Boss GT-3

Well...it surely takes a little long to learn how to use this unit...but in the end...it`s all about the usual settings and knobs that all pedals have...I mean, you have to know what depth does to yuor chorus if you turn in loud...so don`t worry...you`ll learn after a pair of hours..!

I use this unit with a custom made strat and a peavey bandit 112...the unit it`s not so silent as expected...and I`ve heard that some people have ahd problems with Marshalls JCM-900...I think I could get some very interesting famous sounds but I`m not able to do it so I like to edit my own sounds that is really better!
I really love the delay and the wha wha (works fine),and some pre amp are rellay good (the twin is perfect and has got better my amp`s clean sounds)...synth is great and chorus too...the EQ is really full of options so you can get what you want from the machine...Distorsion are great...and you can always use an external distorsion (I have a Marshall Guv`nor) if you get bored with it...so I really it`s an amazing machine!

I use it more often than I should...!Sometimes I plug it off just for not forget how I love to play with my amp but...I can assure you taht you would bring your sounds everywhere on every different amps you`ll be using...that means a lot....I Use my amp for back up but i know I`ll never have to do it...

never dealed with boss...I hope they have nice girls working in their calling centers...

I play lot of styles, most rock but rock for me means a lot of things...well, anyway....THE DISTORSION IS LOUD!!! I LOVE IT!i have been playing from 10 years now and I`ve been dealing with lots of pedalboards and this rules...I think you should not mind about the gt-6 because both sound really similar so...BUY THE GT-3!
Anything else you'd like to share?Yes....I love it more than my mother!!!!

Anybody who is patient and and has a reasonable IQ can use this thing.

I play through a fender amp and a Usa strat with an emg 81 and 85.
I play bands like Metallica, Megadeth, Alice Chains, Led Zeppelin...
With the proper tweaking on the distortion and the EQ u can get the metal sound of the gods. I have played through Mesa's and this thing has better distortion in my opinion. Mesa's got to muddy b4 it could catch up. The Jc-120 clean on this is incredible. You can get the same sound as in "Nothing Else Matters," or "Rooster." All u need to do is put ur amp on clean and leave the rest of the effects to this thing.

I'll die b4 this thing does.

Don't know, haven't had to call em.

I've played a lot of em. From Digitechs to PODs to Zooms.
Boss is far ahead of all of em. The price is incredible.
The only other effect i would get to add on to this is a
wah wah pedal. I suggest CryBabys. I would desparately search for another Gt-3 if mine got stolen.

Id like to add a thought,

EVEN THOUGH METALLICA SOLD OUT, IT DOESNT REALLY MATTER.
THEY STILL HAVE THE GREATEST METAL ALBUM OF ALL TIME
"MASTER OF PUPPETS." AND NO ONE CAN TAKE THAT AWAY FROM THEM.

I think is very easy to use. But you really have to know about it if wanna get some specific sounds, but is like everything else.
EZ EDIT useful in critic times. Gets a little complicated with the pedal assign.

Ihave a Sammick Les Paul Model and a handmadee tubeamp (very good). Soime xtra noise in distortions but not to worry about. Delay Chorus rocks. Synth also rocks ... youcan get really funny sounds.. . Tryieng to get al the time.. Chan Kinchlas sound (from blues traveler) and also Jerry Garcia but I think that is imposible...

Very solid. But don't let it fall into your feet. Hurts.

Never tried.

I bought it in Argentina , ,tahs why it cost me that much. I will definitly keep this... maybe buy gt6 but this will be in bag all the time.
GT3 ROCKS!

Acho este pedal muito facil e pratico de mexer

Eu toco com uma guitarra washburn MG94 e um AMP replica do Twin Reverb 65 cray baby, boss bd-2, boss ds-2, marshall jh-1 boss dd-3 e um boss GT-3. A gt-3 ,alguns dos pedais ,tem os sons muito legais , o reverb, delay e o chorus, s?o meus preferidos, as distorcoes s?o boas, mas parece que os pedaisinhos separados soam melhor.

OK

Deveria ter manual e software para operar via MIDI, disponivel no Site da Boss.

It looks like a pedalboard and programs like a rack unit; no wonder it drives people crazy! After years of tweaking both pedals and rack gear, I got a GT-3, trying to reduce my rig to what Robert Fripp might call a "small mobile intelligent unit." The GT-3 allowed me to dial up anything from simple OD/DLY/CHO chains to really deep, weird Synth, Harmonist and Ring Mod sounds. The Manual isn't entirely useless, but like many Roland/Boss manuals, I kind of wonder where the rest of the instructions went. The programming mostly worked for me, but I can understand why a lot of people aren't thrilled with it.

I use mahogany plank guitars, with humbucking pickups, so I don't worry about hiss and noise from my guitars. When I use an amp, I use a Roland JC-90, which I find to be quieter than a JC-120, especially in small rooms. When I know there's a decent P.A. available, I just bring the GT-3 and a few Delay/Loopers.

