BOSS OC-3 Super Octave Early Version

The First Polyphonic BOSS Octaver — OC-2 DNA with a Much Wilder Personality

The BOSS OC-3 Super Octave is one of those pedals whose importance becomes more obvious when you look at what came before it.

Following the legendary OC-2, the OC-3 introduced something genuinely significant to the compact pedal format: polyphonic octave processing, allowing octave effects to be used with chords rather than being restricted to single-note playing.

But BOSS didn’t stop there.

The OC-3 combines three distinct personalities: its Polyphonic Octave mode, the aggressive Drive mode, and an OC-2-compatible mode designed to reproduce the classic dual-octave character of its predecessor.

That last point is particularly important. The OC-3 can blend the dry signal with one octave below and two octaves below, giving you that unmistakable subterranean OC-2-style voice — but with the additional flexibility of modern digital tracking.

Then there is Drive mode.

Push the octave signal into it and the OC-3 becomes considerably more aggressive, turning the normally synthetic character of an octave effect into something thick, distorted and almost synth-like.

And for bass players, BOSS included a dedicated Bass input that automatically optimizes the tracking range for the instrument.

The OC-3 is now discontinued, which gives this otherwise familiar BOSS compact pedal a different appeal: it represents a very specific moment in BOSS history, when the company took the iconic OC-2 concept and pushed it into a new generation of digital octave processing.

Three modes. One classic lineage.
From vintage OC-2 tones to polyphonic octave walls and savage octave distortion.

A deceptively simple little box that can get seriously monstrous. (BOSS)