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A friend at work recently gave me a copy of his old band's unreleased album and I really liked his guitar sound on it. Turns out he was using either a vintage Mustang or MIJ Jag through a Boss OD3 into a silverface Twin. I've been reading a few reviews of the OD3 and it seems people really like this pedal. Do any shortscalers have good/bad things to say about them?

i have one for sale #cough #cough

a lot of people here like it but I just don't use it and as I was raising funds recently that's why I put it up for sale. It's pretty decent though

PM'd

It's Boss' best overdrive pedal.

I liked it a lot when I had it--even bought it due to the advice I received here. I only sold it because I made a trade with a friend that included his homebrew overdrive that had a cleaner boost. If I needed another overdrive, I'd certainly pick one up.

Yeah, it's a great pedal. Always liked them when I've plugged them in for a customer to try one out... !!

More often than not they've been through half the pedal cabinet and I'll suggest this, and they buy one.

i had one and sold it a while ago, i actually got another one i bought in the post today for cheap aswell.

i really like them, with the gain all the way up it compresses a bit but its not full on and with the gain all the way down and the volume up its a great boost.

I agree that it's a great pedal.

Think Slowdive used to heavily rely on the OD2? Lots of sounds you can get out of them.

I bought one years ago. Didn't really know what I was doing at the time.

Great pedal though. Still use it a lot.

singlepickup24 wrote:I agree that it's a great pedal.

Think Slowdive used to heavily rely on the OD2? Lots of sounds you can get out of them.

+1 on the OD-2. Best to get the cheaper MIT OD-2r too, the foot switchable "turbo" mode is great... plus it fixed the problem with the lack of volume.

That said i've never heard a bad word about the OD-3, i wouldn't mind trying one out ...and the ODB-3 too

ODB3 is great. I've received mine the other day, i've not played it at band volumes yet but from what i've heard so far it has a good heavy overdrive sound - lower gain sounds didn't sound so good.

I got rid of this pedal pretty sharpish, but as these things are subjective, I hope you're enjoying yours. There's been a bit of debate between the OD-3 and the BD-2. I think if you needed a brighter sound, go BD-2. A bit more bottom end, stick with the OD-3.
I found the old Japanese SD-1's to be a good overdrive. It's odd, because the circuit hasn't changed on these pedals since they were first made, but the old one sound better. I also liked the Boss SD-2 for versatility. Goes right up to flat out distortion though. The OD-2, and OD-2r's are OK as well.
A drive pedal I really love is the Tech 21 Double Drive. Not the programmable 3 pedal thing, but the limited edition one. 4 knobs, and really easy to get a good convincing tube drive out of. Of course if you want proper tube drive, then have a look at the BlackStar stuff.

I used to play an OD-3 through my Twin Reverb. Liked it quite a lot; a good pedal for the money.

I sold mine after a short while. Nice enough but I couldn't get the balance between drive and string separation that I Could get with a blues driver. A little too much bottom end and not enough sizzle coming through. I guess thats good thing cos it keeps your tonal range intact makng it a Pretty good natural sounding stand alone drive

I'm now considering getting an OD-3 to see how it sounds with a bass. A RAT is the best dirt box for full-on sludgy mayhem, but the compression/sustain and bottom end of the OD-3 might work better than my Blues Driver did for the mildly-distorted tones. I've heard that the ODB-3 is a less like an OD box and more fuzz-y, but since OD-3s are fairly cheap second-hand I'll give one a go.

The Blues Driver has this crackly, splatty decay that got on my nerves after a while. It's nice and transparent, but for a bit more cash an OCD does the job much better for me. Only downside is, both are 'touch responsive' (very much so in the OCD's case!) so they don't do the 'sustain and compression' thing.