Stone Deaf gets tough on hiss and hum with the Noise Reaper pedal

The noise gate is truly the unsung hero of the pedalboard – and it's not just for high-gain users either – but the UK's Stone Deaf FX are giving it the attention it deserves with the new Noise Reaper pedal. It's been years in the making. 

The Manchester-based boutique pedal developed the Noise Reaper with the our noise gate technology used in its Warp Drive and Fig Fumb high-gain distortion and fuzz units. It's now perfected a design to keep your tone clear of hiss and hum from your pedal chain and amp. 

The single control is a Threshold knob to control how much the gate opens and to allow your own playing dynamics more room. 

The Noise Reaper takes the the input sensitivity of the guitar input and the sound of the signal source, compares the two and enables you to then gate unwanted noise while still balancing the control to allow for sustain where needed on the notes you play. 

The pedal differs from the competition is that is can be used in three models; Pedal, Series FX loop mode and a third mode that requires two Noise Reapers. 

In Pedal model the Noise Reaper is operates as part of your effects chain, with any noisy pedals placed in the unit’s own effects loop. In the Series FX Mode, you can place the pedal in the effects loop of an amp to address any noisy preamp. The short video demo above showcases the Series Fx Loop mode into a Blackstar Series One 50 amp being 'cranked'.  

Adding a second Noise Reaper allows you to utilise mode three; chaining the two pedals and doubling the gate with one pedal operating in Series FX Loop mode and the other in Pedal mode.

The Noise Reaper has a dynamic range of 120dB and output noise of -98dB.

The pedal is priced at £150 / $160 / €162 and available from Stonedeaffx.com