BOSS NS-2 Noise Suppressor Guitar Pedal

This is a Boss product, which means you are getting a high quality stompbox that is worth every penny. You also have great customer service, and an item which will always hold a high resale value. I have owned TONS of Boss pedals and never disliked any of them. They have always performed up to my expectations. Now for the NS-2. This is my 2nd one to own and let me tell you, this is an ultimate problem solver. If you have a noisy effects loop, this pedal is equipped to clean that right up. If you need something to mute your signal with the stomp of a foot, this is it. If you are having a lot of noise problems, this is it. Loads of big names use this pedal, one in particular that has always come to my mind is Hatebreed, a band that relies on massive amounts of gain that would probably otherwise be a screaming mess in between breaks in the guitar riffs. But I've seen them, I've seen tons of bands using this pedal and none of them have had noise issues live. The NS-2 is my last line of defense in my chain. I have a noise gate on my processor, then I go to my rack gear, then the NS-2, then amp. I used to have problems with feedback, especially in small venues and would have to crank the noise gate out on my processor thus killing my tone, sustain, and just destroying my sound. I tried the Decimator by ISP but same problem, constantly having to re-adjust and dime it out and kill my tone. Now the noise gate on my processor is set LOW and the NS-2 is set with the threshold at a little over mid way and the decay control set at about 3 quarters, for a more natural "fade out" effect when I stop playing. That way you don't have an abrupt stop in your sound. You can also switch the pedal over to a MUTE feature so that you can mute your signal. I have no use for this as I have a volume pedal, but its a good extra feature. This pedal stays on at all times whenever I'm playing and is mounted in a shelf in my rack. Set it and forget it. No issues with tone destruction, and the good thing is, you can even turn it off whenever you want if you are worried about it holding back your signal. It has cleaned up my sound. Breaks have become completely silent, and I have no more amp noise, just the hum of the fan in my amp head is all I can hear. This pedal is a life saver, especially if you have a lot of gear junking up your signal. Its not going to fix electrical problems or anything like that! A lot of rookie guitarists don't understand that some noise isn't their rig at all but their power. Use the right adapters, good cords, and GET A POWER CONDITIONER and you will be just fine. Add the NS-2 to your rig and noise is dead. Period.

I have a Marshall dsl20 amp that I’ve struggled with a lot of hum when using. It’s dead silent when you turn the volume on the guitar down so I know it’s not the amp. It’s likely bad power and just the natural side effect of high gain. Everything in my signal chain is of good quality so I’m not sure what I can do to quiet the noise. So I decided to pull the trigger on a gate. The boss ns-2 had good reviews and the price was right. This things a game changer. I first added it to my pedal board and plugged it straight into the the front of the amp as the last pedal in the chain. This worked good but I had to turn the threshold to the max to get rid of the noise. So today I finally used the effects loop on my amp and have the threshold at about 3/4 now. This seems to work better if you have the option on your amp. I am pleased with these results for about 100$. When I sit idol the guitar is quiet enough that it often startles me as I play the first note as I was used to a loud hum with high volume. I hope this helps anyone that is having hum problems. I’ll never play this amp without it again. Buy buy buy!

I had a bit of a hum coming from my rack because I use distortion pedals with high gain. I was listening to a recording of my band and in one song where the guitar was quiet, I could hear the hum of my pedals over the band. That made me conscious of it, so I started to make sure I was kicking the pedal off during those parts. I had avoided a noise suppressor pedal as I was concerned about dampening my sound and tone. I started looking at pedals and figured with Amazon's return policy, I could always return it if I didn't like it. This pedal was one the more economical choices with good reviews and since it was a Boss I figured I had nothing to lose. When I received the pedal and plugged into my rack, problem immediately solved. It didn't take a lot of manipulation of the controls either. My tone and volume were unaffected, but the hum was gone. If you're looking to get rid of the nasty pedal board hum, look no further.

I like my Fender Stratocaster and I like the way it sounds through a Blues Driver, Power Stack or a Big Muff Pi pedal and other gain-heavy effects. But with higher gain, these pedals really add to the already noisy nature of the single-coil pick ups on that instrument. This pedal helps get that under control. As mentioned by others and in the Q&A this isn't a noise reducer, it's not some filtered hum reduction, it's a gate that shuts off the signal at a certain threshold. When you're not strumming any notes, it's pointless to hear that static hum from your speakers. But that static hum is part of what gives your guitar the color of sound it has. Noise has it's place, and when it's put together correctly we call it music. Drowning out the vocalist during their solo isn't one of those places. Dulling your drummers solo with constant static won't get you any points with the band or the crowd. It's worth noting for the sound-novices that this will work against sustain pedals if you chain them incorrectly, or if you don't shut this (true bypass) pedal off. This pedal is a must-have for noisy pickups. Let the rest of the band be heard over the electric drive of your guitar and effects during quieter songs or parts of songs. Set it up once and forget about it, just have it on all the time and it works wonderfully.

Warning: this pedal is not a magic fix for single coil noise, amp buzz, or electrostatic crackling! If you can hear the buzz or hum while you are playing on a reasonably low gain setting, then this pedal will not help you. If you are living in a place with poor wiring or bad EM interference, then this pedal cannot clean up your sound. The buzz and hum will still be audible when you play. I suggest you try this pedal out (borrow it from a friend maybe) at your house before you buy it. I live in an apartment without grounded outlets. The amp buzzes loudly. The EM interference is also pretty bad. The best way to solve this problem is to use a cheap wireless cord system. The active electronics boost the signal from your instrument and make the hum and buzz much more quiet in comparison. When I combined this pedal with a wireless cable system, the single coil hum stopped bothering me. I can now play with high gain on positions 1, 3, and 5 on my single-coil Stratocaster. if I use a cord, the pedal is unable to deal with the hum and buzz, even when the threshhold dial is cranked all the way up. If you're thinking about buying a cheap Chinese factory noise gate, think twice. I own a few cheap Chinese factory clones and I love them. In this case I opted for the BOSS pedal because it has some features that these cheaper noise gates do not have. You can put the BOSS pedal immediately after your guitar (to deal with hum and buzz from the guitar electronics) AND simultaneously after your preamp and pedals (but before your reverb). To get this feature using the cheap pedals, you would have to buy two of them. The build quality of the BOSS pedals is also superior.

Very impressed with this pedal. Boss knows how to make their pedals solid for the road. The 60 cycle hum from my strat and my Vox Bobcat was GONE the moment I turned the pedal on without having to make any adjustments. I also felt very strongly that the true flavor of the guitars came through even when I tweaked the dials to find just the right setting. There was still a little bit of hiss when I engaged my Ibanez tube screamer, but the unit suppressed the sound immediately when I stopped playing, and the noise was vastly diminished when I played and very hard to notice under the heavy distortion. This pedal finishes off my rig, and I am glad for it! Can't go wrong with this thing!

NS pedals are tricky. You don't want to lose sustain, but you don't want the noise from your guitar making a racket either. This pedal allows you to adjust for that fine line. Boss tech is generally very, very good, and this pedal is no exception for those who need it. I had this pedal in my "full" pedal board setup for a couple of my basses that can be a little noisy depending on the venue and it worked flawlessly, but have since migrated to a "mini" setup that includes the Boss GT-1B and the noise suppression provided by the GT-1B is sufficient.

Very satisfied with this product.