Boss OC-3 Super Octave

Theres a dial for the direct signal, first and second octave below and mode switch. Little bit of a tweakers pedal but didnt take too long to get what I wanted out of it. I knew the sound I wanted, hadn't owned one of these before. Opted for the OC-3 rather than the OC-2 purely because its a newer model...may have been a bad choice? we'll see.

ok, for live shows I use:
JCM800 lead 50 watt stack, boss L50 volume, OC-3, Marshall Jackhammer (mainly for boost during solos), vintage ibanez delay, vintage ibanez dual chorus, cry baby - then either a les paul BFG or a musicman SUB. I run the effects through the loop rather than the front of the amp. All pedals are powered with a gator power brick. Pedal seems to work fine where it is, only had it a few days. Below the 5th fret the tracking is pretty off but the manual warns of that. I dont use the 2 octave below but have threatened my bass player with it!!! As with most octave pedals if you expect to play chords your a flaming galah, the drive setting is pretty cool, but I only use the first octave slightly just to give me a few more tonal options and it seems fine, struggles a bit with tracking if you want to play at warp speed but if your clean and you know what your doing get one. Good fun and who seriously doesn't need another pedal!!!

well its boss and they seem sturdy enough to take down an elephant without chipping the paint. I'm more worried about my power supply pussing out.

not sure. wouldn't go to them anyway, suppot your local music shops.

Ok, I'm a muso by trade. Teach it for bread and butter and play for a bit extra. We play mostly rock covers like foo fighters, pearl jam, metallica etc etc. Otherwise I like TRYING to emulate guys like petrucci, satriani, Brett Garsed (Aussie guy, youtube him he shreds). I'm classically trained so I have a semi-decent ear and this pedal does its job. Some limitations like the tracking below 5th and not keeping up with shredding but theres plenty of higher end pedals that can handle that whereas I'd prefer to slow down hold a few nice long bends and save a few hungie $$$!!!

Pedal is used in Poly mode to add bass to electric and acoustic guitar, the range control allows you to filter out higher notes and just trigger the octave effect from the lower strings. Very easy to set up although the manual is not too clear on the capabilities of the Poly setting.

Sound is good - very good if you route the direct and effect outputs to different mixer channels. The octave signal does have a few high frequency noises but these can be tuned out to a great extent by e.q. The effect out sound can be further improved by compression and by routing it to a dedicated bass amp. Noise level is low.

Usual Boss compact build quality, no probs so far.

n/a

Not perfect but very effective for filling out the sound of one guitar and a lot cheaper/simpler than a GR synth set up. Used for classic rock, blues etc. when playing with a drummer. I play fingerstyle on electric so can usually pick out a simple bass line on 5th and 6th string whilst playing chords or lead lines on the other 4 strings. My set up is Taylor 210E/JJ Jewel solid with EMG's into the Boss OC-3, Digitech Vocalist2, Digitech Eric Clapton, Digitech Jimi Hendrix, Digitech RP-150 into a mackie desk. Aux out to Marshall Lead/Bass 20 2x10 combo and homemade 12" cab with 150 watt power amp for keyboard and OC-3 derived bass.

This unit, as with most boss single stomp boxes, is very easy to become familiar with. There are 4 pots that control the amount of wet/dry signal and the type of octave effect to use. The great thing about the unit is that you can use it with a nice clean octave effect or you can select the drive mode and add a fuzzy distortion to the signal. You also have the option to switch between mono and polyphonic so single notes sound great but whole chords can be played without the effect going insane. The manual is simple but helpful with more than enough info to get you started. You have an input for guitar and one for bass with outputs for your amp and direct out to a PA or mixer etc.

The sound quality is very good. It has quite a convincing analogue sound with very low noise. It wont destroy your beloved guitar tone unless you want it to. I noticed that the Monophonic mode sounds better even though you are limited to single notes it has a fuller more powerful sound. If you are trying to simply fatten your guitar sound the Polyphonic option is great on middle settings as it give a harmonic chord sound.

Its made of metal and its made by Boss so it seems to stand up to some real abuse. I have dropped it, kicked it, stamped on it and almost crushed it with my Cab, it still works and the pots are all still attached. The on/off switch is firm and feels springy under your foot so you know you've stomped on it. Battery life is quite short as this pedal is a little on the hungry side, you'll be swapping batteries every few gigs. If you have a power supply, plug it in!

Never had to use them. So no opinion on that.

I play mostly Sludge and Ambient rock/metal, a rather unusual mix of spacey delayed guitars and stoner echoes with a massive slice of down tempo overdriven insanity! I use a Les Paul and an SG with a Peavey Valve King 100 all tube amp and a formidable chain of effects (Octave, Delay, Overdrive, EQ, Noise gate, Tuner and volume pedal) And my guitars always stay in a rather low Open B tuning. If this pedal were lost or stolen I would buy another the next day! I love its sound and construction and it is one of the better pedals of this type out there. It helps in the creative process as you can get some rather weird sounds out of it as well as subtle over(under) tones. If you, like me, are the only guitarist in the band then a weapon such as the Octave should be strongly considered as it instantly widens the sound and adds depth.

it's pretty straight forwards when you tweak for a few minutes

i just traded the oc-2 for the oc-3,
it tracks a tiny bit better (okay stuff on the low E string isn't great)
but it works for 5th chords which other octavers never/rarely do

i don't think you can say anything is different in the 'audible' field from the oc-2

it does as much as any octaver could,maybe a bit more

-to compare it to a whammy pedal...
a whammy pedal does give you a more unbroken tone/sound
(the oc-3 has a 'digital warble' on long notes)
BUT a whammy pedal can't do chords and they track slower than your playing.the oc-3 tracks faster than a whammy pedal.
you either go with an oc-3's faster tracking and warbling or a whammy pedal's slower tracking that is smoother.

i don't care that i can get overdrive from this effect,it's a function i will hardly use.

all my Boss pedals have always been very good

i use several guiatrs with several combo's of amps and pedals and i've always been pleased with Boss stuff

never dealt w/ Boss,only retailers

alt. rock almost like indie without the shite singing (w/ experimental overtones guitar wise)

i use pedals for color and something like this can give you new ideas every now and again.

A little fiddly but reasonably straightforward. Have not gone too much into all its possibilities however; see below.

Please note I don't really like octavers and would not in the normal course of events, purchase one. However this came on semi permanant loan from a friend of mine who had come out of another of his brief musical periods (half my equipment has come from this source)along with a few other bits 'n'pieces. So I plugged it in out of curiosity and was pleasantly surprised. Now I can see why other people are not fans of it and basically if you want bass get one of those four string plonkers. However it does, in the drive setting, make FILTHY NOISE or should that be NOISY FILTH? Sounds like Satan moving his bowels. This is not yer nice creamy overdrive but hideous messy distortion, almost a little digital(?) sounding. As a purveyor of noise I like this but many will probably not. I have a valve amp which sweetens it a bit plus other more traditional and more pleasant effects so this makes an interesting contrast for me. The other settings can make some flatulent rumblings which can be useful as well. I have been using an old cheap keyboard from my teens recently and these help beef it up a bit.

Only gigged a couple of times with it but the usual cliches about BOSS gear would appear to apply here. That said my DD3 has developed a horrible ticking noise in its longest (and best) setting.

