Boss ODB-3 Bass Overdrive

My ODB-3 was bought brand new two years ago. Though it has been a staple on my pedalboard, I have realized that there are easier-to-handle overdrive/distortions out there. The EQing of the pedal is fairly simple, in theory. To dial-in a usable, moderate tone, it takes quite a bit of experimentation. However, if you want metal and hardcore, this setup will do it with no effort.

It is impossible to get a natural tone out of this unit. My experitmenting involved using it with various Fenders, Music Mans, Warwicks, Gibsons, and ESPs--14 basses in all. For amps, various Ampegs, Peaveys, Fenders, Aguilars, and GKs were used--9 amps in all. The verdict?: The ODB-3 is great for heavy distortion, but terrible for getting any kind of a light overdrive or "tube"-ish effect. The gain, even when set at its lowest setting, is too hot for a traditional overdrive. This effect would be better created with a Tech 21 Bass Driver or actual tube overdrive effects. This pedal should've been called the Bass Metal Zone.

Boss is the hands-down leader of effects. All and all, this pedal and my other Boss pedals have never let me down. They take a beating and still work great! Unlike the Digitech X Series pedals, Boss pedals actually have a dependable footswitch.

For metal, hardcore, hard-prog, and punk, this would be a great pedal. For any kind of music that demands natural to moderate overdrive, seek-out another effect. I am about to replace this pedal with the Tech 21, but I am not sorry that I tried this thing out; I'll still hold onto it for those heavy, noisey songs. If I could change one thing about the ODB-3, it would be a more versatile gain stage. If I could change one more thing, I would make it true-bypass.

Well the knobs are simple to use but to try getting your own sound you need to practise a bit

Well I have a junk guitar a junk cables and a custom-made amp (the amp is a modified good old polish Unitra music amplifier remade into a bass amp :) ) at first I thought it was a bad idea to buy this pedal but when I`ve spended some time with it I found it`s true power! it generates some noise as all distortion pedals (or maybe its just my guitar) but the sound is great!

hmm... Boss mades eternal pedals :P

never needed

Bosses are great but horibly expensive. However if you have one you are proud to be it`s owner ;]

Not the easiest, but still easy enough. A Big Muff may be simpler, but that doesn't really matter, the manual gave me all the sounds I needed.

I use this with a Fender Mex Precision and a Hartke A100 along with a EHX mini Qtron, and it has always sounded great. There will be the odd bit of hum, but you can twiddle the settings to get rid of it. Like lots of people, I wanted Flea 'Around the World' style distortion, and the pedal gave me that sound the first time I used it. He plays one, so the sound must be there on some setting if you can't get it.

Built like a brick in body armour. I stamp on it pretty hard, and no scratches of cracks.

No Need. Don't think I ever will with BOSS pedals.

It is great for rock playing, for little licks, and solos. Combined with my mini Qtron it sounds immense. If it did get stolen I might try a Big Muff, but I would still get another one of these. DON'T BUY CHEAP IMITATIONS. This pedal beats any other bass-specific distortion or overdrive around. Fair and square.

took me to read the manual to get good sounds out of it, i remeber trying in the store nearly 10 years ago and being amazed to find an affordable overdrive that had some bottom end, but that was when I was 18 years old, my ears have matured since then

interestingly this box can produce a range of tones so as the snobby older man I have grown into i will rate it well for that

the manual is good in that it gives you some examples of the pedals range and all the examples sound useful for the purposes described ... but ....

when I used it for a long while without looking at the manual and those instructions I was unaware of this

I used this with a $%^&*@ bass converted into a reasonable bass via new pick ups

it is very noisyt and hissy if high freqs and lots of distortion are applied

I personally used it only in two ways,either all out distortion but please add a gate after it cos the hiss is bad hiss

or as a lightly overdriven booster

all others in between I was not proud of

I always wanted to get the sounds of my favourite artists with this but that aim took me into more expensive territory I dont imagine any of my favourite artists using this, I would be rather surprised to find out if they did

