All I can say is…this pedal is a must have! This goes second from last in my pedal chain behind my reverb pedal. I hit the on toggle switch on my amp and thought I blew a fuze or wasn't plugged in. Dead quiet! Not the slightest hum or buzz with volumes on 10. I never bothered to even touch a knob on this pedal and all my pedals shine without any hum or buzz. My little humble 3/5 watt amp now just screams without any hum or buzz. Can't wait to try this on my other amps and guitars with various pickups.

I already had one of these on my primary pedal board, and bought another when I built a second board. You can't go wrong with this one, it's the best that I've tried. It's so easy to tweak your settings for exactly what you want, and it's dead quiet. I know there are other options out there for twice the price (or more) but dollar for dollar this pedal can't be beat. Highly recommend. Thanks to Chris Goldbach at SW for all of his help over the years.

I have a tube amp that has cascading high gain (Mark IIC++ clone) and with it, huge hum. I had a Boss NS-2 that I bought years ago but hated it and didn't want to throw a paycheck away on a noise gate. So fastforward all of these years and I should have just bought the Sentry. Running in the 4CM (4 cable method), the Sentry really shines, for me, it was in Hiss Mode. That sounds the most natural for my amp and took the most pesky of unwanted noise out.

Now to be grounded here, I am running a high gain amp with the Sentry in the 4 cable method. There is still some noise, it's not like you can have your whole rig turned on and plugged in, leave the room and forget that your amp is on. There is still some type of noise but it's reduced by around 80-90%.

Palm mutes sound way better overall, leads sound just fine overall. The Sentry in a way cleaned up my rig so much that everything feels so, so much smoother to play. It becomes addictive to play your amp again just with the Sentry. It's easily a huge upgrade from most other noise gates that are out there. I'd say the only competition out there would be the ISP stuff but with how much the Sentry costs? The easy choice is the Sentry to me. No hate on the ISP pedals, they're great but I just think the Sentry is a little bit better.

Overall this isn't just a noise gate, what it really does besides being a noise gate is that its cleaning up your entire rig. It doesn't alter your tone in any way except getting the hum and buzz out. I use active humbuckers in my guitars but have used a friends Fender Strat to see how the Sentry dealt with single coil pickups and there was no issue at all. Do yourself a favor and get the TC Electronic Sentry, for the price it's crazy that they aren't charging twice as much for it.

Janis recommended this pedal to me last week. I just reorganized my pedal board and dropped this in the correct location in the chain. I have a 1960 Melody Maker that was modified with Lollar P90 pickups that I love to play, but the hiss when on bridge or neck pickup alone is annoying, and I mostly play out in churches through sensitive sound boards and recording systems. With this pedal, the hiss is gone, yet the P90 bite is still there. Sound engineers at church are equally amazed. This pedal is easy to figure out and adjust properly. Has an ap to run though a laptop and program through USB interface if you really want to get fancy. Highly recommend!

Just set up a new pedalboard for my bass. Had to add this pedal, because it serves me so well on my guitar rig. I use the 4-cable method in the effects loop for maximum effectiveness. I know it can be customized/configured to a specific signal chain, but I've never felt the need to get that deep in the weeds (= I'm just not that smart). Good luck. Have fun. Rock on!!

I am relatively new to guitar pedal effects. I had issues with noise from my setup. After researching many noise gate demos I decided on the Sentry. It was a great choice. I was able to easily dial out all the unwanted sounds! It is also very versatile for different setups with it's additional send and return loop.

I upgraded from the Joyo legal done to this and it was worth the price! This works better and cuts sound cleanly rather than with a digital crackle. Tight and fast which is what I needed. 10/10

I have a few noise-gates. This one has three nice modes out of the gate {pun intended}. You can tweak it to your own personal preference and save it as your own. If you need even more control, you can download the software and deep dive on extensive parameter controls and save one via their "tone print" app. For bang to buck and versatility, in my opinion, it's 2nd to none. From basic hiss reduction to all out metal start/stop hard gating, it can do it all.

This pedal is exactly what I needed to quiet down that annoying hiss in my signal chain.

I run a Walrus Audio Badwater as my preamp. Love the pedal but it sure is noisy, especially on the overdrive channel. Add a compressor and the fact that I don't exactly have the cleanest power in my basement, and it's just a recipe for the world's most annoying 60 cycle hum.

The Sentry put an immediate stop to that. By running my compressor and preamp through the Sentry's effects loop, my signal is now as quiet as a church mouse. The best part is that there is not much of a learning curve. I had it dialed in within a minute or two. When the gate is open, the LED turns green. When it's closed, the LED turns red. Easy peasy.

