Nah, I think Boss isn’t really out of line with other manufacturers on noise. Analog pedals involving gain tend to produce some hiss. On the flipside, digital pedals tend to have specific power requirements else they put out wine and other noise. But to my ears, many analog pedals tend to have better tonality than their digital substitutes, usually not being as noise free though (assuming the digital pedal is properly powered and isolated).
Well, that GE 7 is only a little over 100 bucks, think I’ll just get one and see what it does.
Hope the local Guitar Center here has one in stock.
It’s a solid pedal.
My local Guitar Center had a couple of GE-7’s in stock.
Took the loop pedal off the board to make room and put the equalizer in after the compressor and before the Tube Screamer.
Nice pedal. Still playing around with settings but it does add a bit of depth to the tone. It does hiss pretty good though if you crank the level up a bit, but I don’t need to crank the level very high.
I’ve read where some people place these on the the effects loop on their amps. Anyone have any thoughts on that?
In the loop gives you shaping control over the preamp of your amp, which is more shaping power than up front shaping the incoming guitar signal only. But using it up front you can push the level to use it as a boost for driving the whole amp. So it’s a matter of what you want to do.
If you’re using it for a volume boost you’ll get a bigger range of increase in the loop
that’s where I used it for a lead boost back in the day, the tone was already shaped
If before the amp, you’ll be increasing the gain as well
Depends if you want more gain or overdrive
You really just need to think if you want it louder, or higher gain, or both
Just try it both ways
Just dug out a couple more pedals tonight. The Visual Sound H2O (V3 I think?) is a pretty fun chorus/vibrato/delay. Sounds pretty transparent to my ears, and it can go from pedestrian to out there. It’s one of those pedals that I probably won’t use much, but it’s fun once in a while.
Just adding to what Bevo is saying when using as a boost. In the loop will give you a volume boost without much gain if you push the volume on the pedal, at least in a master volume amp. Caveat: In a non-master volume amp (such as a plexi), the amp is probably running hard enough already that pushing the volume in the loop won’t really increase the volume significantly but will push the power section into more compression. Up front will push the preamp to give more gain plus some volume (on a non-master volume amp, probably not more volume, as previously mentioned). I think EVH used a graphic eq up front to push the preamp.
Thanks gents;
I’m not too interested in boosting things, I think I’m pretty good there given the gear that I’ve got.
For me it’s more about tone.
I haven’t really played around much with the effects loop on my amps. Think I’ll spend some time on that and see what it does.
That’ll give me something to do while I wait for our rainy season to end so I can plant some freakin grass!!
Using it as a straight up eq, up front any adjustments will be much weaker than in the loop, assuming a master volume amp. But up front can be useful for shaping the guitar’s signal only. Non-master volume amps once turned up into high compression tend to resist eq adjustments, at least compared to master volume amps, so things are pretty different all around.
My high hopes for the EQ2 was to be able to use it both up front and in the loop at the same time, since it is a 2-channel eq. But making adjustments is just so tedious. If I had some little 4-knob MIDI controller I could get along with it I think. Maybe that wouldn’t be a too complex project for a diy teensy microcontroller project.
My bro in law has a quality PA from an ex nightclub. I’m prolly gonna run two small amps for guitar with a delay in front of one of those, then mic thru the PA as needed.
Ima go back to lighter string gauge now I’ve had this hand injury.
Apparently Glenn Tipton of Judas Priest uses 009 to 046 or similar, gets a big sound so that’s more than enough validation afaic. I tune at -1 [and often capo] though so I’ll need to check if 009 works ok there, or maybe go to tens.
The main objective to avoid hand strain from becoming chronic [make jokes if you must 
]
Oh shit, look after that mate if it’s RSI
I’ve seen guys stop playing for good ignoring it
There’s probably some decent methods/treatments for that now IIRC
Thanks, I’ll be careful. I still practice a lot inasmuch as making the shapes and moves but not actually pressing the strings. It sure can take a while, some years ago I overdid weight training and then it felt like every muscle just packed it in for six weeks then came good because I let it heal. Yep, you cancel gigs or whatever it takes to avoid permanent injury. Like with sports, don’t try to come back too soon after injury.
Hopefully all the talk some of us had about guitar practice didn’t bring it about.
I used to oddly get shoulder blade pain from repetitive practice. I haven’t had it in many years, knock on wood, but I don’t practice like that anymore either.
I have used 10’s forever, recently switched to 9’s, and it’s definitely easier on the fingertips and hands. And 9’s sound plinkier than 10’s for sure, but it has been making me use a softer pick attack which has caused some inadvertent improvement in my picking during faster passages (faster for me any way).
I stick with 10’s on my electric but use 13’s on my acoustic. I sent my Taylor back to the factory a few years back for some work and the guy there said that’s what they spec on those guitars.
Took a bit to get use to them, but I really like them now, especially for finger picking type stuff.
I read somewhere that Billy Gibbons uses specially engineered 7’s or 8’s that he gets from Ernie Ball.
Back to the effects loop thing, most of what I’m seeing says that only time phase type pedals should be used on the effects loop. Things like phasers, chorus, delays, etc.
Anyone have any thoughts on that?
I think I’ll give my Phase 90 a try, see what it does. I don’t use it much because I don’t play a lot of music that lends itself well to a phaser, but who knows. Maybe putting it on the loop will change that.
NEURAL AMP MODELLER (NAM)
I don’t think this has been mentioned before
I might give it it’s own thread when I eventually try it out
It’s NAM (Neural Amp Modeller),
basically capturing your amp and using it as a vst plugin
https://nam-tones.net/?fbclid=IwAR0LI4bgqEyuxZbwpH4tzHCeM6yoQLYul7d7iXfpyDgXawbBHqjOEyYAG5c#/
Or using other’s captures/profiles (not sure what they call them actually),
there’s a pretty big list here to download from their FB group
[ Neural Amp Modeler (NAM) Discussion | Facebook ]
It’s devotees claim it’s more accurate than Kemper, Quad Cortex or Tonex,
a better null at any rate
And free! 
This video should explain it better than me
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Sorry to hear that my friend.
Take care and go easy with it like you mentioned. Don’t make a bad situation worse by overdoing things.
Hope you get back to ripping on those tasty licks soon.
It depends. You can think of your guitar chain as blocks:
[Guitar] ----> [Input Effects] ----> [Amp Preamp] ----> [Amp Effects Loop] ----> [Amp Power Amp]
In a typical master volume amp, most of the guitar signal shaping in the amp is happening in the preamp, which is where the vast majority of distortion happens and where amp eq takes place. If you run the preamp distorted then you might prefer to have a phaser running cleaner after the preamp distortion, but you might prefer the phaser distorted by running it before the amp. Time base effects are typically ran in the loop, but there are no rules, only what you prefer the sound of.
Keep in mind that the classic non-master volume amps (and earlier master volume amps) didn’t have effects loops and that people have been running effects in front of amps for decades. And many great sounds were made that way.
Wild. If I ever get the daw fired back up I’ll definitely check this out.
Nah, I’d been on a mission since last September working up a big repetoire of about 50-60 songs, inc solos with wide interval stretches. Was a bit too nonchalant about warming up as it turns out.
Thanks Tol, it’s the first notable injury of this sort I’ve ever had so hopefully my chances are good as long as I don’t exacerbate it. Been about 4 weeks and is much improved.