Boss OD-3 OverDrive Pedal 

Comments about Boss OD-3 OverDrive Pedal:

I"ve been a performing guitarist for over 40 years and have a solid background in guitar repair and tube amp restoration and have owned just about every Boss overdrive / distortion. The top end of the OD3 makes my strings sound as if they were buzzing on the frets when playing higher notes. When digging into rhythm everything sounds squashed with humbuckers. My favorite and only drive pedal that I own is the Boss BD2 Blues Driver. I purchased it when it first came out and in my oppinion, it sounds better than the new BD2's. Of course tone is subjective and is influnced by many factors in your rig or rigs. I use a few different rigs depending on the venue and have experienced the same problem in each with the OD3. The OD3 is also too compressed for my taste. Perhaps it is because of the dual gain stage.

Comments about Boss OD-3 OverDrive Pedal:

This is simply a great overdrive pedal. Northing more to say.

Comments about Boss OD-3 OverDrive Pedal:

I have trouble deciding if this pedal deserves 3 or 4 starts. I gave it 4 because for the price and what it is, it is great.

First, it's a boss pedal so this thing's going to last longer than your house. I've owned one for 4 years doing heavy gigging, essentially putting it through everything a pedal would reasonably go through and it's still chugging along.

As for the sound: as I mentioned before, it is really great for what it is. The price couldn't be better. If you're looking purely off of value, this pedal is definitely worth the asking price. It does a good job of making the low and high notes stand out and be distinct from each other, almost to a fault. Sadly ther's just not much variety. It has one good sounding sweet spot but there is no wiggle room to get some extra crunch and toning it down pretty much neuters it. It is really good at complimenting other OD or distortion pedals and with a good fuzz it can make your solos really sing. But as a stand alone OD it really leaves you wanting for some more variety. I also mean "variety" in the sense that it isn't a unique OD sound. It is literaly that classic OD sound that you've heard all your life which again is great, but doesn't do anything to really set it apart.

With all that said, I still don't give 4 stars lightly. I marked great "great sound quality" becuase in that sweet spot, it really is great. If you don't have the funds to go for the likes of a Maxon OD-9 or Fulltone OCD this is a great placeholder and it will really compliment any of the more boutique pedals very well. I'm sure it will always be a part of my pedal board.

Pedal played through Fender Twin Reverb '65 Reissue with a Schecter C-1 Classic

Comments about Boss OD-3 OverDrive Pedal:

This is a very good sounding OD. Not a ton of gain...but it is an OD, not Distortion. I run LP's through plexi amps. This is my "retro" and "Low/medium" gain pedal.

It has a thick, warm, bottom end...with a nice top end. During chord work, the lower notes are very full sounding, adding in the top end notes brings a nice fuzz tone. I use the term fuzz "loosely". Grab a true fuzz pedal if that's what you're after :)

It plays well with other pedals. Hope that description helps. I recommend it.

Comments about Boss OD-3 OverDrive Pedal:

Mine is the one my dad used in the 70's-80's, and it's still kicking out sound that's to die for. I am blown away with this pedal, and if the one I have ever quits, I'll pick up my loose change and buy a new one. I wish it had a little more gain, at it's most it only has about half of my required gain when I play SOAD, but when I use it as a signal booster with my ModTone High Gainer ,it's perfect. I think everyone that needs and Overdrive pedal should have one.
It's a great pedal. the gain is okay, wish it had more, but for what it's made for, it's perfect.
Boss makes the best, and for a good price.
For what you pay for, you get twice the value

Comments about Boss OD-3 OverDrive Pedal:

Highly recommended by my ear. Everyone should try a pedal before they buy since everyone has different tastes in sound.
Totally happy with this pedal. A little thicker and punchier than my Boss SD-1. They complement each other and when you have them both on - tons of drive.
Boss pedals are tough and dependible.
Very good price. I hate spending more than $150 for a pedal and this one was well under $100.

Comments about Boss OD-3 OverDrive Pedal:

What I love about this pedal it that it gives you REAL OverDirve and not distortion. I have tried other pedal that claim to be overdrive pedal, but sound just like a distortion pedal. And, they are two different things. To me, if I want pure distortion, then I use a pure distrotion pedal. But, I wanted a pedal sounded like an overdrive pedal is suppose to sound, pure overdrive, and this baby does it awesome. If you like Led Zep sound this pedal nails it. I run it into an Orange Dual Terro all tube amp head and an Orange 2X12 Speaker cab. My guitar is a Gibson Les Paul Standard with Seymour Duncan pickups (JB-SH59), and it makes the guitar sound incredible. I highly recommend this pedal, and for the price you cannot beat it. Buy it !!!
Its a simple, thre knb pedal, but it gives you all you need and more. You can use it as booster pedal if you want just by raising the level knob and turning down the drive. Very versitile.
This thing is like a little tank.
I have tried othe OverDrive pedal that cost much more and this thing matches them in every respect. For the money you are getting boutique quility sound at half the price.

