Boss GE-7 Seven Band EQ

Mine is a Humphrey Audio Mods version.
They do customer mods of yo can buy pedals ready moded from them.
www.haudiomods.webs.com

Easy to use. Very self explanatory really.
NO comparing it to the stock version. Read on

Here's the problem. It's noisy/Hiss souning and won't reproduce bass notes in fast succession without losing volume. I contacted Humphrey audio and they explained that tis unit "Sags" or becomes underpowered when in the heat of battle.
They cured all the problems and it's a pristine unit worthyof a '10' now compared to a 2 before.

Don't expect issues, and Humphrey has a lifetime guarantee.

Nothing like this anywhere. COMPLETE customer service all the way.
I hihly recommend this compan to anyone out there.

I had Humphrey work over every pedal I use on stage, and the differene is amazing.
His version of this Boss EX is the best thing I could evern recommend to anyone who eed a high quality EQ in a small package.
Just DO IT!!

OK It's fairly easy, but I'm giving it a 7 as it'll take a little getting used to at first. Once your over the first hurdle it'll give you a lot of fun, but as I say it's getting used to how the guitar frequencies work, patience is the key!

I use 2 marshals, an SLX & a 1987x plexi, I've ben using this pedal in front. First of all I used it to give a lead tone and boost, these are a bit noisy for that so I'd recommend upgrading a few components, that sorts it out. I found the sounds pretty good( if what you want is a straight forward enhancement of what you've got...guitar tone wise, think Slash, S.R.V ect), how ever I've discovered that straight outa the box these are best for cutting frequencies. As a rule i like the old approach of rolling of the volume for a cleaner sound, thats not always quick enough though, depending on what kinda music you play, so I took my time and got the GE-7 mimicking that "rolled off" sound that I like! Bingo, it works perfectly here to my liking.

It never ever goes wrong, tough construction, it'll take a few knocks.

never needed it.

I'm a Hard rock player, this does the job pretty good, If ya need to upgrade it, it's still not as expensive as some other EQ's, especially second hand. I've been playing for...mmm...23 years, For lead type sounds I've had stuff like GE-7, the KLON CENTAUR..(very smooth but not as versatile), the Ibanez TS-808 tube screamer I still use. A grafic EQ is much more diverse, loads more control over the sound, and is often great used in combination with a drive pedal to give extra control. If it were stolen I'd be pissed right off as I'm already gonna get another one so's to have 1 each end of my FX chain. There are better ones out there , but not at the price so you way it up, Definitely the most versatile type of pedal.

Easy to use...except that the sliders are very close together (as others have mentioned) but they stay put pretty well when you get them dialed in. Just a matter of using your ears and finding what works for you..

I use this through my effects loop...I don't detect any hiss running it like this...

This thing really helped me out...I'm kind of stuck with my current amp due to financial restraints (I'm not gonna buy another amp until I can get what I really want)...my current amp has a terrible high pitched sound in the drive channel that can't be dialed out with the on board eq...I've had good luck getting the frequencies I didn't like out of my tone and zeroing in on the ones I want with this thing...which is what an EQ is for! Since I'm mostly dropping frequencies out, my amp volume dropped too...no problem: I just bumped the level control up a notch.

Boss products are well built...this one is no different...if you leave it on all the time like I do, it will eat batteries...use the ac adaptor if you can...

Na

As mentioned, this thing can help you get more out of the amp you already own by getting rid of unwanted frequencies and enhancing the ones you like...at least that's what I use it for and it works great.

Very easy to use once you know how EQ works and where to place it (read below)

Excellent sound quality now that I understood where to place it for my needs (been using it for past 10+ year with ****** sound quality!)
The main goal for me when buying this pedal was to have a relatively clean boost for the lead work. I thought it was making sense putting it in the effect loop to get this extra volume needed to make myself heard. BIG DISAPOINTMENT that i learned to live with until yesterday at rehersal.
Don't aske me why, but i spent some time the other day thinking back on that pedal and why it sounded so like crap when other people are so happy with it. ANSWER : if you want a clean boost for lead work place it LAST in the chain in your FX Loop. Mine was first in the chain, and was generating nothing but microphonic feedback, hiss whatever, enterint (boosted) the other pedals (boss delay and chorus). It is now working as it was supposed to do... after 10+ years of misuse!!!
It may sound stupid, which I might be, but as simple and logical as it seems to me today, it never was for the past years!
so if you want clean volume boost (even slight mid boost), LAST ON THE FX LOOP after ALL other pedals.

