The ODB-3 looks like very other Boss pedal of the last 15 years, a rugged die cast package that would survive a nuclear assault. It has the typical controls found on most distortion/fuzz units, namely gain (adjusts amount of overdrive), level (adjusts final output level) and a 2-band EQ. The one control that's unique to this box is the balance knob, which goes from 100% dry at the full counter clockwise position to 100% distortion output at full clockwise. This lets you mix the distortion signal with the original input, so you can retain (in theory!) a solid fundamental and a crisp attack on the high end even with massive amounts of distortion.

OK, what does it really sound like? I started exploring the box by setting the balance clockwise (100% overdrive) and setting the gain at the minimum. This still produced plenty of distortion. This pedal is not subtle! The distortion was buzzy and compressed, not unlike a Fuzz Face. In fact, I plugged in my old Fuzz Face to A/B the two and the Boss (with the EQ flat) was remarkably similar, although somewhat quieter. At higher distortion settings, the compression increased until by the 3:00 setting all dynamics were pretty much gone and the tone was a bright rasp. Further advancing the gain resulted in lots of noise, much of it the noise coming from the bass itself being boosted in level. A noise gate in the signal chain would do wonders here. I've seen rack distortion effects with noise gating (the Rockman Sustainor and Yamaha SPX-50D are two that I've used), it's about time someone considered this in a stomp box.

Turning to the balance control, I started backing off the mix until I could hear the dry sound coming through. My favorite position was about 9:00. This helped overcome the severe compression, since the dynamics are well preserved in the dry part of the signal. To counteract the raspiness I rolled the high off to 10:00 and brought the lows up to 2:00. This provided a very fat and raunchy sound that I found quite usable (keep in mind this is at home, I'm sure it will require tweaks to cut through the mix in a band on stage). Tubelike? No way! Way too fuzzy to be confused for tubes. As an experiment, I also A/Bed against a TS-5 Tube Screamer. At low gain settings, the TS-5 did sound tubelike and also preserved the dynamics of my playing extremely well.

Further exploring the balance control showed that all the other controls are active when the balance is 100% dry. At first, this seemed weird, then I realized that it was necessary. Like most distortion units, increasing the gain also increases the output level, so to keep a reasonable balance between distorted and dry signals, the dry signal passes through its own (clean) gain stage as well as the EQ. This means you can use the pedal as a preamp/booster if you like, set the balance 100% dry and tweak the EQ, gain and level to taste. It's not super quiet in this mode, especially when the high EQ is boosted. There is a slight bit of compression and a some "sparkle" is lost but this is a stomp box not an Alembic F1-X!

Finally let me mention that the tone of the pedal will appear quite different depending on the amp used. I did all my A/Bing of the ODB against other pedals with an SWR Baby Blue which is a very clean amp with extended high end. As a result, a lot of hiss, rasp, etc. that I heard would be less audible if I had been using an amp with 15s and no tweeter. As a goof, I tried it with a Strat into an old Ampeg tube combo. Surprise! It sounded great there, in fact boosting both EQ bands gave me a "scooped" metal tone and the balance control allowed a lot of really unique distortion sounds. But the really noticeable thing was that the rolled-off high end of the Ampeg masked most of the noise and smoothed out the raspiness.

All in all, this is a very useful pedal if you want "fuzzy" and "in your face" bass tones. While my ancient Fuzz Face used to be my bass fuzz of choice, the ODB with its EQ facilities and balance control lets me dial in a fatter sound with greater dynamic control. It is a sound best used in moderation, though! If all you want is a tubey fart ala Jack, Felix or Ansy, I'd suggest looking elsewhere (start with the Tube Screamer!), the sound of the ODB is just not smooth enough to nail that tone.

Construction	100%
Size/Bulkiness	100%
Usefulness	70%
(fuzz bass is an acquired taste)
Value	70%
Overall	85%