ODB-3 Bass OverDrive Pedal

It's so hard searching a good settings. I finally set my pedal with high on flat, a lot of bass and with low gain. It's (like every distortion pedal) a little noisy, but when you raise the high it become really noisy. I use a Laney Hardcore with it and it sounds good, the balance knob is really a beautiful settings. When in bypass the tone is good enough for me. You can get Flea sound very easily, but if you're searching for Lemmy distortion or Tim Commerford distortion you can get only a lot of noise from this.

I use this live without backup cause is very hard to damage

This pedal is one of the most harder to use I have in my pedalboard. Don't give it too much gain, or it will be a fuzz, don't give too much high, or it will be a fuzz... Remember that if you're searching for an overdrive thi isn't a real overdrive, maybe a fuzz-distortion. I'll give a 6 to it, only because I finally reached my sound

Never have a deal with they.

I play funk and rock music. This is very good on funk, but on rock he can't sound good, so I probably buy another REAL overdrive and put this before the wah, because i love that quacky tone that I can get with this and Dunlop Crybaby 105Q. I wish it had lot of mid frequency in his sound, but is also good in this way. A final 7 is its rating.

This pedal has pretty good overdrive/distortion. My only gripe with it is that it does have a little bit fuzz to it which I dont really care for. But the overall overdrive can get some decent grit to it. One thing I dont understand is that some of the reviews here say that they loose low end with it. I dont have this problem at all just boost the lows on the eq (mine is set at 3 o'clock)and I play with a ton of lows in my sound. The level is the same as the clean level with my setup. Just spend a little time with it and you'll get it. I have a 4 different basses and several 6 string guitars, but the bass I have been using lately is an Ibanez SR400. Yeah I know its a cheap bass but I like the way it plays. I did change the pickups and all electronics. I put in EMG P-J active pickups and EMG BQC System (active volume/EQ system) with an 18 volt setup. So I kind of ugraded the hell out of my SR400. I play through an SWR SM-500 head into a 6x10 SWR Goliath Senior cab. So I have good equipment to test this pedal out. The pedal is a little noisy when on but for a pedal that is about a 100 bucks I cant really complain. I currently am only using to give me a little bit of overdrive in my sound. I have the level set to about 10 o'clock, highs at around 2 o'clock, lows at 3 o'clock, and both balance and gain around 8-9 o'clock(sorry dont have the pedal with me to give you my exact settings). I directly run my bass to the pedal and from the pedal to the SWR head. Its currently the only effect I use. Artist using this pedal, Traa Daniels from P.O.D., Nate Mendel from Foo Fighters, and also Flea from RHCP.

Very reliable. "Its a Boss" like every says. I purchased this pedal an 2000. There not even a scratch on it still looks new and I have dropped a few times. Again deffinetly built like a tank.

This overdrive is very easy to use. You have a Level knob to adjust the volume of the pedal. There are two knobs stacked one on top of the other for the 2-band EQ (highs and lows). A balance knob for adjusting how much overdrive you want to add to your clean signal. And finally a gain knob to adjust the overdrive/distortion. It did come with a nice detailed manual.

Never dealt with them.

I play hardcore/metal type of music for the most part thats why I bought the pedal. I didnt really compare it to any other pedals at the time because I didnt really know of any good overdrive/distortion that came in stomp box. I have a DOD Bass Grunge which I purchased a couple of years before this and the Boss beats it hands down in all categories. The DOD deffinetly looses low end when turned on. It doesnt matter what setting you try to setup. But if the Boss ODB-3 were lost or stolen I would probably look around and check out Electro-Harmonix Big Muff, Tech 21 sansamp driver, Fulltone bass-drive, and MXR Blow Torch etc before I purchase this pedal again. I would also check rack mounted distortion effects. I love that its compact and that it is very basic and reliable. My favorite feature is that it is specifically an overdrive pedal. Again I wish the overdrive had less fuzz to it but its not bad. It still fits in my style of music. You can easily get the Flea overdrive sound with this pedal. I have been playing for 13 years now and I feel like I have the sound I want from my setup. This pedal helps when I want to add some grit to my sound. So I say deffinetly check this pedal out if you are looking for a stomp box distortion, but try others also cause there are many out there. I gave it generous 9 because of the fuzz.

I was running this chain - Ernie ball MM4 stingray>sonic max>alesis compressor>EH octave multiplexer>Boss ODB3>Russian Big Muff>Boss CH3>Tuner>hartke 2500. last weekend at a show, the soundguy and I spent some downtime before the show tweaking knobs and putting both the muff and the odb3 to the test. The muff didnt bring anything useable to the table, so I'm selling it and that review is for another day. The boss had a tasty variety of distortions that could be dialed it with little unwanted buzz. the MAJOR drawback, which is prompting me to sell this one too, is that it cuts the overall level. We tested many different settings, but everytime the unit was switched on, the overall dB dropped slightly, but enough to discourage me from using it live. I may keep it for the studio, but it just didnt have that extra 10% of volume for those timed I needed distortion. Great sound, too quiet (hence the 5)

rock solid. if it didnt have the volume problem, it would be my go-to pedal. its a boss

The ease of use is great! Like many pedals, it takes a bit of time to find its sweet spot for your preferred sound, but there IS a wide range of distorions in this box.

Bottom line, its great for beginners, for fooling around, perhaps even for the studio, but not for live shows.