Boss GE-7 Seven Band EQ

You can generate a good sound out of it easily if you are good with EQ, if not it will take some mucking around, no stored presets as with all of the simple single effect boss footswitches.

Overall, its fine.

To those who havn't bought this and are concerned with other reviews saying this is lots of hiss...:

This pedal doesn't generate hiss, your EQ work does. How it sounds is upto you, just as with any descent EQ. Its a sound engineering tool not a sound effect designed to make "your metalzone make all the cool death metal sounds!" lol. Although sure you can do that.

If you are using close to a V shape and you have your trebles boosted anywhere close to 15db, yes, of course you will get hiss. EQ is best used by cutting unnecessary frequencies rather than boosting them all, and where necessary boosting eqs within reason.

Tops,

to use the ole cliche, "its a boss"

Its fine,

You can use it before your effects chain to alter the tone comming from your pickups, or use it to mold your overall tone, either in your effects loop or after distortion.

An EQ such as this is necessary for any performing guitarist, so that you can mold your tone. It's much more important than such modulation effects such as phaser, flanger etc.

REALLY REALLY EASY. this pedal should be on all the time, atleast that how i use it. the knobs/toggle (whatever u call em) are easy to adjust. not difficult AT ALL.

U ready for this???????
every single one of u guitar players out there should own and use this pedal. OK here's the thing, i play epi lp>dunlop wah>boss md>>>>boss ch1>>>>boss tr2>>>boss dd6>> marshall mg100fx(??)>>>avt 4/12 cab.. not the best guitar/amp combo out there. without the pedal my distortion sounds weak and sloppy, plainly it sucks. well, its because i have a pretty low end marshall. BUT, with the pedal, it makes my sound SOOOO much more cleaner and crispier and heavier. the pedal really compensate for the sound that i wouldve gotten if i have a top model marshall or mesa. u have to really hear it to believe it, but in my own personal opinion, this pedal SHOULD be included in ur rig. some players use this pedal to make there sound stand out especially when soloing. but for now, since i don't have a $1500 tube head and an $900 cab, i use this pedal to make my sound cleaner w/ or w/o distortion, crispier and heavier. its a real must have, simply put.

well, all players know how boss' reliability is....

never dealt with em

this is really a must have pedal, but u have to try it and see how u like it. no review here should be used as adeciding factor in buying any gear. just drive urself to ur local guitar shop and try one. i can almost guarantee that u will go out the store with this pedal in ur hand.

Its an EQ, its not exactly rocket science. Just a bit of common sense and a smudge of knowledge about what an EQ actually does. Mine didn't have a manual.

I use this pedal to EQ my DS-1, the stock sound of the DS-1 was a bit.... bland, so I thought this lil box could help me to put a bit of life and sparkle into it. And it did :) I also use this to tweek the DS-1 for various situations, you'd be amazed how "metal" a DS-1 can sound with the right EQing :p

Although people are saying this pedal is noisy, mine doesn't seem to be any noisier than I would expect from an active EQ. I've used this with a variety of amps: Marshall JCM900 stack, Marshall JCM2000 stack, Peavey 5150 combo, Peavey Bandit 112 combo and a Laney thingymabob (cant remember the model), and in all situations, no more noise than expected, so I'm happy :)

Someone asked if it is analog earlier, yes it is, its a real active analog EQ, I took mine apart to have a look.

Mine doesn't bypass silently, it makes a wee click (very slight, but as Boss claim to have slient switching, I'm marking it down)

The previous owner had it for about 5-6 years, gigged with it loads, and it shows. But it still works fine, only a bit of scuffing on the paint work, even the white tops of the sliders are in place :) I've personally used Boss pedals for 4 years and never had any problems (except flat batteries, but thats fixed by my new flashy powersuppy).

Never dealt with Boss, dealt with Roland though (basically the same thing I spose) and they are slow but always friendly and helpful :)

I play everything, just now I'm mainly focusing on straight out rocktastic music, but I also play grindcore, various forms of metal (death, black, thrash, blah blah blah), a bit of jazz, blues, funk, everything really. If it were lost or stolen, I'd probably get another, but I might look at something with a few more bands, its amazing how limited 7 feels when you're used to playing with a 31 band EQ in a PA (when I'm on sound guy duties).

I didn't compare it to other products, I thought "At half price, I may as well".

As always, feel free to contact me, or see my website at www.guff.tk :)

Easy to use, and pretty good EQ ability when unit is 'on'.