My only qualm (and it's not a huge deal) is that even with the decay set to the lowest point, the gate seems to close just before I want it to on those sustained notes. I'm sure I could dial in a little more sustain somewhere in my chain, but man, I wish the gate would stay open for one more beat.

Don't bother with any other noise gates. Just get this and be done with it.

I've been using a Boss NS-2 since 1989, and after an hour with the Sentry, I can hear the difference clearly. The Boss is amazing, and works well, but it definitely colors your tone just enough to notice in a side by side comparison. I haven't even begun to dig into it's extra features, and already I'm sold and very impressed. I would highly recommend grabbing on when you can.

Exactly what I needed without breaking the bank. In full disclosure, all I needed was to eliminate terrible hiss / noise from my Darkglass Microtubes pedals, and the Sentry delivers in spades. Took me 60 seconds to set the toggle to hiss and threshold just enough to silence my signal and bam - done. As a bass player, I don't need to fiddle with the damp or decay features much but I'm confident those will work wonders for the guitar players out there. Does not impact my tone / volume one iota. I have it at the end of my chain (Luminal Ultra Booster > Microtubes X > Ampeg Liquifier > Sentry). It's built like a tank and just works. Buy it.

One of the best rated online, however its noisy and not impressive at all. I had to return it unfortunately. Built well but functions very pedestrian.

I tried 5 different noise gate pedals in an attempt to clear up my JC40's terrible hiss, which gets worse when brightness is increased or compression is used. This is the only one that worked even 50%!! I use this pedal for most of the hiss then I add NS-1 and Z-Noise plugins on my initial bounce chains to clean up the rest without muddying my tone too much. Super quiet, noiseless tracks!

I have a JC40 and a Two-Tone Revolt for ampless recording, both of which have terrible amp hiss that gets magnified when I turn up the gain or use a compressor. I've been using Waves Z-Noise and NS-1 plugins to get rid of the hiss/hums after recording but it's really annoying when I'm just practicing/jamming. I tried 4 different noise gates and this is the only one that reliably takes care of most of the problem.

Adjustability makes this a great adaptable tool.

I checked five stars for my overall rating, which translates to "It's the best!" Full disclosure: this is the first and only noise gate I have ever used, so I cannot compare it in firsthand experience to any other. I am, however, very pleased and satisfied with this pedal and grateful to Tyler Moore at Sweetwater for recommending it.

Most of my music-making is writing/arranging/recording in a studio room in my home. I'm an amateur, learn-as-I-go DIYer. Over the years I've gotten better at producing good quality finished tracks (all posted to SoundCloud), always involving numerous layered parts played on various instruments, both electric and acoustic. Although I never have to record anything at high volume levels, I often run my signal through various fx pedals -- which can produce quite a bit of noise through an amp, especially when I am using gain/drive pedals. A recurrent problem I have had is figuring out how to scrub all the noise from a recorded track without thereby also affecting the recorded guitar tone. I have often had to sacrifice the tone that I want in order to get a noiseless track. The TC Electronic Sentry is a wonderful solution to that problem!

Since acquiring the Sentry just days ago, I have used it only a few times so I still have a lot to learn about how best to operate it. I've kept it set at the "gate" function, and will soon experiment also with the "hiss" function. I will likely never use the "toneprint" function because that seems too complicated for my simple needs (and simple brain). One of the outstanding features of the Sentry (and a reason for Tyler's recommendation) is its combination of inputs and outputs. I have the Sentry at the very beginning of my pedal chain; the guitar goes directly into the Sentry, and then out to a sequence of gain/drive pedals, then back into the Sentry, and finally out again into a sequence of other time and modulation (non-gain/non-drive) pedals. This puts the noise-gating function where it's needed most -- in relation to the gain/drive pedals -- without affecting any other fx. Used that way, the Sentry does exactly -- and beautifully -- what I need it to do: it minimizes noise without compromising tone.

The Sentry is the second product made by TC Electronics that I have purchased from Sweetwater. I also have their Sub-n-up Mini, which is equally fantastic. Like the Sub-n-up, the Sentry is durably built and highly responsive even to the slightest changes of the control dials, with notable change occurring throughout the sweep of every dial. The Sentry is also adaptable to a wide variety of applications, from very high gain signals to low gain signals, from single-coil noise to humbucker noise, and it works equally well with instruments equipped with under-bridge piezo pickups.

