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.

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.

I play a variety of styles and focus on original material ranging from retro-ish rock, pop, twang and R&B to jazz and acoustic. The GT-3 is very versatile and useful, but isn't for everyone. I'm finding that the less reliant I am on the unit, the more I like it-It does offer many sounds and options and after awhile is easy to use, but I still miss my boxes and find it hard to place the sounds in a useful order. It's been good for recording and ok for live-I do recommend using additional boxes for overdrive and wah, and a bypass pedal for straight amp sounds. The GT does clean very well and offers lots of flexibility, and it helps if you have a background in computers or video/audio editing, since it is a different way of thinking.

It's so easy that even a 7-year-old could figure it out! VERY EASY!!!

1. CRAP!!!! Unless you play METAL with awful fuzz-sounds that screams and makes a lot of noise, this unit ain't for you... I play for the most rock'n roll and funk.... Truly, this is the worst multieffect I've ever tried... The older GX-700 was much better.... And still is... I used GT-3 through a Roland Jazz Chorus 120, and the GT-3 stole the punch and the brightness.... I hated it!

Though it crap, its a BOSS!!! You can always trust BOSS! I have a DS-2, BF-2, DD-3 and others, and I've never had problems!!!! Trust BOSS!!

Never had to contact them!

I basicly play funk and rock'n roll and play a Fender Squier Strat with delta-tone pickups, a Ibanez Talman with lipstick and the GT-3 steels the wellknown stratsound. TERRIBLE!!! It can be stolen, because I sold it after a month!

This thing is extremely easy to use. Just press the setting you want to modify and spin the knob thing till you find the setting you want. However, getting a good distortion sound out of it is VERY difficult at first. If you don't know how to edit compression and eq's then it is very hard to get a decent distorted sound.

I play metal, prog rock, punk, and hardcore stuff. I use a BC Rich Warlock Neck-Thru with an EMG-81 in the bridge, and a stock Epi Les Paul Special, ->GT-3, -> '78 Fender Twin Reverb. To start out, the clean sounds are quite good and are fairly easy to get a good sound out of compared to the distortions. The acoustic simulator is excellent. I don't know how to describe the clean sound it makes, but all I know is that it kicks a whole lot of ass. The effects are all very good (chorus, flanger, delay, etc.) except for the wah which is merely average until you figure out how to make the wah sound good. The reverb and noise gate are great. The reverb sounds excellent and is better than a lot of amps out there (still doesn't touch the twin's reverb though). The noise supressor takes out a lot of the uneccesary noise and helps out quite a bit when u r playin heavy music. The eq is excellent. It helps out quite a bit when trying to dial in a good sound when using any type of effect, especially wah sounds. The distortions r the only thing that really makes this thing a pain in the ass. Not only do they not sound good compared to a Boogie or Marshall at first, but they lack warmth and are very processed sounding. Until discovering the pre-eq (which is great, by the way) there was no way to get any warmth out of this unit. Once I discovered that second eq and had the distortion compressed, then it came alive. It sounds great for dropped tunings as well as standard tunings.

Made out of steel.

It is a very good unit once you figure out how to use it and use it well.

Everyone says it's tough to learn this beast...I disagree. The first day I had it, I was building patches. There are 3 editing modes: EZ Edit, which lets you adjust only a few different parameters, Quick Settings, in which you choose from factory settings for individual effects, and the full edit mode in which you do everything. I used EZ Edit once and Quick Presets very sparingly...not hard to learn at all.
Getting a decent sound is easy if you spend 30 minutes or so tweaking...but that's nothing when you consider all the effects and parameters on this thing.

I use this with Gibson and Epiphone SGs into the front end on a Crate GFX-212 with a Marshall 1960B (GT-3 on Guitar Amp: Stack setting). The only noise comes from the high-gain effects, especially the amp models. (my main model is Metal Drive which is a Recto).
If you tweak it enough, you can make almost anything sound good.
I got Metallica (old and new), Sabbath, Alice in Chains, AC/DC and Godsmack sounds no problem...
Overall, the chorus stands out as best. My only complaint is with the harmonizer...doesn't always track well.

