A cheap decent noise gate

Bogner said:
You must only play very clean tones at bedroom volume with your guitar volume rolled back. If not, your statement is way off base.
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Might depend on what you call 'clean' tones.

I'm perfectly happy without a noise gate while playing single coils into loud 70s rock levels of gain (although I had to learn to roll the volume knob off pretty quick when not playing, and what angle to hold the guitar at). I can be perfectly happy without a noise gate playing humbuckers into loud 80s metal levels of gain. With either of those two scenarios excess noise is typically caused by a problem - bad cable, bad connection, poor shielding in the guitar, bad pedal, bad power supply, etc. I agree with OC on this . . . you're probably better served figuring out the source of the noise in that case and fixing it rather than going with a noise gate.

If you're playing percussive down tuned metal stuff though, I'm guessing this is a whole different ball game.
 
GuitarStv said:
Might depend on what you call 'clean' tones.

I'm perfectly happy without a noise gate while playing single coils into loud 70s rock levels of gain (although I had to learn to roll the volume knob off pretty quick when not playing, and what angle to hold the guitar at). I can be perfectly happy without a noise gate playing humbuckers into loud 80s metal levels of gain. With either of those two scenarios excess noise is typically caused by a problem - bad cable, bad connection, poor shielding in the guitar, bad pedal, bad power supply, etc. I agree with OC on this . . . you're probably better served figuring out the source of the noise in that case and fixing it rather than going with a noise gate.

If you're playing percussive down tuned metal stuff though, I'm guessing this is a whole different ball game.
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Exactly right, horses for courses. At home the power supply is noisy and the LED ceiling lamp doesn't help either. For balls out gain, when I play the ceramic and A8 pickups I have the noise reduction off, but with A2 and OUA5 I must step on the pedal, otherwise the noise is unbearable.
 
Little Pigbacon said:
I wouldnt do it unless I thought the project would be fun. If I cared about the housing, I would just buy the Boss.
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Well, the only reason I mentioned it is because the housing itself is really cheap. The one I just bought was $5-change.
Now that I’m thinking about it, I hope it’s not plastic. I just assumed it was metal. Lol
We will see when it arrives on Friday.
 
Little Pigbacon said:
I would deduct points for the plastic housing and the center punch or whatever needed to access the battery compartment. Still, it is $25. Boss couldnt sell you an empty box for $25.
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Are you planning to hardwire it so it's always on and just use a 3pdt switch to bypass?
 
GuitarStv said:
Might depend on what you call 'clean' tones.

I'm perfectly happy without a noise gate while playing single coils into loud 70s rock levels of gain (although I had to learn to roll the volume knob off pretty quick when not playing, and what angle to hold the guitar at). I can be perfectly happy without a noise gate playing humbuckers into loud 80s metal levels of gain. With either of those two scenarios excess noise is typically caused by a problem - bad cable, bad connection, poor shielding in the guitar, bad pedal, bad power supply, etc. I agree with OC on this . . . you're probably better served figuring out the source of the noise in that case and fixing it rather than going with a noise gate.

If you're playing percussive down tuned metal stuff though, I'm guessing this is a whole different ball game.
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What I am calling clean tones are clean tones. You are talking overdriven, crunch tones it sounds like based on what you said. I have several amps that once turned on and no note played you will hear noise from the amp...a hiss type noise. Nothing is wrong with the amp. You simply need a gate to play through it to eliminate the white noise. Bogner Uberschall, great amp, in fact my favorite amp in certain iterations, and I can't play it without a noise gate no matter what style of music I play. It is an amp that simply needs a gate. You can't twist, position, mute it away. I am also not aware tuning makes a difference when deciding an amp needs a gate or not. A lot of amps when really turned up are probably a lot louder than you may think. If you like a nice, quiet rig (like I do) you can't get around using a gate.
 
