Boss OD-3

Very simple and down to earth. Three knobs: level, tone, gain. Compared to other distortion and other overdrive pedals I have tried, Boss OD-3 is by far the pedal that requires the least effort to produce good sound.

My setup when I had this pedal was Epiphone Les Paul> Boss OD-3> Marshall amp 30 watt.

This gem always gave me a warm, rich full tone with solid sustain if i dial the knobs to the correct setting. It can also produce a crispy raunchy sound.
this pedal was never noisy. At the setting that i used the sound it produced was always clear and sharp.
I can easily produce the sound of eric clapton, ritchie blackmore (Deep Purple), Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) and Slash (Guns N' Roses) with this pedal. I have to agree with the manufacturer, this pedal is the most versatile overdrive pedal ever, it can give you a laid-back bluesy tones to a raunchy tone or even agressive hard rock tones

Two thumbs up for the sound quality

Use and Abuse it and it still gives you its best!!! no kidding. I once dropped this pedal and it still works producing the same warm rich tones it had always had. If there is one bad thing about this pedal is its energy consumption. I have to keep replacinng the battery every six hours of constant use to get the best out of it. I have to give it a 9 because I would never go to a gig without another one of this product in case it runs out of power while im on stage.

Never Have... Never needed to

I play rock, but mostly its hard rock and blues rock. I play Guns N Roses, Led Zep, Deep Purple, and Eric Clapton. This product would always be there whenever i plug up to an amp, be it a jamming session, a gig, or a private practice session. the sound quality it gives is truly wonderful. I would recommend players to get this product if they are into hard rock.

Very easy to dial in a good sound. Didn't have a manual & didn't need one. Don't know how well it'd do the trick with a tranny amp though.

Used through the front end of an Ashdown Peacemaker 60 to boost the clean channel and also through a Sovtek Mig 100H, using an 80's Burny Les Paul Custom & Tokai Love Rock Junior TV. Bought the Boss OD-3 for that "boosted singing tubes" sound without the inconvenience of making myself deafer than I already am. This it does magnificently. I generally have the tone at 11 o'clock, level at 1 o'clock & drive at 3 o'clock. I've never come across another overdrive that stays so true to the sound of the amp, while giving you more of it. Those snarling old Heartbreakers/Dead Boys riffs sound as mean as they were meant to with this thing!
As other reviewers have stated, this pedal cuts absolutely NO low end or volume. In fact, it's loud as all hell (maybe I will go deaf after all....ah, well). Gonna have to be a 10, folks!

Any day o' the week

No idea. Don't expect to need them either.

I play rock'n'roll, garage etc. Faves include Johnny Thunders, Ron Asheton, Johnny Ramone, Wayne Kramer, Chuck Berry, Link Wray, Angus etc. Been playing for about 17 years. For most of those years I was a purist who never used any pedals, but got progressively bored-and deaf-as a result of this austerity. I also have a DS-1 which I like too (an unfairly maligned pedal IMO), a knackered old plastic MXR & an early 80's Tokai TOD-1 (also underrated). The OD-3 beats 'em all though. Who says older is better? As for all the boutique overdrives: *sigh* a fool and his money are easily parted & deservedly so. I'd grab another of these in a heartbeat if this one was lost/stolen.
Fan-the-tastic!

There are 3 knobs. It's a no brainer to use and is even easier to get a good sound. I didn't get a manual because I bought it second hand

I run an Ibanez S > Boss OD-3 > MXR Phase 90 > Boss Noise Suppressor > Marhsall AVT275. I wanted a pedal that could boost the distorted marhsall without overpowering the sound. I tried the Boss DS-1 but it sucked when going into the dirty marshall. The overdrive is a great boost for your sound. It works well with other effects and has a great sound

I bought this pedal with a few scratches and a dodgy spring. The pedal is still reliable and Boss's reputation would give me confidence to gig without a backup.

I haven't dealt with them

This pedal is extremely versatile. I mainly use it for guns n roses or van halen stuff. It is a great way to boost your sound. Pedal does create a bit of noise but the ns-2 fixes that up.

Pretty simple. Level, tone, gain.

Gibson LP, JC-120, Marshall 4x12. Not much noise at all. Not much gain either though. Sounds very dynamic, but it was before the mods too. increased fullness without any mud. Just enough to take out the thinness of the original od-3. The tone makes me want to strum with single coils, that seems to be the biggest strength of this pedal, it's great for low-gain chording.

boss

brina's awesome, but it's getting harder for him to answer everyone's questions as quickly as he used to. There was a time when I could email him a question and get an answer within an hour. But his mods sound great, and I guess he has a lot more customers to deal with now.

