Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor

Not too complicated.

This pedal is useful for taking the noise out of OTHER pedals, not so useful as a noise gate.

Run your noisy distortion or compression pedals through the LOOP of the NS2, NOT the input/output. POOF - pedal buzz gone, Decay and Threshold settings have no effect on this, you can just leave them all the way down.

However, if you're trying to quiet down noisy single-coil pickups, get ready to turn the threshold and decay WAY up. Really kills your attack and sustain. I suppose the only way to do this is find a threshold you can live with, and then add a delay pedal AFTER the NS-2 to get back some of the ambience it clips. I would really not recommend using it for this purpose. Which is too bad, because it seems to be its MAIN purpose.

Seems reliable, i have yet to have a problem w/ a Boss pedal.

Like I said: Useful to quiet down OTHER pedals. Any other application will probably leave you dissatisfied.

If I were rating it at quieting down other pedals: I'd give it a 10, takes the buzz right out and doesn't color tone. Have your distortion pedals cranked full up without a whisper until you hit the strings.

But because it's supposed to be a noise gate too, it gets a 6.

Let me start by telling you that I'm running a les paul loaded with burstbucker pro's through an engl blackmore 100 head to play metal. Drop C bone-crushing metal with as much gain as the amp lets me achieve.

It seems simple enough at first, plug in the guitar at input, amp at output and all set right ? WRONG! So I tried the NS-2 in the amp's effects loop to cut out the distortion hum... still no good at keeping the feedback out no matter how I set the threshold/decay buttons.

The manual actually contains a clue as to what the best setup is, but you have to treat the preamp like it was a noisy distortion pedal. So the way I run it now is:
Guitar->NS-2 input and then NS-2 send->amp input, amp send->NS-2 return, NS-2 output->amp return
It kills all feedback and noise so I can do (extremely loud) choppy riffs without any beeps coming in between chops. Because my amp lacks a fx loop on/off switch, I run the output of the NS-2 into a line selector which has chorus/delay/reverb in its loop to switch the fx on and off. The nice thing is when the NS-2 cuts the sound, the reverb and delay get to finish their chimes naturally without any feedback going on.

Is this easy to use ? On simpler setups you can probably just follow the manual to set fx in the NS-2 loop, but when using heavy preamp distortion like engl's or mesa's you have to work it out a bit and realize the preamp is just a supermegadeluxe metalzone which should go in the NS-2 effects loop.

Sound is awesome when not playing... i.e. it's dead quiet. When playing I don't notice it's there, but you have to turn the pedal off and on when doing slient phrases in songs.

Could just be me cause I have to set threshold to max and decay to minimum to avoid the feedback on my setup. I just turn it off for cleans or when I have to play crunchy through the heavy channel of the amp. The reduction causes a more subtle cutoff so the reverb and delay can fade out naturally.

It's boss. Have about 8 pedals and all are still in perfect health after 12 years.

I thought 80 euro's was a bit much for something that would just cut sound. But after 1 rehearsal I am incredibly happy with it. I can actually use my expensive equipment (Engl head, gibson guitar etc.) for what it was meant (play loud and heavy music) instead of worrying about feedback. On small stages it's just impossible to get away far enough from the amp so this little bugger is truly a must.

If it broke, got stolen or lost I would get one the next day.

With this pedal it is critical that you know what the threshold and decay do. If you do not know how to set this pedal than it will not work well for you. You have to experiment with you settings to get a good functional noise gate for your set up. It is also very important to know how to set this up in your signal path. The best way to run these Boss noise suppresors are by inserting you guitar straight into the input, from there take the effect send and insert into your first pedal in your effects chain that are not timing based effects like mod delays, reverbs, and any long time based delays. ie. wahs, filters, gain based, eq's, boosts, octaves, and the like. After you send it through all of those type of effects pedals, return the signal back into your Ns-2 and it will eliminate all that added noise now before you run to your delays and reverbs so you get a nice clean signal to all those timed based effects. so the last thing is to take that signal out of your ns-2 output and run it to your delays and reverbs and then to your amp. This is by far going to make the difference in your tone.

If you complete the signal chain as I described up top this thing is amazing. Get your settings dialed in and it will keep your entire pedal board SILENT when you are not playing and you can't even tell you are running it when you are playing.

So far this thing has been very reliable.

Boss is great

Overall this pedal is a must if you like nice quiet pedal boards, it does not color your tone if you set it up right! Great pedal.

Easy as hell. If you read the manual.

Okay, i felt i had to write a review for this cause i nearly didn't buy this after seeing all the bad reviews it's had on here. 'Tone sucking' and 'tone coloring' blah blah. I dont see what everyones crying about, no one obviously knows what there talking about when it comes to this pedal. If it sucks your tone, then its obviously cause you havent set the threshold right, or got the right setting on.
I play through a mesa boogie single rectifer, modern channel with a tube screamer on to give it more bite. Sounds awsome but with the tube screamer on its feed back galoreeee. I set the thresh hold to just past half way, decay to 0, press it on and the noise is gone. Its awsome! Doesnt suck your tone in the slightest, great for solo's , breakdowns and everything. Its probably one of the most useful things in my rig.

Built like a tank, just like all boss pedals.

I cant really comment on this as i've never dealt with Boss customer support.

10/10. This is just an awsome noise gate.

Very easy, especially if you have a basic understanding of noise gates and follow the clear instructions provided in the instruction manual (available online from Boss if you buy used or lose the manual).

Tried in various setups...single coil and humbuckers, placed at end of effects chain using NS-2 input/output, placed with guitar/amp in input/output and effects chain in the NS-2 send/return loop (best results with this setup). My other effects used for testing were the Boss TU-2 (tuner) and AC-2 (acoustic simulator), Blues Balls wah, and a Bigg Muff.

The NS-2 works beautifully with my effects chain placed in the NS-2 effects loop. The decay is natural even with the threshold set high enough to cancel the noise when my Big Muff is on.

The decay is much more natural when using the NS-2 effects loop rather than simply placing the NS-2 at the end of the signal chain. My guess is that the NS-2 passes some of the straight guitar signal to the amp just as the gate closes which helps preserve the decay, but that's just a guess.

I also tried the popular ISP Technologies Decimator. The Decimator had nothing on the NS-2. It sounded like I was using a tremolo effect in the middle of the decay with the Decimator - very unnatural.

It's a Boss pedal. My TU-2 has gone through two floods and still works fine. No amount of gigging should wear down one of these things.

never had to deal with Boss customer support

Great noise gate for guitar effects pedals. Been playing over 12 years, using a fair amount of pedals, and wish I would have bought this pedal much earlier than I did. It is awesome to be able to play single-coil pickups without the 60-Hz hum in the silent spaces and to keep my Big Muff on without terrible hissing between phrases. When used properly - placing the effects in the NS-2 effects loop - all that noise is canceled without affecting the natural sound of the attack and decay.

Considering how well this pedal works and the price compared to other guitar noise gates, I do not know why anyone would buy something else. I directly compared it with the ISP Decimator and the all the Decimator decimated was my dynamics on soft notes. I cannot recommend the NS-2 more highly.

The pedal is pretty straight forward. The controls are easy, you don???t need much experience with pedals to work it out. The inputs may confuse some people but its easy if you know what your doing. The manual that came with it shows you how to set it up properly.

I am using a agile al-2500 (les paul style) with EMG's (81-bridge, 85-neck). From the guitar it goes into my NS-2's input out the send jack into a OD-20 to a DS-1 to a Behringer UC-200 chorus then to NS-2 return jack then to my amp, a Success 50w(piece of ****).THIS PEDAL MAY VERY SLIGHTLY IF ANYTHING EFFECT YOUR TONE. The NS-2 cuts out pretty much all the noise of my pedals. THIS PEDAL IS MADE FOR CUTTING PEDAL NOISE!! it can only cut out a very little noise from an amp. if you a using a pedal to boost your amp(e.g. tube screamer) ant its in the NS-2's effects loop it will cut the majority of the noise but not all. This does not squeak or click or anything when it cuts in or out and even with the decay at minimum it does not cut out unnaturally when you stop playing. Also it does not fade in slowly, the split second you start playing again it cuts back through with full volume. If it is cutting a lot of your volume it is probably set up wrong. It can some times cut a long note short especially if you are using the guitars volume control. Im giving it a 9 because it doesn???t cut amp noise. I would say if you were using a separate pre amp and power amp it would cut the noise if the pre amp was in its effect loop.

It is in a solid metal casing. boss pedals are known for there reliability, but i would still use a back up if gigging because anything could go wrong and this pedal is an essential.

This pedal is a must have if you play anything with high-gain distortion or if you are using a lot of effects. Active pickups usually give a bit more noise because they pick up a broader spectrum. I don???t gig yet because im not in a band atm, but it is a boss so when i start gigging it should still be working fine. i have tried a few different noise gates, a lot of them tend to cut your long notes off more suddenly, and also click when it cuts out the sound. I would advise this to anyone using pedal distortion

There isn't much subjectivity about this type of pedal - they either kill noise without damaging tone or they don't. It's therefore easy to set the pedal to do what it's capable of (you don't have to find a particular sound).

I use a PRS EG4 (has two s/c's, one h/b and 'in between' sounds) into: HT Boost pedal, always on > Boss Compressor, always on > Ibanez TS9DX > Boss Flanger > Boss Chorus > [BOSS NS2 suppressor, always on] > Digitech delay > Digitech Reverb > Blackstar valve amp. With the NS2 placed before the delay and reverb, as suggested in the manual, I can't hear any deterioration in the sound when all pedals are on, or when they're off. With the NS2 pedal off there's a lot of noise, with it on there's none. Job done. Only very slight worry is that the 'threshold' setting seems to need to be all the way up, but that's not been a problem.

Very solid, as usual with Boss,and once set, I won't be fiddling with it much. Don't envisage problems.

Not needed.

I've just joined a band playing a lot of covers and have to use a number of pedals so noise has become a problem for me. I was going to get the ISP Decimator on the strength of Utube recommendations but couldn't find a shop that stocked one (in central London!). As I needed something urgently I got the NS-2, about ??30 cheaper. However, I wasn't disappointed. I've noticed no deterioration of tone and the considerable noise my pedals make is gone. Jst remember not to put the NS2 after delay or reverb FX. Also, personally I don't bother with looping the FX into it, just put it in the chain. All good.

There might be a little trouble for those who are new to the concept of a noise gate. Though it??s pretty simple if you read the instructions and try different setings.

I used it on my Peavey 6505+ with a Mesa rectifier Std 4x12 cab. I play high gain metal. My setings where:

Threshold - 11 o clock
Decay - Minimum
Mode - Mute

The NS2 does colour your sound, no matter what setings you have on it. The best way to describe it is a slight loss of the edge of the tone. Muted chords still sounds great but loose just that little extra touch. I tried it on other rigs and had the same issue.

The NS2 does it??s job though. No more hissing and squeeling, as a noise gate should be. It works great, though it can cut the end of a sustained tone.

I recently got rid of this and bought an ISP Decimator instead, and the decimator is a lot better. Though if you can??t afford the ISP, and if you don??t mind a slight loss in your sound, then the NS2 might be for you.

Seems to be very sturdy.

Haven??t dealt with them.

I would not recommend the NS2 if you have expensive stuff and want the very best out of your rig. The NS2 WILL colour your sound in a bad way.

However, the NS2 still does it??s job and works good as a noise gate. So if you aren not so picky, then you will be very satisfied with this.

There's only three knobs and what the knobs do is pretty obvious. I bought the pedal used so I don't think I got a manual with it, but Boss manuals generally aren't anything special--not fancy, but they get the job done.

Here's my setup:

Guitar(s) > AKG WMS40 Flexx wireless system > Boss CS-3 > Boss PH-3 > Boss OS-2 > Boss EQ-20 > Boss CH-1 > Boss RV-3 > Boss NS-2 > Guitar amp or PA system

"Guitar(s)" refers to any number of the guitars that I play, and since I have three that I normally use with this board, I didn't want to list 'em all. Anyway, this pedal does what it's designed to do--no more, no less. Some of my pedals can get kind of noisy and when I use two or three noisy effects at the same time, there can be quite a bit of line noise, but the NS-2 kills it all.

I'm not sure why people are complaining about the tone-sucking qualities of this pedal, because in my opinion, there aren't any. It's really pretty transparent. With a clean signal, it's impossible to tell the difference between having the noise suppressor on and having it off. Unless I'm running lots of effects at the same time, I have trouble remembering why I bought the thing.

It's a Boss. 'Nuff said. If a nuclear was to occur, the only things left working would be Boss pedals and Timex watches. I've used all of my Boss pedals (don't have the cash to buy two of everything) for years and none of them has ever failed me. Perfect 10.

Never dealt with Boss directly, and don't plan on it. I've heard mixed reviews about their customer service department, but I can't comment on it myself.

The main reason I bought this pedal was because one of the guitarists I play with thinks it's an absolute necessity. Whenever I play clean, I get mad at him for making me spend money on something that doesn't change my sound at all. Whenever I play with a ton of effects, I'm glad that I bought it. Like I said before, the NS-2 kills noise and doesn't color your sound. If this one were lost or stolen, I'd probably buy another one.

Not too much to understand here, three knobs:
Threshold - Sets the level where noise reduction or mute starts working.

Decay - Sets the time it takes for the reduction to begin decaying the signal.

Mode - Switches between reduction and mute.

This is directly out of the box from Boss, no upgrades and the instructions are pretty clear. As far as getting a good sound out of it, it really depends on your set up and what you're going for but with only three knobs and the option to run your effects through the loop or through the standard input/output you have some options.

I've slowly become more of a purist over the years and don't use effects as much as I once did. My set up is simple: LTD KH203, EH Holy Grail Reverb, Boss NS-2, Peavey 6505+...that's it. I purchased this because after having the preamp circuit board replaced in my Peavey (apparently there were a few things wrong which caused the amp to cut out thus reducing the noise and chance of feedback)I noticed a significant amount of high pitched feedback and a slightly muddier tone in my one band. We play southern metal and hardcore and typically I run my pregain between 6 and 7 on the lead channel with the postgain at the 12 O'clock position. Since I work off of our other guitarist I can't have a large amount of noise and feedback in choppy sections and the NS-2 seemed like the best solution.

After hooking the NS-2 up and turning it on I noticed the following:
Reduced noise
No more high pitched squeal or feedback
A slight amount of compression

I had read of people finding problems with reduced signal strength and even experienced it while demoing this unit for a customer. I, however, didn't experience any loss of signal strength and it actually added definition and reduced the muddy tone I had experienced without it. I think it really depends on your pickups and amplifier...this didn't work well with the Fender Hot Rod Delux and actually made the amp sound a little more like a solid state amp...but it's ok, I'm not fond of Fenders.

I wasn't trying to sound like any particular artist, just trying to clean up my sound while maintaining the "balls" of the 6505+.

I just purchased it but I don't feel I'll have any problems with it. I highly recommend that anyone who does purchase one should pick up a power supply to avoid having to change batteries.

I'm a sales associate at a music store and have a direct contact number for our sales representative for all our Boss products and he's actually very easy to deal with.

I play southern metal through a high gain tube amp and this is a great addition to my set up. Having played for almost 16 years I know what I want as far as tone is concerned and I know this item to actually do a little more than it says it does. I'm speaking of the slight compression effect produced by the NS-2...a nice bonus.
I highly recommend this for anyone dealing with a high gain tube amp that is experiencing lots of noise, feedback and squealing, and muddy tone. I don't recommend this to anyone who is overly critical about dynamic response.

