Boss GT-3

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.

I've spent a lot of time hanging over this unit tweaking, but after hours of work I've got a pretty good collection of patches. The manual stinks.

The strength of the GT-3 is for RECORDING. I compose using Cakewalk Pro 9 and the GT-3 let's my get any guitar sound imaginable in minutes. I tend to like classic rock/big guitar sounds. My favorite guitar sounds are Mick Taylor in the Stones, Mick Ronson with Bowie, the Edge from U2 and Jeff Beck, etc. I can get these kind of sounds with this unit pretty quickly. I use it with no other effects in recording. Even though the wah is kind of bogus, I find the auto wah with fuzz a really fun wacked out effect. The rotory is beautifull it sounds like a Leslie amp. The Plate reverb is the hippest reverb in there. I can get crunch overdriven blues sounds that leave plenty of the natural guitar sound ringing. Also nice clean jangle with chorus and the ring modulator for pychodelic parts. It processes my acoustics nicely too. And I even use it for vocals, the EQ and compression work nice for recording voice.

But live I have a harder time getting a great sound with the GT-3. So I keep the setting simple, I stip them down to just the effects I need. My main live set-up is a P-90 Les Paul Special (I also use a Strat, Guild Electric/Acoustic and a Dano Baritone with the GT-3) through and old Boss BCB-6 that has SD-1 overdrive, Ibanez Tube Screamer, OS-2 Over Drive, Boss Tremolo and RV-3 Digital Reverb into the GT-3 into either a Marshall JCM-800 or Fender Hot Rod DeVille. I use the GT-3 for Reverb, Delay, Chorus, Tremolo, Rotory (my fave), and sometimes metal sounding disortion.

No problems

Never need support

I like the unit but it demands time and patience to figure it out. I'm not a very technical guy and I think I could get more out of the GT-3 if I was. But overall I find it to be a great sounding, very usefull device.

I find it very easy to use - in an hour I was editing patches. The official manual however is useless - I had to go on the Net to download a much better manual. Appearently the pre-amp is disengaged in the "Line-Headphones"-mode, which is recommended in the manual. With the help of the unofficial manual I got the setting on "Combo" and the distortion sounds are much better. It gets a "5" for the crappy manual.

I'm using the GT-3 with a Gibson RD-Artist and an ESP Telecaster into my Marshall Bluesbreaker combo. It was basically bought for the chorus, but has now replaced all my other pedals. I can get any sound I want with much less hassle than before. I use the Matchless setting as my basic distortion, and it kicks ass. To all you guys who claims it's for beginners: Neal Schon of Journey used the GT-3 exclusively for his last solo album - especially the Matchless setting. I also find the Lead to Clean-setting very useful. The JC-120 setting is great for chorus but I find the Acoustic settings to be much to quiet - any good suggestions to what I can do?

It's built like a tank and I`ll use it without back-up

Never dealt with them

As I said, it works for me. I play in two bands and have to cover a lot of styles, and the GT-3 is all I need.

Very nice.You can almost edit patches right out of the box.The Ez edit, even if i don't use it it's great for the novice programmer.It would be great to have some knobs to manipulate the parameters in real time so u dont have to change screens ,just to test different eq settings.Manual is simply great

I use a bc rich warlock with it and i have no problems at all,no noises or stuff ,even if i use the most noisy amp in the market (crate gx-15 pure s**t).The preset are not THAT great but with a little tweaking and some good will you can get what you want .I have 15 extreme lead sounds and iam playing all the DReam theater stuff like if i had a mesa boogie...Anyway the wah sucks go buy a classic dunlop crubaby!!!

NEver crashed,played dozens of gigs without backup , it wont let you down ( assuming you dont shoot it with a stinger launcher!!1)

Dont know yet...

Its the best effects processor i ever had .Cross tested it with the new toneworks model.Easily the winner.If the wah was a bit better...

It is easy to get good sound from it with some kind of wizard and the presets are also very handy for beginners. So you can play and when you discover new things you can easily add them to your effect.
Patches are easy to edit, with the value dial you can adjust you effects to make them like you want them to be.

I use an Ibanez RG470 with a marshall G100rcd+AVT412A.
The effects are great only i had to adjust some because i played an Epiphone before and its zound was clear my Ibanez sounds more crunchy so i had to adjust till it was good.

This is the only pedal i use (also on gigs) an it has never let me down!

I play punkrock but i play with a metal kind of sound.
I would be nice if it had a sampler, so you can use samples for an intro.
I love boss, their sounds are great and i would definitly buy a new one if this one get's lost or stolen.

After a month and a half of using the GT-3 extensively, I can relate to most of the posts below. I've both praised and cursed the unit. I've created some great sounding patches that I've jammed on through the night. Yet I've also struggled for days trying to get warmer tones and more aggressiveness out of the distortion.

