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fatoldsun
Copper Member
Australia
8 Posts |
 Posted - 12/14/2009 : 14:11:18
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hey boss lovers...
this is my first post so i'll say a little something about me... i've been playing guitar since i was 7 when my parents bought me a guitar xmas of 93', and i've never put down the guitar since. skipping 15 years, after i ditched the shitty multieffects pedals i went on the search for separate old school analogue pedals and everything i tried sounded like shit except for boss... so now i have a nice big pedal board with 90% boss pedals lol...
but today i found a really cheap NF-1 Noise Gate at my local pawn shop so i bought it, but i don't think its as good as my NS-2... i played for about half an hour non stop trying to pick out which one i like.
i was playing my 94 strat plus loaded with custom shop 69' pickups into my mid 80's Hiwatt lead 50 amp... the actual chain was...
Strat > NS-2 > Hiwatt (dirty channel) > Marshall 2x12
and i also did try the send/return at the back which did pretty much the same thing, SO... i was wondering what the general opinion was between the two. any takers?
EDIT: i checked the NF-1 section and it says production stopped May 1988 but check this out... "The unit with serial number 926996 was produced July 1988"  |
Edited by - fatoldsun on 12/14/2009 14:14:22 |
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Dr. Bob
Moderator
Australia
6593 Posts |
Posted - 12/14/2009 : 15:29:15
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Hi fatoldsun
Welcome to the Forum.
Nice to see more Aussies register. 
As for the slight discrepancy in the dates.
When Bossarea Admin was creating the site, as a guide he used the dates that were listed in the Boss Pedals book.
Even Boss have some of there dates wrong.
The algorithms for the decoder, were custom written,
they do not come from some secret inside source at Roland/Boss.
Many long hours of collecting serial numbers whet into it's creation.
While it has minor discrepancies of it's own,
It's the only & most comprehensive decoder that anyone has.
I'll let Bossarea Admin tell you the rest, or clarify any of your
other questions.
Once again welcome to the forum.
Can I ask what state (geographically ) you are in?
Regards Dr. Bob  |
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ssanyee
Silver Member
Hungary
288 Posts |
Posted - 12/14/2009 : 22:28:50
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Hi fatoldsun,
Welcome to the forum!
Actually I have both and of course these are different as I think their purpose shoud be also different. Mostly I use more the NF-1 at the end of the chain-end as a noise cutter.
cheers |
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fatoldsun
Copper Member
Australia
8 Posts |
Posted - 12/14/2009 : 23:14:14
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quote:
Originally posted by ssanyee
Hi fatoldsun,
Welcome to the forum!
Actually I have both and of course these are different as I think their purpose shoud be also different. Mostly I use more the NF-1 at the end of the chain-end as a noise cutter.
cheers
isn't want they're both supposed to do? lol besides the ns-2 having a mute mode?
and i'm in VIC dr.bob |
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Dr. Bob
Moderator
Australia
6593 Posts |
Posted - 12/15/2009 : 08:20:12
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Hi fatoldsun
Thanks for your introduction & reply.
Can I ask which township in Vic?
Regards Dr. Bob |
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fatoldsun
Copper Member
Australia
8 Posts |
Posted - 12/15/2009 : 09:46:31
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quote:
Originally posted by Dr. Bob
Hi fatoldsun
Thanks for your introduction & reply.
Can I ask which township in Vic?
Regards Dr. Bob
we are geelong... the greatest team of all 
lol where abouts you from?
i'm quite suprised i haven't got more opinions on the topic, i thought this was a busy form and most pedal buff's have some kind of noise gate... hmmmz... not knocking the place, just weird lol |
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FRANZONI
Double Platinum Member
Ireland
3543 Posts |
Posted - 12/15/2009 : 09:56:35
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Welcome to the forum...
Sorry i can't help you with the Noise gate comparision as it's one pedal/effect i've never liked or used..i find i don't need one as i play mostly live and any noise from overdrive or distortion gets lost in the mix... |
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natthu
Gold Member
Australia
756 Posts |
Posted - 12/15/2009 : 11:18:39
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Hi fatoldsun, welcome to the forum!
The NS-2 and the NF-1 are completely different beasts (I have owned 2 NF-1's and I still own 2 NS-2's)...
The NF-1 is purely a gate. All it does is cut any sound below a selectable hard level. I found it very useful for gating my Electro-Harmonix Germanium OD which you can set to break up when the levels are low. It was a cool effect but having the distortion dissapear to be replaced with clean signal annoyed me so I used an NF-1 to gate it, just leaving the much louder and breaking up distortion effect.
I think the NF-1 was originally made to get rid of the noise you get when you stop playing guitar (ie between songs). It's not the most useful pedal.