The GT-3's effects are pretty good, but there are some problem areas. The Compressor is noisy; on most of the factory presets, I found that I could drastically reduce the noise levels just by turning off the Compressor. I'm not sure what the Acoustic Guitar Simulator and the Pickup Simulator really do to your signal, but I wasn't impressed with either one. The Slow Gear is counter-intuitive; you have to turn the Sens way up (above 75) to hear any effect at all. The old Slow Gear pedal didn't work that way. I find that I use the Clean Twin Pre-Amp model more than any of the others, and I really hate some of the Pre-amp models. The OD/Dist. is just okay; I use it, but I can't get a good Fuzz sound out of it. I agree with the folks who weren't excited about the Pedal Wah sounds; the Auto-Wah is even more disappointing. If you want that fat, chewy Jerry Garcia sound, keep looking. For Pedal Wah, you may want to use an EV-5 Expression Pedal, instead of the GT-3's pedal; the EV-5 feels a little more like a Wah, while the GT-3's pedal is a little stiff. The EQ is a weird sort of semi-parametric, with fixed Low and High bands that you can either boost or cut; of course, the Manual doesn't tell you what the Low or High EQ bands are, so you'll have to guess what frequency you're boosting or cutting. The Sub-EQ is identical to the main EQ, and a waste of processor space. On the plus side, the Harmonist effect works much better than the pedal of the same name, the Slicer does some cool things (slow it down and you'll hear some nice "Who's Next" kind of sounds), and the Auto-Riff has hidden powers that the Manual barely touches on. With Auto-Riff, you can set each note of the 12-tone scale to generate its own arpeggio. Think about that for a second . . . you play one note and it triggers a blues riff, another note triggers a weird up-and-down scale pattern. There are 10 User Presets, so in theory, you could program 120 different Auto-Riffs into your GT-3. Insane. I've had a lot of fun with the Guitar Synth effect, but I also enjoy a challenge; most players will fool with it for a while and decide that it sucks. The Humanizer is one of those things you'll either love, or never use. The Ring Modulator is great, I had no problem cloning the throaty metallic tones of my EH Frequency Analyzer with it, although I can't quite make friends with the Intelligent Ring Modulator; some things are meant to be anarchy boxes.

The basic food groups are well represented, and someone finally took the Chorus effect out of the Mod block, so you can have Chorus and Pitch Shift and Delay. Nice touch. I was able to clone a number of old analog Flangers with the GT-3, but I can't quite get the sound of an old MXR Phase 90; otherwise the Phaser sounds are a lot of fun. I don't know why 1825 mS is the maximum Delay Time, or why I had to combine Tapped Delay with Stereo Pitch Shifting to actually hear stereo separation in the Delay Taps? There's no Reverse Delay, and no Hold, either. The Reverbs are somewhat better than stompbox quality, but if you're used to a nice clean Lexicon or T.C. Electronics reverb, the GT-3 won't cut it for you. The lack of Gated or Reverse Reverbs is annoying. The Noise Supressor isn't as intrusive as most Noise Gates, and I have it on in all but my most primitive sounding patches.

I'd been using my GT-3 for just over a year, when an odd software glitch popped up in the Manual Mode. Basically, all my patches now have the same Manual set-up, and if I change a patch, ALL the other patches reflect that change; yes, I've checked the Utility menu, and made sure Assign Hold is off. I've never had a piece of Boss/Roland gear go bad on me before, so I'm kind of surprised. Since the GT-3 is my main live rig, and the back-up for all the junk I used to haul around, I'm not going to be very happy if my GT-3 can't be fixed. Of course, this problem turned up over the Fourth of July holiday, so I can't get in touch with anyone from Roland.

I play loud, weird stuff, King Crimson-collides-with-Mission of Burma, filtered through a bit of Tuxedomoon. Until the software glitch, the GT-3 was a good match for what I wanted, offering me lots of sounds, and a fair amount of real-time control. The Manual Mode was critical to my sound, allowing me to set up each patch as a sort of virtual pedalboard, with On/Off switches for each effect; now, it doesn't work at all.

If my GT-3 dies, gets lost or stolen, I'm not sure what I'd get to replace it. Boss has pulled both the GT-3 and the GT-5, and the GT-6 just doesn't call to me, for some reason. If my GT-3 can be fixed, or at least persuaded to behave, I'd probably get a GT-5 as a backup, and them both; I like the idea of the External Loop on the GT-5. You can only use the Ext. Loop on the GT-3 if you give up OD/Dist.

Not easy to use at first, but nothing worthwhile is ever easy. If you take some time to learn about midi and gainstaging your unit and amp, it's a great unit. If you don't want deal with studio level parameters, don't get it. This is a pro unit at a beginners price.

Took time to get, but yes, its great. Start with a blank slate, distortions off and the the (line headphones) on in the utility section. Make sure your output on the back is at about 75 percent. You should hear roughly the same volume level as with the amp alone.
Fine. Choose a workable distortion, (the vintage is great) and tweak one setting at a time. Don't keep cranking up overall gain levels. Make sure you're still at unity by checking every once in a while. Even some of the time-based effects have levels that increase overall output, so be careful. Add delays and verbs to taste. Also you'll never be able to make tone judgements with million effects turned on. If you're using a million effects, then the point of tone is mute anyway. At this point you just want craziness. Very quiet overall if gainstaged correctly.

It's a brick.

Never had to.

