TC ElectronicTC Electronic SENTRY NOISE GATE Multiband Noise-Gating Pedal with Hard-Gate Mode and Built-In TonePrints*, Compatible with PC and Mac

Wowsers, this pedal works. I play my guitar through my computer mostly and as such have come across alot of unwanted rfi from the computer itself picked up by my pickups. I've tried alot of things to remove this such as faraday cloth over the computer, basically modifying and lining a small cabinet with copper foil(and earthing it) to put the computer in, power conditioner, pedal psu with isolated outputs and even an ifi silencer to break power to the soundcard and provide it with seperate power from the conditioner(there's more I've done I'm sure but can't remember what) and nothing has worked. Although this pedal isn't going to completely eradicate the noise it does a damned good job trying. I use the hiss setting(toggle switch down) and have the damp and threshold about 12 o'clock and the gate cuts perfectly and the hiss is massively quietened, it's basically working as a filter but doesn't seem to affect tone too much(I also have it set to bypass not buffer mode, pretty sure I have other buffered pedals on my pedal board and one pedal is on all the time so it acts as a buffer anyway).Straight out the box I managed to very simply get what I wanted from this pedal so I'm really impressed, I've replaced an ehx silencer with it and though that pedal would work fine without the pc's rfi it didn't work as well as I needed it to. The only thing I haven't really liked so far is the toneprint software. The interface is easy to use but I think the options could have been named better, it quite often didn't seem as straight forward as I'd have liked and found that I wasn't able to get as good a setup as the hiss option. I also found that the the pro guitarist toneprints didn't work for me at all, I couldn't get anything past the gate(and I stack pedals when possible, I had an overdrive set at mid gain going into a distortion pedal at near full gain going into a bass od pedal that I use as a kind of preamp). Not a major issue and as I'd only had the pedal for about an hour by then I was maybe doing something wrong.So far this is the 3rd noise gate I've owned and it is definitely my favourite. It works extremely well, has a ton of features on toneprint that you could take the time to learn about and hasn't affected my guitar tone at all. I would strongly recommend this pedal to anybody struggling with unwanted noise in their signal

I have a Telecaster with a humbucker neck pickup and a Fender single coil bridge pickup. Having the humbucker highlights how noisy the single coil is. I don't have a lot of distortion just a touch of overdrive, now and then, so my noise issues are mostly with the guitar.I've researched noise gates and the TC Electronic Sentry and the Iron Curtain are both highly regarded. The Sentry tops the IC but at 3 times the price, is it worth it if the IC will do the job?And yes, it does. It works very well, no 50 cycle hum and no unwanted interference. However, one small quibble, when you play a note with a long sustain, eventually, the volume drops through the gate and there's the hum lurking in the background! This can be alleviated by adjusting delay nob, but you can't quite get rid of it. The Sentry has a hum setting and I wonder if that sorts this issue?There's some debate as to where to put it in the chain. As my noise source is the guitar I started with it at the front, but having tried it at the end I don't hear any difference, it works just as well. This is good because I can locate it with the amp. There's no point having it on my board because it's on all the time and I'm not going to be turning it on and off. Also it's a big pedal and takes up a lot of space.I'm 90% happy with the Iron Curtain, I may try a Sentry at some point but, I suspect it needs a lot more twiddling and can't be put in the corner with my amp.db

Not quite as great as it's hyped to be. I did a lot of research on noise gates within my budget and was swayed by the abundance of glowing review's this pedal recieved. I'm left wondering just how much confidence you can really have in reviews. There are good and bad aspects to this pedal. It is beautifully constructed for sure solid enclosure,nicely rounded edges, smooth potentiometers and switch with a sterling paint job. Three operating modes and the ability to fine tune and upload settings certainly give you options. Just how much you will actually use these features is another matter. Like all noise gates it will need tweaking every time you alter the gain settings in your chain, for me anyway too many options result in a lot of wasted time fiddling. Does it kill the noise? Yes it does a decent job taming single coil hiss and cleaning up a boosted muff but does it do a better job than a Behringer or Donner pedal at less than half the price probably not. On the negative side there is absolutely a distinct colouration of tone when engaged which is annoying particularly as tc electronics make such a big deal of their equipment not doing this. There also appears to be a relay/solenoid that energises when connected to a psu you can hear it click inside the pedal - I don't know if my pedal is faulty because this causes a current spike causing the psu to overload when powered on requiring the dc jack plug to be removed and replaced before it and my other pedals will function. So at the moment it requires a seperate power adapter which kind of defeats the purpose of a dedicated pedal psu. Which brings me to my final complaint namely tc electronics customer service, there isn't one. There is no way to contact them directly. You must first register an account with 'music tribe?' Then complete a lengthy irrelevant form just to raise a customer ticket, I was fortunate and eventually recieved a response. They ased for the pedal to be returned for inspection. Complaints about customer service seem to be a common issue that I was unaware of till after I bought the pedal, responses seem to be a bit of a lottery, at least you have that information if you want to risk a purchase. I have updated the review as I can confirm that there is indeed a current spike when powering on in excess of 100mA for this particular pedal, so if your psu has a current limiting feature it will overload on starting and require the disconnect/reconnect workaround or if you have a free 500mA connection it shouldn't cause any issues. Not ideal really. Good pedal but far from perfect I'd really award it 3.5 rather than 4.

Excellent guitar, great value for money, excellent delivery service would buy from buyer again