Boss OD-3

Very esasy of use. Don`t really need to be explained. I'm from Chile, we speak spanish so I do the best I can whit the english....

I use a 40th anniversary strat with a Di marzio super distortion (bridge) and a PAF Pro in the neck position. Then a cry baby Jim Dunlop, the OD-3, CH-1, and the high sensitivity input of my new JCM 800 2203 (2002 reissue model).
I use the OD-3 for boost my sound, so the distortion is made in a %80 by the JCM 800, oh well...and the SD too....
With this set-up, I get the sound of my favourites (The '80 Iron Maiden, The '80 Judas Priest, Ozzy..of course, etc). That's enaugh for me, and that's is why I buy the JCM 800, and the OD-3.
I can't compare with the SD-1, cause I've never traied with it. However, the sound of this unit is perfect for me, it works great as a booster, and I feel that the natural distortion of my 800 it is not altered.

I totaly depend on my OD-3, like I said before, to boost my sound. I use it on my gig's and I don`t have a back up.

Don' really know. Don't have a month, but I know the Boos pedals, and they do not need customer support....

I've been playing for 12 years, now I've got all I ever dream. Of course I will get other guitar someday (Gibson Les Paul), and maybe a 1959 slp with a line selector for a more clean sound..
I do not thing that I change my pedals, because they work great.
If it where stolen, maybe I would leasten the SD-1, but just to be shure, so I think I would buy the OD-3 again.

already well reviewed

It's all about the right combination: This box mixes very well with the clean channel of a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. ie: The classic formula: solid state overdive plus tube amp. Produces a better sound than any box I've used including TS9s etc. It compresses slightly and sounds even better with a compression unit before it.

Already well reviewed

For blues this is the best pedal I've come across so far for use with Fender guitars: You can set the gain quite high and use the volume knob on the guitar the back of the overdrive. Warm and smooth but lets the Fender edge/bite come through. The voicing isn't too middle heavy either and unlike some pedals it doesn't chop off the bass. Very responsive to how hard you play single coils so you don't feel you're losing expresiveness.
Good value, very smart piece of electronics.

Every setting generates a usable sound (not for all styles though...)

Very good overdrive effect, albeit only vintage sounding. I've tried it with Am Std strat (neck: blue velvet, bridge: SD-1) and with Godin SD (neck: SD Jazz, bridge: SD Custom). Amplifiers used are Fender Princeton 65 (solid state), Fender Super Twin Reverb (valves) and Crate Vintage Club VC5310 (valves).

Sound are ok with all amplifiers and guitars, but excell in general with the strat. I've tried the OD-3 as booster for an already overdriven amp and as overdrive on a clean amp.

It's a good overdrive if used with humbuckers, you can get either a tweed-like drive or a vintage Marshall-like crunch (think AC/DC). If wanted it can add a nice bite to the sound of a muddy neck humbucker.

When used with a strat the boss comes alive; you can go for both a heavy strat crunch or for a slight broken edge added to the clean sound. Outstanding.

Works very well with all amps I've tried it on. Remarkably, it also shines on the hyper-clean Fenders. THere's a very clean drive, with almost no fuzz.

Due to the purchase of this overdrive my Ibanez Tube King has been relegated to 2nd division... it serves now as a mere volume booster... Just not as fat and warm as the OD-3.

Don't know yet. I've had one boss effect before... and it broke down... only piece of equipment that ever died on me though (fingers crossed).
Should it brake it will make a nice paper-weight.

Don't think I'll ever try this... why should I? The shop should take care of this.

Very good. Before purchasing I compared this unit to a fulldrive... the latter has more switching options, but not enough to pay that kind of money.
I preferred the tone of the OD-3 to that of the FDII when played over a clean amp. When used as a booster they were +/- comparable.

Like any pedal with only 3 knobs (gain, tone, volume) it is idiot proof to use. Just play with the knobs until you find your fave sound.

It never ceases to amaze me how using a particular overdrive/distortion effect in front of different amps can give such a varied result. This pedal through a marshall tube amp sounds great but through my mesa/boogies sound sorta ordinary but through my hand built Sherlock class A (review elsewhere here) it sounds sensational! Single coils have a very crunchy strat like sound with a nice compressed feel and humbuckers beef up and sustain for days. I have a DS1 boss distortion, BD2 blues driver (boss), TS10 tube screamer, Guv'nor 2 (marshall) and a mesa/boogie V twin pedal all of which i love for various reasons and i can A/B them all to compare tone and feel and can honestly say its the nicest transistor overdrive i own. It is hard to get a bad sound out of it. It will do a great blues sound, crunchy rock, pushed clean but falls short of a very heavy or metal sound which it was never meant to do anyway.

Boss...never had a problem. Cant go wrong if you use the specified power adapter.

neutral opinion as i never had to contact them

I dont gig and am a live sound engineer so have heard 100s of good and bad guitar stuff and i KNOW my stuff when it comes to tone. I Love this pedal and would definatly buy another and also i recommend it strongly to guitarists i meet. But like all products it wont please all the people all the time but it will please a lot of the people most of the time. Anyone can feel free to contact me for an educated opinion on guitar gear. Cheers

same as stock od03.