Great. Country and tasty AAA rock. Finally got it to where I love it, but only after I learned about midi and subcontrollers, etc. I've bought two extension FS5U subcontrollers and I'm in heaven. At one time, (with BPM tappping) I'm tapping in the parameters for three effects at once (delay, tremolo speed and phaser speed). Even if one or more of those effects is not engaged at the time I'm tapping. Amazing. Try this with a pedal. I've got the patches set up basically as custom pedalboards using the CTL pedal to switch me to manual. Now i've basically got a pedalboard with all my pedals swithable to on or off. Great feature. Don't believe anyone that says this ain't a killer unit. Best ever for the money. But it's been a long time coming because I didn't have studio level knowledge of parameters. Now I do, and now I'm happy. If you're new to all of this, don't buy until you've accepted the fact that you're going to get frustrated and have to learn lots of new things. Even if it means bugging that guy to death at the music store. Primo unit, this Boss is.

It's one of the few in its priceclass with really big editing possibilities. But this has also a downside; it needs digging thru lots of menu's, which could turn the "knob-turners" down.
I have the unit for 5 years now, and only now I'm getting decent sounds. Ofcourse you could blame it on me, but I think the GT-3 is very picky about the context he's used in.

Setup: Ibanez S540 FM TTS --> GT-3 --> Input of either Roland 405 (practice amp) or Peavey Bandit 112 (stage amp).
In the beginning I had a lot of critique that my sounds were too harsh. I mellowed a lot of my patches down (some had 4kHz +20dB !!!) but still my setup is on the harsh side.
It isn't noisy, I use the Noise Gate mostly with treshhold around 40-60 and release 10-20. Only if I'm after real vintage sounds, I use the noise gate sparingly or not at all.

I made some real good AC/DC, Deep Purple and Maiden-patches. Metallica (Master of Puppets) doesn't work out for me with this unit. I've had better results with someone else's POD for high-gain sounds.
The effects are very good, especially the chorus and delay. I don't like the Wah, its range is too limited (I have an original Vox wah to compare it with so...), in its priceclass the Harmonizer is very decent too. Ofcourse, it never beats recording twinsolo's with 2 or 3 guitars, but for a quick idea...

NOTE: My biggest quibble with the sound of the pre-amps is: when you use a mid-gain to high-gain solo sound, and you play higher than the 12th fret on the higher strings, and you bend, than you'll hear a certain digital noise. It sounds like tuning an old FM-radio. The POD doesn't have this, probably due to better AD/DA converters.
It's only noticable when the PREAMP-SIM is on. When just using the OD/DS it's not there.

another big note: This unit seems to work best with SS-amps. Especially in conjunction with a Roland JC-120 I can get REAL FAT PUNCH AND GREAT TONE. Tube amps make it sound muddy.

Very reliable. But recently it stalled during a gig (after 5 years of heavy road use). Turned out to be a faulty crystal. Don't ask me what it does. Anyway, the GT-3 has fallen out of my hands on different occasions and it kept going. It's a pretty thick steel chassis.

See "Reliability": Roland repaired the faulty chrystal for free! I like that.

I play hardrock/thrash/speed/heavy metal mostly. But since a year or 2 I'm playing with a funk/soul-cover band. Some of the clean sounds of the GT-3 are really good for that. I've been playing for 10 years now, and before this one I have owned a Zoom 3000S and a Zoom 2020. The one thing I liked about those Zooms, is that it had a bypassfunction under every patch-button. Press once to activate patch, press twicee to bypass it.
My GT-3 actually got lost once (I left it in the train, and forgot it because I was in a hurry), and after 3 weeks I bought a new one, and the day after the railroad company returned my old one. So, luckilly I could return the new GT-3 to the store and get a full refund (since it only was in my possession for 2 days).
What I love:
After 5 years I'm getting good tones from it, especially usefull for direct recording (remember to set it to Line (Headphone Out) )
Its effects are very editable and of a higher class than its competitors.
What I hate:
-The afore mentioned digital noise
-The bad impact it has on playing dynamics and response. I wouldn't want to use it in front of a decent tube amp.

I'm currently thinking of adding a Digitech Genesis (1 or 3) for direct recording only. I'll be using the GT-3 for live use. Next year, I'm gonna buy a good tube amp (ENGL Savage Spec. Edt.), and the GT-3 will then probably be connected thru its FX-loop.

Oh, an important advice: be careful with high-gain sounds. Although they might sound great in your bedroom when practicing, on stage they can muddy things up.

Sure most of people find it difficult to use it, but most of people don't know how to get a good sound with a two knob box...
If you have already use a lot of stomp box, and you know how to define their character, then you're able to work with the gt3. Good material aren't allways plug & play.
Once you have ajust your own patches, it's very pleasant to change your sound by pressing one patch button. I like because, it's not so easy to turn on 3 pedals at the same time in gig when you have 9 stomp boxes like me, and if these 3 boxes aren't nearly together!!!!