Normally never had to call them which is a good sign. My enquiry about the DD3 was unanswered though it was second hand and out of warranty but courtesy costs nothing does it?

This review is from a pure noise creation point of view. If you want to use it "properly" then I advise you to read all the other comments on this pedal first as many seem to have problems with it. As I said octavers are not really to my taste so to me it sounds much like any other octaver. There are times though when good taste gets in the way of art and that's when this little piggie gets to wallow. A handy little dirty weapon for those moments when as Samuel Jackson would have it "you positively have to kill every single mutha f**ker in the room".

It's pretty simple to use. The knobs do what they are labelled with. 3 modes, each one varied, nice and simple manual, just your average pedal, really.

Some of the sounds you can get are a bit weird. My favourite mode by miles is the 'Drive' mode. It's too cool for school. You can get some awesome Muse-esque sounds out of it, such as the Hysteria intro- which is what I mainly use it for. Unfortunately, you'd be better off with a Whammy for bass lines. The tracking, whilst better than my old OC-2, is not a patch on a good Whammy. The poly setting is also a bit crap, to be honest. Not what BOSS make you expect it to be, I'll say that now.

Buy it purely for the 'Drive' sound.

It's definitely reliable. I like it.

Not dealt with them, don't plan to.

If you want something that will emulate a bass guitar, then buy a bass guitar. You're never going to get an accurate representation from a ??90 pedal. If you want a cool little toy to mess about with, get this pedal. The Drive setting is hours of fun, and is worth it if you pick it up for a song secondhand. Otherwise, leave it. I bought mine new in 2003, and I still enjoy using it- never considered selling. Just think carefully before you buy.

When you press the pedal to turn it off, the "check" light does not turn off as in my Boss OS-2. It stays on. There is no visual indication of the pedals state.

The pedal has 3 modes, and the knobs that does not control the mode have very different meanings depending on the mode. Further more they are not labled so it is easy to see the meaning in a given mode. You have to know it.

My setup is a Stagg electric violin => this pedal => a 15W Marchall combo with distortion circuit.

In two of the pedals tree modes, it can only octavize one tone at the same time. So if I by accident hits another string, it will wobble between the two notes in a very wired way, like it cannot decide which tone to use. For this reason these two modes are unuseable to me.

The final mode, poly, can play many tones at the same time, but unfortunally it cannot octavize the heigher tones, even with the proper knob all way up. My rule of thunb is to stay on the two lower strings, and everything is fine.

Even in the poly mode, the sound seems to be missing a lot of detail. When I just pick the strings, it sounds like an electric bass. And when I use the bow it sounds like an electric bass with a sustain pedal. When playing without distortion I definitely have to use other effects to give the sound some detail - with distortion I get an "evil machine" like sound (on the two lower strings).

2 out of 3 modes are unuseable for anybody that does not want to think of the pedal all the time. The sound is there, and with no or low noice, but is not convincing. I might be OK for certain special uses, but not for this price.

Using it for Bass, it took a little bit of messing around with it before i could get a sound that i liked. if you're looking for plug and play, this is not the peal for you.

i'm suing it with a Fender precision lite jazz bass (both J and P pick-ups), and running it thru a Hartke amp and 15". The sound quality is good at most of the register, however it does lack something on the bottom end, it can be a little too muddy if not adjusted properly. I was a little upset that it didn't do the job of the OC-2, but i found that this has it's own perks. The poly seems to work good for me, but it's dependent on the drive, tewak it and you'll get a good sound. If you're expecting a miracle, look elsewhere, but that is not to say that this is not a good pedal, you just have to take your time with it.

Roland has never let me down yet!!!

never had to deal with them

Overall, i'm not depending on it for "my sound," it's a great tool that is used when needed and it does the job well. I do a lot of production work and this allowed me to get that chunky dark sound that i wanted. I got mine super cheap because my cousin worked at the store. I would definately recomend this for Bass players, especially if you're looking for a unique sound, but you must be patient and have a good ear to get the most out of this.

Easy to setup and use. Settings are straightforward, manual is basic - you must play with settings too understand what they do.

I started with setting recommended by Jeff www.jfrocks.com. Knob 1 - Level 1/4 - 1/3, Oct 1 10% up Oct 2 0 -2% up, Mode Poly.

Since I use it for thickening, I changed my settings to Level Knob 1 - Level 3/4 - 1/3, Oct 1 3/4 up Oct 2 1/4, Mode Poly.

New...but these pedals are reliable.

Didnt have to call them.

I play hard rock, alternative 80s metal.
Playing on and off for 15 years.
Does what I want it to do...thickens riffs.

This unit is self explanatory, otherwise there comes a nice manual with it. It is NOT easy to get a good sound out of it, but can be done. It's a tricky pony, you should tweak around a little.

I use this device in a band sometimes for replacing our bass player. I menaged to get a good sound out of it; on the "poly" setting. It tracks pretty good, much better than the OC-2 imho.
I use it on the neck humbucker of my Gibson Les Paul; don't know how it would behave on singlecoils.
It is not noisy at all.
It's a nice toy for giving your sound deeper tone. And great on clean, not so good distorted...but it has a drive option, which also isn't bad.
It's a good try, but will never replace a good bass player :)

Like any other Boos pedal. Good quality.

Never dealt with them.

I play Rock, punk and ska for over 15 years now. It's a nice device.
Better than the OC-2. I haven't had the chance to compare it to the EBS Octabass, which should also be good.
Give it a try, a decide for yourself.

Easy to use.
Just turn the knobs to put in the desired amount of each level.
Could be easier i guess cos you have to turn guitar level down while turning octave up if you dont want all overall level to increase.

At first i thought yeh this is amazing, i used it to do low metal stuff by putting in some more bass end to the chords.

Then i tried to play bass lines on it in the same octave as a bass. Sounded a bit rubish. Had to fiddle with amp a fair bit. It will never sound write on a low wattage amp with small diameter cones.
I did get a nice sound with my 12" cones. Sounds pretty good for higher bass lines, however it makes a weird noise on open string, 1st, 2nd and 3rd frets on the low E when holding a note for a long time. It kind of bouces up for a moment before bouncing down. the sound dosent even slide up to it then down again, it just changes it really weird.

This makes it a bit rubbish for some stuff. Although works fine for fast bass lines or slightly higher ones.

This can be avoided by playing an octave higher on guitar and going to the OC2 mode, but this doesnt sound as true.

Im giving it a seven cos i know alot of people will want it for bass, which it works fantsatically for with a bit of fiddling, except for the low notes on the e string. If you are using it like i do for sick chords it gets a nine. If bass lines without low notes on e string a 7. If with low notes it gets a 5.
That averages 7.

Its a boss.

never dealt with them.

Good for what i need it for.
I only can compare it next to digital versions on multi effects pedals, which ALL have the same problem.
I am unsure of any other alternatives which work without the weird bounce in octaves.

Fairly straightforward....

In my experience, dreadful! Read what others say - it fails to track accurately, resulting in a mushy mess! Avoid at all cost - I did!

Expect it to be reliable, like all Boss/Roland products, but didn't own it long enough to know.

No comments to add...

My view - a waste of space!

Too easy. Match your output, bring in any amount of Octave you want, stomp on and away you go! Best OC model yet.

