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  #16  
Old 11-02-2015, 08:10 AM
Mr Blues Mr Blues is offline
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Interesting you should bring the subject up about the Boss GE7.
I pick up a GE-7 for £60 on Saturday.

I had a chance to try it out with my Red Eye preamp and together they sound great. They are well paired . You get even warmer dynamics.
That was with my crafter hi lite TE/CD/N.
I have yet to try out out with my Sigma DR 45 which has a K & K Pure mini installed.

Dave
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  #17  
Old 11-02-2015, 08:31 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by joeguam View Post
Just wanted to throw out this suggestion for an easy and more-effective way to great sound out of the K&K Pure Mini pickups. When analyzing the cost, input impedance, and EQ bands available to adjust, the Boss GE-7 stacks up pretty well against the K&K Pure Preamp. The GE-7 has an input impedance of 1MOhm (which is highly recommended by K&K to ensure no loss of highs and prevent excessive bass) and offers 4 additional graphic bands of EQ to adjust as compared to the Pure Preamp.

One thing the GE-7 doesn't provide is a conversion to a balanced signal like a DI box would accomplish, however, the Pure Preamp does not provide that as well (only the Pure XLR does).

Anyways, I recently have had good success getting great tone with the PASSIVE pure mini straight into the GE-7, thought others might be interested. Cheers.
Hi jg…

Yeah - I've plugged my K&Ks into my old GE-7 just to see if it'd work, and it works nicely. If someone has one laying around, they are good tone shapers.

When it comes to what my live rig will be, I prefer my preamps to have input gain, and simultaneous ¼" and XLR output built into it. With the GE-7 I'd give up gain control, and have to toss my mini-direct box and a patch cable into the gear bag too.

My position has always been that just about any source of preampfification improves a K&K passive. The GE-7 qualifies since it is active and you can boost or cut frequencies and it has master volume output.



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  #18  
Old 11-02-2015, 04:45 PM
joeguam joeguam is offline
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Yup, it's a viable option, and options are good!

Last edited by joeguam; 11-02-2015 at 05:21 PM.
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  #19  
Old 11-02-2015, 04:57 PM
riffmeister riffmeister is offline
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Interesting topic. I have been an electric guitar player for years and years, and also unamplified classical guitar. But very recently I bought my first ever acoustic-electric guitar, a Taylor 814ce with the ES2 piezo system, and a Fishman Loudbox Performer acoustic amp. I was not totally happy with the sound I was getting so I pulled an old Boss GE-7 from my drawer of pedals (probably 20 years old, never really used it) and plugged it in between the guitar and amp. I'm cutting a few bands at 800 Hz and below and now everything sounds awesome! I'm using two DI outs from the Fishman into the PA, one is the dry signal, the other is the wet signal. I combine the two signals on the board, add a little compression on the wet signal and wow, it's a really nice acoustic guitar sound! Can't wait to use this setup with the band!!
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  #20  
Old 11-02-2015, 05:30 PM
joeguam joeguam is offline
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When you say dry/wet, do you mean from other effects or just the GE-7
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  #21  
Old 11-02-2015, 05:36 PM
joeguam joeguam is offline
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riffmeister, when you say wet/dry, do you mean other effects or just the GE-7?
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  #22  
Old 11-02-2015, 06:14 PM
riffmeister riffmeister is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by joeguam View Post
riffmeister, when you say wet/dry, do you mean other effects or just the GE-7?
The Fishman Loudbox Performer has two channels. Each channel has a DI out (dry) pre-EQ and pre-effects. And then it has a "mix" DI out (wet) which combines both channels and is post-EQ and post-effects. So what I do is go guitar -> GE-7 -> ch 1 of Fishman. Then the ch 1 DI out (dry: pre-EQ and pre-effects) to the PA and also "mix" DI out (wet: post-EQ and post-effects) to another channel on the PA. I use the built-in reverb and chorus on the Fishman, chorus is foot-switchable. And I dial in the EQ on ch 1 of the Fishman to get a good sound from the amp.....it doesn't take much because the GE-7 is doing the majority of the EQ-ing.

Sounds complicated but really it's pretty straightforward.

Last edited by riffmeister; 11-02-2015 at 06:26 PM.
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  #23  
Old 11-02-2015, 09:07 PM
Dancehallking Dancehallking is offline
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Will anyone post a pic of their ge-7 to show their settings, if used with k&k?
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  #24  
Old 11-02-2015, 09:58 PM
sonicnuance sonicnuance is offline
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The Boss GE7 (and GE7B) are fantastic pedals.

They can be used as boost/buffer pedals as well as the EQ functionality. I found them to be dead quiet.