Once you know to use it, it can sound very versatile and great.
I used to play with all-tube amps and analog stomp boxes, and there's one thing we can say: IT WILL NEVER SOUND LIKE THEM!!! but I knew that when I bought it. The amp simalutions don't sound like the originals, but they can do good very distortions(the best I've heard on multi-fx), they're not so cold and fizzy like those shitty zoom...
I play hardcore/brutalcore/grindcore; the GT3 was what I missed!
I use it on custom tube head sovtek with a 4.12" cabinet, and it's powerful: the clean is so compressed with the valves and give warmth to the GT3 but the sound turns to agressive and tight when I put it on
distortion (I never set the gain to the highest value, because I used valve distortion before). But I have a solid state head too, and I can say that the GT3 sounds well on every amp...
The other FX are very clean, because of the "digital", so they can sound "cold" for someone, but these fx does only their purpose and don't add some extra coloration provided by a cheap circuit, which it is not the case for all stomp boxes.
There's something else I like: you can change the "plug" of your fx and place any fx before or after an other, as you as using separate ones...
I still use analog fx and valve distortion for studio, just because gt3 can't do what they do, but they're not able to produce what it does.

I think it's reliable, but I prefer to wait to give a mark...
The only thing I don't like at all, is that small output level button on the rear panel, because it looks like these on radio toys of supermarkets! I prefer to set it on a value and never touch it!

Never deal with them, because of the reliability (I have several boss pedals, and two are very old...).

Professional sounding for public price!

The blue box has a lot of menu and submenu type controls instead of regular knobs. I think it's unfair to compare such a device to a phase 90 (one knob == great results) type thing, and keeping in mind what it is and what it does, it's easy to operate once you get used to it if you're used to multi effects boxes or computers or similar. It loses one point for the poor manual and one for the fact that it's a bit difficult to get a good overview of the settings within each block. If you expect/need phase 90 easy of use, read this rating as a 1 instead ;)

Some people say they can get nice distortion sounds out of this box. They say you just have to have patience and tweak and know what you're doing and it's great. I'm happy for them, but it's been disappointing to me. I've tried the 4 cable methods, guitar input, effect return input, direct through pa with the cab sims on, lineout and amp global settings, tweaking and tweaking, eqing, yada yada, I've never felt good about the basic sounds I could get out of the unit. After a while I figured I'd just use my amps distortion and use the GT-3 in the effect loop and that worked better, but not well. It just took something from the sound that way. Nice, warm clean sounds turned cold when I plugged it in to add delay (without any effects on) etc. At first I used it with a Marshall Valvestate, which I've since learnt might not be a good match for it for some reason, and it was the same with the Flextones, Mesa Boogies, Fenders I've tried it with (I don't own all of those but I've tried it out with each for at least two weeks). My Strat and my Jackson sound fine through all those amps without the GT-3 so I don't think it's the guitars. I don't mind the distortions being... "difficult to use if you don't know what you're doing" because I really like to get that stuff from my tubescreamer + amp, but when a unit you want to use to add a little colour does the bad things to the basic tone this thing does (to my ears, I may be cursed), it's not for me. Sorry. It get's a 5 for at least sounding decent through headphones for practice.

As the cliche goes: It's a Boss. I've experienced nothing with the GT-3 to tell me that Bosses aren't the tanks the urban legend says they are. And that's even though this Boss is more like a computer than an OD-1. Unfortunately I wouldn't use it at a gig at all, though if I did, I wouldn't feel bad about not having a backup.

Never dealt with them.

I (try to) play everything with guitars in it, rock, pop, funk, metal. I've played for 9 years. I have not owned a lot of gear but that doesn't mean I don't know what sounds good and what doesn't (to me). This unit unfortunately doesn't. I really wanted to like it, if I didn't I would have gotten rid of it sooner. I had it for about a year so it's not like I tried to tweak it for two hours and then gave up. It has many features (too many in some cases - hello Auto Riff), and great controls - you can assign the expression pedal to control 8 settings at once, which makes for some interesting possibilities (set it to control the whammy and the rate of the tremolo at the same time if you feel the urge to sound like R2 D2). So, shame about the sound. It can't be stolen because I've replaced it with a TC Electronics G-Major, which is more expensive, but which I love so it's definitely worth it in the end. The moment I first plugged the G-Major into my amp to play some U2 riffs with the delay, it was like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. My nice warm amp sound, with delay, WITHOUT cold, digital harshness (analog freaks might laugh but then imagine what the GT-3 must be like if I can love one digital 'warm' device and loathe another). The GT-3 had gotten in my way of making music the whole year I had it. I do not miss it. The 5 dropped points here are the 5 dropped points in the sound category (I feel sound is kind of important overall to a product such as this). The GT-3 has been replaced by the GT-6 now so anyone buying this will probably buy it used and if you get a good price and don't expect anything fantastic it might be fine, but for me it wasn't. I have no experience with the GT-6, it might sound better.

This is my 6th processor , after some Zooms and Digitechs , and its the best one , among Digitech RP's and all the Zoom series .
To get the real good sound takes a lot of time , and you need to know the blue box very well . If you do it , no probs about editing ! The manual explains everything well , but it takes some time reading .
My rating for this one is high cos it's impossible to get a God sound with simple knobs . It needs some work .