You have to read the manual to use this pedal and experiment. I gave it a 8 because so many people use this pedal incorrectly and give it a lower rating. The ISP decimator is easier to use with only one knob. For every one who gave the ns-2 low rating please read the manual and place noisy pedals in the send and return loop of the ns-2, it works better that way. IF you have a noisy amp the ISP Decimator would be a better choice.

If used correctly for your application than you can cut most of your noise out especailly with single coil pickups. I noticed a very slight tone loss with the effect on. This could also be due to the extra cable length using the send and return. I own the ISP Decimator and the isp is more transparent but both Noise Supp. have their own strengths. The NS-2 works great on noisy pedals When placed in the Ns-2 loop(send/return) and has a more natural gate than the ISP. The ISP did not work as well for noisy pedals but worked much better on noise coming from the amps distortion. The Ns-2 did not work as well with the noisy distortion coming from my mesa boogie.

Used on stage for 6 years with a problem. Boss rules!

This pedal can work wonders if you have noisy pedals and place them in a loop. The pedal also works great for noisy single coil pickups. I also own the ISP Decimator and the isp works better with noisy amps and Humbuckers. The ISP is also more transparent but the Boss Sound is totally acceptable. Try both pedals out to see which works better for you.

Easy to use, only 3 knobs. Manual is fine.

It removes noise ok but also results in a significant loss of volume and tone, particularly higher frequencies. More annoying is the hoorible volume swells when you start to play. A slow incremental volume increase - totally unacceptable.

Sturdy enough pedal, will last for ages as you will never use it because is sounds rubbish.

unknown

A terrible useless pedal. Volume swells make this pedal unusable. I dont know how this thing could of passed quality control. Obviouslt BOSS couldnt give a toss any more about quality.

Easy to use, 3 knobs. You need to spend a little time with the threshold control but easy to work out.

Poor. The pedal will suck your tone (particularly higher frequencies) and reduce your volume by 10-30%. The volume bleeds in and out constantly making it useless for fast palm muting, staccato notes - playing with the threshold/decay controls does little to alleviate problem. When used with a distortion pedal on high gain caused a horrific screeking noise when NS-2 turned off. This pedal will remove hum fine but has unacceptable consequences! I wasted my money here bigtime. AVOID.

No issues with reliablilty. Sturdy enough.

unknown

Removes noise but removes tone - volume - quality as well! Volume swells will drive you nuts. Just because it's BOSS doesnt mean it's a good pedal.

Very easy to use. The only issue is placement. Where should you put it in your rig? I plug it in directly after the guitar, and this has it's disadvantages tonally, however; if you put an overdrive pedal before this it works well, but the levels on your overdrive need to be set to match your normal guitar level or you will have to adjust the threshold to compensate for the added gain.

I run this into a A/B Channel select into a Overdrive A, or bypass B(dirty channel) with a Boss chorus and a Nobel digital delay in the FX loop. The reverb in the amp covers up the decay of this pedal(no matter what you do there will be a split second of noise after you stop playing) with the reverb on, it's totally unnoticeable. Might not be perfect in a studio setting but close enough to make a difference.
Even my wife said it cleaned up the sound to make me go from "garage" sounding to "pro" sound.


Many people talk of the "tone sucking" that this pedal does. This is partially due to a "noise cancelling" circuit as well as the gate circuit. It takes out 60 cycle hum before the gate so you don't have to have the threshold as high. There is a slight noticeable drop in gain, mostly on the treble side. I plan on buying a boss GE-7 which should more than make up for the volume drop.

Also, there is an FX loop built in this pedal, works like an AB box. When used it filters before and after the FX loop so you have zero noise in your chain. Of course this does not work for any delay effects, unless you're looking for a gated reverb tone.

Overall, it's freakin great being able to use a high gain setting on a coil-tapped humbucker without any hum. Just remember put it BEFORE your distortion or you lose all dynamics. If you put it after, only loud notes will come through. Besides, in an fx-loop you usually have the master volume or channel volume BEFORE the loop so if you change volume you will have to adjust your threshold. Too loud and you won't be able to gate anything. So just put it before your amp.


Not recommended for blues players. There is not enough dynamics to really get your tone out of a class-a amp with this. Plus the mild tone suckage would just ruin good blues tone.
But for rock or metal this hits the spot.

Boss pedals are solid. I've never seen one fail as long as it was taken care of. No need for a backup
Remember they are CALLED stomp boxes doesn't mean you have to stomp like you're in a UFC match

Use one of these. If you've got money, buy a ISP decimator. If you're on a budget, this will way more than make due. You may need slight adjustment on your setup to get the sound you want(ie the GE-7 i mentioned) but this thing works very well alone.

If you play metal or other nondynamic music style go ahead and buy it.

If you depend on dynamics in your playing, ranging from silent to loud, don't bother.

There's something about not being able to hit those really silent notes. This pedal makes the electric guitar seem like less of a real instrument.

Im going for the Suhr, silent coil system

Crapped out on me after one week of playing.

Whenever i hit a note/chord it starts making loud hiss and fusses.

Good idea, shitty product

After reading the comments here, I bought the NS-2 to kil the buzz on my single coils on my Epiphone Casino. I plugged it in at the end of my pedal chain, plugged into my little Ampeg Jet, and there was my buzz. hit the pedal, cranked the threshhold until the buzz went away. Wow! Ease of use points go down because I can't figure out if the decay knob actually does anything.

Wow. Silence where there was once a severe buzz. Does it affect the tone? probably, but not very noticeable to me. Does exactly what I bought it for. After visiting the Boss site and seeing the manual, I see that I should have run my effects through the loop. I'll try that to see if it makes a difference.

Big Boss pedal fan. I just bought it (ebay $51, plus another $10 for shipping). I assume it will last for a long time.

I went to the web site to download the manual. It was right there! my real support comes from these Harmony Central posts.

This does the job it claims.

This is the Boss NS-2 and I am not sure of how old it is but it was in good shape. I purchased it used from someone on ebay for $65.00. You can go to the Boss website or read down for the functions. I give it an 8 on ease of use. It definately it is not a plug-n-play set one knob pedal. I experiemented without quite a bit. Pedals in the loop, out of the loop, before the pedal, after the pedal, and of course knob turning.

This is a great pedal. The reason I purchased it was because I had buzz and hum coming from my single coil guitars and even my humbucker equipped guitar at most of the venues we played. I have some noisy effects that it would be just an added bonus if they were cured. I set it up as stated in the manual with everything but delays in the loop. My final setting is reduction mode, threshhold on about 2:00-3:00 and decay at all the way counter clockwise which is minimum. The decay is interesting at first my settings were to have the decay at closer to maximum because I did not want to lose sustain. But then through experiment and maybe I saw a "pro" with this on his board in a magazine I set the decay turned all the way counter clockwise. This is a great setting. What I notice is as the note fades the NS-2 led lights up and it starts to do its job as the note is still there. How awesome is that. A gate only works when the note stops, this actually starts noise reduction even while the note is decaying.

In addition I was getting some funky noises from my Danelectro Dan-Echo delay pedal and my cheap Fender pedal tuner. I moved those units to the front of my chain with the output going in to the the input of the NS-2. All noises are cured. My rig is now dead quiet between songs even when I am using the tuner which was making audible noise when the led's would light even in mute mode.

For everything this pedal has done for me, improve my tone because there is less noise, quieted noisy pedals, kill single coil buzz from lights and other noise sources, and quiet my rig during song breaks I have to give this a 10. It did more than I asked.

I have all tube amps and high end American made guitars this unit is worth every penny and I would have to get a new one right away if it failed. I hear no change in tone at all. In fact I hear improvement because the single coil buzz is gone and my notes ring clear.

This is my first Boss pedal. Seems very reliable. I have Electo Harmonix, MXR, EMMA, Ibanez, Crybaby, Danelectro and Fender pedals. I have had bad luck with the inexpensive pedals.

When I shop for a pedal I usually take note of what the pros have on their boards. This pedal seems to be there quite a bit and I see why. This should asks speak volumes for the reliability.

No dealings with Boss direct.

I gig about 2-3 times a month. I own plenty of gear 1/2 high end stuff and 1/2 normal joe stuff. This pedal is a winner. I would replace it right away if it failed.

Don't mess with line conditioners, hum eliminators, gates or other hocus pocus to cure single coil buzz. This is the answer.

this pedal has a noise reduction circuit AND a noise gate too (which aren't the same thing) . I have never bought a lot of pedals,but this pedal is one of the very best I have bought

this pedal is great. My setup consists of a Boss GE-7 which goes into an Ibanez Tube King (which is great,because that pedal ALSO has a noise reduction + gate circuitry) ;the Tube King,in conjuction with the NS-2, is really effective,however the NS-2 will work great even by itself.
So I patch the pedals into the effects loop of the NS-2,with the Treshold set at about 3 o'clock,and the Decay at minimum; this goes to an old ,awesome Selmer head which is always running flat out with a powerbrake.
WOW! I get the same sound that Malmsteen has in his REH video opening,the part where he's playing 'opening solo' with the golden strat.
If I switch the NS2 off,all hell breaks loose,the noise is almost unbearable. The NS2 is brilliant,highly recommended

really an essential pedal ,if you use a setup similar to mine or if you have noisy preamps,etc

You have to be analytical about where your noise is coming from, and throw the manual in the trash. If hum is from high gain, the hum is originally coming from the guitar, not the overdrive effect or amp. Gate the guitar. The only thing I imagine the loop feature is good for is effects with self noise or an amp which hums with nothing plugged into it (But you could simply gate after those instead). I tried this with an overdrive in the loop, assuming it would not work well, and it sure didn't--unusable sound.

I bought the NS-2 today to test out as I can return it within 48 hours. I may keep it, or decide to try a different model noise gate. I like to alternate between warm clean and very high gain. I only got this for high gain. I use humbuckers and tube amps.

The noise reduction itself is really good. I have it between a Les Paul (mini-humbuckers) and Boss MT-2 (maximum gain). Loud hum normally. Set the NS-2 threshold just over the hum, and the silence between played parts is enough to give you an uneasy feeling. The gate timing works rather well, about as un-noticeable as you could hope for. Reduces some noise (and a little tone) even when the gate is open.

The high gain sounds fairly uncolored, but it seems the NS-2 soaks a bit of overall signal and results in very slightly lower gain. Considering the reduction in noise though, the overall results when using high gain are immeasurably better.

If used between guitar and amp for clean tones, you lose some character. It doesn't sound "bad," just slightly worse. I don't have a noise problem with clean, so I'd prefer it off, but in a song with both clean and dirty it sounds ok enough to leave on for simplicity.

I'd rate the clean sound quality about 7, but 10 for use with high gain, which causes the only noise I really worry about. Other hiss/hum isn't worrysome in my gear.

Boss is usually very reliable.

After trying this I don't want to be without some type of noise gate. I don't know if this is the best one. I know I don't want something with just a filter/supressor and no gate, as I'm sure it would rob way too much tone in relation to the noise it would remove.

Remember to put the unit right after the noise source, before that noise is amplified by gain.

I've had this now for a couple of weeks. It will take a little time to set up properly if you've never used a noise gate/suppressor before. I found I had to manipulate the volume knob on my guitar as well as the master volume and gain on my distortion pedal to achieve the desired effect. Once I did, I was very happy.

I've read other reviews from users who said they noticed a change in their sound once the NS-2 was activated. I can honestly and happily say I noticed no such change in my guitar's sound. I sound tested it by activating and bypassing the NS-2 while playing. All it did was clean up the noise. Nice.

I've been a Boss customer for years and their products have always been solid. I don't anticipate any problems. I'll rate it based on my other Boss pedals have had for years.

Never had to deal with customer support for reasons listed above.

I play mostly heavy rock and metal. I've been playing almost thirty years. The main culprit in my signal chain is a Krank Maximus Distortus distortion pedal. I also have a Seymour Duncan Pick Up Booster, Boss SD-1, MXR Phase 90, Boss DD3 and BBE Sonic Maximizer all fed into a Marshall JCM900 Dual Reverb half stack.

If my NS-2 were ever lost or stolen, I would replace it with a new one immediately. What I love about it is how it eliminates all the hiss and noise from my rig and yet it still preserves the tonal integrity of my sound. It does what I need it to do and there is nothing about it that I'm not happy with. I can't believe I went this long without one.

Not easy as a Wah pedal... but if you have bought a Noise Suppresor, it means you are smart, so you can learn how to use it prety easy.

It does the job.
I can use for what I needed it.
It removes the noise from your guitar sound w/o taking away the guitar tone....something rocktron should learn how to do.

It??s a Boss!!!
It is my only new Boss.
All the others are vintage japanese and are still working as they did on day 1, so I??m pretty sure it will be use 3 generations after me.

Go get one... It will help you improve your overall tone.

The settings are very straight foward. Threshold = how much noise do you want to get rid of. Decay = how quickly do you want the reduction to take effect. mute = pretty self explanatory

When I first got this I loved it. I play an epiphone les paul custom through a Marshall TSL602.It cuts all the hiss and muck right out of my Marshall (with tubescreamer which is the main noise culprit). However after closer inspection I realised that it was suck the highs out of my tone. I just can't get the same "bite" out of my marshall with this on. If you like mellow tones this may not be much of a problem. Secondly it does add some compression which doesn't concern me but may bother blues players etc.

It's Quite sturdy, have not had any troubles with it so far. The only critiscism is the poor battery access on this thing. Instead of being on the back the battery sits underneath the switch. Not a major problem but if you were in a hurry.....

N/A

Lives up to its name, it does cut out all unwanted noise. But if you want that searing presence in your solos and/or rhythm playing you would have to turn this off which could mean alot of tap dancing on your pedal board. If it were lost or stolen I probably would try another brand.

Easy! Put it on and it will be readdy to clean the mess. there are diferent configurations explain all of them. I didn't experiment all, becouse i really liked the first one i tryied! I put it in the end off the effects chain, before the amp input.

The sound, what sound? This not produce sound, this protect your sound. It don't change my tone, and that is perfect! I put all my pedals on and you can??t ear any noise.

My Setup: Gibson SG 61 Reissue (EMG 81b)-> Whammy XP-100 -> American Big Muff -> Ibanez PH7 -> BOSS NS-2 -> Amp Laney VH100R (with Marshal 8412 & VS412 Cabinets)

Some artists that use or used NS-2
Wes Borland
Glenny Telford (SkinLab)
Wayne Static (Static-X)- doesn't use any pedal effects!
Josh Rand (stone Sour)
Ace (ex Skunk Anansie)
Tony Rombola (Godsmack)
etc.

I didn't play live with it yet, but I trust him.

I play alternative Rock/Metal, but, in my opinion, the style is not important to a NS-2 review... I play guitar for 11 years and this is one of my best buys.

I would buy another one if it was stolen or lost.

if you're setup is all crap, it will not do miracles...

Very good buy. Good quality, nice price!

ps: sorry, i know my english sucks!

First thing is read the 5 sentence long instructions on the manual. If you don't have a manual its fairly simple to use. Turn the threshold up until it cancels out the noise(it won't cancel out all the noise, but 90% of it, which is a big difference). The decay sets the time for the noise to stop. So the higher the decay the longer it takes to cancel out the noise.

