about to find out as im using it live tomorrow night

Hope i never need them

As you can see i play all styles and the gt-3 make it so easy to get the wright sound for all types of music , just be patient and tweak away and you will find what you want
Ive been playing for 27 years and this thing rocks
why did i get the gt-3 because its easy to setup at gigs less hassel with leads and you dont have 5 or 6 pedals to re-adjust if you bump it....WHAT A GREAT TOOL....the only thing i dont like about it was the wah pedal ' sounds like crap , give me a dunlop any day
If it was lost or stolen , yes i would buy one again
The gt-3 is built like a tank

Ease of Use - Very Easy to use, I've tried several other pedals before this one and this one is the easiest to use. Editing patches I don't use that much but that's not difficult either, the pre-sets on this thing is dope and you realy don't need to adjust a lot of the sounds.

The manual SUCKS - IT IS HORRIBLE. It does not explain a thing, I figured out how to use this pedal without the manual, it is so incredibaly difficult to understand.

Sound quality, I use a Peavy Pro112 through a custom Ibanez RG, and I get very good tonage through it. Affects are great, the chorous sucks through, (i never use chorous anway), the auto-wah is garbage. The dely, distortioin/overdrive, flange, phaser, slicer, ring echo, and the brass sounds are awesome.

Honestly this is the way it is - put every single pedal that boss has put out for example how much would that cost? $1,500 - 2,000 maybe? Well this is all inside the GT-3. I don't understand why more people don't get this pedal.

I use a BOss looper with my GT-3 Ring Echo effect and I can get the Bommerang sound that Trey Anastasio from Phish uses, its pretty dope.

Hard as stone, it is made of metal and it seems copmletely undbrekable.

NO need for it will never break down.

Overall: I play a lot of jazz, blues, rock, music that feels good, no metal crap. A lot of free-flow jams that make your entire tingle and this pedal has allowed me to get sounds that can make you feel as if your walking through a mountain pass then sudenly you are flying through space.

I've been playing for about 12 years now and this has started the effects process for me, I just recently got this pedal it rocks. If this item was stolen I would totaly be bummed and i would replace this def.

I've used other multi-effects by Korg and Digitech but still found the number of buttons and footswitches daunting. The unit ships with a 100-page manual, as well as a 'quick start guide' that I flipped through prior to turning the thing on. Out of the box there are a couple hundred presets to toy with with vastly diverse sounds, but few that I would consider recording with. The menus are intuitive given the complexity of the device, and within a couple weeks of purchase I was up and running confidently.

There seems to be a lot of discussion about the sound quality of this device. I bought this unit specifically after seeing one on stage when a favorite band of mine was playing. In short, I think it's possible to get *very* nice sounds from this unit but you need to give yourself time to work with it. For everything it does not do, there's sure to be two or three things that it does quite nicely.

Placement in your effects chain is crucial, and there is a significant amount of space dedicated in the manual to this topic. I am playing a Gibson 335 through a Vox 2-12 reverb and wasn't initially happy with the sound I was getting-- running Guitar to GT-3 to AMP. Switching the signal from Guitar to AMP to GT-3 to AMP however made a significant change to tone. I would tend to agree with others that have opted not to use the COSM modeling effects when playing into boutique amplifiers, but they are very useful in direct recording applications.
Of specific effects, I'll do a quick run through. Note you can assign the order of the effect from the Master panel, and control some features with the expression pedal.

SFX: The Acoustic guitar simulator, Anti-feedbacker, and Feedbacker, and Pickup simulators are not effective to my ear. The Slow Gear, resurrected from the defunct SG-1 pedal has some worthwhile applications. The tremolo is much stronger than the tremolo unit on my Vox and I use them alternately depending on the situation. The panning tremolo feature is particularly good, especially since it can be set at a measured BPM.
Compressors, Limiters: Reasonable. My brother complained they sucked the tone right out of his Carvin head into a 4 x 12 stack.
Wah: Forget about it. The auto wah is halfway decent, but lacks depth.
OD, DS: I use the Vintage OD, Turbo OD and Fuzz exclusively. The majority of overdrives are top heavy, and most of the distortions are bottom heavy. It's work getting your mids to come through.
COSM: Good running straight into my digital 10-track. There is a function to simulate the distance of the microphone to the speaker cab. Very thorough.
Modulation: Auto-riff, Guitar synth, Ring modulator and Slicer are gimmicky. The Slicer *may* have some merit, and I'm pretty sure I've heard it recently on a few recordings. The Flange and Phasers are pretty good. The Harmonist is growing on me, because you can set it like an additional delay to mirror the sound, and detune in 1/12 steps. The Vibrato is actually very good when setting the depth high and the rate low.
Delay: You cannot create a 20 second loop with this device, but there's a lot of functionality with this effect. Tap function is great, and can be set to BPM.
Chorus: Settings for digital or 'analog.' Very usable.
Reverb: A bit thin on my ear, and I go between it and the reverb on the amp. Not bad for direct recording, and it's been working well in the experiments I've done with vocals.