I have an Ibanez RG and a Marshall VS100R . NO NOISE !!!The effects are really strong , like the combinations with a distortion and a clean preamp ( Metal 1 + Clean TWIN ) , ( Metal 2 + JC-120 sounds like Maiden ) , ... The only problem is the Wah . To make it sound great , it's necessary to choose a drive from the preamp seccion , not from the Overdrive/Distortion seccion .
I created a Vai patch , sounded exactly like Passion and Warfare ( I really mean EXACTLY ) and that old Satch sound , from Blue Dream .
There's a lot of Pantera good patches too .
The only noise , which is very low , is from the Acoustic Simulator .
Oh yes , Adrian Smith tone from Somewhere in Time is excellent !

To depend on it ? Sure !!! No prob about gigging with the thing without a backup . But if some guys from the crowd throw beer over it , I think the GT-3 will not like . The only thing is : it's necessary to change the battery ( this battery gives memory to save the patches ) , but it really takes a good time . Some people plays wiht it for more than 5 years and didn't change it yet ! And that's a watch battery , cheap , easy to find , and easy to change .

Never talked to them !

I play metal , and it's perfect for it ! And it's good for all the styles , in my oppinion . If it were stolen , I'd buy other processor to try new things , but for its price , it's more than excellent !
To use it in the power-amp , without the amp's preamp , make it sound absolutely heavy !!! That's it .

It is pretty easy to use and program. I had only one complaint about the ease of use, setting up the CTL pedel was not consistent with the way the rest of the pedels worked.

I have used Fenders, Gibsons, and ibenez guitars with the product. I am real happy with all the effects except 2. The cry baby and the distortion is limited. For the price you are not going to get any better.

Very reliable. No backup needed but Boss has always made reliable products.

Did not need Support.

It is worth the price if you cannot afford the best accesories. I use it all the time and will continue to use it until I can afford better. I wish it had better Cry Baby effects and better Distortion. Cause that is the only flaw.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work it. Bank up or down and choose your selection on the vast variety of effects to choose from.

I found that I wasn't impressed as much as I thought I would be when I pluged it into my half stack. Then I tried it through my head phones and damn it sounded amazing. Phsyco sounds. It all you really need to make a record besides drums. Crazy synth sounds and intro outro stuff. Quite nice.

Works as its supposed to.

Never needed.

Its got two outputs so if you ran it to two amps in stereo it would probley sound a whole bunch better. Or if you ran a line to your amp and a line to the PA.

It not very easy to get a real good sound. But it is eay to change patches. The manual is ok.

I play a Fender American Strat and a Les Paul Double Cutaway Plus. I'm going out of a Fender Chourus amp. It is noisy on the good distorstion sounds. The lead sounds are horriably weak, you can't get a good lead sound. And Clean and Crunch sounds just have no power.

It's pretty sturdy. I don't bring a backup device when I play gigs. But the sounds on it just suck.

I play everything from Steve Vai to Eric Johnson to ALL classic rock. It dosen't work very well for me because everything I play needs an awesome lead sound and they all suckkkkkkk.

Well it depends on your perception of things. For the most part everything was pretty easy to figure out. You have to do alot of tweaking, and when you do, you can get some pretty amazing sounds. Theres just alot of stuff you have to do and personally I dont have time to mess with it all.

Personally I didnt care for the sound. The wah's are absolutley terrible and useless, it is impossible to get any kind of realistic wah sound out of this pedal. Delay, AC Simulations, and the special effects (Human Gate, Space Echo, Fatasy, Sythisised Crap....) all sounded really good. About 70% of the 50 billion diffenrent distortions that came with this pedal do not sound very good. I figure If I would have tweaked with it for a while, it would have sounded ok, but theres just to many of them. The phaser only had one speed< the flanger..... I wont go there. it just doesnt flange!!! Well, I'm sure I could have tweaked it all, but I prefer a couple of single effects better.

It never failed me here, I could use it anytime without problem. Made out of a good material, so you can keep it nice and shiny.

I have attempted customer support before with many other brands, so I did not bother to try and get the manual that the store forgot to give me.

I play metal, funk, blues, classic rock, alternative, it just wasnt much of a use to me. I just had no use for all the crap it contained, It was like everything was halfway done, and I know it didnt reach its full potential. I played it on a mexican strat, and it gave me just this raspy vintage sound I did not care for, and I could not use the phaser/flanger or wah for my band because they did not blend. I know other people have there opinions, but I just dont like this thing, but hey, it has a chromatic tuner in it!!!. After 4 months of trying to get it to sound right while waiting for my local store to receive my belated manual, I decided to trade it, and got a Les Paul with a Metal Zone and a Tube Screamer. Do what you want, but this is what I think of it.

SO FREAKING EASY, i didnt touch the manual, took me minutes to figure it all out

de armond 7 string s 67
gibson epiphone
fender strat
fender ultimate chrous dsp

clean, clear, under control

some need tweaking, some are dumb, but when you make your own, they absolutly ROCK!!!

fender uc dsp

limp bizkit, linkin park, easy to copy sounds!! awsome stuff

distrotion could use more bass ( its got lots, ive tweaked em) but SOME MAY sound tinny at start, ive costumized all them to sound perfect and how i wasnt em!!! GJ BOSS!!
nice echo nice chorus..mmmmmm

no problems, gig worthy!!

dunno yet!!

omg i love it , all you noobs out there giving it a bad rating SUCK !!! its the bomb guys, i recommend it so much

love the price!!! so great!!! $550 canadian baybee

takes a while to get the sound you want, but id rather it have alot of settings and take a while to get your sound than it to be simple.

ok here's the deal. The sound on this unit is 100x better with an outside EQ. I recommend the Boss Advanced EQ (which i reviewd on here as well).

