Noise canceling/reducing pedals?

[EmaEm1]

Hi guys!

I am interested in your opinion about noise canceling/reducing pedals. Are they removing hum as effective as humbuckers or noiseless single-coils, how they deal with overdrive/distortion etc, do they affect tone etc?
Also, what pedal would you suggest (on budget)?

[AlexR]

Re: Noise canceling/reducing pedals?

There are no such things as noise cancelling pedals. A noise gate will shut your signal off when it gets to a certain level (for example for between songs or if there's a bit in a song where you don't play), but nothing will take out hum and leave the rest of your signal.

[EmaEm1]

Re: Noise canceling/reducing pedals?

Is there some other way to remove noise from pickups and wiring, how does shielding work? I heard that if you reducenoise from pickups/wiring, noise from overdrive/distortion will also be reduced.

[AlexR]

Re: Noise canceling/reducing pedals?

60cycle hum is removed with humbuckers. You can shield the guitar if there is any stray interference, and this stops the wiring in the guitar picking this up. But there can still be noise due to poor electrical wiring where you live/play. I think this might require a power conditioner.....maybe something a bit too much if you are playing either at home or in small gigs.

[Mr Wolf]

Re: Noise canceling/reducing pedals?

What gear are you using? It maybe worth looking at that to see if there is anything in the signal chain that maybe adding undesirable noise. 60 cycle hum is one thing, and sure lots of gain can exacerbate that however loads of people gig with regular single coils, and it may just be something else in the chain causing all the problems such as a nasty dirt pedal, or dodgy power supply and so on.

[Nostalgic Distortion]

Re: Noise canceling/reducing pedals?

Basically when you stop playing it will be noisy for a second & then kind of cut out until you hit the strings again? Depending on how you dial in your gate sometimes you 'll lose sustain & the ability to let the guitar ring out? If you want silence use a bucket, noise gates are handy but it will not cancel 60 cycle hum?