It's made of metal, and weighs at least ten pounds. It feels extremely stable on the floor. They're certainly cheap enough to keep a backup (if you felt like programming two units...) but I trust it not to fail on me.

I play rock inspired by the early 90s inspired by rock of the 60s and early 70s. This unit has been nearly indispensible in getting real depth of sound. I've only been playing guitar for a couple years but have played keyboards for over ten. I would replace this unit if lost unless the GT-6 has depreciated fantastically. The value of the GT-3 is that individual pedals this machine replaces would cost several times more than the $180 I dropped on this. You can consistently find these on Ebay for under $200-- this one came with a padded gig bag. It has enough good sounds to make music and enough bad ones to waste plenty of time. Everyone looking for a multi effects unit should at least consider this one.

It's not too difficult to work out if you have owned similar multi fx before although in saying that, It became a lot easier after I aquired the user manual.

I mainly use a PRS custom through a Laney combo and the band I am in play a lot of " Aussie Pub Rock" covers (eg: Cold chisel, Angels, Midnight oil, Hoodoo Gurus etc.)as well as some of the more modern songs by bands like Greenday, Calling, 3 doors down etc.
I found that nearly all the factory "Dirty" settings had a lot of background hiss and were too overdriven to suit my preferred sound. They took a lot of tweaking to get the sound I wanted. The ways you can set the CTL pedal is great.
I noticed that in some of the other reviews that a lot of people complained about the sound quality. I believe that sound quality is an individual taste and if you have the time and patience to play around with the GT3 you should be able to get at least the majority of the sounds close to how you want them. My previous pedal was a Zoom 4040 and it has better distortions than the GT3 and was also easier to set up to suit my sound but after changing a lot of the presets I have managed to get a sound i'm happy with out of the GT3.(I have had to set up a different bank of fx for my Fender Tele) The wah on the GT3 is better than other multi-fx pedals I have used (Zoom 3030, Zoom4040, Digitec RP3, Digitec RP6,Zoom GFX707)

It's tough

The Roland web site only has info about their latest Fx pedals and does not provide any online user manuals or support which sort of pisses me off a bit. They should visit the Alesis webpage.

I have always liked the individual Boss pedals and while you can't just bend down and add more gain or delay time etc. like you can with the individual Boss pedals, you can easily program the expression pedal and control it from the pedal. If I was to lose the pedal I would go back to my Zoom 4040 (and buy a decent wah pedal to go with it)or perhaps try the GT6.

It's too hard to get BASIC sound :(
Editing at all is rather convinient, especially using MIDI.
Too easy to understand how to control, so I read manual very seldom.
My firmware was new (1.2, AFAIR. Harmonist bug was fixed) and never upgraded.

I've been using BOSS GT-3 with the folloing:
Slim copy of Ibanez RG, Ibanez RG-570 (V7/s1/ToneZone), (Linear) Power amp, Sovtek MIG-100 (all-tube guitar amp), Randall RG-75r (ss combo), H&K ss combo, SMB tube drive, copy of Marshall Guv'nor drive.

It's not too noisy but on "gig" volume it's drives give terrible feedback.

I dislike harmonist, guitar synth., tremolo, wah and many others.
It has realy nice crunch and overdrive effects. Others drives and overdriven preamps can give you ~Satch sound. 2 years I've being trying to get metal sound.

It's a very dependable processor. Metal case seems to be unbreakable.
But it's too heavy.

Finally I've sold it. And I'm too glad. It gave me one good lesson -
processors only show you what effects you need. Then sold it and buy
2-3 pedals.
What bad in gt-3? It "killes" guitar sound, it always sounds as if you
had played properly. That's good for record or a gig, but you can't
learn to play with it.
Yes, it is easy in use. But if U can't make it sound as U need, that's no sence in it.
Don't use it's drives and preamps. Except vintage overdrives they suck. The digital effect are so-so. When I've been playing cheap guitar I didn't care about the sound, but after I baught Ibanez and a tube-amp I realised what suxx I used :(

Now I use only guitar and a tube-amp. Also I want to buy chorus pedal and, probably, wah.

Very easy to use and edit,just a lot sub menu's cause the display isn't that big but it works.

I had all kinds of FX and this is so far the best (better then Zoom,Korg,ME-8/30/33,Ibanez).

I got mine 2nd hand,first built in '99 or '00 so there is nothing to be questioned I think.

Boss products are so reliable that shops give warranty on 2nd hand gear, NICE!

I got no idea.

Nice "oneboxdoesitall".

If you're on a budget or don't want to have boxes all over the place (and wires, adapters etc.) this is a great MultiFX.

Way better then ME30/33 little less then a GT6,of course there are alternatives like Korg AX1500G and Digitech RP300 (i think).

Wether people talk about other brands they like better it comes down to taste i'd say.

I never regretted buying the GT-3.

If you want this thing to sound good, you will need to know what sounds good and then program the unit. I spent at least 40hours but when I finished I had 9 different sounds that I use all the time. No matter what amp I play through I allways get good sound. You must have patience, the supplied patches sound like crap. Spend time with the manual first then plan your sounds. I use a 9 button midi controller so I can access 9 different patches at the touch of 1 button. No time for scrolling when playing live.