Tracking is much better that any OC2 whether it be Japanese made or otherwise. I think the tone is better too.
No noise at all from this baby but it does suck batteries so get yourself a power supply.
Nuno uses one, what more do you need to know.

It's a Boss.
Other than the speed with which it eats up battery power it's great. Get a power supply as i said because i have had mine die halfway through a gig with a new battery.

Roland are always great. (If you ever need them)

Everytime i step on this baby, I am lost for words as the audience are. Jaws hit the ground and on one occasion I think i hit the brown note!

The predecessor OC-2 is much better soundwise. I compared them. Even the bypass sound is better with the OC-2. Boss seems to use cheaper input buffer amplifiers now.
(but of course the signal tracking is not so stable with the OC-2. I don't mind this too much.)
The OC-2 also needs very little power (4mA): A battery lasts 'eternally' - if you don't forget to unplug !-)

Buy the OC-2 from ebay.

The user interface is trivial, but the sounds are terrible. It is therefore not easy to get a good sound out of it.

I have used the unit with many different high-end guitars, and with many different high-end amplifiers, but it is simply not possible to get a decent octave effect out of this pedal. It has severe problems tracking the pitch, and the result is a messed-up, unpleasant noise like random octave sound.

Boss is in general great, but something has gone terribly wrong with the project leading to an intended polyphonic octaver. So, one cannot depend on the OC-3, if octave effects is what you're after.

I never dealt with customer support.

I play hard rock and avantgarde art rock, and other octavers I own perform great (also the Boss OC-2 sounds great compared to the OC-3!).

I've got this and the OC-2 and recently A/b'ed them. Bascically, they both have there shortcomings. I'd say that overall the Oc-3 is not as good as the Oc-2 in any way except that the tracking is somewhat more stable but it's still far from flawless. Maybe by the OC-6 they'll fix that. Babysteps.

Oc-2 is the better pedal in the tone dept. It cuts through a mix better and has a brighter more natural tone. This thing sounds really compressed and dark. It also hase more bass and it can get farty really fast. I don't turn the Oct. 1 knob over 12:00 on the dial. It does track decent though, better than the Oc-2. You can strike a note, let it ring and you generally will not hear it warble. My biggest problem is that it's muddy sounding. I Think of it as having a low mid like a mesa as compared to a high mid like a marshall would. That's the best analogy I can think of. Also, when you go to shut it off there is a weird glitch that happens where it is not a smooth transition at all if you want to swithc out of the Octave sound for some chords. The Oc-2 does not do that and it can be switched on the fly without any problems. I hate this kinda of stuff and I can't believe boss would let it go like that. People who don't do fast tonal transitions may not be bothered by it but I like to switch the effect on real quick for a thick octave line and it's impossible to get out cleanly. Oh and did I say it gets buried in a band setting. Big trouble there. OC-2 kicks this things ass all over the place there too.

Top notch

Don't bother

I love boss and have a bunch of there pedals but they have a bad habit of not improving upon past models in all there lines. If they could of reproduced the tone of the OC-2 but with better stability and none of that glitch crap when you go to shut it off it would be a success. Instead it's to dark and bassy for fast lines and it fights with your bass player too much in this regard. OC-2 is brighter and rides above the bass more. Also this Poly mode crap is a gimmick. You can't paly any notes that aren't in a specified range. So this is basically boss being a bunch of douche bags and teasing you. Make hte whole fucking thing Poly and then you'd have a real product. They have to give you one small improvement at a time so you buy next years model. Pathetic. I'll stick with the OC-2 Boss thanks for nothing.

As soon as i brought it i felt yes another great boss pedal to add to my colection but as the moment i plugged it in, it was only noise some notes you would get the octave others you wouldnt it was terible to try and get a good sound after a couple of hours fighting qwith this thinhg ive given upand its ready to go back to the shop

im using this with a fender stratocaster with a seymore dunkan humbucker on the bridge. The new poly octave is dredfall it wolks on 1/3 of the nech and any high it just crackles and u get no octave sound at all i found that this pedal dosent work well with other effects like a delay or overdrive you can simply use the octaver, this is a great downfall because i could get that sound that i really wanted from it. i wanted to get them heavy riffs and things like that with a really kicky bass. All i got was crumbles and crackles if i played more than 1 note at a time

Boss are Amazing ive never had a problem with them untill now

I say to not go near this pedal its a discrace ive benn playing for quite along time now i do like things to sound good and this certanly dosent. the manual was completly useless it didnt even explain what each nob did very well. it took me hours to make sence of it all....... Ahh Boss you really messed this one up

Good sounds were easy to find before reading the manual, but I wasn't always clear what each knob was actually doing. The manual cleared everything up and I was able to dial in useful sounds quickly.

I use a 4-string Fender Jazz bass (Signature Series - Geddy Lee) and a 4-string Music Man Bongo with two humbucking pick-ups. Amp is SVT Classic through Ampeg SVT 410HLF. The signal hits a BOSS tuner and a BOSS Compression Sustainer before it hits the OC-3.

As others here have pointed out, the effect is worthless below the E string 5th fret, but that's not what I need it for anyways.

I had my Jazz with me at the store. There I discovered that if I played and held a sustained note on the 5th fret C on the G string, the unit had difficulty processing the signal, and after 3/4 second it oscillated between what sounded to me to be the same note at different octaves. It was not a pleasant sound. The same thing happened to a lesser degree a semi-tone higher and a semi-tone lower. I tried the same notes on/around the 10th fret of the D string, but the problem did not occur there. The Guitar Center guy switched out the unit for another one, but we had the same problem. Then we tried another bass (a Fender P-bass, I think), and we had exactly the same results. This happened in all three modes, except poly when the third knob was set so that the effect was not "on" for that tone. I purchased the unit despite the flaw, knowing that I would have to work around it (i.e., not play that note at that spot at all, or if I do, don't sustain it long enough for the oscillations to begin).

At home, I reduced the problem somewhat by preceding the OC-3 with my compression sustainer, and totally eliminated it - with or without the sustainer - by using my Bongo. The manual does acknowledge that the effect is more stable with humbucking pick-ups than with single coil, and also when used in conjunction with a compressor.

Overall though the latency is good and the tone is true. My wife and I did a test where I alternated between (a) effect off and simultaneously holding down an E octave (7th & 9th frets of A and G strings), and (b) effect on and playing the 9th fret E on the G string. She's no audiophile, but she couldn't tell the difference. To me the difference was barely discernible but negligible. Cool.

I have other BOSS effects and know their dependability. This one will get stolen long before it breaks.

Never had to use it.

For what I need, it gets the job done. It's a bummer about how I have to play around the flaw when using my Jazz bass, but other than that, it's a good effect. I'm using it to "fill out" the sound a bit on some songs that the original artists use a 5-string on. True, it's not the same thing as playing a 5 string, but it is a cool tone and fills out the band's bottom end sound nicely on those songs (examples: Audioslave's "Show Me How to Live", and especially nice on Maroon 5's "This Love").

very easy... didn't need the manual; straight out the box, plugged it in, had a great sound in minutes.

set-up: Musicman Stingray 5 - TU2 tuner pedal - OC3 - Warwick Quad 6 thru a 411 Pro cabinet.

