Rocktron Guitar Silencer

I read the reviews on this product before I bought it, and was dissapointed by how much the responses varied. One guy said it was excellent, the next guy said it was junk, etc. Bottom line is, it does a great job, is super quiet (obviously), does NOT color your tone or sound in any way. It has 2 modes, which can be dialed in differently for different amp settings. This makes it very versitile, its also very sensitive. If you set it up correctly, it will allow all the sustain you want, withyout cutting off the signal too fast. I can see hyow it would create problems if it werent set up rigjht, but that boils down to the user's ability to follow the instructions on the manual. And they aren't complicated, it was quick and easy to set up for me, but I could be more of an audiofile than the guy reading this. If you use it correclt, its an awesome addition to any guitar rackmount rig, plain and simple. The hush technology is the SHIT!

I use a modified American Strat, and an EpiLesPaul, amped by a MesaBoogie MarkIV, with a pedalboard full of quiality effects. My band plays many different styles, some clean, some dirty, so I benmefit by the versitility of the Silencer. Maybe unnecessary if all you play is clean Fender tones, absolutly got to have it when playing overdriven distortion tones. I think its great and I cant wait to use it this weekend on stage. Above all, it DOES NOT COLOR YOUR TONE.

Given that its housed in my rackmount rig, it probably won't ever get knocked around or have beer spilled on it, I expect it to be reliable, but time will tell. Its certainly built like a tank, no cheap plastics here.

Havent needed to contact them about this one, but they have been helpfull in the past with other items.

Ive been playing 25 years now, 15 professionally. We gig everyweekend. I can't afford a backup, and I don't think it would be necessary, anyway. I had a SmartGate, which I was happy with, but which was not nearly as versitle (sp?) as this, and which would drain tone abit. No effect on tone WHATSOEVER with the Silencer.
Email me if you want more info, or to check and see how its holding up under regular use/abuse. Thanks!

Pretty easy to use. The manual (avail online) gives some good set up scenarios. 2 channels for 2 different gate set-ups. (Can be set up for a clean tone and the other for a high gain tone. Or just set up so one doesn't close on you and maybe the other one is tighter. It's up to you. It's not MIDI so a switcher is needed.

This is the only Rocktron GATE that Bob Bradshaw recommends. Neat unit. It?s a GATE and a HUSH so you have the best of both worlds. I am extremely picky about tone and this does not change it. It?s amazing to JAM a riff at FULL volume and when you stop its DEAD silence. Just like you?d hear from a CD done in the studio. Amazing. Too bad they don't still make these! I tried out all the other HUSH units and they seemed to tweak the sound.

Had it for a month no problems. The adapter/AC is needed unless you wanna hit Radio Shack.

Nice to fina a manual online still!

The BEST gate out there right now.

Duh! One knob One switch.

Unaccceptable. Completely uselees for my application. Some one who has a high gain, effects-on-all-the-time-setup might find a use for it, or if you have some effect you love that is very noisey. I just found that it affected my guitar sound much more than I find acceptable Had it plugged in for about 5 minutes, tried every setting imaginable and every pickup and volume control setting, and none of them worked for me. I won't say the product is "crap" by any means, but by the time I had the knob turned up high enough to hear ANY noise reduction, I was hearing a lot of negative damage to my tone. Not for me, at any rate. I do have some experience with noise reduction devices in some multi effect units I used in the past, and none of them sounded as bad or had as many bad effects this one. I've played guitar for over 30 years, ahve good equipment and know what one of these is capable of, so it's not a case of juck equipment or pilot error as some reviewers below will have you think. I must admit that I sort of relied on "Hush" as being sort of the name brand in noise reduction, and thought it would work about the same or better than other units I'd used. I thought of trying it out in the store, but, thought,"It's just a noise reduction pedal, how differnet could it be than others?" Now I have to drive back to the damn store.

Looks to be well made, But I only had it for five minutes.