Sound quality is good only if you adjust the parameters to suit your personal taste. Factory presets stink. My suggestion: Start with a basic clean sound and then build all your other sounds from the original patch. That way the guitar sounds natural switching between different effects.

Very dependable.

Never needed to call.

I play everything from counrty to distorted rock. I need be heard of a full band on clean and distorted patched. We play outdoors and in small rooms. I use a 2 amp Set-Up. Marshall 4x12 Cab with Musicman head and a MusicMan Combo Amp with EV 12" Speaker. I get the best of both worlds; The bump of the Marshall and the clarity of the EV's. I love this setup. I do not play in stereo.

The pedal is pretty simple to use. It lacks a bypass pedal I think (It only has a button). It has a quick start manual that helps a lot.

I have a Jackson DKMG and a Fender Chorus Ultimate. I have to say that after one hour of playing this thing I came back to using just the pre-amp on the fender. The distortions are muddy, the delay is VERY basic and the chorus is weak. The wah sounds horrible and the Octaver sounds "plastic".

I am not happy with this thing and I am selling it...

The unit is very dependable actually. The construction is outstanding!.

Never dealt with them. They have a nice website though.

I will not keep the unit. The clean sounds are pretty good I have to say but I think there is no way in hell you can get a nice sounding metal sound from this things. Ahh... the equalizer sucks by the way.

Pretty easy to figure out considering that i bought it used with no manual/literature/etc. editing effects is pretty quick also as long as youre not a tweaky freak like me...just dial in the numerical value that you want and save . .easy as that

Ive run this thing line in and thru the effects loop of my mesa/marshall stack and in both cases the distortion and preampmodels are unsatisfactory [sound cheap inaccurate and noisy]. The guitarsynth and harmonist/pitchshifter are kida slow at tracking even when at the front of the effects chain. . .other than those 2 deficiencies, i tihnk the rest of the effects are good especially if you play nu-metal...

ive had it for more than a year and havent had any technical difficulties with it . . seems like a really solidly built piece of hardware . . .

havent had to contact custsupport yet . . .

I think this is a pretty solid multi-effects pedalboard - despite a few deficiencies its still overall a good one and i would recommend it for people who play nu-metal/contemporarry rock styles . . .has lots of features like tuner and different output settings and MIDI . .

NOT BAD AFTER YOUVE HAD IT AFTER A WHILE.

OK SOUND AT BEST. WHAT IT IS IT WITH THESE MULTI EFFECTS UNITS, PEOPLE JUST DONT SEEM TO REALIZE THAT THEY ARE JUST A BUNCH OF EFFECTS CRAMED INTO ONE UNIT WITH ONE UNIT WHITH NO ATTENTION PAID TO THE QUALITY OF THE INDIVIDUAL EFFECTS. THERES ONE THING IN THE MANUFACTURES MIND, PROFIT. THEY ARE GOOD FOR BEGINNERS OR KIDS WHO WANT TO LERN WHAT ALL THE DIFFERENT EFFECTS DO, BUT FOR GIGING WITH (PPLLLEEEASSEEE!!) THE AMP SIMULATION IS PARTICUALY CRUDE SOUNDING AND THE NOISE REDUCTION CURCUITS TAKE A LOT OUT OF YOUR SUSTAIN AND TONE. ITS JUST A TOY THAT PRODUCES INFINATE ARRAY OF DIFFERNT ANNOYING! SOUNDS.
THE SOUND QUALITY CAN BE CAMPERED TO SAY A SEGA MASTER SYSTEM. IN FACT I WOULD BE SUPRISED IF IT CONTAINED THE SAME CIURCUIT BOARDS.

HAD NO PROBS WITH IT BUT MY MATE HAD ONE AND HE BROKE HIS ADAPTER. SO BE CAEFULL WITH PULLING THE ADAPTERWIRE AS ITS FLIMSY AND BOSS WOULD LIKE YOU TO PAY FOR ANOTHER ONE OF THEIR CUSTOM ADAPTERS

NEVER dealt

JUST REALIZE ITS NOT FOR GIGING WITH UNLESS YOU DONT KNOW WHAT A GUITAR SHOULD SOUND LIKE. YOU WOULD BE MAKING A FOOL OUT OF YOURSELF TO GIG TRU THIS THING.

If you want to have good results you have to go quite in deeep with the settings and features, but the product is quite powerful and complete.

I use it with an American Standard Strat guitar and a Fender Blues De Ville 212 AMP.
The sound shaping is very good; the preamp simulation section is outstanding.
I use, bsically, preamp, overdrive & distorsion, compression and limiter features since they are my favourite ones for the music I play. Basically I find them quite good expecially the pream simulation. I don't use it very much, by I think also chorus is good.
Whawha effect, instead is not too good.

Absolutely, reliable (maybe a little heavy).

Basically gives everything you need.
The market may offer something better, but it depends on your taste and the money you are willing to spend.

