Boss SYB-3 Bass Synthesizer

takes some getting used to. if you find a cool setting that you like you may want to write down exactley how you had the dials, because sometimes if you find a good setting, you will lose it the next time you try to find it. but for the most part its pretty simple and fun to mess around with.

the sounds are what you would expect from a synth. There is a little noise that the pedal causes but nothin big. The only problem is when you play two or more strings at once the sound gets blurred.

its a boss. if you dont already know what that means, it means unbreakable, the boss tech support people must have a boring job.

depending on what you play this can be a useful pedal or not. if you make up innovative digital sounds then this pedal will give you a nice edge, if your not into psycedelic effects and just like clean or plain distorted bass then this is no more than an expencive coaster/paperweight. If this unit were stolen or lost i would be pissed, i wouldnt buy a new one though, because 200 dollars is more money then what comes into my hands in months, and i cant save for crap. The great thing about this pedal is that it helps you to make music that really stands out, the bad thig about it is the cost.
I've tried the electroharmonix bass microsynth but its not quite as good as the syb-3 but it costs more. so your best bet is the syb-3.

This is an amazing pedal, however, it takes a skilled hand, and steady practice to figure out exactly what you want to do with it. I definitely suggest making sure you get the manual with this one if you buy it used. The manual and unit are both easy to understand, and fun to use, but actually getting exactly what you want takes about a week or more of steady practicing with the pedal

After using it with a Crate KX-160 i've found this pedal to cause some (i beleive) non intended distortion on some of the patch sounds -- only when treble is turned way high... Not surprising. This pedal features several of the sounds in the Cantina Band scenes of Star Wars, a gig band and I emulated this quite well, and i think the sounds on this sucker were what made the party (and our paycheck). The sounds this sucker comes with are amazing... The auto wah is hella impressive, I have a mount on the side of my bass for when i use the auto wah excessivlly

This sucker has never failed me, When i first started pounding bass and bought this pedal on my first gig I became real nervous and started messing up with its trackcing, the sounds i made sounded odd, but finally I got into it beter and had some *phat* beats goin' on. The crowd went wild after that. This is a BOSS pedal... i think its impossible for such things to break. Too bad BOSS doesnt make condoms.

This sucker is impossible to break, impossible not to work, i don't think anyone has ever called Boss tech/Customer support. Poor guy, he's prolly sitting in his office, never having taken a phone call and in absolute depression... -- This pedal is amazing, and the BOSS website adds additional settings for the pedal, so ... Customer support must equal a ten.

I play absolutely everything, from classical to Latin Rock. There are some types of music this does not go with. But if you're getting paid for agig band, many of the requests you'll get asked for will be majorly enhanced with this pedal. Not many bassists on the scene have this pedal and instead use a multi effects processor or actual synth - For quick thinking, and light packing this makes perhaps the greatest alternative out there. I own two of these suckers, just because i like to always have one at home to practice with, and one with my bass.

I'm a French bass palyer looking for analogic bass synthesizer, and this one is what I was looking for. Using SYB-3 demands to be carefull, the knobs are very very very sensitive. I said "8" to "ease of use" because you can plug a keyboard into and have a reissue of old analog synth playing, by turning the frequency knob live but it could be "5" when begining and sure "2" if you don't like analog synth with no memory... By the way : ther is a "hold" mode, wich can be used for playing bass with synthetic sound stand behind.

MAHAGOONNAH ! WOOOOWIIINGGG ! SCCHHHWWWEEEZZZ ! BOING ! WAONG ! and more, cause turning the knobs one milimeter on the left or on the right change quickly the sound. I sometimes fix my synth on the wood of my fretless bass, for a better mode and sound changing.

Guitar (with chords and Mode 4 it will play random bassline), bass, keyboard, and... drum machine ! Coool ! And with a Boss PH-2 Super Phaser or a Boss DD-3 Digital Delay, the sounds are incredible.

It's a Boss product, so there are no problems.

I played punk rock and progressive rock with bands, and electro in solo. Everywhere, anytime, I use the SYB-3.

There are six knobs on this thing, you have to fiddle for a while to get what you want. In different modes, some of the knobs do different things. Basically you just fiddle with it till you get the sound you want. If you find a good setting and then lose it you can have a devil of a time getting it back with all the variables each knob represents.

