PAiA Gator

If you build this exactly per the instructions, the knobs will be backwards. I re-wired the pots to make them turn the way I'd like (because having a backwards volume knob would just hurt me too much). That would make things a little difficult.

The Gator works a bit like the opposite of most of the gates I've seen. Though they all have Threshold and a Rate (a "Delay Time" for the Gator), Speed, etc? for most gates, the delay knob controls how long it takes the gate to close after your signal has dropped below the threshold. On the Gator, Delay Time adjusts how quickly the gate opens, giving Slow Gear-like volume swells. Setting the Delay at a minimum gives a sharp noise gate? turning it up will set a volume ramp-up.

A tasty feature is the Trigger input, bypassing your instrument's signal and opening and closing the gate per an external source. This can give you an odd, square wave tremolo off of a solid bass drum, sync'd with the beat, or strange quantized bow attacks.

The sound is bright and clean, though I can't imagine why anyone would dial in anything other than unity on the Volume knob. The interaction of the knobs and inputs will produce a few idiosyncrasies. Cranking the Volume and leaving the Threshold wide open will let your trigger input be heard on the output? that's not much of a complaint, because? well? why would you set up that way?

The gate doesn't decay, it snaps shut. I wouldn't recommend using this as a gate for leads or sustained passages; it can be particularly useful for sharp, short, chord strumming, though. There are plenty of quality noise gates and noise reducers on the market? this pedal has more useful Attack Delay properties.

As an attack delay, the cutoff at the end doesn't bother me in the least. You have to use abrupt start/stops to trigger the volume ramping, and the switching is dead silent, so you can strike a note, ramp it, and then switch the pedal off to play normally for a while. I prefer it in this set-up, though you could easily make the pedal true-bypass, if you wanted to.

I built it myself, I'd fix it myself. There's a certain ease in knowing that you put the pedal together, and can take it apart if you needed to. The IC's are all in sockets-solderless replacement.

Customer support at PAiA is amazing. They will help you with building, modifying, and operating their gear, and are very supportive and patient. I wish more companies were this easy to work with

I knew what I wanted when I bought this, and I'm exceptionally happy with the Gator. I already have a gate/noise suppressor, and the Gator is completely free of that responsibility. I use it as an *effect*.

There are a lot of people of the opinion that the Boss Slow Gear is the most useless pedal? blah blah blah. Stay away from this one. Attack Delays are not for the formal or traditional-the effect forces me to play differently, to interact with the timing, dynamics, and general atmosphere of the effect. I've always wanted one of these, and the Gator gives me the Attack Delay effect for under $50.00 (I mounted mine is an electrical housing, commonsound-style).

Aside from the swell effects, the Gator also gives me a hard gate, the gate-as-effect. Putting the Threshold at the very lip of my hardest attack, and setting for a fast open, fast close gate, the crisp snap of strummed chords will register, but the sustain will not, giving an artificial, mechanical staccato. The same stuttering gating is achievable with the Trigger input, giving an odd-time trem in any pattern you care to slave the pedal to.

Or, you could split your signal, run a straight signal into the Trigger and a heavily reverbed signal into the input, and set the pedal short? It'll open and close per the clean signal, chopping your reverb off hard and fast-bang! Gated reverb.

Though it may not be a pedal for all occasions, it is infinitely useful in all sorts of ways? I'm sure there are plenty I haven't even discovered yet.

Fairly easy to assemble, and the knobs are straight-forward. Case that comes with the unit works well but screws together with four screws. Changing the batteries is a pain, especially since I seem to often forget to unplug the input. Oh yeah there's no indicator to let you know if it's active or not, either.

I currently am not using the attack delay function and keeping it on as a noise gate due to local radio stations coming through loud and clear, but it does a great job of chopping the signal when I want it to. When I start playing again it pops back on without question.

On the other hand, I have the threshhold knob all the way down and I would prefer it even lower; harmonics and feedback even through passive (but hot) humbucking pickups easily gets cut off. For those times I just click the pedal off.

