Hi,

I'm considering getting a Peavey 6505+ head, which is a high-gain amp and I know that when playing with high-gain settings, one can get feedback and noise from the amp.

So, a friend of mine recommended I just use the foot pedal and turn off the foot switch when I stop playing in order to stop the amp from making feedback and noise.

The reason is that I won't have to use a noise gate or noise suppressor and just plug directly into the amp, for a cleaner signal, etc.

I'd prefer to have as few pedals as necessary in between the guitar and the amp if possible, so it sounds like a good idea to me. Any opinions?

ISP Decimator or bust.

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Thanks, Innards-Decay! Wow, I heard about the ISP Vector cab and that seemed like an excellent cab and now this ISP Decimator noise suppressor pedal seems quite good, too.

I found a video demo of it, for anyone interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL89pRGv0Zw

But back to my first post... wouldn't it be possible to use no noise suppressors whatsoever when playing on high-gain... just the amp pedal and just kick off the channel switch when not playing?

Well... Unless there's a button on the amp's footswitch that works as a standby on/off switch... no you couldn't. You could do it that way if you get a multi-channel amp and just use one of the other channels w/ no volume on it for that effect, but using a noise suppressor is the best bet, that way you aren't constantly tap-dancing on your footswitch (which will eventually lead to it breaking...one day... could be a small cost every few months to repair it).

Also using the same channel button as the channel you are already on won't do anything, it doesn't work as an on off switch.

That and the amount of signal degradation when using a noise suppressor isn't noticable anyway, the untraned ear wouldn't hear a difference, so I would suggest you go for one.

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disinformation: Thank you for the very informative post! That's exactly what I meant: Using the amp's control pedal as a standby on/off switch. But it doesn't make much sense and after all isn't even possible.
Maybe reducing the amount of gain would be one solution; i.e. reducing it to a level that doesn't produce much feedback and stuff.
And playing as far away from the amp and with one's back to the amp helps a lot, too.
I also read that using a lot of highs (treble frequencies) in the eq increases feedback, too. That and a lot of gain, obviously.
Thanks!

A small kill switch could also be added to the guitar or you could use a volume pedal or AB pedal to kill the volume to. There are several fixes for this problem. +1 on the ISP though. I have used one for years and it does a wonderful job. Its fast, natural, and quiet.

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Soulinsane: Thanks for adding those other options. I didn't think about a volume pedal. Or one could simply just turn down the volume knob of the guitar, I don't know. Such an obvious thing and it didn't occur to me.

Yeah, I'm pretty fast with the volume knob myself. Still doesn't hurt to have a good noise kill device ( ISP ) to keep those fast stops in songs clean and quiet.

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That's right, yeah.

Kerry King's signature Marshall amp has an inbuilt Noise Gate, I believe. I'm pretty sure it has 'cause I had even watched a video review of the amp.
And some ENGL amps have inbuilt noise gates, too.