Boss OD-3

my setup is LP thru od3 and a mimic man delay thru a marshall mini halfstack.

this sounds like a ts9 but without the mid hump.using the tone knob gives you compression when turned counter clockwise, and gives more bite when turned counterclockwise.

doesnt cleans out very well but is a good booster.

not as transparent as the dano cto-1 or the timy od but gives a rawk rock n roll sound

3 knobs... very easy to dial in sounds

OK... here's my tuppence worth.... Over the years I've owned and tried loads of overdrives, and have settled on three: the SD-1 Super Overdrive, the OD-3 Overdrive, and the Ibanez TS9. The first thing to say is that I see the main purpose of an OD pedal is to boost and distort the guitar sound going into a valve amp, for soloing. From reading some reviews here, some people seem to think that an OD pedal is something that you can plug into the clean channel of a tranny amp and make it sound like a Marshall stack.... it's not.... to do that, you need to get a distortion, or heavy metal pedal, or (ideally) and amp modeller like a POD. Sorry that sounds patronising, I'm just trying to help clear any confusion :)

IMO, the OD-3 works really well for driving into a fairly clean amp, for blues-style soloing. I noticed that a lot of the positive reviews for the OD3 here seem to be from blues-based players. The OD3 can boost the guitar volume a LOT, with the Level control, and has a moderate amount of distortion available on the Drive knob. The overall sound is fairly neutral; it doesn't have the mid-hump and slight bass reduction of pedals like the SD-1 and TS9, and so by comparison sounds a bit more bottom and top heavy. As a simple boost, it's excellent, and I like it with single-coil pickups particularly.

Where it falls down for me is when driving an amp which already has some distortion in the sound... i.e. doing rock or metal soloing. The OD-3's bass frequencies make the sound a little indistinct and slightly 'farty' when compared to the SD-1. And the top is a little too bright - in pretentious terms (!) notes seem to 'cut' rather than 'soar' or 'scream' as they do with the SD-1. The SD-1 and TS9 sound smoother to me, probably because of the mid-boost. The OD-3 brightness can be reduced by turning the level down and the drive up... but then you're relying on more pedal distortion rather than amp input-stage distortion, which sounds a little fuzzy to my ears. Overall, for the screaming 'rock' solos with humbuckers, I prefer the SD-1 with the level on max, the drive on half-way, and the tone down low.... very 'Slash'. With tweaks to the Tone and Drive, depending on the amp, you get into Zak Wylde or EVH territory. The OD-3 can do a fairly good job of it... but I always seem to sound (and play) better with the SD-1 for this style of music.

rock solid

Best for the blues, and/or as a volume boost.

OK for rock solos.... but the SD-1 Super Overdrive beats it (and the TS9.... and the excellent-for-the-money Digitech Bad Monkey, IMO)

Very easy to use. Smooth - not finicky.

This pedal is head and shoulders above the TS-9 family for me, those I can not use. It is far more natural sounding. I have to compare it to my Zvex Box of Rock. It is very much like the Zvex with a flatter front to the sound and a more squashed bass. This can be a good thing. The Zvex BOR is more clangy, dynamic and open. The OD-3 is more planer, flat and compressed. The OD-3 is a must-have in my chain. It gives me a distinct sound that will sometimes work when the BOR or valveboy (my woman-tone) is not the thing and vice-versa. Looking at the circuit, it has 7 FETs and 2 bipolar transistors, and 1 IC. It looks like the distortion is not done with the IC. 3 sets of diodes are all on the transistor side of things. This seems unusual and may be why it is in league with the Zvex - another FET circuit. The OD-3 preserves the natural characteristics of the guitar. I have 3 distinct distortion voices in my rig and could not have it without a box like the OD-3. One of those voices is going to work. Sold it to a friend to be a better front-end for his Fender Cyber-something amp. What a mistake! Was fortunate and relieved to get it back by trading an SD Power Grid to him. I am giving it a "10" based on the fact that it does what it is supposed to do. It is not Jimmy Page or Eric Johnson in a box. I really like it.

No problems so far - have owned it for years.

I fix my own stuff - so I don't know about customer support.

Using mostly a Strat with stacked Dimarzios these days. Always through a Fender black or silverface reverb amp. Playing since '69. My hands are not always loosey-goosey, so I depend on some help from a stomp to get me flowing sometimes. Pedal board: Zvex Box Of Rock to Modded Crybaby to Boss OD-3 to Valveboy to Boss OC-3 to MXR Phase 100 to MXR Stereo Chorus to puple Ibanez Delay to BBE Sonic Stomp. No Noise problem here with the OD-3. I play classic rock and some pop (it's on the set-list you know) some Motown/Stax stuff etc. Influences are Stones, Beatles, Zeppelin, Yes, ZZ Top, Derringer, Winters Brothers, Cream, Hendrix, etc. The OD-3 is useful for crunch rhythm and smooth leads for me. It helps with the Fender amps I use. It does not produce my woman-tone at home, but at a gig, in the middle of the frey it can, 'cause things change there. I want the front of the note to be strong with some air, but I want some silk too. Next best thing to your favorite botique stomp box.

Stupid simple, almost no point talking about it, but I will say that part of what makes it easy to use is that most of the settings sound reasonably good. It's hard to screw up.

I play a few different guitars though this pedal and run them into a 65 Fender Deluxe Reverb, but mostly I use Strats and Tele's. I am no tone connoisseur and think that many subtleties of tone are lost when you bring in the rest of the band and therefore don't get to worried about it.

Recently I decided that I needed another distortion or OD pedal to go with this one so that I could set different levels of distortion mid song. I can't screw around too much on stage as I do all the lead vocals, operate a harmony machine and run the PA.

I have to say that shopping for another pedal really made me appreciate how good this little Boss OD3 is. I find the sound to be very pleasing. Just a straight ahead smooth overdrive. That's what it is. I don't find it too shrill or too bassy. It holds together very well at lower drive settings and the bass only comes apart with extreme settings of the drive.

In my search I first tried a bunch of other Boss pedals, Blues Driver, SD1, DS1, DS2, none sounded as good as the BD3. Next I tried several more expensive pedals, Fulltone Fulldrive 2, GT500 and an Ibanez TS9. I thought these were sounding pretty good until I tried an OD3 at the end to compare. I ended up leaving without buying anything. The OD3 was just so smooth and pleasing that it made the others sound inferior. So it was back to the drawing board and time for more research.

Later I went back and tried our a Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive, a Fulltone OCD, and a Z.Vex Box of Rock. I bought the OCD because it sounded good and the price was right. I took it home put it in my setup along with the OD3 and immediately found that it sounded pretty harsh compared to the OD3. Very shrill, ice pick sound. I took it back and got the Box of Rock which sounds much smoother like the OD3. My only complaint/comment with the BOR is that it adds a lot of bass when you pluck the thicker strings. That being said, having a slightly different sound makes it a good match to use with the OD3 and the BOR is a very versatile drive with a clean boost as a bonus.

One thing I did notice is that the OCD and BOR worked better with the signal hitting the OD3 first. When wired this way I was able to get another level of distortion by turning on both pedals. When the OD3 was second in line the increase in distortion was almost un-noticeable.

Bottom line, the OD3 is the best sounding Boss OD and competes very well with pedals two or three times the price......for my ears anyway.

It's a Boss. Never had a problem with a Boss.

Never dealt with them.

I play mostly Blues style music but am moving into some Radio Rock music like The Watchmen and Snow Patrol. I've been playing guitar for about 30 years but up until now I have mostly played bass, drums and sang in bands. Now I'm taking a run at playing guitar and singing in a band.

I own a 2007 Custom shop designed MIM Strat, a 1997 MIA Tele, A 2007 Les Paul Standard and a Godin SP90 from about 2000. I play through a 65 Reverb Deluxe, I sometimes use a Boss Compressor pedal, Pedal tuner, Chorus Pedal, and auto wah pedal and a Boss Line selector to access both sides of the Deluxe, using the non-reverb side as a boost for solo's.

As I said I have compared it to a handful of pedals that are 2 or 3 times the price and a bunch of other Boss pedals. This thing competes or kicks on all of them.

Very easy to use.
The manual is almost ok, but here's nothing special only three knobs.
Good to start at level around 9, tone and gain at 12 o'clock.

The setup is the following: BOSS CS-3 -> BOSS GE-7 -> BOSS OD-3 -> BOSS DD-20 -> Laney L20H or Meteoro Classic V8 (well built Brazilian tube amp). Guitars: Fender USA Tele, Fender EC USA Strat, Epiphone DOT (with Gibson pickups 1973).
I bought it for add some overdrive on my clean channel. It does the job very well. Every details can be heard but added some overdrive. I'd say almost amazing, this is the first overdrive pedal that doesn't screw-up the sound. And no noise at all.
Also very useful to use a booster just before the unit (I decided to use a GE-7 eq with flat settings only boosting the volume).
Regarding to the quality/price value, probably this is the best overdrive one can get. I suppose it's not a coincidence that this is BOSS's most expensive overdrive/distortion compact pedal.

It's a BOSS. Nothing else to say.

Fortunately never had to deal with them.

I had so many shit pedals, finally found out to run on BOSS stuffs.
I advise this pedal who's looking for some nice, crispy overdrive sound for backing and also soloing (might say Jeff Beck, Clapton from the 70s) without paying too much money for it.
I use it with tube amps but surely it does the job with solid states.
If you're planning to buy this type of stuff, don't hesitate. And also don't choose other, cheaper models from BOSS (like ds-1 etc...).

very simple

it's not good for me,harshness,wizened,plasticly.when the tone knob less than middle point the tone be numb,just like from other room.when over the 12',the tone be harshness.
other hand,allum's mod make it be fake , more plasticly.
i mod it by myself it's changed so good now,like sd1 a bit ,but more bass&midbass freq,warm and in front just like walk in the"other room"the sound face to me.
od3 has good base,go for dig out and mod it

that's my personal opinion only, goodluck guys!!

it's ok

i don't know

i feel not so good as other reviewer,but od3 has good base

It???s an uncomplicated effect pedal that???s very easy to use. There are tree knobs, level, tone and drive, and they do exactly what one might expect. The manual is straight forward but there???s no need to read it to operate an OD-3.

I use a Gibson Les Paul standard and mainly Peavey Revalver MKIII software amp(s). The OD-3 delivers transparent overdrive and sustain giving the virtual amps that extra bite for lovely blues and rock tones. (Works especially great with the virtual Peavey Classic 30 amp.)

On a side note; I???ve recently tried the Robert Keeley hack (mentioned in another review here) removing the D6 and D7 diodes but I didn???t like the result at all. In my humble opinion the end result was a harsh, fuzzy and scoped tone way to far from the original OD-3 sound.

I've heard they can withstand the blast from a nuclear bomb. (So if we ever manage to pull of a nuclear holocaust there will be over 10 million boss pedals scattered all over the place.)

I've had no need for any customer support.

The overall rating must be a 10. Compared to other pedals, both real and software effects, it???s got something special to it. If mine got stole I would buy one in a heartbeat.

This pedal gives a decent approximation of an overdriven valve amplifier; it is one of very few inexpensive pedals that actually does.
If you already own a great sounding valve amplifier, you'd want to do the Robert Keeley modification on this pedal: Simply remove the diodes marked D6 and D7 on the PCB, and voila! another gain stage, surprisingly smooth and transparent. This very simple modification removes that familiar Boss harshness, gives you greater range and a much more musical, open and dynamic sound. With drive on full, it takes on an almost fuzzy character, while retaining clarity and dynamics. With drive on zero, level up high and tone backed down a bit, you have a marvelous boost pedal, making your valves sing in exultation.
Stock, I'd say the pedal deserve an 8, modded in this fashion, it's a 10.