The Sentry might well become an "always on" pedal in my music-making.

This is the best gate I have tried.

I had high hopes for this one. I saw a lot of reviews and shootouts and this seemed to be the clear winner. I already had the Pigtronix Gatekeeper which was fine I just wished had a little more control over it but it works and sounds fine. I needed a gate pedal as I just got into the Synergy amp system and the high gain modules def has hiss and hum as all high gain tube amps do.
I bought the Sentry do also do the 4cable method and use it in the FX loop as well as the dirt pedals on my board. No matter which way I used it, as the 4cable method, just in the FX loop or just on my board this pedal REALLY changed my tone when on. If I am holding a note and hit the pedal on, so much low end disappears and the sound gets what I call a "digisheen" sound. Its like mp3ish, its a mid range sound, but artificial and fizzy a bit (honestly sounds like what plugins/modelling do). Hard to explain but very clear to hear. I was crushed, there was NO way this was staying in my signal path. I later realized so many of the videos demoing the pedal do extreme metal chug cut off stuff, so you really cant hear the sustain/tone. I have had TC pedals for years some with mixed results but I still have the TC Tuners. The pedal didn't last 10 minutes on my board and will never return. Sooooo disappointed, how can folks not hear this when they try it is beyond me.

So I initially got a Boss NS-2 for my minimalistic setup about a year ago. I continuously had problems with volume drops and tone suck and even high pitched frequency issues that me nor my local tech could figure out. And it was definitely the pedal and not my rig. So I tried a new NS-2 and had the same issues. So after dealing with a crappy noise gate for about 8 months, I finally ordered the TC Sentry after much debate on which one to get. Well some YouTube reviews later I knew this was probably the one. I have had it for maybe 3 months now and I have had zero issues with it and I;m very happy with how it responds and how the gates work. Very versatile and the same price as the Boss. Do yourself a favor and get this first. No need to waste over double on a ISP pedal.

I have (and use) both the MXR Smartgate and the Decimator G String II. Both are great pedals and will stay on their respective boards for a very long time. The standard settings are beyond killer on the Sentry, and you will be "library quiet" in 10 minutes max, right out of the box. The Toneprint feature has to be seen to be believed, and will deliver you into a studio type environment that offers everything except groupies. It simply does not get better.

First thing; I really like TC Electronic equipment. This pedal does exactly what it's supposed to, but it does do something annoying. For some reason, about every 2nd or 3rd time I power up my pedalboard, it won't power up. I have to unplug it, wait a few moments and then plug it back in. It's actually super annoying and I'm not sure why it does that. Outside of that, everything else is exceptional on this pedal although with the power issue, I would hesitate buying another one.

If you are running high gain, just get this first. It is the most affordable gate pedal you can get.

Very friendly staff that helped me get the right pedal and shipped it very quickly. Would order from here again!

Definitely read the manual to get the most out of it, but this pedal just works and it works well

I haven't spent much time with it yet, but the effectiveness is front and center. The default Tone Print setting on this pedal will make my entire overgrown dirt circuit shut up. Impressive.

This is the one you buy, folks.

Did a lot of research before deciding to purchase the Sentry and I've been thrilled. I play pretty heavy distortion and have used this pedal with everything from a Gretsch 5420T (hollow body), Gibson 335 (semi-hollow) and Telecasters/Les Pauls and it's performed great for all. I love the way you can really fine tune the noise and cutoff. I always hated that 60sec hum from my tele and this pedal isolates that noise without disrupting the rest of the tone exceptionally. I can dial this in to allow for feedback swells where and how I want them without battling feedback all night in small clubs.

Highly recommend for all guitarists looking to clean up and control their noise.

Its my first dedicated noise gate, waay better than the one built into amp. A solid recommendation

I was shocked how noisy single coils were compared to humbuckers, so I needed a solution when I switched from gigging a les paul to gigging a stratocaster due to the constant amp buzz even on clean tones. I read reviews about this pedal and I can confirm, this thing is perfect! Not only does this diminish the unwanted buzz, but this is the most natural sounding gate I have heard. If dialed in properly, the engagement of the gate closes so smoothly you would think the guitar has naturally quiet pick ups. This is especially great for my very ambient pedalboard so my over the top reverbs don't echo the buzzing sounds. Best noise gate ever! By the way, its great on any guitar or soft clipping gain pedal as well.

After figuring out the 4 cable with fx on my amp, it just all sounds so much better him is gone, always on pedal!

