Anybody tried the Boss NS-2?

That90'sGuy

That90'sGuy

DyzaBoyzologist
I'm getting ticked off at my HUSH Super C. It worked great before, but it slid off the top of my Triamp and now the gate cuts out too soon. I tried to switch out a pot with one with higher resistance, that went up in smoke. Needless to say, I'm fed up with how poorly it's made even if it did work great.

We all know Boss pedals will survive a nuclear war... so I need to know. How well does the Boss NS-2 work? Bret from Fuel uses it with his Triamp and I know he gets great tone, but I'm still wondering if the pedal impacts the tone at all. I realize all supressors kill a *very* little amount of sustain in the process, but does the noise suppressor and gate work intelligently? If it does, I think I know what I'm going to be buying next.
 
Re: Anybody tried the Boss NS-2?

I briefly played my friend's one. It seemed to me that you can fully adjust the cut-in point.
 
Re: Anybody tried the Boss NS-2?

Does anyone know if it just kills hum and hiss from pedals or if it'll kill hum and hiss from the amp as well?
 
Re: Anybody tried the Boss NS-2?

It kills hum/hiss from amp and pedals, depending on how you hook it up. I had mine in the FX loop, used it's additional in/outs for rigging up modulation FX, and time FX after it. It worked pretty good at kill ALL pedal noise and most of my 5150's noise (NOISY AMP!!!). The only time my 5150 made noise was when I stood directly in front of it though.
 
Re: Anybody tried the Boss NS-2?

Thanks Biu! My amp isn't uber-noisy, so it should work perfectly. Maybe that HUSH thing wasn't so great after all.
 
Re: Anybody tried the Boss NS-2?

I'm actually *supposed* to be getting one today. I'm fairly excited, It seems to get raving reviews.

With noise gates, if you want to gate a noisy pedal, you put it after. Mine will be going before my OD because my guitar, not my pedal, is noisy.

Keep in mind, the place for gates is NOT after volume pedals or reverb/delay, because as the signal gets quieter, the gate will cut them off instead of letting them trail off naturally.

Oh yeah, you've got a HUSH. You probably already know that.:blackeye:
 
Re: Anybody tried the Boss NS-2?

The Boss NS-2 works very well when set up correctly. I am very happy with mine and if it was stolen, i would buy another.
 
Re: Anybody tried the Boss NS-2?

Sounds great! I'm gonna be throwing the pedal in my amp's FX loop anyways. The whole signal chain thing always confused me. I just wanted to make sure it'll kill the hum from my amp without any coloration.

I'm very picky about these things, but after a ridiculous amounts of reviews with harmony-central and it getting 9s, I figured it has to be doing something right :)

I'm kinda pissed that I have to shell out another $50 (I'm so close to saving up for that sick guitar I was looking at before), but I guess I'll just have to wait another week or two.
 
Re: Anybody tried the Boss NS-2?

well a few weeks im sure you can survive the wait:) The NS-2 should make you happy, im sure once its all set up you won't be needing another noise surpressor unless you want a rack mounted thing of some sort.
 
Re: Anybody tried the Boss NS-2?

Before buying a noise suppressor, you should try to find the noise source and correct that. A noise suppressor is only putting a Band-Aid on the symptom and not looking to correct it...

I've used a NS-2 for about 5-6 years, and I hate this pedal.
 
Re: Anybody tried the Boss NS-2?

Got mine this morning. Helps with my noisy, crappy guitar wiring beautifully. I was worried it would cut notes off at a certain volume (like the old NF-1) but it really doesn't work the same way. It seems to reduce noise as your note decays. You can see it working on a small reduction LED. As the note decays, the pedal reduces more noise, and the led slowly gets brighter.

Of course if I ever managed to fix my wiring I'd rather go that way, but I'm loving this pedal right now.:banana:

Oh yeah, I got on ebay for $25!!! :saeek:
 
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Re: Anybody tried the Boss NS-2?

Thames said:
Before buying a noise suppressor, you should try to find the noise source and correct that. A noise suppressor is only putting a Band-Aid on the symptom and not looking to correct it...

