Boss OD3 or BD2

[zeta_cp]

Need help on this. I have a Joyo Ultimate Drive (clon of the OCD) and I want to buy another OD. I'm not sure if buying Boss OD3 or Boss BD2. I'm planning to use the Joyo like a Low/Mid Gain Distortion, so I need a good OD for the "softer" parts. I play mostly riffs and chords, so which of the mentioned pedals you think would get along well with my Joyo?

Have you tried these Boss pedals with an Ultimate drive Joyo or an OCD? Does they stack well?

Where I live I don't have the possibility to go to a shop an try them out, plus I buy them through Ebay so if you have any demos of those pedal stacking together feel free to share.

Thanks.

 

[orogeny]

i think the ocd and the od3 have quite a bit in common.

the bd2 is 'cleaner', or more transparent. it does a spectacular clean boost. i can also emulate fuzz. it also cleans up at the guitar like a very good fuzz pedal. i highly recommend it.


i prefer the od3 to the ocd, but that is b/c of what it does to make my single coils on my strat sound nice and beefy. the ocd does a good job of coloring or compressing the signal in a pleasing way too, i just prefer where the eq is on the od3.

i could honestly go od3-bd2 (loved the keeley mod) for the rest of my life and not need another pedal. meanwhile, i don't have the bd2 anymore (sadly), and the od3 lost out to the klon (or was it the screwdriver?)

 

[astainback]

I have the BD-2 and the OD-3 and I like the OD-3 sound and feel over the BD.

The BD is good, but not great.
The OD-3 is great.
Both of mine are stock though.
Modding is a whole 'nother thang.

 

[Fender074]

+1 for the OD3, I had this stacks brilliantly with just about every pedal i tried it with, Im sure it would sound nice with the Joyo Ultimate Drive. To me the BD-2 was bland and It ended up on eBay after 3 days...the OD-3 was on my board for quite a few years and it just gave me such a full sounding tone, much more then I was expecting from a Boss pedal

 

[Paul Conway]

Anyone tried both the OD-3 and the OS-2? I have the latter and would be curious to hear your comments..

 

[ToneGrail]

I had a BD-2 and got rid of it for an OD-3. Never looked back. The BD-2 was way too raspy for my tastes, hence the ability to emulate a fuzz.

The OD-3 gives more of a cleanish jangly type distortion. On it's lower drive settings it can be used to emulate a cranked Fender amp going into compression or slight overdrive. You can't get that out of a BD-2. IMO open chords sound like shiite on the BD-2. It's way closer to a fuzz than the OD-3.

 

[Bozzy]

I have a BD-2 and it 's a great pedal! Maybe not as a standalone overdrive but works great in conjunction with a Big Muff, a Rat or similar or even as a boost for a already crunchy amp. An SD-1 is a very underrated pedal to consider especially if you're the modding type!

 

[Jaymz D.]

Hello, I never played the Joyo but I own the OCD(v4), the BD-2, and the OD-3. For stacking with the OCD I really like the BD-2. Set to low gain it stacks fabulously with the OCD and many other od/distortion pedals. For use as a standalone drive pedal the BD-2 can be harder to use, it can be very bright with single coils and even sound kinda raspy at times. The OD-3 is fuller sounding and has a nice range of gain from clean-ish to full on rock (it even sounds kinda 'marshall-y' at mid to high gain settings IMO) making it a nice standalone pedal. I found it to work wonderfully with single coils but could be a bit to fat for some full sounding humbuckers. For my tastes and uses I thought the OD-3 was too full sounding to stack with the OCD. IMO the OCD really stacked well with slightly more 'narrow' sounds like the BD-2 or any tube screamer variants. Hope this helps.

 

[zeta_cp]

Hey guys thanks for the answers you're awesome, a lot of feedback here. I see most of you prefer the OD3. I guess I'm going for the OD3, since the BD2 is a nice OD but it sounds better when it's stacked, and I plan to use it sometimes alone, sometimes with the Joyo.

 

[jazzfromhell]

I had the OCD v3 and the Joyo UD. Never liked em, sold both quickly. I also have the BD2 and OD3, both of which I love! I agree with most people here, the OD3 will probably do the job best for you.

One thing I love to do is stack the OD3 into the BD2. If you dial them in right you can really get some serious, dare I say it, Marshall-esque crunch happening. The secret is really in the tone knob of the Blues Driver; set it too high and it can, as other people have noted, sound very raspy. I find the sweet spot to be between 9 and 11 oclock depending on the amp.

A really versatile Boss od-section on a board could be: guitar - SD1 - OD3 - BD2 - amp.
SD1: a great middy solo/gain boost.
OD3: a bit flatter than the SD1; very clear and articulate.
BD2: the foundation; even flatter than the OD3; a fat SRV-type tone with lots of punch.

Any stack here will work great. If you work that volume knob on your guitar you can go from a quiet whisper, barely breaking up tones, to full-on EVH and beyond.

But I digress....sorry!

 

[AXXA]

I thought the OD-3 did better with a clean amp, and the BD-2 is better for boosting a dirty amp. The OD-3 is fatter sounding, the BD-2 seems pretty flat EQ-wise to me. I prefer the BD-2.

I used to have an OCD, and the BD-2 seems the most similar to me btw.

 

[Ryan84]

Boss BD-2 all day long. The Blues Driver really reacts well to picking dynamics and you can go from clean boost, to overdrive, to distortion/fuzz. It literally does everything you could want. Like people have said it has more punch. Whereas the OD-3 has more of a bite sound. That bite sound is why I never liked the Boss SD-1 either even though others think it's a classic. It's just a harshness I can't quite explain. I don't think the OD-3 is as smooth sounding, and for solos the BD-2 is really hard to beat.

 

[Mike Duncan]

Of all the drives out there, an OD-3 and Plimsoul are all that remain on my board. Love the OD-3!

 

[jerryfan6]

Is the OD3 based on a Tubescreamer circuit or a Bluesbreaker circuit?

 

[Oddos]

There are a lot of mods out there for the BD-2.

I could never bond with the OD-3. It belongs in a category with a million options and to me it's way too noisy.

 

[Speeddemon]

Is the OD3 based on a Tubescreamer circuit or a Bluesbreaker circuit?

I'm not sure if it's either, but it has more in common with the BB. No bass-loss and as a stand-alone drive it's much more amp-like and convincing than a TS9. Has a bigger range of all knobs as well.

I prefer it for mild OD to the BD-2, which is a lot more grainy/fuzzy. But if you keep the Tone low on the BD-2, some great (hard)rock tones are to be had as well. I'd consider the OD-3 Malcolm, and the BD-2 Angus.

 

[Bobby Wasabi]

I saw this video on YouTube. I'm sticking with my BD-2.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MLKuszyTKI

 

[Zeon45]

Boss BD-2 all day long. The Blues Driver really reacts well to picking dynamics and you can go from clean boost, to overdrive, to distortion/fuzz. It literally does everything you could want. Like people have said it has more punch. Whereas the OD-3 has more of a bite sound. That bite sound is why I never liked the Boss SD-1 either even though others think it's a classic. It's just a harshness I can't quite explain. I don't think the OD-3 is as smooth sounding, and for solos the BD-2 is really hard to beat.

BD-2 FTW.