MXR Smartgate?

roadifier

roadifier

New member
Have any of you guys used this gate before? I was looking around on other forums and people said that they liked it better than the ISP (Which I have two of) and for the price it seems like it would be good. Well I bought one last night for $80 and tried it out a bit today - I don't see how this can be in the same league as the ISP's, since this barely clamps down to cut the feedback, and it barely works in the loop to cut any hiss from my recto and Mark III. Maybe I'm using it wrong? :confused:

It kind of works to cut the noise from my OCD in front of the amp, but even then it does a bad job of it. I used it in the loop to cut the hiss from the Mark III and it did a pretty good job, but when you're doing quick palm mutes that need to be silenced quickly, this falls short. There's a fraction of a second that's very noticeable before the gate kicks in after you stop playing.

Any of you guys used this gate? If so, what are your experiences with it?
 
Unless Dunlop/MXR changed the circuitry the Smart Gate is based off the ROCKMAN Smart Gate module. It's all about placement in your signal chain and getting the threshold set correctly. I have an ISP G - STRING and an MXR NOISE CLAMP and they're all about on par. The ISP-G and the Noise Clamp have the added benefit of having the input-sensing loop, but I run a Smart Gate pedal in front of my rig just to control feedback and it works great.
 
I would use it infront, since that's what I bought it for, but I can't seem to set it right. Even with the trigger knob set up all the way, it barely controls the feedback of my Mark III. Even then, it cuts a ton of the attack and tone.
 
roadifier":13b60nq0 said:
I would use it infront, since that's what I bought it for, but I can't seem to set it right. Even with the trigger knob set up all the way, it barely controls the feedback of my Mark III. Even then, it cuts a ton of the attack and tone.
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i've got one at home think it works great, i use it in front of the amp last in the chain before the amp - set the mode to 'full' - trigger pot is at around 11 o'clock , shuts off any noise i have, even when engaging two ODs no hiss/nada, and responds really well

for in the loop try engaging the hi-trigger mode , i find it gates too aggressively if i use this setting in front of the amp
 
IMO, if you are doing fast palm muted stuff, you will need a different unit. I'd go with the Boss NS-2 or an ISP. I have a Smart Gate, and it does ok, but it's not great.
 
same here. By the time I turned it up enough to gate fast enough it was killing my tone and attack. Went back to my good old fashioned decimator.
 
I use the SmartGate with no issues at all. However, i don't use a really tight gate setting.. I use it just to cut down on the noise created by the boost pedal that i'm using at the time. Works great and stops awful noise happening when you don't want it to.
 
Alright, well I guess I'll just use my decimator in front for the feedback.

One other thing I don't understand, is that it doesn't do a damn thing in the loop of my recto for the hiss and junk that's there. I have the mix set to full on the loop, it's engaged, but I can't seem to notice it doing anything. I'd use it in the loop since it doesn't need to cut back the stuff from my boost pedal, and my recto is fairly quiet.

I'll just experiment more and see if I can get it working in there
 
roadifier":35ic0jf5 said:
Alright, well I guess I'll just use my decimator in front for the feedback.

One other thing I don't understand, is that it doesn't do a damn thing in the loop of my recto for the hiss and junk that's there. I have the mix set to full on the loop, it's engaged, but I can't seem to notice it doing anything. I'd use it in the loop since it doesn't need to cut back the stuff from my boost pedal, and my recto is fairly quiet.

I'll just experiment more and see if I can get it working in there
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Probably because the rectifier has a parallel loop, not serial?
 
If you turn the mix up to %100 on the recto loop, it's pretty much serial. Anyways, I traded the MXR in for a Rocktron Guitar Silencer which I got for $49 instead of $119 :D
I'll try it out and see how it works when I got home. This is my third noise gate in the last few days, so hopefully it will work with my amps
 
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