Boss OD-3

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.