Noise suppressor pedals?

[Bassist96]

When I use my fuzz or overdrive there is an incredibly annoying hum and buzz . Are there any pedals that will help with this?

 

[Veldar]

When I use my fuzz or overdrive there is an incredibly annoying hum and buzz . Are there any pedals that will help with this?

There are several, a quick note many will suggest better cables or isolated power supplies which do help a lot but sometimes a pedal is just noisey.

The most popular are

1. Boss NS-2
2. ISP decimator
3. MXR Noise Gate

Just put one after the fuzz or in the loop of the NS-2 and your sweet.

 

[Bassist96]

I'm looking at getting the ISP, but, does the pedal effect the tone of the fuzz in anyway, or does it just get rid of the hum and buzz?

 

[Veldar]

The ISP is meant to be perfect when set just right, I've never used one, I only have the NS-2 and that does just fine.

 

[AaronVonRock]

I would suggest using an overdrive/fuzz pedal that isn't as noisy. I had a noisy pedal (Boss ODB-3) and was thinking about getting a noise gate pedal. Instead of adding another pedal to my board, I just got rid of the noisy one and replaced it with one that wasn't noisy (EHX Bass Blogger).

 

[jaxstarke]

"You could stop playing and 95% of the noise would be eliminated right there." (As my wife would say.)

 

[Jon Moody]

When I use my fuzz or overdrive there is an incredibly annoying hum and buzz . Are there any pedals that will help with this?

Depending on your needs, Rocktron offers the HUSH series of noise suppression pedals. If you wanted something a bit more, you can get the Guitar Silencer (from our Boutique Series of pedals) which is the HUSH, but with a gate as well.

Both will help to eliminate hum and noise, while doing absolutely nothing to your actual fuzz tone.

 

[E.J. T.N.T.]

Before considering the solution of a noise suppressor, I would suggest going through your entire signal chain and test each component concerning noise. Are you using single coils? Is you bass well shielded? Do you use quality cables? Are you using vintage or noisy effects? This could save you a lot of money.

If after this you get noise of what you would consider unacceptable levels, then proceed with the suppressors.
Moreover, I would definetely suggest not to use a noise gate. I would rather use a volume pedal for that instead.

 

[bongomania]

It is literally impossible for any device to remove sound from your signal without altering the signal noticeably. Especially with a gate, which by definition chops off the beginning and end of each note. It may be argued that with a really good device, the chopping or filtering is "not a big deal", but that is an argument against the listener having high standards for their sound.

Just lower your standards, and any noise suppressor will work fine.

 

[bongomania]

Also, hum and buzz are different from hiss, and they all have different causes; so buying a pedal designed to chop out high-frequency hiss will do nothing about a ground hum; and buying a hum-stopper will not do anything about hiss.

EJTNT is right, you need to identify exactly what the source of the noise is. And if it really is the fuzz and OD pedals, they might just suck and need to be replaced with non-sucky pedals. Don't throw good money after bad by buying a noise suppressor just to "fix" unnecessarily noisy pedals.

Before doing anything else though, try powering the pedals with batteries and see if that helps. Let us know if it does or not.

 

[Bassmike62]

"You could stop playing and 95% of the noise would be eliminated right there." (As my wife would say.)

Gotta love this one !

 

[livingstone]

I began to search for something to clean up the noise that had developed (wasn't there originally) from a couple of my pedals (on a pedal board). Tried a battery--no noise. Cleaned up the connections from the power supply--no more noise.

 

[oysteivi]

I have an ISP Decimator at the end of my chain, right after my hissy ODB-3. It's a simple noise gate which, as far as I can hear, does not affect my tone at all. When I'm not playing, it blocks all signal, and when I play, it lets everything through, including the hiss. A disadvantage to this approach is that soft playing will still open for all the hiss, which makes it sound less than stellar.

All in all, I'm mostly with the crowd who suggest getting better pedals or a better power supply. I intend to, though I'll keep my decimator around just in case.

 

[johnbegone]

I had the ISP Decimator after reading terrible stories of the NS-2 being a complete tone suck. Issue with the Decimator for me was I had different levels of noise coming when I turned on different pedals (I have a ton of dirt on my board). The answer to that was the Decimator G-String. Works more like the NS-2 where you put all your noisy pedals in the loop of the G-String. This way you can consistently set a lower threshold that's entirely based on the sound from your bass and NOT from a pedal. It's my favorite pedal. The only time I turn it off is to do swells. Make sure you put any delays/reverbs or anything like that AFTER the gate so you't not chopping those off as well (unless you want to, because that can be cool, too).

 

[Bassist96]

I have realised its definatly my boss obd-3 and mxr bass fuzz deluxe , which are both very good pedals, it's just that noise they make. The mxr just has a very slight buzz (nothing to worry about at all). But the noise the obd-3 make is quit full on, lots of hissing and buzzing. It's not my bass, that's incredibly quiet

 

[FretNoMore]

Do the pedals make the noise when used solo or in combination with other pedals? Sometimes it's a combination, or certain order of pedals that doesn't work. And, as others have said, try it with batteries or a different power supply.

 

[Bassist96]

Yeah, it does it when they are used solo and tried the batteries, it still does it. Really all I want to do it fix the problem without replacing the pedals, cause they are nice sounding pedals.

 

[GoTTaDrOpALoAd]

have you tried using the pedals on completely separate power supplys or use them both on batteries and see if the noise goes away

could be a ground loop hum

 

[Ifriff]

I used to use the Decimator. Works good but cuts off any sustain you might want. Noise still comes through while playing. That sucks for recording.

I also have the ODB 3. Don't use it cause its noisy. And I also have the Bass Fuzz Deluxe which is not as noisy. Using it with a Godlyke power supply, I still can't believe how quiet my noise issues are. The Godlyke power supply is great for less noise. Check it out.

If you're using a compressor pedal that might enhance your noise depending how its set. I stopped using a comp. just don't like/need it.

 

[bongomania]

I have realised its definatly my boss obd-3 and mxr bass fuzz deluxe , which are both very good pedals, it's just that noise they make. The mxr just has a very slight buzz (nothing to worry about at all). But the noise the obd-3 make is quit full on, lots of hissing and buzzing. It's not my bass, that's incredibly quiet ...Yeah, it does it when they are used solo and tried the batteries, it still does it. Really all I want to do it fix the problem without replacing the pedals, cause they are nice sounding pedals.

if it really is the fuzz and OD pedals, they might just suck and need to be replaced with non-sucky pedals. Don't throw good money after bad by buying a noise suppressor just to "fix" unnecessarily noisy pedals.

The pedals might be faulty, like with a bad solder joint or dirty connections, in which case it would be extra foolish to buy another pedal to make them seem "not broken". The correct solution then is to get them fixed.

If they are not faulty, if for example you try a brand new one of each of them and the new ones are just as noisy, then they are NOT "very good pedals" that "sound nice". Buzz and hum are not hallmarks of very good things that sound nice.