I thought the boss ns2 canceled out all the noise. It cancels out the majority of the noise, but only when your not playing. The second you start hitting the strings the noise returns, but its much quieter. When you stop playing the noise cancels out. I own a fender pro junior and its a noisy little bugger. When I use my epiphone with humbuckers it cancels out the majority of the buzz and hiss. Its only slightly present. When I use my single coil strat it cancels out the majority of the 60 cycle hum, but there is a little hiss/buzz present, more than the epiphone. It doesn't kill my tone at all. It makes chord changes sound smoother. The second you turn the pedal on "boom" all the noise is gone. Its leaves ya a warm feeling inside.

I have not had it for a long period of time, but from what I can tell it seems sturdy. I've heard good things about boss pedals. Musicians friend offers a 1 year warranty so I bought that for 8 bucks in case something happens.

Everything is fine and dandy so far, no need to call them.

I think it is well worth the $90. My set up was so freakin hissy and buzzy it was driving me absolutely crazy. The boss doesn't get rid of all the noise, but 90% of it is gone. It even quiets down my 60 cycle hum/buzz quite a bit. Its a good pedal. I mainly play alt/country rock. I'm mainly a strummer and this cleans up chord changes quite well. I've been playing for about 4-5 years. I own a fender strat, a epiphone dot studio, a fender pro junior amp, a holy grail reverb, and now the boss. I have a very simple set up. I don't even use the reverb that often. So I mainly plug the guitar into my amp. The boss quiets everything down. If it were lost or stolen I would buy another one. The thing I don't like about this pedal is it doesn't get rid of all the noise, just the majority of it. The second you turn the pedal on you can hear the noise vanish like that. I could have purchased the Isp decimator, but it cost 30 dollars more, from what I've heard it works very well. If you have any questions about any of my gear feel free to email me at postalsock@hotmail.com

Probably the easiest pedal in the world to use. I just got home with it and plugged it in. With the threshold and decay at their minimums, it works perfectly. I hear absolutely nothing other than normal amp hiss when i am not playing. The manual could use some work, considering its mostly comprised of pictures and does not fully explain what the mute option does.

Sound is perfect. Could not ask for more, period.

It's a Boss, I'm pretty sure it will stand the test of time. I would most certainly gig with this pedal, considering it worked perfectly directly out of the box.

N/A

I play thrash/death metal, and this pedal is an absolute must have for my gear setup. The amp I currently use is the 5150 combo amp, which, if you know anything about the 5150, has a very high gain output. In addition, I play the LTD DV8-R with the Dave Mustaine Livewire active Duncans. These pickups have an extremely high output, and in conjuction with the 5150, a lot of noise is created. The Boss NS-2 simply eliminates all noise that comes from having this extremely hot rig. If it can completely cut the noise out of my setup, It can definitely do wonders for you. The only reason why I give it a 9 overall is because of the sub par manual (in my opinion) and the high price. If you want a quality noise gate, though, spend the extra cash, you won't be disappointed.

Easy to use; play with the threshold and delay knobs to find your "tolerance" (how much cut off vs. noise still coming through). No manual, bought used. No upgrades. You can use it at the end of the signal chain or with the integrated effects loop (which is the way I use it). Sturdy, typical Boss design.

Doesn't color my sound like certain other players might say; unless you are a real tone freak, with hyper precise criteria for your sound, I don't think you'll find any tone sucking (maybe a vintage setup might suffer). I play through a Marshall TSL 100, Lone Star Strat, Tele and Tokai Les Paul. Effects chain is: Guitar, NS-2, (looped in the NS-2: BBE Opto Stomp, CryBaby 535Q, BBE Green Screamer, MXR ZW-44, CE-5). DD-20 through amp effects loop. No noise (it is a noise suppressor !).

Very dependable. Trust it on a gig. It is a Boss; they're hard to kill !

Didn't have anything to gripe for. Although, since the pedal was used and didn't have a manual, I easily found a PDF version through the Boss web site, which was great.

I play hard rock, and I do a lot of soloing and jamming. The NS-2 has changed my perspective on the use of external effects pedals. Before I purchased it, I was worried that I would always have to deal with hum and static from pedals. I hate noise, to the point where I was willing to sacrifice my ideal tone to cut down on noise. I had put up my ZW-44 for sale, since it is a noisy pedal. With the NS-2, the noise cut is dramatic. The ZW-44 can now be used to give me a great cutting lead tone without the noise. I like to take breaks in my phrasing, so when I'm not playing, it's almost like the amp was on standby. I see a lot of professionnals use the NS-2 in their setups (Check the setups at the end of Guitar World issues).Would buy again if stolen. Must have for pedals through a high gain setup. I'm also considering a DC Brick or Voodoo Lab Pedal Power to reduce noise even more (batteries aren't practical, although give out less noise.)

Its pretty easy to use. It took me a few hours to get a hang of it. Ive never really messed around with a noise suppressor before. It comes with a manual which seems informative enough. I actually looked at it more than once.

It deffinatly does the job it says it does. Because I never owned a suppressor before, it took me a while to grasp the working concept of the thing. Once figured out,,easy enough. I have found that it isnt a one setting for everything pedal. If you set it up correctly for one channel of gain and change to another with more gain or use another guitar with hotter pups you will find you will need to adjust it. I only use it with extemely high gain applications so once I have it set for my gain channel its good to go. When I bought this pedal I thought I would try running it like any other pedal in my chain of effects,input-output and so on.. Nope it doesnt work like that. I tried and it just doesnt work at all like that. You cant even get a sound out of it. It comes with a send and return jacks for a loop. You must use it like that. Place your distortin,OD, compression type pedals in the NS-2's loop and your good to go...Works great like this. It really does make your rig quiet. It comes with an additional light that is off when you are playing but after you stop and your sustained note fades you see the light slowly come on. Once your sustain is gone the light shines bright showing you its got a hold on your noise,,,pretty cool. The pedal comes with a knob named decay and its useful if you find the pedal kicking in too fast,,,cutting off your sustain. Im running it first in my chain straight into my amp,,,NS-2, barber tone press,bb preamp, mi audio blues pro, mi audio crunch box,,,to give you an idea Im able to have my boogie recotoverb on high gain channel 2 with the compressor on max and the bb preamp overdriving my preamp and it still can keep it relatively quiet. I dont ever use that much gain and compression in front but its nice to know you could,,,when I turn off the ns-2 at these settings the noise is uncontrollable.. so it works.
P.S. the threshold knob doesnt need to be maxed for everything,,you will get a better result from it if you slowly turn that knob clockwise until the noise is gone. thats were you should have it.

its a boss

dont know

I play everything from blues to all out metal,,,I only use it for extremely high gain,,otherwise its off. So far its done me well so I really have no complaints at all,,,if it went missing I probably would replace it again,,,but because ive never owned another,,,who knows. I bought this pedal because of the rave reviews on this sight,,,I wanted to originally try the ISP decimator but the reviews werent as good and you had to order that one online.. With the NS-2 not being an effect type pedal I was willing to give it a try,,,I just wanted the noise to go away and it did.

It is very easy to understand. The only thing thats not so cool is that the send and return jacks are positioned at the wrong side, because you would have put the send to an input of an pedal and a return to output of a pedal(Go look at a picture and see!),it would be O.K. if you had longer patch leads!

other than that it is very easy to use, that is if you read the manual!

WoW! Try putting a very noisy pedal in the loop of the Boss ns-2, and you will know what a noise suppressor does(Something like an MXR Dime). A very clear sound can be heard, it wont change the tone at all, Set the decay time to the far left, and threshold at about 12'0 clock.
It is important to use this with pedals in the send and return loop of noise suppressor, it wont be that effective when using it with amp distortion, because you cannot it only eliminates noise within the loop and before the pedal(your guitar).

I have played a few gigs with the noise suppressor, and people cant understand why my sound has no noise. And it is almost indestructable, when a jack is inserted it stays there.

Well i live in South Africa, so i was a big struggle find a boss dealer with the ns-2, after a few months I found one.

This is for an active musician, playing the blues,neo classical or even black death metal. Without this pedal you would sound very crap. This pedal is wort every penny.
Currently I am using the Boss ds-1 and Digitech metal master, it makes it sound like a studio produced sound.

Easy to use, basically a 'no brainer' with just three knobs. It took me a while to figure out how to set it up though, thank god I have the boss guitar tuner, using send and return from that with all my pedals.

Doesn't affect sound quality at all, trust me, after playing for 35 years, I would know if sound quality was affected. Some problems with a clean sound (which I rarely use), but it is just a case of changing the settings a little is all, but, hate to do that during a 'live' gig.

It's a boss pedal!.. reliable as hell!

Do Boss even have customer support?.. can't imagine it would be needed?

I play Classic Rock, I use distortion, overdrive, compression, a wah, a uni-vibe and a boss super shifter, I have three strats so you can imagine the hiss and hum I get. I should have gotten this years ago, but I was put off because the noise gates in the 70's silenced the first note played, not so with this, because of the neat litle delay button. I use a lot of hendrix-like controled feedback and this doesnt interfere with that or my style.. the guys in my band love me now!! -- so quiet!!

I didn't have any trouble setting it up, it was pretty straight forward. It might take some others a bit longer and that would depend on the type of noise they're experiencing.

In my opinion it improved the overall sound of distortion boxes because it didn't contain the noise and hiss that pedals sometimes create. It's a real thrill to get perfect silence when the guitar is idle. This is an absolute must for live players and it couldn't hurt in the studio either. I have a Boss GE-7 pedal and it's great as an equalizer but creates some hissing when I try to push it a little. The NS-2 eliminates all the noise so I can take full advantage of all my other devices.

It's a Boss for Pete's sake.

I play funk and R&B mostly but a cover band has to do it all to get gigs. I have 5 different amp rigs to suit the gig I'm playing. Rivera full stack, Mesa Stiletto duece, Bassman combo, Fender Super Sonic and my 5w Epiphone practice amp. If it were stolen it would be replaced immediately.

Quite easy to use. On the Boss-Site I found a diagramm explaining the placement of several effects (before/after the NS-2, into the loop... ) which was really useful.

A must-have for high gain seetings. It reduces feed-back and hum without altering the tone (...I cannot hear the difference). You only have to mute the strings and the NS-2 kills the signal/noise for instance.
I have a phaser and a cry-baby running over the internal effect-loop of the NS-2. I just love it how quiet they get when they're just turned on (but not played). Before I had the NS-2 I could hear the phase-rotation (in the distorted channel of the amp of course) even with the guitar's volume knob completely turned down. No more.

But unfortunately...
if turn the guitar's volume-knob down the NS-2 will start to suck your tone. The tone will start to fade in/out. It seems to me that the NS-2 cannot differentiate the actual signal from noise any more. In order to avoid that you have to pick harder or turn the NS-2 off... and that's an unacceptable solution.

Seems very solid to me (like all BOSS pedals).

Never had to contact them.

All in all a great pedal IF you don't play with turned down volume knob. It works for me because I mostly play with fully turned up. In other cases I turn the unit off (yes, it can be that simple ;-) ). I didn't notice any tone sucks at all.

you got a couple of knobe to mess around with doesnt get easier then that! sounds easy to me.

This is by far the best noise reduction i have used so far. It does't suck tone like some other noise reducions. I owned a rocktron hush super c before and that thing sucked all my tone away and left the noise. So I have gone to use only the boss ns-2. I have 3 of these on all my amps. i run a Carvin V3, Peavey JSX, and a Roland JC-120, and it gets rid of all the hum and leaves the tone.

works great never had a problem with it.

never had to deal with them.

This unit works great. If it can get rid of all my hum through my amps and leave my original sound without messing it up it, It would be good for someone else to.

Very easy to use, for anyone that can't figure it out straight away there are clear instructions.

Oh dear.
2 things:
1/ Be prepared to lose all the bite from your sound. It sucks tone down to a muddy, playing on the other side of a brick wall, mess. It will also compress any dynamics right out of our playing, mainly because you need to hit each string at full force just to hear your signal, which leads me to...
2/ If I'd wanted a volume swell effect, I would have bought a volume pedal. A noise reducer should work on the tail end of what you're playing, but for some reason this graduates the start too. It reduces the volume of your entire signal, then very gradually brings the volume up. I would've thought anyone could figure out that it should stop reducing the second it hits the threshold, but apparently BOSS thought otherwise. So if you want to kick into a good riff, forget it with this thing on: you have to kepp playing hard and fast for a good 10 seconds before it gets up to volume (which is still not good, see No.1), so palm muted riffs are also not gonna happen (which is where you need one of these most).
You wanted crisp, clean sound without signal noise? No chance.
Having said this, it is very good for getting rid of signal noise when you're not playing, and as a mute switch. But that's not really worth ??59 is it?
And no, none of this is down to my other equpment or set-up etc...

It's really well built and solid, and doubtful it'll break. You wouldn't need a back up (assuming you could bring yourself to gig with it in the first place).

It does, however, lose a couple points for the unreliability of the effect itself.

Not needed support for it.

I really don't see how this is good for anyone. If you're playing with the kind of high-gain stuff that warrants this pedal in the first place, then the degree to which it screws your sound makes it a complete waste of time.
I'm playing an EMG equipped ESP, with a DigiTech ToneDriver and Death Metal and a Crybaby From Hell (which has a volume boost) needing the noise suppressor. With all/some of these on I do get noise, and the NS-2 kills it dead. But then I start playing... Oh dear. According to BOSS' description it sorts the noise from the guitar and doesn't affect tone. Flat-out lie. It takes about 10-20 seconds to realise you've started playing, and completely destroys your tone (get going then switch the NS-2 off halfway through, you'll see what I mean).
And don't get me started on how annoying it is that the send/receive jacks are the wrong way around...

ridiculously easy. plug in whatever you want to be quiter and fiddle with the threshold.

Does exactly what you want it to do. just gotta find the right level of threshold and if you want, decay (i have it set to zero). it does compress your tone ever so slightly but i actually found it to be an improvement!

yup, boss are about as dependable as it gets.

haha not a clue, its probably awful.

i play rock and roll with my Les paul junior and P90's. this pedal gets rid of unwanted noise. what more can you ask for?

Simple enough to use. It took a while to figure out what the difference was between "mute" and "reduction" modes because the manual was obviously translated from another language by someone who doesn't have a complete command of English. However, it is pretty simple to figure out that you dial up the threshold until the hum goes away. I have not found that I need to adjust the decay. I use it in "reduction" mode rather than "mute" mode so that I can switch between having the noise reduction on vs. off. In "Mute" mode, the effect is always on and engaging the pedal will mute serve as a mute. I already have this feature in my pedal tuner so it's not necessary to have another mute switch. Plus, I like being able to turn off the noise reduction when I actually do want noise and feedback.

I agree with the previous reviewer, to some extent, in that there is some gain loss and a compressed sound, especially more perceivable at gigging volume. However, I still find the tone to be pleasing. No loss in treble response. I played a gig with it recently. With a weaker Tele, I wasn't able to get long sustained notes but perhaps could have dialed up the distortion a little higher. With a higher output guitar (an SG with Kent Armstrong P90's), I was able to get really creamy sustained leads with no interference or pre-mature gating by this effect.

I've never had to replace a Boss pedal.

Never needed to contact them.