This thing looks rugged enough...feels rugged enough...I hear the only weak spot is the output knob-if you kick it just right, say bye-bye.

I play metal (Metallica/Godsmack/Megadeth/etc.) and it works fine for me. If someone stole this, I would steal it back and bash the guy's head in with it. (metal cases do come in handy) I compared this to the RP2000 and there was no comparison...all I wish it had was a better-tracking harmonizer...

I am Lurid on the HC forums.

It took me a while to get good sounds out of it, but then again, I had only started playing when I got the thing. But it is extremely easy to edit patches. All you have to do is click the effect you want, and then use the arrow keys to move from one setting to the next.

This is the only effect pedal that I use. I use basically two guitars with this thing. They are some kind of Washburn hollow-body and a Fender reissue 1968 Stratocaster. The acoustic simulator sounds great, but I don't use it because I have an acoustic. The wah is okay...not amazing or anything, but I think a lot of people are trying to have the wah do all of the work for them, without actually being good musicians. Most of the distortion sounds are pretty good. Some of them really aren't very useful though...like the fuzz, which sounds like a cheap guitar running through an overdriven 5-watt amp. I haven't much used the harmonizer with the guitar, but it rocks when you talk through it and just have a pitch-shifted sound!!! The slicer is a very useful effect too. Great delay and reverb both...of course, if anybody can make a bad reverb sound, that would shock me. Basically the thing rocks.

I have never had any problems with it. I have done a few gigs with it, never with a backup, and it has always worked fine.

I've never had the pleasure of dealing with them.

I play blues, hardcore modern rock, and a few other variations of those. This seems to suit those styles very well. When I play live, I just run it through a 15-watt Crate with a mic on it. I also record with it directly plugged into my computer's sound card. I intend to keep recording with it for a long while, but I may switch my live setup to some kind of distortion/wah combo pedal, as those are my main effects. One effect that has no use at all is the auto-riff.

The manual sucks bigtime, just the VERY basics.The usual fx are pretty good and u can tweak them to your own needs as there are so many parameters, but I think that even Kirk or James(the 2 dumbasses from metallica)could do this without a manual.The real problem is that there ain't shit about the complicated stuff like for instance how to assign a wah to a patch or call for example both "chorus and delay" with the press of ONE(=1) footswitch, those who have (had) it 'll probably know what the fuck I'm talkin' about.
So it pretty much sucks anyway as most people could handle chorus and the likes anyway, manual or No manual but the manual doesn't really provide CLEAR information about it's advanced features so.......

First of all this thing is a REAL TONESUCKER, because of the GT-3 I will probably never use digital stuff again.
The basic effect are good and (the wah is decent, no more, no less)so are the SFX but nothing really to write home about, but ok for the price I guess, a good point is u can use up to 13 at once and they're highly tweakable.
The amp modeller is very "so-so" and the distortion, while nice and smooth they TOTALLY FUCKIN' LACK warmth, T O N E and PP UU NN CC HH.
The noise gate is pretty good and helps the distortions clean up a bit but even then... Harmonizer, Reverb and Slow Gear are pretty cool although there's still something missing.
My advice : buy a strat plus while u still can and a DECENT AMP and THEN add QUALITY stompboxes as Fulltone, roger mayer ,H&K, electro-harmonix, etc NO BOSS, ZOOM, DIGITECH as they thin out the sound considerably and are meant for people still beginning or people who have shitty amps.(buy a better amp then I'd say then for the money but it's free world, whatever those fuckin' fundamentalist try anyway AMERICA, GOD BLESS YOU ALL).
The real problem with such mediocre FX's are the PUNCH that u can only get from QUALITY FX's or a good guitar and an even better amp(such as the new avt series by Marshall, Bandit from Peavey,....).
It just kill your tone.

The almigthy cliche; IT'S A BOSS !!!!!!!
I have owned it for a year and No problems, gig dependable, very well built

Never dealt with'em(I don't many people do as it's Boss), read the other reviews.