Stock, this is a really good pedal. With the free, Robert Keeley-suggested modification http://www.premierguitar.com/education/200601_educationcenter_pedalpower.asp, it's brilliant, but only with a good valve amplifier.

This pedal is simple enough 1 tone 1 level 1 gain easy enough it would have been cool to have a 3 band eq

i use an aria pro XR series guitar SSH setup 1 volume on tone.And a fender blues junior amp.This pedal is very responsive to the preexisting gain on the amp.i get a good smooth blues thing with a little gain and the level to taste. when i crank the gain i get i very 80s overdrive if thats your thing.With the master set low on my fender and the volume cranked i can boost my it into a cool mild overdrive not very bluesy. usaully set everything at 12 that gives me a great od thats completely original and very transparent it rest gentely over the drive the amp creates it does this well.Though if i want a gritty blues or mid heavy od i use the ts-9 if.the od 3 is incredibly sooth sounding i have not had not had a chance to try it cranked with blues junior cant wait till i do the bluesjunior sounds awsome cranked.this pedal does suit all styles including metal but its not a very gritty sound but ive got a gritty amp.i also do not like the way it sound with both mt pedal and amp cranked its losses its defintion and i dont get the classic shred thing like i do with everything on 12. my advice to you is to get both this and the ts-9 you will be a happy camper especially if you run them together its heaven

its awsome i would totaly use it with out a backup though the casing does seem a little weaker than my ts 9

its boss no problems here

its and awsome pedal gut if you like really gritty midly kinds of tones and you have a smooth or scooped amp maybe you should reconsider and get a ts9 or 808 they are great pedals in there own right

Three knobs: vol, tone, gain. Easy enough...

This pedal pretty much serves one purpose for me: to drive my Peavey Classic 30. After trying three other pedals (MI Audio Blues Pro, Digitech Bad Monkey, and EHX LPB-1), I have to say that the OD-3 best suits my needs. Why? It is the most transparent OD pedal I have ever had the pleasure of playing. With the tone at 12:00, and the gain at 0, it does an amazing job of maintaining the tonal integrity of my amp. Most other OD's I have played have a boost in midrange frequencies, and since the C30 is a naturally midrangy amp, they just muddy up my sound..but not with the OD-3. While we are on the subject of tone, this pedal does a great job of maintaining low end, even with the tone knob cranked a bit. When using this pedal with the volume at 12:00 or above, the gain at 0, and the tone at 12:00, it sounds beautiful for boosting my amp's dirty channel. I really believe that it is about as close as I will get to a hot-rodded Marshall tone, without selling/modifying my amp. If you crank the OD-3's tone toward the treble side, it gives the amp so much more presence (which it needs, IMO), as well as tightening up the low-end nicely. I have always longed after that brittle, responsive VHII tone, and the Boss gets me very close- its as if my Classic 30 has been resurrected, and is now better than ever. Highly Recommended

I have never had a Boss fail on me, so yes.

Never needed it :)

If you are looking for a pedal that will push your amp hard, without destroying the original character of the amp, you can't go wrong with this pedal (especially for the money). The OD-3 offers LOADS of volume, and the tone knob is very flexible (while retaining low end, and not having ear-piercing highs). Of course, your amp may be different than mine, so results may vary.

Doesn't get much easier than 3 knobs

I have to say this is one of my favorite Boss pedals I purchased it from a music store that was going out of business never having even heard what the thing sounded like. It hasn't left my board since. It's not a metalheads type of drive though you can get a lot of gain out of this thing. For me it just really sings with the tone at 10:00 and the drive at about 2:00 at that point it says "Hello I'm Stevie Ray Vaughns illegitimate love child" It has a real nice midrange to it Of course I'm using a Strat into a Mesa Rectoverb Combo If your running an Ibanez into a Line6 solid state amp or something your results may vary

Boss stuff just seams to last. I have about 16 of there pedals all still working nicely. I love this "Would you gig without a backup" Question Uhh...YES at 40 years old If I have to start dragging backup gear for my gear thats it! At this point I don't want to lift anything heavier than a ham sandwich let alone 2 of everything sheesh.

Never called them not sure how they are.

Got to give it an A+ I have been playing 22 years I play a wide range of stuff with the exception of screaming metal. So for the stuff that needs a good OD this thing is great. If someone stole it I'd make them sit in a small room and listen to Wam cranked to 11. Well thats wake me up before you go go;)

Three knobs. Very simple.

With my Mesa Boogie Subway Rocket combo, it sounds fantastic.
With Laney VC15 combo, it sounds great.
With VOX AD50 212, it cannot produce the sound I like.
With LINE6 Vetta II combo, it cannot produce the sound I like.
What??s the point?
Use OD-3 with a decent tube amp and it produces naturally overdriven tone to valvet lead tone.
With my Boogie, I give 9 ??cos 10 means perfect and there is no perfect thing in the world, only God is perfect...

It??s Boss!

The Boss site is nice but I??ve never got answers whenever I e-mailed them.

I think it depends on your gears.
Like I said before, if you have any good or great tube amps, OD-3 sounds fantastic.
Otherwise, don??t bother...
I mean... normaly, overdrive pedals work well with tube amps in my experience
I use OD-3 only with my Boogie combo now.
I also had TS-9 and I prefer OD-3 ??cos it has more gain than TS-9 IMO.
So if you are looking for some great booster pedal or overdrive pedal, you have to try this one and you??ll not be disappointed.

Please excuse my english since i'm not a native speaker!

Nice yellow pedal with three knobs: Level, Tone and Drive. Very ease to use. Spend a little time on it and you'll get the sound you want. No need for a manual, just trust your ears and turn the knobs.

Like many said: Its an OD, no Distortion. But WHAT an OD! If there's one non-tube pedal that really gets you a classic tube sound for an exceptable price, it's the OD-3! I used to play it through a fender solid state and now im using it with my hot rod deluxe. basically im using it for a sharp funk-rock bridge-pu sound or with my singing neck-PU for a great solo sound. It's not noisy at all, only thing is: I haven't found out how to get it along with my cry baby, don't like the sound that they produce together.
Just put it in front of a ss-amp and you'll get a taste of what a tube could sound like. Put it in front of your tube amp in push it to a higher level.

You cannot break a boss!

I've compared this pedal in the music store to nearly all other boss od/ds pedals. This one really stood out, no kidding. I've tried them all and then kicked one after another. In the end, there was just the od-3. It even beats the bd-2!
I'm playin only strat, so i cant tell you about humbuckers!

Quite simple 3-knob format: Overdrive, Level and Tone.

Depending on what you run into it, it rates exceptionally good to somewhat dissappointing. If you're looking for an overdrive effect rather than a distortion box and your ultimate target aim is an OD that "simulates the sound of an overdriven tube amp", well, go for the OD-3, but ONLY if you play single coils. The OD-3 has a rather scooped midrange "heavy metal" character to it which means if you play humbuckers through it, it ceases to sound like overdrive and a lot more like distortion. Furthermore,it's a distortion with a solid state flavor to it.
My Les Paul and the OD-3 make a good match for Metallica but for tube driven blues and classic rock the OD-3 is far from the best choice. My single coil Tele and Strat work surprisingly well though. Rather warm and natural sounding through a Blues Junior, Hot Rod Deluxe and Blues Deluxe amp. Even through a solid state Crate 1x12" 60watter it retained a tube-overdriven tone.
So, when coupled with single coils, the OD-3 is exceptional in faking the overdriven tube sound. In fact, it seems to produce the SRV tone far better than my TS808 or TS9 can. This is surprising because SRV got his tone from using the TS9/808.
Some food for thought if you are considering the OD-3. I should mention that it offers A LOT more drive/crunch than your average overdrive unit - a TS9 or 808 on max drive requires 1/2 to 2/3 of the OD-3's maximum. As far as "level" is concerned, it pushes a good deal of volume out of your amp and makes a phenomenal although not perfectly transparent booster.
All told, a very good OD umit but not in all instances. Unlike many other overdrives it maintains a fat heavy bottom end rather than sucking it out as many do.

Seems robust enough, never had a Boss fail yet, although it does feel less substantially built than most other brand offerings (Ibanez, Digitech, BBE, MXR, etc...).

Unknown

The OD-3 is a bit of a "jack of all trades, near master of some" as far the crunch factor goes. Its strengths are maintaining a big bottom end while engaged, better than average performance as a booster and sounding like an overdriven tube amp with single coils. Weaknesses, or strengths depending on your preferences is that it also can sound like a very hot and solid state like distortion when driven with humbuckers once the drive is dialed in beyond a mere third. I don't know why but it just doesn't sound natural to me no matter how I dial it in when playing an LP through it. For my Strat,Tele and SRV tones it is a winner though.
If lost or stolen I think my TS808 would take over as my primary OD and I wouldn't purchase another OD-3. Tough call, I know there would be things I'd miss about it, especially the fat bottom end the TS808/9 lacks. Try it before you buy it. One thing is for sure, the OD-3 is better than your average overdrive on the market today - especially for under a hundred bucks. Cheers!

Piece of cake. :)

10 and only 10 as many said good right off the box.
My setup: Strat plus with Dimarzio HS3 setup - Dunlop Wah - Boss Autowah - Boss OD3 - In send/return loop (DOD Ice Box Chorus - Boss Delay DD-20 - Boss reverb RV5) amp Carvin Nomand (all tube). The sound is unreal warm, blusely, cream... I was looking for it so long.

100% Boos never let me down. (But I always have backup:)

Never dealed with them.

Blues, rock, hard rock...

Three knobs. Easy.

I just sold my Fulltone Custom Shop Mosfet Fulldrive 2 to get the OD-3. Yes, in my opinion, the OD-3 is that good. The OD-3 is so simple, and sounds fantastic right out of the box. Very little coloration in the sound, very natural. The bass is retained, and there is no mid-hump. This pedal has just enough mid range and compression to sound right. The OD-3 is not fuzzy, or fizzy sounding like my Fulldrive 2 was. I have used the OD-3 as a booster, and as a stand alone overdrive and have had great results from both applications. This pedal is not true bypass, but I have noticed no ill effects from it in my signal chain. Im using it with a 74 Fender Deluxe Reverb amp with an Eminence Governor speaker, and a 1985 Red Stripe Boogie Mark III. Guitars are a Gretsch Chet Atkins Tennessean, and Gibson Les Paul Standards. The bass can get a little boomy with the neck pickups on the Pauls, but is easily tamed by rolling off the volume and adjusting technique. I get nice, crunchy rock tones from the bridge humbuckers. Pedal sounds great with the Gretsch, which has large single coil pickups. I play blues, classic rock, 80's metal, and am trying to learn some jazz/fusion. This pedal covers all of my low-gain and booster needs. Its not a tube amp, so I cant give it a 10, but its a solid 9. I would have given my $210 Fulldrive 2 a 6 by comparison.

Boss pedals dont break, and if they do, its probably your fault, not theirs.

To make a long story short, I needed an overdrive pedal for my vintage Deluxe Reverb amp, and I have tried almost everything, modded pedals, boutique pedals, and most of the Tube Screamer clones/variants. I thought that the Fulldrive 2 would be the ultimate overdrive pedal. I used it both live and at home for almost a year, and it just never sounded right. The OD-3 is much simpler, and sounds more natural. I used to snub the OD-3 because it wasnt a Tube Screamer, and it doesnt cost $200. After paying the money for Tube Screamers, modded pedals, and boutique pedals, I have come to realize that tone matters the MOST. The OD-3 has the tone, dont let the $80 price tag and Boss name fool you. For the money, there is nothing better. Great tone, and the famous Boss reliability. Remember, just because something costs more and has all of the "bells and whistles" doesnt mean that it will sound good to YOU. Before you spend big money on a vintage, modded, or boutique pedal, try the OD-3, you may be impressed.

