I recently purchased an MXR smartgate for use with my JVM 205 head and was wondering the best place to use it. I mainly want it to cut down on the hiss on my lead channel (Orange OD 2) and to tighten up any palm muting on my rhythm channel. I’m running time based and modulation fx in the loop and pickup booster>tuner>wah> and tubescreamer into the front. Never used a gate before. Thanks for any advice!
I use mine right after the tuner to kill any noise from the guitar (and I) to make sure I have a nice signal going into the compressor and then onto the rest of the chain. Only 2 of my pedals exhibit noise (hiss), and then only with extreme settings so I just tame them with their controls.
I use two in my board, one after the tuner and one in the loop. the one in the loop is the first in the signal path.
The hiss is most probably coming from the amp (which would make placement in the fx loop a good start. But if the tubescreamer and/or pickup boost add noise, then you might need to experiment with the placement of the noise gate to see where it is most effective. That's how I do it: one between guitar and amplifier instrument input, and the other in the FX loop. The ng in the fx loop is programmable, which helps a lot when using different parameter settings (like gain and channel volume) in a channel/mode switching amp.
I always run mine in the loop, after any boost pedals (I have one in the loop), and before any delay or reverb pedals). If you have one in the loop, unless you're turning the loop on and off, it would be a bit redundant to have one in front of the amp. Once you start playing, they both open up, so killing it in the loop should take care of any noise from the input also. If it's a JVM, and the loop is being turned on and off on a higher gain setting, then I could see one in front being useful.
Honestly I use it wherever it works best and as mentioned above I like multiple usage with more complicated setups.
Jethro for the win. now if your willing to do some fast and fancy foot work put it anywhere you like.