I’ve been writing a lot lately about fuzz, distortion and overdrive pedals. That’s a lot of noise. As much as I love noise, you sometimes need the quiet. Especially when coupled with the noise. That’s a major component of good heavy metal music in my opinion. Brutal metal … Deafening silence … Brutal metal.
Often to get that absolute silence you need a good noise gate pedal. That’s actually a pedal I’m yet to purchase. I should resolve that. Maybe I’ll resolve that with the Pigtronix Gatekeeper. It sounds awesome.
And by sounds awesome, I mean it makes no sounds. Awesome.
I have experimented with many virtual noise gate pedals in my collection of iOS apps and they all have different features. My Dunlop MXR Fullbore Metal pedal has a built-in noise gate as well. It’s different again. One thing I’ve noticed with many noise gates is their varied approach to how and when the noise gate kicks in. They also seem to differ in regards to how much audio they kill.
What I really like about the Pigtronix Gatekeeper is how it has one goal. Kill it all and kill it quickly. It’s like a nuclear attack on sound. Nuclear Attack on Sound … Great song title.
All unwanted noise is cut from the audio chain with this pedal. Single coil guitarists could therefore benefit from a pedal like this. The all-or-nothing approach makes the pedal more versatile in its use. It’s not just about killing the overdriven tones from the pedal before it.
When the pedal was being launched at the 2013 Summer NAMM, Premier Guitar was there to capture it. Watch the first 2-3 minutes of this video to see and hear the pedal in action.
Pretty neat right? But what if you wanted to play guitar in German? I’d say “Are you daft? Germans play guitar the same way everybody else does. They just talk about it differently”. For example …
There’s guitar noise and then there’s not. Success! And these videos show that the pedal works on any continent it seems. It probably works on small islands too. I’d need to check.
As far as features go, this pedal is pretty straight forward.
- 100% attenuation when gated
- True bypass
- Threshold and Release knobs
- Mute activation light
It’s a simple pedal that does exactly what it’s supposed to do. No nonsense. It’s the opposite of me really. I really should look into getting one of these. I wonder if it would shut me up?
Probably not.
Disclaimer: I’ve not played this guitar pedal. I have not experienced first-hand the sound or effects of this guitar pedal. That doesn’t matter. It looks awesome, it’s obviously played by winners and I want one.