Easy: plug in, dial, and go.

Great. I went to a music store and tried out 5 or 6 overdrives with my Epiphone Casino and its 2 P-90 single coils. This one sounded the best by far.

I've had Boss products for years. They're tough.

Escellent Overdrive. Much better than the old ones.

This pedal is incredibly easy to use. I was suprised to see that the tone and level controls were in the opposite positions than my DS1 though.

I use this pedal for all of my light to medium gain needs. This means everything but metal. I get amazing rock, classic rock and blues tones out of it. This pedal sounds so bloody awesome. Period. Chords sound huge, and my solos and fills never get lost in the rest of the band. This pedal is a perfect match for a Strat. I think that it sounds better with single coils than humbuckers, but thats just my opinion. With single coils there is a little more "bite" in the top end. It's kind of hard to describe, but it sounds a little less smooth, and compressed? More "explosive" is the way I hear it in my head anyway. This pedal also sounds fantastic with solid state amps. I did a small gig with a Fender FM 65, and took the OD-3 and a wah. I got a lot of compliments from the people there about my tone that night. This pedal is a little bit noisy if the gain is cranked, but when I say a little, I mean a LITTLE. There's not enough to even consider saying, "this is a noisy pedal". This pedal is effective as a boost to an amp's distortion but I use it solely as the only source of grit with my Strat. I really can't say how much I love this pedal.

I own 4 boss pedals, and something tells me I will always own those same 4 pedals (MIJ PH-2 and DS-1, and MIT GE-7 and OD-3). This pedal seems indestructable, and none of the controls are noisy or anything.

I play blues, rock, punk, hardcore, metal, and a little country/folk. For Blues, this pedal is fantastic, and you can crank the volume and keep the gain down and get a sweet singing tone.

For Classic Rock and Rock, this pedal is unmatched. I've never tried a punk, hardcore or metal gig with it, but I doubt it would shine as much as it does for rock. It doesn't sound aggressive enough to my ears.

I was looking on the market for an OD, and I chose this over an MIJ SD-1, a TS-7, a Subdecay Overdrive, and a Maxon OD-9 (the original tube screamer). I thought that this pedal was hands down the best OD I've ever used, or even heard. I have owned this pedal for almost a year now, and I absolutely love this amazing yellow box. If this pedal got stolen, I would jigatize the person that took it.

I've been playing for 9 years, and I have 5 guitars, 3 amps, and a myriad of effects pedals. This is one pedal I could never part with. I left it at home when I visited my folks over christmas, and I actually missed playing with it. It's that good. You, and everyone else that has picked up a guitar needs to own one.

tone, level, gain
on / off switch ?!
easy battery change, input, output, acdc !!

It is a good, allround Overdrive, with a big, ballsy and chrunchy sound.
Ther is no tone suck in bypass mode and no noize when on.
I need it for light chrunch sounds ( when a open chord is sound good and not muddy ), so i set the gain at 9 o clock and leave level and tone near 12 o clock. When the gain is full open, it sounds a bit buzzy, fuzzy. But everything till 4 oclock is usabel for Blues, Rock, Jazz, Grunge sounds. No Metal, its still a Overdrive and no Distortion box.
I using it mainly with a Engl screamer Combo and a Gibson Paula, from the amp input in the Od 3 in a Dunlop classic Wah and Guitar, the only other effect i use everytime is a digitech delay in the effect loop and the channel switcher. I play it sometimes as a booster and it is just ok for that, not bad and not good but enough for me...
But I also have test it with my Marshall Plexi, 4x12 cab and a Fender Stratocaster and its sounds a littel "too big" so I dont use it that much here.
I never had test it with batterys, so I can not say if this change the tone ?? I use it with a Visual Sound-one Spot, 500 mA adapter.
And use only Koltz TM. Stevens cables. ( hes a Bass player and maybe ther is a bit extra Bass response from the cables to the Od3 ??
I dont know.

It is a 9 for me because I have buyed too many Overdrives like the Sd1, Ibanez 808, Maxon od9, Jekyll and Hyde, Guvnor,....and ther are all sold because there are nice for a while but fast I was boared with them so..ebay...
The od 3 is the only overdrive i still have, because the sound I need is always ther, its very reliabl, everywher to get, simple in using, not to big or small and of cours sounds good... So a 9.
Ohh and in my oppinion it is the only good overdrive and distortion Pedal the Boss guys have ever made and I have played them all in the last years....

I depend on it !!
The reability of single Boss effects is still great.
For the price and experience, I must give it a 10.

Never dealt with them !

I play in the style of Joe Bonamasa meets Bob Marley and plays with Pearl Jam and Foo Fighters some early Guns n Roses stuff ??!!
and that since 15 years. I see studios from the inside, stages from the top and still playing as my main life spirit ! But I dont get rich with that. So I have a solid main work.
If its stolen or just died, I defenetly get the same again.
Like I say, I love every point at it,...ok, the yellow colour let it look sometimes like a childrens toy, but thats all.
In fact it helps me to make music, because my amp has not the chrunch channel that I wish to had.
My mind ; a good guitar, a good amp and cables, brain and soul
is everthing that is realy needed for good music.
So this littel helper gets a 10 overall.

Extremely easy to get good sounds. The pedal is SIMPLE in design and use, which is all this type of device should be. These dam pedals with all sorts of knobs, switches, and so on, are just trying to market themselves as "jack-of-all-trades" devices, and end up just producing MORE useless sounds. The OD-3 is a clear winner ... just play it through a good clean channel (tube, valvestate OR SS ... works great for me in any environment), with appropriate external EQ'ing, and you're good-to-go.

" Ilya-V " reviewed this pedal, and i basically second everything that he/she said. This is an EXCELLENT, in-expensive pedal that gives the player a full-bodied, transparent overdrive that maintains the guitar's character. The "Gain" comes on gently and smoothly as the dial is rotated. The OD-3 compliments my setup perfectly, as i play with external compression & graphic EQ boxes to shape and color my sound. I'll tell you, you can try OD boxes that cost 2, 3, 4 times as much and don't sound as good. Boss obviously offers a variety of pedals as well in this category, and this is IMO the best at giving the player a high-quality overdrive that maintains the sound and feel of the guitar & amp. I've returned several pedals that i've been experimenting with, incl. the likes of high-priced Sansamp and Fulltone products, because they're just TOO DAM expensive, and didn't give me a usable, high-quality OD to boost and color my sound in a natural way, without sounding "processed." The OD-3 is a winner.

Not quite as "heavy" as some pedals (ala Digitech), but good enough.

No opinion. (The Boss website isn't friendly for communicating directly....hopefully i'll never want to, so that's no blotch to me. Hell, this pedal is only $70 ... if it breaks one day, i'll get another one.)

Said it all above. If you're looking for an OD boost that does it with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of quality, the OD-3 IS IT.

3 KNOBS - That's a technological innovation !!!!!

This little unit is a marvelous thing... it retains all your guitars characteristics and frequency, not coloring the tone in any way (no bass loss, no treble 12K clipping hiss from the diodes/transistors/opamps, and no mids coloration) in my opinion.
I've tried it in the FX loop as well as in front of the amp, in a full-range pa system and a set of headphones. I can tell you that in the FX loop it operated the best in my SS amp because the preamp EQ of the clean section didn't color the OD-3's natural sound and was used as Pre-Distortion Equalizer. In-front of the amp it sounded good as well, considered by its not boosting or driving any tube section afterwards, its frequency response very depends on the pre-amps EQ section and your guitar. In the full-range PA system and headphones it sounded huge!!! this is where the real "exam" is. you have to listen to every pedal that you buy through a full-range speakers or headphones AND as many guitar amp you can try to really hear the flaws of the unit. This one has NONE, plain and simple DISTORTION no hiss fuss buzz etc... pretty close to a tube being driven, well... EVEN BETTER. why? ever listened to a tube preamp or a tube DIST box through full-range??? That's right guys it sounds thin nazzely grainy (Tuby) and shitty and coloring your tone. try to listen to your metal zone or DS-1 through a full-range or super clean amp like JC-120 you got the idea. well my personal opinion this is the best distortion generating unit I have ever had for low-mid gain setup.

That section need to be eliminated from BOSS pedals.

Cool stuff guys... Cool Stuff.

Very easy.

Yeah, wow. Did not like this one at all. I've been using an SD-1 a lot lately and read great things about this OD-3. I use my overdrives as boosts to amps that are already overdriving, not as stand alone drive pedals. So this might work in that application for some. As a boost I hated it. Way too flubby in the low end and some sort of squashed sizzle sound in the middle. Compression I guess. It reminded me somewhat of my Tech 21 XXL, which also retains the low frequencies (rather than cutting them like a TS9 or SD1).

I should add I use high output humbuckers in super strat style guitars. Marshall tube, Peavey tube, Randall SS amps. I am going to stick with the SD-1. It's the only Boss drive pedal I've liked out of their whole line. This OD-3 fell flat.

Dead simple, three controls like the SD1

Out of the box, it's a 8 by comparison with the SD1. No compression at all (a trait of the stock SD1). I've bought another and modded one with the Monte Allums kit, improving things still further (he admits it's the best sounding unit out of the box that Boss have produced)

I've never been let down by anothing Boss - superb reliability.

Roland UK are always helpful, most of the manusls are online too. Lots of websites and cheap mods available for this model too.

There is a reason why Boss price this one slightly higher, yes you might spend ?20 on a Behringer/Dano/Line 6 but you will eventually buy something like this if you are not a bedroom player and want the reliability. People knock Boss stuff but they are the only ones to have never let me down. OK, they make some complex stuff too (e.g. the PW10, still this is the cheapest Trower sound with speed control around) but look at the users of even their good old basic (modded) products - Vai and Satriani, for example, both use DS1's.

this pedal sounds great. its easy to get a nice overdriven sound from it. the tone control isnt bad either.

this is my setup:

fender telecaster > korg dt-10 tuner > boss ns-2 > (ns-2 loop: od-3 > bad monkey > tunamelt tremolo > ge-7 > end loop) dan echo > echo park > 1978 fender bassman ten or peavey classic 50 4x10

i play indie/ambint rock, also some spazzier jazz rock, kinda like the fall of troy with lots of jazzy stuff, or maybe like explosions in the sky. i dunno. i also have a blues trio.

this pedal works great with everything. i used to have a voodoo lab overdrive but it was way too bassy and sounded crappy. this pedal was traded for the voodoo lab. im so glad i did it! i use it sometimes as a clean boost, with the drive all the way down and the level all the way up. it works really great for that. but it really shines when you dail in some gain. great smooth overdrive sound.

boss pedals mean reliablility. ive got a boss pedal story:

i used to play in a heavier like hardcore band. my other guitarist and i where arguing in the practice space one night ( we had a very large practice space). i was standing next to my amp and i had a boss acoustic simulator pedal on top. the argument got very heated, i lost it and decided it would be best to throw that pedal accross the room (not in the direction of my friend). i accidentally threw it through the front grill of my bassists 8x10 and straight through the cone. whoops! i broke the led on the pedal, but it continued to work for a year until i sold it. wow. thats pretty tough.

i've never dealt with them, but i heard good things.

ive been playing for about 8 years. i have had a bunch of different gear. up until a month ago my main effects consisted of a boss me50 and the bad monkey. not i have a full board and still adding. the od-3 is a sweet addition to my board.

ill probably be using this as my main dirt box, with a little gain dailed in. im getting a dod 250 so i think ill be using that as a boost. or maybe an sd-1, as im picking one of those up too. bottom line, i really like this pedal and it will probably stay on my board for a long time.

if it died or got lost or stolen, id want to replace it. its a solid pedal. it doenst hurt my tone at all. i think it adds a little something extra to make my tone that much better. boss rules.

Easy like the others boss pedals.

