I'm looking at them purely to cut out the 60hz hum from my strat's single coils, no pedal board noise. Specifically I'm looking at the Boss NS-2.

Does anyone use them for this purpose? What do you think of them? What negative effects, if any, do they have on a Strat's natural tone.

Guess I'm just spoiled by the SCN's on my MIA, but the hum on my MIM is really starting to get to me!

Thanks:)
Hammer

Why not put SCN's in your MIM then or any of the other types of stacked singlecoil pickups.
I personaly dont like noisegates. I find they tend to either compress the natural swell of a note or prematurely cut the end of the note off, particularly when trying to use them to eliminate natural guitar noise. It could be that i'm not good at setting them. I think its far better to eliminate noise at source rather than sort it out later in the signal.

_________________
No no and no

Hi Hammer2009: I agree entirely with what Nikininja says - and of course he's being self-effacing when he says, "It could be that i'm not good at setting them". That gentleman knows very well how to use a noise gate!

My experience is that as soon as you turn a noise suppressor up high enough to get any benefit from it you find that it squashes your dynamics just as Niki said. The guitar almost starts feeling wrong under your fingertips. You begin picking differently to try and compensate for the gate.

Bad, bad, bad.

Find an alternative solution to your hum - whether it be eliminating interference (certain kinds of lighting, computers, buzzy mains, etc); adding shielding to the guitar; different pickups; etc. And learn to turn your guitar's volume down when you're not playing it. Amazing how many guitarists don't use their instruments controls, thinking it is cool to play with everything wide open. We must be more sophisticated.

Good luck - C

[quote="Hammer2009"]I'm looking at them purely to cut out the 60hz hum from my strat's single coils, no pedal board noise. Specifically I'm looking at the Boss NS-2.

If you are hearing 60Hz then there is something wrong with your guitar. 60Hz is lower than your low E string. 120 Hz --a common grounding problem frequency--sounds about the same as your A string.

If the hum is more of a hiss (e.g., like from a loud, old amp) try to notch it out with EQ say at 6 KHz or so.

However, if the hum is typical single-coil noise then keep your hands on the strings or bridge, find the right place to stand, and turn down when your not playing.

Noise is not always caused by the pickups, you could have some sub-standard wiring/soldering or a bad pot.

Just curious, does the noise change pitch significantly when you turn the volume knob? I'm not an expert, but I have one guitar that does this, the others don't.

I could be wrong about the 60hz, it's the number I had in my head for whatever reason as being the hum from single coils, my mistake on this!

I have the SCN's in another guitar, so didn't want to get the same ones in this; I've just put custom shop '69s in this one. I've taken all the other steps to eliminate noise with the guitar, but was just wondering what effect the noise gate would have, as there aren't many decent you tube clips to help me investigate the idea.

From what you guys are saying though, I don't think I want one, so thanks for the input. I love the lively tone of the '69s, they've a very different feel to the SCN's (which I also really like), so choking that off would be counter productive. I was really just wondering if this was one more sensible step in minimizing the single coil hum, which isn't really that bad anyway, but for what I want from the guitar, I don't think it is.

Thanks again for the posts, you've really helped me make a decision on this!

cheers,
Hammer

Maybe look to the dimarzio range for noiseless pickups. Martians constant praises of their area series has me salivating.

_________________
No no and no

+1 -- Ding, Ding, Ding. We have a winner. Totally agree.
Noise gate = sustain killer

_________________
Laughing out loud with fear and hope, I have a desperate plan ...

I HATE noise gates...hate, hate, hate 'em! For all the reasons mentioned.

I think you mean 60 cycle hum, not 60hz.

Like Nikininja said, fix the problem at the source and swap out the pu's to the scn's or some other hum canceling single coils. For me, when I'm not actually playing, I just turn the volume on the guitar off and this quashes any noise that may be coming from the pu's.

_________________
The mind is like a parachute; it doesn't work unless its open-FZ

1 hertz(Hz)= 1 cycle per second.

that aside. i also don't like noise gates. and also I don't think they were really designed to clean up noise from a guitar.

A noise gate doesn't actually remove noise from a signal. what it does is set a signal strength lower limit. as long as the signal strength is higher than this limit it passes. when it is below, it doesn't.as the hum you don't like is actually generated at the guitar, every time you play that hum will be part of your sound. basically a noise gate chokes off the hum when you are not playing, and eliminates the 'idle sound' of your guitar from reaching your amp.

As Niki stated, this can really adversely affect the sound/feel/response of your signal. i have never thought it was worth the trade off in your sound.

_________________
I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

I've used the Boss gate and it works fine. But you do pay a price for using a gate. I think the Boss unit is pretty good on allowing a sharp attack. It seems to pick that up pretty well. But if you want something to trail off gradually, the gate will eventually shut it down. You might not like that.

It's best, I think, to find some way to minimize the hum. If the strings are grounded (and they probably are), then grabbing the strings should minimize things. Eliminate ground loops wherever possible by running everything in your rig from the same power source. Look where you're playing. Maybe you can cut down the hum by moving around. And of course there is an entire new generation of noiseless pickups to choose from.

_________________
James Burton Upgrade Telecaster
Hot Rodded Am Fat Strat Texas Special (now featuring Kinman Traditional II pickups)
Fender Blues Jr.
SWR California Blonde
Pedals Pedals Pedals