Well I suppose comparing something that has this many effects and parameters to something as simple (but effective) as an MXR Pedal or one of Boss's analogue boxes, so I'm comparing it fairly by using other multi-effects Pedals as comparison points. So far it beats the Zoom 505 I had years ago and also the Digitech range - in my opinion, it's easier than all of those to get a good basic tone quickly.

It's all very logically laid out and for me all the parameters are easy to find and where I would expect them to be. Editing patches is simple. The manual skims over the more in-depth details which might mean less technology-inclined users might not be able to take full advantage of what the GT-3 has to offer.

Just for the record, the firmware revision number of my unit is 1.02. The most recent is 1.03, which fixes some of the bugs I have discovered on my unit. However these bugs are on areas of the unit I don't really use.

Generally I'm using this with my stock Gibson SG Standard or any Teles/Strats I can get my hands on, and also an Epi SG as a backup, mostly through one of two amps - Sessionette:75 (solid state) 1x12 85w combo and Marshall Valvestate 8200 head with standard Marshall 4x12 cab. I run through the effects return on both and set the output to "Power Amp (stack)" or "Power Amp (combo) respectively. I'm quite impressed with the tones, in some instances closeness to valve sounds are possible.

I'd say that the distortions tend to get noisy - there's a lot of digital hiss and hum with high gain setting which is not the hum of a well-driven tube stack, but personally I expected this much. This applies to both the Preamps when driven and the OD/DS - also with a Clean preamp and heavy OD/DS.

I'd like to discuss some of the effects at this point. The Clean preamps I'm very impressed with - Clean TWIN and JC-120 are great, not that close to the originals, granted, but the manual states "amp simulation" - not recreation. The effects in the Mod group are generally good - Phaser, Flanger (not as powerful as I'd like but usuable), Delay (although max. time is a little short), Ring Mod (not overly useful but great for the "Paranoid" solo), Vibrato gives a nice edge to softer songs. Harmonist is fair - not bad but obviously not up to Digitech Whammy standard for say Rage Against the Machine. The auto riff is good for a laugh, the guitar synth is alright as long as you stick to single notes. The rest of the effects are not ones I use so I can't comment.

The Slow Gear, Tremolo and Pickup Sim are surprisingly useful for certain applications. The wah is passable - not a patch on my personal favourite, Vox wah. Best to buy a seperate wah if you don't already have one. I personally like the Chorus - very good when run in stereo. The Parabolic EQ is a masterstroke - especially with the adjustable Q point, it's a shame there are only 2 parabolic ones on the main EQ and another 2 on the Sub EQ. Noise Gate + Compressor both very useable if not that outstanding.

The distortion is very much down to taste. What one guy might love (the Metal distortions for example) I might hate. Personally I think the distortions are the weakest part of the unit only because valve power-tube drive sounds awesome. It beats most stompboxes and cheap amps. However, although in some circumstances the unit sounds great with the right Preamp and OD/DS, others it sounds truly digital - the way the notes breakup when using a JC-120 with Blues drive with Drive=5 it sounds too obvious - especially when recording direct with speaker sim on. I'm not sure if this is just the GT-3 or because I got mine secondhand and it wasn't in great shape.

Overall though, this was well worth trading in my old Boss stompboxes for. Just needs to sound more natural, if thats possible with digital gear.

Well I did get a little bored of reading "Boss = Tank" and that when checking out these reviews, but in a sense it's true. Here's my story of why Boss can build things to last, unlike todays motor vehicles and computer systems.

After a particularly bad gig and being blind drunk, I woke up the next morning to find that my GT-3 was all dented and a little out of shape (not much tho...). I asked my band mates and apparently after our set I chucked my GT-3 out of the window, from about 20 feet up... then I went outside picked the thing up and started laughing, as it hadnt broke.

The thing had been rained upon so I let it dry out at room temperature for a couple of days, then plugged it in... still worked. Damn thing didn't even reset itself.

There is no other piece of musical equipment I can think of that you can drop out of a window without seriously messing it up. This works almost like it never happened. Score another one for Boss.

Someone said in these reviews that the manual is the first line of customer support and thats true. The manual isn't very good, so I think it's fair to say the guys on the phone might have similar problems - can answer basic questions but don't stand a chance if you have serious trouble. We'll see.

First of all I have to give it a 10 because of how cheaply I picked this up - #129 is a steal. That represents fantastic value for what I've got, considering how much my old analogue ones cost new. Instant top mark. If I'd have paid more than #170, it would have been 8.

Other than this I owned some real McCoy analogue pedals - all Boss. CH-1 Super Chorus , PH-2 Super Phaser, MT-2 Metal Zone and best of all, OD-2 Turbo Overdrive. This pedal compares well to all these - Phaser, slightly more warm with the stompbox but I prefer the cleaner sound of the GT-3, CH-1 Chorus, again the GT-3 is clearer. I hate the MT-2 I had, but the GT-3 has that sound on it, not that I ever use it. The Turbo OD on the GT-3 still doesnt quite compare to it's stompbox counterpart, however it's more sensitive EQ gives it an edge.