I've been playing classic rock semi-professionaly since the late 80's. The pay-off of being able to stick P90 retrofits back into my SG and have no hum, vs. a little drop in gain, is invaluable. At one time, I had been playing "You Shook Me All Night Long" by AC/DC without a noise gate and was ready to chuck my guitar out the window. All that buzz and hum in between the sharp chord changes was killing me. Even the solo got eaten up by hum. Same song at another gig with the NS-2 and it was night and day. If you ever thought of shelving your single coil pickups, or guitar for that matter, due to noise problems, I'd seriously recommend you invest in this product, especially if you like how single coils sound. I might consider trying out other noise gates like the MXR smart gate to see if there's something out there that doesn't compress your gain.

It's very simple to set-up and use, but I give it a "9" because you actually need to look at the manual, heh. Manual is great though, they show you a diagram of how everything gets connected, very easy to understand.

Like all noise gates/suppressors, it is going to affect your tone.
As someone else mentioned, it does add a bit of compression and seems to boost the mids. You can work around this by tweaking your EQ (on amp or pedal/processor) and if you're using a compressor, tone down the settings on that a little. I would say it's a fair trade-off though (better than hiss!)

I have the settings at - Threshold: 11 o'clock, Decay: min, Mode: Reduction and this is enough to make it totally silent! I've even turned the Thresh down to 10 o'clock to let a little bit of noise it just to make it sound more realistic, but it's still damn quiet!

I've only had it for a few hours, but it's built tough like all Boss pedals and those will hold out for YEARS as long as you don't abuse it too much.

No need for it now and hope I won't later.

Ok, now get this...
I've had the MXR SmartGate for about a year, and while I love MXR pedals, this one sucked! It only eliminated about 70% of the noise, but added LOTS of compression and the note sustain was a joke. I looked into other options and the NS-2 looked interesting because of the built-in "send/return loop". Figured I'd give it a try, and if it was no good, would just return it to the store.

The NS-2 is amazingly effective, blows away the MXR SmartGate!
I couldn't believe how well it worked, I even went and double-checked my pedals just to make sure everything was on, lol. It's kinda creepy how quiet this thing is!

I have a fairly hi-gain rig for metal:
Gibson Explorer w/ EMG 81/85's >> NS-2 >> Boss TU-15 tuner >> MXR DynaComp >> MXR Phase 90 >> MXR Wylde Overdrive >> MXR 10-band EQ all going in to a Marshall AVT150 head w/ a 1960a 4x12 cab.

It ain't rocket science...

The ns-2 does remove hiss from hi-gain amps, but at a price, IT SUCKS TONE. Anyone who thinks otherwise must be deaf, or playing at bedroom levels.

As soon as you turn this on, you will get a drop in volume and a compression on your sound. I have tried all wiring configurations with the same drop in volume/compression thing happening. I have tried it with only the ns-2 between the guitar and amp and the same thing happens.

I use QUALITY equipment, all cables are hand wired using the best quality cable and neutrik jacks. Guitar is usually a RH4 Blade, plugged into a very high end amp, a Cornford MK5011. Guitar straight into the amp is the best guitar sound, clean or dirty, you will EVER hear.

It's a useable pedal for some applications, but I mainly switch it off at the begin of a song and on at the end ?????

Boss pedals have never let me down in over 25 years

never needed them

It's OK, it may well be on ebay within a couple of months...

Boss have got a very good rep, and they don't really deserve it. Sure they're pedals last forever, but of all the Boss pedals I've got(5), I've had to modify 4 of them to get them up to scratch sound wise, and these mods are always replacing shite quality components with better ones. Why Boss don't use better quality components in the first place is beyond me. The cost of the components is usually a couple of quid !

Super easy to use. Put threshold to max, delay to min, and mode to reduction... thats it.

This thing is awesome. It doesn't take away any of your guitar's natural sound. All it does is take away ALL unwanted feedback. Your guitar still sounds exactly the same, just without unwanted feedback.

Yes, you can depend on it. And yes, i would use it on a gig without backup.

dont know

It doesn't matter what kind of music you play... at all. This is a must for anyone, especially someone who uses heavy metal distortion (like me). I've had this for a while, and it never has failed me. It never will. But if for some reason it does, I will replace it. The thing that I love about it the most is that it has an output jack to supply a power source to your other effects pedals. All you need is one power adapter. I wouldn't spend any other time looking for any other noise suppressors. This is it. Boss makes so many good effects pedals, but this is probably the most useful and most versatilve one there is. GREAT BUY!

This pedal couldn't be more easy to use. The manual helped a little too.

My setup: Peavey Bandit 112 >> NS-2 >> TU-2 >> Epiphone Les Paul

This pedal works so fine! It cuts out all of the feedback and unwanted noise I have from my amp, especially at high volume.

I've had it for a while and I doesn't even have a scratch on it.

Boss fo' life!

I play a lot of Metal and HArd Rock. If it were stolen I'd beat up the person taking it and if it were lost yes I'd buy another one. It's great just to jam alone, with friends, record and even live!

Wow, I had to read the manual otherwise, I would have returned it!

This thing operates really unusually and at first I hooked it up like I thought it should be used and it worked but really killed the treble response.
Once I read the manual and learned that my guitar and only my guitar should be plugged into the input jack everything sounded wonderful.
I do use Dimarzio YJM humbuckers in my 2000 American series Fender Stratocaster and they have a very low output and so I found out that the NS-2 workes best with the threshold all the way to the left. I little to insensitive I suppose but it does work great there.
The NS-2 kills all the noise, 100%, before the amp.

I use this with small Fender Champ tube amps and with vintage Marshall stacks. It's all good.

In an amps effects loop the NS-2 would be tricky to hook up. Guitar to input, send to amp input, effects send to NS-2's return, Ns-2 output to amps return....lots of cables....

It sure would quiet one of the those noisy B-52 stacks

My friends NS-2 burned up using a non boss ac adapter. I have been using Ibanez adapters for over 10 years with no problems.

I've been shredding metal since Michael Schenker hit the scene in UFO back in the 70's.

I think $100 is pretty steep when you consider the Boss ME-50 can be had for just over $200.

Top musicians everywhere rely on the NS-2.

It's perfect if you can afford it.

Fairly simple if you're just going in and out, if you're using the loop it's slightly more complicated. But still as easy as it could be.

I'm using a Cort G290>TU-2>Whammy>Wah>NS-2>OD-20>Zoom PD-01>CH-1>PH-3>BF-3>DD-6 into a Marshall MG100DFX. This thing gets rid of pretty much all the noise, even when using heavily distorted modes on the OD-20, as well as modulation noise. I notice no real loss of sustain, although when I use the loop i lose a bit of sustain, but my rig isn't noisy enough to warrant using it.

I've had it for nearly a year now, and although there have been one or two paint chips it's fine.

N/A

I play alternative rock, a bit of jazz, a bit of metal and this removes 90% of the noise, the other 10% I can live with. I find that mine worked best BEFORE my OD-20 and other effects. So before giving this a bad review try it EVERYWHERE in your setup, and if that fails try the loop function. If that doesn't solve your problems, reduce the gain on your 3 Metal Zone pedals. ;)

For my style of music (Metal) I had an easy time setting it up. Very easy to use in my oppinion, Im no rocket scientist. Got the hum out of my triple rec and 5150 II in nothin flat.

Im currently using this with my ESP mh 400nt plugged directly in and then from the pedal to either of the amps. (Triple Rectifer or 5150 II). Not noisy at all anymore, now that I have this little ns-2. I didnt losse any gain or sustain at all. People that say that about this pedal need to spend a little more time tweeking the 2 knobs. Distortion is not affected at all.

I havent taken it on stage yet, but all boss pedals are as rugged as they get. Mine was bought used from a touring musician and it looks very clean and works great still.

Never dealt with boss directly so Im not the guy to talk to about this subject.

I play mostly metal, metalcore, hardcore, and my sound. This pedal is a perfect match for my situation. Maybe not for the Eric Clapton fan who doesnt have much tube gain hum in his setup. I have been playing for ten years and have been kicking myself for 2 days since I bought this for not buying it years before. I dont use many effects but I got a thing for high gain tube amps and active EMG's and this is a must for that setup. If it were lost or stolen, give that dude props that stole it from me because hes got taste, no for real though, he does. No, I would buy another one ASAP. I love the simplicitly of it and ease of use. I also like its effectiveness alot to. I havent found anything to dislike about it yet, but bear with me I have only had it 2 days. My favorite feature about it is that it is capable of powering other pedals by boss. I think it can power 5 more at the same time. It helps me in my music by taking that hum/hiss out of my setup. Nothing is more annoying than hearing that noise when you are trying to discuss/write a song or structure. Get one quick...

Ease of use depends on what your setup is. If you just have this pedal between your guitar and amp, then just reduce the decay all the way to the left (minimum) and put the selector to reduction instead of mute. Then start turning the threshold knob clockwise. Around 12:00 position, all your noise must have disappeared. Over the 12:00, you could lose a bit of sustain in your guitar. This is when you need to use the decay knob. If you feel you are losing sustain, just start increasing the decay...

however, if you have more noisy effects, and you want to make the best possible use of this pedal, this is my setup.
I had a noisy 1.7 AMPS power adapter. I plugged it into the "IN" of the NS2 and made a chain of 5 plugs and plugged it into the "OUT" of the NS2. The NS2 is now being used to power 4 other noisy pedals. I think it eliminates noise in the power to the 4 other pedals. Although I could not find any mention if the NS2 reduced noise while powering other pedals, I think it was helpful though.
Then I put the noisy pedals in the effects loop of the NS2.
I dont know if there is any pedal out there that gives so much versatility. My only gripe is that each time I turn on the power to the entire setup, the NS2 has to be kicked on manually.

What the NS2 does needs to be understood before jumping to conclusions. This just reduces noise when you are not playing. When you are playing it assumes that the noise cannot be heard. The moment you stop playing, based on the threshold you have set, and the decay time, it kicks in! That is why I mentioned, if you find yourself setting the threshold beyond 12:00 position, and you see that you are losing some sustain, then start messing with the decay. Also, if you find that your distortion setup is the noisy one and your clean sound is, well, clean, then you might suffer a lot of sustain when you are playing clean. So, you got to play with the settings a while before you find the right match for both your distortion and clean sounds. This can be quite a challenge. I've had it for almost 2 years and i still mess with it sometimes. Not to mention the problem you will have if you are using more than 1 guitar especially with varying levels of output in their pickups!
I have been told by a pro-gear seller that the only way to acheive studio level noise reduction is to remove it professionally after recording and studio quality setup. So, the NS2 is a quick and dirty solution for all you bedroom players and small time garage band guitarists. Dont get me wrong, other distortion pedals also have the same reviews.

So far works well. I guess it can be gigged without a backup.

Did not deal with them yet.

I play mostly Metal. Any metal, you name it. Death, Doom, progressive, 80's. This pedal suits me just fine and eliminates most of my noise. but I do use quality ( noise-free and less expensive ) guitars and amps so I dont suffer much.

The most important thing everyone should keep in mind is "Garbage in, garbage out". So, if you are plugging shitty squier strats with single coils into high gain cheap noisy pedals, then no amount of noise supressors will help you. First take a look at your setup. Then remember the greatest guitarist of all time ( in my opinion ) Joe Satriani's words "The real tone is in your fingers" what he means is, the way you play makes a world of difference. Again, that means, the way you mute the strings, your palm mutes, the way your fingers mutes when you are going down the fretboard, your skill at picking, everything matters! So, dont blame the setup or the amp or guitar, if you are not good enough. Again, I have learnt this lesson the hard way but every beginner and every pro for that matter has walked that road too. So, be patient and practise hard and you can play like your hero!!

Overall, this is a good pedal for its features and price. Go for it. you will appreciate it for a long long time. Rock on, and dont forget to, Rock HARD !!

Its very easy to use, simple operation and helped by a clear instruction booklet.

In my opinion, its not half as good as the reviews say it is.

I bought this in a hurry, I needed a noise supressor in about 48 hours and didn't spend too much time looking at the rather hard to get and more expensive competition (MXR, Rocktron, ISP). Tip, spend more and look harder, don't be fooled by the big name. I run this infront of an all valve Marshall set-up and it takes the "punch" straight out of my set-up which is probably the most annoying thing about this pedal. Now, I know what you're thinking "What do you expect for the money?" but really, I expected a little better than that. It does suck tone.

Next, the noise supression itself. It is very decent. But there is much room for improvement. It doesn't completely cancel out that excess noise. Instead, it'll cut about 60-70%. Again I expected better considering the company.

Now, don't get me wrong, it does do what its supposed to and it does a fair job of it BUT it has faults as stated.
It does get rid of noise.
The mute control works quite well.
In all honesty, it does what it says on the tin. The only downside being, it doesn't really do it all that well.


I give it 5, its not that great but at the same time not awful. The tone sucking for me is a major issue.

I've gigged a few times with it and its still here in once piece.

However, I did have to tighten the mute/reduction switch and input jack on purchase as they were quite loose straight out of the box. Fine since.


Because of that, 8.

You can see my main opinion in the sound section.
My major beef with the pedal is that it will suck your tone. I could live with the fact that it won't fully get rid of noise but the other issue really gets to me.

If it were stolen or lost? I'd buy something that will really get the job done. I'd not buy it again, not worth the price tag.

Its hard to judge this pedal first hand, you can't really try it out till you've bought it without pulling your own set-up into the music shop. As far as I'm concerned, considering the hype and brand reputation it leaves a disapointing feeling.

Extreamly easy to use.

Im running a Gibson melody maker with a Jason Lollar P90 pickup into NS-2 into a analogman DS-1pro Dist into a Blues JR. Fantastic !Very quiet and works like a charm.

Tough!

Never needed it.

I play Rock,old metal,jazz,blues and bluegrass.Ive been playing 25 years.If it were lost or stolen I definately would buy another.I only wish I got one much earlier. Really improves sound in high gain situations.Excellent I never new silence was so nice !

It doesn't affect tone since it's a noise gate but it's very easy to turn the two knobs on it and quell your noise if you make sure you hook it up properly in your chain (I'll write more on this below).

The manual for it is very user friendly and well written like all Boss manuals. I highly recommend going to the Boss website and downloading yourself a copy of their effects guidebook too. Very well thought out.

The way that it works the best for me and probably others as well is to do the following IMPORTANT: guitar into input of gate then output of gate into head or pre amp then all pedals go in the loop of the gate ('send' from gate to input of first pedal in chain then from last pedal in chain into 'return' on gate). That's what makes it so great is that it gets rid of noise at two points! Very well thought out! I've never seen a gate with that feature.

My setup-Wah, clean boost, dist. pedal, guitar rack with pre amp, efx, and power amp.

It's not noisy at all it's a friggin' noise gate lol

As far as sound quality goes this is the best noise gate I've ever owned and I've owned a few.

I can absolutely depend on it and I would proudly gig with it anytime without the benefit of a backup. Boss pedals never let anyone down. The distortions they make sound like crap to me but I've always loved their other pedals.

never needed any kind of customer support from boss other than downloading a couple of manuals and on their website you fill in some stuff and they get back to you very fast with what you need.

I play classic rock, prog rock, metal. This is a perfect match. If it can get rid of my noise it can get rid of anyone's noise. Hell Yngwie uses it and we all know he has a ton of gain.

I've been playing the guitar for 15 years and I own all kinds of pedals and rack gear.

If it were stolen or lost I'd pray that the bastard would get hit by a hummer while running away from me then I'd order another one.

It's perfect for me in every way hell it even acts as a power source for other boss pedals with the right stuff. I have a very noisy pre amp and i'm boosting it even further so it was the only thing that solved both my pre amp noise and pedal noise. Get it now!! Any questions? email me.