Easy to use... like an EQ. Read on.

Great.
You must find the best place to source an EQ. Just like any other pedal.
An EQ should always be used to cut frequencies first and foremost.

I've had Boss all my life.

I can put this in a different line up and get noise, and get poor sound quality.
If you have noise, it is not being situated best.
And if you are ramping up to get a booster, you need an amp.

Nothing that hasn't been stated before

I stated in my previous review it had a lot of noise. I found that it must be placed last in the pedal chain (closest to the amp input) in order to be more silent. Sure wish Boss would have bothered to mention this in their manual. Oddly, the unit does not default to "On" when plugged in. Wish they had a user selectable switch that would determine if it was either on or off when first plugged in. As it is now, my Boss Metal Core goes "on" and the Ge-7 is "off" and don't you know I wish it was the opposite.

Very reliable, especially if you use a power supply instead of batteries.

I email them about an issue and they got back within 24 hours with a good solution.

For some reason no company wants to break away from the crowd and off more features in the individual pedals (like a state selection switch) or even an obvious On/Off switch. Oh well. Certainly not a great value new ($99) but you can find plenty on Craigs list or ebay for half that.

None of Boss's pedal manuals state the power is always on when it's plugged in even when the light is out so I certainly wouldn't give good marks for the first battery it costs to find that out. This is a fairly major oversight.

I think it's crap. It has a hiss or whoosh sound that gets louder when you play. At first I liked the pedal till I noticed that very annoying sound. Strange because their Metal Core pedal doesn't add any sound even when I crank the tone knobs. Other than that it's not a parabolic equalizer so it's not all that great to begin with. Any adjustments on a parametric brings up a pretty wide frequency area, not nearly as nice as a parabolic's exact frequency sharpness. But, I don't think anyone makes a parabolic pedal for some reason. Must admit I'm a beginner and this is all new to me.

I bet it would last forever

Don't know

I have a Peavey Classic 30 and a Gibson Mahogany with Burstbucker Pros that I like very much. I bought the GE-7 to add a ton of bass because that's the sound I like. The BB Pros really keep it from sounding muddy. It makes a really nice deep tone with the amp's bass at 100% and just the 100hz of the GE-7 at 100%. But I'll have to do without the GE-7 because that loud whoosh is just too annoying.

If you know anything about EQ, it's absolutely ok. I don't have a fantastic ear but I'm able to shape my tones to my liking pretty easily. It's 7 eq sliders and a volume slider. Can't ask for much easier. I had an MXR 6 band eq but the lack of a volume control or an on/off switch did it in for me. One other good thing: this was actually cheaper than either an MXR micro amp (booster) OR an MXR 6 band eq. It does both at once. That's why I chose it. Volume boost at your fingertips (well, so to speak...)

I've had MXR 6 band and 10 band eq's, a Pearl 8 band and 2 of these units, one Japanese and one Taiwanese. I couldn't tell any difference between the 2 Boss units. I use it for volume boost and sometime for modifying my tone a bit, especially to balance tone through my different amps.

I use a Fender Mustang, Jaguar and Strat (all Japanese) through a 1970s Vase Trendsetter valve head (with Marshall 210), a Peavey Classic 30 and a Fender Super 210 all valve. Pedals are always changing but there's usually a Boss LM-2 limiter, DS-1, GE-7, LS-2 line selector, AW-2 auto wah, Dunlop wah and Marshall EchoHead delay (FANTASTIC delay). I can't hear too much extra noise from, unless I go rank with the high frequencies. Used in moderation, it is excellent.