Play Blues and Metal(real metal such as maiden, nightwish, Pantera and so on) NO nu-metal bullshit or Metallica, and as far as blues is concerned I adore Albert King(the iceman),ZZtop...
I would never buy it again if it were to be stolen, but it can't 'cause i already sold the bastard for a Marshall AVT 100(=brilliant, the onboard Fx's here sound way better than that other motherfucker Gt-3 as they are only meant to color your sound a bit and let the REAL FUCKIN' warmth, tone and PP UU NN CC HH come trough, absolutely fuckin' brilliant)
I choose this one in the first place 'cause at the time I was a sucker for advertising haha but after 3 months or so i didn't use it anymore on a regular basis, AND I PLAYED A PEAVEY EXPRESS 112 at that time, WHAT THE FUCK DO U THINK THIS MEANS HEuh ?, I mean the amp sucked bigtime but still nailed the Gt-3 in terms of Inspiration,warmth, PP UU NN CC HH, BUT NOT TONE, that however doesn't mean that the Gt-3 has good tone(it sucks bigtime but the tone of my express 112 sucked even harder so...) and that 3 vs 1 so u understand.
Actually coming to think of it it the only reason while I still used it was because of the EQ, good job Boss!!!!
I'd like to share that if there's anyone out there who plans on buyin' this "junk" anywhere soon, wheter used or new, TEST IT thoroughly, go back home and play your guitar and amp totally free from other effects and then go back to test the Gt-3 and then see what u think as we musicians lose lots a money on bullshitgear and other....
Euhhhh Just don't buy it!!!!!!

Easy editing and if you cannot figure it out the manual has all you need it in.

Here's my set up:
Ibanez S1520BP with dual EMG-81's---->Shure UHF---->Vox 847 Wah
---->BOSS MT-2 Metal Zone---->BOSS EQ-20---->GT-3---->Digitech Whammy
---->Crate GFX 212 Plus. Not noisy at all....Gonna throw a noise suppression to kill the hum fom the Metall zone....but the unit is really quiet, The distotion on board sucks total ass for metal, but the reverb is good and so is the chorus, flanger, phaser, eq, preamps and all the other stuff.....The AUTO RIFF is usesless and so is the arpegiator.

No problems yet...been using it ever sence it came out.

N/A

I love this pedal. Is got so many different tones. It even have a microphone modeler that you can actually set how far you want the mic to be away from the cabinet. It has this thing called Auto-Riff that is absolutly USELESS!!!!

I use a gutted out Fender Strat Deluxe with a Seymore Duncan Single Coil Humbucker in the bridge and I just run the GT-3 through the effects return on the back of my Peavey Half Stack Classic 100 and I can get some cool lows, mids, and Highs!! The Flange on it its pretty noisy but its controlable with the volume pedal.

Its a little dificult to make your own stuff, but as for saving and maving effects around, its very simple.

Never had t deal with customer support

Ive been playing since 9th grade and I am now 22 and this is one of the coolest multi-effects processer out. Its KILLS the Digi-tech RP-7 (Which I hat anyways!!). The only other thing that I think compairs is the POD or POD PRO. The GT-3 is quite simpiler to operate though.

It is reasonably easy to get decent sounds out of this unit, especially if you are willing to tweek a little. I've notice a big difference in output levels when it comes to different pick-up configurations and/or guitars. I realize that there are obvious differences, but I have never seen them quite this pronounced in any one unit that I have used multiple guitars with. Odd. The manual is a typical Boss/Roland work of genius. I skimmed it once and it had all of the syntax clarity of a pre-school class with a collective case of Tourette's syndrome, just add naughty words. You eventually understand what the manual is referring to if you guess really well. If you have problems with this, get the video.

My set up is as follows: A Godin LGXT/Gibson Explorer w/GK-2 pickup/Rickenbacker 230 w/ GK-2 pickup into an Ernie Ball Volume pedal, a Danelectro Dan-O-Wah, A Danelectro Daddy-O Distortion into a Yamamha T-100 1x12 Tube Combo. I run the GT-3 in the effects loop with a Line 6 Delay modeler just after it. I also drive a Roland GR-33 Guitar synth throught the same amp. I route it a with a 6 channel Behringer micro mixing desk.The chorus/flange effects can be noisy even when the noise reduction is on. The effects are strong and clear. I primarily use the unit for time based effects like chorus/flange/reverb/delay. Some of the things like Auto-Wah and Slicer may make an appearance later.They are currently only good for making cheeky, random noises.