Overall, for what this is and how much it cost me, it's a great piece of kit. I would point out that I do not have extensive experience with pro-quality equipment or rackmounts, but even if I did I still think I'd come to the same conclusion - it's great for what it is.

After reading a little in the booklet and a little experamentation you will have it down.

I said 5 because the effects arent that bad for being digital. Yes the wah could have used more tweaking knobs. But the DISTORTION IS AWEFUL. After about a year of labor intencive experaments i have only come up with a few good patches. I am going out too look for a distortion pedal tomarrow to run through the send&return.

I like it but the distortion sounds to muddy and low ended with no sharpness and shred.

very good

I find it really easy to use, but im having a bit of trouble finding a distortion that i like. I have a 2 speaker peavey amp and i had to make a "Y" connector for the back of the amp because it was only playing out of one speaker.

Im using a Charvel guitar with a Peavy classic chourse 130. I get a bit of noise but thats because of my patch chord. the effects are great but i need help from anyone, i need better sounding distortion. I like some that the newer bands are using like Creed and Good Charlotte. If you can plz email me some of your settings that you like and i will give it a shot that would be great. prettyboy_107@hotmail.com

So far i can depend on it. I have never had any problems. I would use it on a gig without backup.

I like to paly punk/rock but i need a better distortion. I dont mind the sound of the waw but i will buy a cry baby later on.I compaired it to the GT-6 and liked it more but jsut couldnt afford it.

I've owned many different multi-effects units, several from Roland/Boss. The old GP-8, the orange Boss GX700, and now the GT-3. Let's face it...ease of use with anything in this category comes with understanding the logic of the unit, but Roland/Boss has really worked hard to make sure us guitarists don't have to work so hard to have fun with our toys. Some other guys may not know how to get happy sounds out of this thing, but it's really about as easy as it can be and still have so much depth.

Here's where I've struggled. I'll give it a "9" because the effects are really smooth-sounding and versatile for the way I use it, but the overdrive and distortion sounds are pretty worthless. Ditto for the COSM models. The GT-3 is awesome for applying effects to the setup of a player who already has a great-sounding axe & amp, but don't count on this unit to give you "tone". I've found near-bliss using the GT-3 with a TubeScreamer and other overdrive pedals in the "Ext OD/DS" loop, and plugging the GT-3 output into a good Fender amp set clean. The GT-3 is transparent, and it's effects are pro-quality (so long as we don't discuss the OD/DS/COSM crap).

Built tough as nails...though I'm really tired of units like this with outboard power supplies and cheap zip-cable power connections. Mine hasn't given me a single problem over the 5 years that I've been beating the crap out of it, but it'll happen...probably some night at a gig. How about an outboard PS with a detachable cable that's easily replaceable on the road, like a MIDI or 1/4" cable?

No problems yet...

I play Strats in just about any style of music except hard-ass metal and the like. The GT-3 allows me to get pretty much any effect sound I need easily, sounds great and allows a lot of expressive control. Two thumbs up for the effects, but two thumbs down for the OD/DS/COSM stuff. This is typical Roland though...all the way back to the original JC-120 amp; great clean, great chorus...just stay away from the dirty channel! I highly recommend this unit for players who need effects, not tone. You can find them CHEAP at pawn shops now...

One advantage is that this pedal is relatively easy to use and set though an amp, or headphones or mixer or P.A. The only real concern is using the unit in an effect loop that has a gain send and return knob which the gt-3 seem to overload with harsh feedback. One huge advantage of the gt-3 is that its patches are really easy to use and program and offer quick and easy sound changes while playing live.

What can you say digital guitar effects just can't even come close to the tone of analog. I used this effect through warm, fat, fender tube amps (vibrolux etc.); yet the gt-3 still sounded thin and small in comparision. The pedal is digital and as such produced an anemic and simple sound lacking in the harmionic richness that a good guitar sound should have. The gt-3 also tracks slowly, causing a small but noticeable delay between what you play and what comes out of the amp. The distortions are poor. The wah is poor. The reverb is poor. The preset patches are cheesy and completely useless. All in all the gt-3 is more of a toy and does not deliever true guitar sounds. Even with these negative points the gt-3 does have one spectacular sounding effect. Check out the step phaser it is absolutely phenomenal. This is a first rate effect and is the only reason why I am holding on to the pedal.

I have beaten the daylights out of the Gt-3 withiout remorse and it plays just like new. It is absolutely in-destructable.

If you are serious about quality tone and can afford analog and tube equipment dont waste your time on the gt-3. If you are a beginer and need a lot of effects and have no cash then the gt-3 is probasbly the best bang for your buck. Other units by digitech, zoom and the like are even more pathetic sounding than the gt-3. If you like phaser sounds check out the step phaser. the way it jumps is phenomenal it sounds like the heavens are opening up. For this effect alone the pedal is worth checking out.

Es una unidad algo complicada de utilizar si pretendes tocar via MIDI.
En cuanto a la edicion de patches, es sencilla, aunque el sistema EZ Edit es de gran ayuda.

