I just want to hear some thoughts on this pedal, since I am becoming more and more inclined into buying one 
.
.
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Your thought on the Boss ODB-3 Bass Overdrive Pedal?
- Thread starter Bassace28
- Start date
there are definitely better pedals out there, I used to have one a few years ago, and until recently haven't touched one. But I was in buying my new amp last week, and requested some dist/fuzz to try through it and all they had was the ODB-3 and I was surprised at how good it sounded. It was on a P-Bass with fresh strings though so that could of been part of it. If I were you, I would try it if possible!
I have one. It does the job. It gets a punchy, gritty tone well. It can go as far as mild fuzz pretty well. I can't get mine to do just a lil' bit of dirt well though. YMMV.
I have one...
Bought it for the following reasons:
1) fair price
2) great range of overdrive intensity
3) great EQ to get tight sound
IMHO to get the holy grail overdrive pedal would require both studio and touring time to get the full spectrum of what a pedal can truly do.
I will trade pedals temporarily with friends to try new things out, and sometime trade outright.
PEACE
Bought it for the following reasons:
1) fair price
2) great range of overdrive intensity
3) great EQ to get tight sound
IMHO to get the holy grail overdrive pedal would require both studio and touring time to get the full spectrum of what a pedal can truly do.
I will trade pedals temporarily with friends to try new things out, and sometime trade outright.
PEACE
I think that the boss odb-3 is a pretty cool distortion pedal. not everyone likes this pedal, but I think it sounded pretty cool. I have a digitech bass driver and I think that pedal sounded pretty cool too. it also sound awesome when I combine it with my danelectro chorus pedal. it gives me a grungy but heavy sound. if you're thinking about purchasing a boss odb-3, I would say give it a try.
I like that you can mix the dry signal with the distortion. It sounds great live but is too noisy for recording.
I tried one out in my local shop and didn't like it. For me the tone had too much of a sharp edge. I ended up going for the MXR blow torch. It costs a bit more and can be a bit of a pain set up, as it's 18v (I was fortunate enough to already have 18v power on my pedal board) but the range of tones I can get out of it is far more, from a subtle warmth on the edge of breaking up, through a cool gritty sound all the way to insane fuzz with the torch button (an extra boost) engaged, and you can still blend in your clean tone.
i think it depends on your amp and personal taste, i ave amp modeling on my amp and the ODB sounds so different on all of them, some awesome, and some ugly, which might explain why some people love it, some hate it. i would reccomend it, but dont buy it without trying it out first
But used, if ya hate it ez to sell or trade! The odb3 is not the terrible pedal that some haters would have you believe, otoh it is far and away from the best out there and there are some tasty mods available. It is a good blended distortion, not an overdrive, fairly industrial and harsh not warm or smooth. I used one for the longest time until better sounds 4 me were found.
I really like mine, but it is a rather polarizing pedal.
For the price of a used one I dont think you can go wrong, I'm dirt poor and managed to get my mitts on one for cheap on the eBay.
One more tool in the tool box and all that.
For the price of a used one I dont think you can go wrong, I'm dirt poor and managed to get my mitts on one for cheap on the eBay.
One more tool in the tool box and all that.
I've got no problems with mine, but I also have it running into a VT Bass pedal. That combination right there is absolutely killer.
I have one. Took it and a MT-2 off my board in favor of a Bass Big Muff, missing both of them greatly. It's nice but I could never get a good bass tone out of it in a band setting. The low end completely disappeared.
I hated it from day 1, when it got out and I tried it at the music store.
I do not want to sound like what comes out of this box.
I do not want to sound like what comes out of this box.
jackwell1029384 said:
I agree! I have a Digitech BP355 that I use for the modeling and I use the boss with it. It sounds kick ass with about 75% of the amps and just bad with the rest. Try it out before you buy it! But I, personally, love it.
I picked one up on eBay just before the holidays, and I tried my hand at modding it. It wasn't all that hard, all I did was replace a couple of capacitors, a resistor and a diode. It's still more fuzz than overdrive, but not as much now. I wish I could make it even less fuzzy that it is, but I'm no electronics expert. I'd like it to be more like a Bad Monkey, but I don't know if its possible with this pedal.
On my setup, it sounded more like a cold fuzz rather than a warm overdrive I was hoping for. I bought it as a teenager and tried it again a couple of years back before parting with it. The number of usable tones I could get out of one felt too low if compared to all the knobs and possibilities the thing itself had. Just my 2 cents. 
In my opinion it had too much overdrive/fuzz and dialing it down meant almost dialing it off. But yeah, it's subjective.
