Boss ODB-3 Bass Overdrive

This pedal is one of the most harder to use I have in my pedalboard. Don't give it too much gain, or it will be a fuzz, don't give too much high, or it will be a fuzz... Remember that if you're searching for an overdrive thi isn't a real overdrive, maybe a fuzz-distortion. I'll give a 6 to it, only because I finally reached my sound

It's so hard searching a good settings. I finally set my pedal with high on flat, a lot of bass and with low gain. It's (like every distortion pedal) a little noisy, but when you raise the high it become really noisy. I use a Laney Hardcore with it and it sounds good, the balance knob is really a beautiful settings. When in bypass the tone is good enough for me. You can get Flea sound very easily, but if you're searching for Lemmy distortion or Tim Commerford distortion you can get only a lot of noise from this.

I use this live without backup cause is very hard to damage

Never have a deal with they.

I play funk and rock music. This is very good on funk, but on rock he can't sound good, so I probably buy another REAL overdrive and put this before the wah, because i love that quacky tone that I can get with this and Dunlop Crybaby 105Q. I wish it had lot of mid frequency in his sound, but is also good in this way.
A final 7 is its rating.

well if you have used distortion/ overdrive pedals before like me, it shouldn't be hard to get the hang of it.

but if you haven't used any OD/ dist pedals before, it can be pretty confusing to start.

for me, it's quite easy to use. I can get the sound i like from it. The controls are kind of straight forward, and it give a lot of ranges that you can dial.

I have used some bass-distortion/ fuzz pedals like Attack Goat and MXR. I like this one the best. A bit noisy though. But i can still get a rich and smooth overdrive to hard punchy distortion sound from it.

I give it a 7 because it's sound kinda depends on the bass i use.

I use vitage P-bass ibanez Blazer and Squier classic vibe j bass. for me i think it sounds better when using with the Jazz bass. It souns clearer. but it can get a bit muddy, but not bad though, when i use my blazer bass. i have to crank the level up a bit to make it clearer.

It's a preety damn good clean booster/ eq too.

PS. you should try it with a guitar too, sounds great.

sure, i've been using it for quite a while. I use it from small club gigs to big stage concert.

dunno, haven't deal with them before.

i play mostly rocks and it suits me quite well.

as i said, i've been using a lot of dist pedals before. Most of them give you too much low end and sounds muddy. i like this one because you can balance the amount between high freq and low freq.

I used to be a guitarist as well, so ihave my experiences in dist pedals, and ODB-3 ranks up on my top 10 dist pedals ever.

This overdrive is very easy to use. You have a Level knob to adjust the volume of the pedal. There are two knobs stacked one on top of the other for the 2-band EQ (highs and lows). A balance knob for adjusting how much overdrive you want to add to your clean signal. And finally a gain knob to adjust the overdrive/distortion. It did come with a nice detailed manual.

This pedal has pretty good overdrive/distortion. My only gripe with it is that it does have a little bit fuzz to it which I dont really care for. But the overall overdrive can get some decent grit to it. One thing I dont understand is that some of the reviews here say that they loose low end with it. I dont have this problem at all just boost the lows on the eq (mine is set at 3 o'clock)and I play with a ton of lows in my sound. The level is the same as the clean level with my setup. Just spend a little time with it and you'll get it.

I have a 4 different basses and several 6 string guitars, but the bass I have been using lately is an Ibanez SR400. Yeah I know its a cheap bass but I like the way it plays. I did change the pickups and all electronics. I put in EMG P-J active pickups and EMG BQC System (active volume/EQ system) with an 18 volt setup. So I kind of ugraded the hell out of my SR400. I play through an SWR SM-500 head into a 6x10 SWR Goliath Senior cab. So I have good equipment to test this pedal out.

The pedal is a little noisy when on but for a pedal that is about a 100 bucks I cant really complain. I currently am only using to give me a little bit of overdrive in my sound. I have the level set to about 10 o'clock, highs at around 2 o'clock, lows at 3 o'clock, and both balance and gain around 8-9 o'clock(sorry dont have the pedal with me to give you my exact settings). I directly run my bass to the pedal and from the pedal to the SWR head. Its currently the only effect I use.

