Boss OD-3

Very intuitive, classic three-knob arrangement.

I use either a 57'Reissue Strat or a 61'Reissue SG into the following signal chain: Boss CS-2 compressor, Boss OD-3, Fulltone 69' Fuzz, Voodoo Lab Analog Chorus, EH Deluxe Memory Man, Vox AC30HW. Pretty quiet. A bit different than the SD-1. Not as much gain, much less raspy and more crunchy in comparison. More available bass. The tone control is effective at all points of rotation. Also, unlike the SD-1, there is no residual bleed through when the unit is bypassed.

Never had a boss effect go south on me.

N/A

Overall this is a very versatile overdrive. Not as instantly distinguishable like a Tube Screamer or SD-1, but in a good way. I can't see how you can go wrong with this unless you're looking for massive amounts of gain. Also, as some have said, this unit sounds great right out of the box without any modifications, with single coil or Humbuckers.
This is a true go to pedal. Buy it and fix you attention on something else.

How hard can it be?? 3 knobs, pretty basic stuff.

Gotta give it a 10 on this one, guys!! I use this little guy on 3 different amps w/ a Gibson 355 and it works great on all of them. It seems to calm down my Mesa and smooth it out nicely. My Fender sounds more Marshally now, and my Marshall just is a lot more controlled on the grind side. Really a great effect, I've run straight into the amp for years (like 30, man), and been really happy. Now I'm like a little kid w/ a new toy; it's all I want to do!!

It's a Boss.....if it's even close to it's reputation...fuhgedaboutit!!

Don't know

I don't know what else I could speak about. It's a great pedal and I'll use it from here on out. I mean really, when you find something that works....USE it!!

Three knobs: tone, level, gain. They turn left and right. Rocket science stuff.

I'm using a Mexi-Strat w/ Duncan Hot-Rails into a modded Crybaby Wah -> OD-3 -> Danelectro FAB D-1 -> Danelectro Cool Cat -> Ibanez DE7 Delay -> Peavey Heritage tube amp. The OD-3 is a phenomenal pedal. A lot of the Boss pedals absolutely need modded before they are usable, but not this one. It's great right out of the box. It doesn't color your tone and gives you everything from a clean boost to some high gain overdrive. If you want some nice grit, pick up this pedal. If you want hard distortion, look elsewhere.

It's a Boss.

If you want to add a little fuzz to your sound or you want to drive your amp into overdrive, get this pedal. It's easy to use, and nearly impossible to get a bad sound out of it. The only issue is that the tone control could be upgraded a little bit, but it's not a huge deal. I would recommend this pedal to anyone.

3 knobs, start twiddling.

Easy to set up & adjust

Im hanging a ten on here too! Like so many other reviewers, this pedal really does stand out as one of the best mass produced overdrives i've used.

Mainly i've been sticking with a modded boss SD-1, however i was looking for something a bit different - this overdrive has more a of a flat eq response which retains the bass in your signal, even when you turn the tone knob past 12 o'clock. It also has allot more volume than the regular TS type pedals & can really punch a tube amp up a notch!

Sticking it in front of a clean channel will give you a very impressive crunch too

Boss needs no words in this dept

The boss sales over here back up their product

This is a great alternative if you are looking for something different to the usual TS clones available today - it has a nice range of overdriven tones & works great as a boost too

Everyone knows the classic three-knob setup... level, tone, and drive. The main reason that I give it a ten, however, is because it is hard to find a BAD sound in it! The manual shows settings for the three basic uses of the pedal... a powerful boost, a light crunchy transparent overdrive, and a creamier high gain overdrive for leads.

I hate Boss distortions and overdrives. I have never had a good experience with any of them until the Blues Driver, and that was just OK (I sold it). Finally, though, I think they really pulled something worth while off with the OD-3... not just worth while but incredible.

A play an SG through a Traynor YCV20WR (dear god this amp rocks). I run my guitar through an Ernie Ball VPjr (with a TU-2 in the tuner out), a CS-2 compressor, the OD-3, a USA Small Stone, and a Voodoo Lab Tremolo. In the effects loop I have a Giga-Delay and a Maxon CS550 chorus.

Incredible sound quality. I own a Maxon OD-9, and the Boss blows it away... I A/B compare them all the time! I keep them both around because they have their own beautiful unique sounds. The Boss has crisp harmonics and compression, and just enough mid range to make my neck humbucker cry with tone! Such beautiful bass response as well! With my bridge humbucker it has awesome bite and grit to it without losing the tone, it doesn't get much better than this!

The Maxon, in comparison, has much more midrange as your typical tubescreamer would, but it is lacking in the bass response. The Boss is just more crisp and clear, but somehow it does this without sacrificing the mids or the bass! The Maxon is not nearly as the Boss. When comparing the two pedals I have the Maxon's volume at 12:00 and the Boss's at 9:00... this puts them at the same volume. In other words, the Boss is a MUCH more powerful boost (a very good thing for me).