Really good sound quality when unit is 'on'.
A little noisy, when on, but that's to be expected.

Never have seen a Boss pedal that broke - by itself.

No support.

Great sounds when the unit is 'on' -
But really screws up your tone when the unit is 'OFF'.

Thats right!
The GE-7 in bypass mode is a crock.
It scoops the mids when it's off! Why, the heck, is that?

I'm sorry I bought it.
I will probably use it as wheel chock next time I change a tire.

Boss, YOU'RE FIRED!

Sounds fabulous.

Makes my Blues Jr sound like a Twin-Reverb.
Removes the excessive bass from my HRDeluxe.

Easy to get that Texas sound!

A little hissy, but trouble floats...

Purchased 2 days ago.
Brand new unit has a noisy switch.
Returning it today to GCenter for a replacement today.

I've a bunch of Boss stomp boxes and this is the first I've ever come across that has any kind of 'infant mortality' issue.

Haven't delt with Boss, however I have tried to use their website
www.bossus.com, and I find that while it's 'pretty', it stinks.

I've been playing for about 40 years. I'd never
used an EQ box before. Now that I have I can't beleive that
I've never used one before - It sounds that good.

Straight forward graphic eq. Move the faders up or down to boost or cut a particular frequency. The Level fader boosts or cuts the entire signal. Faders have a nice feel and stay in place.

I'm playing a Les Paul Standard with Seymour Duncan Alnico II pickups. My amp is a Marshall DSL 2000 played through a 2x12 Traynor cabinet loaded with Celestion Greenbacks. I play through the clean channel of the Marshall and the master volume is always at 10. I use the GE-7 through the amps effects loop to further push the power tubes. So the pedal is always on at gigs.

If your amp is in good condition, have no grounding problems where you're plugging in and use moderate settings then you won't have noise problems when using the GE-7. If your signal is particularly noisy before using the GE-7 then boosting certain frequencies will also highlight the noise present in that frequency range. For example if you're getting 60 cycle hum from improper grouding and you boost the 100hz fader then you will boost the 60 cycle hum along with the the rest of the signal.

Having said this there is a certain level of noise created by the unit itself. Up to 6 or 7db of boost is ok. Much past that and you might find the noise unacceptable. The Level fader is particularly noisy, boosting it much past 4-5 db will create unwanted noise. The trick then when using this pedal is to use it only to create relatively subtle changes to your sound. If you're looking to completelly change your sound I would suggest getting a new amp or guitar. Eq in general is used as a "sweetening" tool because drastic settings usually create unnatural sounds that sound Eq'd.

The frequencies offered by this pedal are pretty good. Great for adding low end! I like to boost the 100hz fader 5-6db with the amp turned up to 10. This makes the low end break up giving you a "blown speaker" sort of sound...very intense. The 6.4 fader is very good for cutting down on noise or smoothing the sound if it's a bit too harsh. The midrange frequencies are 800hz and 1.6k which in my opinion are not ideal. It would be nice to have control over 1k but it's close enough I guess.

Overall, if used in moderation this pedal can provide the subtle coloration needed to "perfect" your sound. Particularly great for playing live.

Defenetly dependable. No problems here.

The type of music I play is Rock n' Roll/punk/indie I guess. But this pedal doesn't really apply to any particular style of music. You can make it work with whatever style you play. I don't like to use too many pedals. I have a Pro Co Rat that I use for leads and an EH Small Clone Chorus that I use for some clean stuff. I've had these in my setup for year now. I expect to use the GE-7 for a while. I think this pedal is a bit pricey for what it is. You can find rackmount eq's that can do much more for only slightly more money but of course they are not portable and don't let you control the overall output level which is the big advantage of the GE-7. Like any good pedal the GE-7 can be very inspiring. Hearing exactly the sound that you want simply makes you want to play...I already wrote a couple of good riffs using it so that's something.

Very Easy To Use. Not much to say, just plug it in and adjust the knobs to how you want it.

First I had it directly from guitar to amp. Very Noisy. Jackson DKMG w/ EMG 85/81's into the front of a Peavey XXX head w/ Marshall cab. Way too noisy, a lot of "hiss". So I put it in the effects loop keep it on all the time and it's great. I have it in front of a Line 6 Modulation Modeler and Boss DD-3. If I turn the pedal off, my old tone sounds too muddy and I dont know how I lived without it.