The EQ gives it a MUCH better sound than it has by itself.

The effects are great, but the distortion really requires an outside EQ.

boss=tank

only thing im worried about is the pedal, i saw one used unit a while ago that had a broke-ass pedal on it.

never dealt with them

This is a good pedal. For me it's excellent because of the outside EQ i use, so i would try it out with your setup before buying it.

I'm giving it a 9 because its a great value with all the effects it has, and because there ARE great sounding distortion patches on it. you just have to sit down and find them

oh btw, put the EQ AFTER the GT3.

When I first read the manual, I thought I'd gotten into some rocket science applications. So I tossed it aside, and went at things the old fashioned way, pushed buttons till I figured it out. Now, I have the whole thing pretty well customized.

The whole reason I got the GT-3 was b/c of the sound quality. All of the Digitech and Korg pedals are WAY too noisy. The only noise I get is from the tubes in my amp. I'm currently running a 98 American Standard Strat, with Vintage Noiseless pickups and 1 meg pots, through the GT-3, and a Fender Hot Rod Deville 212.

Some of the effects are a little weak, but you have to tweak the values, and the effect chain order is important. I have 3 different patches, with the same effects used, all at the same values, the only difference is the chain order. 3 totally different tones.

Hasn't broke yet. Use it for hours every day. not a glitch

Stylewise, the pedals works very well for me. I've been playing guitar for 12 years, since I was 6 years old. I play a little bit of everything, and with the various presets, and my own custom patches, I can shape my tone to fit whatever I want to play. I sold my other pedals(mostly b/c I never used them), now I just have the drive channels on the Hot Rod, the GT-3 and a Crybaby Wah. I would definately buy a new one, in fact, I think everyone should get one. I tried every single multi-effects processor out there, and the GT-3 was for sure the best bang for the buck. With the price drop after the GT-6 release, I'd buy another one if I had a reason to.

Very Easy to use. Just know a bit about EQs and Effects work and your set.

I have an Ibenez S370 going to varioua amps Peavy, Fender Princeton Chorus, Fender Rock Pro...Effects are true. Seemless when combined proerly. Distortions can get a bit tinny (tin sounding) if you mess around with too many EQ paremeters, however it's about EQing properly....Chorus and delay sound great. I owned a GT-6 and a GNX2 they both lack the ability to use more than two truely flexible modulation effects similtaneously thus I returned it.

Built like a donkey!!!!!! EEEEEEEE HAAAWWWWW

Good
Willing to hear you out

Solid. Better than GNX2 and the GT-6

U have to spend some times with it, it has a lot of parameters that you have to adust to get what you want. you can get almost every sound from boss gt3. The manual is not great, but you have to read it.

My main guitar is a fender stratocaster plus, gt3 with hughes&kettner tubeman (tube preamp) in the loop of gt3 to effect return of my hughes&kettner tour reverb. mainly i dont use the preamps and distortion from gt3, i use my tubeman for my basic clean sound and distortion. the preamps and distortion of gt3 are OK, its not bad at all but I like tubeman sound better. The EQ from gt3 help me a lot to adjust sound from my tubeman.
The effects (chorus, reverb ect) are very good, with the tubeman in the loop of boss gt3 i am very happy with my sound.

It is verry solid.

never deal with the yet

I am an all round player, have been playing guitar for about 12 years. I play in an all round band, we play a lot of funky-jazz music. I like the effects (they are not a toy, quality effects), the possibility (effect loop, midi, effect chain ect ect ect).
This is a serious guitar effects processor.

Alright, here I go with this. I got this from my sister for Christmas this year and built my own patches from the ground up within minutes. This thing is easy to use. But everyone is so lazy these days they wish the damn unit would do everything for them. Sad stuff......

I am running the unit with my ESP and with a late Peavey Special 212, the Transtube series. Is it noisy? Nope, turn the friggin' noise suppressor on. Well it may be noisy when you are running metal distortion with the lead amp simulations. But being a guitarist you should know that's a bad mistake. First try I nailed the 1982-86 Metallica distortion utilizing the "EQ". And got an awesome Muddy Waters blues sound with it. Basically with a few minutes work, you can duplicate anything within reason. All of the effects are good, some just need to be made and tweaked yourself. A lot of the presets are weak and lame, but after twisting a few knobs it's clean and pure.

It's a BOSS. Damn thing weighs a ton as it is.

Never tried. Never needed to with my older BOSS units.

I play a varied genre of music. (Metal, Rock, Blues) This unit could be used for country music. I have been playing for 12 years and this unit delivers! If it were stolen I would find the person who stole it then drop it on their head. It weighs enough, guaranteeing a dented skull for the unlucky soul who crosses me. One more thing, most of the reviews I have read, said this thing sounded bad. Well answer me this question. DID YOU EVEN TRY TO TWEAK THIS THING IN ANY WAY? It may just be me......but my sounds are clear and pure. Email me sometime and I will give you some of my own patches I made, I will include the EQ settings, Distortion settings, which will include drive and all that. The preamp settings, the works. If it still sounds bad, then it's your own fault. Email is jake182_@hotmail.com, look forward from hearing from you.