You seriously can't beat this noise gate, the settings and toneprint are game changing, it works amazing in front of your amp or in the fx loop or both with the four cable method! If you need a noise gate this is the one to get!

I have needed a noise gate for a while. I saw this on the Sweetwater site, read some reviews and a few videos , and I was sold!
Best by far!

The pedal is built like a tank. Works flawlessly. Sweetwater's customer service as always EXCELLENT! Not only that but I love my candy..lol. TY

Out of the box this smokes my MXR Noise Clamp. Just really nice open/close timing. I haven't even looked into the programmability yet. I'd buy a second one in a heartbeat if I needed it.

I run a tube preamp pedal that generates quite a bit of hiss. The Sentry completely eliminated that noise without compromising any sustain. Great addition to my board

I run it in series with all of my effects, right after dirt/gain effects but before modulation. No issues whatsoever. Very happy with the purchase. Front of house sound engineers might like it even better than I do!

I did a deep dive into guitar compressors and the experts and bloggers all seem to agree that the TC Electronics Sentry is the best one. I've used mine in a variety of setups using different guitars, pedals and amplifiers and it always manages to do a great job. I have nothing bad to say about this product.

Love my Rat Pro Co with my Marshall JCM 800 but it is a noisy pedal. Just too much buzz and hum for me. Yes, I know it's a tube amp with a lot of gain and a bad a** distortion pedal but you can have too much hum. Put the Sentry behind my Rat and problem solved. You have to play with the damp and decay settings so you're not cutting off notes or your sustain but once you've done that your set. No more irritating hum or crackle!

I'll say it again. Best gate there is. Only gripe is the owners manual does not explain function well. Watch youtube to figure it out.

Even though its damn old in the music world, it's still the best. Tried a few other and just couldn't them working the way I needed - put this on and after some tweaks and dialing in - perfect, havnt touched it since, just works

I can't imagine wanting anything more from this type of pedal.

This pedal is excellent. The ability it has to really dial in where you want your sound and where you need it quiet is incredible. I've used this with a super buzzy telecaster, as well as a Gretsch hollow body, running both through a high gain Mesa boogie dual rectifier and it's incredible. Silent when I want it, yet still allows me to swell feedback as I want.

Can't recommend this highly enough. An essential pedal in my opinion.

No complaints. It's really just a utility device, and, as such it preforms as good or better than similar products. The price is very competitive. The design is very flexible, and still it's easy to operate.

I was a little confused about the loop: it's NOT a bypass loop. It DOES isolate your noisy pedals so it can gate your signal in a smarter way, for a more natural result.

I have been considering a second one for my bass rig. So, yeah, 5 stars / no ragrets.

It works and sounds great. It does what I needed it to do.
My only complaint is it eats batteries. A power supply is a must.

What more can I say. It works.

Got this to run in the loop of my Mk5/35 and it does a fabulous job. Very controllable ,very responsive and doesn't kill my sustain or reverb decay. Worth the money

I use a Gibson with P90's, through an amp with some high gain. This combination creates a lot of noise, static & hum at higher volumes. I did a lot of research before deciding on this noise gate and it performs exactly as advertised. It only took me a few minutes to dial it in, and now I have no undesirable noise between chords, chugs, or between songs on stage. Very happy.

Great noise gate!

Did the job for me when used as recommended. Requires more cable routing (using the effects send on my amp) but that was a good thing!

We have three Sentry's on three separate boards. The Taylor acoustic with its active pickup was giving us problems especially when run into the front of the amp. Not a problem now. The distortion pedals were giving us a problem on the second and third boards as well. No longer. We have the acoustic and one electric running straight through the Sentry. The electric to the power amp directly. The third board is run through the Sentry to the front of the amp with a loop to the effects section of the amp from the Sentry. I like this setup the best. The pedals work so well we haven't had to go under the hood yet to the tone studio for any tweaks. I found the pedal to be a welcome addition especially with the Strat. The singles were a bit noisier even with the reverse wound pickup than the hum buckers on the Gibson. With that said the Gibson was not silent. Over all I highly recommend this pedal for those who are experiencing noise issues as we were. This is my second favorite pedal behind the Boss EQ 200.

Best noise gate so far. I recently bought the BOSS NS-2, only to end up returning it. Do yourself a favor. Watch, "Beards, Riffs and Gear" or 'Uncle' Ben Eller's shared video of the noise gate shootout. They demo all of them, and the video speaks for itself. Well, mostly.

While is definitely does cut out most unwanted noise and feedback, it's not truly silent while running through a tubed Peavey 6505+ head and 4x12. Still has a little sizzle in the cab when cranked.