For a bassist wanting either a fusion solo-sound or a wonderful warm bottom-end boost for that peak moment playing live this pedal is perfect. This pedal comes into its own through a massive stage rig, I have been doing festivals and outdoor stages recently and kicking in this pedal (on polyphonic setting with a fairly balanced level of natural tone and octave) is earthshaking without drowning out other frequencies. Had nothing but praise from keys and guitar-players and several appreciative comments from the sound-guy.

I have had no problems with noise with this unit. The tracking is good on bass; like most octave pedals you get a useful clean warm octave sound only from a 5th fret A upwards. This pedal is excellent, feeling the strength you are hitting the note, sounds great on fade-in notes (endings etc), 'popped' notes and slapped lines as long as they are played accurately and do not ring harmonics.

Haven't used the distortion sound, I would rather drive the clean octave with a separate unit.

If you are looking for a straightforward mid-range low octave boost this is the one: I A-B'd it with an EBS Octabass, an old OC2, and a couple of obscure octave pedals in the shop with a passive jazz bass and it was clearly the warmest and most 'true' sound, as well as being the only one that tracked consistently throughout the trial.

The poly setting does not register the very high tones right up the top of the neck - worth knowing if you're gonna be soloing - stick to the OC2 setting. Poly setting better tracking for normal pop playing. Only gonna be an issue for fusion and jazzers.

Its a boss, you could kick this box around happily forever and it won't break.

haven't dealt with boss.

For a great low boost for pop gigs this is a great octave unit for a bass player's set-up. Not so good for crazy soloing up the top of the neck but the tone of this thing on the middle fret notes is superb thru a big amp and PA - blows people away.
Would buy another straight away if it was stolen - for those who wanna keep it simple and just stick a straightforward octave under their sound this is the best that I have tried in the shops and it has stood up to big outdoor gigs and being battered about on the road.
Now I have this unit it is going to be part of my set-up for good. Nothing but encouragement and positive feedback from other musicians, audience-members and soundcrew about the pedal.

Very easy to figure out and quickly get great sounds. 4 simple knobs. I never even opened the manual.

Sounds great! The kicker for this unit is the polyphonic setting. It's worth the price paid, and it's 100% of the reason you should buy the OC-3 instead of the OC-2. Anyone who says the polyphonic setting is no good is obviously not using it for the designed purpose. What an awesome way to add low-end to your sound without adding an octave to every note played! Excellent!!!! My only minor gripe is that sometime the lowest notes (low-E string) are a little bit warbley - but it's not bad unless you're mixing the effected notes way up in the mix. Not to mention, all octave units I've ever used have the same problem.

Yes - very rugged all-metal construction. Boss pedals have looked the same for 20+ years for a good reason!

Haven't had to deal with them - ever!

I've been playing for about 25 years. I play in a Christian Praise band in front of about 300 + people every Sunday. I can't afford to have problems as the church services run on a tight schedule! I hve too much gear to list, but this part of my set-up is definitely worth the price paid.

easy to use, and even easier to take it back to where I purchased it from. Nothing complicated here to figure out, except for why I can't get it to affect higher pitched notes. If I'm playing a riff that involves anything on the high E or the B string, I get no 'octave' effect.

Not noisy, but inconsistant. It doesn't seem to track all of the notes - the higher notes in particular. Bye Bye....
I love my boss tuner - it's a tank and has become an indespensible component on my pedalboard. I have used boss delays, chorus and overdrives extensively in the past, and think they are a great 'bang for the buck'. But this pedal has issues. Next...

Built quality is fine - it's more of a design issue to me. Unreliable in the sense that it fucks up every time. Not what I have the time or inclination to bother with at a gig.

I just wrote it off as a bad idea and returned the pedal after three days of tweaking. never gigged with it. why bother the good people at Boss customer support when I could just return it and go on with my life!

I didn't try it in the store, but the idea was to fatten up some licks and riffs. I already have a Boss EQ pedal, which I now use as a low end boost. I punch it in and out as needed. True,it's not an octave, but a low end boost works fine for me.

Gravy train, Took me ten minutes to figure out all the knobs uses. Anyone that doesn't understand this pedal is a complete moron. The 3 modes; Drive (adds distortion to 1 octave down mix), OC-2 (knobs control direct sound, 1 octave down, and 2 octave down volumes), and Poly mode (1 octave down, but a range button to control how high the octave effect works, to make chords sound cleaner) are all quite easy and usable.

Setup Ibanez AR guitar> Boss Oc-3> Boss DD-6> Line 6 FM4> Boss MT-2> Line 6 MM4> Line 6 DL4 > Peavey XLR head> B52 300w cab

The quality rivals The famous Digitech Whammy pedal. My Whammy Pedal broke and needed a replacement.Although the Whammy pedal does many other things, the Oc-3 has the best octave sound. The Oc-3 lets you control the levels of the octave effect. Thw whammy pedal doesn't allow that.

The chords sounds a lot better then the whammy pedal, the poly mode makes the chords sound cleaner by cutting off the octave effect on the higher registers and keeping the bass notes an octave down depending on how one sets the range.

Noise was a minimum, The only noise that annoyed me was when I was in Oc-2 mode and I turned the 2 octaves down knob all the way up and the other knobs down. The tracking sounded a hair off key.

The quality is superb and it makes my whole sound overall better. It sounds very clean when used with the MT-2 pedal. I can distictively hear the direct sound and the octave effect.

Whammy pedal broke , because the input jacks were made of plastic. The Oc-3 is made by BOSS what else can I say.

I would buy this pedal if it were stolen. Its my favorite pedal now, it beats the whammy pedal for the best octave sound and a little easier on the wallet. I like the fact that the thing is not going to break on me in the middle of a set. This pedal gave me instant inspiration. It make syour sound a lot fatter, but cleaner, especially useful if you are the only guitar player in the band. I love all the modes, I wish there were an easier way of switching between modes w/o having to bend down but I suppose all pedals are like that. Now if only Line 6 can make a pedal like this!!!

Very easy to use! The Drive and OC-2 modes are fairly straight forward, but the manual gives some explanation about the polyphonic mode. You can just twiddle knobs and get a good sound without reading the manual. I didn't even bother with the sample settings... I found 'my sound' almost instantly.

My signal chain: bass~Fulltone Bassdrive~OC-3~GE-B7~CE-2~DD-5~amp

I am very pleased with how this unit sounds. I mainly bought it for the Drive+octave mode. It thickens up the sound quite nicely, and the distortion/overdrive combined with the octave sounds awesome. The regular -1 octave effect works wonderfully as well. OC-2 mode is just plain sick! Kinda overkill for bass, but it might be fun with guitar.

The Polyphonic mode doesn't seem to track very well at all for bass, so I'm interested to hear it on guitar. I doubt I'll ever use the Poly mode for bass, unless I'm in the mood to experiment.

I've only had the unit for a few days, but it is a Boss product, so I assume it's bullet proof like all of their other pedals. I think my CE-2 Chorus is from 1979-80, and it is still running strong!

Haven't had to deal with them yet.

I've been playing bass for about 11 years. I now own 6 Boss pedals, and they are reliable as hell! I bought this pedal to thicken up some parts of my songs, and it sounds exactly how I figured it would sound. The Drive mode rules! No foot piano for me! If something ever happened to this pedal, I would definitely buy another one. It does exactly what I need it to do, its easy to operate, and it sounds great. Good stuff woman.