Has never let me down outside of the dead batteries and it gets moved around a lot. Just started gigging with it, and will do so without a backup.

Great support; emails get answered within three days by someone who obviously knows the products inside and out. I even had some customization help because I want to change the way the external trigger works.

The band plays a bunch of stuff; from sway-in-your-shoes clean to kick-your-teeth-out crunch, and it does what it is meant to do as long as I keep in mind the fact that the base threshhold is set higher than I'd like it to be. I'm looking for a commercially-available (rack-mountable) solution presently due to this and the fact that I hate battery-powered stomp boxes. This box will then end up in front of the bass player's amp.

Two of the jacks came with shorts; the insulators were melted. Didn't take long to diagnose the problem even with only a multimeter, and PAiA support said they'd send some replacements right out, but it was easier for me to drop the $1.50 at Radio Shack and have the pedal finished.

OK, this is my second attempt at an addendum to my original posting due to technical difficulties. At any rate, it would seem that the noise gate function of the Gator works exceptionally well with my home made Big Muff Pi. As much as it didn't impress me on straight guitar signal, it works very well on heavily noise-ridden signal! No sputtery, farty output, it works pretty darned smooth!

To think I originally thought the noise gate function was useless, pass the crow please? It seems that both of these home built effects bring out the best of each other, I can't explain the why or how, they just do!

Since my original review isn't posted yet, I don't quite remember what overall rating I originally gave the Gator, I think it was a 7. This unit just got an extra point to the overall rating! If I rated it 8 originally, then this should be a 9!

It takes a bit of testing to get a satisfactory sound out of it, but it's there! The assembly manual is pretty good at giving the user good starting points.

This is a combination attack delay/noise gate unit. Thus far, I've tested it out with my home made LPS ( see a pattern here? Home made guitar & FX) through my Zoom 503 amp simulator. It does what I need it to do: an attack delay/volume swell, works real nice indeed!

Some minor criticism though: this isn't true bypass, while the effect is off the signal is routed through some sort of preamp circuit - the level control still effects the volume whether the effect is on or not. And the switching isn't quiet at all!

The noise gate is unpredictable and sputtery sounding, the PAiA hiss wacker sound much, much better! BUT, I have yet to try a commercially available noise gate that sounds any good to my ears anyway. Since I only use it for the attack delay, that doesn't matter much.

There is however one slight annoyance with the attack delay: it somehow won't let the notes decay normally, it chops off the sound rather suddenly. Then again, it might be by design, to better simulate backward tape? How the note swells up then cuts off percussively? Maybe that's the explanation! If that's the case, it works great!

Not a noisy unit at all, no hiss or hum (other than a click), an overall well though-out effect.

Here's a tip for aspiring tinkerers: get the PAiA enclosure that goes with the kit! The circuit can be fitted in another enclosure, but I spent more time fitting the circuit than I did soldering!

The bypass switch is plastic ... I baby my pedals so that shouldn't be a big issue. That's the key: treating a unit with proper care! Yes, reliable it is, if not I'll be the one to blame!

PAiA staff is very friendly and helpful, top marks here!

A bit more criticism here: some resistors weren't very clearly colored (is that a green or blue band?) but resistors are a penny a piece and that was easily fixed.

The output jack was shot (can't figure out how or why) but I tinker a lot, so I have plenty of spare parts at home. I put in a good mono/open circuit jack and the Gator was working!

I can't really A/B compare it to a Slow Gear (which is the effect I was looking for), but it does the job pretty nicely. For those subtle swells and pseudo psychedelic runs it sounds just awesome!

As a straight noise gate ... I dunno, it didn't impress me. I might write an addendum in a few months saying it works wonders, but for now, I don't like the noise gate feature a great deal. And there is an audible click when you bring the effect in/out. Not a loud nasty "pop" but there is a click. A passing grade none the less!