monte allums boss ge-7 eq pedal - short review

[gwEm]

just some opinions, make of it what you will, hopefully its useful to someone:

i traded my Thomann brought DOD-250 for a Boss GE-7 with the idea of trying to mod it.

before the mod, i'm sticking with my opinion that the MXR 6-band EQ is much nicer to use. the mxr has longer faders, and the adjustments you made sound nicer. as the boss and the mxr have similar noise performance, i still stand by my choice of the mxr.

then i heard about the sniper modifications to the boss eq, which is meant to render it noise free. i saw that http://www.monteallums.com/ offers a similar mod kit, so i ordered one on ebay and gave it a go.

the kit arrived promptly, in a jiffy bag labelled "family photos". the instructions were decent, and i think that any reasonably competent person could carry out the modifications with no problems. the price was something like 12pounds, which is not too bad IMO.

after conducting the modifications, the noise performance was /alot/ better. you can just about hear something if you have a fader maxed out in one position. interestingly the 6th band wasn't improved so much as the rest. the other mods made the pedal more transparent and linear.

obviously, the annoyingly short faders of the boss ge-7 remain. also the pedal is now much more transparent. in contrast, the MXR pedal coloured the sound in a very musical way (IMO).

i'd say i prefer the modded ge-7 over the MXR, simply because of the significantly reduced noise performance. also, the boss ge-7 (modded or umodded) features an overall volume control, which is sadly lacking with the MXR.

[TwilightOdyssey]

Great review! Thanx for the heads up!

[Doctor X]

I did the Monte Allums 'CS-3 Opto-Mod' about a year ago and it made a massive improvement.  Anyone that's used a CS-3 will know that it's a hissy little unit but after the mod the white noise problem had been greatly reduced and it's now much more useable.  

I'd agree with the ease of it too, my only previous soldering experience was changing pickups and I had no problems.

[dave_mc]

thanks for the review... I remember looking into them a while back, but laziness (and fear of ordering from someone that I'd never heard of!) won out! :lol:

So, the million dollar question: if you already have the pedal, is it better to buy a mod kit, or bite the bullet, sell the current pedal and buy a decent pedal from the get go? I don't have th eq, but I have a few other pedals (crybaby, cs3) i could doubtless mod. I say "or", because knowing the quality of my soldering, once I try to mod it, it won't be sell-able! :lol: Also, you sometimes seem to get more cash if something is "stock", even if "stock" means worse...  :?

[gwEm]

dave... to be honest i agree. it probably is worth getting something decent to start with if you think you might want to sell it.

but in the case of the EQ - there simply is no boutique graphic EQ available (at least that i could find), just parametrics and simple 2 or 3 band jobs.

i'll never sell it anyway, based on whats currently available in the market at least. maybe if someone mods the MXR 6band for less noise and a master volume...

[dave_mc]

^ ok, cool, thanks for the input, gwem, I appreciate it. I think that's what I've been hearing any time I asked that question elsewhere.

I know what you're saying about the EQ pedal, too. Unfortunately, I don't have an EQ to worry about!

:lol:

:drink:

[Twinfan]

An old thread I know, but thanks for this gwEm - I've just ordered a GE-7 'plus' kit as my EQ was stupidly noisy last night at its first rehearsal.  For £23 posted it's got to be worth a pop, and you seem happy enough with yours.

Cheers!

[Miracle Man]

I also have a GE-7 with the Monte Allums mod and I totally agree with gwem. The pedal is much nicer with the mod, the only thing worth mentioning is that with the two burr brown chips, the thing will go through batteries pretty quick. Monte said in an email that it's better to use a power supply, but if I have to use a battery, I should remove one of the two chips.

The only thing I don't like about the pedal now is the boss buffer...  :roll:  wish it was true bypass.

[Twinfan]

Thanks for info - it'll be on my small board with power so it should be OK.

I'm with you on the buffer thing!

[Brow]

I have a GE7 that I keep around 'just incase', so I may give these mods a go if they're worth it? :)

Alot of the Splawn guys rant and rave about the MXR 6 and 10 band EQs in the FX loop 'totally transforming the amp', so I may give my GE7 a go after the mods are done.

[gwEm]

An old thread I know, but thanks for this gwEm - I've just ordered a GE-7 'plus' kit as my EQ was stupidly noisy last night at its first rehearsal.  For £23 posted it's got to be worth a pop, and you seem happy enough with yours.

Cheers!

oh aye, i'm still very happy with it. i've never gone wrong sticking that in front of the marshall :)

[andyg_prs]

Hi guys,

I just bought a GE-7 and I really like it....other than the hiss.  In old posts on the interweb the 'Sniper' mod was the most popular.  That was by tonejam that doesn't seem to exist anymore.  You guys mention the Monte Allum mods.  I have a Made in Taiwan pedal - which mod would you go for the 'regular' or the 'plus' kit?

Also, my soldering skills - I can solder guitar leads but haven't really done any fine PCB soldering.....and my soldering iron is a gas-controlled one.  How complicated is the kit?  I'd hate to fry my pedal....my bass player is a PC tech so I could always ask him to help me out.....how long did the work take you?

Cheers,
Andy

[gwEm]

i did the regular first, and upgraded it to the plus when it came out. i seem to remember the plus was worth it. takes a couple of hours if you take it easy.

the cheap way to remove the hiss is just to swap out the opamps for better quality ones, but theres some other good mods included in there too with the monte allums kits.

[Twinfan]

I did the full Plus kit in one go to a Taiwan made pedal.  It's fiddly, so take your time so you don't fry the board.  Use a solder sucker to clean the joints as you remove components.

I think I took a couple of hours or so with a few coffees and Rock Radio in the background!

[andyg_prs]

Thanks - I've been looking at this link - followed by the answer to the question that I asked - what do you think?

Cheers,
Andy

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180605410415

Question
Hi, Which opamps are included in your kits? I'm trying to compare against the Sniper mod (which used to be supplied by tonefx.com and seem to be out of business) and Monte Allum - whose 2 different mods are a fair bit more expensive than yours... Just wondered how your mods compared? Cheers, Andy

Answer
Hi. I use NE5532AP chips which are as quiet as you'll find. I believe the sniper mod and Monte both like to use the 4559 chips which are essentially a lower noise version of the 4558. I personally don't like the 455X series for clean amplification. They sound great when you want gritty distortion, but they aren't my first pick for clean tone. The 5532 is less harsh and has a more even amplification. They are used pretty heavily in high end stereo systems and PA's where you want a clean boost. I hope this answers your question. If you have any more just let me know. Thanks

Thomas Burrow