The NS-2 is a clever noise reducer, in that it will allow any guitar sound to pass and reduce any other sound (ie hum, white noise etc) independent of volume. It's great for cleaning up all that noise you get from a high gain distortion pedals such as an MT-2 or XT-2. It also works well when you are playing quietly, with an NF-1 playing quietly results in no signal passing at all.
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fatoldsun
Copper Member
Australia
8 Posts |
Posted - 12/15/2009 : 11:27:21
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| hmmm maybe thats why i found the NF-1 less usefull, because i dont play anything harder than a les paul thru a BD-2... so i dont really need to cut sound... i only want to get rid of the buzz and hum in between songs and when i stop playing during a song... hmmmmmmm lots of thoughts running thru my head... hmmmmmmmzzzzz lol |
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FRANZONI
Double Platinum Member
Ireland
3543 Posts |
Posted - 12/15/2009 : 11:42:05
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Sounds more like a bad earth or your playing to close to a computer monitor or a TV rather than the hiss and background noise off hi-gain distortion or running a long chain of effect pedals..you shouldn't be getting any buzz or hum with a Les Paul unless it has P90's in it....have you had the guitars earthing checked out...?
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fatoldsun
Copper Member
Australia
8 Posts |
Posted - 12/15/2009 : 11:50:09
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quote:
Originally posted by FRANZONI
Sounds more like a bad earth or your playing to close to a computer monitor or a TV rather than the hiss and background noise off hi-gain distortion or running a long chain of effect pedals..you shouldn't be getting any buzz or hum with a Les Paul unless it has P90's in it....have you had the guitars earthing checked out...?
i'm the kind of guitarist that has the speaker cab pointed right at my face when i play so i'm usually somewhat close to my amp... at the moment it is in my room near all the electrical equipment but even at band practice my rig was somewhat long.
guitar (1994 Strat Plus with Custom Shop 69's or original 1967 Les Paul Custom)
Crybaby > Fender tuner > SD-1> RAT 2 > BD-2 > DS-1 > Marshall Chorus > BF-2 > PH-2 > TR-2 > DD-3 > GE-2 > NS-2 > Hiwatt amp
see what i mean? lol |
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MullyFX
Gold Member
Germany
753 Posts |
Posted - 12/21/2009 : 20:26:05
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quote:
Originally posted by natthu
The NS-2 is a clever noise reducer, in that it will allow any guitar sound to pass and reduce any other sound (ie hum, white noise etc) independent of volume. It's great for cleaning up all that noise you get from a high gain distortion pedals such as an MT-2 or XT-2. It also works well when you are playing quietly, with an NF-1 playing quietly results in no signal passing at all.
really? I always though the NS-2 was a gate as well (never tried one though) How does it achieve noise reduction then?? simple filtering would destroy the frequency spectrum and spectral noise reduction would recuire the circuit to "learn" the noise it's supposed to reduce.... (and I haven't heared one single spectral noise reducer that sounded good - as in didn't mangle the "wanted" sound as well) |
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zerksies
Double Platinum Member
USA
3406 Posts |
Posted - 12/21/2009 : 21:44:28
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| I own a ns-2 and like it, and have heard that the ns-2 is a better pedal |
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natthu
Gold Member
Australia
756 Posts |
Posted - 12/22/2009 : 01:55:27
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quote:
Originally posted by MullyFX
really? I always though the NS-2 was a gate as well (never tried one though) How does it achieve noise reduction then?? simple filtering would destroy the frequency spectrum and spectral noise reduction would recuire the circuit to "learn" the noise it's supposed to reduce.... (and I haven't heared one single spectral noise reducer that sounded good - as in didn't mangle the "wanted" sound as well)
It's definitely not just a simple gate. I don't know how/why it works but it is a fair bit more useful than an NF-1... I've only really used the NS-2 after high gain distortion and also as a general "clean up" of signal near the end of a chain. It does both of these things very well. I have heard that it can mess with modulation and delay (ie remove or mangle some of the signal you want) but I always use it before those types of pedals.
The NS-2 is by no means perfect but it is lightyears ahead of the NF-1.
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Dirk
Platinum Member
Netherlands
1309 Posts |
Posted - 12/22/2009 : 10:48:13
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| So, then it's like the Dolby noise reduction system found on a lot of older cassette decks? |
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natthu
Gold Member
Australia
756 Posts |
Posted - 12/22/2009 : 12:01:21
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quote:
Originally posted by Dirk
So, then it's like the Dolby noise reduction system found on a lot of older cassette decks?
Hmmm... I guess that's a possibility. Just a non-dynamic noise reduction algorithm, hence why it mangles a bit of modulation... |
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NS-2 vs. NF-1