I play lots of hard rock and power pop, alternative, great noisemaker stuff too. But the OD-3 would really be best suited for blues and country, or as a clean boost. Not really for myself.

Very easy to get great sounds out of this pedal. In fact, it might be more of a chore getting a bad sound out of it. The tone control is especially useful and sensitive. Not one of these tones that is either trebly or not, it has a very useful range.

Start with all three knobs at 12 o'clock and go from there. Piece of cake to get useful overdrive sounds with this baby. The manual gets you started with 3 settings. Go to their website to hear a demo of three more: www.bosscorp.co.jp

I play a Mexican Strat w/Vintage Noiseless pups or a Tele w/Rio Grandes through a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe or a Behringer GM108 practice a mp. The OD-3 sounds great through both amps, but through the tube amp, it really shines. Obviously the better the tube amp sounds, the better the overdrive will sound.

Very good overdrive for SRV type sound. In fact, it's better than tubescreamers at the SRV sound IMO. This is just a straight up rock and blues overdrive. The word "transparent" is used to describe this pedal quite a bit, and I can't think of a better word myself. This is one of those overdrives that will almost make you forget the pedal and start thinking "amp" again. I don't pass out 10s normally, but since this is the best I've heard, it gets one.

Boss makes some of the most solid compact pedals there are. Their reputation and complany size make me pretty confident. The 5 year warranty helps a lot too. But fortunately I've never had to contact them.

Like I said, never had to contact them.

I play rock and blues like SRV, Tom Petty, Wilco, etc. Also some country, which the OD-3 helps with by being only a clean boost. Add a little compressor (CS-3 and Ross clone) and Bob's your uncle. I also use a Visual Sound H2O chorus to my sound. Check one of those out if you're in the market for an analog chorus and echo.

This is one of the most useful, great-sounding, and pain free pedals I've ever owned. There was always something about other overdrives that I didn't like, but not this one. This is THE sound I was looking for. You can go find some $250 boutique pedal and fiddle with it or you can spend less than $90 and get a simple and effective overdrive that many pros use. Try a bunch and you'll probably end up where I did.

Boss would sell a lot more of these if they gave it a colorful name (or paintjob, like others have suggested). If the Blues Driver (which I haven't used so I'm not knocking it) were called the OD-5 and the OD-3 was called the Karma Overdrive or Perfect Overdrive or something showy, the sales would probably be reversed. I think the OD-3 is mainly still a hidden gem. Unfortunate for everyone except us owners.

3 nobs, drive, tone, level. How could you mistake anything here?

I wouldn't normally give anything a 10 but this little gem is really worth it. I'm using a J.J. Retro and a Cornford Harlequin Class A amp. I thought that this was all I would ever need, but the OD-3 gives me that extra push into saturated lead, I use it as a booster. The way it makes my amp scream is just cosmic, it also brings out the clean tone and quality of my guitar pickups and overall tone colour. The Boss OD-3 is also the most powerfull overdrive I've ever heard, It will punch through any mix with it's ballsy bass and articulate midrange. I can literally get a sound as good as Santana 'Smooth' or Zappa's 'Guitar' albums. Unbelievable sustain, quality and rich tone!

I've played over 50 gigs with the Boss OD-3, It has not let me down once, Satriani uses them on world tours! They are built to last.

I haven't needed to use it as yet.

I play a lot of Blues, Jazz, Modern Rock, Grunge and Sleeze. I'm really a Rock player at heart though, you can't beat an A5 chord, through a Boss OD-3. The Boss OD-3 is the most important part of my tone. It brings out the rich tone of my humbuckers and guitar. I've been playing in bands on and off for 8 years and I've always used Boss pedals. The best thing about this Overdrive pedal is the Tone control you can have over your sound, it's sonically limitless. I can't fault the Boss OD-3 in any way whatsoever apart from, it should be Red instead of Yellow! In my setup all I need is a J.J Retro guitar, Boss OD-3 and Cornford Harlequin amp. I can get ANY sound!

Three knobs and no dial-up menu - heaven! I've been using a Tubescreamer for years and it's basically the same except the Drive and Level knobs are on opposite sides - sneaky!

I've got a Nord Electro and a G&L Asat. I A/B this with an original unmodded Ibanez TS9 through a Blues Junior (latest model) and, with the Electro only, through a Peavey solid state amp. With both at 12 o'clock on all settings the Boss is by far the most powerful - I had to turn down the 'level' quite a bit to get parity. With lots of tweaking and an urge to believe the Tubescreamer legend I have to say the Boss won hands down. The Boss is truer to the tone of both instruments and adds a pleasing crunch that doesn't outstay its welcome. It's also a bit quieter than the TS9. I'm only giving it a 9 because I haven't tried everything else out there, and frankly my dear, I don't give a damn.

