I am currently playing a strat through a 65 bassman, which produces quite a bit of hum. When I turn on my OCD and/or crunchbox, the noise that is inherent in these pedals only further amplifies the hum from my single coils, which can become pretty distracting. I'm looking to get either the Suhr Backplate Silent Single Coil System or an ISP Decimator and was wondering which one most people here would get. I'm thinking the Suhr BPSSC would probably be the better choice, but I guess I'm just wondering if it's worth the extra 120 bucks and if the difference in tonal transparency is big enough to justify the buy. Any advice would be much appreciated!
The Decimator is the best pedal for what it does, ie: it's a noise gate. But it turns off all the noise from your whole chain up to that point when you're 'not' playing, While you're playing, everything comes through, because the sound level is above the threshold. The Suhr system removes the noise directly caused by the pickups, all the time, so you basically have noiseless pickups no matter whether you're playing clean or with OD. Any other noise from pedals, etc, will not change.
Haven't used either, but in my experiende noise gates can be really annoying and touchy. Maybe the ISP is a better circuit, but usually its hard to get the threshold just right. Sometimes it doesn't cut any sound, sometimes it cuts the ends of your notes...never liked them. If the Suhr system works as advertised, the main source of the noise would be eliminated, which sounds good to me. I'm planning on picking one up one of these days...
No contest, the BPSCC removes the noise, the decimator just cuts off your signal below a threshold, the noise is still there, hold a long note and you'll hear noise take over before the gate cuts in.
Plus, as good as the Decimator is, you loose the long decays when it hits the threshold and subtly breaks up/off. I hate noisy pickups - it drives me nuts! All my guitars have some type of hum cancelling pickups. The Decimator is a great Gate, but unfortunately, gates are not perfect tools for this application. Noiseless pickups are the best choice.
The Suhr system rules. I don't need a noise gate when my strat pickups are about 80% quieter than without the backplate. I could never go back.