Threshhold, Decay, and Mode adjustments. Pretty easy to use. Manuals are downloadable at www.bossus.com. Very easy to set up and get going. It has inputs/outputs for running in front of the amp or through an effects loop. I give it a 9 because it's not a no brainer, but would you expect it to be?

Running it at the end of my pedal chain in front of a Fender Super Reverb, playing with a US Fender strat w/texas special pickups. Anyone who plays with single coils knows that you get some hum when you put and overdrive pedal in the loop. This little box is one of my best investments, it squashes the buzz before it comes in to play. The decay feature works perfect for my application. It slowly fades out the sound very natually and before the buzz comes though. I couldn't have asked for better. I'd have to say it works equal to or better than the gate on my rack mount Alesis 3630. There is a slight boost when it's engaged but nothing to whine about. It doesn't affect my tone a bit. I'm not sure if it's 'studio worthy' but for live, it works great.

Bought it used, hasn't broken yet.

Haven't had to deal with them directly, but the website has all the info I need. Easy to surf and find the manuals download page that I was looking for.

I couldn't do without it. If you got buzz, it's a must have item.

Well, never seen anything easier to use! Just plug your guitar, put your effect chain and/or overdrive/distortion/preamp into the loop and run into the amp. Set Decay to 0 and tune the Threshold according to the noise level and that's it!
IT WORKS!!! The manual? You don't need it!

I use it with an Electroharmonix LPB-2BE tube preamp pedal into the loop and with my Strat Plus (Seymour Duncan loaded!) and I run into a Line6 Flextone II XL (set as a Marshall JCM 800): TONS OF TONE! The NS-2 adds a litte compression but it doesn't affect your tone at all. I can get from that stuff the sound I LOVE!!! And ALL the noise and hiss from pickups and preamp gain are cutted off...
NOISY??? IT QUIETS THE BEAST!

Yes, I cannot do without it now that I have it! I use it at home, in the studio and when I play live....at home I put it between the guitar and a Line6 GuitarPort and it does its job as well.

I bought the pedal used from a friend, no manual.
I asked Customer Support for the manual and some schemas and I had everything in a few minutes...so...
And it's a Boss pedal...you don't need more Customer Support or repairings!

I play Deep Purple and Whitesnake covers and some other hard rock stuff, plus I play my heavy stuff at home...the NS-2 is here everytime for everything and it matches my needings!
I needed something to allow me turn up the gain on the preamp without getting too much noise and preserving my sound : now I have it.

Follow the instructions and you're golden. Finding the right settings for theshold and decay may take a few minutes to get but that's about it. I was done setting it up in less than 5 minutes

I play a LP classic with BB2 and BB3 into a morley volume pedal>zakk wylde wah>digitech whammy>yngwie malmsteen overdrive>digitech delay> 1987x marshall halfstack. This unit completely eliminates the noise I was getting. The malmsteen overdrive is way too noisy but gives really good tone. Once the ns2 was in place I was in tonal heaven. It does add some compression, but that's a good thing for me.

never gig without a back up, but boss pedals are tanks.

This is a great pedal for any type of music. I was a bit weary of buying a noise suppressor since I've had nothing but bad expieriences with them, this is an exception though. My overdrive is really noisy but I love the tone I get, this ns2 fixes everything. It even fixes the crazy feedback (bad feedback) I get from my wah. Truly, this pedal is a god send.

Easy easy easy....plug guitar in the Input, and the amp from the Output. The Threshold and Decay settings need some fiddling around with, but anybody can quickly learn the relation between the two controls and get the desired effect within a few minutes.

I must admit, however, the Send and Return jacks were a little confusing at first. I couldn't quite figure out how to use the loop properly until I played around with it considerably. In addition, there were a few times when I mistakenly plugged the guitar into the Return jack and wondered why there was no sound. I think it would have made more sense if the jacks were reversed (the Send jack on the right side of the pedal and Return on the left), as this would have faciliated easier pedalboard wiring, but it's not a huge issue.

I play an Epiphone LP Standard Plus through a Marshall VS100RH, with Boss effects in the fx loop and a Crybaby in the front end.

It's the best noise-reduction unit I've played, bar none. I haven't used a single guitar/effect that this pedal didn't shut the hell up. It can clamp down hard to keep out noise, but it opens up naturally, so it never feels like it's choking your guitar. Admittedly, on extremely high threshold settings, you'll sacrifice some sustain, but playing with the Decay control will allow you to retain most of it.

Sometimes, I use an overdrive in combination with my Marshall's drive channel. This is a noisy technique, since I set the amp and pedal to half gain in order to blend the two for a different distortion character. However, if you throw the overdrive in the loop of the NS-2, there won't be any excess noise from the pedal. Since the NS-2 is busy keeping out the noise from my guitar at the same time, the amp (running on half drive) is almost devoid of excess noise itself. It's perfect!!!

I do have one gripe, however: when switched to Mute mode, the threshold seems a bit less responsive. This might just be me, but I think it feels a lot looser on Mute mode....it will seem to clamp down hard, and then open up at the tinyest movement. But this is not an issue for me, since I never use this feature.

Indestructable. I will probably die before this thing does.

Never dealt with them.

This is one of the most important parts of my rig. If it was stolen, I'd have to stop jamming until I got another one. It's truly that vital.

It tightens up my playing, makes my overdrive chunkier, and keeps everything in check. If I don't want feedback and noise, I won't get it. If I want a bit of noise, it'll let it through. It does EXACTLY what you want it to do, and that's rare for any pedal.

Read the manual, it helps.
Once it's setup its easy to use.
I found it a little confusing for about an hour, then it all made sense.

Read my Big Muff USA reissue review for full setup.

My effects chain is pretty noisy - Big Muff, Electric Mistress, Phase 90, Dynacomp - are all pretty noisy pedals. This fixes all my problems. With the decay at 0 and the threshold about 60% all noise is eliminated. I would say that this pedal does alter my tone slightly, it almost adds a little bit more compression, but in a good way i think, it sounds a bit punchier with this in the chain.

Boss seem to be very reliable, i have had quite a few Boss products, with very few complaints

No idea

This pedal is essential to my setup. It works exactly as i want it to and is now the most important pedal i own.

I dont think i could improve upon this.

If you use a lot of pedals, and hate to hear loads of hiss and noise everytime you stop playing, even if only between phrases in your solo, then you need this pedal. buy it....love it

How about 1 minute setup time & fixed all my problems !!!. My wireless is noisy as hell ( Samson CR-77 Airline ) when not playing. This took care of 90% of the hiss without coloring the sound at all.

Awesome, didn't kill anything. I have the Thresh set at 1/2 way, decay all the way off, & use the Mute function for my Schecter Triple XXX. For my hollowbody ( you guys know how bad hollowbody's feedback when distored ), I have the Thresh maxed out, Decay off, & use the mute function. NO MORE HOLLOWBODY FEEDBACK. I use no other pedals & my head is a Marshall VS100. I'm so stoked about this thing you have no idea.

It's a Boss pedal, what else do you need. Have mounted in the back of my rack. Set it & forget it.

Once again, it's a Boss.

Perfect for killing that little bit of Hiss I was getting while not playing. Beautiful for killing my hollowbody feedback. Overall, this thing rules.

Very easy,never read the manual with BOSS pedals the're so simple.

Great,Noise gates and Suppresors are always a tricky one as you dont want them to take anything away from your playing but undoubtibly they will slightly how ever the amount they help is completley paramount compared, as i use a guitar with Soapbar single coil pick-ups an Amp with lots of gain and an epic pedal board the NS-2 is probly the most vital piece of kit in it second to my Boss Tuner.

Havent had any problems and mine is about a year old

dont know

Great pedal effects your sound slightly when picking lightly or using your amps clean channel but never the less is helps everything else an great amount, go out and buy one!

Well, not so easy to use, it depends of your problem.
#1)Quiet amp, quiet guitar, noisy booster/drive pedal: simple. Guitar-in NS2, send NS2-in pedal, out pedal-return NS2, out NS2-in amp.

#2)Noisy amp, quiet guitar, quiet booster/drive pedal: NOT simple. Guitar-pedal-in NS2, send NS2-in amp, send amp-return NS2, out NS2-return amp. Your amp must have a (serial)loop! Normally it's the preamp part of your combo,or head, which is noisy.
Note that if you insert the booster/drive pedal between send NS2 and in amp you'll get feedback.

#3)Noisy amp without fx loop: dead simple. Get another amp, fast!

#4) Noisy amp, guitar, pedal: well, Boss is not God after all. Still, with the #2 configuration it will be okay.

#5) Noisy guitar, quiet amp, quiet pedal: I only tried this with a booster as explained in #1 and waow is it quiet!

It gets a five, but please take note: it is the very nature of noise problems that makes it difficult to cure, whatever the machine...

The unit DOES change your sound, the ones below who tell you otherwise are deaf.

It does add a lot of low-mids, and the grain of your sound is thicker hence less defined, less "liquid". Uglier in fact. Still better than noise (your basic strat...).
In the #1 configuration this phenomenon is more pronounced than in the #2 configuration. It is because of the impedance (high before the preamp, low after the preamp), high impedance signal gets way more affected than their lower counterparts.

Yes it is reliable, as long as you are careful with your cables/jacks.
Mine is , what, ten years old and never gave problems.

I can't see a better noise gate for guitar. It rules, especially in the #2 setting.
I have a hush(in an intellifex rocktron), and a behringer denoiser, both more signal-destroying due to their lack of detection circuitry.
Note that the boss does handle direct guitar signal too, the others just can't.
The extra dc socket is the way to go, hats off.
I only wish it didn't change your sound so much, that's what I'm asking for the NS3...
A lot of musicians I know don't know how to set this unit properly, and are unsatisfied. Hence my report, hope it helps.
One thing: don't get this to reduce feedback when playing electro acoustic guitar, get a zoom 504 or boss ad3 instead.

hella easy to use. there's a manual, didnt have to refer to it.

i'd say its pretty damn transparent, i heard horror stories about how it altered your sound. so i recorded my amp with it and without it, made no difference. no noise as far as i can see. im using it with a peavey XXL half stack, eliminates the noise.

only problem is that you have to have the threshold at max and decay at 0 in order to get immediate response to the noise reduction after sudden stops without that "fadeout" sound. this effectively elimates quiet playing. for my purposes though (metal, hardcore, etc) this is a non-issue. it does take some sustain away too, but i used a stopwatch and got around 20 seconds, versus around 30 without it and having noise seep through.

only pedal ive ever known that doesnt have this problem is the ISP decimator. wanted to get one, having online ordering issues...so i demo'd the boss at GC, works great for $50 less. so basically, if you need those soft notes and extra long sustain, get an ISP. if not, get this.

ive never had a single issue with a boss product. no back up necessary.

never needed them.

i play metal, this is exactly what i needed. no tone coloring as far as i could see, only problems that it has are a non-issue with metal. if it were lost or stolen, i'd still get this one again because the ISP costs too much more for not much more (for my purposes). excellent product, sexy looking too.

Easy to use. It does what it says it should do, it supresses noise.

Um, maybe lack of sound quality, it's pretty good. the only problem comes into play when you want to play quieter phrases, because the threshold control will only allow you to cut the noise when you're not playing, but if you play quiet notes, the backgroud fuzz is immediatley present. It's more like a noise suppressor for when you aren't playing.

I just started using a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2, and this power source eliminates all that hum, making this pedal all but obsolete. I'm keeping it around as it will probably come in handy to cut feedback and such, but it's not a part of my rig right now.

It's a boss pedal. Always reliable.

Never called 'em.

Been playing 9 years, so I've been around the block. This is a good pedal until you have about 5 or more running simultaneously, then it's hard to play with softer dynamics, and I'd reccomend the Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2, it's just worth it. But for feedback reduction of a 3 or 4 pedal setup, especially for a beginner, this is a great pedal.

Couldn't be simpler, really. I'd never used a dedicated noise supressor before, but I got to grips with this in a matter of minutes. Simply set how much noise will trigger the gate (threshold) and how long it takes to click off again as the sound level reduces (decay). Requires a bit of experimentation to find the right levels, which will be dictated largely by a) how much unwanted noise your rig produces and b) your playing style.

I use a Gibson Les Paul, straight into the NS-2 and then into a 50w Marshall JCM 800 Lead Series. My amp produces a fair bit of hiss, particularly on high gain settings as you would expect. I play a lot of staccato rhythm parts, so the NS-2 is there primarily to help keep that sounding tight by taking out hiss and other unwanted noise, and by chopping the chord off cleanly as soon as I mute the strings. It works great for this, and fans of Prong, Helmet etc will love it for that.

It does have a tendency to muffle quieter notes, though this doesn't affect me much with my playing style and this would happen with any suppressor. People who play more delicate styles would want to set the threshold relatively low to let those quiet notes through - however this needn't be a compromise as a player of that type will probably not be using such high gain (and therefore high noise) settings as I do.

It DOES alter the tone a little too, and at first I was a bit worried about that. But, as I've gotten accustomed to the sound I've noticed that the alteration is for the better - at least with my gear. The overall result seems to be a more focussed and punchy rhythm sound, which is exactly what I wanted.

Built well, like all Boss pedals. I don't anticipate any problems in that regard.

N/A

Can't fault it, so far. I'd almost certainly buy another one if this were stolen or damaged, though I'd consider other brands too. It adds quite a professional touch to my sound, by making it sound very tidy and tight. My only real complaint is that I sometimes roll off the guitar volume for cleaner passages, and the drop in sound level means that the notes get muffled or cut off. For some songs, it's necessary to compromise a little and roll the threshold down a little to let those quiter notes through.

I don't get it. Is it only me?A noise gates function is to remove hiss or unwanted noise at idle. You set a threshold, and anything below this is eliminated.Once you hit a note or go above that threshold,the peddle is no longer in the loop,and all the noise you heard at idle is there again except now the other sounds cover most of it up due to the larger noise to music levels.If the threshold is set too high,soft passages may not be heard,or may sound muffled.You have to experiment with it to set it right,then leave there.

THIS IS NOT AN EFFECTS PEDAL.

It's a Boss,could be a peddal,could be a weapon.

the knobs are very easy to use...just get your settings, and leave em there when the noise is gone. The cords on the other hand can be a hassle.
1) guitar to "input"
2) "send" to other pedals
3) if there more than one pedal, they have to be linked (obviously)
4) last pedal to "return"
5) delay or reverb must be between output and your amp.
6) "output" to your amp

for a boss stompbox...this is confusing...however if you have the manual, and you learn what goes where, its as easy as any other pedal. just make sure you have lots of patches.

this pedal is frickin amazing. i like my setup with a huge supply of distortion. when im playing a song with breaks, or have to stop playing for a minute, it is 100% muted. ive been told its more of a tool than a pedal, and this is true. however, now with the ns-2, i can link more pedals together, and it wont fuck my signal. it seems like the possibilities are endless now aha. also i find that my distortion sounds thicker which is good, but that could be because im listening too hard, who knows.