I use a 1957 reissue stratocaster and a Fender Blues Junior amp. With this setup the OD3 is the best overdrive that I have tried, best of BD2 and of the Ibanez TS9.

It's a boss.

I play rock-blues and fusion, my pedals are OD3 - Keeley RAT 3Way - CH1 - DD6 - RV5. With this gear I have find all the soun that I need for my guitar.

its a pretty basic 3 knob setup.. doesnt get much easier to adjust this thing. hard to get a bad sound out of it...

i play a fender strat, a hamer, and a gibson les paul through a fender hot rod deluxe amp. the od-3 sounds great with all of my guitars. the pedal isnt real noisy either, like some are. the only time the sound weakens is at the very end of the battery life, but otherwise it sounds great. i mainly use it in front of my fuzz pedals as a booster and to help shape the sound a little bit- the od-3 gives my fuzz a little more bite. but it sounds great by itself too. turn the level knob to 9 oclock, the tone all the way up and the drive knob all the way down and you can get a good clean sound. the od-3 and the fulltone 69 are my two main pedals when it comes to a lot of the hendrix tones i like.

ive had this thing for about 8 months and it hasnt screwed up yet. but it does eat batteries pretty fast... id only gig it without backup if i had to. its not terribly expensive to just buy another one for backup and also you dont want to risk the battery dying on you. but overall its pretty dependable to me.

ive never needed suport on my od-3

i play blues-influence rock, jazz-influence rock, psychedelia, and classic rock in general. od-3 suits my needs all around the board here. im 15 and ive been playing for about 4 years now. if i lost this pedal id get another right away. some of my other pedals include a fulltone 69, a russian big muff pi, a fulltone octafuzz, a vox v847 wah, and a fulltone deja vibe. i compared it to the digitech bad monkey and the boss sd-1, but those sounded a little too thick and heavy for my tastes. the od-3 has a nicer, clearer sound i think. but overall it definitely helps me get good tones.

It's a snap to get the kind of sound you want. The high EQ knob is almost always below 9 o'clock.

Good crunchy tone. Good if you're looking for something that doesn't completely take over your tone. Wished it was a little heavier, though.

Good so far. Only have owned it a couple months. BOSS has always been good to me.

Three knobs. Idiot's guide to this box not especially necessary... But be aware: every knob has it's "art of setting".

My setup: Fender Blues Junior with Celestion Vintage 30 and JJ tubes, Gibson ES335, Fender Deluxe Strat (customized with Kent Armstrong Vintage pickups), vintage EH Deluxe memory Man and Small Stone.
I have been looking for a good box nearly 10 years (playing guitar more than 30 years). Have a Vintage Rat, TS9, Distortion+ and Seymour Duncan Pick-up Booster. The BOSS were for me until now cheap sounding mass production boxes from Taiwan... (and the rest of these pedals really is a garbage)BUT the OD-3 is a big surprise. Sweet, slightly compressed, transparent, harmonical tone... Excellent both for singlecoils and humbuckers. My Fender Blues Junior simply sings through the Celestion! I have spent a lot of bucks to buy and mod the Ibanez TS9... and believe me: the holy way, where all these modifications tend to push the Tubescreamers is in that yellow OD-3. Suffering from short sustain, over-the-top flat midrange, cold harmonics, non-transparency, dead dynamics???!!! Stop modifying - try the OD3. For this time beeing I am satisfied. I give it a 10 because it is what I needed. (P.S: I cant believe to anybody who lives nearly 25 years from simulating the tubes (BOSS... Roland) - but this is a great exception!

O.K.

Do not need indeed...

Godd for any music except brutal metal and such kind of "artofnoise".

No brainer.

80's Japanese Fender Strat -> Russian Big Muff -> Boss OD-3 -> MXR Blue Box -> DOD 250 -> EH Bass Balls -> Boss CE-3 -> MusicMan 115 65.
This is the biggest and best sounding overdrive I have ever played. I've had a Boss Super Overdrive, one of those cheap Dano od's, and a DOD 250, but the OD-3 surpasses them all. The SD-1 lacked substance, I got what I paid for with the Danelectro pedal, and I still use and love my DOD 250, but none of them sound as BIG as the OD-3. The DOD gets too brittle at higher levels of gain, but sounds beautiful at mild settings. The OD-3 flat out soars at all levels. This pedal keeps the low end and still retains vibrance on the high end. Not enough has been said about the sustain that this unit cranks out. No matter how much you crank the drive, you get a rich, long-sustaining tone that gave my amp's natural overdrive a run for it's money. In some situations I think it sounds better. It's well worth the $80 sticker although I was lucky enough to get it for much less. It's a little noisey when I turn it on, but with my strat almost any od/distortion unit is.

I have no worries about this pedal at all. I plan to keep it and keep using it for a very long time.

N/A.

Aside from being the best sounding od (to my ears atleast) that I've played, it has become my favorite pedal in my collection. I enjoy a lot of down and dirty rock and roll, surf, and some blues and this pedal can more than cover whatever I want to play. If you're like me at all and were on a search for a good OD sound, this pedal is definitely worth checking out.

Couldn't be much easier. Pedal is full of good settings, try getting a bad sound out of this!

The sound quality is great. Its really smooth and creamy. I have a modded Blues Driver also, and its different for sure. The blues driver is more buzz-saw like, more uneven and biting. This is the other side of that, thick, sustained, easy on the ears rather than grating. You can spend a lot of $$ on overdrives, but the OD-3 is a great lower-cost pedal. It sounds as good as many a fancy, modded pedal right out of the box. I'll be using this for a long time.

very solid, no backup necessary

???

Overall its great, boss really designed a nice, no frills overdrive here. I'm going to use it as a main od/distortion, and as a boost with my amp's distortion. Very capable of both of these tasks. Very smooth, even sound, no complaints!

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!!!

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.

So easy to use...only 3 knobs.

I must say that this Boss overdrive is quite good,very good indeed.
IMHO this is what Boss has the best to offer among their so-so line
of overdrive and distortion pedals.The OD-3 provides a good,strong
crunchy sound that's great for classic or heavy rock.For those styles
of music the OD-3 shines and is truly inspiring.This has been my main
OD workhorse for the last 3 years and i enjoyed it since day one. Much better than Tubescreamer for All-out Ac-Dc riffings.
However,i would only recommend it if you find one dirt cheap.
Mine has now been replaced by that Barber Direct Drive SS which for
about 50 bucks more is vastly superior.But overall the Boss Od-3 is
a damn good overdrive that suffers only if compared to some new offerings.If Boss could come up with a more useful tone control...
and a lower price tag.By the way,have you seen the new line of Behringer compact pedals?That's what i call TOTAL RIP-OFF.

I would not go as far as "built like a tank" but Boss pedals
are strong and hassle-free.No doubts about that.

Roland is a big corporation.Although i never spoke or dealt with them
if i had to,i think it would be waste of my time.

If you play heavy blues,classic rock or hard rock it's a good match.
Don't buy it at full retail price tho,find a used one.
I give it a solid 7 overall-good sounds,reliable,nice yellow colour.
Clearly the best sounding Boss pedal(i tried'em all).
But to me,too expensive like all Boss products.

Simple easy to use. Three Knobs, one for Level, tone, Drive. Its very easy to get a great sound out of the OD-3, works well with my strat clone. My first and only Boss pedal.

Virtually no noise from this pedal. I run it through my strat clone -> Mod Cry Baby Wah -> OD-3 -> Practice Amp. What i like the most about this pedal is that it retains the lower end even if you turn the tone knob all the way up. Its fairly good with batteries. I have found that using the adaptor gives it a slightly different sound (one may want to test, to hear the difference). Cheap Carbon batteries seems to make the Overdrive slightly smoother, if that is something your after. Overall its a great pedal, perfect for Blues or classic Rock. You might be able to get some killer heavy metal type sounds if you run it through a high gain marshall aka. Zakk Wylde.

Now i haven't bought any Boss pedals in the past. But i know they have a good reputation for being quite reliable. However I dont know if was my bad luck but the within the first few weeks i noticed that the connectors went bad and the LED no longer lite up when i plug the jack in. At first i thought it was the batteries, but it wasn't and i was very soon dissapointed to find that my sound had been somewhat altered. A simple thing like that does however make me question the reliablility. Though it does have a warantee so i am not too worried.

I am going to the music store I bought it from, see if i can either get it replaced or repaired. Hopefully all will go well and there wont be any problems. I have never dealt with Boss directly.

I play mostly blues music. I absolutly love this pedal. In my opinion of the best Overdrives out there. Though i have only been playing for aprox 3 years I do know what sounds good, and to my ears this sounds sweet. If lost of stolen i would most likely buy a new one. The only thing that bugs me is the jacks went bad, affected both the sound and thoughts about Boss Relability. Boss makes great pedals there is no doubt about that, i might have just been unlucky :P

Just the normal 3 knobs thang!!

It seems to me that, Boss have done it right this time!
I have been using Tube Screamers, standard and modded, and TS based overdrives like Fulltone, old and new, Maxon, Roger Mayer, etc, for years, and the OD-3 is much better in my opinion.
I use this for SRV based Texas Blues, and I think I've discovered something important here;
I use a '64 Blackface Vibroverb, (15" JBL), and a Mesa Blue Angel with a Weber Michigan 15", both amps running together always.
When I'd use a Tube Screamer it would get thin and fizzy, and chop the bass, I am after all using only 2 small amps!
SRV on the other hand, used 6 or so amps live, sometimes more, and in the studio, even up to 32!!
With all that brutal power, he didn't moan about losing any bottom end, in fact he probably wanted it that way....
With the OD-3 however, I can go from my normal crunchy/clean bypassed tone, to creamy overdrive/boost, without losing any part of my EQ. The sound just gets bigger and fatter, just like when SRV would stomp on his TS.
I tried this pedal once with high output single coils (Schecter/Anderson tappable pu's), and it sounded too muddy.
But now with normal vintage type single coils, made by Harry Haussell here in Germany, it sounds just perfect! In fact, almost Marshally, in a way.
Anyway it gives me much more of Stevie Ray's tone with my set-up, than any other overdrive I've ever used.
My other od's were: TS-9 '83 mod. with Analogman TS-9/808 mod, TS-9 with Analogman's Silver/KWS mods, Fulltone 2, old and new types, Roger Mayer Voodoo 1. The OD-3 is better sounding than all of these other pedals, and at less than a hundred bucks, it's pretty reasonably priced too!
Boss's famous transparent ACTIVE BYPASS does wonders for problems with long cables too! True bypass pedals, only make your cable/chain longer than necessary, and also suck tone too! You have to have an active buffer in there somewhere....

BOSS QUALITY. I don't care about "Made in USA", or "carbon comp" this or "boutique" that, anymore. It's mostly just hype anyway.
Look carefully at the feet of most pro players, and you're more than likely to find some Boss, or other quality mass produced pedals sitting there......
I always use cheap carbon batteries, they make most od's sound smoother, less harsh. And if you take care they'll last for ages.

Not necessary.

I'd get this again if stolen, I can get it anywhere :-)
This sounds better, than all the expensive boutique and modded od pedals I have ever tried.
Save your money and try this, you may be glad you did...
Here's a thought... How come you don't see anyone offering mods for this pedal on the net? Answer: 'cause it's fine just the way it is.
I'm selling all my other od's now.
Also, a rating of average 9, at 88 reviews, is pretty good for a Boss od, don't ya think?
Most reviewers here are unanimous: They got it right at last!!

same as all other overdrives, duhh.

i use a marshall 900 50 w head on stage and i also love yngwie malmsteen,
i have his signature o/d aswell as his guitar and pickups, so i am comparing my new o/d to his.
the difference being, i dont lose any bottom end (good for outdoor shows)
allthough the compression in the od-3 lacks that stratty wild malmsteen vibrato, apart from that they are both very similar (arent all overdrives though?)

you better believe it baby!

heres some advice....
go to a music store,
buy it
if it breaks take it back......

ive been playing for about 20 years now, i play shred guitar, the best way to use this o/d is to run your amps gain at around halfway hot, do the same with the od-3 and you will find how it was meant to be played!
it really helps me get a smooth desireable tone and is warmer than the dod yjm 308 o/d, i do like the tone feature on it too,
its only as noisy as any other o/d pedal,
a final word on this unit, dont go out and buy distortion pedals, they kill your sound totally, get this and you wont be dissapointed, its better than the sd-1.
great for shredders, i play in a cover act and it doesnt let me down.