The basic things of this unit are fairly easy to use. Simple editing, tweaking effects, stuff like that. The harder things like assigning the expression pedal to the delay and similar things takes more time. I still haven't bothered to figure it out.

I use an Ibanez RG 570 thru a Carvin Legacy Combo. I add the GT-3 sometimes. I play Vai type rock I guess you could call it but not quite a Vai's caliber, lol. The quality of the sound really depends on where you are in tone preference. If your ear isn't developed as well, or you really don't care what it sounds like or you like the sound of solid state thatn it sounds pretty good. A little high-endy though. If you are a tube purist and only play $2000 tube amps than the tone will seem thin I'm sure. I would not use this as my main unit but for delays and harmonizing it is pretty cool. Sounds decent but I like the Legacy better so I don't use this unit much.

Never giged with it but I'm sure you would never need a back up while using it.

Never needed any.

I you don't have loads of money like most of us and want decent effects and good sound than I would recommend it. The only effects on it I use are Harmonist and delay, so I think I will just buy two simple pedals and not use this unit much. It is a great unit but not for my taste anymore.

Relatively simple to use, at least for basic functions. Geez, there's a video for it, so not EVERYTHING is intuitive. Actually, once the novelty of having such a versatile unit wears off, the detailed tweeking becomes rather tedious and time consuming.

I play a '95 american strat -> GT-3 -> marshall JCM 800 2205. I only use the GT-3 when i have the clean channel on the amp selected. Most distortion patches sound PATHETIC when switched with the JCM 800. Other effects like chorus, delay, and especially EQ are rather useful (since the clean channel on the Marshall leaves much to be desired). I bought this unit on e-bay a few months ago, and was very excited about the multitude of effects. All I can say now is this - I'd be much happier with 1 (one) incredible sounding distortion tone than the plethora of mediocre sounds that come from the GT-3. Yes, I'm selling it, and getting an Ibanez UE-405. Check them out if your thinking about making the digital to analog switch. Anyway, yeah. I also feel that most of the sounds that really do sound exceptional take too much time, and too much confusion, to actually obtain. For the last month I have settled on simple patches for my "most-used" banks, and these are becoming less and less desirable the more I get to know my Marshall. I can't stress this enough - DIGITAL MODELING WILL NEVER SOUND BETTER (or even LIKE) TUBE AMPS.

It's reliable. It has a metal case, and sturdy pedals. The only flaw is a rather weak power switch that seems kind of flimsy, and will probably break if kicked.

Don't know.

I play mostly hard rock with punk/funk/blues flavorings. I recently came out of my "Phish" stage (about a year ago), and was very into the whole jamband scene. f that. This unit is great for creating mind blowing modulation, infinite noise delay loops, and crazy autoriff echos. But for those who don't like hiding behind effects, this unit doesn't have very large balls. Distortion patches that sound very harsh, and amp modeling that sounds rather 1-dimensional have pushed me away from the digital effects world. Does it help me make music? No, it helps me make noise. When you grow bored of that, it's time to sell your GT-3.

Anyone can Use! I figured out how to uae it in the store when i was testing it. The manual is a book though, I never really botherd reading anything inn it except for specific things i wanted to know. It's set up clearly. I gave it a 9 because all multi effects take time to figure out and understand completely.

I play every kind of music, But my favorite is metal, such as pantera, alice in Chains, and metallica. I am using an Ibanez, unfortunatly a strat, and am getting a Prs for it. I play into a crate amp, which I bought because I get all the tone and sounds I want form the GT-3. All the effects sound like the Boss stomp boxes pretty much. There are a lot of useless effects on this unit, but all you have to do is not use them. The wah is a pain to use because the volume cannot be controlled with the expresson pedal when it is on, and it does not have a very wide range. Also the auto riff is pointless because that just takes away the whole purpose of solos, or playing fast licks. Some of the effects add noise, but not much. MOst of the effects sound just as good as stompboxes.

IT'S A BOSS! You will definiatly not need a backup.

The LCD stopped working correctly, so I contacted the company. They immediatly told me where to take it, and I had a new LCD put in it for FREE!

I was comparing the GT-3 with zoom multi effects, but I chose the GT-3 because it was built better, and the effects were twice as good sounding. If it were stolen im not sure if I would buy another or go out and buy individual stompboxes. you get A LOT for the price. For the price of about 4, you get 32 effects. If you are considering a multi-effects unit, chose the GT-3!(or maybe the new GT-6, which wasn't out when I bought the GT-3)

This has a ton of capabilites. Nothing with this much power is extremely easy to use, but this is very good. You can use it for playback, switch patches, etc. without using the manual at all. Once you get used to it, editing patches is very simple. I have never bothered to use the EZ edit method since the regular method of editing patches is quite simple. The "manual" mode makes six pedals act like a series of stompboxes, really increasing the power of a single patch. I got this for live use. My idea was to control everything from footswitches and not have to bend over and twiddle dials. It works fine for that. I use the control pedal to turn manual mode on and off and the expression pedal typically for volume. I also wanted LOTS of patch locations (this has 340 - 200 preset and 140 user) since patches which sound good with single coils don't sound good with humbuckers and vice versa. I have enouhg slots here that I can make separate banks of patches for different guitars. The manual is an OK reference manual but doesn't have a lot of exmaples. There is some good reference material online for the GT-3.

