Hum filter for single coils?

[Paul Marossy]

Speaking of noise gates, a friend gave me a MXR noise gate / line driver, must be 30 years old. Just a threshold control and a XLR out besides the usual out jack. No led. It´s the most unusable thing I´ve ever tried! Don´t know if it´s malfunctioning, but the gate part is awful!  

I rest my case. 

EDIT: Yeah, the gate sensitivity is generally where most noise gates (that I have tried) fall down for me.

[Ripdivot]

I use Kinman Pickups in my strat. They are the best noiseless strat repacement pickups out there IMHO! They sound just like the originals.

[azrael]

Does anyone even know what it is that the EHX Hum Debugger does?   

[aron]

Wow my MXR noise gate is great. Same one you have. As for the Suhr, it's almost exactly like that site on shielding - but that backplate silent single coil addition is great. The built in one is even better (larger).

I have heard the Dimarzio Virtual Vintage pickups are incredibly good. Never heard them.

[Morocotopo]

Wow my MXR noise gate is great. Same one you have.

Really? This thing is grey, one 741 chip and some FEt inside, and not much else, if I don´t remember wrong. Mine must be working badly, I´ll have to check that.

[Paul Marossy]

Wow my MXR noise gate is great. Same one you have. As for the Suhr, it's almost exactly like that site on shielding - but that backplate silent single coil addition is great. The built in one is even better (larger).

I have heard the Dimarzio Virtual Vintage pickups are incredibly good. Never heard them.

Hey, Aron, didn't you get a Suhr guitar not too long ago?

In any case, from what I can see, all of these noiseless single coil designs rely upon some sort of dummy coil arrangement. On the Fender noiseless pickups, it's a dummy coil on the bottom of the pickup with the same coil pieces going thru both coils. It's essentially a humbucking single coil pickup.

[Mark Hammer]

We've been through this before.

1) Noise gates are often applied at the end of a pedal chain, rather than the beginning because noise accumulates over pedals.  Of course, at that point the gate-on threshold has to be set so high to contend with the accumulated noise that it dramatically interferes with decent sound, lopping the start and decay off of notes.  People blame the gate itself, but the blame really lies in expecting miracles of the gate under adverse circumstances.  Gate or downward-expansion control of noise should really be applied near the start AND end of a pedal chain such that neither application has to be drastic.  If you can trim off the minimal hiss at the start, then all the pedals that apply gain, whether compressors or distortions or EQ, aren't boosting that hiss.  If you have more gating at the end, to supplement that, there will be very little hiss to cut out and controls can be set less aggressively.

2) Don't think of noise control as something that is either there or not, it is a matter of degrees, and every little bit of attempted control over extraneous noise is useful.  That can  be, better shielding on the guitar, pickups that provide some (though not necessarily complete) hum-reduction, a bit of boost in the guitar to provide a better S/N ratio at the other end of the cable, a bit of gating or downward expansion before the pedal chain, some trimming back of treble or even low bass cut to keep hiss and hum from accumulating, and so on.  A db here and there, and pretty soon you have yourself a decent-quality signal.

[Ripthorn]

I've been following this and wonder if anyone has used the boss NS2.  A lot of people seem to like it, but I have never tried one myself, and I don't want to fork out $100 just to try.  It seems like it might not be your run of the mill noise gate.

[aron]

>Really? This thing is grey, one 741 chip and some FEt inside, and not much else, if I don´t remember wrong. Mine must be working badly, I´ll have to check that.

Yep. I still remember hitting a small shop in San Jose. This was right before the big "effects pedals" came back. I got the MXR noise gate, DOD Bi-FET and some other pedals .... $10 each. What a bummer I did not buy that bi-phase for $100!!!!!!!

[aron]

>I use Kinman Pickups in my strat. They are the best noiseless strat repacement pickups out there IMHO! They sound just like the originals.

I like Kinmans - still have some. I've gone through a bunch of strat pickups - Kinmans, Lace Sensor, Duncan, Bill Lawrence, etc.... For my money, I go with Bill Lawrence pickups for noiseless. I haven't tried the Dimarzio Virtual Vintage yet.

The best single coils I have heard are my V60LP Suhr pickups but maybe they are matched to the guitar. I guess I would go with the BPSSC for myself if I ever went all single coils. The reason why I still stick with Bill Lawrence is that when I played my friends 1960 strat, the stock pickups sounded just like the Bill Lawrence pickups I had. I was shocked.

My friend got a Suhr strat and for him, the Suhr clarity and dynamics are unbelievable especially with the Carr amp. But you have to be really good to play with that extreme clarity that the singles and the Carr gives you. I couldn't do it.

[Paul Marossy]

Don't think of noise control as something that is either there or not, it is a matter of degrees, and every little bit of attempted control over extraneous noise is useful. 

I agree. But people seem to speak of shielding their guitars *better* as the end all solution to noisy guitars. It helps a lot, but its not a magic bullet. It's a cumulative effect, but still only as good as the weakest link. 

>I use Kinman Pickups in my strat. They are the best noiseless strat repacement pickups out there IMHO! They sound just like the originals.

I like Kinmans - still have some. I've gone through a bunch of strat pickups - Kinmans, Lace Sensor, Duncan, Bill Lawrence, etc.... For my money, I go with Bill Lawrence pickups for noiseless. I haven't tried the Dimarzio Virtual Vintage yet.

I was going to get some Bill Lawrence noiseless pickups, but I decided to go with the Fender "Hot Noiseless" pickups because they were designed for Jeff Beck, and I really like the tones he extracts from his Strats. I'm very happy with them. To each his own. 

[aron]

Yeah, everyone has their favorite pickups, that's what makes it great!

[Paul Marossy]

Yeah, everyone has their favorite pickups, that's what makes it great!

Yep. I guess it's a good thing that there's not only vanilla ice cream, eh? 

[azrael]

1) Noise gates are often applied at the end of a pedal chain, rather than the beginning because noise accumulates over pedals.  Of course, at that point the gate-on threshold has to be set so high to contend with the accumulated noise that it dramatically interferes with decent sound, lopping the start and decay off of notes.  People blame the gate itself, but the blame really lies in expecting miracles of the gate under adverse circumstances.  Gate or downward-expansion control of noise should really be applied near the start AND end of a pedal chain such that neither application has to be drastic.  If you can trim off the minimal hiss at the start, then all the pedals that apply gain, whether compressors or distortions or EQ, aren't boosting that hiss.  If you have more gating at the end, to supplement that, there will be very little hiss to cut out and controls can be set less aggressively

Is this why the Boss NS-2 has an Effects loop? It's intended to cut out noise when you put your straight signal in, then also when it leaves the NS-2?