Standard set-up : Volume, tone and gain knob. Basic stuff...

Oh Yeah! In my opinion this is one of the best mass produced overdrive pedals currently on the market! I've tried a lot of overdrive pedals over the last few years and nothing has come close to the instant gratification I got from this. The first thing you notice is the fact that you don't lose bottom end like a lot of other pedals and the fine balance of transparency to colour, not too transparent, just right. The od-3 is also very versatile so you can go from a slight crunch to rockin' your pants off, and it's also got a lot of headroom in the volume department as well. Forget your ts-9's, kealey mod's, ts808's and all that other overhyped stuff.

Most guitar pedals made in metal cases will last you a life time unless you treat them mean. I've still got my original Od-1 and Ce-2 from about 1981, both work perfectly. In my 20 plus years of playing I have never had a pedal break down on me so yes I do and will keep gigging without back up's.

I've been playing for 22 years I've tried ts-9's, hotcakes, sd-1's, ts808's, fulltone's with dissapointing result's. The Boss OD-3 along with Pro co's RAT, Nobels ODR-1 and my trusty Boss OD-1 are my fave's. I play in an original indy guitar pop band and also play in cover band's to make money. If your after an overdrive pedal try the OD-3, you won't be dissapointed.

Very easy to use, once you get the amount of drive you want, you can then adjust the with the tone control to get that "sweet spot".

I use either an American delux Tele or a 1985 PRS and run through a Peavey Blues Classic. This unit is not noisy and seems to do nothing to my tone or input when it is off. This pedal is good for rich creamy overdrive/distortion with very little buzzyness. I wish the sustain at lower volumes was better but this may be unrealistic. I think that the David Gilmore sound is obtainable with this as are those SRV squalky blues tones (if your using a Strat or PRS). It can get some good rock distortion tones with single coils or humbuckers. My favorite artists range from Hendrix, Clapton 1967-1971, Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, My Bloody Valentine, The Verve, Smiths, The Vines, Strokes, Bowies first two guitarists (Ronson and whats his name) and so forth

I have only had it for 4 months.

Never have had to deal with Boss

My music is original psychodelic folk rock. Been playing for over 35 years (jeez). I would definitly buy this pedal again. I've used preamp distortion and an old Digitech pds pedal, and an old rat (1970's) in the past but I like this so far the best. I've tried reissue TS-9 and it seemed just a tad bit subtle for me. I would like to compare a DS-1 to this pedal.

knobs and simplicity, two big reasons why I bought it.

I play a MIM fender telecaster.
I like to run a CS-3 infront of it to sharpen the attack,
and a GE-7 after to fine tune the tone.
really lets my hear my own fingers (where real tone is).
I love it!!!! makes my blues driver sound thin and weak!!!
lets not even talk about the sd-1. It's sad to know that I haven't bought it sooner.

It sounds really good going into the rest of my effects. I don't think I could ask for a better overdrive than this.

Boss makes the most dependable, mainstream pedals on the market.

very helpfull with my GT-5.

I'll play anything. rock, funk, blues, hardcore, electronica, alternative, ambient, shoegaze/dreampop, you name it I can feel it. This pedal can do it all. If you like true tone... buy this.
I might even try to two OD-3's for a metal sound or a solo boost.

I gave it a 9 because I won't sing me to sleep at night.

It's a pretty simple layout, 3 knobs, like a tubescreamer or a dozen other overdrives. The manual is fine, but one wouldn't need it. I've heard the Boss OD-1 and OD-2, this is a completely different unit. Much better in my opinion. The tone knob is the key to dial in your own sound preferences.

I currently use this with an American Strat with red, silver, and blue Lace Sensors and a Tech 21 Trademark 60. However, it works well with my Les Paul, Am. Tele, Marshall JCM 800 combo and Nomad 45 combo. It really does the tight crunch sound well. The great thing about this pedal is that is has the right low end (bass) sound; (Tight and crunchy). It can be smooth with the tone turned lower, or bright and tight with the tone turned up. The main reason I'm doing this review is that I want to let tonemeisters know about a good sounding overdrive at a reasonable price. I don't care for any of Boss's other pedals (especially the distortion/overdrives), however I think their delay pedals are good. I use the DD-6.

So far I've had no problems. I don't need a backup as I could turn the amp's volume knob down for a reasonable crunch sound.

Never dealt with the company other than buy their products. The pedals seem very reliable. I bought mine on Ebay.

I play rock and blues. The OD-3 is excellent for those tones. It's not a super high gain distortion pedal, but it does have more gain and much better low end than, for example, a TS9 (I have one and have A/B'd them). I've been playing for 25 years. This is one of the best, reasonably priced overdrive pedals I've had and heard. I would definitely buy another one if this one were lost. The thing I like the best about it is that it has a decent low end. The bottom isn't sucked out like many of the old overdrives did. I don't hate anything about it. The battery life is good also. I compared it to a TS9, a Fulldrive II, a Zoom Power Drive (PD-1), and a Boss OD-2. The FD2 and The PD-1 are also great ODs, but The OD-3 is not as pricey as a FD2 and is still being made, unlike the Zoom PD-1.

this thing is so simple to use. three nobs. volume, tone and gain

ok. i used to use a rat and sd1 . both amazing pedals. ive got and epiphone les paul with seymour duncans on. my amp is a valvestate 150. not the best amp but it does the job. anyway so i try the od3...OH MY LORDY!! This thing is the best thing i have ever used! with the gain on full it gets really rocking but at the same time it remains nice and clear and creamy. i also have a ts9 and the od3 sounds so much better. with the gain rolled all the way off it gives a lovely mellow crisp sound. i also use the sd1 to boost it, this sends it into meltdown! i love this thing. the rat is now gone from my board. well done boss!

its a boss?!

im into big soundscapes. i love delay and reverb so i use loads of it. i love feedback. with this pedal with all of the delays and reverbs my sound never gets muddy. every note is crystal clear. the tone really reacts to the way you play. and the feedback this thing gives off is lovely. overall a very warm sounding, creamy yellow little box of pure joy. i give it a ten overall because i have finally found the overdrive ive always been looking for. thank you boss.

Very easy to use. Standard Boss stompbox with 3 knobs (Level, Drive and Tone).

Very easy to get a good sound, provided you've bought the pedal for the right purpose (see below).

This pedal produces the best warm overdrive sound that Ive ever heard. Its rounded, responds to my playing and can produce everything from a nice broken clean sound to a thick overdrive. That may sound a little limited but it thats what its for and it does it very well.

I purchased this pedal to give me "that sound" between the 2 channels on my valve combo i.e. clean and saturated valve distortion. I play a lot of tunes where this sound is required (U2, counting crows etc.)The OD3 does this perfectly. Whilst its basic tone is different to that of my amp distortition, because the OD3's tone is so round/full it compliments it.

Boss claim that this unit does sound like a valve amp. I disagree. Whilst it is the best OD Ive heard, its not quite as warms as true valves.

Previously, Ive used a Rat, Turbo Rat, Guvnor, various DOD pedals and a DS1. The OD3 beats them all. Whilst all the others produced a high-gain sound, they were all too harsh and toneless.

A lot a reviewers claim that this should strictly be used to overdrive valve amps. I dont think so. It drives my valve amp well but can also be used as a stand alone overdirve pedal.

Havent had it long but it is Boss. My previous boss fx have lasted me a lifetime.

see above

A great pedal that does 1 trick, but EXTREMELY well. It produces a good, warm OD. Its doesnt go to extremes so beware to anyone who wants saturated sounds.

If you want a pedal to ruffle your current sound - this is it.

all said before, it cannot get easier...

I haven't found a distortion/overdrive pedal that I liked enough, until I got this one. It won't do very high gain, but it's perfect for classic rock and blues etc. Smoother overdrive than other pedals, either in front of an amp (Electar Century 60RD, with a Celestion Century speaker, very under-rated solid state amp with valve preamp), or even in front of my V-Amp for headphone practice and recording!
It respects the tone of the guitar like no other pedal... and switches on/off smoothly without clicks.
If you want mainly heavy metal sounds, this will not be to your liking. But if you want a more warm, less overdriven, classic rock sound, this is the best I've listened to. And at this price you cannot hesitate, unlike those "boutique" pedals...
I give it a 9 for sound.

Never had a problem with a Boss pedal, other than the battery terminal breaking eventually (after much abuse over the years!) but that's more to do with the treatment I give it than the construction. Boss pedals last forever. If there's a nuclear world war, afterwards there'd only be cockroaches... and Boss pedals.

For classic rock, blues etc... if you want a smooth overdrive sound and don't care for tons of gain, this pedal may be for you. It certainly does it for me, but your ears may tell you otherwise... everybody's idea of good tone is a bit different.
I have a rackmount Boss GX700 (preamp/fx) that includes a number of distortions/overdrives based on Boss' own models. I had previously own a Metal Zone MT-2 (good metal pedal, but no good for any other style) and a Distortion DS-1, which I found too harsh. The sounds of the GX700 matched well those of the pedals. Among the overdrives in the Boss there was an "Vintage OD" that was very very nice. It sounds very much like the Boss OD-3, but the OD-3 is a bit smoother. I'd get another one if I lost it, without a doubt.
The sounds, with the price, makes this pedal very good value, hence the top marks. The fact that I can use it in front of my V-Amp and still sounds good was an unexpected bonus... Best od pedal I've heard.. It approximates very well the ideal sound I have in my head, which for #35 is fantastic.

three knobs, a switch, nice and simple, as it should be. Hell, doesn't even need the tone knob.

This is an excellent pedal for signal boosting, and as I've found out, for either tube or tranny amps(much better for tubes though). The first thing that got my attention was the transparency of the sound. It doesn't color the tone from the original, only adding overdrive. I mainly use it to slam the signal down the front of the amp, usually switching off and on DURING a lead to accentuate certain parts. The amp I'm using is a Marshall JCM 800 2210 (100 watt brutal MONSTER of an amp that I've reviewed elsewhere) and the guitars I'm using are an Ibanez RG 7-string, USA old bolt-neck BC Rich Bich, and Fender strat. In the last few years I've gotten away from using Hot-as-Hell pickups because they (a) don't work well for clean tones and (b) usually have no bite, definition, or clarity. Both the Ibanez and Bich are running Duncan JB's, slightly lowered, with the front pickups wired as singles. The Strat is stock. I've found that using this setup, while backing off the gain a bit on the Marshall and using the OD-3 still retains that "bite" with a good punchy articulate tone.

This thing was used, beat up, and old when I got it. Sounds good. So does my Boss Chorus (it looks even worse!). I think you would have to intentionally destroy it. I wouldn't need a back up because, quite frankly, I don't depend on effects too much. I most often just plug straight into the Marshall, 'nuff said.

Never dealt, probably won't need to.