I give it a 7 for value for money and it playing a good interuim solution for what I could afford at that time when I bought it

still works as it ever did nearly 10 years old and lots of action and moves

I bought it for playing hard psyche rock - or for hoping to achieve the tones of the jesus lizard sound

as a teenager / early twenties it satisfied my ears coming back at me through $%^&*@ amps and home hi - fis

but I did notice when I got onto more expensive systems, such as studio monitors that the sound was a little I dont know .. I want to say cheap but think that sounds too snobby

No I've got it it sounded a bit thin, sure there was bass and high freqa but they werent juicey or thick, some how a bit passable but not really really present but now I am talking about comparing it too units that cost at least twice too four times as much

I think for the range of sounds it offeres its good value especially for me as I was developing, and it surely kept me happy back then, but today it runs through a SANS AMP BASS DRIVER and the 2 just can not co exist, the difference in sound quality when I remove the ODB 3 from my pedal chain is noticable like a kind of a cheaper weaker circuit was placed inbetween. It no longer fully satisfies me, and I have removed it all together

I think if you are low on cash this pedal will sort you out and get you buy, but naturally there exists bigger and badder pedals out there, but that inevitably costs more ofcourse

although the DOD 250 V does interest me ;-) for 40 euros ???!!!! I think we've all got to try that

BTW anyone looking for cool overdirve but cant really afford an amp on top of it should CHECK SANS AMP BASS DRIVERS - sitck your investment there and you've got a box that will see you through for most of your career as a bass player

so I was saying the ODB 3 pedal does not work for me in a higher end set up

I would use it for some mad dirty $%^& but not as the main coloring of my sound, again, I am looking for things to replace it these days

but I am spending reguarly over double its price - no disrespect to anyone using it serious professionally - each to his own and some people can cnjur wonders out of basic gear

but I think this is pedal is great if you are starting out and on the quest for an affordable heavy bass pedal

IT CAN BE HEAVY - I am just a critical listener these days and my tastes and budget have gone up

this pedal can rock you out which is most important - I dont use it but I am not ashamed of it eaither

ITS NOT BAD. Its just not the HOLY GRAIL

but I dont know if the Holy grail exists in one pedal, for me it exists in a bunch of them

good luck - and keep searching and researching and trying and testing - and make sure any pedal you buy rocks you out - forget the spec

lucky number 7

Very easy to operate: volume, gain, blend, hi and lo eq.

I think it sounds very natural. I've tried a lot of gain pedals and it sounds nice from mild overdrive to severe distortion sounds. I'm using it with low-moderate gain settings. I think that sounds better if you keep the hi eq in the lower positions. It has a little noise if you use high gain settings but all the gain pedals in the world are noise makers. The hiss noise appears if you use tweeters or high frequencies boosted in your bass,your amp or your pedal. I'm using a very noisy Big Muff too and It's ok.

It's a Boss

Not needed

Flea of RHCP uses one of this. A fantastic value for the price and sounds very natural.

Really ez to use but not always ez to find exactly what you want

I use it for ultra-deep and very nasty distortion sounds, and does the job. It can be used as a compressor but it has its limtis (it's a mainly distortion pedal not really an overdrive). If you want a small and subtle effect, this is really not for you, get a tech 21 driver. But for metal, hard rock, it's really good.

It has a great sound when used with a ehx bassballs

Pretty noisy pedal but once you start playing it stops

It's boss. No need to comment

ODB-3 is easy to use,just tweaking knobs.The EQ is just a little bit more complicated,thats all.

Well,there's some major problem with the sound quality.It absolutely kills your original tone.I have a Musicman Stingray and i have run the pedal through anything you can imagine (Marshall,Ampeg,PA etc).It just has its own muddy tone and all you can hear is your poor bass lines overrun by this huge muddy one,completely different in most cases,even in low Gain and low Blend settings.
The Eq is so strong somehow,you just cant escape it!I tried so hard to avoid tonal shapings this pedal gives,but i gave up in the end (and gave the pedal up too!).