The ONLY problem i had was this...
whenever i played solos with toggle switches.(bridge pickup has volume, neck pickup is turned to 0...flick the toggle switch back and forth from pickup to pickup), there would be a short squeal when it was flicked to the pickup with no volume. although ive had this pedal for about 4 hours now, ive tried all kinds of different settings, and couldnt seem to solve this. although it could be improper use of the pedal, or my guitar.

i now own 5 boss pedals, some new, some used, and ive never had a problem with any of them. boss seems to make very sturdy, heavy duty pedals.

cant say...never had problems

i play mostly metal....if you play metal, you should get this pedal...its just inconvenient not to have it. i wish i would have got it sooner. like i said above, ive had it 4 hours, and its definately a permanent part of my setup now. i own 2 other boss distortions (ds-2, mt-2) boss flanger (hf-2) boss compressor (cs-3) creamy dreamer, shin-ei companion fuzz wah, and a snarling dogs wonder wah 2. i have tried these all together in some form with the ns-2, and it is beautiful. my signal doesnt turn to shit when i link 2 pedals or more at the same time. this is especially true with my snarling dogs wah and my creamy dreamer...sounds great, and no fuzz-outs or feedback taking over like before...only problems ive had i mentioned above
1) the mysterious squeal (probably my fault though)
2) the number of patches required, but there really is no way around this, and its a small price to pay for suck a kick-ass pedal...id give it 11 if i could.

set it and forget it. very handy mute feature. anybody could figure out how to use it (like every boss pedal)

les paul>morley wah>boss me-50>dano fab tone>Boss ds-1>ns-2>traynor ycv 80

totally takes out the hum from my effects board, with the exception of the dano fab tone (good sounding, horrible hum). was surprised when it even took the noise out of my amp channels.

it DOES change the tone when on, gives more mid-highs than i would like, but nothing a little EQ tweak can't fix.

built like a brick. i would gig without a backup because it isn't the end of the world if it dies.

no idea

the longer the effects chain, the more you need one of these. after playing with it for a while you forget about it (good thing i think), the noise just isn't there.

You only need to set this up once, just find the threshold that cuts your effects' noise effectively (no pun intended), and set the decay.

I use this with a Gibson Les Paul Studio, with Proco Rat and Boss Heavy Metal distortion, Boss Chorus Ensemble, Danelectro chorus and Flange and a Boss Tremolo in the effects loop. It does the job VERY well. Can't fault it.

I use my effects with a power supply rather than batteries. The 'default' when I power up my pedals is 'off' on the NS-2, so I have to remember to switch it on each time. Oddly, the reverse applies to the Boss Tremolo, which is pretty frustrating. A very minor criticism, but the only one I have.

I love messing with effects and hate noise, so this is ideal. Max the distortion and effects and let the NS-2 do the legwork. I used to have an MXR Noise Gate/Line Driver but that was complete rubbish! - simply too basic to do the job properly and constantly having to alter the threshold. I have also found, with the NS-2, you can create some crazy industrial cut-off sounds if your max the threshold and play around with the decay. Other than this, the NS-2 isn't an effect as such, so not much fun to be had unless you have already established a need to cut your noise, but it does give you more freedom with your existing effects. 9/10 (nothing's perfect!)

Easiest thing to use. Period. You'd need to have down syndrom to have difficulties with this pedal.

guitar > dunlop wah > iput NS-2 > digitech whammy > Korg DF-10 stage tuner > GE-7 Equalizer... and the NS-2 is being used as an effects loop on it's own by running my Dan Electro Fab Tone and MT-2 Distortion pedals through the send and recieve inputs..

The sound quality is wonderful! It cuts out any feedback/hum/buzz my single coil stratocastor gives off without removing ANY tone!!! This pedal will make any crapy guitar sound great! It's never noisey and the instructions are soooo easy to figure out! The sound is always great! effects are great. period.

Never screwed up yet, and I haven't owned a BOSS product that has. I would gig it without backup.

never had to call them! probably wont ever have to!!

I play every style excluding country. It's awesome. I've been playing for 9 years now, and this is the best investment i've ever had. If it wwere lost or stolen, i'd buy one that same day. GREAT PEDAL!!

Dirt Simple....Only Three(3) Knobs to worry about....and one you don't even have to move.

Guitar->Noise Suppressor->Compressor/Sustainer->Ibanez Tube Screamer Reissue->Marshall AVT-50

The Pedal itself has cut out all background noise and has sharpened up the overall tone itself.

With my other effects + a little gain on the clean setting, I can get a pretty decent SRV Tone.

or

With the Distortion setting + my effects a really BITCHIN' lead crunch.

It's a BOSS.

A friend of mine has run over one of his BOSS effects with his truck and it still survived.

Never have needed to call the company, hope I never have to either.

I typically play blues-rock of the 60s and 70s and alot of SRV but I have played some Heavy Metal.

I have been playing for 3 years now. I currently own two Left Handed Stratocasters, 1 Jay Turser Telecaster, a Fender Accoustic, and a Hondo accoustic. I play with several effects when I play on my electrics: Boss Noise Suppressor(of course), Boss Compressor/Sustainer, Boss Blues Driver, Ibanez Tube Screamer, Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face, Original Crybaby Wah, and a Dunlop Rotovibe pedal.
I either play through a Marshall Avt-50 or a 10 Watt Pignose.

I love using this pedal cause it cuts out all the noise ad unwanted sound from the pickups. The only bad thing that I can say about it s that the effect does really change when you play around with the controls (Which can be good or bad when you look at it)

There is one sacrifice you have to make when you use this pedal. I don't know whether this is intentional or not but when I use the suppressor, I can't get a very deep reverb that I used to get from the Marshall. Usually I only have to set the reverb to about 4 on the setting to get a nice rich deep tone but when I activate the pedal, I have to "jack that knob to 11" to get any type of reverb. So I wish it had a reverb knob on the pedal so I could get that deep tone.

I found this very easy to use. People should have no problem. That is, if they bothered to read the manual as it's very easy to understand and explains everything. A cool feature is that this pedal can power other effect pedals so you don't tons of adaptors or an expensive multi-pedal power supply.

Amazing!I used to have real problems with noise in my set-up, but now, thanks to this, I don't have any unwanted or unnecessary noise. Sounds great together with my Boss CS-3 (compressor). I don't know how I survived without it for so long.

Bulit like all Boss eg. like a tank. Had no problems in the years that I've owned it.

Never needed to get in touch with them and hopefully I never will.

Anyone who uses high gain distortion pedals or vintage pedals should get this as it cuts all extra noise. Also essential for those who gig a lot as it reduces loud hums and feedback. An amazing pedal that every guitarist should own.

A complete dumbass can figure this thing out. It's just a couple of simple knobs.

I play a Fender Sam Ash Costum strat and a Marshall MG250DFX amp. I also have a MT-2 that i run through the little effect loop thing. This thing does what is suppose to. knocks out all the buzz from my humbuckers (when the distortion is on). but it doesn't get rid of all the buzz from my single coils when the distortion is on. but it makes them bareable.

Its boss. All their stuff is solid. don't drop it on the knobs though cuz i did that with my MT-2 Metal Zone and it kinda messed them up. but it still works

This is amazing. theres no reason to buy somthing more expensive unless your recording.

This little grey box is extremely versistile and easy to use.
You have to tweak the decay and threshold nobs around for a few minutes so you can get a natural decay and not kill your sound.
The manual only tells you what the knobs do so you have to find your own settings. But other than that it's a really simple and cost effective unit.

I use a Squier Standard Stratocaster (with single coils so it can get pretty noisy) that i run through a Boss Metal Zone, Boss Tuner, and the Boss NS-2, (all the pedals are hooked into my Boss BCB3 pedalboard) then I run all that into a Marshall 100 watt Half Stack.
so it goes Strat> Metal Zone> Tuner> Noise Supressor> Stack. The sound is incredible thanks to the NS-2 cutting out all of the hiss and buzz from my pickups and amp, the Metal Zone's distortion really rings through and shines because you can only hear the distortion and no hiss or buzz, plus you get no feedback. Believe me when I tell you that your Distortion will sound twice as good once you add the Ns-2 to your rig it improves everything. This thing is never noisy unless you dont set the threshold knob clockwise unitl you get total silence. This thing is awesome

I would most ceartainly depend on it. I play in a Skacore/ Grindcore band and we use Strats in order to get that nice brightness and midrange. And also single coils are great for grind because their sharp and goodd for that gritty distortion. I bought this about 3 weeks ago and I have played 4 shows since then. This thing has overall improved my sound and noise problems and it lets me concentrate on my vocals, and guitar playing. I would use it on a gig without a backup.

I play in a skacore band called Jolly Roger. This is ideal for anyone who uses single coils and plays at very high levels of distortion. I've been playing for a little over 2 years I started when I was 15 and now m 17. If this item were stolen or lost I'd hunt the guy down and beat him senseless.

Its really darn easy, just make sure you read the manual about what threshold and decay does. I find all boss manuals very helpful.

It does what its supposta really well! Cuts out a hell of alot of noise... Maybe its just me but this seems to work better when playing at really loud volumes, it seems as though there is more noise when I have my marshalls and fenders on 1 as oppossed to 10. So by saything that, it really does its job in keeping you sound very nice at high volumes!. Come on... Gretsch hollowbodys thru a Ibanez ts9 and a marshall plexi/fender deville.. Yes that creats alot of crappy hum but the ns-2 gets rid of pretty much all of it. (Of course your always gonna hear the speaker noise tho!!)

Yes I totally depend on this.. Built like a tank. Only a 9 cos of platic knobs but you'd seriously have to go out of your way to break em'

Not too sure... I heard it takes a while but then again even if you take something to your local tech that takes a while too. So with a rating im undecided.

Ive mentioned it all above... I absolutly recommand this pedal. Sure it cost be $200 AU new but I know im gonna be lending this to my kid one day (im only 18 so yes thats a long way off!!) so it is worth it.

This is simply simple to use. It's a tool not an effect.
The manual eXplains how to use the loop function well enough for a monkey to understand.

I run the NS-2 2'nd in my chain with a compressor in front of it and a wah, eq, and an overdrive after.
This pedal adds ZERO noise to the chain. Infact, if there is any tone suckage it's not audible. Maybe some of you got a bad pedal.
One other thing, Many of the previous posts remarked about it chopping off their notes pre-maturely. If thats happening, you dont have it set right. I play Clean tones to saturated lead tones and the NS-2 NEVER cuts out single note lines, even with long bends it wont mess with my sustain/decay etc. The cleans are just the same. Quiet finger picking or lite picking with big spaces between notes never get cut. When the pedal starts its magic, it does so in a smooth manner and is really undetectible.
9 because there must be something up Rolands sleeve for the neXt model.

No problems are forseen because Boss builds their pedals to stand up to the clock.

Never needed to and strange enough, I dont think I will ever have to.

This pedal is a very great tool for any player who wants to keep things quiet when they need them to be (when you stomp the pedal it goes from noise suppressor to deactivating the signal).
I love this pedal and if it were stolen or stopped working, I would get another one.

Very easy to use. I've looked through the manual a couple of times.

I'm using my NS-2 with my Marshall AVT150. I've yet to work any other F/X's in with it, but I'm putting together a chain of Boss pedals and the NS-2 is will an essential part of it.

Noise? The great thing about it is that it CUTS OUT the noise!!

I can depend on it and will gig without it because right now I cannot afford a backup.

I hope I NEVER have to deal with CS for ANY company!!

I play a variety of music. My main "gig" right now is Sunday mornings in my church. We have a contempeary service and when I play that service, I can and will use the distortion settings on my Marshall. I've also played with a 50's cover band and will be playing with a rock and blues band in the near future. I plan on using my NS-2 from now on or at least until I can move up to racks.

I've been playing for 25 years, seriously for the last 5-7. I play mostly "classic" music. Classic country, classic rock, 50's rock, classic metal, and even classic Christian/religioius. I've little use for most "modern" music. Especially country, rock and metal.

If my NS-2 was stolen, I'd be burning the web on Ebay looking for another one.

My favorite feature about it is that I can run my distortion channels on my Marshall full crank with it on and not have that EXTREMEMLY ANNOYING racket a distortion channel can make. Another thing I like about is that I can finally take my hands of the guitar and not get the annoying sound my pickups make either. We're using "in ear" at church and the rest of the musicians are glad I've fixed it also! lol!!!

Anything I wish I had? A Boss GT-6 or the Roland VG-88. Those and STACKS of Marshalls and Fenders.

I don't know about it helping to make music, but it makes playing music easier because now I don't have to worry about extracurricular noise going on.

Easy to use. I have second in my chain behind my wah, then just loop all my other toys, back in the return socket, and finally to my amp. Adjust the level and decay and your away. Monkeys could operate it.

I had a real problem with noise in my setup before I tried the NS2. I use a Firebird, Les Paul and strat into an Orange AD30 for my clean sound, and a '77 Marshall half stack for my 'Give it some teddy' sound. I use some pretty fizzy pedals - a RAT box, fuzzface, HAO Rust Driver, Electric mistress - as well as some quiet ones and this little beauty cleaned the lot up.
I have the level set at about 75% with just a little decay and it just lets my tone sing without choking it at all. You can set it up so it cuts out all the dirt, but I think this sounds a bit sterile, besides noise isn't always a bad thing!
I have this thing on all the time and can't imagine life without it! It really is THAT DAMN GOOD!

It's a Boss - which basically translates to "would survive a nuclear blast". I have a few other Boss pedals and never had any problems with any of them.

Never had to contact them.

If you use any sort of pedal overdrive then you really do need one of these. All that hissy garbage just disappears and when you hit your guitar, you wonder where it came from. I never thought that a noise gate could be this effective.

verry easy
whatever you feel is adiquet

guitar into boss tu-bluesdriver-whammy-fm4-phaser-flanger-marshall dsl 50-dsl fxloop ns2-line6 delay-marshalldsl50.
i have the threshold on about 80-100 percent .always messing around, youve got to fiddle!!!!
it takes way most if not all the hum away from the dsl and the pedals.
decay on minium.
depending on how much drive you use it will take all of the hum and feedback away away.
but when on i still hear a slight noise from the amp but i think its just natural, the valves or somthing i guess? no big deal at all.
definately worth the #55 pounds.
BUT...
when at loud volumes if the ns2 is on a high thresh hold and depending on the amount of origional noise i can hear when strings are pressed of lightly tapping strings i hear noise beginning to build behind the guitar sound? maybe its the way i set it up?
anywho well worthy the money, you must explore as many possibilitys as possible !i still am till i find the best!

its boss

no problems yet

primerily brought for recording
works well at what it does
the manual DIDNT REALLY help me
just mess around
if u have any tips for me or help with the problem please email me.

I followed the manual in setting it up. Easy to understand and it works.

I run my Wah through it but outside of the effect/return loop of the pedal into my amp. When I ran my Wah in the pedal loop it changed the dynamics of the Wah(Vox 847) drastically. Outside the loop like I have it and it is good to go. In the pedal loop I put my flanger and EQ pedal(use to push the gain a little more on my amp. Not EQ'ing.) I have put distortion pedals here too and it works great. With too much gain added to your amps distortion it can get to be more than the pedal can do well. You may run into sustain problems but this has only happened to me with a butt load of distortion plus amp distortion. Too much gain just ain't a good thing. My amp's distortions are good enough so no dist. pedal needed. Just a little overdrive or gain boost to thicken things up. When the pedal is off I get feedback and or hiss especially at gig level. Pedal on....hiss gone, feedback is caught by the pedal and cut off. I adjust it so it doesn't cut off notes sustain as well as have it capture any unwanted noise. I use this on a Peavey XXL Head, Behringer Jenson 4x12 cab. I use my amps effects loop with another EQ pedal to boost my leads for soloing. So I run all my other pedals through the Boss effect/return loop. No adverse effects to my tone. Only coloration I notice is a slight increase in treble. I am anal too about coloration and it is just very slight. The benefit of the pedal's noise control far outways that slight coloration. Again...does not change my tone for the worse.