I use about 15 different guitars. I find it noisy only with conventioal single coils, which is not the unit's fault. With lower noise single coils or humbuckers, it's quiet, and it has a noise gate. I own a few multieffects - Korg AX100G and Pandora PX3, Johnson J-Stattion and have owned others (POD, Zoom 3030). Presets on all of these units tend to be pretty bad, but these are even worse than uaual. However, there are so many more patches that even if this has only 40-50 useful presets, that's as many or more than most units have. The preamp models are pretty good, and separating the distortion/overdrive from the preamp (which most units do NOT do) gives you a lot of flexibility. With a little tweaking, some remarkably good sounds can be had. The effects are excellent. Evan the wah, which everyone seems to hate, is OK for my purposes. I tend to use the vintage or turbo overdrives, and adjust the drive level and the gain on the preamp as needed. I play either through a tube amp, direct to a PA, or through headphones. There is an adjustment to optimize the unit for each type of output. You do have to be willint to tinker with it, but it's hard to imagine any sound that this couldn't produce.

This is where I'm supposed to say "It's a Boss"

No number in manual. I can't imagine needing support. The Web site, which had been pretty poor, has been upgraded, and I was able to find third party sites with the manual and other useful documents, as well as patches.

I play rock of all different varieties as well as other music. It is perfect for what I wanted it for. I want to control it entirely with footswitches, have names for patches rather than numbers, and have lots of patch locations. I looked at the GT-6, which had some new effects (Uni-V, de-fretter) and some knobs for real time adjustments, but my aim was not to use knobs, and the effects weren't worth the price difference. This sounds great after you learn now to program it and has tremendous flexibility. For recording, I would still use the Johnson J-Station, which has more amp models, but there's no reason why this couldn't do that job as well. Oh well, I guess I have some stompboxes to sell.....

As many have stated before, you must tweak and tweak this thing to get a good sound. It is definitely made for users who (1.) Know their stuff about indiviual parameters and their settings and (2.) plan on using one amp and one cabinet the rest of thier life. Well, let me explain: #1 is because you have to tweak every damn setting on the amp every time you turn around, and having too much control over your settings is often a bad thing. Especially if you don't know EVERYTHING about the parameters that you are adjusting, and don't want to know. I just want a good sound. I have had if for about a year now, and I still tweak it every practice. It still sounds very digital to me. OK, number 2: If you plan on using the same amp and cabinet your whole life... and you actually get it tweaked to sound good, then you will be ok. I went from a Randall 120 watt head and a full crate stack to a Marshall tube head and a full stack. This was a huge mistake. The settings sounded "OK" on the randall, but the marshall head sounded like dirt. This just does not seem right. Well, I tweaked and tweaked and tweaked until I got the Marshall to sound good. I went back to the randall head and it sounded horrible. This is commonplace with just about all heads, when you change they are different. You don't know the enormous change that this has on it! Editing the patches it easy once you understand the basics, but don't expect to get it done between sets. The manual is OK, but just like anything, it could be better.

Like I said before I use a Randall RB-120 Head or a Marshall JCM900. I pump that through 2 crate 4x12 cabinets. I play a Fender Strat (Mex), a squier strat (korea), a cort CL200, and a cort neckthru. Beleive it or not the Squier strat sounds the fullest, and the fattest. I have a DOD Gate pedal connected to the gt-3 and a crybaby wah (GCB-95). Don't even try the wah on the GT-3, it is not worth your time. I had to use the gate pedal because of the noise and buz that I get at most venues, and at home. The noise filter on the GT-3 is acceptable, but it is never enough. It needs it's own gate. The analog distortions are still very digital sounding. The chorus and phaser are ecceptional.

It is made of metal (casing), the pedals are plastic. I would trust it if I dropped it, though I would not reccomend it. I was at a show in Milwaukee playing when the guitar player for another band spilled a beer in his, and it stopped functioning. I do not reccomend that either. I would use it without a backup, but I would not use it if I had something better.

Never dealt with them. Good website, online support is ecceptional.

I play all original rock, comparable to STP, Alice in Chains, AC/DC, Godsmack. I will be upgrading to a new rig soon because of sponsorship, but It is good for a beginner or cover band. I would say that this would best be suited for recording situations, because it sounds great through headphones, but not through an amp. I would buy something else, probably not a multi-effects unit. Stomp boxes or a Line 6 with DFX. I do like the sturdy craftsmanship and a few of the digital FX. I wish it had a gate, a better wah, and better sounding (tube like) distortions. I could give a pie less about amp modeling, they can get rid of that, unless you want it for recording and you are too cheap to go to a real studio where they have the amps, or buy one. I have decided to buy a Line 6 Flextone HD and use the GT-3 as my midi controller for it. I will let you know how that works out.