I love it with the gain maxed... great for neck pickup leads with a compressor in front of it! Also, with the gain at 0 and the level maxed (as a boost), this pedal brings my amp to life! Awesome for cutting through the band using your bridge pickup! Keep in mind I have always used humbuckers, I have never tried this pedal using single coils. My favorite setting, however, is gain at 12:00 with the tone rolled back a little, maybe 10:30 or 11:00. When left at this setting, it sounds great both as an overdrive on the clean channel as well as a boost on the drive channel.

I also had a Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive and a Boss SD-1. There is a reason that the SD-1 is always getting modified and the OD-3 never needs to be modded, I personally think the SD-1 sounds cheap and weak. The Sparkle Drive was honestly an amazing pedal. I sold it recently, however, and kept the OD-3 just because I like the simplicity of the Boss... I can get multiple uses out of it without changing the setting, and the sounds are outstanding. Together my Small Stone it really shines... Wilco? Radiohead? Floyd?!

My CS-2 compressor is from the early 80's... It sounds better than the new ones and it works perfectly. I expect the same quality out of my OD-3.

Never dealt with them, but I assume it is not the best. Maxon has incredible customer service though and I actually talked to them about the Boss OD-3! They explained the different clipping methods between the two pedals to me and told me in which cases the Boss would outperform the Maxon and vica-versa... Very honest and kind.

Earlier this month I turned on my OD-3, chorus, and delay. When I struck a hard chord, I instantly thought "holy shit that sounds just like track #5 on gilmour's solo album from the seventies!" i put on the cd, and sure enough!

also, don't get caught up in the whole true-bypass thing. i did about a year ago, and i regret it. it is just not worth it, true bypass is way over rated and also has its own problems. i have never been more impressed with my tone than i am now, and only two of my pedals are T.B. Proper volume control, amps, and your hands control your tone, not the switches on your stomp boxes.

This is the best OD I have owned, and I would buy it again over the Sparkle Drive, Maxon OD-9, or any other Tubescreamer copy. This is cheaper too! If this is still too expensive, check out the Guyatone overdrive (the orange one).

3 knobs, no problems. As long as you're not looking to melt paint off the walls, there should be no problem dialing in a usable sound.

Normally I don't like to hand out 10's like cookies, but this will do something even a TS-9 or Bad Monkey won't - sound good even with a solid state amp. I read it all the time "this pedal needs a tube amp to really shine". With the way this makes my Peavey Bandit II sound (WOW), I can only imagine what a tube amp would pull out of it. I frequently combine it with an MXR Phase 90, a Yamaha Chorus, and a DanEcho. Simply put, it sings. I was always of the opinion that Boss Dist/OD pedals sounded a bit thin. Here's a BIG exception. I could go on, but you get the idea.

Whatever else can be said about Boss, they take a knockin' and keep on
rockin'.

Geez, what DON'T I play? I gigged funk, R&B, Motown last nite, and I'll be playing in church in the morning. I do carry a Digitech Grunge for a few over-the-top selections, but for the most part I need to blend in rather than stand out. (No, I'm NOT out to be the next.....well, name your guy) This pedal does it. I've had it 3 months and it's become my workhorse. I borrowed one to use while my turbo-rat was fixed. I bought one with the $$ I got from the Rat. Stolen? Better run fast 'cause I just let my dog off his leash.

Very easy to use! No problem for anybody!

I use Hughes&Kettner Tube 20 combo (2xECC83, 2xEL84) with MAXXAS MX-3 CUSTOM!!!! guitar. OD-3 is sound great. I use that for booster with this settings: Tone:~3 Level:~4.5 Drive:~5
This setting add to my amp brilliant overdrive sound at Clean channel and "screaming" sound on my amp's Drive channel (Drive knob about at 7)

I use at gig....and is greatful!

I've no problem with...

I play Santana, Gary Moore any other classics at blues/rocky style...I play since 3-4 years in guitar...
When I lost it, I buy another OD-3 in few days/weeks! This is a fantastic overdrive pedal! I had a TS-9 Tubescreamer (Santana used this type), but OD-3 is real fatter sound!

Three knobs one footswitch, level, drive and tone, just like many other boss pedals, nothing more simple.

The guitar was my telecaster copy through a fender deluxe 90 (transistor, dsp technology).
The pedal is not noisy at all, the thing that impressed me immediately was the amazing output level, similar to a blues driver but with less trasparency, in my opinion. The pedal delivery a kind of midrangey overdrive tone that i didn't like, but it's my taste, if you want a good booster you can get out it from this, but the overdrive itself is not so good for classic sounds. It reminds me a metal distortion pedal with gain setting around 3 or 4.