Been using for about a month now. I most definitely use it at gigs. Hell yes. It continues to work as it should. Doesn't eat batteries as bad as some pedals I've tried. I'd say it has an average appetite for batteries. If it craps on me I will be back to tell.

The style of music our band plays would be hard rock mostly...old school metal. Been playing off on for 20yrs. Own 4 other amps, 4 guitars and numerous pedals. This is the most useful pedal and necessary tool I have. It takes away unwanted noise period. When you have rhythm lines that stop and start again with guitar volume maxxed you know if it works or not. It does.

simple... three knobs... no problem!

well... i play with a gibson les paul trhu a fender devile 410 with big muff, ds2, bf2,zoom 505II and the ns2...
it's one of the most useful pedal i've ever bought... BUT it cuts some low frequences and it increases the volume...
if you are looking for a quite noise reduction, this is perfect. but be carefull about it's problem...
note: for use it, you must have a boss psa or an ibanez ac-109 or other regulated eletric generetors...

i don't know

usefull.

Quite easy to use, it's really a question of proper positioning in the effects chain and getting the most out of it's built-in effects loop. Just plug it in properly, tweak until you get the right balance between noise suppression and proper tone.

A big big thumbs up for noise suppression! When I run my guitars straight to my amp (Class A tube amp, Gibson Les Paul or Takamine GZ-300 solidbody), I use the pedal on it's reduction (not mute) mode and it cleans up the sound nicely without affecting sustain or tone noticeably. In my effetcs chain, I use it right between my guitar and my compressor, and the distortion pedal I patch through the send and return loop of the NS-2. Things are nice and quiet that way, and if I need to do really chunky rhythm work (Green Day-like), I put the pedal on "mute" instead of "reduction". Works great!!

It's BOSS, so I don't think I could ever break it.

Never had to deal with them.

Love it! It does exactly what it's supposed to, but you have to take the time to plug things up properly to use it to the maximum of it's capacities and not totally kill your tone.

easy to setup.

godin radiator into a mdx1400-ns2-ph1r-ls2-(1)>fz2-hm3-(2)>ds1-sd1-H&K ats120 valve head-fxloop-mdx1400-hf2-smallclone-pds1002 into a 2/vintage30 cab. I like this pedal a lot. i believe that it sounds better than the noisegates in my behringer rack gear. i switch it off when i do feedback and on when i play normal riffs. like most boss gear if you turn the knobs up to their max settings things just aren't as sweet. this unit is very clean sounding and doesn't adversely affect my tone.

very dependible

not needed

this is a saviour if you like distortion. and lots of it.

Not too hard.

I use the send/return loop. I put the chorus last outside the loop, but compressor, distortion, and wah within (in that order). I have it set to minimize the noise (i turn the gain up on my compressor) and it does a wonderful job. With the compressor on it's smooth, when it's off the noise supressor causes noticeable cutoffs in sustain. Some people say that it blocks noise without sacrificing sustain. That's definitely true to an extent.

Don't regret buying it.

This pedal was a bit diffucult to use in the begining, but if you take a look at the manual, its not so bad. I give it a 9 because there where so many jacks. But after that its all uphill.

After looking in the manual, and setting it up correctly I realized how well it acually works. No noise what so ever. I cant even hear my hand sliding up and down the fretboard. Knobs are Threshold, Decay, and a Reduction/Mute Switch. I run BOSS NS-2, DOD DEATH METAL, DOD GRUNGE, DANELECTRO MILKSHAK CHORUS, then VOX WAH. It sounds encredible, wait, there is non!

It has never failed me yet, and I dont plan on it.

Never delt with them. Musicians Friend is very reliable though.

I pump gobs of distortion thrrough my amp and cant tell if their on unless i look at the pedals.

I recomend it over anything, and its not one of those huge rack space HUSH things either, its small and built to perfection.

Well, the manual has a couple of good examples about how to use de NS-2, and you can do many useful things with it, it is really easy to use, just be patient about finding your right settings.
But I'm really satisfied cause this pedal really does what I was looking for, of course, in my case.

Ok, I use some Ibanez guitars connected to a Shure wireless system, or a normal instrument cable, depending the situation; my effects are in this way: Boss CS-2 Compressor/Sustainer, Digitech XP100, Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive, Boss TR-2 Tremolo, Ibanez PH-7 Phase Shifter and The NS-2. All those pedals are mounted and routed in a Furman SPB-8 Pedalboard, and then to the front of my amp.
My main distortion sounds come from a Marshall TSL100, so I use a Boss DD-3 Digital Delay in the effects loop of the amp.
Well, as I guess you might know, the high gain that amp's distortion produce, can introduce a lot of noise to the signal, and also the use of wall warts, long cables, and effect loop pedals can intoduce more unwanted noises to the signal!!!!!!!, so, if you're having problems with ground loop noise for the use of many long cables or wall warts inductance and what not, do not hesitate and go for this pedal now. It really helped me to give a solution.
Some guys are worried about the sustain and the cutted notes, but, you just need to learn how to interact with the NS-2, it is not the class of gate that cuts out everything, you can visualize this with the reduction diode: when this diode is dim while you're playing, you don't have to worry about the sustain, even if you're playing softly, or with the volume of your guitar rolled back, just worry yourself about not getting noises while you're not playing.

Boss kicks ass.

Well, I play guitar since 10 years ago, and I like to play whatever, but rock is my main style, and as the years go passing by, I have been introducing new gear to my rig, I play live almost every week and I was really having problems with noise cause the way I use my rig, but this pedal is at this time the best solution I found for a good price.
I think this pedal adapts to the problem you're having, but its functionallity will depend on even how you play, in the use of your guitar volume, your amp settings, effects settings, connections between all your pieces of equipment etc etc etc. just find the right settings to the threshold and decay. Something great of this pedal is that it doesn't cut the sound abruptlly, it does the reduction in a smooth way, so you don't have to worry too much about the sustain, again, everything is up to your playing and your settings.

plug and play... loop the nastiness in and voila
absolutely necessary when using multiple voicings and filters

i run an extensive setup:
7-string>>pitch shifter w/ exp. pedal>>octave>>auto wah>>
bass synth wah>>ns-2>>compressor>>distortion>>
chorus>>phaser>>flanger>>ns-2>>delay>>delay>>reverb

this pedal takes care of all that unwanted hiss and squeal...or I can dial to squelch the noise...or I can dial to let it shreik: good stuff

personally, I'm not striving to sound like anyone...just the sounds in my head!

well, i can't very well get backups for all my pedals
of course, it's a BOSS... it's not goin' down any time soon

I play whatever: some would call it Nu-metal, some would call it ambient rock, some might call rap-core...depends on the tune...depends on the project...depends on the band

Just like any peice of equiptment,
takes a little bit of fooling around to find the perfect settings,,
but not hard at all.

Peavey 5150 II is a loud amp. The NS-2 takes away almost all noise. The only problem with this unit is that it doesnt just take away hums and squels, but it also cuts notes off early. To have the pedal work truly how it shoud and eliminate all noise, the nobs must be set in a manner that also cuts of notes that are ment to be sustained. it mistakes large bends at the end of solos as "noise" and cuts it off. The pedal does what it should, Suppresses noise, i just wish it could differentiate.

100%

never

it is essential for a live show to avoid loud hums and squeling feedback when the amp is at high levels.

It's fairly easy to use. When I use mine, it really helps with the distortion.

The manual is pretty easy to understand.

I use an old Maya Strat that I've had more or less rebuilt over the last 17 or so years. I've used the NS2 with a Randall half stack and a MT2 Metal Zone. I would consider the NS2 very essential is you use something like an MT2.

Asking if a noise suppresor makes noise seems like an oxymoron, but no, it doesn't make any noise.

Yes it's dependable. Boss puts out some decent effects.

I would gig without a backup because this is the ONLY ONE I got!!

I've heard some horror stories about Boss CS. Even tho I honestly cannot give a rating I'll say one thing, thier website stinks as far as information goes. I've wanted to check out online samples of the GT6 and there never seems to be one.

I've only played it around the house with my Metal Zone pedal. My wife loves the fact that there is something in the universe that seems to be able to control distortion the likes the MT2 puts out. I play mostly in church these days and probably should find a way to use it.

I've been playing for nearly 25 years. My style varies between rock, hard rock, gospel, bluegrass and classic country. No rap, hip-hop, modern metal or modern pop.

I've been thinking about getting rid of all my pedals and going to one unit like a GT. Under different circumstances, yes I would replace it if it were lost or stolen. Even if I go with a GT or VG system, I might still keep it around "just in case".

I bought it because it was Boss and out of nearly a dozen pedals, only 3 of them aren't Boss.

Quite simple to figure out....3 knobs, turn them to the desired gate effect you need. I didn't get a manual with it, but I've used noise gates before. This isn't a 'gate' per-se, cause it's soooo smooth.....more like a noise 'garage-door'

Well....I use a Gibson SG, Les Paul >> Boss NS-2 >> Boss HM-2 >> Korg AX 100-g >> Boss 10 band EQ >> Boss CS-3 >> Roland JC-77 Amplifier.....with an Electro-Harmonix Memory Man in the effects loop of the Noise Surpressor, and it REALLY helps big time. I guess the 'Sound Quality' is really terrible....? Seeing how the NS-2 takes away all the bad noise of the signal. So, that would make it a great pedal. Get it?

As you can probably tell from my rig....I LOVE Boss stuff. Play without a backup? In a heartbeat.

Figments of the imagination, these people.....Who has actually needed them?

I play anything from Pink Floyd to Black Sabbath to Deftones.....and it helps to have the NS-2....really it does. I swear, people, Boss could make Christmas wrapping paper....and I'd buy it. The NS-2 really helps to get rid of the signal hum when not playing....just makes it sound better. No tone differential either...nice 'n' clean, and true. I like the 'Mute' function too....helps for tuning, without annoying everyone in the room. Someone wrote a review on this and said it was more of a tool, than an effect. So true. But what a tool it is.....like a swiss army knife made by Boss.....Hey....That'd be cool, eh?

easy, but read the booklet first...

if you use many pedals (such as me) it will make your sound...better!!! how is it possible? simple, it has an effect loop so you get a lot more of the original tone with less pedals in the way. i not sure way pepole are not talking about it. it's an amazing thing and was a surpise to me. it does a great job suppressing noise and if you dont go crazy with the nobs it wont kill your sustain +it has a mute function you can do silent tuning live...great!i only give it nine couse it's not perfect but damm close!

yea!it's good

dont know?!

a must for me it's:1.noise supressor
2.a'b box for silent tuning
3.kind of a tone bufer thanks to the effect loop brings back your sound!
4. it can power up effects (i dont use it for that..)
does a lot more than you think and yea it kill the noise and doesn't kill the guitar. get it!

Real easy to use. Just plug your guitar into it, and put everything else in the loop (you might want to keep delay pedals out of the loop as when the delay decays, the noise suppressor will cut down on it and mute it), then output to your poweramp.

There's a threshold knob to set signal the level at which the pedal kicks in, and anotehr knob to set how quickly it mutes the signal when the threshold is reached.

Jackson RR3 - Tu2 - NS2 - Compressor - Wah - Mesa Dual Rectifier, then out of the Rectifiers FX loop into Chorus, Flange, back into the NS and out of that into a delay pedal and into the FX retun on the amp. This way the Pre-amp stage of the Mesa is in the NS's loop and everything gets muted (they can be fairly noisy amps with the gain cranked up).

I've put the tuner before the NS. When it was in the loop, the NS still registered that you were playing while tuning, and turned itself off. This meant the tuner was on and muting the guitar signal, so I got all the amp buzz back when I tuned. With it infront of the NS, this problem goes away.
When the signal level is above the set threshold, it's completely uneffected (as far as I can tell, and I'm usually quite anal about these things). I have teh attack set very high, so that when it turns on, it turns on almost instantly, so I don't know if it does a nice job of gating the signal slowly or not.

Read the other reviews.

Ditto.

Never had to deal with them.

Play heavy drop tuned metal, with lots of sharp stop-start riffs (hence the high attack level on the pedal, and teh main reason for buying it). It makes those sections really tight (well, as tight as my playing at any rate) :)

It's the most indespensible pedal I own. I wouldn't want to use the Boss compressor in my rig in a live situation without it. It does a nice job of keeping the noise down between songs.

Very simple to use. Just two knobs.

Original tonalitiy stays pretty well intact. I run it at the end of my chain, before my amp. I am using a PRS custom22 into a Mesa Dual Rec. I have the threshold pretty cranked and the decay as little as possible. Sustain and original decay of notes is very impressive for a noise suppression unit. You will notice a slight difference, but nothing terribly bad. Plus in a footpedal you can just turn it off when you need notes to sustain or feedback.

Boss makes great products that last and last. Its built like a tank. Had mine for almost 3 years.

Never needed it.

As far as noise gates go, it kicks ass. Especially for the price.

This unit is extremely easy to use. I bought mine new and it came with a manual but I didn't have to read it; just turn the knobs until you get the right settings and go.

I use this with a Les Paul Custom through the NS-2 and a bunch of other pedals into a Fender Bassman 135. I use the Boss DS-1 distortion which tends to be pretty noisy. This unit stops all the extra noise without changing the tone. I had an old Boss NF-1 Noise Gate but it would cut off the signal once it dropped below a certain range. The NS-2 slowly suppresses the sound, bringing it down quietly without any sudden stops. However, when the settings are tight on this thing (set for silence immediately after muting the strings) it reduces sustain dramatically. You can change the settings to clip later but it introduces more noise after you stop playing. I give it a 9 only because of the sustain loss. I know this might be by design but it's still a small problem. You can, however, easily turn the unit off via the footswitch if you know you do not need to mute the strings and your normal tone and sustain are back.

We've heard it all before; "It's a tank", "You could drop a bomb on it", "It'll survive a nuclear war". Well, it is a Boss so I don't worry about it crapping out on me. I would play out without a back up.

Never had to deal with customer support for any Boss product.

I play heavy, drop D rock. Often I use quick stops or choppy rhythms and this unit eliminates all noise between the stops. If you dial it in tight there is NO delay after you stop playing. Your rig immediately quiets and you have a tight, solid stop. This is why I bought it. I would immediately buy another one if it were lost or stolen. It also powers up to 8 other pedals so I use it along with a TU-2 to power my never-ending line of pedals. Great buy.

It was easy to understand how it works. Only 3 knobs. And for the send/return, I used the manuel. But before using it, read the manuel to be sure your using it well.

Setup: Vantage guitar -> Ibanez Ds7 -> Bf-3 Flanger ->(the 2 in the loop) -> Ns-2 -> DD-3 Digital delay-> Peavey rage 158. Before I got my noise suppressor, my setup had make a lot of noise with my flanger and with my amp . But, now all noise is gone. My effects sound better in the loop except the DD-3. But if you put your threshold to the max or close to it, your volume will drop a little. But for the noise it suppress, it is not too significant.

As others have said, it is a BOSS and last longer than you.

I never dealt with them.

I play most of the time alternative music. With my setting, my ns-2 is now essential. It suppress all the noise that disturbs me. And what I like the most of it, it's that the ns-2 can to power my others Boss pedals. But if it were lost or stolen, I would replace it without hesitation.


If you have a setting that make a lot of noise, buy it, especially if you have a lot of Boss pedals.