If your instrument doesn't have a preamp the GE7 is a great way to get the benefits of a preamp in a pedal format.
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  #25  
Old 11-03-2015, 08:48 AM
guitaniac guitaniac is offline
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For easily EQ-ed pickups, I prefer using my old Fishman Platinum Pro EQ preamps to preamp (when needed) and EQ the pickups. As has been pointed out, many outboard preamps have a lot more useful features that the GE-7, including smoother and more fine-tunable level controls.

However, I have two pickups and an internal mic rig which require EQ adjustments which the Platinum's sweepable midrange and other (more basic) tone controls can't handle very well. For instance, my Headway co-axial UST rig sounds best with a modest mid cut around 800 Hz AND a modest treble cut at 3.2 KHz (as opposed to a more general treble cut). For that specific job, the GE-7 has worked better than the Platinum.

The GE-7 has also been very helpful with my Anthem SL rig and my MiniFlex2Mic rig.

Because the Platinum's level control is so much smoother than the GE-7's, I sometimes use them together (guitar> GE-7> Platinum) with a jumper cable. The downsides of this are that it adds another gain stage and increases the complexity of the setup.
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  #26  
Old 11-03-2015, 08:58 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dancehallking View Post
Will anyone post a pic of their ge-7 to show their settings, if used with k&k?
Hi Dhk…
I use K&K in 4 guitars:
  • Dreadnought - EIR/Cedar
  • Mini-Jumbo - Koa/Sitka
  • OM - Myrtlewood/Italian Spruce and Laminate Mahogany/Spruce

My setting vary by the guitar. K&K Pure Mini pickups reflect acoustic properties of the guitars they are in so there is not a single setting which fits them all.

If you want one-size-fits-all preampflification, buy a Fire-Eye RedEye preamp. They are built pre-EQ-ed (no control over bass or mids at all, and only treble boost/cut). The power of a 7 band (or more) EQ is the ability to individually address your specific instrument.

Generally when I'm mixing sound, and a K&K shows up in a guitar, I'm guessing I'll be cutting the bass/low mid (hi pass engaged on the board too), back the mids down a bit once I identify the frequencies which 'stick out', and boost the treble some. A small OM will not likely get the same bass reduction, and will have it's mids set totally differently than an old Martin D-35 with a K&K.

When I plugged my guitars into my GE-7. I started with the EQ flat, then boosted each band up fully, and then down fully to hear which band of sound it's sculpting. The starting from flat I addressed bands which were too strong for a balanced sound, and which were not loud enough. Anything you set without going through a band-by-band process is guessing at tone.

If your board/amp has a High Pass (low cut) filter, I suggest cutting that at either 40hz or 80hz - it will take care of boominess people complain about with under bridge plate pickups.

The good news is once tone is set, it pretty much stays that way through amps and PA systems in the venues you frequent.

I've found for me the best way to set tone with an acoustic amp at home is to put the amp across the room (10 feet away or more), elevated at least chair height off the floor, and then start flat and work from there in small adjustments.

I do my first settings on the amp, and then altar those with the preamp/EQ pedal.

Hope this helps…


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  #27  
Old 02-09-2016, 06:56 PM
rcboals rcboals is offline
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Based on the comments/recommendations on this thread I just ordered a Boss GE-7 new $87.00 shipped. Just getting into acoustic after 50 years of rocking electric. I plan on doing a solo gig at some of the best nursing homes and memory care facilities in the area. It will give me chance to see where I may be headed someday. I will post back my thoughts on the GE-7 after I get the K&K pure mini installed in my new Collings CJ sunburst

Last edited by rcboals; 03-15-2016 at 09:28 AM.
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  #28  
Old 02-09-2016, 07:54 PM
joeguam joeguam is offline
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Nice, I love it and still use it as the main EQ for the pure mini on my pedal board today. YMMV but if you like, I could take a snapshot of my EQ shape to get you started. Let me know.
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  #29  
Old 02-11-2016, 12:22 PM
erniecaster erniecaster is offline
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Hi!

If we are talking about live not in the meaning of a solo fingerpicker - if we are talking about a band with singer, bass, cajon or drums, then the Boss GE7 is not noisy at all.

What is great about Boss? You can buy then everywhere. Forget about mods.

cu

e.
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  #30  
Old 05-24-2016, 10:05 AM
rcboals rcboals is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rcboals View Post
Based on the comments/recommendations on this thread I just ordered a Boss GE-7 new $87.00 shipped. Just getting into acoustic after 50 years of rocking electric. I plan on doing a solo gig at some of the best nursing homes and memory care facilities in the area. It will give me chance to see where I may be headed someday. I will post back my thoughts on the GE-7 after I get the K&K pure mini installed in my new Collings CJ sunburst
Update, after three months and a few solo gigs I can say the GE7 is the absolute bomb for my K&K pure mini. No noise easy and simple to use just put those sliders where you get the tone you want and play on. Love it
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