Boss OD-3

Very easy to use: 3 controls...drive for how much overdrive or gain,tone controls how much high end, and volume for how loud the effect is compared to when it's off.

The sounds are quite good. One of the advantages in my mind to pedal distortion as opposed to a patch on a multi-effect is that depending on guitar, amp, room, or how hard you're striking the strings that night,you can easily change the sound. Like other overdrives and distortion pedals, there is noise, particularly with single coil pickups, but the OD-3 is fairly quiet. It doesn't seem to favor Fender single coils, P-90s, or humbuckers. Lately I've been using a DeArmond M75T and a Gibson Les Paul Special with the OD-3 and other Boss effects thru a Vox AC-15 and a Ampeg Jet reissue. These amps are all tube, and run about 1/2 way up, so adding the OD-3 not only brings in Boss overdrive, but the volume boost makes the Vox and Ampeg add distortion of their own as well.

Bought this pedal used off a friend in 1983...it's still working fine.

Overall, I'd say this is a very nice unit, and compares to an Ibanez Tubescreamer. It it were lost or stolen, I'd probably buy another one, or maybe a Tubescreamer...the OD-3 does fit nicely in my Boss pedalboard. For classic rock, oldies, country, it's a good unit...for heavy metal, punk, etc., it might not be nasty enough (unless your amp is already dirty). Like a Tubesceamer, you can turn down your guitar volume and still get useable sounds, although it may not clean up enough to use all the time...but that's what the on-off pedal is for. I own other dist./od pedals like a Chandler tube driver, Boogie V-Twin, Pro-Co Rat, but the OD-3 gets used the most, partly because it fits in the pedalboard, and is easy to use,but it sounds good, too.

This is an easy pedal to get great overdrive out of. If you need the manual, you'd better stick with distortion pedals and big muddy humbuckers.

I play a US Strat into a little 25W solid state Fender practice amp. The amp has great clear Strat transmission, but the drive channel is flat and a little lifeless. This pedal doubled the usefulness of the amp. All solid state amps should have one of these included. The effect is completely transparent when desired but will repond to subtle changes in picking technique with a very musical, toneful, overdrive effect. It will provide as much "distortion" as I'll ever need. I flat out love this thing, and it might be the best guitar related toy I've ever bought. Since I got it I've been neglecting my Martin, and playing the Strat until my elbow gives out.

If I ever have a problem with anything that says Boss on it, it'll be the first time.

I like any good blues or rock that doesn't feature spandex, nipple piercing, musical incompetency, or excessive phony bullshit attitudes. This pedal is INDISPENSABLE to my style and equipment. It is NOT a distortion pedal. If you're not old enough to shave, you probably won't like it. It won't hide your mistakes like a distortion pedal, but it will give smooth punch and sustain to a really toneful guitar like a Strat. If you want to add about $300 to the sound of your amp, spend $70 on this pedal.

3 knobs--DUH!

Please read all of this:
When I first got, I set my amp (Marshall MKII), cranked all 3 knobs to 10, cut it on---IT SUCKED!!! Then after playing around with amp settings, pedal settings I found where this pedals mission--to use as a boost to a distorted sound, setting the amp with pre-amp full, master on 2 (this 50 watter is LOUD!) putting all knobs around 5 and using it as a solo boost--ROCK CITY. No loss of low end, no excessive coloration, just everything I like about Marshall amps, except MORE. The noise is less than I expected (but a slight amount present). I've never been much of an effects person, but I really like this pedal in this capacity. Using it into a clean amp seems to take out the bass and some lower midrange- but to boost an overdriven amp-YES!

The only Boss pedal I've owned is a GE-7 EQ. I've now had it for 14 years-it's been through total hell, and when I pull it out from the old milk crate, blow off the dust- IT STILL WORKS LIKE NEW. I believe that and all the other reviews say something about the company.

I play rock/alt/metal, I've been playing a long time. I bought this on a whim, and do not regret it. As I stated before, I'm not much of an effects person, but this will be part of my gigging set-up, to mainly use for a solo boost. I've heard about all these "boutique" , "clean boost", "transparent boost" ... I don't believe they could be any cleaner, or more transparent than this. I will try one out one day and let everyone know if the hype is real. But if you're like the sound of your amp, and wish it had more gain, I would recommend the OD-3. Use your ears-trust them more than someone elses words

It has 3 knobs, level, tone and drive, so it's pretty routine. One great thing about this pedal is that I don't think that there's a bad setting on it.

