Noise gate pedal for newbie: Good and affordable models?

[BEACHBUM]

Re: Noise gate pedal for newbie: Good and affordable models?

This is the WORST pedal I've ever tried!!!.
It produces a ring-modulator type of sound, very metallic and disturbing.
Mine was a can of ****, with my rig.

Sorry you had a problem with yours. Mine works just fine with my Twin Reverb, Mesa Express 550 and 14 different guitars. It even cured a ground loop problem I was having with one of my Gibsons. Go figure. As far as effecting tone, it depends. On most of my guitars it hasn't done that at all. On two of them it seems to add just a bit of treble but nothing that can't easily be dialed out.

Don't know if you just got a bad one or not but here are a couple of clips of a guy doing Tele demos using the Humdebugger. He turns on his OD pedal at 3:07 on the first video and 2:40 on the second video. Sounds pretty good to me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocTHbg_v2QY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCCOUWl07Ao

 

[zenmindbeginner]

Re: Noise gate pedal for newbie: Good and affordable models?

Well, after experiencing crazy bad noise in different households without properly grounded wiring for several years... I had a breakthrough today.

I found out that the downstairs fluorescent light right underneath me was causing a great deal of static and hum... I figured this out by turning everything off in the house that I could and adding them one by one while I monitored the changes in my noise level. That light was the culprit... the CRT monitor, multiple computers, fluorescent lights in the rest of the house (including the room which my gear is in), box fans, air conditioning compressors etc were not the problem, but just that one light was.

I then replaced all of my cheap cables in my pedalboard with decent Mogami and G&H connectors. I literally have almost no noise coming from my rig now and don't even need to use my ISP Decimator now... I can set the threshold very low now and get perfect performance throughout the entire range of my volume knob.

I am in heaven and it just cost me the price of new cables and some time troubleshooting my house... I seemed to have always used cheap cables and am blown away at the difference they made. Wow!

The best advice I can give on noise reduction for home players is:

1). find the culprit causing the noise and turn it off when you play

2). Get the best cables you can afford, it made no sense for me to drop over $500 on my pedalboard this year and NOT spend any money on cables.
A trip to the Gear Page with $40 later returned me with a fistful of decent patch cables.

Life is Good

 

[jpistolas]

Re: Noise gate pedal for newbie: Good and affordable models?

For me the NS-2 has been the only choice. Doesn't cut off notes and lets feedback come through when wanted but not otherwise.

 

[IMENATOR]

Re: Noise gate pedal for newbie: Good and affordable models?

Well, after experiencing crazy bad noise in different households without properly grounded wiring for several years... I had a breakthrough today.

I found out that the downstairs fluorescent light right underneath me was causing a great deal of static and hum... I figured this out by turning everything off in the house that I could and adding them one by one while I monitored the changes in my noise level. That light was the culprit... the CRT monitor, multiple computers, fluorescent lights in the rest of the house (including the room which my gear is in), box fans, air conditioning compressors etc were not the problem, but just that one light was.

I then replaced all of my cheap cables in my pedalboard with decent Mogami and G&H connectors. I literally have almost no noise coming from my rig now and don't even need to use my ISP Decimator now... I can set the threshold very low now and get perfect performance throughout the entire range of my volume knob.

I am in heaven and it just cost me the price of new cables and some time troubleshooting my house... I seemed to have always used cheap cables and am blown away at the difference they made. Wow!

The best advice I can give on noise reduction for home players is:

1). find the culprit causing the noise and turn it off when you play

2). Get the best cables you can afford, it made no sense for me to drop over $500 on my pedalboard this year and NOT spend any money on cables.
A trip to the Gear Page with $40 later returned me with a fistful of decent patch cables.

Life is Good

I know what you mean man, I already tried that but I already know that (1) My amp does not have a ground connection (2) I rent so I can not fix the electrical installation, it is not properly grounded.

 

[Dr. Vegetable]

Re: Noise gate pedal for newbie: Good and affordable models?