Artist using this pedal, Traa Daniels from P.O.D., Nate Mendel from Foo Fighters, and also Flea from RHCP.

Very reliable. "Its a Boss" like every says. I purchased this pedal an 2000. There not even a scratch on it still looks new and I have dropped a few times. Again deffinetly built like a tank.

Never dealt with them.

I play hardcore/metal type of music for the most part thats why I bought the pedal. I didnt really compare it to any other pedals at the time because I didnt really know of any good overdrive/distortion that came in stomp box. I have a DOD Bass Grunge which I purchased a couple of years before this and the Boss beats it hands down in all categories. The DOD deffinetly looses low end when turned on. It doesnt matter what setting you try to setup. But if the Boss ODB-3 were lost or stolen I would probably look around and check out Electro-Harmonix Big Muff, Tech 21 sansamp driver, Fulltone bass-drive, and MXR Blow Torch etc before I purchase this pedal again. I would also check rack mounted distortion effects.

I love that its compact and that it is very basic and reliable. My favorite feature is that it is specifically an overdrive pedal. Again I wish the overdrive had less fuzz to it but its not bad. It still fits in my style of music. You can easily get the Flea overdrive sound with this pedal.

I have been playing for 13 years now and I feel like I have the sound I want from my setup. This pedal helps when I want to add some grit to my sound. So I say deffinetly check this pedal out if you are looking for a stomp box distortion, but try others also cause there are many out there. I gave it generous 9 because of the fuzz.

It's easy there's a low a high a clean drive and a dirty. don't take allot to figure out. you can either make it crunch or make it be a loud boosting mf

for years I used this out my svt head and 8 10 combo(I???ve sense retired now I use a GK 800 with two 15). I used it as my distortion for a time and then I???d used it as a volume boost. Then finally used it as both. i have to tell you, it's was time for it go. I???ve replace it with a petal that based on a rams head fuzz that has a blend option. the thing is this petal is a boss and that???s what it sounds like. It???s hard to explain, just kind of a replicated generic tone.

it???s a boss petal. They???ll be around longer then cockroaches

there a big company, they act like one, just ask (the death to original gear)guitar center

It depends how much your sound matters to you

The ease of use is great! Like many pedals, it takes a bit of time to find its sweet spot for your preferred sound, but there IS a wide range of distorions in this box.

I was running this chain - Ernie ball MM4 stingray>sonic max>alesis compressor>EH octave multiplexer>Boss ODB3>Russian Big Muff>Boss CH3>Tuner>hartke 2500. last weekend at a show, the soundguy and I spent some downtime before the show tweaking knobs and putting both the muff and the odb3 to the test. The muff didnt bring anything useable to the table, so I'm selling it and that review is for another day. The boss had a tasty variety of distortions that could be dialed it with little unwanted buzz. the MAJOR drawback, which is prompting me to sell this one too, is that it cuts the overall level. We tested many different settings, but everytime the unit was switched on, the overall dB dropped slightly, but enough to discourage me from using it live. I may keep it for the studio, but it just didnt have that extra 10% of volume for those timed I needed distortion. Great sound, too quiet (hence the 5)

rock solid. if it didnt have the volume problem, it would be my go-to pedal. its a boss

Bottom line, its great for beginners, for fooling around, perhaps even for the studio, but not for live shows.

You need pacience... this pedal is a b*tch, but believe me its worth the time

Schecter stiletto extreme 5 diamond series, to odb 3, to ce-5 to laney RB 3

If you experiment enough with it u can go from a little boost to crazy distortion but DO bother to tweak it you will get the sound u want also doesnt effs up the lows play with the EQ.

It can do a slight growl, the flea thing, cliff burton thing, the muse thing... really REALLY versatile but the gain knob is noisy

BTW in all honesty it seems they get like retarded monkeys to do the settings in the booklet, what u should do is put it to a setting and then tweak it from that

Totally dependable, im afraid the cliche is true

Never dealt with em...