I mean there are only 4 knobs... I use it for 2 sounds... bass sim, and then to get the octave effect... (no bass player creates a problem...) so... I spent 5 minutes figuring out which settings I liked and PRESTO!!!

I give an 8 because the only setting that is worthwhile is the poly. with that said the poly kicks ass and I have heard no problems with the tracking... I would rather spend 100 bucks on this that 300 on the EH POG, besides, EH stuff isn't really my fav.

boss=good

never needed em'

for what I need it is great... I use it to record a simulated bass, while not sounding a lot like a bass, it does a good job at giving an interesting sound... if you like the deftones, it is a good pedal... if you are looking for les claypools tone, forget it... it is all about the use...

Knobs are easy once you get used to them, but not completely intuitive without checking the manual: Direct-adjusts the level of your guitar/bass signal in; Octave 1-adjusts the level out *one* octave below notes played; Octave 2-same, but adjusts the level of notes *two* octaves below; Range-different things for each of the three settings. Then the knob to select which setting you want. Manual is great...and necessary since it tells you which modes (OC2 & Drive) can only handle one note at a time and which (Polyphonic) will let you play chords. Sample settings they give don't wow me, but will get you started twiddling knobs. I found it easy to get the sound I wanted within just a few minutes: pick the mode you want, then tweak its sound.

I bought this primarily for use on acoustic gigs to get the bass lines heard on my CD & fill out my sound. So, for me, Polyphonic Mode rocks. With a Taylor 410CE, a compressor directly before the OC-3 helps even out and give a good signal to the OC-3. Good since the OC-3 is a bit finicky about signal that goes into it in spitting out a good bass sound on the other end. The OC-2 mode isn't terribly useful for me, since it can only handle you playing one note at a time. Drive mode has the same liability, although it might make for some interesting sounds when recording, especially when paired with other effects. On its own, Drive mode is reminiscent of funky 80s synth sounds or maybe the guitar part from the Beatles' "Think For Yourself".

With my electric guitar, the OC-3 can better handle the signal directly into it. I really love the fact that you can set the point at which (in Polyphonic mode) the octave below cuts out. As a solo performer, that mode does exactly what I bought it for - play bass with my solo guitar.

Overall, it feels like they tried to make this pedal a "jack of all octave below trades" and, as a result, it does none of the modes particularly wonderfully all on its own. But there's enough to work with to get a great sound.

This pedal is my second OC-3. I had my first one for all of three days. Why? It was a complete lemon. You plugged it in and it sounded like complete and total crap in any mode or configuration. Clearly, someone else thought so, too, since when I got it home there was packaging & the manual missing. However, I returned it to Guitar Center & they gave me a replacement with absolutely no hassle whatsoever.

I think the person below who was going to sell their pedal "to some boss fanboy on ebay" also got one that was a lemon. His experience sounds exactly like mine with the first pedal. I went back to replace it only because I had *heard* someone use it in concert exactly the way I wanted to and knew that the pedal could sound great. Plus, the one I tried extensively in the store sounded great. Otherwise, I would have been sorely disappointed and thought this pedal was nothing but an expensive doorstop.

So, if you get yours home & it sounds like crap, return it for a new one. If you're getting it used, I would not buy it sight unseen & untried. It is clearly a finicky pedal and if you get a lemon used, you're screwed.

Other than that, it's a Boss. Built like a tank. Good luck breaking it short of opening it up and actively pouring an entire six-pack into its innards.

N/A

I play a variety of stuff on a variety of instruments, but, as I said, bought this pedal for solo acoustic work to give myself a bass line. Jury's still out on how well it does onstage and whether I'd buy one again or whether it is disappointing in practice.

I wish that the OC2 & Drive modes could handle more than one note at a time. Or, barring that, that I could switch between the modes onstage without having to bend down & twiddle with knobs. Oh, and some QUALITY CONTROL before they leave the factory would apparently be nice.

So far, I love the sound and the way it gives me more options for sounds in live performance. If that changes, you can be sure you'll hear from me.

Drive Mode: very simple to get a great sound out of it.....use the bass-Input for guitar and you'll have a great tube-overdrive at the output....you can go direct into the mixer WITHOUT speaker-emulation...it works pretty good without harshness.....awesome!

OC2-Mode: the same as the OC2.....very simple to use!

Poly-Mode: the Range-Knob is a bit tricky.....but after a few tryouts you'll get it how it works...

As i said in the "Ease to use"......great sound, even when you use it as an overdrive-pedal for recording (no kidding)
Superfast tracking, no noise.....just the poly-mode is a bit strange...but its fun! It works....2 notes at the same time

Build like a tank.....Boss Quality!

i play the OC3 in front of my Peavey Classic 50 amp with my Gibson ES-347 guitar......or use it as a recording-preamp (the bass-input for guitar!!!) together with my T-Rex CompNova compression-pedal straight into my MOTU 828mk2 Audio Interface.......its a killer-pedal!!!

Pretty simple... i only use it for a nice fat bass overdrive - unlike other overdrive pedals this one doesnt destroy all of the bass and knock up the treble - the manual gives rather shitty settings though

I find that the louder the amp gets, the nicer the sound is.... doesnt work too well when practising through a crappy peavey 20watt but it sounds sweet through my yamaha115b

yeh, im happy with it... i can rely on it and i can also rely without it if it were to mess me about on stage

It takes a while to get used and the key reason to my hesitance at first was because i walked into the store prepared to buy an ME50b but changed my mind and bought the octave... i felt i didnt need a multi that just makes random noises and has a shit load of delays which though sounding awsome are very unpractical - im still a bit iffy bout the decision not 2 purchase the me50b but im happy with what i got. best solution for a nice bass overdrive!

i love this thing! YOU CAN HAVE YOUR BASS SOUNDS ON ONLY THE 5TH AND 6TH STRINGS OF YOUR GUITAR!!! just set the range when in poly mode. i play it in stereo thru my DD 20 (read my review in the Boss DD 20 reviews). it sounds FANTASTIC when you put bass on the right/guitar on the left. this box is an EXCELLENT signal splitter!

i haven't heard any noise in my setup. OC 2 can get eric johnson's octave sounds at the the end of "High Landrons' pretty good. i haven't tried that with the OC 3 yet, but should think they're the same. i just go thru my DD 20 in stereo. i feel the OC 3's bass out might sound more thru some compression. then you'll sound like you have Double Trouble playing with you. just bought an adrenalinn II so will be using that with it soon.

it won't break. have you EVER broken a BOSS pedal? do you have agressive tendencies or something? they don't break that easy.