It is certainly built in a Brinks-Truck fashion. Most Boss/Roland stuff that I have owned has lasted forever with very few difficulties. I use at least once a week on a gig withouth a back-up. I make assumptions of reliability.

Website for Customer Support loads like molasses. Hope that the phone system works with greater vigor. Never had to upgrade and/or have repair.

It allows me to write comprehensive packages of patches for very specific applications. It is rock-solid and I would buy it again should it disappear. Maybe the GT-5 or GT-6. I play a weekly church gig, in one Celtic/Pop hybrid band, minor session work and some soundtrack recording.

This unit is pretty simple to use. All the effects have a corresponding button, and you can scroll through them very easily. Editing is simple, just use that circular scrolling device and you're set. Manual can guide you through with fairly no problems

I first used this thing into the back of my Fender Twin Reverb II's Return jack. I play a stock '78 Les Paul Custom Black beauty. I found the distortions to be extremely noisy. I get feedback most of the time. I tried using the distortions only, and then the preamp modelers alone, and then combinations of the two, but I still couldn't get a very good distortion tone. It sounded really tinny and thin, no beef or balls to it. I then plugged it into the front of my twin and it sounded a little better, but not much. I screwed with the eq for days, but couldn't find a satisfying setting. The other effects are allright. The chorus is good, the phaser is decent. Flanger works pretty well. I never use the harmonizer. The reverb sucks though, maybe cuz I only dig spring coil reverbs. This is a good effects unit for your delays, choruses, flanges, etc. Vibrato is kinda weak though, I hardly notice it's even on!!!! I tried this unit through a VHT power amp into a Marshall slant cab and it sounded alot better. But, still I thought the distortions were too processed sounding, not warm and natural at all.

I can definitely rely on this piece of gear. It's built very solidly and it hasn't let me down yet. I don't think I need a back up with this.

Never dealt with them before.

I play Hard rock and blues mostly. I've been playin' for 12 years. I don't use alot of effects. All I need is distortion, overdrive, Wah, and Chorus. If this were lost or stolen, I would probably not get another one. I just got a SIB Varidrive pedal and that thing smokes!!! Also, the wah on this is not too responsive...I went back to my old Vox Wah. I would recommend this to players who need an arsenal of effects, but Don't use the distortion on it.

THIS UNIT IS FOR SALE....It is also not to bad...just read the instructions manual and it will take you right through it. I recommend going through it without the guitar on or plugged in first. Just sit down with the manual, the GT-3 and a cold beer and get to know the unit and how to move around, then plug in. Easy to edit patches. The manual does the job but it's not any great piece of work. Don't know firmware number but the unit is only 3 months old.

I used the GT-3 with a Marshall VS-102 100w 2-12 Combo, sitting on a Marshall 4-12 1/2 Stack. It was a little noisy on some of the heavy distortion settings. Effects are mostly strong enough to do the job but when you change from heavy distortion to say the acustic guiitar setting there is a big volume drop. This caused a problem for me. I would have to gain down the distortions patches to about 75% to have the volumes match when I changed to the acustic guitar simulator. Don't copy any artists guitar really, just work on my own sound. The distortion does not work well with my Marshall set-up. I can't explain it but it just does not do the job for me. This is a big problem to me. Other people told me it sounded great but I did not like it, therefore I am going to sell the unit. I'm going to post it on the for sale area so if your are interested drop me a line $275.00. Dallas/Fort Worth Area

Boss...bulletproof!

N/A

I play rock from the 50's to the 2000's Just about anything that use to be popular that doesn't suck today. I have been playing 16 years. I think the unit is a great unit it just did not do what I needed it to do. I did work with this unit for quite some time and it was just not working with my style of playing. That is not to say that it would not make someone very happy with their sound it just did not work for me.