I play all kinds of music... ive been playing for 7 months or so the i would buy it again if it got stolen, i love the really subtle grrr u can get with the gain at 0 the balance at 9 o clock maximum low boost, highs like at ten o clock and the level at maximum i use that with my chorus just sound really sweet

Its very easy to use. only plug it in and rock out!

im using it with my bass and SWR amp and it sounds fantastic. Effect sounds awesome if you put the right settings. you can get same kind of sound what flea does and thatis the thing why i bought it.

Its very solid. you could try to break it but i think it wouldnt. I could use it on a gig without backup

It sounds very good and its easy to use and i just love everything of it.

EQ a bit fiddly. Otherwise O.K.

Different pitches of buzz, but no growl or roar.

Nobs and peddle lock seem a bit flimsy, but no breakages yet.

Not needed up to now.

I play very heavy lazy lines - Rock, Metal, Jazz... even some Reggae or Dance inspired stuff... Tangerine Dream EXPERMENTAL. Just about anything - but not Funk.

I've been playing for 30 years.

If buzz is all you're after then this unit is an affordable option. But if - like me - you're looking for roar or growl... FORGET IT.

I considered taking the thing back to the shop, but I was afraid to look the assistant in the eye and admit I'd been stupid enought to buy the thing in the first place... Even at it's reduced price...

Come to think of it... The price was probably reduced because it is crap...

This is a review of my positive experiences with the ODB-3.

I'm using the ODB-3 for blues and rock. I'm using it for volume boost, distortion to help cut through the mix and to fatten up some parts. Playing through a PBass with flatwounds, Trace Elliot RAH250SMX 2X10 1X15 cabs. I set it, Level 12 o'clock, High 10 o'clock, Low 1 o'clock, Balance 12 o'clock and Gain zero. I found a nice light OD from this pedal with these settings. I've owned a sansamp Bass Di driver and though it's a great pedal it coloured my tone somewhat.

I can depend on this pedal!

Alot of people dislike this pedal. I like it. For the price you pay you can't go wrong. The ODB-3 sounds really fat with my setup, sounds great in live playing situations, playing the ODB-3 solo in the shop or bedroom may sound harsh but that all goes away when the band kicks in!

Okay, as you will read in this section, many folks have probs getting the sound they want from this pedal. Here's why:

1) This is 10% of an overdrive pedal & 90% a distortion/noise overload pedal. So folks wanting overdrive and clean bass low-end push can essentially forget it. Folks wanting huge angry distortion & not needing tonal purity will find this pedal ok.

2) This pedal design is poor in the pot range of sensitivity for wet/dry, level & gain, etc as it is TOO limited due to ultra-sensitivity. You get BLAM!! when you turn knobs a wee bit from "zero" and/or "dry". This won't bother folks who play everything at 10 and could care less about tonal palette and less in-your-face sonic oblivion.

3) This pedal is most important VERY sensitive in how it performs depending on volume and/or any EQ-ing done on your instrument before signal path hits pedal. If you have a very simple low-end bass, you can forget trying to easily tweaking this pedal. It needs external EQ and volume tweaking to expand its possibilities!

As stated above if you want distortion or huge noise that sorta sounds like the bass section gone metal mayhem, then this pedal is fine. If however you want that 70s funked up overdriven fuzz bass like many fusion bassists achieved, you will be hard-pressed to find THAT groove any maintain a PHAT bass low-end too. I was able to get such after 15 minutes of diddling and twiddling not only the pedal but I also have onboard EQing on my basses and nice active pups to mix. Low-end bass users w/o EQ before this pedal be forewarned.

It's a BOSS mother of metal case.