I use this effect with a downsized Fender P-bass (a precursor of the current Lyte model I think) that has active P/J pickups and a 200 watt combo amp. I have found a variety of great sounds with this pedal, from analog 70's sounds (think Moog) to a crazy sort of bass fuzz that's far better than any actual fuzz pedal I've tried. Any sort of weird synthy low end I've wanted, I've been able to get from Air's Moogs on "Kelly Watch The Stars" to NIN's auto-wah on "Closer" to just crazy fun stuff and even something like the guitar part for "Celebrity Skin" by Hole.

Duh, it's a Boss

I think their repair guy is as bored as the Maytag guy

If you take the time to figure this puppy out it's great. Is isn't that easy to use and you have to work at it to get it right, but the payoff is some really cool sounds. If you want to add something different to your sound there is little else that can do this much. I asked the store people what else they had that did the same things for a similar price, and they had was a DOD Envelope Filter. It had a cool sound too, but it was only one cool sound, the Boss has many cool sounds, if you can find them that is. I'd have to say I'm very satisfied with this pedal, it isn't easy to use at first, but the same is true of an F1 racecar, an F-14 jet, computers, VCR's, and slew of other cool things. Figure the Bass Synth pedal out and it will reward you with cool sounds. PS: If anyone who has this wants to trade cool settings, drop me an email, I got some cool ones myself

Lots of functions/alternatives for a foot-pedal. But you'll have to put your bi-focals on in order to read the tiny script that tells you what each knob does. (There are six knobs in all!)

The wave effect has some digital noise, but the internal sounds are fantastic.
I use this pedal on a guitar. And although the manual states not to use all six strings (or chords, for that matter) I have found certain settings to provide very usuable, synthy sounds for chords and even the high E-string! Mind you, you have to be careful how you play. Sloppiness is rewarded with lots of psychotic glitches...

It's a Boss.
But remember: This pedal is power-hungry. Be sure to use an AC adapter.

Too soon to tell.

I play mostly experimental, ?effected? music. Like My Bloody Valentine, Spiritualized, etc. The SYB-3 is obviously not for every song. But it comes in handy when you're looking for something new.
Ironically, I've never used on it on a bass. So I can't vouch for its efficacy there. But it works wonders with my Les Paul.
I highly recommend it, especially if you already have effects and are looking for a new sound. Good job, Roland.

I got this pedal as a novelty sound effect device and thats what I got for sure. But there is much more to this pedal. Though the manual is good reading, I would say that good old fashioned tweaking and experimentation is the best thing to figure this pedal out. There are three different types of settings: 7 triggered synth patches, 2 wave shape patches (up and down sweep), and two envelope filters (up and down sweep). There are 5 controls for these effects: a mix control stack pot for the synth sound and the dry sound, very cool that they are separated into two volume controls, a frequency/resonance stack pot for the starting frequency of the sound and the resonance controls the shape of the sound from just a synthy plunk kind of sound to a heavily enveloped sound, and a sensitivity/duration knob, this controls the duration of the triggered synth patch or the sensitivity of the enveloped sounds depending on what mode you are in. The envelopes are interesting, I find for myself they give a watery effect very different from a Mu-tron in that aspect. I find that a low frequency, high resonance, high senitivity setting is best for bass, then you can mix the dry and effected sounds together. Though I don't use this as my primary envelope filter, it is handy now and then to have one envelope filter set for a down sweep and one for an up sweep. The wave shape sound is my favorite right now. I use the same settings as I would for the envelope filter. I use it mostly for really trippy ambient effects, it sounds like a distorted envelope filter but different. Actually I think it is a sampled square wave. This thing is cool for soloing with distortion on top of the effect as well. Sure to make you friends deaf. I occasionally use it with an E-Bow and a bit of delay for really synthetic sounds. NOTE: THIS EFFECT IS NOT FOR EVERYONE!!! The triggered bass sounds I am only getting the hang of now about 6 months after I bought the thing. True they do not track perfectly all the time unless you are very clean with your attacks and mutes. I wish you could play more than one note at a time with this thing. I like to use it as a strange kind of doubling device. Sort of like a keyboard player that is doubling all the lines that I play. The octave down synth patch is good for this and adds a lot of beef to your sound if you use it right. And although it doesn't track perfectly, occasionally that is a good thing. The reason I give this pedal a lower rating in this catagory is because most of the things I have listed I found out on my own the hard way. The manual explains the controls fine enough but not too much into how to use the sounds themselves. If you happened to buy this pedal, and are having a hard time getting the triggered sounds to track. Try turning the blend of the dry sound all the way off. Then PRACTISE trying to play lines until you can get them to track properly. Go figure practising to get an effect to work. There is another thing that is neat about the triggered sounds. If you hit a note and stomp on the pedal and hold it there the note sustains forever. I haven't found a use for this yet.

