BF-3 Flanger Review

Building on the 20-year legacy of the famous Boss BF-2, the new BF-3 Flanger pedal gives guitarists and bassists an updated version of the classic Boss flanger with the thickest stereo flanging sounds ever. Two new modes (ultra and gate/pan) create flanging with incredible depth-even Slicer-type effects and sounds that seem to "swirl" around the listener. An instant classic.

Ease of Use:	9.5
Sound:	9.2
Reliability:	9.5
Impression:	9.2
Overall rating:	9.4
Users rating:	7.3
Comments:	11

overall: 10

Featured review by: MA_Guitarist, on september 29, 2005

Price paid: $ 132.57

Purchased from: Guitar Center

Ease of Use: Very easy to get a great sound of not rocket science. As far as I can tell you really don't even need a manual for it, unless this is your first pedal and you don't know how to change their batteries. // 10

Sound: My setup is Crate 30 watt (don't really need loud sound). Great effects! As far as artists go, the only people that I actually give a damn about (and use them) are John Fruciante, (live) Tom Morello, and Gustavo Oliva [(Maquina Amame) myself]. // 10

Reliability & Durability: Boss is very dependable, all my effects (except Big Muff; Russian) are all Boss. And I would definetly use it on any gig(s). // 10

Impression: Maquina Amame (Love Me, Machine) is mechanic rock, and it suits it perfectly because it gives it a sort of "robotic" feel, but not to the point of Electronica. I've been playing for 3 years. If it was stolen/broke, I would buy another without hesitation. I am perfectly satisfied with this Boss product! // 10

overall: 9.8

Reviewed by: TotalyHAB, on august 02, 2006

Price paid: $ 89

Purchased from: Bobs Guitars

Ease of Use: This pedal is the best Flanger I have come across. All you do is set it to one of its many amazing settings and push down the pedal to get a great Flanger sound. You can press it down for 2 seconds to set the Tempo. The Manuel for this pedal is very good it has different settings that sound awesome (especially for Van Halen). // 10

Sound: I use this pedal with an upgraded Squire Strat and a Crate GT212 120 watt amp this pedal is amazing for what I play. Other then it making a whooshing sound when you turn it on there is no annoying ringing or anything. The effects on this pedal are ultra, standard, gate, and momentary all of these effects work grate for my style I can get a perfect Van Halen flange or play No Bodies Fault But Mine by Led Zeppelin. All the effects are amazing on this; you can play with the knobs all day and never get board. // 10

Reliability & Durability: This pedal is like most other Boss pedals, it is impossible to break. The pedal is made of solid metal and has rubber padding on the bottom for good support. I have gigged this pedal and I have never needed a back up (this pedal is very handy for gigs). If you play on gigs allot for any style of music you should defiantly try this pedal out, I guarantee you will fall in love with it. // 10

Impression: I play rock, blues, and heavy rock and this pedal is perfect for my style of playing. I’ve been playing for a few years now and this pedal goes good with my Morley Wah, Boss Auto Wah, and Arion Delay. If this pedal got stolen I would get a new one with in the 10 minutes I found it was gone. The pedal has awesome tones and its fun to play with the gate effect to make a choppy sound, the only thing I can say that’s bad about this pedal is when you accidentally turn the tempo on but that doesn’t happen often (just don’t leave your foot on it too long). I’ve compared this pedal to Line 6 and it blows them away. Get this pedal you will love it! // 9

overall: 7.8

Reviewed by: Themitch, on august 25, 2007

Price paid: $ 114

Purchased from: Ebay

Ease of Use: Using the Boss BF-3 Flanger is relatively simple, 4 knobs, but 5 setting changes. On the first knob you have two options, change the 'Manual' and 'Res', which is basically controlling the 'tone' of your flanging. Next comes 'Depth' which controls how much the flanging fluctuates between ridiculously shallow, and a wide sweeping effect. This is helped along by the next knob, 'Rate' which controls the speed at which the flanging occurs. There are also different set modes for the flanger as well, Standard, Ultra, Momentary and Gate/Pan. Standard and ultra are fairly self explanitory, but momentary is a stop start sort of thing, you hold down the pedal when you want it on and take your foot off when you want it off, as opposed to pressing it on and off. Gate/Pan is more for stereo amps or P.A's etc, it gives the effect of the flanging moving around the room if you will, it creates a sound scape. The manual for this is ok, as most Boss ones are, but still leaves a little confusion if youare completely clueless to this product. So I suppose it doesnt't really do it's job. // 8

