Boss GE-7 - are the new ones as noisy as the old ones?

[Orvillain]

Boss GE-7 - are the new ones as noisy as the old ones? People used to switch out some caps and IC's to make them quieter, as I understand it. Is that necessary these days?

Also are the newer Boss GE-7's fully SMD these days??

Bonus question - Are there any other 7 band EQ pedals on the market that are much quieter than the Boss? I don't need tons of features.

I have a Boss EQ-200 but I want to move over to an analog EQ pedal.

 

[James Freeman]

I have a Monte Allums modded through hole GE-7, it's very quiet, I don't know about the new SMD GE-7 but I would not assume they use anything better than the general purpose (read: CHEAP) 4558/072 opamps everything else does.

The quietest analog EQ you can get today is the silver MXR M108S.
LINK

 

[James Freeman]

@Orvillain
I've seen you bought one, is it quieter compared to other eq pedals you have/had?

 

[greatmutah]

Not the GE-7 but since the "MXR" was mentioned above, anyone have any experience with this 7 band?

LINKY

 

[gearJunkie]

Noise issues solved by Analogman. MIJ 1988

The GE-7 is a very popular EQ pedal. But it can add some noise if you move the sliders away from the center. Even bringing a slider DOWN will add noise, try it! Our mod replaces three chips with the King of Tone chip, which is a low noise chip designed for tone controls, so it's perfect in this application. We also change a bunch of cheap capacitors used for tone control to high grade metal film caps. This lowers noise and improves tone. We also move the frequency of the lowest 100Hz slider up a bit, as it's too low for normal guitar use. The chips we use take about 40% more power (goes from 16mA to 23mA), so a battery will not last as long, better to use a power supply. A normal alkaline battery will still last over 15 hours, so you can still use batteries if you want.

 

[Orvillain]

@Orvillain
I've seen you bought one, is it quieter compared to other eq pedals you have/had?

What you talking about cracker? I aint bought one!!

 

[dronerstone]

My GE-7 is the SMT version and came in the "modern" black cardboard box, and I don't perceive it as being noisy at all.

Of course, depends on what you send into it, and how far you crank the sliders, but so far it's been cool. Ymmv

 

[maguchi]

Noise issues solved by Analogman. MIJ 1988
View attachment 20097

Trufe dat! Sent mine in to AnalogMan 10 or 15 years ago and it came back so quiet I can hear the crickets chirping when I'm not playing.

 

[James Freeman]

For information;
The stock IC in the old through-hole GE-7 is TL022 which has a huge figure of 50 nV/√Hz of self noise.
TL072 has 18 nV/√Hz
RC4558 has 8 nV/√Hz
OPA2134 has 8 nV/√Hz
NE5532 has 5 nV/√Hz
MC33078 has 4.5 nV/√Hz

The silver MXR M108S has MC33079 IC's (4.5) which are slightly quieter than the 5532 or 2134 in the Analog Man and Monte Allums mods.
The new SMT GE-7 comes with RC4558 which is also very quiet.

I asked because I wanted first hand experience, particularly when boosting an overdriven amp.

 

[Orvillain]

I asked because I wanted first hand experience, particularly when boosting an overdriven amp.

Yeah that was my whole thing too. I haven't picked up an EQ pedal yet, but I'm pretty sure I want/need one. It is between the MXR, Boss, or maybe Empress ParaEQ Deluxe too. But I'd prefer a graphic EQ tbh.