BOSS(in taiwan at least) are A holes. okay here's my beef with them. call me petty. first they ask me to be the demo guy for the GR 30 guitar synth. i did stuff with it that was off the graph. they just wanted me to strum some sounds and play really hokey stuff that didn't show HALF OF WHAT THAT WONDERFUL MACHINE IS CAPABLE OF!! i was running the bass sound on the 5th and 6th strings, had rhodes piano on the 4th thru 1st, and soloing "i can't tell me why on top'. it was B#$%in to say the least. i even found a way to make it play drum patterns but never got to try it. they replaced me with some one who does exactly what he is told.
then, at a music show i was playing keys at the korg booth and the bastards(BOSS) had the nerve to cut my amp down WITHOUT ASKING ME!! it wasn't even their booth for crying out loud!!the truth is BOSS, KORG, All of these damn companies are more interested in selling home music stuff.maybe the yuppies at their booth couldn't hear the beautifully crappy sound of that roland home piano they were trying to sell them, but if i had known that,i.e. TELL ME- (i'm a caring reasonable guy)- then i would have cut it down myself!!!!!

i play jazz and some funky semi jazz stuff. i'm not joe pass unfortunately and second world countries like TW only recognize joe pass style as being jazz. in fact i get to listen to joe's licks everytime i hear a jazz band here. repeated over and over, even played note for note, song after song.even read from a book! is that JAZZ?? i'm getting way off the subject with my upper thirties rants. overall this pedal great. it's a great faux bass pedal for the 5th and 6th strings, and is a great signal splitter.

Easy to get to grips with, although the three functions use one of the knobs in three different ways - so that takes a little thought.

I'm using a Fender Tele through the Boss CS-3 compressor, the OC-3 and then to a Valvestate Marshall. All that adds up to beasty bass from the added lower octaves. My major disappointement with this pedal was the awful, awful distorted mess you get as a result of playing several notes at once... even the 'poly' function is weak despite Boss' claims.

Solid metallic construction

N/A

This was a bit of an impulsive purchase on my part - and quite a pricey one at that... the results are ok, but at the back of my mind I know that its alot of cash to spend on a pedal thats 'OK' - again I stress that the garbled sound from anything as little as two simultaneous notes was an unexpected let down. My compressor greatly helps the sound quality though.

I principally bought this because of its polyphonic capability. Only when I read the instruction manual did I realize that the polyphonic mode cuts out at about the A note, 1st string, 5th fret. This happens quite suddenly and can be quite jarring if the bass sound is prominant in the mix, as the bass sound disappears almost entirely when going up only a few frets. This makes it useless for soloing in the polyphonic mode. I mention this in the "ease of use" category because one would have to kneel down and turn a knob, swicthing to OC-2 mode for solos (or have another pedal) making it very awkward to use. Other than that, the knobs are very straight forward.

The problem with the polyphonic mode overrides most other sound considerations. Also, I don't care much for the distortion sounds, but I didn't buy it for that.

Its too new to tell.

In short, Boss released this pedal too early. Maybe they will fix the polyphonic mode for the next model. But as it stands, this pedal is of little use in the polyphonic mode.

You step on it and turn the knobs. I have no idea how to get a great sound out of it because every sound I've gotten out of it was crap. The manual is pretty straight forward,

I'd be very embarassed to put my name on this product if I made it. If my company had made this, I'd fire the designers and destroy all the evidence. The only thing I can say that's positive about this petal is that it doesn't appear to suck tone when it's inactive in your chain. Lets cover what you get:

setting 1: overdrive octave. Thrill to the sound of tortured cat octave with a crappy sounding distortion that sounds like a 10 dollar arion petal.

setting 2: OC-2 mode. Thrill to the sound of one octave lower that doesn't sound too bad, but another octave below that, that sounds like a electronic whale fart synthesizer. Oh, and you can only play ONE note at a time.

setting 3: Polyphonic Octave mode. Thrill to polyphonic octaves that DON'T FRIGGIN WORK RIGHT, and sound like crap. Be amazed when you try to run the dirty channel of your amplifier and it sounds even worse. Be really amazed when you try to hit more than 3 strings at the same time and it completely breaks up because it can't keep up. Be thrilled by how the octave effect simply goes away with no warning sometimes, especially during high fret work no matter how you have the third knob set. Don't even bother trying the dirty channel on your amp. The disgusting "OC-3 can't keep up" sound is ten times worse. Even when it's being distorted by expensive mullards. You can't polish a turd Beavis.

I can depend on it to suck consistantly in the exact same way. I will NEVER gig with this. I'm sure I could pound nails into concrete with this thing then polish it to a high gloss shine with a sneeze but that doesn't change the fact it sounds like crap.

No idea, doesn't matter. I'm going to sell this thing to some boss fanboy on ebay.

Now, before the flood of: "dude, you just don't know what you are doing. It's something wrong with your guitar/amp/cables/grounding/settings/chain/parakeet" I spent a week trying to get good sounds out of this thing. It's not the only petal I own. In fact, almost everything else I have IS boss. I was convinced it was a problem with the pickup not being hot enough for the OC-3 to track it correctly. So I replaced the p90 with a hot dimarzio. No dice. I was sure it might be a tune issues. My tuner must be broken. Got a second tuner. No dice. Didn't matter where in the effects chain. Loop or straight in. No dice. How could a mighty boss petal suck so intently? It was none of those things. This petal sucks. In fact, a 60 dollar plastic Digitech RP50 absolutely PWN3D'd this petal. The RP50 did polyphonic octaves better than the OC-3, and it doesn't even claim to do them!. So save half your money and get an RP50. It runs circles around this piece of crap and COMES WITH AN A/C ADAPTER. For 110 bucks, you think Boss could include the adapter instead of charging 20 bucks for it separately yanno?

The End.

Just putted the OC3 in front of my chain in POLY-mode. Turned the knobs for about thirty seconds, and got the sound of my dreams.
The manual is well written, with even suggestions for certain settings.
I will not use them especially, because I know what I want, and as I said, I've got my setting (30 sec.) already. But very handy for those who don't want to invent the wheel again.

My setup Am. Fender Stratocaster, BOSS OC3, VOX wah, two IBANEZ TS9 Tube Screamers, LINE6 DL4, LINE6 MM4, MARSHALL 4140 COMBO 100W.
The POLY-MODE sounds really great! When you play cords, all the tones come extra one octave below with no extra weird noises. All sounds just perfect!
There is also a OCR2-MODE (like the excisting OC2) with sounds also great - here the exception that you can play one note at the time.
The same with the DRIVE-MODE, also this sounds ... great. You could sound like the late John Enthwisle or like Bill Wyman in the Rollings Stones-hit 1966? 'Have you seen your mother baby standing in the shadow?'.
Personally I won't use the DRIVE- and OCR2-MODE, because of the cord-possibility of the POLY-MODE. That's where I bought the OC3 for.
But I could imagine that other persons like to use the other settings as well.

BOSS-equipment? Build like a tank!

Never dealt with BOSS.
But their site www.bossus.com is great. You can even here excamples of the most FX-units.

I play melodic rock with influences of jazz, blues, fusion and funk for about 37 years.
If it were stolen or lost, I've got me another one YESTERDAY!
I tried an EBS-BASS-OCTAVER (a very good tool originaly for bass), but there was only the 'one note at a time-possibity' and it sounded not really good.
Then I tried the OC3, and it was heaven!
If you're looking for a CHORD-OCTAVER don't hesitate - just buy the )C3 - you won't regret it!

Pretty easy to get to grips with - most controls/settings are fairly self-explanatory.

Sound quality is not bad. I tried the OC-2 about 6 months before buying this pedal and to be honest, for the sounds I want to get, which are 1 & 2 octave below, when playing on the top 3 strings to fatten up riffs, the OC-2 would have been just as good (at almost half the price!!!). Poly mode is useful for blending the effect into a specific range, but the drive mode sounds a bit harsh and fizzy to me. Overall the pitch shifted sounds are a little bit 'lo-fi' which is probably great for certain styles, but dosn't encourage me to use it that much.

