I just got myself a OD-3 a week ago and to be honest I'm very impressed with the pedal. Should be one of the best OD pedals to place in front of a clean amp. Clearly it haven't received the attention it deserves. And again, great video man!
Good to hear it's working well for you! Yeah the OD-3 is a benchmark for me (especially into a clean amp) which is why I use it so much for comparisons.
It does have a very amplike distortion, so that would make sense. It also works great with amps on the edge of breakup which is where always I try be. I found that it is Boss’s asymmetrical clipping that makes it sound more amplike. That makes it good for use as sort of an amp in a box, but I also find that it works great when I can’t crank my amp all the way to the edge of breakup because of volume. I can just add the OD-3 and it still sounds like my amp, but it just breaks up at a lower volume. I play with unamplified acoustics mostly and getting nice crunch at living room jam volume is tricky. The OD-3 helps a lot.
I own a Boss OD3 for more than 15 years and it’s always in my pedalboard.I tried to get rid of him thinking than some boutique ones could be better but I was wrong.This little yellow machine has balls!!!🔥
It took me a while to find the OD-3, but I’m sure glad I finally did. Understanding that Boss’s patented asymmetrical clipping sounds better (more amplike) to my ears helped my narrow down my search tremendously. The OD-3 is the best OD to my ears and the SD-1 is the best Tube Screamer to my ears, and I have and still own a TS9 and a TS7. I feel sorry for all the poor slobs that don’t really like the TS but keep buying dozens of TS clones hoping they will find one they like.
I love the OD-3, it's such a hidden gem of a pedal. Saying that though, I'd put the Nobels and Blues Driver slightly ahead of it, but would be happy with any of those pedals!
I experienced a sense of relaxation and relief every time you switched to the OD-3. Something closeted in the Nobels, at least with this setup. The Nobels seems like it would be very useful for recording to fine tune a sound in the mix
I have never tried the Nobels, but I have often heard that they are very similar. I love my OD-3 and use it regularly. I play mostly with acoustic guitarists, and no drummer, so it works great in that situation. I tend to use it so I can get some nice crunch at lower volumes and I don’t need to “cut” through a mix. Even with my lowest wattage amp it can get too loud for living room jams by the time I get to it’s sweet spot. The OD-3 lets me get to the sweet spot at any volume. I like the fact that it’s OD sounds so tubelike. It can basically augment my amp without changing it’s character too much.
Hi, Brian. I have got one....and holly sh..!! is that sort of pedals you have to write over a tape at his top "always on". I had got Boss, Mxr, Keeley, Carl Martins, and so many others, and that one is my fav one by far. Cheers, mate
I have an ODR-1 & a LP Supreme into a Fender amp like yours. The LP Supreme is really higher pitched compared to other LPs, so I favored the bridge pickup. It seemed okay with the ODR-1. But now I'm looking forward to trying the neck pickup with full treble through ODR-1.
Thanks for explaining the spectrum knob like that! I have both of these pedals, but just left the spectrum knob in the middle because I didn't understand it. I will now try it out with more of a black faced scoop on my clean tones. :)
Great demos, Michael. Glad you revisited the OD3. I got one of the first ones in 1997. Gigged for years with it. When the switch went bad, I sent it to Robert Keeley. He did "something" to it that made it even better. Cheers!
Yeah I was trying to find out what the typical mods were for this pedal recently but didn't get very far. If you find some good info on the Keeley mod feel free to send me a link or something. I'd love to do a comparison between stock and a modded version.
@@MichaelBanfieldGuitar I emailed Keeley yesterday and instantly got a response. They no longer do mods and couldn't tell me what they did. I remember Robert telling me he loved the OD3 and that he'd be coming out with a similar design called the "Red Dirt" hmmm..
@@MichaelBanfieldGuitar I mod Boss pedals for myself for fun (I've done the DS-1, BD-2, SD-1, HM-3, MT-2, CH-1, and PH-2), and I was inspired by your video to pick up a used OD-3 and see if it could be improved. The most info I could find about mods was forumites who almost all concluded most tweaking mods made it sound worse. What I did with mine is take out all of Boss's cheap capacitors and replace them with audio-grade components. I kept all the same values (save for two small caps I swapped for the closest caps in value I had) and all the resistors because those are painful to replace and barely make a difference. Basically, I turned my OD-3 into a boutique OD-3 that due to the expensive caps would easily approach $150 if Boss tried to sell one. Think Wazacraft. I will say it improves the sound without altering the character. More clarity, a bit more headroom, and definitely less noise and fizz. Using tighter tolerances probably moves it closer to what Boss's engineers designed on paper. Get enough components with 20% tolerance, and you can end up with slightly different versions of the same model pedal. If you lived anywhere near me, I'd bring it over for you to try.