Utilizo una guitarra Washburn Maverick, con un kit de pastillas EMG, la conecto a un Cry Baby y despues a un Peavey Envoy o a un ampli a valvulas cableado a mano hace como veinte a?os. Me encanta el sonido de valvulas, y cuando compre esta unidad, no crei que me daria un sonido tan calido.
Las saturaciones que se pueden lograr son muy variadas, desde el sonido VOX de Graham Coxon, hasta la saturacion Marshall de Stevie Ray Vaughan; claro, toda proporcion guardada; y por lo regular, en este tipo de unidades no son tan faciles de conseguir. (Antes utilce DIGITECH, y la verdad me quede muy decepcionado de las unidades multiefectos). En general es muy versatil, Decepciona un poco el phaser, que es demasiado frio, pero se puede aderezar con un poco de reverb para darle un poco mas de cuerpo.
De las distorsiones no hay nada que decir, la casa Boss las respalda, aunque a veces prefiero usar un Big Muff como External OD.
Por lo regular, no utilizo los preamps, sino el sonido directo de mi guitarra con un poco de Blues Dist con una ganancia de 7 u 11, y eso es todo, y sinceramente, satura muy bien mi ampli de valvulas.

NUNCA LO HE NECESITADO!!

Por lo regular la utilizo para tocar blues, o cuando tenemos algun trabajo, que por lo regular esta en tocar a grupos como Doors, Blur, Nirvana, Manson, Alice, Sound Garden, etc.
Y me ha convencido tanto, que de hecho planeo comprar otra para tenerla como backup, ademas de que gracias al MIDI no necesito editar nuevamente mis patches personales.

Not a simple unit to use by any means, unless you are one of those that enjoy jogging through 100 parameters for each patch. The manual was brief but to the point and easy to understand, but it lacked explaination of various setup configurations to use with or without your amp, with or without an effects loop, but overall, it did explain the basics. I didn't get to the point where I used it fluently for about a year, but it was from being lazy & having a stage rig I was accustom to anyway. I finally used it at band practice and a couple of gigs, but I was never happy with it. But you're listening to a guy that is use to playing through a Fender "Evil" Twin and uses Boss Pedals. So I'm picky!

I used a Fender Deluxe Reverb RI and a Roland JC-77 with this unit and even though the Fender gave it more of a tube warmth like I'm use to, it still didn't satisfy my ears. It was good enough for rehersal but not at gigs.
The multitude of effects were everything but the kitchen sink. The olny effects that were displeasing were the distortion effects and the wah~wah pedal. The wah~wah was the worst, nearly the worst I've ever heard. It just had no bite and no tone. But, I'm use to my Dunlop 535Q, so once again, I'm picky.
The acoustic simulation was great, one of the best features of the unit, but hardly worth lugging around just for that.
The amp models were fairly nice, and since I own or have owned every amp in the selection, I can tell you they are fairly accurate. The only one lacking was the Mesa/Boogie. The Twin and The Soldano were my personal favorites. The chorus was OK but not as good as a T.C Electronics, (but we're talking about a $300 chorus pedal vs. a $300 multi-effect box, so you do the math) The delay was good and the other effects were useable but not the best I've ever heard.
My Boss effects pedals beat all the effects on this unit, but once again, you get what you pay for. The variables on the boards effects is it's only saving grace, you have more programability than any single pedal I've ever seen. One user review I read on here said that the distortions on this unit sucked, and he prefered a Digitech unit. I can't imagine a Digitech unit being better than this GT-3, but to each his own. I haven't used a distortion box in 12 years. I rely on the preamp in my amp for distortion. Concidering this, the preamp modeling was more than enough to suit me. Adding the distortion effects to the preamp effect gave so much gain and noise that I can't see why anyone would use both at once, but again, I'm picky. The preamp distortion variables were enough distortion for nearly any sound you'd need (except a grungy fuzz). I get that if I don't shave for a few days anyway. One preprogramed bank had a Boston tone. This is nearly all the effects at full tilt. Don't do this with this unit unless you are recording. At high volumes, the gain level is just to much for most situations and it will make you amp squeel like a banchee. Fun for practice or recording though.

Falls apart at the lightest touch! No, really Boss has some of the most rugged roadworthy effects on the market. This one is built like a tank! The only unit that is not by Boss is the ME-30 (the cheapest in their line of multi-effects boxes) One user comented that he wished the pedal buttons were made of steel not plastic, but believe me, this type of plastic is hard as steel and very durable. Unless you plan on switching channels with a sledgehammer, these will last a lifetime.

Good company, though I've never had to repair anything I've bought by them. I own 15 different products by Roland/Boss. All have stood the test of time and I'm sure this unit is no exception. However I believe this unit is out of production now. The GT-6 is now the top line and the GT-5 and GT-3 are gone from prodution.

Flexable enough to use for any style/genre of music/venue. Programable to a fault. Slack Wah~Wah but everything else is good enough for most things. Great tool for modeling sounds with, esspecialy in the studio. Harder to tweek for giging but not impossible.
I have been playing for 23 years. I bought this unit to replace my gig rig of pedals to simplify my setup. My gig rig is still in place!
Lost or stolen, I'd get a Line 6 POD, just because I know now this unit will never replace my gig rig. But for $150 bucks, a used one would be hard to pass up!

