Smart Gate or Noise Clamp?

[V-man]

I have a small MXR board in front of a Marshall 1959.

- The 1959 is a volume monster and threatens to feedback menacingly if I look at it wrong once the volume goes past 4 (advantage: Smartgate)

- I love what the built-in gate does on for my 2203KK, which is great for heavy rhythm (advantage: Smartgate)

- One of the big issues is ungodly feedback is being triggered by the Distortion + OR by the 10-band EQ. The other pedals don't give any feedback (advantage: Noise Clamp).


What do you suggest? Smart Gate? Noise Clamp? Both? (the one bit of MXR cheating I may consider is a keeley micro looper, because it is small and there is an ugly volume drop when the flanger is off).

If the Keeley were an option, how would your answer change (skip clamp, get Gate+Keeley loop... Keeley only)?

[gibsonguitar1988]

I had the Smart Gate and didn't like it at all. Sucked too much tone. Same with the BOSS NS-2. I am currently looking at the Noise Clamp and I like what I hear so far and hope to pick one up soon. From what I've heard the NC was the replacement for the SG even though they still offer it. The Noise Clamp is their new design.

[V-man]

I had the Smart Gate and didn't like it at all. Sucked too much tone. Same with the BOSS NS-2. I am currently looking at the Noise Clamp and I like what I hear so far and hope to pick one up soon. From what I've heard the NC was the replacement for the SG even though they still offer it. The Noise Clamp is their new design.

Interesting. The unfortunate thing is that (with yours) I have read an unenthusiastic account or so regarding both pedals (though I have no idea how much knowledge/time went into the evaluation), though I have heard plenty of good things about both.

My understanding about the noise clamp though is that it is a different animal than a gate. Are you sure it is a replacement for the smart gate (does precisely what the SG does/should do, only better)?

[semi-hollowbody]

The NS-2 is a great pedal...it works well IF you put all your noisy pedals in the loop...in my experience, just placing the pedal after noisy pedals didnt do shit...

The NS-2 DOES color/change your sound...i would not call it tone suck...it actually colors it in a way I like it...

The NS-2 will NOT eliminate ground hum...it will only clamp down on noisy pedals...there really isnt a noise gate pedal out there that will eliminate ground hum...I put my dirt/compression/eq in the ns 2 loop (all the pedals that increase input signal/add gain) and my rig is dead quiet unless there are electrical issues in my house

I think the ns-2 gets a bad rap because it does color the tone and it doesnt eleiminate ground hum, people buy this, connect it, there is still a lot of ground noise, they tell everyone "it sucks" and they sell it...

[gibsonguitar1988]

Interesting. The unfortunate thing is that (with yours) I have read an unenthusiastic account or so regarding both pedals (though I have no idea how much knowledge/time went into the evaluation), though I have heard plenty of good things about both.

My understanding about the noise clamp though is that it is a different animal than a gate. Are you sure it is a replacement for the smart gate (does precisely what the SG does/should do, only better)?

No the Noise Clamp is a Noise Gate/Suppressor. It cancels out hum, hiss, etc. I get a lot of hiss from my overdrives as I run the gain up pretty much all the way on all of them so I need something to hush that up. It does pretty much do everything the Smart Gate does. IMO the SG is overrated. The Noise Clamp seems to be the best - along with the ISP decimator perhaps but I still prefer the Noise Clamp. Hope to pick one up soon.

[Catoogie]

I looked into gates and noise reduction units and after all of my research I came away thinking the Decimator was the best and most natural sounding.

[eclipseall]

I have no tone suck problem with the smart gate.
Ive used many noise reduction devices and this one is a keeper.

I place it almost last in my chain and it does not alter the tone at all but gets rid of all the hiss, buzz and hum.

[blesscurse]

Any experience with the Rockton Guitar Silencer? (I'm assuming that it combines a gate with a dynamic low pass filter.)

http://www.rocktron.com/products/stompboxes/boutique_series/guitarsilencer/

[tsinthegame]

I have no tone suck problem with the smart gate.

Same here.

I used to have a Boss NS-2 on my board. I decided to try the MXR Smart Gate and have never looked back. I'm of the same view as eclipsseall when he says it does not alter the tone at all but gets rid of all the hiss, buzz and hum.

Some people say it sucks tone, I say they do not set it properly. IME there is a sweet spot with the threshold knob that is sepcific to each rig. And yes, should you go beyond that sopt, you will lose tone. However, I've always found the Smart Gate to be very easy to set up with every rig I've played with.