Strange at first because you don't know what it is doing! (2nd Hand - no manual!)

It's best to think of it as a Tool rather than an effect. Plug your guitar in, crank your amp up full, then don't play a thing and you'll probably hear humming/cracking noises. You get rid of this with the pedal and when you have other pedals in gear it reduces noise that they create to. Once I got my head around this I realised that this was a pretty useful pedal.

It should take just a few knob turns to take away that unwanted noise.

I use 72 reissue Telecaster > Boss NS2 > Boss CS2 > Marshall DSL100.

The Marshall and CS2 create a bit of noise and using the NS2 helps to get rid of a lot of it. It doesn't seem to detract from the sound in any way so I am going to giver it a 10 as it serves it's purpose really well.

GOOD TIP - If you play real heavy hardcore/metal stuff with stabby, stops and starts the pedal has a "mute" setting. When you press your sound will stop making those sections of your songs sound tight as you like!

It seems to eat batteries but other than that no problems.

Never used them

I would recommend this to anyone who wants to be a bit more professional with their sound. I bought it because Steve Albini uses one and I haven't been let down. It just cleans your sound up nicely letting you hear what you want to hear.

I must confess for the money I paid (delivery from US to UK etc) it is probably a bit of a luxury but hey! it was only money right??

We don't need no stinkin' manuals! Just turn it on and play with it.

UPDATE:4/29/01
If you play electric music and use high gain pedals or noisey classics(MXR chorus,Small Stone,Rampage).You'll need this pedal!!The sensitivity and subtle decay rate alone makes this gadget worth every penny.I use the NS-2 all the time.INDISPENSIBLE!! Someone said it changed his tone...hmmm...never bothered me.
In my opinion,if Boss built a rack-mount stereo version,with the SAME components,I'd buy it in a flash!But really,they should just keep making these and don't change a damn thing.
I'd had an NS-50 and "JEEZ",it totally sucked!

Had it almost 4yrs. without a glitch.Just gigged it last night.

???

Some guys/girls are loyal to one pedal company.For me,it depends on the product be it Boss,Ibanez,E.H.,Rocktron(yada,yada).This is Roland/Boss's MOST USEFUL PEDAL ever!

Just use it as written in the Manual.

Jesus Christ – I wish I´d came across this Pedal much earlier… This little Thing is really doing WONDERS! Just like another Guy mentioned before run your NS-2 first, put your distortions in the loop and then go to your effects or amp. I run my Zoom 5000 Driver Pedal in the Loop (powered by the NS-2!), then into the Korg AX100G (Woooouuuuuwwwww – it sounds like a Wall of Marshall Stacks!) and it´s unbelevible, how all Hum and Buzzing disappears. I´m using the following Settings on the NS-2: Threshold 12 o´clock, Decay at Minimum. I´m playing a Fender Stratocaster Special Edition with Texas Special PU´s and Fender Vintage Telecaster and always had large Noise and Feedback Problems playing heavy Distortion or Overdrive Sounds with the Bridge and Neck Pickups. Now that belongs to the Past…

Solid as a Rock, no need for a Backup.

Never needed.

I´ve tried several other devices before (like Rocktron´s AGX and Hush Crap) and was thinking, that there is no effective unit to solve my Problems. But now I know better.
When you have such Problems with Single-Coils too and you are looking for a really good Device for Noise and Hum cancelling – THIS IS A MUST! Go and buy it immediately and you will thank God for it!!!

Easy to use..just tweak till it responds the way you want it to.

I dont notice any tone change and I'm anal about things.

Boss...tough stuff

Never needed it.

I use a Marshall jcm900 and a Boogie DC-5 and I need more gain for the newer stuff on the radio when using the Marshall. I have a TS-9 808 modded and use it with the Marshall's gain channel. Kinda 2 gain stages and an EMG SPC mid boost in the guitar. When the TS9 and the Marshalls gain channel are on it hisssses like a snake. The NS-2 took that out and I was happy as hell. It does what its supposed to. I dont know how it works this well but it does. I run my TS9 and a Boss chorus in the loop of the NS-2 and all front end hiss,noise and hum are gone. The rest of my pedals go thru the NS-2's output. I lightly strummed the guitar while it was hanging in the hanger and it rang out without cutting out like a gate would. Its was a smooth fade out.

This one is very easy to use. It can be difficult to control the amount of noise with different effects turned on/off if you use the send recieve circuit (+ it will color you tone!). So, I don't. For me it is therefore very easy to use, because I don't use the decay and treshold - they're always set to min.

Before I got the NS2 I hated (really!) BOSS stompboxes - especially the overdrive and distortion boxes. This one is the only BOSS pedal I find usefull. I have tried ALOT of noisegates, and this one is without question the best by far. What I like about is, that it doesn't cut the sound of... You will be able to fade out each tone naturally. I don't know how they made this possible - BUT IT WORKS.
I do not agree with people who say that this pedal doesn't change your tone - it does! But I have found a solution that works for me.

1) Never use the send/recieve circuit with other effects - especially distortion/overdrive.
2) Plug your guitarcable DIRECTLY into the NS2input and let the rest of your effect be connected after the NS2. Do not use the Send/recieve circuit! You won't be able to contol the sound very well and the NS2 will color your tone!! Set the delay and treshold to minimum (or very close to min)
3) If you use a Wah pedal (wich always generates alot of noise)connect it to the send/recieve circuit.

Following these 3 rules you have VERY good ears if you can hear the NS2 in the effects chain, and the NS2 works very well - keeping even extremely distorted sound under control.

I have played blues and rock for 12 years. I play a Fender Strat Plus ==> NS2 (send/recieve circuit connected to Cry baby wah) ==> Ibanez TS9 ==> Marshall Shredmaster ==> ProCo RAT ==> BOSS EQ7 ==> Fender Blues Deluxe 40 W tubeamp.

I have never met anyone who used the NS2 like this - but it works for me. I use the TS9 for a subtle overdriven sound and to boost the Shredmaster. When I turn the TS9 and the Shredmaster on at the same time it will produce a little noise (NOTHING compared to the noise you will get without the NS2)because the NS2 isn't the last effect in the chain (and because the send/recieve circuit isn't used for anything else but the wah). Even with the wah, TS9 and the Shredmaster turned on at the same time, the NS2 controls the noise fabiously.

I give this effect 9 and not 10, because (as I said) if you listen very carefully it does affect your tone a little. Anyway: The best noise elimination unit I have ever tried...

I agree with everyone else - Boss pedals won't break!

Much better than those crappy noisegates - they have never worked for me. This one does - an extremely good pedal. I would buy one right away if i lost this one.

very easy to use, but I highly suggest reading the manual, or else you might be left with more noise than you began with.

doesn't affect the quality as far as I can tell

It seems very, very sturdy. I wouldn't use a backup. Why? Because I can't afford a backup.

Haven't dealt with them.

awesome, I use a fender double fat strat, modified with a seymour duncan invader humbucker and a gibson 57 hum. The invader is a rather noisy pickup and I also use a line 6 spider 212. That also made a decent amount of noise, especially when miced up. But I got this and all the noise is gone.

Very simple controls. One nob switches between the two modes: mute, which leaves noise supression all the time and uses the switch to mute the output, and reduction which allows the switch to turn on and off noise supression. The other two nobs control threshold which determine the volume at which the gate opens up and the other controls decay, which is the rate at which the noise gate "closes".

My setup is as follows Schecter C-1 Elite with SD pickups, ESP MH-300 with EMGs, Washburn WG-587V -> NS-2 with an Original Crybaby and a Digitech Synth Wah in it's loop -> Looper A/B Splitter -> Channel A Peavey Ultra Plus (Distorted Tones) -> Channel B Boss TR-2 -> Boss BF-3 -> Boss-DD5 -> Ibanez PH-7 -> Boss CE-5 -> EBTech Hum Eliminator -> Peavey Deltabass (Clean Tones)

Does what it should, very well, but it does create a slight problem for me. When the gate is activate it creates just a slight hum in the signal. It's barely noticeable and I actually didn't notice it for the first month of owning this pedal, but it's annoying just the same.

The Hum cancellation circuit does exactly what it should, though I have logistical problems with the the jacks because they're on the wrong sides to make my setup work without a ton of crossed cables.

The pedal powering feature is nice too, but it is definitely a bit noisy, so be prepared.

Completely reliable, I've never had a single problem with it for over 6 months

I've never dealt with them

I play a mixture of styles, mostly modern rock/nu metal style music with a bit of effects-heavy rock ala incubus as well. This does wonders for my playing as it stops alot of the feedback issues I was having with my high-gain distortion as well allows me to play more staccato lines with wonderful clarity because of the high-threshold and short-decay times I can dial in.

I'd definitely buy another one if it was stolen or lost. This is a primary piece of equipment in my setup that I couldn't do without.

If you're having high-gain hum problems unrelated to effects this is a good solution for that. I'm not sure I'd recommend it if you were just having ground loop hum from effects because the EBTech hum eliminator I have does wonders for that and costs less.

Very easy to figure out. But if you need it, the included documentation is easy to understand and explains how to set up the pedal for best results. Basically you plug your guitar into the input jack, connect your pedals through the send/return loop, connect the output jack to your amp, turn everything on, and roll the threshold knob up until the noise is suppressed.

I'm currently playing a '52 re-issue Telecaster, into a Marshall BluesBreaker II -> DOD or Boss Chorus -> Fender Hot Rod Deluxe amp. I also play a American Deluxe Stratocaster with Texas Special pickups installed. While I love the sound of the hot and dirty single coil and tele pickups, I get seriously irritated by the hum and hiss inherent in those configurations. This pedal effectively removes the noise between songs and during stops in the music, without affecting the overall tone.

This is my first new Boss pedal. My old Boss pedals and the Boss reputation for quality and reliability lead me to believe that I don't need to worry that this pedal will fail.

Have never dealt with Boss/Roland for support so I can't rate this.

I play mostly Fender Tele's and Strat's in a band that plays classic rock and blues standards. I bought this pedal because I was frustrated with the non-musical unwanted noise my gear produces. This pedal has exceeded my expectations and I do recommend it to anyone deling with noise issues. I also purchased the PSA adapter and power cable and am using the NS-2 to power my other pedals, freeing me from battery dependency! My total cost was about $120 USD.
It was expensive, but if it were lost or stolen, I would replace it without hesitation.

Pretty easy to use, three knobs, Threshold, Decay, Mode. Took a minor amount of tweaking to get rid of all the noise from my Jazzmaster. This pedal has an added bonus of being able to power other pedals, however I have only had this pedal for a few weeks and I'm already considering a separate power unit because I don't like the daisy chain that you have to use to power the other pedals. They're good if you only have pedals with the AC jack in the back, but several of my pedals don't.

This pedal sounds great. It gets rid of all the noise from my Jazzmaster (which hums like crazy, especially with distortion on). I also like the Mute function. This allows me to shut down all my pedals for between songs, or when I need to change guitars. Great at getting rid of all my unwanted noise. I have a few vintage pedals that can also be noisy at times, but this things eliminates it all.

I bought this one used, and it's almost 20 years old, and has only a few scratches to show for it. Boss makes their pedals to last, and I'm sure this one will. Definately would use it without a back-up.

Never had to deal with Boss, I doubt I ever will.

I would give this pedal a 10, but I don't like it very much as a power source. Having to use a daisy chain is very annoying for me since about half of my pedals have the AC jacks on the side, so it's very difficult to get everything set-up the way I want it, and get the power cords plugged it. If you have all Boss pedals, I guess this would be okay, but for me it's terrible, I'm considering investing a VoodooLab Pedal Power unit instead of this one. Otherwise, this thing is amazing, I would recommend this pedal to a stranger if they needed a noise gate.

pretty easy to hook up, when i firts got it i was running my metal zone through it so it took me a while to figure out you ahd to use the send and return. just look at the instrustions and fon't be dumb like me.

i am using a Godin Radiator guitar with a EMG pickup i got installed. my amp is a Peavey 5150. i almost always play with a lot of distortion so without the NS-2 its very noisy, it reduces a lot of noise but some hum is still expected at loud volumes. i can still get it to feedback if i want which is cool. crank the threshold as high as you need it (mine's all the way) and keep the decay low. the mute option is also nice.

this pedal is reliable, it is a BOSS so that is expected. i would use it at a gig but not without backup batteries or an adaptor. it sucks back the batts. i gave it a 7 only because it uses so much batteries.

i play punk rock, its all heavy and fast with heavy distortion, without this pedal i would have to always mute my strings when i'm not playing or else i would get massive feedback. its nicee.

Simple

Does what its supposed to do, cept i hate it how noise suppressors can kill some of the guitars ambience and sustain....this is the only one i have however. I play a PRS CE-22 -- 8 boss pedals and an ibanez tubescreamer ---Crate Blue Vooodoo halfstack. This definitely helps keep my effects clean and my amp quiet. I can hold my hands off the guitar with amp distortion on and the volume knob on the guitar all the way up and the only thing i'll hear is some hiss. makes me smile and warm all over

Boss. DUh.

never dealt

DOes the job and is completely necessary to any and every rig. OH and i forgot to mention that it powers all my pedals through the Boss Daisy chain. ITs a biT** to get them all lined up though with this stupid daisy chain...but hey for 30 bucks it works great for me.

Within a minute I got this puppy to sound good. It didn't come with a manual so the FX loop took some playing with, but I was able to figure it out. Very simple.

Sounds almost perfect. The only reason I'm giving this a 9 is because when it's engaged you can just barely notice a change in sound. But it's really not enough to say so.

You can't really get a bad sound out of this. Even with extreme settings. I have my threshold set at 3 o'clock and attack at 0. Even with quick attack it has decent sustain. I don't know how people can complain about that. well I maybe I do.....

A lot of people set it up wrong. So no wonder they don't get the sustain and sound quality they want.

Run your NS-2 first. Put your wah and distortions in the loop. Then go to your effects or amp. The reason for that is this... the line in on the pedal is used to tell the pedal when your playing. If you put your distortions that buzz even when your not playing in front of the NS-2 it will hear the buzz and think your playing and engage. when you put them in the loop it doesn't hear that yet it still applies the suppression to the signal. You run your effects after the NS-2. Take a delay pedal for example. The delay fades out. If the NS-2 is listening to the signal from the delay it will cut off the quieter repetitions, essentially killing your sustain.

Never had a BOSS pedal fail me...not even used ones

Easy to use. Cleans up your sound. Doesn't kill your tone. I wish I had gotten it sooner.

When I got it I thought i could just pull it out and hook it up. Well no, you have to read the instructions or else you'll end up with more noise than you started with. The threshhold and decay just take some tweaking. I have my threshhold at 10, decay at 0. It really depends on your setup.

I'm using a Fender American Standard Stratocaster with Seymour Duncan neck upgraded Little 59er, and Hot Rails in the bridge, running through a Marshall MG250DFX with an extension 1936 2x12. I also use a Dunlop Crybaby Wah, Boss flange, digital delay, and a Distortion pedal. One problem I have found is that the signal is not as suppressed as it should be. When playing at a low volume it will suppress it even if you do not want it to, based on the master volume setting. One strange thing is that it seems i lose suppression when i use an ac adapter, so I use a battery.

Boss pedals are all well built and dependable.

Nver had to use it.

It's a well built and reliable pedal, a couple of problems but definitely nothing major. You might want to try this out before you buy it if possible, because how well it works really depends on your setup.