@@revolead wow I would love to do a video with that pedal. I’m assuming you’re not in the UK? I could look into trying to do a similar mod myself but I only have basic soldering skills and don’t have any experience modding pedals…
@@MichaelBanfieldGuitar I am in the United States, in Arizona, so unfortunately nowhere near you. Yes, you have to practice. The DS-1 and SD-1 (pre-2018) have huge holes by digital-era standard for components and lots of space, so they're easy to mod. The OD-3, like the BD-2, really packs things in, so if you're not experienced with soldering, don't ruin your fav OD trying to improve it. Even with the skills, it's easy to overheat a pin on the PCB board and render it useless. I went through three Metal Zones trying to practice. But at the time, they were $20 used each. :) Although, that gives me an idea, I could make a second one and just send it to you to see what you think. The only real trick is finding an OD-3 that has the through-hole components. Boss has switched to surface mount for most of them, which are quieter, but impossible to mod with home equipment. PM me if you're interested.
Glad it made sense. It's really difficult to explain sounds in words sometimes! Yeah, that dynamic high end is one of the defining features of the OD-3 for me.
this is a great in depth review. (excellent playing btw) I am a long time user and fan of the OD-3 but have had the Nobels ODR-1 and variants (Visual Sounds, etc.) over the years but the OD-3 is just a great overdrive pedal. I wish i had a dollar for every time I've been at a gig and get compliments for the overdrive tones and a majority of the time the pedals doing the heavy lifting are either and OD-3, BD-2, or SD-1. They all have their place but that OD-3 can just about cover EVERYTHING. It's always a toss up between it and the BD-2. The BD-2 in some ways is a bit ahead because you can actually use it as a "clean" boost whereas the OD-3 will have a little bit of dirt even in the minimum settings on the drive control. Having said that, the OD-3 is a very natural "spongy" type of overdrive that is very easy to get along with in a live setting. Can't bring myself to part with it and I in fact have 3 of them which i use in different rig configurations. Definitely a staple in the toolbox. Something you may want to check out sometime is the MXR Super Badass Overdrive.... the little gold box. It's actually a great OD pedal but dammit I like the Boss form/function for live gigging but that MXR thing is a gem. Don't know how they did it but it has the "juicy thing going" that I also find so appealing in the OD-3. - Cheers!!!
I have the OD-3 but I’d still like more bass since I play at home into clean amps mostly. Do you recommend the Nobels for that? Or may be Blues driver. I love the smooth clipping of the OD-3.
@@javiceres IMHO the OD-3 has more bottom / scooped EQ than the Nobels or Blues driver. I agree your comment about smooth clipping of the OD-3. Also, as i mentioned, the MXR Super Badass Overdrive (the 4-knob gold one) is pretty killer and has more flexible EQ settings with one of them being dedicated to 100Hz. I'm able to get the MXR to mimic the OD-3 pretty close but not the other way around (i.e., OD-3 mimic the MXR). I too use a clean amp pedal platform.... e.g., clean Fender amps like Super Reverb, Deluxe Reverb, etc. When using the OD-3 with those amps, I usually have the bass dialed down quite a bit on the amp vs, when using BD-2 or SD-1, etc.
@@guitphil interesting, thanks. I think the OD-3 may boost something around the lower mids... I have a modded Blues driver (Monte allums H2O+) and in my experience it passes more low frequencies than the OD-3 (stock) when using it with a bass into a flat preamp (eg that in an audio card). Like the BD had a flatter frequency response... I’ll check the MXR.
@@guitphil How do you compare the the OD-3 and MXR in terms of gain? I’d like to try something with even more gain than the boss... the OD-1X seems interesting too.
Od3 is a superb pedal, it's a great always on pedal. I use mine on my board, as always on, straight into the desk live, via a few other pedals, of course
I enjoy your videos, your descriptions of tone variation are helpful for me to understand the strengths of various pedals. Listening is good but a few well-chosen words help to focus.
Wow thank you! I've found it difficult to try and strike a balance between talking through how I'm hearing it in the room and then just playing through the stuff, but good to know it's working out for someone!
@@gabe1141 I'd say that's a great combo, could be a little bright for some tastes/rigs though maybe... If you like an open and clear high end though it'll be fine.
thanks, i liked this video. i'm actually thinking of getting a nobels to define my too dark humbuckers when they are pushed with only moderate gain. and i'm sure it'll flatter the beautiful p90's sound of my godin kingpin.
These are the only 2 overdrives I own and theyre both excellent. I'm actually surprised by how similar they sound. I love the Nobels on a tele. I do agree with "Nobels - Single coils & Boss OD3 - Humbuckers".
I have the OD-3 and I think it sounds terrific with single coils. I just miss a tad more low end yet. Maybe I should try the Nobels to round my options up.