I've played a little bit of everything in the past, mainly rock, blues, metal, etc. My current band is Death Metal, and yes, I'm a shredder. I've found that when playing at such high speeds, it's best for me to back off the distortion a bit and not use high-output pickups (I know I'm going to catch hell for this!). It creates good definition when picking at stupid fast speeds, and keeps you honest (in other words, lets you know right away when you're making a mistake). The OD-3 provides me with a good signal boost (all the knobs are at around noon, by the way) when I need it, and breaks up the clean channel when I need a good classic rock/blues sound. I'm about to get a DOD 250 for the hell of it, just to compare the two. However, this particular pedal does exactly what I wanted it to do as it is.

volume, Drive, Tone. Only minus point is that i like to turn the knobs with my feet, and the tone gets tricky, but still no marks off for that!

Roland Spirit 30 > zoom505II (for temporary modulation) > TU-2 > RAT II > OD-3 > MXR Phase 100 > USA Strat

Noise: doesnt make a noise when off, but when on, makes more buzzing the higher the gain/tone which is expected

I like to utrn the gain low down sometimes, to dirty up my clean tone a bit for Nirvana songs, and higher gain setting sound dirty but clear - beautiful

note: this is definnitley not a distortion. i wouldnt try to get away with this as distortion

Like all boss pedals, heavy handling wont damage the shell or affect it.

Ive never had any internal problems with it, or any other boss pedals

(i wish i could say the same for electro-harmonix!)

I use without backup. I try to chose pedals in wihc i dont need a back up

never needed to

I play blues, metal, grunge, indie rock and other styles. This is not a metal pedal, however, when paired with fuzz or distortion can suit your needs.
Ive been electric guitar for over 3 years and this pedal inspired me to start getting pedals whose quality can match it.

Very easy. No explanation required.

I use this pedal with bass. I have always been very unhappy with the quality of most bass overdrive pedals. They compensate for crap tonality by adding extra eq (see Boss Bass Overdrive). This pedal is excellent in terms of creating a natural, full-frequency overdrive sound for bass. There is no bass drop, and the unit can be used as a subtle level or tone lift, through to a barking grunty sound. I searched long and hard for a pedal that would sound this natural - imagine my surprise when I discovered that the Boss Overdrive would give me joy.

I would rely on it always. Boss has that one advantage in its favour; in the case of most of its pedals, that's the only advantage.

I imagine Boss would be excellent. They're sold everywhere, aren't they?

With this pedal years of searching came to an end. It's a great subtle overdrive that can be a little boost or a lot of very musical dirt. I use other pedals for other functions, but the Boss OD-3 is ideal for a basic, strong overdrive.

3 knobs, with pretty obvious functions. no secrets, no need for tinkering with it

I use a single coil Fender American Standard Strat and it produces little noise, even on the highest drive setting. Sounds almost perfect, it has some anoying highs with the tone knob turned up, but i guess that's what it's for. Otherwise, perfect overdrive sound, with good dynamc response, turn down the volume and it cleans up just like a tube amp

Awesome pedal, use it for some twangy rock 'n roll sound or as a booster pedal. I also like for adding some mids to my MD-2 Mega distiotion pedal, i use the overdrive before the md-2, with both turned on the distortion gets punkish, with it off it goes back to metal.

3 knobs. Not too tough. The crazy thing is, when I first plugged it in, straight out of the box, the thing sounded amazing... I didn't even have to putz around with it. It's got a manual, but really, there's no need to read it, the pedal tells you what everything does.

I primarily use a Fender Telecaster -> Rotosphere -> TU-2 -> DD-3 -> FZ-2 -> OD-3 -> Fender Ultimate Chorus. Frankly, you don't need a tube amp, it doesn't need to be a booster, this pedal sounds amazing on its own. I originally bought it for a signal booster, but when I cranked it up and started playing I practially pooped. It was so clear, and yet so awesomely raunchy. Mind you, I play a lot of classic rock like The Stones, Clapton, but with an extra gain boost you could use this thing to play Nirvana tunes if you wanna... I know, I've tried. It's incredibly versitile.

I own a ton of Boss distortion style pedals including the OS-2 and the DS-2. To this day I have no idea why I bought them, I could never get a good sound out of them. I had almost given up on Boss' distortion units until I bought this pedal. You play chords and you hear every note. You lead, and your picking doesn't get lost in mud. I run the FZ-2 in gain boost mode, and with OD-3 cranked up you get the smoothest rock and roll tone ever. I've never been happier with a distortion unit.

I own TONS of boss pedals. The ones I bought back with I was 13 still work. Amazing.

Never had to call them

For stright up rock and roll, you'll never find a better pedal. It's got great warmth to it, and as stated above, it's clear as a bell. Don't buy this pedal expecting to play Limp Bizkit tunes, you'll get pissed.

I've been playing for quite a while now, and I'll say this, if this pedal were lost and or stolen, I would cry myself to sleep every night until I could get a new one.

This is my new favorite pedal. Pure and simple.

I think I'm going to go use it right now.

Same controls as all the others. Nothing new here, dead simple. However, the Level control is very sensitive around 9 o'clock, and it can quickly get too loud for me.

This is currently my favorite overdrive pedal. Although I am not as much of a expert as some who have written here (I have not owned any of the famous boutique pedals, except the Tonebone Classic, which I hated) I have been playing at a professional level long enough to know what I like. As others have noticed, this pedal sounds better with some amps than with others. This is true of all pedals. When I first got this pedal, my intention was to use it as a boost/slight dirt injector into my tube amps/preamps. With my HRDlx, not very good results (preamp distortion only, I don't play that loudly), with my Tech21 Trademark 60, also disappointing. With my Hughes and Kettner Tubeman, wow! GREAT combination! In contrast, a cheap Carvin TO1 (a Tubescreamer ripoff) sounded MUCH better with both the Fender and the Tech21. This is precisely because of the bass rolloff that Tubescreamer clones introduce. That EQ curve is no accident, folks. Trimmed bass usually helps an overdrive pedal cut through when used to drive an already distoring tube amp. The OD3 does NOT cut off your bass, so in these situations it may not be the right tool for the job. I believe Boss designed the OD3 to have a flat EQ in order to contrast it with its many other overdrive pedal which DID have this built-in curve (OD1, SD1, OD2, etc)
Where the OD3 has really come to shine for me, though, has been as a primary distortion generator, not as a booster. With the gain up to 3 o'clock, tone at about 12 noon, running into a clean amp (solid state or tube) I find the OD3 has an absolutely beautiful character. My biggest criteria: pickup transparency. Does my guitar still sound like my guitar, and do my pickup settings still sound distinctive, yet do I have sustain and a singing quality? With the OD3, the answer is YES for me. This simply was not true of so many overdrive pedals and tube preamps I have tried over the last 25 years, including the $225 Tonebone Classic. Once that pedal saturated, I literally could not tell the difference between different guitars or pickup settings, regardless of where I set the EQ controls on the pedal.
Oh, and the OD3 really rips if you hit it with another overdrive set to slight boost/slight dirt. My Carvin works OK in that roll for now (I'm looking for something less noisy). This combination still gives me pickup transparency, but with mondo sustain and harmonics. GREAT controllable feedback (but use a volume pedal after the OD3).

It's a Boss. I've never broken one before. It's a time-tested, classic chassi.

NA

I highly recomment this pedal for players of blues, jazz, classic rock, country, and for anyone who wants a lead sound that is just like their clean sound, but with sustain and a singing quality, but without fuzz. Not for metal or nu-rock.

Easy to use, three knobs, in out, switch, a basic od box.

This is my rig, B-bender teles, boss BWah, ross phaser, two Od3's, first with gain on 0, as a boost, second with gain on 6, akai phaser, maxon chorus, ibanez sd9 modded, carl martin delayluh, sometimes zfex seek wah, into a boomerang, then boss volume, finally into a fender 75 combo with a boogie 1x12 cab. Let me say that the od3's are one of the best od boxes out there. I have owned fulltones, keely's, and many others, and the od3 just sounds more musical to me. I hear people bashing "cheap" pedals all the time, but this one's a keeper. With two of these, I can get almost any sound I need. The only reason I need the sd9 is for scott henderson like grit, and that's only once in a while. The key is using two of these together. You can have a nearly clean boost, and a light to moderate od, and then run them together and get a singing lead sound that's very Robben Fordlike. With the fender amp and guitars, I can get a very warm blues sound that makes spectators seem to enjouy themselves.

I've played over 200 gigs with these pedals, and they still work fine.

I just want to urge people to stop beleiving the hype of all the overpriced boxes out there, and go back to judging woith your ears. The greats bought their fx because they sounded good, not because someone else told them the only way to sound good is to buy $300 boxes. I love the fulltone, barber and analogman units, but I don't have the cash, and I don't think I need it. The od3's are a close aproximation to any of the aforemensioned pedals, and they make me feel musical every time I plug them in. The only real way to sound like an individual is to find a rig that fits you, and the od3 fits me. Check it out!!

Very easy to use. Three knobs (level, tone and drive) and no more.

I use it with an American Standard Strato and a Tech 21 Trademark 60 amplifier.
It' s very loud (much more than SD1 or TS9) and it's very good as booster as overdrive. You can regulate in very sharp and progressive way the level of driving turning the drive knob after fixing the level one or vv.

No problems. It'a a tank like other boss pedals.

Never needed it.

I play blues and classic rock. I've been playing 'bout 20 years but I'm not a prof musician. I use some Boss effect like CH1 Super Chorus, DD3 Digital Delay and a Dunlop Wha Cry Baby. What I love of it is the warm sound which is never too dry (medium-high) and it's perfect for create vintage sound like '70 and '80.

easy. manual useless as is all manuals for pedals this simple

if you're looking for something to take a good overdriven amp over the top this is the pedal to get. no noticeable bass drop like the SD-1 and awesome as a boost [and much louder than my Maxon OD-9]. don't see any need to get this modded. less noisy than the SD-1

I play raunchy overdriven stuff [Marshall, Hiwatt, Orange, humbuckers] Get this pedal if you want to push you're already sweet overdriven tone.

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.

Well... three knobs, something to step on to turn on/off, input/output. Few pedals are simpler.

Oh yeah. And I mean - OH YEAH. This pedal is much like a beautiful women in many ways - it just leaves you stunned, awe-struck and excited, all in one. Smooth, sustain-driven OverDrive that is much better than either OD-1/OD-2 - I've had em both, there's nothing like this one. I use it with an MXR Dist+ - the sound is great. I run to a Roland JC-50 and use a Gibson SG Standard - I love it. Lots.

The OD-1 I had was 21-years old, stained and faded, still worked like it was fresh from the factory. Now THAT'S good design, so good in fact they haven't needed to change it. And why not.. it ain't broke...

AC/DC, Led Zep, Deep Purple. This pedal is almost custom built for classic rock and blues, just dial it in and there you go. It's not gritty or metallic. I like it smooth and dripping harmonics - and it does. Perhaps the finish BOSS non-modulation pedal ever.

Very easy. One tone one volume one overdrive knob.

I use it with my kustom 16r. It's a killer amp with an avg overdrive, but it's kind of muddy. The Od 3 is just unbelievable. It made it sound so much better without added noise like other overdrive pedals. It sound so much better that Dod pedals.

Don't know but hope it lasts. I've got a feeling I'm going to use it alot.

Never dealt with them.

I don't know what it is, but I think they have something here. The built in overdrive in most solid state amps just doesn't cut it. I don't understand why solid state amp manufacturers couldn't make the overdrive section sound like this. I got this because, I don't like to deal with tubes...you have to replace them every few months which could get very expensive if you overdrive your tubes and play alot. I guess this is a cheap way around it.

Easy,easy, easy.
Don't even need manual.(Unless you are a newbie).

I have a strat with Lace Sensor Hot Gold (very good pups)and a boogie mkIII. It sounds....great. Not only on boogie but in every amps that I tried. The best part is that it has sustainnnnnnn but keeps your dInAmiCs intact:) happy, happy, joy, joy! It doesn't cut your bass balls tone at all, It is all there. I can play almost any kind of music with it (not for death, speed, etc metal, it is an overdrive, not a distortion).

