Noise watch

Greetings, guitar fans. I've given this passing comments before but let's put things in perspective this time round. It concerns the noise elimination pedal placement, just a couple of variations. The set up you set above, let's call it set up A.

This one here- let's call it set up B.

The difference- in A, we see the noise gate coming before the distortion unit, in B, it's placed after. What's the difference (if there is any at all)? Let's begin with the understanding that in both set ups, the pedal works & nothing averse had taken place. Noise gate activation depends on the nature of the  signals coming into the device.

In the case of A, the gate deals with signals which are coming directly from the guitar. In B, the gate has to deal with the signals which are already distorted. Unadulterated signals coming from guitars require lesser threshold levels so gating can occur at lower settings. It is often the case that weaker signals from lower output pickups (single coils especially) get cut off rather easily. It is frustrating that notes generated by plain strings (often the higher E & B strings) are sometimes completely shut off altogether. 

This is where B might be useful to the rest of us who wouldn't want to experience premature gating. The additional gain coming from an overdrive or distortion unit would help boost weaker signals coming from the instrument so a differentiated gating effect would be prevented. 

I was doing A in my initial stages of noise gate incorporation. The premature gating occured & thought that my set up was just unsuitable for noise suppression till someone I related to advised me to raise the pickup pole pieces. This helped somewhat but when the noise gate was not in use, the volume difference across strings meant I have to lower what was raised before & it's something that should be avoided. I dabbled in the noise gate placements & came to realize that there's no one particular noise gate arrangement to suit different set ups. 

Hope this bit helps you deal with your set up somewhat. Cheers!