Owned loads of Boss stuff - only ever had one die on me.

Never tried them

Overall it gets a 'not bad'. It's not as versatile as it could be and the sounds aren't as transparent as I'd like. An octave up might help in the overall usefulness stakes.

I didn't buy this pedal. I tried it in the store for about 30 minutes, so my opinions are limited. I knew exactly which settings I was looking for and they took me a minute to find: polyphonic - octave 1 up - dry down, so as to play a guitar in the bass register. There was some variation with the drive but the pedal's limits were easy to discern within a few riffs.

I use small crappy amps as a matter of policy. Lots of them at once! I use an Epiphone semi-hollow body and I tried the same guitar in the store. It's loud and bassy. Even with the pickups at five I was driving it into indistinguishable warble at unpredictable moments below the A string and above high E. Five is my lucky number and I think if I were ever in a synth band that needed an 80's space bass sound this pedal would be fantastic. I tried the other settings for a few minutes. All three channels have unique and potentially diverse tones that I could see being a lot of fun for certain styles. It just didn't suit my needs.

What do they say about Boss pedals? I've got a DD-3 and a GU-7 in my junkpile... both sounded wonderful until I managed to crank a knob with my foot and snap off a piece of the circuit board underneath. Heavy feet I guess. One TU-2 chromatic tuner has been saving my life for 4 years though... no knobs!

N/A

I've played every style on guitar and bass for way too long. My bass got stolen and I needed to cover a few gigs very soon... and I'm poor. I did some research (this site is fantastic!) and thought this pedal might be able to give me live bass lines. If you stay cautious of it's tracking limits and you're not particular about tone (or you like hypercompressed tone in particular) this pedal is very versatile. If you want to push your sound somewhere spacy this pedal has alot of options. If you want to cover bass lines on a guitar it's very limited, too much so for me. So they showed me a Cort Steinberger license headless bodiless that was the same colour and played and sounded the same as my baby. For cheap. Woo hoo! Bass is more fun than guitar anyways. :-P

Easy as pie. poly mode, oc2 mode, oc-2 plus distortion. Getting the best sound out of the pedal does take a couple day of experimentation.

Something I now realise is strongly importaint is a humbucker. A high output pickup really makes the difference in poly mode. This thing absolutely thumps, and that is the best applicable word. I use a crappy squier thru the oc3 and a zoom606 into a sterio w/ a subwoofer. The subwoofer also makes a difference. Using a local h style low string pickup, power chords are a cinch.

A tank. No doubt i could repeatedly drop it, and it would prevail.

Although a litte warbly, it can take my low a to b string tuning full scale. I dont know of any other octave that can track a low A without rumbling white noise. Way better that oc-2, because its 10-20 dollars more with every thing the oc2 has plus poly and distortion. Un - freaking-paralelled sound for the $.

It's easy cause the sample settings are better than the ones you useally get wich are garbage...
And it took me les than an hour too get cool sounds.

I ask for christmas a oc-2 octaver but my mom mixed up and got the oc-3 and i defenitly do not regret!!
I would think the distortion mode would be crappy but it come i quit usefull.
the oc-2 mode is exactly like the boss oc-2.
and polyphonic mode is simply innovating.
the dist.mode sounds like audioslave:ratm or even CKY and black sabbath's paranoid solo wich everybody thout it was a ring modulator.( it was just distortion a lot of bass and octaver...)
the oc-2 mode is anithing that haves an boss oc-2 in it ( deftones...)
and the polyphonic mode is like joe satriani and shred...
it's good for blues ( my father's guitar player loved it check out www.elliottmurphy.com
and my bass player loved it so much he bauth one

Yes,
I can depend on it but it is not as "bullet proof as an mxr pedal" but though if you dont' use it has a bottle oppener it may last forever!!

never dealt with them

I play rosk music going from audioslave style too metallica or pantera killing spead metal.
but it doesent mean anything caus a bass player our a blues-man will love it just trie it before it is your tast and not mine that goaes first.

keep roching in a free world.

Three different modes. 'Drive' good for playing Audioslave/CKY style riffs. 'OC-2' mode for the two octave effect, takes some tweaking to get a good sound. 'Poly' mode, very good for playing arpeggios and using the E and A strings on your guitar for bass notes. I set the range knob to around 12 o clock for this.

Sounds great overall, sounds even better ran through a bass amp. If you split the output signal using two cables, the sounds don't really work seperately, best to keep them blended in my opinion. But it's good that you can seperate them in case you get the levels wrong. Sometimes the tracking gets confused (if you play the low e-string through the bridge pickup for example). I've played my basses through this as well, it can get muddy, so i try to restrict the range of the poly mode so that anything below the d-string doesnt get octaved.

Boss. Nuff said.

Boss. Nuff Said

I've had my eye on this pedal for ages, and I got mis-sold it for #55, when it should have been #90 (I think the guy in the shop confused it with the OC-2). That works out at around 82 bucks. You've got to know what you want, and what youre doing to get the most out of this pedal.

Well it's typical boss stomp box stuff: plug it in; fiddle with the knobs; find a sound you dig and play away to your heart's content.

First let me say, I'm coming at this one from the bass fraternity's point of view.

This is a major improvement on the old OC-2 and is certainly the best octave I've found for bass in the sensible end of the price scale. By a long way.

Like it's predecessor, this does exactly what it says on the tin for the most part. The dedicated bass input has helped with the tracking in OC-2 mode somewhat, though the lower register is still a little warbled when trying to play long sustained notes. For short snappy lines however, the tracking is much improved even down to the low B on my 5 string, assuming you're fingering and damping is accurate enough to stop multiple notes ringing at the same time.

The 2nd octave is pretty useless for us low-enders except perhaps when pissing off your guitarist by playing a better widdly solo than he can. Even then though, I'm not sure it's the most usable sound out there.

The drive function is a nice addition, but as a bass player you'll likely never use it, here's why.

Polyphonic mode. Turn it on, turn it up. Like I just did about two weeks into ownership.

Incredibly stable tracking and no warbling is the result. Play chords? Fatter than a tub of lard.

Read the manual, as I did after about two weeks, and it turns out that I'd have known this from the start! Also, roll off the top end and if you're blessed with more than one pick-up, favour the neck pick-up and things get even better.

Rock solid sub-octave funk. It loves finger style and slapping sounds awesome. It handles hammer-ons and pull-offs with ease and you can slide around without a hitch. I imagine a fretless would sound unbelievably creamy.

Pick players and anyone who's into that really hard attacking bass sound perhaps won't get as much out of it as others without some serious EQ-ing post effect, but then again they probably wouldn't be all that interested in added low end to begin with.

It's BOSS, what more need be said? Built like a tank (though my fish didn't get on so well in there).

No opinion here other than to say they're well known for excellent customer service, though I've never had the need to speak to them.

Been playing for an age and have finally found a keeper octave effect (tried 'em all in the sub-#200 bracket). It's solid and dependable and, once I actually read how to get the best out of it instead of just fannying about on my own, it produces a fabulously stable octave effect.