In many ways, the GT-3 is a contradiction. On one hand, the GT-3 is attractively priced for the beginner and the basement riff monster(like me). For the price of a few stompboxes, you can access every effect you've ever wanted (great delay, good reverb, a wide variety of pre-amps and distortion, a compressor and limitor, etc.) and a few that you don't (e.g., appregiator, autoriff, and some awful synth sounds). It's easy for anyone to start comping or riffing on some decent sounding patches. It's easy to modify the existing ones or create your own. You'll figure out most of the features just evaluating it in the music store. And the GT-3 offers great promise for being able to emulate your favorite guitarists. Hundreds of downloadable patches are available on the Web.

On the other hand, the GT-3 is VERY complex. It literally contains hundreds of parameters. Unless you're familiar with the physics of sound, many are confusing, especially to the beginner. Even those with some knowledge of how to manipulate sound will be frustrated by the process of digital tweaking--scrolling through options one by one on a tiny LCD screen. Gone is the simplicity of eyeing and adjusting dials on a stompbox. If one paramater is out of whack, you sound will suffer. The manual offers little in the way of help.

Moreover, the GT-3 is finicky. What sounds good on one set-up will sound awful on another. You'll learn this once you try to download or build a patch someone else created. If you're into exprimentation, you might enjoy the tweaking. There's even software available to let you do it on your computer. But if you just want to jam or pin down the "right" sound quickly, the GT-3 will frustrate you. Who the hell wants to spend hours tweaking when you could be shredding?

My setup: Jackson DXMG (2 EMG EZ humbuckers) > Original Crybaby (usually set in one position for frequency boost) > GT-3 > amp (either a 15W Marshall G15RCD or a cheap 15W Ibanez amp that doesn't have a model number). (Yeah, I know my amps suck. I told you I was a basement riff monster. My next purchase will be a good amp.)

The GT-3 is very finicky. A patch that sounds good in one setup configuration or on one amp may sound poor on another. Experiment early on, find the best setup, and don't deviate. Some amps sound better with the unit than others. Ironically, my cheap Ibanez 15W articulates many of my metal patches better than my Marshall, regardless of how much tweaking I do on the amp or GT-3. I usually stick with a Line (Headphones) utility setting, but a few of my patches sound better on the PowerAmp(Combo) setting. On the Web, many users have said the unit works well with Peaveys. When testing this out at the music store, try the GT-3 on YOUR amp, not what the salesman plugs you into.

Once you get the right configuration and set the Utility settings properly, you can start experimenting. I've found that the clean sounds are brilliant--especially the accoustic simulator. The vintage sounds are very good. Blues sounds are good, but you'll need to tweak to add warmth. For metal, it's easy to get great smooth sounding distortion for good sounding single line playing ala Iron Maiden. Extreme thrash and death metal sounds are difficult to capture, even with extensive EQ tweaking. Still, I've developed some aggressive mid-scooped sounds that work well for Slayer riffs. Most pre-amp and distortion combos are extremely noisy, even with noise reduction and the limitor. Stick with Clean Twin preamp and your favorite distortion when thrashing.

The delay affects are great. The harminizer is good--mine tracks well. The flanger is good, although noisy. The SubEQ is good for adding character to the distortion. The wah blows; although you can fix this by having the EQ sweep with the wah, I just forgo the headache and use my Crybaby. I prefer the reverb on my Marshall; it's much warmer than the GT-3's. The preamp sounds are fairly good and fun to experiment with. The distortion is the tough factor to nail down--getting the "right" sound requires tweaking. Matching the distortion to the right preamp (or using a 5 chord setup to take advantave of your own preamp) is critical to getting a good sound.

Keep it simple and use only the effects you need. Otherwise you'll sound over-processed.

For a month and a half, it has stayed on the floor in my basement. No problems so far. It has a sturdy construction and a nice layout. My only concern: the expression pedal feels cheap compared to my Crybaby. I'm not sure how much abuse it will be able to withstand over the years.

I haven't called Boss. IMO, the manual is the first line of customer support--you don't have to call a help line if you can find the answer yourself. Unfortunately, the manual sucks unless you are initiated into the arcane world of frequency physics.

The bottom line: If you want variety and affordability, the GT-3 is a good option. It won't give you great sounds, just good ones. But, with a little patience and practice, you can roughly emulate a wide variety of styles from accoustic to metal. If you're looking for a single killer sound--e.g., the perfect death metal fury or country twang--go out and buy "best of breed" products. And if you're in the market for a no-hassle effects processor, check out other products like Line 6's POD. Otherwise, you'll find yourself using the same handful of patches on the GT-3 instead of taking advantage of its full breadth and diversity.