It's not hard to figure out the basics of how to use it and program it. It's tedious though. It takes a little work to figure out how to edit things, but once you get it down it's pretty quick. Figuring out what all the settings do...well that's another story. I'm still 'discovering' things that I haven't ued yet.

IMO it depends on your need. The GT-3 has a lot to it. I think this is too complicated for live use - but I like simplicity. For home use it's the most outstanding practice/headphone "amp" I've used (although expensive for just that).

As with most multieffects units it's all over the map - some real nice, some not so nice, and some utterly useless. The effects side of things does a good job at all the basics - probably similar to the standard Boss pedals (although I've never owned any). Delay, Reverb, Chorus, Flange etc. are functional and work well. Some nice stereo effects too.

I've read some say the wah is weak. I find that there are so many settings that I can almost always find the sound that I need. Is it the "one" wah, well...no. But close enough for my purposes.

The synth type settings are pretty feeble IMO. tracking is ok at best, and the sounds aren't that strong. The slicer and auto apeggiator are next to useless from what I can tell.

I am not at all a fan of the overdrive/distortion and dirty preamp sounds. I've been through them all and tweaked and tweaked and tweaked and it just doesn't do much for me. Mostly pretty buzzy and raspy sounding without the real gut punch that you want from a high gain amp. Some of the clean preamp sounds are pretty nice. The Twin and the JC-120 preamps work well, although I still find that they need some 'help' from effects, which is not true of the real amps.

I like the GT-3 sounds best through headphones, but I do use the unit live with my cover band through either a Mesa Blue Angle or a Peavey Triumph PAG 60 (both 1x12s). I have tried the unit through the effects loops, having the amps preamp in the GT-3 ext loop, and directly in front of the amp and for me it works best going guitar->Gt-3->amp. Less monkeying around, and less cables. I just keep the overdrives and preamps off completely and use it for straight effects. It lets me mimick the sounds of just about anything I could want. With a little work I was even able to get a credible talk box sound by setting the Human Wah up properly.

One draw back is that it is very sensitive to different guitars, so the output volume can vary quite a bit. That's normally not a problem, but if I swap guitars at a gig some of the more complex effects setting simply won't work properly with one guitar or the other. Strange, but I've consistently found that to be a problem. Especially with the slow gear or swell type effects.

Seems solid, never had a problem.

never had a need for it.

Overall this unit is a lot of fun and has some very usable sounds in it. Buy a used one and I think you really get a lot for the money - even new it's worth it I think. For me it was a choice between a handful of boss-type effects and the GT-3. The GT-3 quickly becomes worth the price of admission.

If you're looking for that one or two killer effects I'd say look elsewhere. But if you're looking to get in the neighborhood of a bunch of effect (as those of us in cover bands so often need) than this may be your ticket.

Also look at the Digitech RP-2000 and korg (I forget the exact model). Zoom has a similar one too now. The RP-2000 is very similar with some effects better and some worse. I think they're out of production now so they may be cheaper.

JUST TO LET YOU GUYS KNOW THERE IS A PATCH ROM VERSION 1.03 OUT TO FIX A SLOW GEAR PROBLEM IN VERSION 1.02.
Ease of use is almost excellent. I wish they had a Win2k/Linux midi interface program for patches, but that's it.

Great sound quality. Some people knock the preamp but I wouldn't rule out their own equipment causing problems. I notice no buzzing worse then other effects nboards/processors. Come on guys for the money you could do a lot worse!

I haven't had problems with it in any manner....then again I don't have idiots slam dancing on it. Talking to the Roland techs, they said it's weak spot is the volume knob on the back. If it gets kicked in the knob it could be a gone'r. Other then that it has a fabulous warranty.

Just to say again, THERE IS A PATCH ROM VERSION 1.03 OUT TO FIX A SLOW GEAR PROBLEM IN VERSION 1.02. It's a screw up on Roland's part so they'll eat any cost. It took two weeks to get it back from the local Roland Tech...I was lonely and alone without this unit, I felt like I lost a friend. So when I got it back I celebrated by buying the Jem7VWH! GOOD GOD can I say what a freaking beautiful combo! I may never sleep again!