I use this with a Fender strat and a Fender amp. This is, by far, the best overdrive I've ever heard (barring a really good old overdrivin' amp). I went to the guitar store with the intention of buying an Ibanez TS-9, but I gave this thing a whirl and it sounded a great deal better for less money and more sturdy construction to boot. For a stompbox, it's surprisingly quiet. At low drive levels, it sounds like a Tubescreamer, but it actually has good bass response. At higher drive levels, you can get a lot more drive than you would out of most overdrive units. When combined with another distortion, be it another stompbox (I use a BOSS DS-1) or your amp's natural drive, this think can get surprisingly heavy.

I assure you that my BOSS pedals will be part of my estate someday.

Never had a BOSS go wrong, so I don't know.

I've seen this thing get compared to the Tubescreamer over and over again, and I don't think it's even a contest. I'm sure that when the Tubescreamer was first released, it was the best overdrive out there, just because it's lasted this long and been re-issued. However, something better has come along.

Another thing - why is it that all these people complain about effects "coloring their sound" and how they love effects to "sound transparent"? Aren't effect pedals supposed to affect your sound in some way or another?

These guys would probably love it if BOSS came out with the DN-1 Does Nothing pedal. It would feature no knobs and no footswitch for ease of use and would basically have the same effect on your sound that your guitar cable does. I'm sure it would get rave reviews..."Oh, it lets my TRUE great $15,000 Original 1786 Custom Les Paul with Pickups That Cost More Than My House sound come through...sure, it's a sad hunk of rotting wood with rust marks where the strings once were, but it sounds so sweet..."

didn't even need the manual to get killer tone. just remember either to bring lots of batteries or a 9v power supply (recommended)

relatively noise free, even at higher volumes.
i play a PRS standard 22 or a custom made SG (68....by j. rhyne) through a fender '65 twin reverb reissue. i've read the twin review saying that it's a one trick pony, and that's true, but not with this pedal. add an extension cab (closed back 2x12) and this pedal and you've got SLO tone without buying a 2500 dollar amp. great with tubes, but also gives a smooth sound with solid state amps (set to clean). i love the sound of warren haynes. trey anastasio and jimmy herring, and i get closer to those tones the more i tweak with this pedal. also gets that carlos santana tone with either guitar. sometimes too transparent with the twin, though. still looking for the watery quality of anastasio's tone, but working on a chorus that might do it? this pedal works well with a danelectro cool cat. with the PRS's single coil settings it's possible to match the tone of barry bailey (atlanta rhythm section) on his strat stuff

it's a boss for god's sake.

haven't needed it so far, so...

for blues based rock, southern music, and jam band tones ala gov't mule, allman bros., ARU, ARS, and lynyrd skynyrd, you can get any tone you want. brings modernity to the old tunes my band plays. i'd buy another one if this one breaks....unless boss makes an OD-4 with a slightly thicker sound.

Very easy to control. Has a volume (boost) knob, a tone knob, and a distortion level knob. Manual is simple but effective. Yellow is a great colour for a floor pedal - easy to spot down there in the dark. Takes a 9-volt battery, which is easy to install, and/or an external
power transformer. One thing I don't like is that the battery power is
engaged when you plug cable into the input jack, whether the effect is
switched on or not. I'm not sure why this is, but what could it have
cost to engineer this so as to avoid unnecessarily draining battery
power? The manual says that you may expect a battery to last up to
30 hours, depending on settings.

Just what I was looking for. I tried a BD-2 first (and reviewed it here) because everyone I talked to recommended it. The BD-2 filtered
out bass end and gave a grainy chunky distortion. I wanted boost and
smooth 'warm' distortion, which the OD-3 delivers without serious tone
filtering. I use it with a '58 Stratocaster (original pickups and
switches) and a newer Les Paul studio into a Fender Hotrod Deluxe (Sovtek tubes). If I want crunchy distortion I use the overdrive channel on the amp. The OD-3 gives me a generic effect to work with
and doesn't take away anything from the rest of my rig. I'm very happy
with it. The distortion is not super heavy even when maxed out, by the
way, but gives me the sizzle and boost I wanted. If really looking for
dominating dist, I combine it with the OD channel on the amp.

No problems at all to date, but after only a few months of use I
won't give a rating. Does impress me as being very solidly constructed. If it has a weak point it I'd expect it to be the
on/off switch inside, which is made of pastic or nylon.

No need yet.

I'm a professional cellist who loves to play electric guitar to bust loose, so my concept of 'tone' comes from a different place. I like Hendrix, Dimeola, Joni Mitchell, Ed Bickert, Billy Gibbons, Collin James, Clapton, swing, jazz, and play a lot of blues as well. I haven't gigged with electric guitar since the mid 70s, but may again. I wanted an overdrive that would give me the kind of sizzle that Al DiMeola gets on his "Tour De Force - Live" album, without tampering with the luscious sound of my Fender amp. I don't need really heavy distortion. The Boss OD-3 fits the bill perfectly. It does amplify hum from my Strat when set to full distortion and with the pedal's tone knob turned right up, but that could reasonably be expected. This is
the overdrive pedal I was looking for, and came at a very decent price
as well.