Built like a tank

Havent had to use it.

Would rather have the pedal not in the effects loop so I didn't have to have that on all the time, but it's worth it to me.

This pedal is simple if you know what you want. You can cut or boost your bass, mids, and highs 15 db's. You don't need to check out the manual unless you really don't know what you are doing. There are 7 sliders for your bass, mids, and highs, and an 8th slider for volume control.

There are a ton of EQ pedals out, and Boss made one of the best ones out, the GE-7. An EQ pedal really is the key to creating your own tone or getting the sound of one of your favorite guitarists tone. I mainly use Les Pauls, and occasionally whip out my Gibson V, Custom Randy Roads V, a souped-up Strat or Telecaster, or my Ibanez JS1200 (with a custom chrome job) or my Ibanez Jem (the old 80's kind with the funky colors). I only use those guitars for special occasions, practicing, or recording. The JS1200 and the Jem are for the insane whammy sounds. I use my Les Pauls for all my shows while out on the road. I have a bunch of amps, I have all my distortions (from my heads) almost sounding exactly the same, and I use my GE-7 to clean up and provide more EQ options for my lead channels. I don't really use the GE-7 for my clean sound, but you can really get your clean channel to really shine when you use the EQ pedal. I don't get any hissing or unwanted noise out of my EQ, that's because I don't use it as a huge boost in volume for anything, and I bought a Boss NS-2 not too long ago, that pedal can do wonders! I've actually had the chance a few months ago to talk with many well known musicians, literally face-to-face with them. Most pro's use a noise suppressor, but usually it's a rack. I actually had the opportunity to talk with Malmsteen before, he uses two NS-2's, his old noise gate, it was some sort of noise gate that was in his rack, it broke, and his tech ran out and bought an NS-2 for him without telling him. He said it was incredible, Malmsteen was so amazed with how great the NS-2 worked. So, I thought, my rig is kind of noisy, ran out that same day and bought a NS-2. Boss's two best compact pedals, the GE-7 and the NS-2, trust me on that one.

Very reliable, I keep all my guitars, amps, and pedal looking like new and sounding like new. I've been using my GE-7 for years, ths pedal is amazing, can really enhance your lead channel or clean channel. I've owned a lot of Boss pedals, I've never had one die on me or break.

Boss is so good, that I've never even needed to contact them.

If your distortion pedal or your amp's distortion is not enough for you, or just too weak, or whatever the problem is, get the BOSS GE-7! This thing can take some crappy sounding amp and make it sound like it's worth something. If you don't believe me, go out and test this pedal out! An EQ pedal is almost a must for a real musician.

the ge-7 is fairly easy to use. just mess around with the sliders until you get the sound you want.

okay, here's the thing. i have a marshall mg50dfx and the distortion isn't that great. i've sold my boss metal zone and my digitech metal master because i thought it sounded too artificial. but with the ge-7 i'm satisfied. gives me crunch and bass that i didn't have before. it DOES produce noise (like no other--it's really bothersome) but it really is just boosting the background noise that's already there. i have an ns-2 (noise suppressor) and it ELIMINATES that. so i say, you 'gotta get both like as if it's a package. it's worth it.

NS-2 IS THE SOLUTION TO THE HISSING!

Very easy to use. just tweak away till u get the EQ you're going for. if you dont know how eq and the dB scape works ull pick it up pretty quick from using this pedal. u either boost or lower each. simple simple simple

very good. original i bought it to clean up my sound and throw it in front of the boss metal zone AKA the pedal from hell (i hate that damn thing) looking for a super metal tone. well i moved on from that and got good amp distortion and really didnt need it till recently.

with my rig when i would go to solo i wouldnt get the kick in the ass i needed. i read that slash uses one of these in his rig purely to boost his sound for soloing. so i remembered i had mine laying around and thought i'd give it a try. after some tweaking and finding what i wanted for the boosted solo tone (more treble and mids for bite) i fell in love with this thing. it really gets the job done for what i need it for. there's hardly any noise. infact the only time i get noise is if the contacts are dirty.

in a nuclear war all that would live on are cockroaches and boss pedals. ive beaten the shit out of it and it still going.

never had to deal with them but i hear they're prompt and very helpful

like i said i use it for boosting my tone for solos. before i used it to clean up the awful metal zone and it did ok. i think it works very nice with a chorus pedal. anyway its built like a tank and gets the job done.