All user reviews of 5/5 for the Boss ODB-3 Bass OverDrive

Originally written by Chi Cheng on Audiofanzine FR.

Analog distortion bass pedal with five controls:
- LEVEL control (adjusts the effect's level). Use it to compensate
any volume differences between the original and processed signals.
- HIGH EQ control (amplifies/attenuates high frequencies)
- LOW EQ control (amplifies/attenuates low frequencies)
- BALANCE control (adjusts the mix between direct and distortion sound)
- GAIN control (adjusts the gain of the direct or distortion sound.
Provides a wide sound range from crunch to fuzz and distortion or a simple boost.
Very rugged yellow aluminum housing.
Battery or PSU operation (battery included).


UTILIZATION

Very simple overall configuration, effective controls and very intuitive use. The user's manual provides nice setting examples you can fine tune to match the sound of your amp and your bass.
Like with every Boss pedal, the learning curve is not very steep but you'll have to take enough time to find the tone you really want because the controls are precise! Precise equipment requires precise use!
The distortion sound is a variation of the clean sound, so you'd better find your own clean tone before setting the distortion sound.


SOUND QUALITY

Wonderful sound! It shakes the walls, but always with class.
It gives you everything you want from dirty fuzz to light crunch and heavy distortion.
I use it with a Cort B4 and a Trace Elliot stack (GP7SM-250 head) and it was a delight from the very beginning! Even with all controls in center position, the sound is good!


OVERALL OPINION

I've been using it for some days and I'm very happy. Great product for rehearsals and live gigs. Boss products have a very long life
Before buying it, I played with an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff. It' not comparable. The Big Muff had less lows, the sound was not deep enough and it was too dirty! I don't regret my choice.
The price is ok considering it's a Boss stomp box: good manufacturing quality and sturdiness. I wouldn't hesitate to buy it again!

This is a bass overdrive overdrive pedal from Boss. It is similar in ways to a Boss DS-1 for guitar, but for bass. It does have a few subtle differences. It is a 100% analog pedal. It has no MIDI or USB connections and it is not rackable as it is a pedal. It does have a 1/4" input and output like most pedals do. It can run on a 9V battery or by power supply.

UTILIZATION

Editing the effects on this pedal is pretty easy. It has four knobs, one of which has two working parts. The level knob controls the overall volume of the signal. The tone knob has two parts, one for low end and one for high end. This helps maintain a lot of control over the tone of the bass, which is difficult to manage with some bass distortions/overdrives. There is a balance knob, which controls the balance between the dry signal and the wet signal, allowing for a significant amount of blend (and therefore not overdoing the distortion). The final knob controls the gain.

SOUND QUALITY

I am a huge fan of this pedal, because it has a lot of tonal variety to it. I think that the best sounds I got with this were with my P-bass, as it has the thick heavy low end necessary for such a pedal. The best thing about this pedal in my opinion are the EQs and the balance knobs. The eqs can control how much of the low and high end remain in the mix. The main complaint I often have of these pedals is that too much of the bass gets lost in trying to distort the signal. Another great way of avoiding this problem is the balance knob, which will provide the (already reasonably heavy) dry signal more room in the mix. I like this pedal because it doesn't annihilate the tone of the bass and amp you are using, just distorts it a little bit. It is rare that I find a distortion that can do this.

OVERALL OPINION

This pedal is really cool. I like the variety of tones you can get, and I really like how it doesn't color the sound too much. I prefer to use it on a lighter side, as a thick bass distortion is tough to hear in a mix and almost defeats the purpose of beefing up the bass tone. It's a good price and it competes really well with the pedals in it's price range. I highly recommend it to anybody who's been skeptical about bass overdrive in the past.