My style is 80's metal and anything Vai. I've been playing for 10+ years and this is the best board I've seen for the money. It can't be beat (literally this thing is tough). I've pulled every sound I can think of from Vaughn to Vai from this lovely creature and it was a hell of a lot cheaper then buying the individual effects or rack systems.

The thing's so easy to use I almost never had to refer to the manual. It's easy enough to browse through the presets, but it's when you get to edit your own sounds that you get the best surprise. Just a few clicks and a few turns of the knob and there you are, with killer, dreamlike, perfect sounds. The only reason I give it a 9 is because I had to check the manual a few times to be able to set the ctl and expression pedals properly, but, other than that, it's a child's game.

I use a crappy Peavy Rage 158 amp (15 watts, very very ugly sound), but I still get a very good sound out of this unit. If I plug in the phones, I instantly fall in a dream of sounds and melodies. All the effects sound good (albeit with a bit of tweaking), and even the distorsions / overdrives. Like someone said earlier, you just have to set the 'Your Setting' option to 'Line(Headphones)', even if you're plugged directly to an amp. If you don't do that, I admit the distorsions do sound crappy.

Anyhow, most of the presets suck and I probably never will use them in a gig or even just on rehersal, but you can make any sound you want out of it. I messed around with the od/ds and reverb, coupled with the expression and control pedals, and I can get killer sounds in a few simple clicks. Now, be sure you use those two pedals, else get a few cheaper stompboxes. The ctl pedal allows you to go from a clean to distorted sound (and back), without loosing the reverb or delay loop. If you just jump from an effect to another, the delay stops. But using this method, you can keep it ringing for hours and hours, which is what I like.

Also, the wah range might be a bit poor, but there's so many other things you can do with the expression pedal that you might as well forget about the wah. You can set it to trigger on/off effects, to raise the volume of any effect, from distorsions to chorus and delays, and it can work as the ctl pedal also. With a very high and tweaked-up reverb, you can get a kind of wind-blowing effect and you can make it come in just when you want it with the expression pedal. Pretty nice.

I've only had it for a couple of weeks, but had no problem with it so far. The thing seems built to last, unless maybe the expression pedal, which seems a litlle less tough than the rest.

Didn't have to deal with them yet, but such a big company as Roland should have steady custommer support.

I can get any sound I want from it and wouldn't want to change it for anything else, unless maybe the new GT-6 (not out yet, it was announced on July 21st), which has knobs for easier and quicker setting up.

It's quite easy to use and you can narrow the tone down to a pinpoint. Manual is great. All the info you need. Hard to get good sound out of the pre-amp. PRE-AMP SUCKS!

I use an Ibanez Jem 77FP w/ a Roland BC-60/310 Blues amp and it has hardly ever steered me wrong w/ clean sounds. Pre-amp is horrible. Too much buzz and tone makes me put down my guitar for weeks at a time. I now use the distortion on my amp and add in Overdrive. Much better. So much for ANTI-FEEDBACKER w/ this pre-amp. NOISIEST PREAMP EVER. The pre-amps distortion waves are being sliced at the top ends and it gives it a horrible skratchy sound.

I used to love my GT-3. It had incrediable tone all the way round but then one day pre-sets that I used to love were now my worst enimies. It totally 1-80'd on me and jacked itself to hell. Tone was lost and still is. I think some GT-3's are sold in medium condition and a few of us "buyer critics" get a good one but eventually (in my case 2 years) they shut down to crap medium. If it's in top of the line either you have no idea about tone or sound or you need to cherish it while it lasts. If yours is in medium crap condition then I'm sorry you didn't get to experience great tone at a low price.

Very nice and helpful. Still am not sure if their is a problem or not.

I like jazz, classic rock, blues, crazy Steve Vai/EVH rock and this unit doesn't quite provide enough. I've been playing for about 4 years now. I would sell it but I need something simple to play at everyday gigs and also Neal Schon uses one so we'll see. It has gotten in my way of making music. I'm going to go DigiTech 2120 or 2101 and switch signals between a power amp and an amp head. Can't wait. Good for beginners and it really depends if your're above beginner. Eventually I'll probably sell.