Bogner said:
What I am calling clean tones are clean tones. You are talking overdriven, crunch tones it sounds like based on what you said. I have several amps that once turned on and no note played you will hear noise from the amp...a hiss type noise. Nothing is wrong with the amp. You simply need a gate to play through it to eliminate the white noise. Bogner Uberschall, great amp, in fact my favorite amp in certain iterations, and I can't play it without a noise gate no matter what style of music I play. It is an amp that simply needs a gate. You can't twist, position, mute it away. I am also not aware tuning makes a difference when deciding an amp needs a gate or not. A lot of amps when really turned up are probably a lot louder than you may think. If you like a nice, quiet rig (like I do) you can't get around using a gate.
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Most amps will produce some hiss when turned on. For the type of music I described, with a functioning/properly designed amp, this shouldn't be loud enough to require a noise gate. I've played plenty of amps 'really turned up'. When they're that loud, you usually can't hear the hiss over the ringing in your ears between songs. :P

Tuning doesn't make a difference at all regarding need for a gate - you're misreading me there. I was referring to the (typically) down-tuned styles of metal . . . this music is played with gain levels high enough that there's little dynamic range and noise is compressed/amplified to much higher than normal levels. The ability to switch between fully on (any sound from the guitar) and fully off (all strings muted) is very important for the percussive aspects of this music, so maybe a gate makes more sense there. It sounds to me like this is the style of music that you play.
 
GuitarStv said:
Most amps will produce some hiss when turned on. For the type of music I described, with a functioning/properly designed amp, this shouldn't be loud enough to require a noise gate. I've played plenty of amps 'really turned up'. When they're that loud, you usually can't hear the hiss over the ringing in your ears between songs. :P

Tuning doesn't make a difference at all regarding need for a gate - you're misreading me there. I was referring to the (typically) down-tuned styles of metal . . . this music is played with gain levels high enough that there's little dynamic range and noise is compressed/amplified to much higher than normal levels. The ability to switch between fully on (any sound from the guitar) and fully off (all strings muted) is very important for the percussive aspects of this music, so maybe a gate makes more sense there. It sounds to me like this is the style of music that you play.
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I play all kinds of music and like a silent rig in all styles. My musical DNA is on the heavy stuff for sure. Thrash metal is what I cut my teeth on and am most rooted in. Next to that I love the rock stuff...Deep Purple, Montrose, Foreigner, etc then we get into the VH stuff....Dio....Whitesnake.....Ozzy stuff. I have always been one for dynamics, volume roll offs, etc but I understand what you are saying. I misread your tuning remark. I learned to like a silent rig. I can manage a louder rig and did for many years but if you don't have to, why would you? I do admit I am very particular about things though so maybe that is part of it. I just like it right and to me if there is noise I am not intentionally producing myself it is best to eliminate it.
 
Bogner said:
I play all kinds of music and like a silent rig in all styles. My musical DNA is on the heavy stuff for sure. Thrash metal is what I cut my teeth on and am most rooted in. Next to that I love the rock stuff...Deep Purple, Montrose, Foreigner, etc then we get into the VH stuff....Dio....Whitesnake.....Ozzy stuff. I have always been one for dynamics, volume roll offs, etc but I understand what you are saying. I misread your tuning remark. I learned to like a silent rig. I can manage a louder rig and did for many years but if you don't have to, why would you? I do admit I am very particular about things though so maybe that is part of it. I just like it right and to me if there is noise I am not intentionally producing myself it is best to eliminate it.
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Oh yeah, I totally get that. I was recently losing my shit because of a little extra noise that a shitty power supply was adding to my pedalboard.

Gates are a tradeoff. You can get perfect silence when you're not playing . . . but it tends to come at the cost of some of the very low output signal info from your guitar. Better gates and careful setting can largely minimize this, but it's still always there if you know to listen for it. For me, the hiss doesn't bug me as much as the sound of the gate kicking in . . . but I totally understand how someone could go the other way. Horses for courses.
 
When I was in my last band, at rehearsal I usually turned the gate to more sensitive setting to keep the noise floor down.
At a gig however, I would lower the setting.
The ambient noise in the bar would essentially mask any amp noise and the added benefit was the added dynamics.
 
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