No opinion

Traditional Rock and Blues, bought it to try to remove a bit of noise for an analog delay, and overdrive pedal, but it also removed some of the echo. I've only had first hand experience with a few of these devices, and usually it's a matter of setting the noise reduction threshold to the point where it removes the noise in the backgroud during quiet passages, but not so high that it affects your guitar sound. On most of the ones I've used, (Boss comes to mind)that's a fairly painless process, and most of the noise is gone, with only minor damage to your sound, but I couldn't find a usefull setting on this puppy. Try it out in the store and see if you like it BEOFRE buying, and don't buy one from someplace where you can't take it back. I won't call it "junk", but it is just not for me.

I found it very easy to get a suitable setup. There are two "channels", which you can flip between using a simple pushbutton or optional footswitch (which I don't have). The manual is fairly helpful in explaining the features, but you will have to tweak the settings to your own tastes. The easiest way to find the ideal gate setup is to set one channel to no reduction first, and then experiment with the other. The HUSH section is always active (unless you bypass the unit entirely), and the Guitar Silencer lives up to its name -- if you stop playing, prepare for silence!

This unit is in my effects loop of a Peavey TransTube Special 212 after an ART Tube EQ. I originally used a Boss NF-1 Noise Gate pedal going into the amp's input jack, immediately after a DOD EQ pedal, but switched to the ART parametric EQ after the DOD died. My preamp and effects pedals generate only minimal noise, but the EQ gave off a considerable amount of hiss. The Guitar Silencer has totally eliminated this, meaning that my EQ is now suitable for both live use and recording, which it previously was not due to noise.

The individual gate settings require some fine-tuning, in order to allow as little noise as possible while ensuring that sustain and delay-type effects aren't cut off prematurely, and that there isn't high frequency loss. I use the Silencer for only minimal gating (all knobs around 8 o'clock), as I'm more concerned with eliminating noise when I'm not playing. Depending on the amount of gain you use, there is certainly room for additional noise reduction while playing.

It was interesting to watch the reduction meter LEDs, to get an idea of how much noise really is generated by a guitar rig, and thus giving a greater appreciation for how well the HUSH technology works. My old Boss NF-1 was a fine pedal, but honestly wasn't getting much use in my old pedal arrangement. The Silencer, on the other hand, is a critical piece of my current setup.

I just purchased this unit lightly used, and haven't tested it outside of my own home...yet. Everyone I've talked to has a high opinion of Rocktron products, so I'll just wait and see.

I initially had purchased a used Rocktron HUSH IIX (half-rackspace) unit, but was unable to find a replacement power supply for it. Rocktron no longer had a compatible supply available, and although their tech said that I could use a "readily available" generic adapter, I never found one and was forced to return the IIX. As far as the Silencer goes, I have had no need to contact Rocktron.

I play lead guitar in a thrash/death metal band, which requires that I have clear, noise-free signal, especially for recording. A noise gate is not the type of thing that is going to impress listeners, but I wouldn't want to be without one. The Guitar Silencer came highly recommended, so I decided to try it before spending twice as much on a new model. If something were to happen to it, I'd probably replace it with a newer Rocktron.

Very simple to use. Set the controls where you want and go. Two channels which can be used as independant noise gates or switchable like two different patches via a footswitch. (NOTE: I had trouble locating a footswitch that worked properly with this unit. My understanding is that one can be order from Rocktron)

This is a noise gate so NO SOUND is desired. The unit did not color my sound at all when bypassed or when "on".

Never had a problem with the units reliability

Never dealt with them

I used this unit in a guitar rack system which I sold about a year ago. Rocktron has recommended settings like having the unit follow your preamp but I used it as the first thing in the path; ie guitar went into this first then on to the rest of the rack. I set it up with a very fast gate so I could play rhythyms that had silence in between the chords. The unit worked flawlessly in this capacity and at all amp volumes. I could keep the guitars volume pot on full at all times without fear of noise or feedback until I moved the strings. With the independant channels, I could switch to a lesser gate setting when doing solos so the notes wouldn't get cut off. Again, the unit worked great allowing notes to taper first before cutting them off. I really wish I never sold this thing with the rack and will continue looking out to get another one.