Boss GEB-7 Mod Opinion/Alternative View If There Is One

Gareth1234

Hi  
 

I will be using a Boss GEB-7 (post 2017) to tame some lows and low mids from an electro-acoustic. Below is an exchange between me and a Modder. Just wanted a second opinion/alternative view if there is one. 
 
Many Thanks, 
Gareth  
 
From: Gareth Eschoe <GarethEschhotmail.co.uk> 
To: Modder 
 
PEDAL USE: 
- I will be putting an LR Baggs Anthem SL Acoustic Pickup installed in a Martin 00-28 Re-Imagined acoustic through the pedal. 
- The frequencies on the pedal are already where I need them. 
- I don't want any increased or decreased warmth, when the EQ is flat I want it flat. Fromel Electronics state, 
"Other mods change the corner frequencies so you can never have a flat response for a clean boost." 
- I understand that I can still achieve more tone whilst flat remains flat. 
- The pedal is being used to cut some 400Hz, 500Hz, 800Hz and some bass. 
 
I've looked around the MOD pages and think this is what I want. I do want this to be as excellent as possible. So... Excuse if this seems a little overkill, but here it goes. 
 
REQUEST: 
- The post 2017 GEB-7 
- Replace ALL stock electrolytic capacitors/resistors with metal film. Panasonic for the capacitors. 
- NE5532s upgrade where Allum would use Dual Stacked Chip Adapter Mod. 
- Replace ALL stock op-amps with NE5532s. 
- Clear blue light. 
- Replace ALL the tantalum caps with audio grade film caps and polarized coupling caps with audio grade film or bi-polarized caps. 
- Anything more you think will rock for my situation. 
 
QUESTION: 
Which part of a normal MOD would be omitted  to stop me getting a response that’s not flat when we it is set flat? 
 
From: Modder 
To: Gareth Eschoe <GarethEschhotmail.co.uk> 
 
Using quieter op-amps is the only thing mentioned that's going to do anything at all. People have to realize we aren't dealing with Hi-Fi signal hear so "upgrading" caps to more expensive caps does nothing 99.9% of the time. It's a waste of time, money, and resources. Also you should not replace the electrolytic caps on the input and output of a pedal with film or bipolar caps. They are there to block DC which prevents pedals from popping and passing on/receiving noise to and from other pedals. 
 
I don't know who started this "Hi-Fi upgrade" of changing out electrolytic caps for film caps of the same value but it's total BS. If you hook up a pedal to test equipment and measure the difference before and after, there will be none. 
 
Here's what's really happening when people hear a difference: 
1. The pedal is old and the caps have drifted off value and/or are leaking. If you replace them with new film caps, you'll probably hear a difference. Thing is if you replaced them with the same value electrolytic cap, you will hear the same difference. 
2. The electrolytic caps in there have a very large tolerance and you replace them with caps with smaller tolerance. For example, if you replace caps with +/- 20% tolerance with caps that have a +/- 1% tolerance, you may hear a difference because it's possible a 20% 100uF tolerance cap can be 80uF and putting in a 1% tolerance cap it's going to probably be 100uF (99uF at the lowest technically). Throw in a dozen 20% caps and you can see how things can be a little off. So bottom line in this case is you will hear the same difference if you put in tighter tolerance electrolytic caps. It's not the type of cap that's in there or the "quality" of the cap. 
 
I would omit the resister change for improved mids (Snyper mod?). That can have an affect on the flat response. 
The other mods I do make the pedal warmer, mainly the C13 change. 
 
 
Thanks, 
Modder 

ICBM

He’s right. Leave it alone, or change the chips only if noise is a problem.