Boss RGE-10 Graphic Equalizer
A half-rack Boss from the Micro Studio Series, with the panel layout of a proper outboard EQ and a service manual full of parts-bin detail.
Overview
The RGE-10 is a graphic equalizer in Boss's Micro Studio Series - the compact half-rack line that also carried the RCL-10 Compressor/Limiter, RBF-10 Flanger, RPQ-10 Parametric Equalizer, RPH-10 Phaser, RDD-10 Digital Delay, RSD-10 Digital Sampler/Delay, RPS-10 Digital Pitch Shifter/Delay, and the RPW-7 Power Supply. Boss's own literature for the series lists the RGE-10 as a Graphic Equalizer, which is about as plain as the company ever got about what a box does.
The chassis measures 218 mm wide, 46 mm tall, and 160 mm deep - call it 8-9/16" by 1-13/16" by 6-5/16" - and weighs 900 g, or 2 lb. That's a metal half-rack shell, not a plastic stompbox. The dimensions line up with the rest of the Micro Studio Series, which was designed to sit side by side in a rack tray or stack on a desk. Boss shipped it with a DC cord (0.5 m) and four rubber feet, so the company expected it to live on a tabletop as often as in a rack. A rack mount adaptor, the RAD-10, was offered as an option, along with the DP-2 pedal switch, the FS-1 footswitch, the PSA-120/220/240 AC adaptor, the RPW-7 power supply, and the BMR-5 Micro System Rack.
Power comes from a 9V DC supply - the manual names the BOSS PSA-100, 120, 220 or 240 - and current draw is listed at 50 mA. That's a modest pull, which makes the RPW-7 or a shared PSA supply practical for a whole row of these units. The service documentation identifies the main board as the MT BOARD 74124520, with a replacement PCB supplied as a set of VR/MT boards, and the VR board as 74124550. Inside, the circuit is built around M5218L op amps (IC1 through IC7), 2SA733-P and 2SC2878A transistors, 2SK30ATM-GR FETs, 1S2473 and S5500G diodes, an RD6.8EB2 zener, and SLP153B LEDs. There's a 10 kΩ tantalum bead in the parts list. The jacks are phone jacks (HLJ0520-01-110) and pin jacks (SQ3097, SQ3096), plus an AC adaptor jack (HEC0470-01-630). The pots are EWA-MWOJ15G14 types, with a potentiometer mask listed among the mechanical parts. The buttons are TK-307G for POWER and EFFECT, and a separate LEVEL button.
None of that is glamorous. The RGE-10 is a working EQ built from parts that a service tech could actually source in 1987, and the manual lays out the schematic, parts list and board numbers without pretending the box is anything other than a tool.
According to the documentation, the RGE-10 has none of the pitch-shifting or delay circuitry that shows up in the RPS-10 manual. The two documents are easy to confuse. The RPS-10 spec sheet lists pitch shifting from -1 to +1 octave, delay times from 25 to 800 ms, a frequency response of 10 Hz to 30 kHz for the direct signal and 40 Hz to 15 kHz for the pitch-shift/delay path, residual noise below -90 dBm, and a 100 mA current draw. Those are RPS-10 figures. The RGE-10's own sheet says 50 mA and nothing about pitch or delay. Anyone shopping for one on the used market should check which manual the seller is quoting.
The Micro Studio Series shows up in the classifieds of the period. A 1987-era "Home Studio Liquidation" listing in a contemporary magazine grouped a Boss RGE10 Graphic Equalizer with a Boss RCL10 comp-limiter and a Boss RDD10 Digital Delay, which suggests these units were sold as a matched set of half-rack processors for a small project studio. Sound on Sound (September 1998, p.64) carried secondhand listings for compact half-rack digital effects units of this era, confirming the format's presence in the used market.
The series was designed to be bought in multiples, and the RGE-10 was the frequency-shaping slot in that stack.
Today the RGE-10 is a niche item even by Boss standards. It's not a collector's grail the way the company's early pedals are, and it doesn't have the digital-convenience appeal of the RDD-10 or RPS-10. What it has is a half-rack graphic EQ with a documented circuit, a serviceable board layout, and a power requirement that any Boss PSA supply will meet.
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