NA

If you any sense of adjusting volume on bass pups and turning gain / levels / wet/dry knobs from 0.5 to 3.7 you will be okay. EQ before pedal is highly recommended. THEN also remember you can further tweak it all at your bass amp as well. I'd set EQ on bass to "0" or normal first, then tweak axe and pedal before you fine-tune your amp, then you will get some decent overdriven bass phat punch and even though that warm bass will be lost, you will have some balls on your bass. Though I am a guitarist, this pedal will help bassists not get ignored in the mix when the rest of the band is fuzzed out & you are too clean. Need some muscle? Then this pedal (IF used right) will have folks take notice of that badass bass growl.

Pretty easy to use, 5 knobs, they all do their own thing. Depending on how you turn them you can get a really nice grit or you can get unbearable noise. The unbearable noise is kinda hard to achieve but if it's what you want it is there.

This pedal does the same thing to your bass signal as most OD/Dist pedals do, they suck all you low end and volume. Even though it has a 2 band EQ (low/high) the lows just are not there. Same thing with the volume, with the volume maxed and the pedal engaged you are instantly washed out in the mix. But to all this bad there are a couple things that will help this pedal scream. 1. Send it to indy guitars and have them mod it for you to your specs. 2. This one requires a rack compressor, pedal compressors dont have enough oomph to get the job done. With a rack mount compressor use the effects loop on your head(if you have one) run the send(head) and input(compressor) like normal, on the return side run the return(compressor) to the input of the pedal, from the pedal output complete the chain by inserting the cable into the return of the effects loop. It's easier to overdrive a compressed signal than it is to compress an overdriven signal. Once it's set up like this you will have the output gain of the compressor before the pedal which will add gain, then the volume gain from the pedal will work a lot better than before as will the effect itself.

I'm a pretty big guy @ 300+lbs and i stomp the hell out of the pedal with no problems. Would I gig with out a back up? I have before and I will do it again.

never dealt with them

This is a good pedal for home use and recording where low volume is key. try to get loud and it will fall on it's face in a mix.

Just plug it in and play.
The controls are straight-forward, although a lot of people have trouble getting a good sound of it (not me). I never had any problems with that, in fact, it was the only pedal at my test-session which made a good sound in short time.
There is a manual which explains the knobs and gives some inspiration for sounds (predrawn diagrams). There a some spare pages too, so you can write down your own settings.

I was looking for a pedal which preserves the pressure on the low B string, and this definately was the best. I didn't want Muse-like oversaturated synth or guitarist-countermeasure-chainsaw leads, I just wanted a pedal that does not overcolour your bass and keeps the audience informed that you are playing BASS, not guitar.
My settings which work out really well (all settings in o'clock) :
Dist-level ~11, dry/wet ~10, bass eq 12, treble eq 11, level 12.
Sometimes I crank up the gain to ~2 [o'clock], this gives me oldschool Cliff Burton-style leads.
There is, naturally, a little bit of hiss when the pedal is turned on, but it's not so much the audience would notice it.
What I like most is that the dry/wet balancer really works, allowing you to play slap lines with all the punch you have, just adding distortion in the background, as if there was another guitarist backing you.
The sustain is increased *incredible*, even on the low B string.
My setup: Ibanez BTB205, mostly played direct through the PA, in the rehearsal room I use a Gallien Krueger Backline 115.
I worked out the sound on a clean PA to have as much treble and mid-response as possible.

I love this pedal for it's sturdy construction.
I use it with batteries only because of the noise level (battery power is much cleaner than direct plugging into the circuits of the stage, which are usually f**ked up).
I use this pedal for quite a time now, it doesn't suck up your batteries and is reliable.

Never had to deal with it. There is a 5-year warranty, which means this pedal will work without problems at least 5,01 years :)

In my band I use the pedal to backup the guitarist when he's doing the solos, I do a lot of spontaneous slapping, and the pedal covers it all.
I am playing bass for about 5 years now, guitar for 9 years.. I use a Ibanez BTB205, a Peavey Millenium AC-BXP 5, and a Spector NS4-Europe. They all perform well, especially the Ibanez because it has so much clarity.