Sound: My setup you can find on my profile, but in all this, put in the right spot (for me) the effect can still come through, though with some noise. Even the effect used on it's own outside of a chain can be noisy. If you listen to your amp whilst not playing anything and the unit turned on, you can hear the flanging going up and down. The effect isnt the strongest around in terms of flangers (I'm sure) but more of a mid range one, most likely used with rock solos on mind to add a bit of flavour. So more of a general one I suppose. Getting an artists sound out of this is not hard at all, seeing as a flanger is a pretty distinct sound, you just ned to discover what 'mode' the artist had it on. // 7

Reliability & Durability: Being a Boss it is built well (I'm not going to say it is run-over-able, cos it may not be, and I'm not going to try it), I have gigged with it numerous times with out it failing, just being dented and scratched etc. Depending on it is not a problem, I never run my effects with batteries, as I prefer to know the sound coming out of them is consistent from start to finish, so no problems with life or reliability there. // 9

Impression: In terms of matching me with my music now, I would say that this effect is 'easy to outgrow' it's good to fiddle with, maybe using it on a recording or two for fun, but for me I can't find any serious use for it. efore buying this I do wish that I could have played around with it objectively but, it was a new toy and I was a t ad excited, not regretting it though, it's been useful and fun to have, but if it were stolen I would probably go for something a bit more practical. // 7

overall: 10

Reviewed by: thelonegrey, on july 20, 2007

Price paid: $ 144.57

Purchased from: guitar guitar

Ease of Use: It's the basic knobs that you've got to get around. A 'manual' which sets the level for the effect, a 'resonance' knob. A 'depth' knob to adjust the depth of the flange, a 'rate' knob which sets the rate of the flange. There are 4 modes, standard, ultra, gate/pan, momentary. The ultra mode provides more flange than the standard. Gate/pan provides a sort of 3D effect when in stereo (and more). The momentary mode switches the effect on only for the time it's kept depressed. Pressing and holding the pedal for more than 2 sec initiates tempo to be set. It'll take some time, but when you get it right this baby works just fine.The manual gives the functions of all the features and also gives some "presets" that can be used. // 10

Sound: I use a custom edge guitar through a Marshall mg series 15 watter, MG15CD (the flanger is in between a distortion and an octaver). It's not noisy at all. Like I said until you get to know the features and the functions (it might take sometime) & it might seem a bit tricky. As for the effects, very strong & sound great. // 10

Reliability & Durability: You can certainly depend on it. it's built like a tank (bet you've heard that like a million times). There's no need of a back up for this, it'll bare all the assault on-stage and more! // 10

Impression: I play alt groove metalcore. This pedal suits the sound I want. I've been playing for a year and a half now. I own an ml-2, a Behringer UO100 and a Zoom 707II. If this were lost or stolen íd surely get another (find the guy who stole it and beat him up too). I love the strong flange it gives and the number of things I can do with it. Boss is sort of a company that dosn't make shitty pedals so I went for a Boss, what more can I say? // 10

Reviewed by: unregistered, on may 19, 2006

Price paid: $ 90

Purchased from: Ebay

Ease of Use: Simple 5 knob pattern. I got no manual. Just twist the knobs to dial in a tone, and stomp the pedal to turn it on. Only complaint is the online manual didn't explain exactly what each mode did (What exactly is gated flanging). // 9

