Noise Gates

Novawind

So I've got a Strat with the trademark humming single coils and I'm wondering if a Noise Gate should do anything about that. I've actually got an old Boss NF-1 that I got off flea-bay, but it doesn't seem to work the way I'd intended it to. It kind of just sets a value, and if you're playing normally, all the background hum and noise is totally there, and if you stop, it hums for about a second and then quiets to a mute. Seems like the gate is really only useful at cutting out feedback from high distortion/wah combination, but even then, the scream is there while I'm playing but stops if I stop.

Granted, some of the noise could be from plugging my amp directly into the wall (AC current and all) but I'm just wondering if my pedal is faulty and I should look into a better gate, or if a noise gate is even the answer to my problem.

(Also, I don't think I'll want to upgrade to SCNs on my Strat, it's only a Mexi and my next guitar will be a humbucker anyway).

lucylespian

Noise gates have a a threshold below which they cut hum. once the threshold is crossed, ie when you start playing, the gate is open and all signal gets through.
Single coils and high gain equals hum like a bitch,, which is why I only own humbuckers.
The gate you have sounds like it is working OK.
There are a bunch of other noise reduction options including stacked singles and the EMG active systems, which are really about cleaning up the signal.
Shileding your pups and wiring etc with copper foil is supposed to be good, but I don't know much about it, choosing the humbucker route of hum evasion.
I'm sure Bob will be able to help you out there. I just bought a new TV today and wound up coming home with a power board that is supposed to stop hum coming through the audio on the sattelite TV etc. I don't know if that sort of thing is relevant to guitar applications, but I suppose it could be. I hadn't seen them before. Do you guys have AC or DC power ??

exhausted

120VAC

your gate is working properly.

electro harmonix makes a hum debugger pedal but the reviews have been dreadful. costs almost as much as SCNs. it's a filter, not a gate.

suhr makes a backplate silent system for strats to use with vintage style strat pickups (without a RWRP middle). won't work with your guitar and costs twice as much as SCNs.

if your amps aren't humming with your guitar's volume turned down, it's not the amp's fault though a power conditioner wouldn't hurt (to protect the amp anyway). not going to kill the single coil hum though.

shielding does very little in my experience. as long as the guitar is properly grounded, there isn't much else you can do.

get SCNs. relatively cheap and the guitar will be dead quiet at all times in all places.

if you don't want to upgrade the strat because you'll be getting rid of it, just save your money for the humbucker guitar. if you're keeping the strat as well to retain the single coil sound in your palette, look into the SCNs.

if you're always using high gain and subtlety be damned, just wait for the humbuckered guitar.

ianvomsaal

Your gate is working fine - what you have is called 60-cycle hum (all regular single-coils have 60-cycle hum).
You can get some hum canceling single-coils to remedy this problem (sometimes called noiseless – there are many kinds with varying prices).
HERE’S ONE: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Fender-Vintage-Noiseless-Strat-Pickup-Set?sku=301632
Also, if you switch the single-coils into a notch position it should quite the hum a bit (positions 2 and 4) . . .
. . . in essence you're creating a humbucker by having two single-coils on at the same time.
Everyone that plays with single-coils has to deal with the 60-cycle hum (unless they switch them out).
Cheers . . .

- Ian C.T. vom Saal.

Novawind

Alright sounds like a plan. My middle pickup is reverse wound I think so the backplate's out of the question.

Subtlety be damned indeed, I guess I'll just save up for the Epi LP I've been looking at. Then after that maybe I'll look into a new set of SCNs.

armanHammer

What about a preamp or DI with a ground lift? Like this: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/DOD-VAC265-Stagehand-Direct-Box-with-Ground-Lift?sku=150108

would this work?

exhausted

unfortunately, no, it won't.

Mike_Muse_Rage

Try some EMG singlecoils, unless you're desperate for that "vintage" (i.e. humming) pickups.