The Boss GT3 is daunting at first. But after you go through the various controls, it comes to you. A lot of guys just won't take the time to tweak and therefore get frustrated and chuck the thing. Admittedly, the manual is horrible. I mean, it really sucks. It only superficially grazes over each subject; very vague. The best teacher is experience. Get in there and start twiddling and before long, you'll grasp the inner workings. Editing patches is fairly straightforword, punch up the parameter and adjust it with the parameter wheel. Simple, huh? If you can't wait to start playing, some of the pre-set sounds are pretty cool. Some are pretty cheesy too. I gave a rating of 7 because the learning curve is somewhat steep.

I use two guitars with the GT3; a Gibson SG Custom with stock humbuckers and a Hamer Diablo with Seymour Duncan humbuckers. I'm running the unit through a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier amp. I have it wired to the amp using the Ext/OD/DS loop. That way I can bypass the amp's preamp section for clean sounds. The compressor is a bit noisy at higher settings, but if kept below 50, it's not too bad. The Dual Recto needs very little, if any, compression anyway. My main drive sound comes from the amp, so I set the OD/DS parameter to EXT/OD to use the amp's preamp. I do use some of the built-in distortion patches for different sounds. Only a couple of them sound descent, the rest are pretty crappy. The chorus is a little disappointing. It sounds boxy and flat. A better sound is the harmonizer set at about +4. Speaking of the harmonizer, if set to harmony, the tracking is horrible. If all you want to play is riffs to sleep by, the thing works pretty good, but anything faster than moderate, and it has a lot of trouble finding the right note. And the 2 voice mode is even worse. The sound quality of the clean patches is excellent though. You don't even need an amp; just plug it straight into the mixing console. Some of the stereo effects are really sweet. Mostly, I use the GT3 to categorize my sounds so I can change them with the push of one pedal. Like I mentioned earlier, the way I have the unit wired to my amp, I can go from, say, clean with chorus to crunch with delay without changing channels on my amp, just by pressing one button. The built-in preamp models are all pretty dismal with the exception of the Roland JC 120 and the Fender Twin. I don't see how they can think the BG Lead patch sounds like a Mesa, it's not even close. The Fender Twin, they've nailed on the head though. Sounds just like it. My sound quality rating is a 5 because 80% of the distortion/drive sounds are subpar, but 80% of the clean sounds are superb.

I've had my unit for over a year and have had no problems. 10, so far

Never dealt with them.

Overall, you can't beat this unit for the money. It has tons of different sounds, albeit some not too good. What I love about it is it's rock solid construction (all metal) and it's versitility. What I hate about it, (not really hate, but dislike) is the pedal. When used as a volume pedal, it's extremely touchy; especially at higher amp volumes. It seems like it goes from 0 to 20 all at once, then on up to 100 smoothly. Also, when changing patches, the sound is cut off while the subsequent pedal is in the down position. The only way around this is to push the pedal really fast to minimize the delay. My favorite feature is the delay. Very smooth and even. I wish it kept the original patch name when writing from another patch. For instance, if you decide you like another patch better than the one you have in a certain position, writing another location to that patch transfers the name of the new patch also, so you have to rename it back to what you had in the original patch. A hassle. The unit does help me make music because I don't have worry about changing a bunch of stomp boxes to change sounds. It all happens with the touch of one button. If you don't want to take the time to learn your way around it or take the time to tweak it, don't buy the GT3 and stick to stomp boxes. The overall sound quality you'll get with this thing greatly depends on what kind of amp you're running it through. Sounds that are horrid through my Fender Pro Reverb don't sound too bad through my Mesa. But for the money, you can't go wrong. Have Fun

I've owned the GT-3 now for a bit over 2 years and I only now feel that I can make an accurate review. It's taken me a long time to figure this thing out. I'm typically the kind of guy that likes to turn knobs instead of editing patches with buttons, as if it were a computer, so it's taken me a while to get this where I can get a good live sound. It really isn't that hard anymore but for someone who just bought it, it could prove to be difficult at first. The manual that was included is horribly written. However, there are user-friendly, downloadable manuals that can be found on the internet.

My current set up is one of 3 guitars; a Les Paul, a Hamer Sunburst and an Ibanez Talman, into a Dunlop Crybaby, a Tubescreamer, a Marshall Guv'nor, the GT-3 and then into the power amp section of a Marshall Valvestate head and 4x12 Crate Blue Voodoo speaker cabinet. After using the GT-3 through various configurations over the last couple years, I'm convinced that the best way to use this is through the power amp section of an amplifier, bypassing the pre-amp altogether. For some reason, when the GT-3 interacts with another pre-amp, it just doesn't sound right. Setting up the global settings properly is also of the utmost importance. It can honestly take you from sounding underwater to sounding great.