I'm a professional musician and never had any problems with boss pedals ( and never heard about it from friends too).

Never needed.

I've been playing for 20......wow.....years. I think this is one of the best overdrive out there. I've been (and still)using the RAT distortion and was looking for something different. OD-3 became my main overdrive.
If you usually don't like boss overdrive/distortion pedals, try this one. I think it has more "air" than others.

This, being my first pedal, took me a while to dial in a sound that I really liked. The most difficult part of setting up this pedal is dialing in the tone to match the EQ of your amp, but the rest is simple.

I run a Peavey Predator into Vox Pathfinder 15, which has a decent, but not great gain channel. Originally I used the pedal to boost the gain on the Vox, but the sound was really harsh. After fiddling around, I found that this pedal sounds best with the amp on clean. I run the Level to match the output of my amp, the Tone at 1 o' clock, and with the Drive set at 12 o' clock, it produces a really smooth and creamy overdrive. For a cleaner, but still dirty sound, I dial the Drive down to 9 o' clock. This pedal consistently sounds great for alternative rock, which I mostly play. The sound isn't grainy enough for punk though. I don't know how much it sounds like a tube amp, or how good it sounds with a tube amp, but it made my amp sound heaps better!

I haven't done any gigs with it yet, but I take pretty good care of it. I've seen some pretty beat up Boss pedals that still work, so I'm pretty sure mine will be around for many years to come.

I've been playing guitar for about 9 years now, consisting mostly of alternative rock (i.e Smashing Pumpkins, Bush). This pedal recreates the Pumpkins sound very nicely. I've never had a fancy setup, and am still using the guitar I learned how to play on, but I'll most likely still be using this pedal after I upgrade my other gear. I love how this pedal keeps the tone of my guitar and amp. The transition when the pedal is activated is super smooth. This pedal lives up to what Boss claims about maintaining the bass. Although I haven't compared this pedal to any other pedals, when I read about the OD-3 being better than the Tube Screamer, I was quite convinced about getting it. It seems that the TS9 has more to its name than its sound, especially since most people have it modded to get the sound they want. I haven't read about any mods for this pedal yet. I only wish that the pedal came with the AC adaptor so I wouldn't have to fork out more money. I'd be really pissed off if I had to replace this pedal since I got a great deal on a great pedal. I think that in 10 years, this yellow box will replace the green one in many guitarists' setup. I'm very happy with this investment.

Muito simples e pratico. Os controles tem bom alcance e a versatilidade e imensa.

Les Paul Custom / Fender American Standard>Wha Onner>TS-10 compressor
>Od-3>Danelectro Fab Tone>Danelectro Daddy-O>Danelectro Fish E Ships Equalizer>Chorus Oliver CE-30(Roland)>A/B Box>Korg GT-3 Tuner>Fender Twin Reverb. Soa muito bem em qualquer regulagem e combina com o Twin. Overdrive gordo e claro sem aquela ponta de agudo "fuzzy" irritante da maioria dos pedais de overdrive.

Boss e sinonimo de qualidade.

Nunca precisei.

Eu toco Rock'n Roll ha 20 anos e sempre procurei um bom som "crunch"
sem muito sucesso. Testei varios pedais e optei pelo Daddy-O pela versatilidade, mas n?o gosto muito de seu drive sujo, com aquela ponta de agudo irritante. o Tubescreamer e bom mas e muito medio.Ja tive o OS-2, mas era muito barulhento. Queria algo mais "gordo" e com mais definic?o. escutei a demo de todos os overdrives no site da Boss e me impressionei com o OD-3, que e mais potente e mais definido que os outros. ent?o fui a loja e encontrei um usado em estado de novo por 150,00 reais(+/- Us$ 50,00),
uma pechincha. Testei com outros pedais na loja e vi que era exatamente o que eu queria. N?o vai sair da minha pedaleira, e se estragar ou extraviar, eu compro outro. Agora ele ocupa o lugar do Daddy-O, que vai para o armario enfeitar a prateleira, pois o OD-3 e tudo o que eu preciso em materia de Overdrive. Para o som "podre", quando necessario, permanece o FabTone, que eu apelidei de "mosquito do inferno" pelo fuzz radical que proporciona (muito melhor que muitos "distortions" e "fuzzes" que andam por ai). Acho que, agora com o OD-3, esta resolvido meu problema de Overdrive. o Som e "quente", n?o embola, tem um belo agudo e n?o e muito medio, ent?o n?o parece que voce esta tocando atraves de um tubo de esgoto na privada da sua casa. Muito bom.

Very easy to use. I actually like using the controls on this pedal. I only want an overdrive pedal to add extra gain to my Marshall's lead channel. Just some extra oomph! Most pedals I've used - Reverend DriveTrain and Boss SD-1 - to name a couple were just not right. I couldn't really add much gain - maybe just some volume or the tone would just tank. So I basically had one setting - tiny bit of gain, a good bit of volume and tone set even as possible. Well with the OD-3 that is not a problem. I have varied the tone knob some depending on what I'm going for. I also can add alot more gain from the pedal. It works great and it just sounds like am just driving my amp harder. I didn't get a manual with it but it you can't figure it out well...you shouldn't be playing. Simple and perfect features for an overdrive pedal.

I use this with 3 Strats, 1 SG standard and a Marshall JCM800 halfstack plus a Dunlop 535Q, Boss CE-5 (and soon maybe a Boss TU-2 and DD-3). That will be all for my setup - pretty simple but lots of options for me. This pedal sounds great. It is just like kicking my amp into more overdrive. It has great sustain and nice gain. I actually prefer the Boss tone to that in the tubescreamers and tubescreamer clones I've tried or owned before. It just makes me happy to set on a pedal it to sound right. I use my guitar volume knob and this pedal along with just the usual Marshall grit from my amp to go for semi-clean (which is all I need) to heavy metal tones (not thrash or death metal). It is just what the doctor ordered tonally. I have also owned Boss' DS-1 and DS-2 and neither of those comes close to this - the only other pedal I've had that I liked was the Boss SD-1 but that lost too much bass and had too much gain. The OD-3 has slightly less gain - although I still never go past 12 o'clock - and the bass frequencies aren't lost when you kick it on. Excellent for Drop D heavy shit like Soundgarden. The whole thing boss says about dual stage overdrive...read the web site. Well whatever that says maybe true but when they say it keeps more frequencies intact and is the fullest sounding overdrive they've ever made - they ain't lying.

It is a Boss pedal. These things are basically indestructable - I had one once have a faulty switch. I called roland and got one shipped out for like $4 including shipping. Popped it in the pedal and no problems after that. That is my boss "horror story" - which isn't even the slightest bit scary. These are great pedals.

When I called to get the switch (it was a few years back for a different pedal than the OD-3) they were very nice and helpful. I got a prompt response and the replacement switch was sent quickly. Not a problem here.

I have tried quite a few distortion/overdrive pedals out to find the right one. I may not have tried the boutique ones from Fulltone or others but so far this is the best Overdrive pedal for me. It works with me and adds to my tone (not take away). I think my search for an overdrive pedal ends here. It works great for all kinds of music from bluesy rock and classic rock to old school heavy metal. Not a thrash toy - it doesn't make you tone sound like the middle is sucked out. It fits into my rig nicely and when I step on it - I get what I want from an overdrive. If it were stolen - I'd get another. It is an intregal part of my rig now. The prices for these used are great and value wise you can't go wrong. Ones thing I'd like to add - this isn't a TubeScreamer clone - it is similar in ways but it doesn't sound like a tubescreamer. That is good in my case because I like it to be different. But if you want the TubeScreamer sound look at the Ibanez reissues or even the modded ones from Analog Man and others. This pedal offer great gain from driving a tube amp that little extra.

1) remove from box
2) connect cables , axe and amp
3) twiddle knobs
4) done.

Setup: Fender Tele Plus w/ Lace sensors, MXR Commande overdrive ( not real common, pots and jacks replaced) Boss OD-3, Boss FZ-3, MXR flanger, Danelectro PB&J, ( all stompboxes are in a custom road case with dual power supplies) Roland JC-60.

It's a tank. I've been using my effects ( in a road case) without backup for years, though I do have an old Korg multi-effects the keyboard player's using that I'd grab from him if the rig died.

Never dealt with Boss.

I play, rock, blues, country, and whatever the crowd requests. It's easy to cover most styles with my rig. The JC-60's not quite loud enough for big rooms but that's what the P.A.'s for. Of course, the Roland's distortion's a joke, but that's why I got the OD-3. I mostly play rhythm at the moment, and this pedal covers that pretty well. I have the FZ-3 fuzz for 60's-style stuff and with the OD-3 feeding the fuzz pedal I can get some pretty good sustain going. I use the MXR overdrive by itself mostly because it's too noisy to drive the other pedals. It gets some nice SRV-Albert Collins sounds though. I need to add chorus pedal ( the JC-60 chorus is OK but adds a lot of hiss) and a noise gate soon. I tried out the Boss Blues Driver at the same time as this pedal and the OD-3 works much better with my Tele.
I don't use this setup for recording though - I have a V-Amp 2 for that.

Three knobs, very easy to use. There are some suggested settings in the manual, which are good, but it's not hard to find your own sound.

I'm using this overdrive togheter with my japanese fender strat and fender twin reverb amp. Great sound!!! From very little overdrive all the way too full overdrive. Sound is best described as warm, creamy round overdrive. The effect works good both for low frequncies as well as all the wa up the neck. There is not any noticable noise that I can hear. The music I play is mostly rock/blues and this pedal gives me a great sound!

It won't break. Very though pedal. It's a boss. You know.

Haven't dealt with them.

Great pedal! Should work for almost any kind of music. I thought it was a bit expensive, but it's worth the money, I promise! I would get a new one if I lost this one a.s.a.p.

Very good pedal!! The sound thats comes out of it is awesome.

Well, I'm using a Les Pauls, to the OD3, to a Boss DD-5 Delay, through foot board, to my Flextone II. Not noisy at all, now, after about 8 months actually, it's really starting to get on my nerves. I'm not sure, but either the Input or Output is not working. I haven't opened it up yet, I'm just going to bring it back, and get another one. The effects always sound great though. Artists you want to sound like, pick one, you can most likely tweak it out to sound like them, from Sum41 to Ozzy.

Could depend on it b4, but not now, it just doesn't want to put out the sound very well, it crackles a lot, so I'm getting it replaced as soon as possible.

Haven't dealt with them yet, we'll see in a couple of days if I need to.

I play anything and everything, and this pedal does the same. I've been playing for about 2 years now, and this is such a versatile pedal. If it were stolen or lost, I'd definately replace it. It's broken now and I'm going to get it replaced, so that tells you a lot. I love everything about this pedal, but I hate that it doesn't work now, I have to use the flextone's distortion now, and I agree it sounds good, but I love my OD3. I tried all of the distortion and overdrive pedals around the range or 75 to 130 canadian, and this came out the best.

the OD-3 is real easy to use and i love the sound of it ( my band on the other hand, well just my guitarist so far ) it gives great low end response and the drive sounds perfect to me

ive got a cort NB 5 through a yorkville 200t theres a bit of treb buzz that i dont like but hell nothing perfect

i havent had it long its my first pedle and i keep forgeting to take the input cable out so it drains my batterie but other than my own stupidity i find it reliabil

i myself play heavey and or death metaland its a great match.
ive been playing for 2 years and ive just got my bass, amp and bought pedel.if it were stolen id prob buy a new one or maybe try the digitech bassdriver.

Very easy to use

Very good - like it a lot, different from TS-9 and more flexible and transparent
The drummer said he likes it best, even if I play through an SS amp
My set up is simple Nashville tele (clapton strat) - od3 - delay - amp

Very good pedal -- I tried the Boss Blues driver too - od2 is what I chose.

