Boss LMB-3 Bass Limiter/Enhancer

Using a limiter effect and an enhancer circuit tailored especially for electric bass, the LMB-3 gives total control over a bass guitar’s dynamic range.

The Boss LMB-3 Bass Limiter Enhancer is like a instant makeover for your sound, with a ratio parameter knob for more dynamic limiter control, controllable threshold, and an enhance that adds body and presence to your signal with the twist of a knob. The LMB-3 provides you with that ideal, compressed, punchy sound without punching a hole in your pocket. It is small yet full of features that will complement the natural sound of a bass and play nicely with other effects.

Features Boss LMB-3 Bass

The Boss LMB-3 Bass Limiter Enhancer smooths out the dynamics even when slap playing. Provides full control over the dynamics of the sound through the use of the limiter circuit. LMB-3 is specially designed for bass guitar playing.

The LMB-3 is a great addition to your pedalboard for dynamic processing instruments like the compressor. The limiter will cut the peaks completely, rather than smooth them out as the compressor does, and the enhancer will on the contrary expand the dynamic range of an overly “compressed” sound. These features will be very useful for bass players who play slap or tapping.

Review LMB-3 Bass Limiter/Enhancer

Of the three boss compressors I’ve tried this one was my favorite. I ran a sub octave into it to tighten everything up and it worked amazingly well. Definitely a subtle compressor and not the squishy squashy kind. Works much better than the variety of compressors I’ve used over the years at taking the spike out of my right hand attack while keeping the resulting “ping” in the tone, and retaining something resembling natural “bloom” and decay in the envelope. Very effective utilitarian compressor. I didn’t have any noise issues with the Enhance control as others have noted, but found it to be largely unnecessary. A winner at a bargain price.

This isn’t so much an “effect” pedal, rather a note shaper that tones down accidental spikes inserted by my clumsy playing. You can get some additional gain by turning the level knob beyond the point that matches your pedal-off level. Solid construction, as expected from Boss. It completes my minimalist bass pedalboard.

It is subtle unless cranked into contortions. It will do those contortions, too. It’s easy to keep it from being an unmusical brick wall, too. With the settings cranked around, -ratio toward max, threshold down – you can get some odd swelling sounds with a guitar. It’s proving to be fun to play with. It doesn’t make noise like a Boss CS-3 does unless you turn the enhance knob up too much. There’s not much need to do that anyway. Word of caution: if you are using it in a signal chain that starts with an upright bass, you may have some added feedback problems. I have had more feedback issues with the upright using compression than without. So, I just click it off on the board when playing the upright.

I can’t imagine playing without this now. It’s simple and to the point, it really smoothes everything out in all the best ways.

The Enhance control is the best parameter to mess with. It can add a subtle shine to the tone or cover it with a smooth sheen to smooth out any stray attacks that can happen in the heat of a gig. Solid construction, good old Boss sized real estate for the pedal board.