I like to use the GT-3 sparingly. Mainly I use a pre-amp, throw in some reverb or delay depending on the situation, and every now and again using the effects for whatever is necessary for the tune I'm playing. To me, the pre-amps make this unit. The heavier pre-amps like the 5150, Soldano, Metal Drive and Mesa Rectifier do a good job for hard rock/heavy metal, but the in between sounds are amazing. The Clean Twin, Matchless, Vox, Crunch and Marshall Plexi models are excellent. The amazing part is the dynamics that are present. Turn your guitar volume down and it cleans up better than a lot of amplifiers I've played through. You can get Who-ish crunch out of this thing, an excellent clean sound, mild breakup. It's not very noisy. The noise gate is serviceable. Not the best in the world but works fine.

The effects for the most part are good. The reverb and delay are excellent, the chorus, flanger, phaser, tremolo, vibrato, the time based effects in general are good. I'm bummed out about the harmonizer though. It works fine if you set it up to be used in the style of the Whammy pedal. However, when you use it to do harmony parts (like when I play Detroit Rock City), the tracking on the harmony part is a little slow so it just doesn't sound right. I don't think I'm ever going to use auto riff or the guitar synth. The synth is not good for faster runs. You have to play slow otherwise it won't track the notes. The EQ is okay but I wish it had a few more frequencies available to adjust. I don't really use it much. The distortions are actually cool. I've used them to boost the preamp and it does a good job, but I need a couple stompboxes just to keep me happy, plus I love the sound I can get with the Guv'nor. It can take the Plexi model, which has a great AC/DC like crunch to it, and just push it over the top. I kick on the Guv'nor for solos on a lot of spots.

I'm giving this an 8 as a whole. There are some really great sounds out of this thing, and there are some that I don't think are that hot.

The chassis is solid metal which is very reliable. I wish the pedals weren't plastic though. I hope they survive the bars and nightclubs.

I actually had a great dealing with Roland's customer support. I inadvertently plugged it into a 240 volt input and fried the transformer in the AC plug. Ended up calling Roland US and they sent me a plug in about a week. They sold it to me for less that what Musicians Friend quoted and they got it to me quicker than Musicians Friend could.

I think this processor is great for the gigging cover band musician who has to cover many different musical styles. When I'm out playing, we do everything from Tom Petty to Judas Priest to Neil Young to Jimi Hendrix to Metallica. The GT-3 can cover all those bases. Ideally, I'd love to have a setup with a great amplifier that could cover broad styles (something like the Fender Twin) but since I'm the head of my household with only one income and a shitload of debt, I can't have everything I want. The GT-3 is a good alternative for the budget minded musician (most of us I would assume). If the 8 seems a little low of a rating, it's just because I'm taking into account everything about it. The amp models are worth the price, but some of the stuff is unusable live.

it's easy to use. I didn't have a manual but figured out how to work it pretty quickly. there's options everywhere for getting a sound quickly as well. although it's easy to figure out how to tweak anything as much as you want.

i'll have to admit i havent really run this through a proper amp yet, just through a tiny portable stereo and into my 4-track at low volumes. to me it sounds great though, i prefer clean tones. i've never been too picky about tones though.

overall this thing sounds good. it sounds like boss pedals, which of course sound good. some of the distortions are crappy. everything overall sounds good.

it's boss, so probably reliable.

na

Overall, this is a pretty good effects pedal. I've had a lot of individual pedals, and a zoom 505, alesis effects unit, digitech reverb, and i've played a lot through the effects on a roland vg whatever digital 8-track.

compared to all that, this thing is definitely worth it. nothing really beats having a bunch of individual pedals to play with and mix and match, but this thing has pretty much every stock type of pedal made, with a few thrown in besides. where this thing really comes in handy is how versatile it is. anything you can come up with in your head to do with effects, you can do with this (the only limiting thing is that you can only use one modulation effect at a time).

a cool feature is that you can hook the expression and the control pedal to control any parameter in the whole effects chain. you can control phaser depth, pitch shift amount, compressor level, type of distortion, anything you want... there are also a lot of cool nonstandard effects on here, including feedbacker, synth,slow gear, ring modulator, humanizer, some other stuff.

the sound in this is solidly good, not spectacular, but for what it is, an all around effects pedal to get any sound you might need, it's great for that,

Well, it's very easy to use.. the first thing i did was to buy a midi cable to get it on with my computer...Once I did (it was very easy), i just erased all the "Garbage" patches I easely worked with the others. after that you only have to know where are the patches and have fun on stage with them...

well, I use a VOX AC30 and a ESP EC300... I like to be wild on stage and it's true that the distorcion is not great but I use a powerlead from ibanez to do that...it's really better to use an externall pedal to do that.even if the gt3 distorcion was perfect I would use a Ext pedal. The only thing I dislike it's the Wha Wha... well, a cry baby is the perfect choice, but I must say that the AutoWha it's just excelent! Dispite all this, the other effects often show a very little hum but it's not perceptible on stage.

I can depend on it...I always use it on stage and never failed...ofcourse I have a rack always there for the bumps!

I never contacte the customer support

I play pop/rock , like pearl jam and u2 and i've chosen the GT3 because a friend talked me about it. Because it's not expensive I decided do give it a try!
I do not Love it...but I like it a lot!