I play blues basically, i use an sd-1 with a bd-2 as booster to get killer tone with a custom made tele & stratocaster, the sd-1 is good for old r'n'r stuff, i found it more classic sounding, maybe this od-3 is better for modern overdrive sounds like radiohead stuff.
Compared with the blues driver this pedal seems to have more "balls" without that sparkle high end, the bd-2 is more responsive on touch, more versatile.

This is my first review, i hope it'll be useful.
apologies for my english i'm italian!
Bye...

Read the other reviews for an exhaustive description of this pedal.

It's very easy to use and the knobs respond very well to any changes.

The manual contains some "presets" for particular sounds, just to give you an idea of what this pedal can do.

This pedal is one of the best pedals I ever had. The reason is that it "blends" so well with ANY amp, from a heavy Marshall to a clean Fender + it preserves the tonal character of your amp. If you push this pedal you will NOT loose bass, mids or treble compared to your original, unmodified sound. That's what makes this pedal so great.

Another nice feature is its warmth : the overdrive produced by this yellow little case is never harsh bu atlways will sound full and warm, with just the right amount of overdrive. For soloing you'll just have to raise the volume (on the guitar or with a volume pedal)and the od-3 will make the tubes of your amp sing with great tube-tone and sustain.

I have always been looking for that SRV-like type of overdrive / crunch and had modded and unmodded TS-9's, real and re-issue ts-808's, custom-made ts-808 clones etc before ... but none of them got me close to SRV's sound, mainly because they lacked bottom-end and did not have enough gain. (SRV did never use much gain on his pedals but he had TONS of amps and pushed all his amps to the limit to get huge bottom-end and tube-distortion).
But if you're just a mortal, unknown guitarist (and I bet you are ...) you don't have the chance and opportunity to play on Dumble amps, vintage ender amps, you don't have 10 '60s strats to choose from, etc ...

So you still want to get close to SRV's sound with one good strat and one good fender amp ? Do yourself a favor and buy an od-3 ... it will blow away all your tubescreamers and boutique pedals.

I only wish I had known all this ten years earlier, it would have saved me a lot of money !

I give it a 9 because I think the best distortion is only produced by pushing your amp's tubes into distortion.

It's BOSS so it will not let you down. These pedals are built like tanks.

If you need customer support to learn how to use this pedal ... your IQ is below zero.

I play mostly blues, pop and rock. I've been playing for 14 years now and played together with very good musicians.

Guitars : I have a vintage '72 stratocaster, a 2002 SRV stratocaster and a Gibson SG Standard.
Amps : a 1967 Fender Super Reverb and a Marshall JCM 900 halfstack with 4x12 greenback cab.
Effects : Boss line selector ls-2, Vox Wah, Boss tuner tu-2, Boss od-3.

The od-3 is a great pedal and I think the only sound-shaping Boss pedal I really like. My other Boss pedals are only a line selector (for volume boosts) and a pedal tuner.

I think the od-3 does what so many guitarist are looking for : warm and full overdrive, no EQ-loss, plenty of sustain, not expensive at all, very reliable, easy to use ... and they have i.m.h.o. A VERY NICE BANANA COLOR !!! ;-)

I think these pedals will become the "tubescreamers" of the new millennium ! My advice : get one before they are discontinued.

Just like any typical overdrive stompbox: turn the knobs to ur liking, stomp on it &....u're done w/ a great sound!

Way good....maybe the best overdrive ever,IMO. The sound is thick & juicy w/ plenty of sustain that could even go over the top & reach infinite feedback-sustain if u run it through a good amp distortion. BTW it also produces NO NOISE even if u crank all of the knobs, like the MT-2, just plain whispery quite....(some ppl who got noise w/ this pedal must have had that problem originating from their amp). And ya, if u run this pedal through tube amp overdrive, ala Zakk Wylde (he used the SD-1, now the Wylde OD), u're bound to get THAT kind of brutal distortion w/ all the Bass frequencies intact even w/ Tone @ 5 o'clock. IMO, it's way better than the Tubescreamer in terms of sustain & bass response, smoother than the SD-1 & crunchier than the BD-2. 1 thing though....for ppl who thinks this pedal sucks....THIS IS AN OVERDRIVE PEDAL, MORON, U DON'T GET BRUTAL DISTORTION THRU JUST THIS!!!!

Yup, of course. It doesn't need a backup, but does need good amp distortion to boost.

Not needed, just plain durable & excellent.

The best overdrive-booster pedal ever found in the market, though it doesn't sound exactly like a tube driven one, but is already very good if plain sustain & a boost is needed when playing solos, especially those w/ long bends in the middle.