Three knobs; very easy

I use an Ernie Ball Axis into a Bad Horsie 2 Wah, Boss OD-3, Boss TU-2, Line 6 MM4 to Boss NS-2 into a Marshall TSL60 head powering a Laney 4 X 12 with Celestion G12M70's. I also run a Boss GE-7 and Boss RV-3 into the Effects loop. I play in an original Hard Rock/Metal Band http://www.cree8music.com. I orignally used my TSL lead channel as my main channel and used the GE-7 EQ as limiter, disengaging the GE-7 for leads. I bought in an attempt to limit the amount of amp noise playing live by dialing down my preamp gain and adding overdrive before my noise suppression. But, I was completely blown away at what this pedal does to my sound. I set the Level to 7, Tone at 3.5 and Drive at .5-1 and it transforms my crunch channel into my ideal sound. It really fattens up the sounds and add tons of sustain with drives my preamp tubes to the perfect amount of distortion. I was going to purchase a Way Huge Green Rhino or a Fulltone Distortion Pro, but the Boss OD-3 surprised me and delivered everything I wanted.

I've never had any problems with anything from Boss, except their ME-5 until, which is built much different than their stomp box pedals.

Never dealt with the company, sold the ME-5 that was giving me trouble.

This is really a great "overdrive pedal," which is not designed to act as a distortion pedal. If you have a tube preamp and you're looking to add some depth and sustain. I highly recommend checking out the OD-3 before buying a boutique overdrive pedal. I would definitely replace it, it if were lost or stolen.

its a 10

holy shit this od pedal ever
ok i have gone through pedal hell inthe past three months just to name a few(marshall bb2 ok but kills picking dynamics to compresed but it was ok. dano daddyo man that thing sucked donkey balls it sounds like a shity SS amp a relly shity one BOSS DS1 coll byt to thin for a powerful rethem sound 1967 tone bender cool for fuzz but only fuzz but that is what it dose) but the worst thing is i sold my BD2 for the daddyo i saw tom petty with a daddyo so i thought it would sound good the bd2 was cool but this is much much better i was at a who concert a couple months ago best show of my life and eh had a od3 on stage this nals his powerful tone not one single unusible sound in this thing
my bands style is like weezer the cars the who the stones the jam oasis alittle beatlesish raw powerful rock
my amp VOX AC30 guitars epi casino and teles
dose not get much beter
god bless this pedal

i know i sound original ITS A BOSS

it kicks ass
raw powerful rock sound

Three knobs, level, tone and drive. Very easy to use and very easy to get a good sound out of. Manual is fairly short but it's not needed.

Epi SG400 with DiMarzio pickups through a Marshall MG30RCD. It actually gives quite a similar sound to the gain on the Marshall. I use it when i need a bit of extra gain or for solos. It really does give a really good sound for rock and the tone and drive knobs really give you a good variety of rock sounds. Wound not cut it for metal but there's other pedals for that.

Its a brick. I dont even know how you could break it.

Havent had to use them.

I play rock but i like to hear the chords ring out whilst still giving a good rock tone. This really does the job. ive been playing for over 2 years now and i've finally been able to get the great rock sound that you hear guitarists in bands playing. Bit expensive though.

Very simple to get pleasing tones... there are three knobs: level, drive and tone... the manual is very straightforward... easy to work with.

I am currently using a Twin Reverb Reissue (the reason I bought the pedal) with a JV Strat and an American Standard with a rosewood neck. I bought this because my other drive pedals were too tinny, transistorized, or frizzly sounding with my new Twin Reverb. I had similar problems with my Deluxe Reverb. I was using an Ibanez Tube Screamer and more often the Boss BD-2. The BD-2 was not compatible with the Twin Reverb and after reading several favorable reviews of the OD-3 I decided to try it. Man, does it do the job. Very fat, toneful, thick overdrive sounds. It just fattens up the Twin sound (when you need it). Sometimes it is best leavin' the Twin clean but if you need to dirty it up like ZZ Top or some Skynyrd or some Smokin' Joe Kubek, this is the pedal. This Boss OD-3 is much better sounding than the BD-2. The BD-2 was too trebly sounding and seemed to block out the lower frequencies. Not the OD-3 pedal. I won't go so far as to say that it is as fat and thick sounding as the overdrive channel on the Mesa Rectoberb 50 combo amp but it is close!!! I have retired the BD-2 (kind of) and only use it as a volume boost.

I think I can depend on it. I have only had it for a week. I don't have any reason to believe that it is cheaply made. Hold it, let me drop it out of my window. Still it works. It appears to be tank tough. Very durable casing, like my two other Boss pedals.

I never had any reason to deal with the company. Boss has a great web site and they all seem approachable.

I play blues and southern rock. This pedal is a great match. It is very compatible with my Twin Reverb Reissue and Strats. I have been playing electric music for about 10-12 years and to my ears this is a great stompbox. If it were stolen or lost I would definately get a new one. For $79.00 it is a great deal. I love the fact that it is durable, simple and FAT SOUNDING. When I mean FAT I mean that it is full and thick sounding. I compared it to the Ibanez Tube Screamer and Boss BD-2. I also read some very favorable reviews of it. This could be one of the few compatible pedals for use with a Twin Reverb Reissue. Many out there seem to think that most pedals sound too thin with the Twin Reverb Reissue. As much as I like the clean of the Twin Reverb, it offers a nice deviation to the clean. I am very simple and don't like a lot of gizmos and gadgets. Just something to overdrive the amp a bit when needed.

As easy as it gets.

I use big stacks (Marshall Vintage Top, HIWATT DR 103) and too many guitars.
The OD3 isn't noisy, only if you turn up the drive there is a slight hiss, nothing to worry about.

This little puppy is a very special overdrive box. As said before, it leaves all the low end intact (which was the reason for me to buy it, I can't stand that honky Tube-Screamer sound that cuts off the bass.). No mid hump here either. If you turn the Drive down low, the sound is almost indistinguishable from the bypassed clean sound! All settings are usable, the range of the knobs is great.

The gain is in the same ballpark as a Tube-Screamer, but the sound is very different: Natural, open, responsive and clear. Because there is no mid hump, it works great with Humbucker guitars also.

Best results should be achieved with big clean amps. The bass may be too much for some of the smaller or weaker amps.

This is an overdrive, not a distortion unit. If you want that palm muting thing, look elswhere.

BOSS is famous for its reliability. All I can say is, that BOSS pedals are definately the most reliable effects in the western world, much more so than any of the so called boutique stuff!

Don't know, never dealt with them , because I didn't need to. I like their web-site http://www.bossus.com . Nice interactive sound clips and such...

This is definately one of the best overdrive units on the market. I would buy it again. I compared it to my other overdrive pedals, which are a FD2, Marshall BB2, BOSS Blues Driver, Sobbat DB2. I like them all, each has its special value. If you like your bass to be left intact, the BOSS OD3, Marshall BB2 or the Sobbat DB2 all do the job. The Sobbat is a beefed up TubeScreamer (JRC 4558 inside), the Marshall has this wonderful agressive "brown" sound, whereas the OD3 is round and warm, no rough edges here.

Some players don't like a clean overdrive like this, so check it out before you buy it. A alternative might be the BluesDriver, which has more mids and less bass and is more aggressive, almost Fuzz-like when maxed.

Yeah, this thing is too easy to get a happening sound. Just plug your guitar into the input and output it to a clean amp. I've seen some kids plugging Boss pedals into already distorted amps. This is not the way to go, you just end up with mushy pussy sound this way. These pedals are designed to be put in front of good quality clean amps.

Well, the sound is very happening. I actually purchased this to upgrade from my Boss OD2R pedal. The OD2R was okay but it filtered out a lot of the bass frequencies from my sound. The OD-3 DOES NOT filter out your bottom end at all!
I am using this with (in order of placement) Ernie Ball Volume - Jim Dunlop Wah - Boss Blues Driver - Boss OD 3 - Boss Tremolo - Boss Tuner Pedal - Boss Reverb / Dealy - Boss Line Selector. This goes to either a Marshall JTM45 reissue combo or a Peavey Classic 50/410 combo.
Vey much a vintage overdrive sound, very natural and responsive. You dont have to "fight" with this to get it to sing.

Hey it's Boss!! My other pedals have lasted me 6 years without so much as a crackle or a hiss. I'm expecting the same from this pedal

Who knows? I have never had to deal with them

Overall fantastic pedal. Easily as natural and as responsive as an amp's overdrive. Like I said before, the fact that your sound stays in tact and no lower frequencies are cut out when the pedal is engaged is excellent. I can't see a style this would not suit except perhaps "Nu-Metal" and metallica stuff but I don't play that sort of thing anyway. Oh, I'm supposed to give you a big speel about how long I've been playing arn't I? Well, 9 years (and counting) Been playing professionally full time for 3 of those. Yes and if it were stolen I would perform an unaided colon cleansing on the thief using the heel of my foot.

Three knobs. It doesn't get any easier than this.

I'm using this pedal with an Aria Pro Excell guitar plugged into a Marshal VS15 practice amp. It only gets noisy when I put my Digitech RP6 in the signal chain and turn the RP6's distorion on, together with the OD3's own. I must say, though, that the tone is amazing! The RP6's distortion is too weak and thin on its own, but coupled with the OD3 it yelds a powerful and yet MUSICAL distortion. I think it's because the OD3 itself has a magnificent, musical overdrive, but it's not heavy enough for some styles (metal, maybe punk as well). The RP6's can get heavy, but tone-wise it sucks. So not only I bought an excellent overdrive, but it also breathed life into my otherwise useless RP6 (for distortion; for modulation fx it's quite good).

According to everyone's comments, a Boss pedal is undestructible. This is my first Boss pedal, so I can't comment.

Never dealt with them.

I can't think of anything that could be improved in this pedal. Sound quality is great, the price is right. Maybe some people would want more gain, but remember this is not a distortion pedal. Overdrive = light distortion, if that is what you're looking for, I would definately recommend the OD3.

Easy as hell to use, three knobs, gain, volume, and tone.

Okay, here goes, carvin dc150, digitech whammy2, vox wah, boss od3, line6 mm4, boss dd5, boomerang, into a boogie mark3 head, and homemade cab.

Boss, reliable? even need to ask?

Yah, okay,

i play a mixture of rock, jam music, and fussion, the latter being my favorite. I can get Trey anastasio tones out of this box, rich and creamy, for my cover stuff, but in my fussion stuff it really shines. The overdrive is nice, and thick, and my guitar's pickups really shine through. It's like a tube screamer, but with way more dynamics. I may get criticized, but I think tube screamers are one trick ponies. Give me the boss any day of the week, and I'll be happy. If you want to sound like yourself, buy this pedal, and enjoy. I've owned about every amp and fx pedal out there, and I like to think I have a good idea of good tone, and this is the first boss od pedal that I reccomend. Buy and enjoy!!

very easy to get a good sound

My main guitars are 1)les paul standard with rio grande pick-ups
2)semi-hollow ibanez am 200 with humbuckers.I play trough a George Dennis "the blue" 60w 4-channel combo or a Laney LC 50 combo.Both are
all tube amps.The OD-3 sounds UNBELIEVEBLY,especially with the semi-hollow guitar.I ve had almost every od-pedal(ts-9,fulltone,maxon),and this is the first that gives a fat, slight -compressed tone(Alvin Lee
solo in "i m going home" would be a good example)I keep the tone at 8,the gain about 14 hours,level as needed.

built like a Patton

I have been playing for 15 years and try to play jazzy-blues(Larry Carlton,Robben Ford,...)This is the first pedal that gives me a fatter,better sound then the od-channel on my amps,and waaaaayy easier to get.Great job boss!