Sound: I use a home-made Strat-style guitar with a Vox valvetronix and an Ibanez toneblaster 412. I have a huge pedalboard (Whammy, PH-3, MD-2, Expression Factory, Silver Dragon, Fab-Tone, SYB-3, DOD Chorus, and a Boss Trmolo repainted green, not in that order)and it sounds good with any. I only get excess noise when distortion is in use, and even then it isn't bad. My only complaint is that with too much Manual/Res. you can barley hear the actual guitar, and only the flanger. Actually, you can get a "tin can" sound (I describe it below), chorus, rotary, tremolo and standard flange out of this beast with a little tweaking. // 9

Reliability & Durability: Boss. Nuf said. Although my paint chipped easily with enough stomping or hard stomps. Mine is covered in paint chips (as are all my Boss pedals). This is a major concern. Just be carefull and stomp somewhat lightly. // 8

Impression: I play weird expirimental sound, and use this in a unique way. I turn it to Ultra and turn the depth way down so it is a "still" flange, then I adjust the Manual/Res. control until I get it stopped where I like it. I have been using this for about a year, lthough I have been playing for many years. I would buy another if it were stolen because it is my "signature" sound (I rarley turn it off). The tin can sound on ultra is the best, but I hate how it sometimes turns itself on when I'm not using, but I think that is a power source problem. I got if off ebay, spru of the moment, just because I needed to get weird and this was a weird pedal, plus I know there are no pedals as good sounding as Boss. I only wish mine came with a power supply and manual, but what can you do? // 9

overall: 9.8

Reviewed by: vampwizzard, on december 28, 2005

Ease of Use: 5 knobs (manual, resonance, depth, rate, and selector), two inputs, mono and stereo output. Very easy to use. Has a tap tempo feature that is a little tricky but perhaps the easiest tap tempo feature I've ever used. The instruction manual is alright, gives you some clues to dial in a good chorus like effect and a tremelo. A little confusing on the output part though. I cant discriminate for the manual. // 10

Sound: Used it with an American Strat through a 50watt tube Fender amp. Sound quality is excellent. The gate/pan feature is really neat, gives you a tremelo feel. The standard setting is just that, the standard sound. The ultra setting is good for electronic music, and overall is pretty good. It doesnt get really noisy, but sometimes makes some strange pitch changes that I didn't like. // 9

Reliability & Durability: Boss pedals are indestructable. Our band uses them exclusively (except the custom ones iI handbuild). // 10

Impression: I play blues-rock and this pedal has features that will allow me to use it on Pink Floyd type tracks. I use it more for personal experimentation, and I love the pedal. I'd give it a 9.5 if we could rate like that. So for now, I give it a 10. // 10

Comments

[595Metallica595]

sounds pretty good, may get one

[Shredlet]

Yeah i recently got a FAB Distortion and Flange but i think they should be backups i want to get this Flange and DS-1 Distortion

[metal_skill]

dude i wouldnt go with the ds-1. i had one and the best i could say was ok. the only reason i used it was because i started out with a bass amp and used it for the distortion. when i got a real amp the distortion on the amp was better. i use an mt-2 now but i dont know what to suggest for just normal distortion rather than really metal.

[Tedward]

can you play in bloom good with it (if that is even a flanger)?

[mul666]

bum

[[B]C [R]ich]

this is definetly the best flanger ive used, never heard a single complain about it, but if you plan on buying one, be sure to buy an adapter for it, it will go through batteries like crazy if you leave it plugged in.

[ext_22]

mt 2 + flanger and play some really fast palm muted riffs..its awesome guys try it

[365_days_gone]

I like the sound of momentary. All pedals should have that function.

[hmonk0608]

yh boss pedals need to be unplugged from the input socket when ur not usin them or theyll go through batterys like crazy. btw can any1 tell me how this sounds through a bass (with and without distortion)

[skilly1]

just got this pedal and as soon as i played it i loved it, been after a flanger for a while now and its exactly what ive needed

[anthrax1214]

this pedal kicks ass. i got it for 60 bucks at c and c guitars. ONLY IN PARIS, TEXAS. now i need a metal zone because all the distortion i have is an old boss hm-2 heavy metal that isnt distorted for my music, cannibal corpse, old metallica, anthrax, slayer, megadeth, shit like that.