How hard can it be to use with 3 knobs?... level, drive, and tone. When using it for the first time, it will yield and excellent tone with all knobs at 12 o clock. This is a rather new overdrive box (I think 98).

I use this between a jackson kelly with dunkan design humbuckers, and a Fender Performer 1000. Great for adding some drive to that Fender Clean, very transparent and bluesy. SRV is not far away from this sucker. In the drive channel, I use it as a booster for sustain and width of tone. This is the only case where you will notice some noise. Overall it's a very quiet pedal with a realitiveley flat frequency responce.... it'll add some high-mids, but will also leave all of your bass there!!! That's something no other overdrive or distortion pedal has done.
Overall a very good sounding overdrive pedal. Better than tube-screamer, and certainly better than any other OD pedal from BOSS (in case you're deciding between Blues Driver or OD3, the OD3 offers more diversity and flexibility, while still sounding as tubelike as the Blues Driver).

I don't know, I have yet to drop it from a plane, but anything less than that, it has survived flawlessly. It's a BOSS!!

never done it

I play anything from jazz-country-progressive rock (a la Dream Theater). My setup (though limited and unexpensive) is now satifyingly complete. Along with my other Boss pedals (delay, flange, chorus) I can cover all the bases. Great thing about this sucker is, with level and tone set to 12 o clock, and drive to minimum on the clean channel of a fender amp, add some reverb and a little delay, and you start playing out of pure inspiration from the beatiful tone. It's that good. It actually helps you make music. It does what I want it to, acording to my pick attack and needs. Great tool, not just an overdrive one trick pony. It's an indispensable tool for any electric guitarist. Great because of it's simplicity, versatility, and frequency responce. I'm convinced it's the best overdrive pedal out there now... the tube screamer and such are old and overrated, not bad sounding, but limited and, lets face it, worth only for their vintage character not actual full tone and versatility.

Three knobs. Way simple. What more can you ask for.

I'm using a Fender Strat Plus with Dimarzio Virtual Vintage pickups in all positions. The amp I mainly use with the OD-3 is a Marshall Valvestate combo. The combo only has two channels which I'm running as clean and heavy rhythm. I needed a slightly dirty rock sound for some songs so I decided to try running the OD-3 on the clean channel. What do I think? Plain and simple, it's great. Not a 100% tube sound but close. It even has the same dynamics and feel. It goes from way clean to a dirty rock without any real noise. One important thing is that it doesn't mess with your tone when bypassed either. Great choice for a warm blues or rock sound. Definitely better than the other pedals out there claiming to have tube tone.

Don't expect any problems here. It's built like a tank.

Never had a problem with anything BOSS yet.

Get, use it and stop wasting money on all the other junk out there.

Three knobs: Level, tone and drive. I crank the drive, keep tone pretty low and the level stays somewhere around 1/3.

Manual is quite useless, but looks ok.

It sounds pretty good. There's a lot of bass in this yellow monster. The walls in my room are shaking whenever I use it. Smooth highs, a little compression. I was afraid it wuld sound just like my bluesdriver (which sounds great too)but the tone is quite different. More woody, i guess. Maybe cleaner.

I play a strat trough a rotovibe, jh-1 wah, bluesdriver, od-3 and a fz-3 fuzz plugged into a Fender DeVille 2x12. It sounds very good with wah or rotovibe.

..........

I dunno.

I mostly play blues, which is what this thing was build for. I read another review which said this thing could not be used for palmmuting.

Say what?

This pedal is heavier than a metalzone...
Tons of bass. Just crank your amp for some extra distortion.

3 knobs, could it be easier?

that's kind of funny, by itself, cranked, it's awfull, but, if you mix it with your amp distortion with the gain on about 4, turn the overdrive all the way down and leave the level and tone all the way up, it's amazingly -T-O-O-L- sounding. i use a crate gx-140c and this pedal mixed for all of my tool covers.

it's a Boss, they don't break. i've had mine about 6 years and all i've had to do was replace the battery holder thingy. once, i got mad and kicked mine out into a field, two weeks later, (after it had rained twice), i found it and it worked perfectly!!! and that's used!!

never needed any help with mine

as i said, by itself, it's useless, but to boost amp distortion, it's completely amazing. there's so much treble without being shrill and awfull. amazing tool tone mixed with my crate gx-140c. it's also great for bass!!!