MXR Smart gate pedal

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5150clone

5150clone

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Getting ready to try some sort of noise gate for my rig. For the last few years seems like nothing compared to the ISP g string. Friedman has commented he likes the MXR and I have seen it lately in some pro rigs (lukeather) who's played both? What were the differences.? MXR definitely has the right price tag!
 
A few years ago I tested about 4 or 5 different noise gates and the Smartgate was the best one IMO. With only one knob it was also the easiest to use.

The NS-2 was a turd.
 
I am actually use BOTH with a 5150 II. MXR before amp, ISP in the loop, after the suggestion from Rig-Talker (killzone, maybe?). I've been doing this for a couple of weeks and it's tight as heck.
 
Original ISP decimator one knob here... I dig it, works as intended and doesn't kill naturally decaying notes. I'm a fan of the one knob deal. NS-2 is a bit of a tone sucker which some people like (Malmsteen)
 
Nice. Also, I run a buffer. If I try the smart gate how do you think it would work with a buffer? Where in the chain would it go?
 
The MXR Smart Gate is built off the old Tom Scholz ROCKMAN Smart Gate design and is still one of the best ever. The ISP G - STRING and MXR NOISE CLAMP are both "dual-loop" technologies that use a first input to "sense" the original and true input level coming from the guitar and a second input where the actual noise reduction takes place based on the combination of amount of reduction set by the knob control and original signal strength.

In my experience the Smart Gate is the best all-around. If you want to run two put an ISP or Noise Clamp up front and Smart Gate in the loop.

Cheers,
 
About 3-4 years ago, I bought 5 gates from MF to compare and see which I liked best and which I would be keeping. MXR smart gate, rocktron hush, ISP decimator, ISP g-string, NS-2. NS-2 won for me. People talk about tone suck from it a lot, but I never noticed it. I always ran it in 4CM so that it covered the front of my rig and the loop, and it sounded like my rig was off when it was on. Literally zero sound unless I wanted sound. I never had any tone suck issues until I did a mod on my Mak4 that Andrew suggested. With any other amp, no issues, and that included a 6505 and 5150 212, 5150 BL, 6505+, JSX, D60, Carvin MTS3200, and blue voodoo lol. The g-string is cool, but I think it needs a second knob, plus I had issues with it and the regular decimator adding hiss, and having to crank the knobs really high to get the kind of gating I want. The hush was meh. The smartgate was cool, but the fact that it doesnt run up front and in the loop was the deal breaker on that one. Ive literally been using NS-2s for 10 years and never once have I had any complaints, and I have yet to find a gate that I like as much as it.
 
I use the MXR Smart Gate and it works quite well and bang for the buck is incredible. :thumbsup:

I use it up front on my pedalboard as I never use my fx loop.
The only drawback is a slight attenuation of the last bit of tail of very long sustained notes or chords as they trail off; if you are sustaining with feedback or a compressor there is no problem. The MXR Smart Gate is a life-saver for me at both rehearsal and especially at gigs.
 
New addition to the mix is the MXR NOISE CLAMP. Basically a Smart Gate with the Dual-loop design.
 
I miss my MXR Smart Gate. So simple and so transparent. I had an ISP Decimator and it shat out on me. High pitched squealing when engaged half the time. The other half the level of compression oscillated. I may have to try a Decimator again but for the price I'd say SG.
 
anyone ever see those 2 channel peavey rackmount noise suppressors?
 
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