I've used a NS-2 for about 5-6 years, and I hate this pedal.
Click to expand...

What don't you like about it? I've used it in rehearsals and gigs and never had a problem. The amount it effects tone seems very subtle to me.
 
Re: Anybody tried the Boss NS-2?

Speaking of Noise-gates, does anyone know what model Dime uses? His sounds wonderful.
 
Re: Anybody tried the Boss NS-2?

Mr Wolf said:
What don't you like about it? I've used it in rehearsals and gigs and never had a problem. The amount it effects tone seems very subtle to me.
Click to expand...

Well..... "hate".. maybe too much. Let's just say that I'd not buy it again. Too much tone degradation.

As I said, it's just the fact that I prefer to investigate : private: where that hum/hiss comes from than just putting adding another efx. 95% of the time, it's caused by bad guitar shielding, cheap and/or damaged cables, ground loop, and so on.

Many years ago, I sold my complete pedalboard because of this, the whole assembly/wiring killed my tone and I was tired of hiss/hum... but I was using cheap 1$ patchcables (the colored ones!), same DC source (ground loop) and cheap guitar cables.

Now I'm using Planet Waves guitar cables (guitar>amp and efx loop) and Fender heavy-duty patch cables (I know, there's better ones!). Using 2 different power sources (2 adapters) on my pedalboard and have carefully shielded/wired all my guitars. No hum!! Finally! So now I'm GASing for more pedals :laugh2: :laugh2:

HTH!
 
Re: Anybody tried the Boss NS-2?

Update!

I bought it from a store for $80. Yeah, I know, overpriced... but to me it's worth it.

Ok... the HUSH Super C rocked, but this thing was dialed in flawlessly QUICK!

I love the Boss NS-2... I really do. It took 2 minutes approximately to get this thing working as good if not better than the HUSH (I'm not joking either). It's extremely transparent. I went to my high gain channel of my amp, cranked the threshold and it killed the hum without killing sustain or tone. To check I have a footswitchable FX Loop (which I simply installed the NS-2 using the In and Out with the FX Loop of my amp). No difference whatsoever. I messed with the delay for about a minute to get it working right. I love how this pedal doesn't need power to run (I realized otherwise I'd have to run another cable to my pedalboard which could be messy).

All in all, transparent as hell on both clean and distorted and my notes sound clearer and stronger than ever. This thing was worth every cent :) R.I.P. my old P.O.S. HUSH Super C Rackmountable monster... something much smaller, built much better just tonally kicked your ass :D
 
Re: Anybody tried the Boss NS-2?

Hey Chris thanks for the update. Glad to hear you like your NS-2. I was thinking of getting one myself, I just had my doubts. I think I'm gonna check this thing out now. Thanks! :)
 
Re: Anybody tried the Boss NS-2?

To be honest, after extensive use (lots of tweaking on my amp to see how the pedal would handle it)... it's a great pedal, but not perfect.

I kinda wish the threshold knob went further than it did. It's completely transparent all the way to 10 though. On solid volume levels, it squelched 99% of the hum (with it turned off, it was unbelievably loud). That goes without saying that with the master volume all the way up and the others cranked that it is beyond noisy. The pedal cannot touch that, but I never crank everything anyways... I get great tone without it having to be blown wide open, unlike many other amps.

So for the volume levels I set it at, it works almost flawlessly. It was a little bit of a letdown to hear it come through with more insane settings, but if I'm never gonna get to that point, I shouldn't have a problem. My amp suffers from A LOT of noise with the gain cranked, so if mine is pretty much good to go with this pedal, most people should be happy with it :)

Sorry it wasn't as short and positive as previously stated, but I feel this is pretty accurate. The very fact that it's built like a rock, fully transparent and for most settings very effective makes it stand above my HUSH Super C unit.
 
Re: Anybody tried the Boss NS-2?

Trust me noisegates are a pain.......we make one, I do not use it, not that it is not good, quite the contrary.....I'll just never use one.
I rather my mute button on the combinator I use, I just hate noisegates, they annoy the hell out of me, have done so since the 80's.
 
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