Overall: Lots of bang for the buck. I tested the MXR Blowtorch, which disappointed me because it sounds muddy and undefined when using low gain settings, and the Ashdown pedal, which also sounded muddy and threw away the highs (not reasonable imho for the price).

I would definately buy this one again because it has grown part of my signature sound - and because it's cheap! :)

Plug and play essentially, just finding the right sound is hard.

I play with and Ashdown Mag600R and it has a subharmonic generator which starts sounding really muddy.

Not anymore. I heard all of these myths about how indestructible they are, but the actual button that gets pressed and activates the pedal when you stomp on it is made out of some cheap POS plastic. Needless to say, the button on my broke and I had to take it apart and rig the button so it would stay together. Now I think I need to get a new pedal all together. It was pretty embarassing having to unplug the pedal after playing almost a whole song distorted during low smooth build-up sections of a song.

I bought it used at a music store and figured the warranty doesn't transfer so I fixed it myself....

Good piece of equipment when it works..... I think I am going to get a bass tube screamer or some other overdrive that can handle the subharmonic generator my amp has.

A straight foreward stompbox. Pretty much a case of plugging in and playing.

It took me a while to find my sound with this box. It sounds crap if you put it between the bass and amp. It sounds like the distortion is on top of a clean sound. What you will have to do is to hook it up in the FX-loop and take it from there. I guess you??ll have to feed more signal into it, then it starts to work properly. The overdrive gets alot more creamy and liquid.

It has NEVER failed me. Pretty much all my stuff has broken down at some time or another, but not this. They??re built like brick-houses

never had to use it

As long as you put it in a FX-loop you??ll be okey, but anywhere else and you will leave it switched off unless you want a crappy sound.

Five knobs on this pedal make it one of Boss' more complex true effects, but it's still very straightforward. You have level, high/low EQ, blend and gain. My standard method of dialing in the sound I want is to first play with the gain and blend knobs. Turning up the gain of course gives you crunchier distortion, while the blend allows you to determine how much of that crunch is present in the output. Then, adjust the EQ, then finally adjust the level until the volume level is about the same between the effect being on and off. Of course these aren't hard and fast rules, just a method I use that reduces the time I spend knob-twiddling. It's really no harder to adjust than any other overdrive/distortion effect.

For me, the quintessential overdriven bass sound is from Cream's "Sunshine Of Your Love". Very extreme overdrive for a bass, almost distorted, but it was still a bass, very deep and fat. The overdrive was very tubey, where the peak of the tube is not a hard limit like with solid-state.

I'll tell you now that this pedal may not have that sound in it. Like another reviewer stated, it would not be a stretch to repaint this pedal in gloss gunmetal and call it the Bass Metal Zone. What you get with this pedal when you set it to what you'd think would sound good is a very fuzzy, very crunchy, VERY compact distortion. This is not a tube overdrive.

That said, the pedal can give you some great distorted bass effects without the drawbacks other reviewers have mentioned if you play around a little.

First and foremost, use that blend knob. Throwing it all the way to OD gives an extreme crunch that loses a lot of the low end. Roll the blend back to about 10 o'clock and you keep a lot of the dirt, but you find your low end's returned. You may find yourself drawn to turning the knobs in opposite ways; when you blend away from OD, you tend to turn up the gain, and vice versa. But, there are a host of great sounds to be made with both gain and blend to the left of 12 o'clock.

Second, be real careful with the treble EQ. Distortion as a rule increases treble, since higher frequencies take less extra signal for the same perceived volume gain than lower ones. For a bass, that can be a very bad thing, because not only are you chopping off the peaks of your fundamental wave, but you're also amplifying the overtones (and string noise). The big secret? Use your bass' knobs as well as the pedal's, particularly your tone knobs. Most bassists have discovered that their bass' best clean sound is usually with the volume and tone knobs at full, because it gives you all the sparkly natural overtones of the string. But, if you roll the tone back (or cut the treble on your active's EQ), that gives you a little more room to play with the treble level on the pedal without it very quickly giving you too much fuzz and grit.

