View other reviews for this product:
Fireguy8402 « Works well but....Noisy!! »
Published on 12/23/11 at 07:50The Boss GE-7 is a 7 band EQ pedal with an overall volume slider. The pedal has 7 sliders that can cut or boost that frequency by 15dB. The bands available are 100, 200, 400, 800 1.6k, 3.2k, and 6.4k. The pedal can be powered by 9 volt batter or external AC adapter. Dimensions of the pedal are Boss’s typical 2.4" x 5.1" x 2.9" and it weighs about a pound. A mono input and a mono output are available.
UTILIZATION
This EQ uses the tried and true pedal formula that Boss has been using for years. Basically Boss builds little tanks, pedals that can take serious abuse from the road and never hiccup, and the GE-7 EQ is no exception to the rule. It is a very reliable pedal and I’ve never heard any complaints in the build of the pedal or quality control. People have lost the tips off the sliders, but that’s no big deal and can be remedied with a little glue. It’s a very straightforward layout and the sliders seem sturdy and hold your settings well. The housing and jacks are metal and will deal with life on the road.
SOUND QUALITY
The GE-7 is a tone shaping machine. It lets you craft your sound to the exact frequencies you hear in your head. I love low powered tube amps, but once you get down to 10 to 15 watters, they really start cutting back on features. A lot of micro amps cut back on the EQ sections, and that’s where the GE-7 really comes in handy to make these amps useful. It is also good in the loop of larger amps to help shape the overall tone. The pedal makes a great solo boost because you can not only adjust the overall volume of the solo using the volume slider, you can also boost the frequencies that really let your guitar cut through a dense mix and stand out like a solo should. This pedal does have a buffered output and I do hear a little bit of signal loss with this pedal in my signal path. The main problem with this pedal is that it introduces hiss into your sound, most notably when boosting frequencies.
OVERALL OPINION
Overall this is a pretty good EQ pedal. It does do a great job of shaping your tone and allowing you to boost your volume or certain frequencies, but the added noise does not make it usable in my rig. If I were looking for a similarly priced EQ pedal I would opt for the MXR 6 or 10 band EQs. The 10 band might be a bit more expensive, but there are added frequencies and no noise when using it. The 6 band EQ from MXR is what I am currently using and does a great job at quiet tone shaping, but it does lose a frequency band and volume slider when compared to the GE-7. I can’t do an EQ pedal review without mentioning that the Danelectro Fish N Chips EQ pedal is basically a quieter version of the GE-7 with a cheaper housing, and doesn’t cost a third of the price. Overall if I was looking for a cheap EQ I’d go for a Fish N Chips, and if I was looking for a durable more expensive EQ I’d go with the MXR varieties.
UTILIZATION
This EQ uses the tried and true pedal formula that Boss has been using for years. Basically Boss builds little tanks, pedals that can take serious abuse from the road and never hiccup, and the GE-7 EQ is no exception to the rule. It is a very reliable pedal and I’ve never heard any complaints in the build of the pedal or quality control. People have lost the tips off the sliders, but that’s no big deal and can be remedied with a little glue. It’s a very straightforward layout and the sliders seem sturdy and hold your settings well. The housing and jacks are metal and will deal with life on the road.
SOUND QUALITY
The GE-7 is a tone shaping machine. It lets you craft your sound to the exact frequencies you hear in your head. I love low powered tube amps, but once you get down to 10 to 15 watters, they really start cutting back on features. A lot of micro amps cut back on the EQ sections, and that’s where the GE-7 really comes in handy to make these amps useful. It is also good in the loop of larger amps to help shape the overall tone. The pedal makes a great solo boost because you can not only adjust the overall volume of the solo using the volume slider, you can also boost the frequencies that really let your guitar cut through a dense mix and stand out like a solo should. This pedal does have a buffered output and I do hear a little bit of signal loss with this pedal in my signal path. The main problem with this pedal is that it introduces hiss into your sound, most notably when boosting frequencies.
OVERALL OPINION
Overall this is a pretty good EQ pedal. It does do a great job of shaping your tone and allowing you to boost your volume or certain frequencies, but the added noise does not make it usable in my rig. If I were looking for a similarly priced EQ pedal I would opt for the MXR 6 or 10 band EQs. The 10 band might be a bit more expensive, but there are added frequencies and no noise when using it. The 6 band EQ from MXR is what I am currently using and does a great job at quiet tone shaping, but it does lose a frequency band and volume slider when compared to the GE-7. I can’t do an EQ pedal review without mentioning that the Danelectro Fish N Chips EQ pedal is basically a quieter version of the GE-7 with a cheaper housing, and doesn’t cost a third of the price. Overall if I was looking for a cheap EQ I’d go for a Fish N Chips, and if I was looking for a durable more expensive EQ I’d go with the MXR varieties.