I've heard a rumor that Boss is discontinuing the GT-3. This isn't surprising given its schizophrenic nature. If mine was stolen, I'd probably take a look at the GT-6 and see if the GT-3's shortcomings have been addressed. The GT-6 has lots of knobs on it, so obviously Boss is listening to its customers.

Difficult compared to an amp. and guitar.

Sounds can be good, if thin compared to an amp.

Probably the best.

I swore up and down for a year that you needed to simply "TWEAK", "TWEAK", "TWEAK". Others say the same thing: "TWEAK", "TWEAK", "TWEAK". Infact, a year later, and after every practice session, and every gig, I would go home with it, and "TWEAK", "TWEAK", "TWEAK". Now I'm tired of "TWEAK", "TWEAK", "TWEAKING"! I tweaked my frackin' tits off for almost a whole year! Yeah, it sounded "ok". Yeah, it's cheaper than an expensive amp. But, after 22+ years of playing guitar, and owning just about everything commercially made, I splurged and decided to support the American economy by purchasing a new Mesa Rectifier combo. Shite! I wish I'd done that before I bought all those Marshalls and racks of crap a while back. Now, I will never need to "TWEAK", "TWEAK", 'TWEAK" again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

May seem hard at first but it took me an hour to figure out modifications without looking at the manual.

Anything you find wrong with the sound of GT-3 give you can be fixed. This pedal will not do everything for you; you have to experiment a lot to get your sound right. Don't use effects that you don't need, don't use it only because it's there. If you don't need it, don't use it! Using several effects at the same time does not necessarily mean that it will make your sound better. People complaining about the wah are dumb. The factory wah presets are weak but you can make it sound like a crybaby. Try changing the order of the effects, change levels, modify your distortion, turn off other effects, etc. Believe me, this is an awesome pedal if it's in the right hands. Don't give up on it...EXPERIMENT! Use your head! Talk to other users! Read the manual! Check postings on the web! This pedal is AWESOME

Reliable.

Haven't dealt with Boss / Roland yet.

This pedal is intelligent and only will only work with intelligent users.

A pain in the ass to use in real applications like practice and live performance, in that, you have to go with whatever you sounds you created at home, and then just go with them. Otherwise, for actual operation, it'll obviously cover your switching needs wonderfully.

I mainly use a Les Paul and US Strat. A couple of things I hated about the GT-3 was that in 8 months I could not get rid of a distorted sound from the acoustic sim. Whenever I came close, the volume would be too low. Also, when using the neck pickup on my Les Paul, the distortion sounds would just sound overly compressed- like the input was being overloaded or something. I could never solve that one either. Generally, the sounds are "ok". I say "ok" because, though they really don't sound like the amp's they try to model, they still sound far better than any plain old boss pedal out there. It served me well for a while using three sounds: clean/dirty/metal. It's a better option than dumping your hard-earned cash on a Marshall amp these days. Infact, the GT-3 would immediately be my second choice after a real all-tube high-quality amp, because you can use the EQ's and stuff to approximate the sounds you need, where you can't do that with just an amp. One problem with programmable stuff generally, is that you can sit home and spend hours getting your "ultimate" tone, but then when you take to different rooms like practice and live shows, the sound changes because of the room, etc. This happens with all amps, but in the case of amps, you can simply turn around an make adjustments quickly. You cannot, however, adjust a floor processor for 10 minutes in the middle of a set every time.

About as reliable as these floor boxes come. Tough!

N/A

I play modern and classic rock in a covers band. This unit served me well in the FX return of a 30 watt Marshall combo into a Fender 4x12. The unit sounded pretty good and never failed me. However, I found it to be too thin sounding over-all, and it would always get the higher pitched squealy feedback sounds, rather than real nice warm feedback. So, I sold it and bought the best amp made today: the Mesa Rect-O-Verb. I highly recommend Mesa for serious tone. Yeah- they're expensive, but you'll never need another amp again. The GT-3 is a great unit, but for me there was just too much dicking around on the floor with it.

Straight out of the box this is useless. If you know your stuff when it comes to tweaking the settings, you will be just fine. DO NOT LOSE YOUR MANUAL! And, for all you guys out there just like me... Just read it. You won't get a good sound out of it until you read just about every word of it. There are so many parameters to tweak that it is mind boggling. But on the other hand, that is good. If you want a specific sound, you can get it. You just have to knwo what you are doing. The manual jumps around a bit, but it is useful. No upgrades have been performed on this unit yet, I bought it new 2 months ago. Switching, copying, and modifying patches is simple once you get to know it. The master volume knob is helpful, but even more importantly is the master volume on each effect, as well as internally. I Turned the Master volume all the way up, then turned down the patch volumes. This is much easier to maintain.

