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Boss Bass Overdrive (ODB-3)
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Recommended By
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Average Price
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Average Rating
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76% of reviewers
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$78.84
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7.2
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Description:
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Level, bass/treble cut and boost, balance, gain.
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Author
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adam on bass
Endorsing Artist - See My Website
Registered: February 2002
Location: Marana, AZ
Posts: 2084
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Review Date: Wed April 21, 2004
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: $30.00
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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It\'s a really nice distortion. Very versatile.
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Cons:
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Tends to be a little noisey when the gain is turned up passed 12 o\'clock.
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I luv that you can get a slight distortion or a FUZZ box sound. The EQ on it makes it very versatile. Typical built like a tank BOSS case takes a beating. Recommended to all.
------------------------------
Formerly "firkinahsoul"
Adam On Bass
spector basses
aguilar amps
emg pickups
d'addario strings
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krazy_olie
Registered User
Registered: May 2004
Posts: 116
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Review Date: Thu May 13, 2004
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Would you recommend the product? No |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 3
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Pros:
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well it works, and it\'s kind of cheap compared
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Cons:
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It sounds terrible
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Ok, i was going to buy this, but i tried it out and hated it, it\'s more noise than anything else, nuthing creamy, bad fuzz, only good when drive is down and you use it as a volume or eq booster. It has bad eq. It\'s well built and yellow so that\'s nice. And if you fiddle you can get some reasonable sounds but otherwise steer clear get a pd-7
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fenderbassabuse
Registered User
Registered: March 2004
Location: Bishop's Stortford, Herts, U.K
Posts: 597
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Review Date: Wed May 19, 2004
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 8
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Built like a tank, sounds good, small, so it fits on even the smallest of pedal boards.
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Now posting under the name of Andy Blowers. PM me about the Ashdown Club
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Anonymous
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Review Date: Thu January 27, 2005
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 8
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Pros:
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Built like houses, ive jumped on the thing from the top of a 5 foot cab and it didnt break, good control over the tone and range
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Cons:
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Gives a lot of noise and hiss if you turn up the gain too loud
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This is a great pedal plain \'n simple
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Anonymous
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Review Date: Sun February 6, 2005
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Would you recommend the product? No |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 0
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Pros:
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Small, easy to carry. Has a great sound and good EQ
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Cons:
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Alittle bit of screeching when gains up, thats nothing really!
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I bought it off my friend because he got a new OD. I love the sound its crisp and crushing and very distinct when playing, adds a touch to some riffs.
small and compatible easy to use with a good EQ great for any level.
I reomend this pedal
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KSDbass
Registered User
Registered: March 2005
Location: atlanta
Posts: 400
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Review Date: Mon April 18, 2005
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 3
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Pros:
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sturdy, EQ
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Cons:
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no adjustability whatsoever,
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This is a mediocre pedal. the only songs it has been used in that i\'ve noticed so far is Anesthesia Pulling teeth. Every single knob on this pedal is basically a volume boost knob. if you turn the settings up, you get that nice distortion squeal, but if you turn the settings up to like 9 or all the way up to ten, it squeals so much it squeals when you aren\'t actually plucking the string, so in between picks it will squeal. I would definitly not recommend this pedal unless you are going to buy it just for playing anesthesia pulling teeth(why youd do that, I have no idea).
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I was gone, but now I'm back again!
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Anonymous
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Review Date: Wed July 6, 2005
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Would you recommend the product? No |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 0
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Pros:
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Relatively Cheap, Has Balance between Clean/Distortion for flexibility
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Cons:
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Doesn\'t include wall wart
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People who complain about this pedal probably don\'t like using bass distortion anyway. I\'ve used this pedal for about 5 years in a variety of situations and been well pleased with it on the long haul.
This is one of the only bass distortion pedals I\'m aware of that features a balance knob so that you can fade your clean signal back into the distorted sound. Most pedals are either 100% clean (off) or 100% distortion (on). When going 100% distortion, you tend to lose a lot of your low (sub) bass, so this pedal compensates for that by allowing you to balance your clean signal in to your taste.
Those using distortion through a combo amp might not notice the difference, but I use a biamped 2-15 and 4-10 and it definitely makes a difference!
FYI I\'ve also loaned this pedal to guitar players in studio and people complimented the guitar tone.
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Earwigger
I'm a Roland man now.
Registered: August 2005
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Posts: 1973
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Review Date: Tue August 23, 2005
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Would you recommend the product? No |
Price you paid?: $85.00
| Rating: 3
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Pros:
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It fits in a BOSS pedal board
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Cons:
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Everything else
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I hate this thing. It\'s got a lot of knobs but they don\'t give you anything near what you want to adjust. This seems like a guitar petal that they just repainted. Its way too heavy on the treble end, completely knocks out the mid, and has a higher-freq low-end that drops out in some situations.
If you\'re in a 3-piece set, this might be a good investment, as it makes your bass sound like a guitar and you could sub for solos. If you\'re in anything that requires a bass to sound like a bass, forget about it.
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Gear: Warwick $$ NT Bubinga 5-string -> Roland D-Bass 210 -> Roland D-Bass 115x
I am RDSR's and Halcyon Days' bassist. Check em out! || Ohio Bassist #77
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sethik
Registered User
Registered: May 2005
Location: Manchester England
Posts: 9
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Review Date: Mon January 16, 2006
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Nice Sound, Versatile, Rugged
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Cons:
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possibly the bateries if you use them
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ok firstly im going to start off by pointing out that most people who dont like this pedal either dont like distortion in the first place or dont have the time to get the settings right(theyre assholes who want to plus and play ususally)
I have used this pedal for most of my bassing career and i find it to be one of the best. it has a great range from fuzz through distortion to overdrive and beyond. it has a nice volume kick to it (while compared to some, especially inbuilt ones the volume drops)
the balance control lets you get the right level of distortion vs clean. very useful. the EQ also lets you mess about with your bass and treble levels to get it perfect.
in short great overdrive pedal.
settings i generally use:
level: 10 oclock
EQ high: 2 oclock
EQ low: 11 oclock
balance: 3 oclock
gain: 3 oclock
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GAB Power
Registered User
Registered: February 2006
Posts: 4
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Review Date: Wed February 8, 2006
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 8
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Pros:
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Small + Reliable + Solid
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Cons:
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Takes a couple of minutes to adjust
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I like this pedal very much. I mainly use it to give a more grungy punch in some songs.
