OD-3 Overdrive Pedal Review

Absolutely Perfect!

If you're currently looking for your first overdrive pedal, I would say stop here at the Boss OD-3. I wish this was the first overdrive I purchased because it is a great benchmark to measure so many others. Coming in at a very fair price point for the quality you get in circuitry, build quality and sonic value. For the born again tone junkie, this might get you out of some of… read more the many online support groups in your chase for a dynamic, natural sounding overdrive that has more transparency than it does color. The tone achievable with the three simple knobs, sans diode switches or vintage/modern modes is fantastic and rivals many of the independent offerings we have all spent hard earned money on for that Holy Grail end all pedal, only to still be left asking…"did I get a lemon?" For myself this bumped a DSL MKIII , TS-9 and a Super Phat Mod off my board. For drive I now use the Boss OD-3 coupled with an EP booster and Greer Lightspeed. These both go into either a JTM 45 style combo or Deluxe Reverb and I can achieve virtually any tone necessary in the country, roots, blues and rock realms as needed. Recommended Buy.

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Excellent Overdrive

Great addition to my pedal chain. Love the overdrive tones produced by the OD3.

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The best of them all

I've been through lots of overdrive pedals over the years including some quite expensive ones, and this is the one I love most. It's a wonderful pedal with huge headroom, and really fattens up the tone of my guitars. Together with my Boss SD1, I have every OD tone I could ever wish for. The nice thing is Boss keeps the prices affordable for the working man. If you can only afford… read more one OD, this is what to get, or the SD1. They sound very different in that the SD1 is almost same as a Tube Screamer with a bit of a mid bump thing going on. This OD3 has a big full sound with nice low end. I bought it assuming that cos it was yellow, made by Boss and called an Overdrive that it would be similar to my SD1, but I couldn't have been more wrong.

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BOSS OD-3

I'm a pro guitarist with over 30 years of chasing tone. I've owned, tried and played just about everything out there. The Boss OD-3 is the only pedal that has been on my pedalboard ever since the first time I tried it. It adds a magical tonal quality to every guitar and amp combination I've ever used. It compares to many other pedals (Soul Food, Nobels ODR, Open Road and even Klon… read more and King Of Tone) in its contribution to your sound, but it is hands down the best, especially for the price point. It has no mid hump and does not color your tone other than to add a wonderful smooth bottom end and a plethora of Drive settings. The other best parts are: It works well with single and double coil instruments. It stacks wonderfully in front of just about everything, INCLUDING ITSELF. It's so versatile that it can be used as a clean boost (with a touch of warm color that jazz players would love), an "edge of breakup", a crunch, a smooth lead or a balls out lead overdrive tone that really brings out the pinch harmonics. The tone control is perfect to adapt it to any rig. IT IS NOT A DISTORTION PEDAL AT ALL, but it will give you a beautiful, smooth and warm overdrive lead tone. I ALWAYS have at least 2 of these on my boards at all times and one in the gig-bag in case of emergency (which I've never had to use). I set them in front of some very expensive boutiques and at least one is on nearly all the time. When it comes to OVERDRIVE, it's definitely got you covered. I highly recommend this pedal for players of all genre'.

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Boss Od3

This has been one pedal on my check list for years. Running through a Marshall dsl20, it pushes the clean channel to give a little grit and the dirty channel it tightens up without pushing it harder. Funny after all these years I kept pushing it back to the end of the line for the better boutique. This one just killed my search for my overdrive. Try it out, don't like it put it… read more on the used market. There's not alot of them for sale there for a reason.

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