Comments about Boss OD-3 OverDrive Pedal:

As much as I love Boss products, I wish I had bought this pedal before spending money on the DS-1 or the Blues Driver. They are both nice pedals and do what they do well. Having said that, the OD 3 has provided me the tone I have been looking for. It sounds great with single coils on my Tele and Strats, it sounds great with my P 90 and hum bucker equiped Les Pauls. I play classic rock, blues, some indie stuff and original tunes. I can dial in any tone I'm looking for from Zeppellin to Alice in Chains to Clapton but more importantly I can finally say I have found a tone that defines me as a player. I am done chasing a sound that I could never quite find that defined me until I bought this pedal.
Been playing for 35 years. Buy top notch guitars exclusively and only play through tube amplifiers. Have used many stomp boxes over the years. I have favored Boss pedal for more than 20 years, they hold up well and bang for the buch they are superior than most. I will still use my EH Big Muff from time to time and I still have my Boss DS-1 and Blues Driver on my board, nothing sounds as sweet as the OD 3 pushing 6V6 or EL84 power tubes to my ears. I now run my amps au-natural 90% of the time but when I want a chunky rythm or a screaming lead tone I go to the OD 3 more than 9 out of 10 times.
In all my years, I have never had a single probblem with any Boss pedal. Currently I own 15 of them.
Bang for the buck, they are unsurpased. I have used the Tube screamer, found it to be hollow and never have I understood why anyone would buy 1 of those. I have tried a couple of over drives that cost double what the Boss does and the Boss offers much more versatility than anything else I've tried.

Comments about Boss OD-3 OverDrive Pedal:

This is my second review of this pedal,because its the best pedal I've ever played through on a live situation,and the secret to this pedal is to set the LEVEl KNOB of this pedal in unity gain of the clean channel of your amp. Atleast as close as you can. Second is the setting of the TONE KNOB which is around 9 to 11 O'clock depending on your pick ups.Then the DRIVE KNOB where desire(max for me!).

All EQ's on my amp setting are pretty much 12'Oclock except Bass is max. I use this setting in front of my Roland JC120 loaded with two Eminence Texas Heat. My guitar is actually simple,its just a humbucker on the bridge(wound 8.7K) single coil middle(6.0K) single coil neck(5.7K) I'm about %80 on the bridge pick up during a live show with the Boss OD-3 on at about that much depending on the song list.

During a live gig,my simple set up turns alot of heads considering its pretty much a solid state.I have been complemented on how good my tube amp sounds. But its pretty much all solid state stuff. We pretty much play alot of alternative rock sometimes heavy stuff and the Boss OD-3 can handle em all. I modded it with monte allum stuff, but I put it back to stock,and its much better stock! Buy it and leave it stock,and you'll be alot happier! trust me..... I've been using this pedal for about close to 4yrs now and I'm not looking back..... It goes well with Boss DD-20,buy em both.
Awsome and simple,no need for NASA space colony Engineer to operate....
A typical of Boss,Bullet proof!
I've been down the road on high dollar overdrive pedals,and for the price,it tops em all!

Comments about Boss OD-3 OverDrive Pedal:

I've been playing guitar professionally for over 25 years and I've always been on a quest to find the right overdrive pedal. I've tried every version of the green thing and always came out unimpressed. Even the other Boss Overdrives didn't fill me. I was almost giving up. I'm not really a distortion guy but I like an overdrive to have lots of gain to where it's almost distortion but stays within the boundaries of overdrive. I play Fender Strats through Fender Tube amps running them loud but clean and I like to get my overdrive sounds from pedals as opposed to pushing preamp or power amp tubes. This pedal has great body and thickness to fatten up a single coil and enough drive to saturate my tone. I fell in love with it. And, best of all, it has a tone of its own. Unlike many other companies who simply imitate and build upon the circuit of the green thing. I swear to you, I tried over 35 different overdrive pedal of various prices and I found that most of them were just imitations of the green thing. This one surprised me. It is different in every way. It's worth it. Cool!
Simple and easy to use. Almost any setting is usable. Extremely durable and tough just like any other Boss pedal. Great sound, well built and simple.
Boss makes some of the best quality pedals out there. Period!
Well, don't we all want everything cheaper anyways?