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Dash Rantic
Registered User
Registered: November 2005
Location: Palo Alto, CA
Posts: 1069
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Review Date: Sat February 25, 2006
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: $80.00
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Good sound, nice EQ, does what it does very well.
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Cons:
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Can be a bit noisy, and is more or less a one-trick pony. You'll love it or hate it.
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I purchased my OBD-3 shortly after returning a Digitech bass Driver (Which was a pretty awful pedal).
It wasn't totally what I expected, though tonally superior in every way to my previous distortion. Let's get this straight--the OBD-3 does one thing, and it does it well. If you don't like the distortion on it, you're not going to be able to get anything else out of it.
This pedal isn't for a bit of grit, nor over-the-top fuzz, nor light overdrive. Good hard gritty distortion is what this pedal delivers.
I'd highly reccomend it to anyone looking in this price range.
-Dash
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Anonymous
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Review Date: Wed March 8, 2006
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: $55.00
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Great Range of Tone, Balance Knob, Built to Last!
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Cons:
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A Bit Noisy
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I'm still somewhat new to the world of bass effects. I was originally going to get a Digitech X-Series Bass Driver, but I found the ODB-3 used, and it has the sound I was looking for!
The GAIN and BALANCE knobs allow for plenty of flexibility in the tone. I stick to mild overdrive, but I've experimented with the distortion settings and haven't been disappointed yet.
I had an EHX Big Muff Pi prior to this, but it sucked out the low end of my tone and was too fuzzy for my tastes, so I returned it. While the ODB-3 doesn't have over-the-top distortion like a Big Muff provides, that's fine with me - I don't usually need that.
It is a bit noisy with more extreme settings, but isn't that how every stock Boss pedal tends to be? It's nothing my NS-2 can't solve.
Alone, it sounds great, and with an EQ, it's even better!
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BANGTHEORY
Registered User
Registered: March 2006
Location: Atlanta
Posts: 9
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Review Date: Fri March 31, 2006
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Would you recommend the product? No |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 6
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Pros:
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Cheap, it does what it says.
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Cons:
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Sounds cheap and noisy, but that's the nature of gain
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I may be the only one in the world, but I have never found a Roland product that I consider a keeper (I play drums too, so maybe the new TD-20 V-Drums, but I'm using Yamaha's DTXT IIs, which is close to as sweet for about half the price).
While Roland's Boss pedals are built well, their distortions all tend to sound fake and buzzy to me and while the price is good for a pedal that will get you one ok sound, I think you're better off with something more versatile. As far as mixing the clean and dirty tone there's quite a few other distortions available to do that. Ashdown's new distortion has 2 different signal paths with seperate gain stages, sounds fairly nice, but I think the answer is (and really always has been), tubes; Ashdown doesn't mention tubes(or they'd say valves, being British), so it obviously doesn't have them. The Fulltone Bassdrive is also set up with a mix function and probably a lot quieter than any Boss pedal.
My choice for distortion has, and will probably remain, my old A.R.T. Nightbass, can be noisy when adding a lot of gain(the nature of front end gain, you're basically preamping a preamp when you use a distortion). The old A.R.T. unit has a dual-stage tube/solid state preamp/distortion design that's fully programable. And yes, you can bypass the analog section and just use effects from it, or use it either in another amps effects loop or put your pre in the Nightbass effects loop, it also easilt allows you to mix your clean and dirty/effected signals.
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NOLA Bass
GOLD Supporting Member
Registered: February 2005
Location: New Orleans LA
Posts: 2270
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Review Date: Sun October 8, 2006
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Would you recommend the product? No |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 4
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Pros:
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Affordable pedal. Solid construction.
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Cons:
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Poor tone, noisy.
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I could not find a usable distortion tone with this one. In fact after a few songs that use distortion, my bandmates were even commenting on how awful it sounded. It is pretty cheap and the Boss stuff is pretty well built.
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www.spillwaynola.com
Tweets
For Sale: G&L US JB and Lakland Skyline 44-64 Custom
Sadowksy Club #212, Spector Club #3, Thunderbird Club #200, Mike Lull Club #56
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rodl2005
Registered User
Registered: June 2005
Location: Tasmania, Australia
Posts: 7959
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Review Date: Wed November 22, 2006
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: $120.00
| Rating: 8
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Pros:
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small , good price, good distortion sound, blend & EQ
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Cons:
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not a lot of range of distortion sound.
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Dunno what the others above are on about!  This is a DISTORTION pedal, & with the controls it has, it does the job VERY well! The EQ & blend REALLY helps U to keep your bottom end IN your signal-most other distortion pedals let the ass out of yr low freqs!!!-which is GREAT for me! I play all sorts from heavy rock to jazz-dont use the distortion for the jazz, but the controls on this even allow it to be used as a CLEAN BOOST!!!! Then for funk stuff I can add some dirt while keeping the bass freq's in. VERY GOOD PEDAL for the price & for what it's s'posed to do- it does it -WELL!!
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BONZA#32,Ampeg#34,EBMM#106,P-bass#581,Alleva-Coppolo, Lakland, Bergantino#32, BIG cabs club#16
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