I really do like this Indyguitarist mod for the Boss od-3.The sound is more clear,open,less middy.I was basically looking to use this pedal to be used as a booster.I did not want this pedal to sound like Metal zone.It can still be used as a stand alone unit.Nice cruchy chords.Very pleased.

I did the mod myself(he sells the mod kit for around $10).So I guess if anything goes wrong,it will be my fault.One note of caution for those thinking about doing the mod yourself.You do have to know what you are doing.It is not easy to solder on these small Boss pedal circuit borads.Also,you probably should have basic understanding of electronics in this area.If you have never done this type of work,it will be wise to send the pedal to Indyguitarist for the mod.

Very good.Responded to all my e-mails in a timely manner.Seems like a really nice guy.

I have this theory that the Boss pedals in general(distortion,over drive pedals)are EQed to sound good at a low to moderate volume level,at a loudness which most people tryout thier effect.I think you can still get a good sound out of them by tweeknig them,but on some of thier pedals,I find it imposible to get rid of the excesive midrange honk.I can now crankup my OD-3,and let all that clean crunch do the work on my Mesa sob amp.It's a beautiful thing.

It's very easy use, no need for a manual, really. Perhaps beginners can have some help of the pictures in the manual saying: this is normal overdrive (50 volume/50 drive), this is how to use it as a booster (100 volume/0 drive), and this is how to use it as a dist-pedal (30 vol/90 drive).

I use it with my Fender HM Strat Ultra with Lace Hot Golds and Breed in bridge, and with my old Gibson SG, into a Music Man 112-50 equipped with Electro-harmonix two 6L6 and one 12AX7 tube. I use the Boss OD 3, into a Boss Digital Delay DD3, into a Boss Super Chorus CH1, into a MXR Phase 90 - and normally into the amp's clean channel. Sometimes I switch over to the gain channel, which I set on quite low gain and somewhat higher volume, compared to the clean channel. My Strat sounds beautiful on the clean channel with this pedal, it's soft, stratty, elegant, focused - think Carlos Santana with a brighter Strat - and it roars when switching over to the gain channel. My Gibson SG sounds soft, spacy and jazzy with these pedals on the clean channel, and goes Angus-over-the-top when I switch to the gain channel. The OD 3 pedal on the clean channel give the best Strat sound I ever heard. The sound from the gain channel is not exactly what I wanted with my Strat, but good enough. The gain channel in this amp is known to be tricky for Strats, but great with Les Pauls, and that is obviously the case also here. I also tested a RAT pedal to see if it had better high gain options, but I could'nt hear any significant difference. The OD 3 on max vol and drive gives a tone quite similar to the RAT on medium dist - at least in my ears.

I have used my Boss DD 3 almost every day since 1988 and never had any problem. Oh yes, the small plastic component at the AC-input was broken once, so I had it replaced. But no other problem, so I would not expect any from this new one either.

Boss have in my country quite long delivering times for replacing parts, so the customer support here can hardly be said to be at top level?

I bought this pedal mostly to get a elegant tube overdrive sound for my Strat when playing jazz and jazz fusion - and that is exactly what it delivers. Also use it for the same purpose with my Gibson SG and with the same result: it's exactly the sound I was looking for. I have been playing Strats since the beginning of the -70s, but I went over to Gibsons because they were softer and warmer to get a decent jazz sound from. Now I bought a Strat to get a more spacy sound for jazz fusion and the sound I now get from my gear is just perfect. There's only this somewhat broken sound, mentioned above, when using the OD 3 in the the gain channel that bothers me now, but it's still ok. It could have been, and has been, much worse, and as said: this pedal in the clean channel give the best Strat sound I ever heard. I would definitely replace it if it was stolen or destroyed.

Easy!! The controls are more user friendly than any other Boss pedal I own. Does excatly what it says on the tin.

If you are looking for a Lancaster bomber o/d sound, this is it. Man, this pedal sounds like someone dropping a bag of gravel. I tried this it a practice last night with my AC30 and telecaster, and it sang like tweety bird. The whole setup has never sounded so good. I've tried lots of o/d pedals, and this is the only one that gets near the sound I'm looking for (think the opening chord to Won't Get Fooled Again. With a set of humbuckers, this pedal will knock buildings down.

I bought it second hand, its mint and no boss pedal has ever completely failed me (save for loose connections here and there!)