Noise gates all suck. If you can't eliminate the source of the noise, you just need to play louder! Seriously, having a noise gate anywhere in my signal chain drives me nuts.

Playing through an improperly grounded setup is not safe and can ruin your equipment. Ignoring ground loops is not safe either. Kill noise at its source before it kills you!

 

[jpistolas]

Re: Noise gate pedal for newbie: Good and affordable models?

I know what you mean man, I already tried that but I already know that (1) My amp does not have a ground connection (2) I rent so I can not fix the electrical installation, it is not properly grounded.

I live in an older home that didn't have any earth grounds. I was able to remedy this by buying a pack of "pigtails" at the hardware store. This isn't much more complicated than changing light bulbs. First go to your switch panel or fuse panel and turn off the main. Remove outlet cover, unscrew the outlet and pull it out so you can see the screws where the power is connected. Simply attach them to the earth ground screw on the outlet (should be green) and screw the other end which comes with a screw to the metal box the outlet is in. Before doing this I would get shocked by being barefoot and touching my older metal case ipod. Put simply; I became the earth ground. This also cured some hum issues with certain effects. This is what you're looking for. A properly grounded power outlet will have 3 wires. Mine only had two. Lots of older houses are wired that way.

Pigtail


Dr. V is totally correct. You'll have to find the source of the noise to cure the issue. I've used the Boss NS-2 successfully in the past to tame high gain amps from unwanted feedback but no noise gate/suppressor will solve electrical issues. And yes, playing through improperly grounded power can be dangerous.

 

[IMENATOR]

Re: Noise gate pedal for newbie: Good and affordable models?

jpistolas, I am not sure but I think your suggestion may be equivalent to using the two connectors described in the following video, just jump to 2:00 and let me know. I already have a couple of those so I can try these before trying to install the pigtal, I still need an amp with ground pin anyway (my cube 40xl does not have that) but I may borrow one and test.

And by the way, this is a great video with hands on examples of grounding for amps.

 

[jpistolas]

Re: Noise gate pedal for newbie: Good and affordable models?

That is an awsome video. His idea is the same. He's showing a slightly easier way to ground. What I was suggesting is more permanent. In my case, I had either older 2 prong outlets like the one he used the ground adapter on or 3 prong with no earth ground connected. I replaced the older 2 prong outlets with three or used the existing 3 prong and attached the pigtail to the grounding screw and the other end to the back of the metal box the outlet stays in. No more shocks when barefoot and less noise issues.

Now if the receptacle box is a plastic box the idea in the video is the better solution.

So, the roland cube only has a 2 prong power cable? You would think they would have grounded the chassis and used a more modern grounded cable.

Have you played through the amp anywhere else? Be interesting to know if it has noise plugged in elsewhere.

 

[IMENATOR]

Re: Noise gate pedal for newbie: Good and affordable models?

The 40xl does not have the ground prong, however I thing the 80xl does. And I do hear some noise when playing in my friend house. However at this point I also suspect is beacuse I use a very high gain pedal, a boss metal core (sorry guys, I like metal) that is why I was thinking on a noise gate.

 

[jpistolas]

Re: Noise gate pedal for newbie: Good and affordable models?

:headbang: Not a thing wrong with metal! Never used the metal core but I used to use the metal zone and it too could be unruly. I think I mentioned the boss ns-2 when I first posted here. It worked for me better than a regular noise gate. Doesn't cut off notes but when set right lets you mute the strings without still feeding back. But, when playing live I could get feedback when I wanted but could control it. I had mine at the end of the effects loop. Worked best there in my situation.

Just to cover all the bases; Have you also played a different guitar and cable through the 40xl? Never know, there could be some microphonics with the pickup, unshielded wire on the jack, unshielded pickup and or control cavity. Cable could be picking up noise too.

Are you using the metal core with a 9v adapter or batteries? Batteries are always more quiet than 9v adapters so if you're using an ac adapter try a 9v battery in it.