I need a gate pedal as I mostly play rock, hard rock and metal mainly through a Peavey Triple X. The Smart Gate works wonders for me.

[robcollins]

Ive just bought a Smart Gate Pro (2 channel rackmount version of the Smart Gate) and noticed abosolutely no tone suck / loss.

[forum_crawler]

I think the SmartGate is a great pedal. I am not too sure about this noise clamp. For some reason I think it is intended for pedals only, and not as a solution for a noisy amp.

[JackRobertEvans]

Does the noise clamp work just after your pedals or do you HAVE to run it with the pedals in its loop??

[gibsonguitar1988]

Does the noise clamp work just after your pedals or do you HAVE to run it with the pedals in its loop??

I've never used the loops in noise suppressors. In fact I never use loops of any kind period (pedal loops, switchers, amp effects loop, etc). I have always just put mine at the very end of the chain. When my friend brought over his Noise Clamp it worked perfectly. He also brought over an ISP Decimator and while it was better than the Smart Gate and NS-2 - it still wasn't as quiet as the new Noise Clamp.

[JackRobertEvans]

Right, to clear things up about the MXR NOISE CLAMP.

This pedal is INTENDED to just clamp down on the noise within it's effects loop (noisy pedals inside), but as someone has said above, it works really well just as a standard noise gate (even though that is not it's intended use) so surely this means that it will work with a really high gain amp too?

For example, what if I'm using a high gain fuzz pedal in the noise clamps loop AND using quite a bit of gain on my amp at the same time? Surely this would help with the noise from the amp too??/??

[JackRobertEvans]

bump!

[JackRobertEvans]

Right, to clear things up about the MXR NOISE CLAMP.

This pedal is INTENDED to just clamp down on the noise within it's effects loop (noisy pedals inside), but as someone has said above, it works really well just as a standard noise gate (even though that is not it's intended use) so surely this means that it will work with a really high gain amp too?

For example, what if I'm using a high gain fuzz pedal in the noise clamps loop AND using quite a bit of gain on my amp at the same time? Surely this would help with the noise from the amp too??/??

[robcollins]

For example, what if I'm using a high gain fuzz pedal in the noise clamps loop AND using quite a bit of gain on my amp at the same time? Surely this would help with the noise from the amp too??/??

Probably not.

If you are using amp gain, then the best thing to do is put a gate in your amps fx loop if it has one because alot of the noise will be added by the preamp section.

[Jangles]

Have you looked into an ISP Decimator or ISP Decimator G String? Sure, the pedals are a bit pricier, but they are DEAD quiet when you're not playing. In addition, they do not affect your tone at all. The Boss one is second best, but do you really need that many knobs to shut feedback up? I chose the Decimator because it worked, and because it was simple. Rock on friend.

[Waxhead]

I have a small MXR board in front of a Marshall 1959.

- The 1959 is a volume monster and threatens to feedback menacingly if I look at it wrong once the volume goes past 4 (advantage: Smartgate)

- I love what the built-in gate does on for my 2203KK, which is great for heavy rhythm (advantage: Smartgate)

- One of the big issues is ungodly feedback is being triggered by the Distortion + OR by the 10-band EQ. The other pedals don't give any feedback (advantage: Noise Clamp).


What do you suggest? Smart Gate? Noise Clamp? Both? (the one bit of MXR cheating I may consider is a keeley micro looper, because it is small and there is an ugly volume drop when the flanger is off).

If the Keeley were an option, how would your answer change (skip clamp, get Gate+Keeley loop... Keeley only)?


If all you wanna do is cut feedback and amp/pedal humm either a Smart Gate, or ISP Decimator, placed in your loop are both great and the best noise eaters imo
Neither affect tone in any way if you adjust them properly.
ALL the people who complain the Smart Gate tone sucks just didn't know how to adjust it.
It ain't rocket science either - dead easy to do. Great pedal.

[WickedG]

I've got the ISP Decimator on one of my boards, and the Smart Gate on the other. I really don't think you can go wrong with either one.

[V-man]

Great feedback, and much appreciated. I found a good deal on a NIB noise clamp last week and await its arrival. I had researched Gates a while back and determined (before the inception of the noise clamp) that the ISP G-string, not the standard Decimator was really the way to go. That became academic when I got a 2203KK, complete with on-board gate.

My office amp is a 1959 however, and the intense feedback combined with the squeal of a couple of pedals made a gate/clamp more imperative. Aside from the price, an ISP would spoil my all-MXR board I put together over there, so I am hopeful the clamp will kill the pedal squeal AND the feedback when I put the non-master past 4.