noise gate/suppressor question

[webmiztris]

I just bought a Marshall MG100HDFX head and a Marshall 1960A JCM 900 4-12 cab. I love it but can't turn the master volume up past 1 1/2 or 2 without getting tons of noise (at least while I'm in Overdrive 2, which is what I want to use. OD1 is 'meh'). My question to all of the guitarists out there is, do you use a noise gate/suppressor and if so, which one do you recommend to eliminate this problem? I think I'm going to go out and buy a Boss NS-2 to see if that does the trick, but I'm curious what everyone here would recommend... Something not super-expensive would be nice. I'm going broke here.

[songsmith]

Check the rest of your signal chain as well. Make sure your cables are all tippy-top, sometimes they get crunched under bootheels, and still work, but the ground gets iffy, turning them into an 18-foot-long antenna. Also, if you play single-coil pickups, that'll make you noisy (sorry, there's not much you can do to stop that, short of riding the volume pot).
You may have to put the NS-2 in your effects loop, especially if you plan on using the amp's distortion... I think a gate's more effective placed after the distortion stage in the signal chain... some of the rest here probably do it differently. Also, try not to change your overall level too much... try to find the right volume, adjust the threshold to open as soon as you hit a note, then stay at that volume.------>JMS

[lonewolf]

tech...tech...tech...

but anyway, you might want to try turning down the gain on that channel a little -- you might find a tone that you like a little better and with less noise. A common misconception is that more gain = more tone = sounds like so & so, but in reality, many of so & so's sounds did not use as much gain as you may think.

Otherwise, an NS2 should gate it off when you aren't playing. Too high of a setting and it can cut sustain during solos. Remember, noise gates don't remove the noise, they just shut off your guitar signal when you aren't playing.

Since the noise is generated in the preamp of the amp, the best place to put a noise gate is in the FX loop right after the preamp. Some will tell you to put it at the amp input, but there is no logical, engineering or physics reason to put it there. Yes, it works at the amp's input, but its only gating that tiny guitar signal (not the noise source) and the noise gate can have more of a detrimental effect on that tiny signal than on the line level of your FX loop.

[lonewolf]

Also, if you play single-coil pickups, that'll make you noisy (sorry, there's not much you can do to stop that, short of riding the volume pot).

Actually there is a cable grounding method where you use a shielded twisted pair audio cable with the signal wires for signal and ground and you only connect the shield to ground on the amplifier side of the cable. This draws a significant amount of noise to the amp chassis ground without ever getting near the guitar.

Proco Lifelines with polarized ends (one white to guitar, one black to amp) uses this with quad shielded cable.

[webmiztris]

you guys might as well be speaking Portuguese....I have no idea what you're talking about....

as for the pickups, I'm using Seymour Duncan hot-rodded humbuckers. I don't use any pedals right now besides the clean/dirty footswitch that comes with the head and a tuner pedal. That's all I got!

[lonewolf]

Try turning down the gain knob on the overdrive channel. In OD2 mode, it shouldn't be turned up all the way.

[Possessed]

Just turn your gain down a little.
Too much gain=too much noise.
I play death metal and run my gain a 50-60 percent.
Anything more and you aren't gaining tone just noise.

[Bloodsong]

the MG might just be inherently noisy as well. i personally would not get a noise suppressor; if you're not careful you can really kill your tone. i would try a Monster Pro 200 Powercenter (they have em at Musicians Friend for $40) so if it doesn't work you can send it back. it won't work as well as a more expensive Monster unit (i have a Monster Pro2000 thats awesome but 4x the cost of a 200) but it might be a cheap way to make a noticible difference... btw- what kind of tuner is it? if its a piece of crap won't help either...

[nighthawk]

where are you getting this noise? is it at home, at shows, or what? if you have never taken this amp to a show and have only used it at practice you may want to look up. if you have fluorescent lighting in your practice space you will almost always have noise. i have never been in a room full of fluorescent lights and not had noise. if you run high gain with fluorescent lights it gets even worst.

[webmiztris]

you know what? I'm starting to think it was a gain issue...I turned the gain down and cranked up the volume and didn't get nearly as much noise, even in OD2....also, no, I do not have florescent lighting in my practice space. anyway, I'm going to try this setting at our gig on Friday and hold off on buying a noise suppressor until I see if that fixed the problem....thanks for the help, guys!

now if only somebody could teach me how to save effects to the DFX footswitch....

[lonewolf]

now if only somebody could teach me how to save effects to the DFX footswitch....

It doesn't "save" the effect. On your amp, the footswitch just turns on and off whatever effect you have set up on the DFX. It does NOT switch the reverb, though. You will need to decide what effect you want to use. You have a choice of Chorus, Chorus with Delay, Delay and Flanger.

First, with the DFX effects footswitch off, you should set your Reverb Level knob to where you want it. Like the gain control, too much reverb can be a bad thing. Turn it up Just a touch so you can mute a chord and hear the reverb slightly fading out. Some sound techs don't like reverb on the guitars, so you may want to ask yours about that.

After deciding which effect you want to use on the DFX, turn the FX Level knob up to about 3/4 full and use the footswitch to turn the DFX on.

On the Preset/Adjust knob, each 1/4 turn of the knob selects one of the four effects, marked on the panel. ALSO, each quarter turn area shown by the 4 lines that circle the knob controls the speed of the effect labelled in that area.

Turn the Preset/Adjust knob to the area marked by the effect you want to use and play the guitar while slightly turning the knob to get the desired effect speed.

Once you have the DFX effect sound that you want, adjust the FX Level knob up or down to adjust the amount of the DFX effect that you want. Once you have what you want, you might want to mark the setting with a pencil. You can then turn it on and off with the footswitch.

The Effects Loop Mix knob is not used for the DFX and it is best to turn that knob all the way off.

If you don't have the manual, you can download the .pdf here:

http://www.marshallamps.com/downloads/f ... %20Eng.pdf

[webmiztris]

lonewolf, thank you! those were just the kind of 'dummy' steps I needed to figure out this DFX thing... I do have the manual, but it wasn't dumbed down enough for me to quite get setting the effects on the footswitch. Now I get it!!

[lonewolf]

No problem.