ilovefuzz.com

i recently resuscitated one of the first pedals i bought from seeing it on ILF, the 3xfx Fatman. it's got a nice sound especially with the gain cranked, but it's noisy at any level/setting to the extent that i don't feel like i can use it without a noise gate (it has its own integrated switchable gate, but it kills the tone and sucks gain). i also have a Devi Ever Truly Beautiful Disaster Dark which is similarly problematic. i don't want to use a full pedal's worth of space for this relatively simple functionality, so i'm thinking about a mini-sized gate. when looking on Reverb and eliminating the $40 Amazon specials which i don't trust, the main reputable options include:

--Pigtronix Gatekeeper
--ISP Technologies Deci-Mate
--Darkglass NSG

the Pigtronix seems most appealing superficially because it has Threshold and Release controls while the others just have a threshold knob, but i wasn't impressed with their Philosopher's Tone compressor and sold that on eons ago. Has anybody had any experience with these guys or know really anything about them at all?

I had the pigtronix noise gate briefly. It was horrible. Opened slowly and closed abrubtly. I sent it back the same day.

The ISP Deci Mini has a design flaw in the PSU jack: it can snap off easily since there's an open space on the enclosure.

I don't mind my Boss NS-2, but I only use the loop function, for the most part. Straight noise reduction through, it's just OK (probably the signature Boss buffer is the culprit).

I've been eyeing the OG/big box Decimate, probably for the ubiquity/appearances I keep seeing on all the metal rig rundowns I've been watching (amp noise, for the most part), and it's Steely Dan finish

But also? I have a Zvex Loop Gate, somewhere!, and it does what I want it to, isn't a $40 toaster (Mooer Noisekiller has it's fans, however), and is probably sturdier than all of the above, whilst bean relatively small. It also CHOPS

I don't buy Pigtronix anything anymore, so maybe they made a great pedal, but every one of theirs I touch seems to fall apart at the seams.

Good luck & let us know or maybe Don Cheadle can be your personal noise gate?

I wonder if the Fatman has an internal trim pot for the noise gate, or if there was a component you could swap out for one with a different value that would solve the issue?

I'm kind of a dreamer though.

the only trim pot it has is a clean blend, which isn't useful for me. i wouldn't know where to start with component swaps.