BOSSOD-3 Overdrive Pedal

I hate how most overdrive/distortion pedals filter the low end and/or add low mids to the sound. I understand why this is done, but I want my overdrives to be transparent and sound like I just turned my amp up. The OD3 is one of the good ones, with no low end filtering. I use it in my recording rig as an "edge of break up/preamp kind of pedal, with the gain all the way down and the other settings neutral; it's just for "color". I feel it makes the amp sims sound more real, and when I go to reamp it later, it seems to give the amp a little more growl to work with.To be fair, I use the BD2 Blues Driver on my live pedal board for the exact same purpose, and I think I like the BD2 a little bit better than the OD3, but its really splitting hairs. I don't think it makes much of a difference. What I hear between them is the Blues Driver has a little more of a push in the upper mids around 1-3k, and the OD3 seems a little bit warmer/darker in the 100-200hz range. Both are pretty much the perfect pedal for low gain overdrive, and the price is great too!For reference I primarily play a Gibson Gold Top with P90s or a Fender telecaster (neck humbucker) into a modified Princeton with a 12" speaker.

I am a lead guitarist of an original blues/rock band in WI. Our sound is dynamic and requires me to produce a wide array of tones. I run an entire BOSS Board and I found my sound using the BD-2 and the SD-1 for overdrive.These two overdrives have served me well when played in a live setting and paired with my Marshall amplifier. Since recently shifting our focus to cutting an album, I have found myself using only the pedal board for sound and excluding my amplifier from the mix!This has left me with a very harsh and messy tone that doesn't have much warmth or musicality.This OD-3 has COMPLETELY outshined these other BOSS pedals on so many levels!!It has more LEVEL/VolumeSoft/bouncey toneMore sustain!Playful and inviting character.I also compared this pedal to a few of my other favorite OD pedals...Turbo tube screamer and the NU-X Steel Singer.I found that the OD -3 has slightly more level than the Ibanez Turbo Tube screamer (regardless of setting) and has a fuller/richer tone.The OD-3 also has SIGNIFICANT amount of volume level over the Steel Singer but with a similar tonal character.I found that the Steel Singer and OD-3 had the closest tonality out of all the ODs (OD-3,SD-1,BD-2, Turbo Tube Screamer, and the NU-X Steel Singer)Overall, I would happily pay $200.00 for this pedal!!! It is an absolute steal at the $100.00 price point!!! As a Blues Player, I need to be dynamic, and this pedal can play soft like BB king and it can thrash like SRV at Austin City Limits!!!Buy it! Buy it! Buy it!

As described by many, this Boss OD-3 is an overlooked gem. It's just a great sounding mid gain overdrive. Doesn't go completely transparent or clean. Even at its lowest gain setting it's got some smooth and pleasant grit. But it sounds awesome. Never fizzy or crackly. I have other more expensive boutique pedals on my board, and I use them for different sounds. But I keep coming back to this OD-3 for my light to mid gain solo sounds, as well as low gain chord harmonics. It's tone and sustain is like nothing else I've played. It's beautiful. I do think it plays best into a clean amp giving fatness and heft to single coils. It could get a bit murky with the gain up on humbuckers. On humbuckers it shines with the gain all the way down and that's where I leave it. You see, I've learned that all of these tools have a sweet spot where they sound best and we should judge them on their strengths, not what they can't do. So, this pedal doesn't have the dial in versatility of a boutique pedal with an eq. No! But who cares? What it does it does marvelously with a rich, smooth and harmonic tone. I love it.

Reviewing a pedal is only good if you know the context:American Performer Strat -> MXR Dyna comp -> ASSORTED OVERDRIVES -> MXR Eq ->Boss Katana amp, clean channel, gain at noon, volume maxed out.I've been playing 25 years. I need three tones when I play - sparkly clean for 4th position funk, some slight overdrive sound for blues rock OR leads for the funk songs, and a badass overdriven sound for the leads on the blues songs.I like Blues Drivers, but they're a bit tinny to my ear, especially in front of tubes (Blues Jr IV tweed). When that gain gets too high, the breakup sounds mechanical to me.I like tubescreamers OK, but they always sound muddy to me. This includes the SD-1.I've tried OCDs - GREAT for higher gain - and the Soul Food - which works better with hotter pickups, but seems to cut some of the lows. My go-to rig for a couple years has been either two blues drivers (one low gain, one for leads) or a blues driver with a ds-1 feeding into it, with the gain on the ds-1 turned all the way down.THEN I got this OD 3. Holy crap my world has changed. It sounds a LOT like the blues driver, but without that tinnyness and with more creamy breakup. Right now, I've got an SD-1 feeding into it. The OD-3 is my blues-rhythm tone. The SD-1 gives me that mid-range boost and added gain for leads. With the reverb on the Katana, this set up gives me some great tones. You can definitely dial in those John Mayer Dumble-style tones with this thing, both in fourth and fifth position. It's a truly transparent overdrive - meaning it doesn't mess with the eq - so having that MXR eq after it to boost the mids a bit is great.This thing also sounds phenomenal through the Blues Jr. though. And switching to a guitar with hotter pickups doesn't completely screw it up, as tends to happen with the Blues Driver.Great pedal. Get one if you can.

Versatile pedal that allowed me to dial in the overdrive and tonal qualities I was looking for which was a bright, cleaner sound.