Boss 10/10. This is probably my 40th Boss pedal and not one has ever given me trouble. I've had 3 Washburn pedals- all had reliability issues. Zoom, likewise. Korg, ditto. DOD/Digitech...the same. Boss are just unbelieveable.

They've started publishing their manuals online (about time) but they're not especially supportive. The bossarea.com site is the best resource (but it's not run by Boss, just by Boss fans). Bossarea is very cool.

Boss are fortunate that their products are such high quality, support is very rarely needed. Although, I'm sure they factored that in to their business plan...

I play mostly alterante/indie stuff, although I can't think that this pedal would especially one genre over another. Great little package, if used sparingly. It irritates me when people complain about it getting 'boomy' when they turn the bass up or 'shrill' when they boost treble. Be careful what you wish for...

Super Simple overall. Seven slices of the sound spectrum, wach with a slider for plus or minus (up to) 15 db. And an overall boost / cut slider for plus or minus up to 15 db.

The sliders are very very closely spaced, and 15db is crammed into like an inch of less of slider throw. If you have not used an eq device, note that a db or two makes a noticeable difference, so between the closely spaced sliders, and the short adjustment distance, it's awkward doing fine adjustments.

I have not tried any other eq devices, so I cannot give this a rating relative to all eq boxes on the market. I do not use effects much -- just a little slapback delay and maybe a dab of compression, with mild amp power-tube overdrive so that I can go from clean to slight breakup with the guitar volume.

If you don't like to read, here's the executive summary: These are great! If you like details, read on.

1) If you've never used an eq before, get ready for a WHOLE NEW WORLD. These little magic boxes fix your tone the way an airbrush fixes a playboy bunny's cellulite and moles. No guitar or amp is totally perfect -- there's always something like too much muddiness or whatever that is hard to fix with the amp tone controls alone. Enter the eq -- which will let you fine tune the raspiness or muddiness OUT of your tone. It also lets you compensate for an amp's weak areas or adjust to a room that is harsh or flat. Some folks might use these to try to make a strat sound like a gibson, which you could (sort of) do, but that's not really my intent. I started by taking my absolute best guitar ('59 LP cloud-9 reissue), and I'd been pretty darn happy with the tone, yet was amazed that a few minor eq tweaks (like plus or minus 2 to 5db) SIGNIGICANTLY improved the sound. I just removed a little muddiness on the low strings, and presto! True perfection in the tone.

2) I use this through the EFFECTS LOOP -- where it's not at all noisy, and provides high quality tone. If you instead use it up front, between guitar and amp, you WILL get hissing noise, and the tones generally are not as likable, and become less so as you turn the amp gain up. In short, these are best through the effects loop, or if you don't have one, it will sound better in front of a clean amp.

3) I have a number of really super guitars, and was able to surprise myself with the improvements this little eq made to every single one of them. As they say, 'don't leave home without it'!

Don't know.

No idea.

You gotta get one of these! Either the Boss or the MXR model will do the trick.

It's pretty straight forward, easy to get the hang of it.

Id give it a 9 for sound quality, only because I can imagine there are better ones(but probably not in this price range). Just running it between my amp(Blues Jr) and guitar it is amazing. It's a tweaking pedal, let's you tweak your sound a bit closer to "it". The output level slide is what really makes this pedal for my rig, I dig the bluesy overdrive of my amp but I can really kick it off with this pedal to a whole 'nother level, just feels raw... Great for boosting lead work, and cleaning up and focusing your clean tones. I was actually about to replace my pickups before I got this, but it really enhances them and lets me get rid of some of their harshness in the mid-high range I was looking to change.

Hasn't broke yet...but I havent had it very long.

N/A

This is my first eq pedal so I can't really compare it with anything else, so if it ever got stolen I would probably try something else, see if I can upgrade to something a bit more diverse(a 10 band eq). That said though... I really like this pedal and would hate to lose it. It keeps the tone of my guitar really well, and runs buzz free. I play mostly bluesy type rock, and it really pulls my sound together so I love it.