I play mainly pop, funk, R&B stuff, so this is a welcome addition to allow me to duplicate some of those synth lines in a live setting. It would work well in the rock world too, but perhaps not as vital an effect.

The only thing which would make it better, would be the ability to produce a different tone, but for what it is, and what I intend to use it for, it's perfect

The OC-3 is, like most BOSS pedals, quite easy to use. With 4 knobs: Direct Level, Octive Level, Range and Mode, it's quite easy to get around. Changing modes will sometimes change with a knob does, but anyone with half a memory left can remember the changes with no problem.

Yeah, it's polyphonic... but sensitive. In the low end it warbles... in the high end, it's almost non-existant. Any more then 3 notes, and you risk going out, noticably. Add verb or delay, and everyone will hear it, including the drunks not even listening.

Speaking of the high end being non-existant, that's my biggest beef with this pedal. Try playing on the high E string and at about the 8th - 10th fret, you lose your octive, and the sound becomes direct only. The OC-2 did not do this, and continued to give you the effect up until the 22nd (or 24th) fret. For a lead, this sounds aweful as you are moving down the neck from a higher position. This pedal simply can't handle high end.

I called Roland to check to see if this was "normal" since the OC-2 does not respond this way. The tech support guy did, in fact, say his model there acted the same way and gave no high end effect. I could almost hear him wanting to say "This pedal doesn't do the job as well as it should" but working for the company, I am sure he couldn't do it. But I could hear it in his voice.

With that aside, the distortion effect it gives IS kind of neat, harking back to the 80's with old fashioned analog proccessors. I almost feel like I should be playing some new wave song when I have the OC-3 working on it's distortion mode. I enjoyed it quite a bit! But only for something to play with... it would never fit my style of classic rock and blues.

The saving grace of this pedal is it's OC-2 mode. It's much smoother then the OC-2, and not as picky. It's holds tighter and longer then the OC-2. But, as with the limitations of the OC-2, when in OC-2 mode, it's not polyphonic.

As with most Boss pedals, there is no need to even comment.

The tech support guy was very helpful and friendly when I called to check if the high end was SUPPOSED to be dry.

More then likely, this pedal is going back. I bought it for the polyphonic effect, and well, since it will not function when playing on the higher end, it fails to complete it's job.

Staying in mid range, it's fine... low end, warble, high end non-existant. Save your money and wait for better polyphonic technology to come out.

If you want a Boss octive pedal, stick with the OC-2!

If you are familiar with how an octave pedal works, and have the proper setup to make the most of it, getting a good sound is as easy as any stompbox I've used. Controls and jacks are clearly marked on the face of the pedal. All my previous Boss pedals have been used or demo units, so this is the first time I've seen a Boss manual. The documentation is quite good, never getting overly technical but also never skipping the essentials. There's really not much more you could ask for.

My band does not have a bassist, so I have handled the recording of bass parts, but wanted the capability to double bass lines on my guitar when playing live. I run my guitar (Jackson or Hamer with humbuckers) into a Morley ABY footswitch, which then splits to an OC-3 Super Octave on one channel and my other effects on the other channel, thus sending a clean signal through the OC-3 to a bass amp. I own both a Peavey TNT 80 and a Randall RB-60, plus a number of guitar amps.

Having already used a DOD Octoplus and the pitch shifter on my ART Xtreme, I knew the weaknesses of most octave pedals: poor note tracking with high output pickups, additional tracking problems with fast picking or string bends, and inability to play chords. The Boss OC-2 suffered from these problems, but the OC-3's polyphonic mode seemed worth checking out. For the most part, the Super Octave lives up to the hype. Adjusting the range in polyphonic mode provides nearly flawless tracking, equally capable of string bends, chugging death metal palm mutes on the low E string, and fast lead runs higher up the fretboard. Although chords are muddy, they are possible. Anything lost in the translation is about what you would expect from a bass amp attempting to mimic parts normally left to the higher frequencies of a guitar amp. The manual recommends using low output pickups, namely single coils, but that isn't practical for me, so I'm willing to compromise tone somewhat in the interest of convenience. An experienced bassist (which I am) will know the difference between an octave effect and an actual bass, but my primary concern is to get the most prominent bass lines of our recorded material duplicated live. So far, I've only tested the OC-3 at practice, but it projects the low end the way I want.

As such, the OC-3 fits my needs perfectly, but its shortcomings will be obvious for someone using it without an A/B switch or in another mode. As the manual warns, the Octave 2 and Drive modes are monophonic, and will not tolerate chords. I tested the double-octave effect, and found that low E tracking was no better than the OC-2 and other pedals. Without using my ABY pedal, I experienced a split-second delay when kicking in the OC-3, followed by an audible pop, definitely a problem if you were running your entire signal through the Super Octave. I did not experiment with Drive mode.

For doubling bass lines in conjunction with a bass amp and switching pedal, the OC-3 is a major improvement over other octave stompboxes, thanks to the Polyphonic mode. For the simple thickening of guitar tones, there are probably better alternatives. I'll rate the pedal highly according to my needs, but it may not be right for everyone.

I bought a used Boss DD-2 in 1992, and am still using it with no problems, with several other Boss purchases between then and now, so I have high expectations for the OC-3. I can't rate it fairly now without "real world" use, but I have high hopes.

I've never dealt directly with Boss. I've never needed to.

I play lead guitar in a thrash/death metal band, along the lines of The Haunted and Darkane, and played bass in the studio when recording our demo. Previously, I have played guitar and bass in numerous other bands, for 14 years or so. I have a custom pedalboard with all sorts of effects, plus a number of amps and instruments, and am very picky when it comes to getting exactly the features I want in any piece of equipment. I waited eagerly for the OC-3 Super Octave to hit the shelves, because there really was no good alternative in the same price range. Needless to say, it buries the DOD Octoplus that I was using to "get by". The polyphonic capabilities make all the difference in the world, and had that function been any less than what Boss promised, I would have returned this pedal the very next day.

For anyone who needs to double bass lines on a guitar, I highly recommend the OC-3, as you aren't going to find another product in this price range that comes close. As a guitar-only octave effect, it shares the same flaws as the competition.

It requires a bit of playing around, but you can get some very usable sounds pretty quickly. There are four knobs (three change parameters and one selects the mode).

The manual is very good and explains how one can split the direct output (e.g. to feed a guitar amp) and the octave output (to feed to a bass amp).

I'm using a Mex Strat with Texas specials on the neck and middle positions and a Seymour Duncan lil '59er on the bridge. I usually play in the neck position. I'm using a blackfaced '68 Fender Bassman (thank you, Mike Kropotkin) for the direct sound and a early '70s Kustom 100 watt bass amp and cabinet (in red tuck and roll).

The direct sound is pretty good and the octave sound is pretty good as long as you play single strings. It doesn't sound like my Jazz Bass, but it's still usable. Jack White (of The White Stripes) uses a similar sort of rig (a Digitech Whammy) to get his bass guitar sound while still getting a good guitar sound.

The manual (I'm an INTP and HATE manuals, but I'm still glad I read it) gives some good tips to avoid excessive noise.

So far, so good. It's a Boss, I don't expect problems.

Never had to deal with them. Never want to.

For what it is, it's great. No one in their right mind who understands sound will expect this to make you sound like you're playing a bass guitar, but it gives you a lot of bottom and lets you make some pretty interesting sounds.