Overall, I should have expected that a solid-state pedal wouldn't give you tube overdrive, but it was disappointing nonetheless. However, the pedal has a lot going for it anyway, especially if you're into more modern music. VERY versatile sound with some very good ones if you take the time to understand what the pedal can do. You can get very good distortion for metal, where you're doubling the guitarist anyway, or you can crunch it even more into an industrial-ish tone.

Boss should make bulletproof vests for our troops. This pedal is constructed to withstand almost anything you'd do to it in a gig. There have been some complaints of the screw holding the pedal on bending if you're really enthusiastic. I've yet to see it happen to this pedal and I've literally jumped on it. I've heard anecdotes of Boss pedals surviving set-destroying gigs with only a few paint chips, where the DOD, DanElectro and Electro-Harmonix pedals on the board were gone.

One thing that will kill it dead: reverse polarity. If you use an AC adapter for it (highly recommended), make sure you're plugging in a 9V, 200mA, negative-tip adapter just like the manual says. It doesn't have to be a Boss as long as it's the same specs. If you plug in an adapter with a positive tip, or a 200mA adapter, you will fry the thing from the inside out.

Never dealt with Boss customer support. I've heard of the occasional defect where a pedal will short out or have itermittent power trouble, but it hasn't happened to me, and most guys that work with amps can fix that kind of thing for a few bucks and far less time than it would take to ship the thing to Boss.

Overall, its name doesn't describe its sound, but if you know that, you can get some good sounds out of this pedal with a little twiddling. You MUST understand what the pedal does in order to get the most out of it, and you'll probably find yourself using only just a little of the distortion it's capable of unless you're compiling a techno or industrial track, or you're just jamming out in your garage trying to sound like a guitarist.

First of all, I play a guitar through this, not a bass. I love the thick loud sound I can get out of it. Its not easy to use, as you might have read in some of the other reviews. I generally max out the gain, cut the mix to about 3 o clock, and leave the level at about 11 o clock (more if I cut the mix for a cleaner sound) to get a good on/off volume match. I leave the eq in the middle, and it sounds great. Any more bass it sounds like muddy poop. Any more treble it makes my ears bleed, though a treble boost makes for a nice sound. I have been playing with this thing alot, and still havent discovered its many sounds, so I'd say it sucks in the ease of use department

i get a very nice Deftones type distortion from this. its pretty sweet. the depth of this is just very different from a normal distortion pedal. the gain is exceedingly high when maxed, and it gets harmonics left and right. I love it personally, it fits our metal sound. The only problem I have with how it sounds, is that I wish I could make it a little louder during my lead passages. To get around this I generally just have my volume pedal at about 80%, then go toe down to break free when needed.

i depend on it day in and day out. i use it without a backup, though having thought about it, a buddy of mine used one and completely wore his out. i never saw this on another Boss pedal, so I assume he must use him for busting concrete or something. mines rock solid

great match for metal, can get some fuzzy blues sounds i know of for sure (manual describes some different presets, available online through Boss/Roland site)

Very easy - 4 knobs: level, eq (high and low), balance (between the original and the overdrive sound) and gain.

Well, this is where the trouble starts... it's NOT an overdrive pedal, it's a distortion pedal. Big difference. Even at the lowest gain setting (all the way counterclockwise) the sound is quite fuzzy and not very natural. I also find it to be a bit noisy, especially if you turn the high eq up past 5, but that may also be my bass. I play an Epiphone EBM-5 into a Hartke HA3500 with a Harmonic Design 4x10". The worst thing is that the volume is really low when the ODB-3 is on, I have to crank level up all the way to be as loud as the bypass. The balance is useful to keep things stable and not be drowned out by other instruments. I use the following settings: level 10, high eq 2, low eq 6, balance 7, gain 0 and - surprise! - I get a really fat sound with a bit overdrive, a bit distortion, but the fundamentals are clear and strong. So why only a 6? Because my tone is on the verge of what this thing can deliver and people who look for something different (a boosted overdrive, less distortion, massive gain with low noise etc.) may well find it's just not in it.