Its fine.The battery light isnt very reliable though,better use an adaptor.

I play modern-rock and grunge where a good bass distortion is very needed.If you are looking for a bass distortion which distorts your very own sound,and doesnt kill it,ODB-3 isnt the one!

Easy enough to use...
How nice of them to give you a treble and bass boost, too...

O.K... are you looking for a full on fuzz for bass? If so, give this pedal a "10"

...If you're looking for a nice gritty sound(think "Tool"), there are better padals out there, as this one sounds like a fuzz pedal...and I don't care how little you dial in the gain and balance...that will just make it sound like a clean sound, with a fuzz added to it...no blending of tones...

I've been playing bass for quite a while, and had this pedal for four years, and it just can't pull off gritty grind...

Reliable...everyone knows this..

no.

I used to play an old Aria Pro into a Hartke Kickback 15, but now I play a '03 Rickenbacker 4003 into a Mesa Boogie Bass 400, and I get all the grit I need.....

...But I still have the Hartke in my band's practice space, as I won't keep my Mesa there, and still want to find a pedal that can give it some grit...I'm looking at the DOD Preamp 250, also called the 250 Vintage Distortion on here..read the Vintage distortion 250 review left on 10/20/2004..that's what I'm talkin' about!

As for the Boss ODB, if you need a bass fuzz, it has it in spades

I tend to have problems getting the same volume with the pedal on and off. The low end of the "Level" knob gets really touchy. Other than that, its pretty simple.

I run a Schecter California Custom (w/ active pickups) through this pedal and into an older Crate bx-100. I get a lot of fuzz when i use this pedal, the more treble and the more distortion i use, the more fuzz. I play a lot of older metal (very Iron Maiden influenced) and when i get going really fast, it tends to crap out, which i've never heard of a pedal doing that before, but its happening, possibly my active pickups are putting too much into it. Besides those two things, the sound i get is okay, its not great, not horrible, but workable.

I've never had a problem with it. Just make sure if you use batteries and not the power supply you have extras

As I said earlier, I play old- styled metal, and i've been playing *very* habitually for the last two years. If i lost this pedal, i'd probably go for the Tech 21 Bass DI box, or if I feel like dropping the big bucks, A Boss GT6B. I only use this when distortion is absolutley necesary, and it passes, but barely.

Nice, simple controls. No problems here.

Okay, sorry, but I absolutely HATE it. I submitted this review to warn other musos about this product. I'm using a 5 string LTD bass with Gallien Krueger 1001 RB2 head and Gallien Krueger full range boxes (quad and sub). This rig gives me a huge, thick and rich sound, and every time i hit this pedal it's all lost.

It sounds like a bit of tinny fuzz over the top of the clean sound (esp. if u turn the effect level down), but as soon as you try to counter this with the EQ u will lose all clarity. No crunch whatsoever. I have found this to be a common problem with bass disortion, however, and I'm still looking for a distortion pedal with the low fequency grunt I'm after.

The ODB 3 is the absolute bottom of the pile so far.

Never had a problem with it, but s***, I never use it.

as above

I play pretty heavy arse rock n roll. If I wanted slight growl in my sound I would use the boost feature on my amp, I'm after a thumping, low pitched crunch, which is just not possible with this pedal.

More 'ahh' (my ears) than 'ooh' (that's fat). I've fiddled with this thing for hours and it just sounds terrible. Most of the time u can't even hear it over my guitarist's marshall half stack, because it distorts at the same fequency as the guitar!!

DON'T BUY IT!


I'm looking at some other options now. at the moment i'm testing an MXR Bass DI, which is ten times better, but still sounds kinda crappy. Next on my list is Sans Amp Bass Drive; T-Rex Bass Juice; and Big Muff (USA model) using a line selector with blend to control the level of distortion.

If u have any suggestions, comments or questions, please email me.