I think that the sounds that Boss is going for in this unit are of a more analog nature so it is a matter of personal taste whether you like them or not. the pedal is quiet, though there is a little sound at the end of the wave shape sound kind of like a patchcord being pulled out of a guitar. the effects are consistantly good. for the price and the size of the unit you couldn't ask for more.

Boss pedals are legendary for being indes"TRUCK"table, this pedal is no different. Though it is, as somone else said, purely a plug in device. I tried it once with a battery only. The word vampire comes to mind. But when plugged in with a boss D.C. adapter I would use this thing in a hurricane.

never dealt with them, probably never will.

I would rate this unit highly. Except for a few things. Obviouly this until is not for everyone. If you have no patience for a pedal that needs a lot of work to get going. Don't buy it. And this is the harsh one, if you are a player with anything less than immaculate technique, don't buy it unless you are willing to put in the time to get your chops up to using this pedal. It is not very forgiving in the sense of tracking the triggered synth patches. For an envelope filter. Get a mu-tron. The wave shape sound is the big reason to buy this until for sure. But like I have said it isn't for everyone. I use it but I play a type of music that is in the more experimental form. I would buy it again if it was stolen. There aren't many products like this on the market. I hear that Korg puts out something like this. But I have never seen one. If you have an open mind (and occaisionally open minded band mates as well) I would reccomend trying this thing out. happy funking.

Very fiddly, six knobs (two stacked) but the manual warns what you're getting in to. Although the manual is worth a very careful study, you really need to spend some time 'playing with it' to find out what effect (no pun intended) each tweak has.

Auto-Wah is reasonably OK, but a little tame - doesn't cut the bottom off your sound, but isn't really strong enough an effect. There are two types of Bass Synth sound, a sort of cross between Wah & distortion which is horrible and a genuinely synthesized bass tone. This latter offers several variations on a theme, with or without modulation, noise and down one octave - cool if you like the basic sound, dull if not. Tracking on this depends on your playing style - in my experience - slap doesn't work, a pick is OK if the treble isn't too strong, finger style is best. Tight technique is crucial - dampen unused strings, play one note at a time and make sure that each note has been dampened before you hit the next note. A cool effect, but one that I use as a special, not a standard

It's a Boss - no sweat innit! Only issue - forget batteries - this stands firmly in wall wart territory

Customer support seems OK - never had to get a Boss FX (and I've got loads) repaired

Probably would buy again, expensive for a 'special effect only' item and the Auto-Wah is disappointing.

I got this pedal in Japan, and since I can't read japanese, I couldn't read the manual, so I don't know how good the instructions are. Everything on the pedal is in English so it isn't too hard to figure out. There are three general types of modes, 11 specific types. The first 7 are called "internal sound," 8 and 9 are called "W-Shape," and 10 and 11 are called "T-Wah"

The "internal sound" is a sort of a rap-like sound. The major problem that I had with this was the fact that it could only read one signal at a time (if you played two strings at the same time, it would go bonkers). On top of that it couldn't process that signal very quickly. I tried playing a simple rap bass line, and it only synthesized about half of my notes. The W-shape, was an interesting sort of distortion, which was alright, but I really don't like distortion in my Bass. I really couldn't figure out what the T-Wah did, but I might need a better amp to find out what does.

I can't speak Japanese well enough to ask them about this, and I'm not about to make a long distance phone call to the states just to find out if there is anything wrong.

If Boss could fix up that internal sound then I would rate this very highly. It's really more of a gimmick than a serious sounding pedal. If you want a real synthesized bass, then you're probably better off looking at synthesizers or very good keyboards.