Looks solid, haven't gigged with it yet.

No experience.

We play hard rock with a touch of punk and metal and for the latter, it's great. I also expect people who play heavier music to be happier with this pedal. I have been playing for 5 years and until lately used a Korg AX1G, but now I'm switching to single effect pedals for versatility and a better sound. I found mine and it's brilliant, but I can get exactly one (and no more) magic sound out of it and to be honest, I expect a bit more from BOSS. Definitely needs a wider gain range. Go and see if you can borrow or test it with your entire rig before you buy!!!

Standard knobs really, easy to use, can get lots of different tones out of it just by fiddling.

I've been using this pedal for several years with a Yamaha rbx270 and a Epiphone Thunderbird along with a dunlop volume pedal, boss CEB-3 chorus, MXR Phase 90 and TU-2 tuner run through a Laney HCM160. Playing just on my own you can get a wide variety of sounds out of it and the fuzz sounds really nice when mixed with a phaser.

The problem i've found is when you try to put this with a band, what you thought sounded great before is now lost in the mix. I've tried fiddling with the settings on the pedal, the amp, and bass eq and nothing helps the problem is it just cuts all the bass out of the signal as soon as you turn it on so it doesn't cut through the rest of the mix and you lose the impact of the bass on distorted sections.

Which for me is the whole point you want the distortion to lift that section of the song, give it some balls and this just doesn't do it.

It's a boss, never had a problem with it, solid as a rock.

Never had to deal with them.

I play prog rock / metal with some lead bass pasaages and this pedal just doesn't have enough bass or organic sound to cut it for me. If it was stolen or damaged beyond repair I wouldn't buy another one. The fuzz sound is quite nice really, pretty heavy its just a shame it cuts all the bass.

I had a digital bass multi fx pedal before this and the ODB-3 is alot better than that. I would say its a good starter pedal for bass distortion it gives a nice "real" sound compared to digital although if like my band bass is really really key to the whole sound buy a pedal around the ??150, ??200 because its makes ALL the difference.

3 knobs and 2 to control highs and lows.
5 total

I use a Music Man Sterling - boss BassOverdrive - boss BassChorus - boss BassEQ - GK 300w head - GK 15" speaker box



Compared it to the Digi-tech Bass overdrive and the Metal-Big muff (guitar pedal).....
DON'T get the digitech over the ODB-3. The digitech is like the Boss with your hands over your ears,... TRRIBLE!....!!!
The Big Muff Metal was the contender. More expensive and not as much tone variety as the Boss....
So...boss is the winner

I don't care what people say. You can get any distortion tone out of this thing. allot of people forget that its all in your touch.
Distortion on minimum bass at 6/10 treb at 9/10. I can get come 'funky-chunky' distortion sounds....
as well as, grinding Metal/industrial sounds with the gain at max.

One of my fave settings is gain at max- mixed in low with original sound. Punchy and crunchy, preserves the original low frequencies fairly well....

great

Wish it has more eq options. but thats what my Boss Bass EQ is for ;)

Otherwise, can't go wrong for this very high quality and versatile pedal.

really esay to use-everything is clear-level, eq. i dont really understand the relationship between the balance and gain, think they could be replaced by only one pot

sounds great while playing, but when you dont play it makes a lot of noise [especially when u have a lot of treble like i do] and when you play louder in even produces feedback [sometimes its usefull ;)]

solid metal box-its the biggest plus of this pedal. the knobs are placed quite nice, so its hard to step on them etc, becouse your foot stops on the footswitch. i didnt like the screw to the battery slot-on a gig i was so excited while playing, that i steped on the pedal a little to much and the screw curved a little, so i couldnt unscrew it, but i already replaced it

didn't need to use

the pedal sounds really great, i dont really care about the noise and feedback-the sound is really great. if you set the pedal nice it can even give you a little tube overdrive. and it should be called "bass distortion"... its kinda hard to set some light overdrive sound on it, bu I LOVE IT :D

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.