Both pedals are great and sound something alike. My overdrive pedal is the Fender-Boss Fbm1 Bassman. It has the good old overdrive sound, with 3-band equalizing, like the original amp. Even though it has been discontinued, you should give it a review. : )
Nice video. I love my OD-3. I have been lusting after an ODR1 but your video has shown me that they have quite a similar sound... so maybe if it ain't broke I shouldn't fix it!
Yeah they both serve the same purpose for me, just with slightly different colours to the sound and the tone can be manipulated a bit more on the ODR-1 but that spectrum control and the bass cut take a little experimenting with to get the most out of it. You simply can't go far wrong with the OD-3.
I’m very tempted to get both of these pedals. For my more neutral frequency overdrive I have a Keeley Super Phat Mod (a BD-2 essentially), which I push with either a SD-1 or a Chellee Ponyboy (basically a Klon with a bass control) for more focused higher gain stuff. It works well, but I would love to try both of these drives as well.
great comparison and the OD3 sounds killer to me. How would it go into a driven "gainy" amp, like an Orange - you know, for a lead tone? Was thinking I could use one in front of the Orange so that, on clean channel, I get a gritty "dirty/clean" sound when i click on the OD3 and, when on the dirt channel, I get a lead boost? Do you reckon it would work for that?
Yeah that could work, I would think it's dependant on how the eq is working and responding in the rest of the rig. I think the OD-3 shines best into a clean amp, I find it often has a bit too much bass and treble when I use it into a dirty channel, I prefer a more mid focused OD for that like the SD-1 or Tubescreamer for that situation. But if you've got the drive set low on the OD-3 it might work just fine. Hope that helps
@@MichaelBanfieldGuitar cheers Michael - yeah spot on! I have drive right down low and vol/tone at 1 o’clock. It’s a real game changer on clean and dirt channels. Thanks so much!
Nice video. Insightful review. I used to like the sound of the odr1 but now I think the mid focussed sound of the od3 would be smoother, less annoying and cut better. How do the pedals feel to play? My intuition is that the odr1 would be a bit more dynamic, fast and responsive whereas the od3 sounds a bit squashed and lifeless to me.
Sometimes it’s not what we here in the monitor or headphones, it’s how it feels and perceived when we’re actually playing it. These two sound similar in this comparison, but my preference is for the Nobels hands down.
Your not wrong. Options help sales. Adding a line of copy doesn't really cost anything but might save time answer questions if the pedal works at 18V or not... It really depends on your rig and your fingers. That extra voltage could mean more articulation or more harshness plus more noise/output. Personally I prefer 12 volts.
both have FET transistors( luv!), just compared Mad Prof Royal Blue ( after clean Simble) with the BOSS OD-3, with the intention of selling the OD-3, but no: the BOSS OD-3 is very good EQ and all, the Royal Blue s got more definition, but the OD-3 is very very nice( two FET stages), Im selling one of my Nobels just for its versatility( I found myself using it more stratty than darkish jazz...), luv, K😎
I've been using the OD3 (stacked with the DS1) for 25+ years and it's very different from a TS9. The OD3 is transparent and doesn't cut the bass frequencies. Also the drive range is useable from 0 to 10.
I'm questioning myself here: I thought i could hear a difference between 9v and 18v on the ODR-1 (tighter bass response), but I couldn't hear the difference on my headphones between the two pedals when you were playing the Les Paul
Hello again! I know... They can sound almost identical on some settings. The differences are a bit more noticeable in the room with the amp at a decent volume but even then it's pretty subtle and like I said, I couldn't actually hear a difference in the room at all when comparing 9v and 18v of the ODR-1. So don't feel bad if you can't hear some of the differences, it just shows how a like the sounds from these two pedals are. Thanks for commenting!
@@MichaelBanfieldGuitar Thanks! I just found it odd that I reported to hear a difference (18v vs 9v) but not in another (with les paul). I think it might be that I've trained myself to detect a bass cut better than I can discern other sonic differences. With the Les Paul being very mid-heavy, it could be I'm not picking up the difference between loads of mids and a lot of mids. It could also be that I don't often use a humbucker-equipped guitar so the basic tone is less familiar.
dude- you can't review an ODR1 without mentioning the sizeable hump in the low end around 250-300hz. The OD3 is far more flat on it's EQ than the ODR1.
I've not got much experience with the Timmy I'm afraid, it's on my list to do a comparison with though, along with an Ibanez Mostortion or Danelectro Roebuck.
I use both the Timmy and the OD-3. The OD-3 is easier to use and has a great range from light break up to hard crunch and nice lead tones. The Timmy is more flexible with the compression toggle switch and the bass and treble cut filters. I use it especially to get that slight break up sound in front of a clean amp (like this Keith Richards sound). No matter what you choose, you can’t go wrong with any of them imho…
