Today’s guest review comes to us from Jordan G. – find him on Instagram (@thebedroomguitarist), Twitter (@musicgearjunkie), Facebook (The Bedroom Guitarist) and on his website (The Bedroom Guitarist).
Noise Gates are an often overlooked part of a guitarist’s pedal board, but their value cannot be overstated. There are many options out there, but the purpose of this review is to go over my personal favorite – the ISP Decimator II™ G-String.
A noise gate simply takes your guitar signal and “clamps” down on any signal that falls below a certain threshold. If you were to change between a clean channel and a dirty channel, you would normally have to adjust the threshold – otherwise, it will not work as it should, and of course there’s the issue of it clamping down too early and killing your notes.
This is where the ISP Decimator II™ G-String comes in. What makes this noise gate so special is the fact that it tracks your guitar first. The G-String compares the tracked signal from your guitar with what it is receiving at the noise gate input and uses that comparison to remove the noise from your signal without killing your sound or your dynamics. By working this way, you could flip between channels without having to worry about the threshold level, and you can pile on gain and effects without worrying about screeching, hissing, or humming.
What makes this pedal even better is the ability to link it with another G-String or a standard ISP Decimator with a 1/8″ phone cord, so that the tracked guitar signal shared between them.
The Decimator II™ G-String is also really simple to use. Put it in front of your signal chain with the guitar running into the “Guitar In” jack, the “Guitar Out” jack going to your amp input. Then run the output of your amp’s effects loop into the “Dec In” and the “Dec Out” to any reverbs or delays and then the effects loop return. Putting the decimator in the loop allows the pedal to take care of the noise from your pedals in front of the amp as well as the noise from the preamp itself. Running delays, reverb, and other effects of the like after the G-String is the best way to ensure that your note tails aren’t clipped off. After that, just set the threshold knob so that your noise is eliminated to taste and that’s it.
The ISP Decimator II™ G-String is a fantastic way to clean up your signal without sacrificing your tone or your ability to change between channels and settings on your amp. It’s something that every guitarist should consider adding to their pedal board, and it’s a dream come true for all of the metal players out there who love high gain but hate the noise. This pedal is integral to my setup and I cannot recommend it enough.
Who Uses It: Josh Elmore
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