It looks like the same build quality as my old Boss Flanger and Chorus which means it'll be dancing on my grave. i doubt I'll need a backup but if I do I'll use the TS9 begrudgingly.

Never had to.

I play blues, soul and jazz. I've been playing keyboards and guitar for 30 years. I've got too much stuff to mention but this pedal is like a missing link. This is better than the ORIGINAL, OVERHYPED Tubescreamer for which I nonetheless feel a degree of affection - it's done great service over the years.

Extremely easy to use, I can even work it out when I'm really drunk. lol.

For me it's the perfect pedal for all my sounds. I have a Fender Hot Rod 1x12 cabinet with a Jensen G-12 speaker in the amp. It sounds beautifull to me and all my friends agree also! You can use it almost like a powerbrake if you set it on quiet and then crank the amp up. I'm a very staightforward man, so I only need a Boss OD-3, Boss DS-1 and a Cry Baby GCB 535Q wha wha. I used to be into all this multi effects stuff but at the end of the day who needs it? You're not a sound designer your a guitar player right? STOP MESSING ABOUT! I realised that it's all about the playing and technique! I always get the sound engineer to add delay and any silly effects like reverse flanging phase shifts. I can't be botherd with reverbs and delays, I like it RAW, FRESH AND SEXY! lol.

You can never go wrong with it! I've even thrown mine on a concrete floor to see if it'll break and it's fine.

They don't need customer support, Boss are legends.

I play neo death jazz fusion but as long as the music is systemitized properly! I've been playing since I couldn't get a girlfriend in school at the age of 13, I'm 21, crazy and women do like me now!(years of regection) I love the way you can get bluesy sounds through to Hard rock, you can get some really creamy thick sounds through to smooth sustained feedback tones. I hands down think the Boss OD-3 is the best overdive pedal I've ever heard by far! It beats the crap out of any other makes including the Ibanez TS808, Vox, Digitech, Voodoo Lab. Line 6, Rodger Mayer and Electro Harmonix are other alterative makes that are just as good but they all sound different. Hell, Line 6 even have the OD-3 and DS-1 pedals modelled on their DM4 distortion modeller pedal! It's got the balls and attitude and simplicity that I need in my music. I'd recommend investing in a hell of a lot of time trying out different pedals until you find the right one for you! The Boss
OD-3 has saved my life! Maybe it could save yours?

Easy to use, dead reliable and a funky yellow color to boot. Three knobs, drive, volume and tone. The tone control really works to fine tune your sound.

I've used this as a clean boost and as a crunch and it works well for both. This pedal does NOT LOSE YOUR LOW END like most other distortion pedals that just throw everything into the midrange. It has huge gain in the volume. I keep it way down. Turn the volume up and the OD to low or even nothing at all and you get a nice round edge to everything. Adds sustain and tames the twang on a Fender. Presently, I have an OD channel on my Crate VFX2112 so I have four sounds available, clean, boosted clean (Boss), the Crate's distortion and both on for ultimate crunch. Lovely.

It's a Boss so its reliable.

Calling a company for a pedal? Nope. But I've heard their customer service is good. I called them for a Roland product and they were right there.

I haven't tried every pedal so there may be better ones out there. And maybe not. I find many ODs and distortion pedals too harsh and raspy. I hate that. This is great for bluesy tube-like overdrive. It keeps the definition without getting mushy. It might not be ideal for nu metal. But with the drive and treble way up maybe it would do the trick.

An undiscoverd gem. You gotta get one on e-bay. They don't make these anymore.

Simple as ABC!

I use this through all kinds of amps with many different types of guitars. (Marshall,Magnatone,Fender,Ampeg,Hiwatt, all the way to Thordarson, Newcomb and Voice of Music!) I also have too many guitars and effects to brag about in this opine ;p
This is by far the most transparent overdrive pedal I know of. I don't use it as much as others, but can't use another when
I need the transparent, clean (tight distortion) overdrive this pedal delivers.

'Never had a problem with ANY of my Boss pedals.

Have NO idea. Never needed them!

This pedal is a plus for blues players. It really allows the original guitar tone and nuances to get through when effect is on. And also really sounds VERY ballsy when set high. Also pretty clean as far as background noise is concerned. 'Has me amazed as to why I don't see more guitar players with one!!!