Boss DC-3 Digital Dimension

The Boss DC-3 Digital Dimension is a stereo chorus pedal, digital rather than analog, that Boss sold from March 1988 to August 1993¹. Pedal of the Day calls it "the younger sibling to the very famous DC-2 Dimension C"¹, and it carries the same Dimension idea: depth and spaciousness like a chorus, but with far less of the wobble a conventional chorus produces. Boss itself describes the Dimension effect as producing "minimal modulation, creating a three-dimensional character while preserving the instrument's natural tone"².

What it does and how it is controlled

Where a standard chorus pedal sweeps a delayed copy of the signal with a wavy modulation, the Dimension approach sends different combinations of delay or phase lines to the left and right outputs. On That Pedal Show, Mick Taylor explained the difference: "the dimension is different because it's sending different combinations of those delay lines or phase lines to different" outputs, rather than the wet-dry arrangement of a standard stereo chorus⁴.

Unlike the preset-only DC-2, the DC-3 gives the player four rotating knobs³:

Pedal of the Day describes these as letting you "accurately custom-tailor the sound to fit your rig and musical style"¹.

DC-3 versus DC-2 Dimension C

The DC-2 Dimension C is an analog chorus pedal with fixed presets, a downsized version of the Roland SDD-320 Dimension D rack mount effect⁵. MusicRadar notes the DC-2's delay lines are all analog, using a double BBD setup³. The DC-3, by contrast, "was of course digital, rather than analogue"³, and it swaps the fixed presets for the Level, EQ, Rate and Depth knobs¹³.

As for the sound, MusicRadar's reviewer found the DC-3's effect "drastically sharper and more glassy than the DC-2, although it is maybe a little less noisy"³. MusicRadar listed a used price of £80 for the DC-3 as of October 2019³.

Stereo outputs

The DC-3 is a stereo chorus unit like the DC-2³, and its stereo outs are a feature in their own right: Pedal of the Day found they "pair perfectly with the PN-2, for dual ambient bliss", referring to Boss's PN-2 Tremolo/Pan pedal¹. The DC-2's stereo outputs, by comparison, "give an even wider sense of 3D effect" according to TONEHOME⁵.

For players comparing it with other Boss chorus designs, the DC-3 sits apart from the CE series of chorus pedals such as the CE-2 and the current CE-5 Stereo Chorus Ensemble: Dave Hunter writes in GuitarPlayer that "Boss chorus went digital in 1988 with the DC-3"⁶, marking it as the point where the Dimension line went digital.

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