It gets a great sound, if, like I said you play with it for hours. The noise suppressor is not top notch, but I used a DOD gate pedal before the gt-3 to suppress it all. A lot of the effects are useless, but what do you expect when you have this many. I would have been happy if it just had distortion, chorus, phaser and autowah. That's just me. I am using this with a Randall Commander RB-120 Head, and 2 Crate Fullsized 4x12 cabs as a stack. 2 Fender strats and a cort CL-200. I never use the wah on the gt-3. It sucks. I use my old faithful crybaby GCB-95 pedal. All the guitars sound good thought the unit, with the humbucker pickup only. The others sound muddy. They sound that way with any amp though. The COSM stuff only sounds good through the headphnes or direct recordings. Not good through an amp.

This is built like a tank, I would not want to purposely drop it or smash it, but if it happened, I would trust it still operates. I know 2 other people with these units and thiers have stood up to a lot. One of the guitar players for another band that opened for us spilled a beer all over it and just tipped it over and drained it out, wiped it off and started jammin. I would trust it without a backup, but I am a moron.

I called them on another unit that I had, they were most helpful. No service was needed, but support was cool.

I play hard rock, all original. It would work for just about anyone once you toy with it for a while. I have been playing for 10 years now, and this is the best unit I have found for what I want. If it were stolen, I would hunt down and kill whoever did it, then buy two more with the insurance money and give one to my other guitarist. My favorite feature is the sturdy construction. The thing that I hate is the long waiting period when you lose power or shut it off and turn it back on. Kind of like booting up. I wish that it had a gate rather than a noise suppressor, maybe just both. I also wish that the tuner would calibrate down to 430 cents. Just my preference.

I'm sure I could put my mind to it, but I only want about three very high-quality sounds. The amp does two, and from my limited toying about, this one probably does the third, but is just way too much trouble for what it's worth.

I run a '74 hardtail strat through a Mesa/Boogie DC-5. The gain channel is great and I don't see myself adding / subtracting. So I don't like the fact that the GT-3 doesn't truly bypass. It's probably great for a cheaper amp, though.

In my experience it was quite noisy on any setting that required a preamp gain, but my experience isn't extensive.

The effects are fine but since I only want a couple I think I'll go find myself some stomp boxes instead.

I think my favourite artists use insanely more expensive version of these so I won't even grace that question!

I wouldn't use it at a gig at all really

NFI

If you live in Australia (particularly Sydney) and you're after one of these, it's in pristine conditions since I've only taken it out of the box once or twice. It has its manual and power supply etc. Make me an offer in an email. Sorry to the HC staff if this ad is a bad thing!

At first I found the GT-3 very difficult to work with-"Too many buttons"-but after spending some time with the unit and skimming the manual (typically diificult to get through--there are "unofficial" manuals printed by user groups that are very easy to navigate)-After I got a little more familiar with it I found it easy to edit--presets are hit-and-miss, but are good jumping-off points-I used to have an ME-5 so I was familiar with how the pedal operated. There are still lots of tricks and shortcuts I don't understand, but it is a very deep unit.

I'm partial to stompboxes and am somewhat purist as to gear...I use a Deluxe American Standard Strat w/Lace Sensors (OK, I'm not THAT purist) a Les Paul Studio and an old Jazzmaster (the most underrated guitar ever) through a Fender Blues DeVille...I tried the recommended setting of using the loop chain and the midrange control but reverted to the standard setup--setting the global to "line/headphones" really DOES make a difference. I also play solo acoustic, and this unit REALLY shines for that--It's clean sounds are tremendous, as are the phasing, delay, and chorus (which I almost never use) the wah is ok, but tremolo is actually great!, especially the ability to change speeds via the pedal. Using the pedal to change rate, depth, sounds, etc. is a great feature-Plate reverb is nice-I think the preamps are generally ok and the distortions, when tweaked, can do some nice things--the unit does change dramatically according to the huitat and it is hard to get consistent levels and I still have not exploited the pedal enough to do it justice. I miss the ability to go "on/off" like a stompbokx but don't miss all the cords! Harmonizer/Synth sounds are too pristine and "cheesy" and track poorly, but there are enough bells and whistles to make it fun and, in a studio setting, useful--the GT also can be a bit raspy for recording, but the overall sound quality is so much better than earlier multi-boxes

It's built like (fill in cliche that means indestructible) It needs tweaking according to equipment and room and sometimes the levels really seem off. It is better for subtle goosing of sounds rather than the guitarist becoming too dependent on it--I'm still riding the fence on it for live performance, but again it depends on how dependent you are on it and how much of a tweaker you are--I'm not one.

I called BOSS to get a manual and asked a couple of questions about the unit and they were very helpful and prompt.