Never had to use them

This is now going to be my main distortion box. I think it will be the dirtbox I've been looking for all the time I've been playing!! I thought it was the tubescreamer - I was wrong. If I see another one second hand I might get it, but I've never had backups and boss pedals can usually get sorted if they go wrong. It will do any sound your looking for (save metal). It shows non-believers who said that yellow boss pedals wer like wasps in a jam jar that boss have finally learned what overdrive means!!!! I hope they don't discontinue this pedal!!

only a few knobs, pretty easy. a lot of emphasis on high end but you can dial in some low if you want.

sounds like a full fledged british tube stack minus the annoying rip your head off stage. no screaming monkeys in this like the ads say. good! i use an SG and a clean orange head, vintage 30 speakers. gives you nice bite, not as warm and shitty as a tube screamer.

use a 9v power pack and a battery backup foo.

never had to call roland cuz their stuff is built to survive a HOLOCAUST.

these things are hard to find at dealers so it's pry worth the money. i use it to ramp up from clean before i kick in a boss mega distortion at the end. dual stage is nice, some said it hits the clean mesa sound but i think it depends more on the amp. i have an ampeg reverb rocket that sounds like a matchless, this pedal will play into the grind if you like. i think it is more shrill than deep, if you want low, fuzzy mud i would go with a tubescreamer. the od-3 has better sound quality in my opinion tho.

Couldn't really be that much simpler to use if they tried, really. No problems here.

This is a follow-up to one of my other reviews a few down. This is a pretty decent pedal, but I wouldn't give it a 10 like I did when I first used it. This is because I've been scrutinizing it and comparing it to my Dist+.

Used all the way down or to about 10'o clock it provides a very pleasant sounding soft-clip breakup, just enough to warm the signal of my amp. It was exactly what I wanted to use it for, and although it's a one-trick pony the way I have it in my rather modest rig (Gibson SG -> OD-3 -> MXR Dist+ -> Dano 7-Band EQ (Fish'n'Chips) -> Roland JC-50) it's a bloody good trick, thank you very much. Noisy? No more than normal.

It only gets an 8 because I can't use the drive past the 12 noon position, it does strange things to the bass/low-mids that I find very displeasing to my ears. Also, I find the tone control is centred around the wrong frequencies - at the lowest setting it's far too bassy, the highest in some situation doesn't give enough top end. These points are a matter of preference, and could be because I use a guitar with humbuckers.

It should be noted though, it has the best level boost of any pedal - BOSS or otherwise - that I've used, even with mellow settings, unlike the aforementioned Distortion+ which has to be cranked up to get even a moderate boost to signal - I don't need the level past 12 o'clock. It even beats what I considered to be the best level booster - EH Big Muff.

I'd had a handful of BOSS stomps, some pretty beaten up and gig worn but still working like new. I'm one of the most careless, clumsy idiots I know, I'm always accidentally knocking my SG against things and chipping the finish, landing on or knocking over amps, so I need something that can stand up to my stupidity.

Boss stuff does this better than anything else, because if it survives more than a few years with me it'll probably last for 20 years at least.

It's a well-worn cliche, but the best line of customer support is decent, easy-to-use, hardwearing gear. Thanks Boss.

I play rock, blues, pop-rock, punk, heavy metal (old school), Nu-Metal when I feel like giving my fingers a rest. Outside of that kind of stuff, I like folk and modern classical, film score style stuff. I've been playing for just over 5 years now, and I'm a real picky blighter when it comes to whats in my rig. I've owned loads of other pedals and multi-FX - Boss MT-2, Boss OD-2, Boos CH-1, Boss PH-2, DOD Grind, Boss OD-1, ProCo Rat2, Boss GT-3, Boss GT-6.

Having owned lots of Boss gear and never really being satisfied by it, I was surprised to find how well this fitted into my rig. To begin with, I thought there was something wrong with it - turns out my Dano pedal is screwed and was causing the high end to get all trebly and crackly, so I'm going to replace it with a GE-7 instead, or something with more than 7-bands on it.

I chose this one over a Big Muff because I'd only use the Muff for giving a punchy solo boost, while I'm likely to leave the OD-3 on whenever I play, and I can get a solo boost by setting the Rhythm Pickup to 7 and the Treble Pickup to 10. I'd still buy a Muff if I had the cash though.

Now I've worked out my rig a little more, I'd say this pedal might stay there for some time. Easily better than any Boss pedal I've owned.

See that picture? How simple is that. Getting at the battery is almost as simple as getting your tone out of it too, unlike some pedals I've had.

Pretty darn fantasic. Some pedals roll off lots of bass when you crank up the gain - not this one, at least not that I can hear. Typical BOSS - great sound, very little noise that ain't caused by the guitar (like a Strat) or standing too close to your amp.

Classic overdrive in a mini-dictionary sized box. Superb.

I've owned 5 of these beauties (all different pedals of course - I don't need 5 OD-3s - yet), and I'm something of a nutter on stage, and they do get stomped on pretty hard. No complaints, never had any problems AT ALL with Boss products, even when thrown out of a window...

This is a brilliant piece of engineering - like one of the other reviews here says, beats the other 2 OD units before it. It's odd to see that Boss have made their OD better over time, unlike say the new TubeScreamers which don't compare to the old ones.

Fabulous. I've been playing naerly 6 years and there are few finer boxes.