But hey, we're talking about an amp with gains of demonic quality you couldn't shush if you held holy water up to it.

But once you engage, then disengage the Sentry, you'll quickly see why this IS the best noise gate. Not just for the price, but a little more control than most gates out there (including USB control). Seriously happy with this pedal and the ability to keep the Peavy gained- beast on a leash. As always, thanks James Wroblewski and the Sweetwater team, I'll continue to buy from you guys whenever my needs/wants/ wallet allows, lol!

I have this unit for around 6 years now, the trick is using a laptop to dial in the values. When I first got the pedal during soft playing it would start to gate and would make the tone into a grumbling sound before it was fully gated.

Took some time playing with the laptop learning the controls, once I got use to how the various settings work I was able to dial this thing in.

The pedal controls in the software are a little different than a normal studio noise gate rack mount gates. It is like the pedal is it's own side scan.

None the less well worth the quid to quite any pedal board.

2nd best pedal I ever bought besides my Fortin ts-9 !

Works as intended

This thing is absolutely amazing.
Took a bit of looking around on YT to figure out that I crossed the send and receive cables from the amp's loop side but after that - oh boy - SILENCE.

I play a high gain amp that's quite noisy - Use the 4 cable method and it works amazing! no more hum, noise, unwanted feedback - nothing. just hold my guitar and enjoy the silence (when I'm not playing).

For the price - this is a no brainer - and even at a higher price TBH.
The only one I played that came close was the Zuul which is VERY close to this in performance - but requires a buffered splitter - by the time you finished with everything else you need - your almost 3x the price of this and 0 benefits.

Amazing noise gate. I play through a screamer into a 6505 woth the gain cracked amd this thing shuts it right up when I need it to. And the ability to have different gate types through TonePrint is awesome. Currently using TC's HiGain setting.

I had to repalce my ISP noise gate because of damage. I put in on a second board, but since my primary board was all T.C., I decided to replace it with a Sentry. Since purchasing the original Stereo Chorus in 1994, I have been a T.C. guy ever since. The device worked just as advertised, and it didn't require a lot of dialing to get the result I wanted. I feel they are the number one stomp box guys.
Sweetwater is the bomb! I have been using them for over 12 years on a regular basis. This year has seen me purchase several pieces of gear as I started playing in a group again. They have the gear I want, they have a decent prices, and if the gear doesn't work they have outstanding support to get it running. I bought a Roland GR55 10 years ago and started using it again. I couldn't figure out why it wasn't playing my audio files, 15 minutes after a call to their support unit, I was on my way. Thanks to the folks at Sweetwater.

I read a number of reviews on noise gate pedals and saw that the TC Electronic Sentry Noise Gate pedal was a top runner and even beat out the Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor. I run mostly Boss and TC pedals so the decision came down to the TC pedal having the TonePrint Editor feature which gives you access to downloadable presets. Full disclosure at the time of this review I'm using a basic hook up and haven't played around with TonePrint yet.

The controls are simple and intuitive. You will want to operate from a power supply because I drained the original 9V battery in less than 3 hours of constant use.

first pedal was faulty. this one is doing good job. pricey

Was having issues with hum and hiss from compressor and drive pedals coming through a blues junior when not playing even on isolated power. Was having to be very intentional with my volume pedal every time I wasn't playing even for a couple seconds. The sentry was easy to dial in - just using knobs, not TonePrint - and immediately cleared the unwanted noise. Love having the effects loop so the guitar input can be used to open and close the gate. No noticeable lag on initial attack and overall tone is unaffected when playing. Should have bought this sooner.

I used the sentry a while back and wasn't real happy with it so I tried several others the boss ns-2 was the best of the rest, followed by the Joyo Gate of Kahn (single knob mini) But now Im going to return to the Sentry because the 3 stage mode works the best out of the bunch.. There are complains about dialing it in and those are all legit. I have a hypergravity compressor and when i use it I had to adjust... when I use different guitars... same story... too bad you cant just save the setting in the pedal... you can with tone prints. but there is no way to save toneprints to your phone.. at least not that I know of... The Sentry, though not perfect is the best of the noise gates currently available

I keep this puppy around in case I get hiss from higher gain amps or pedals. Once you adjust it properly it works like a champ I find I need to turn it off on cleaner stuff as you don't need a gate on it anyway. Anytime I crank my gain heads I may need to kick this on at times. Kills the hiss right off. You should always work to solve ground loop problems and hum but when you need a NR gate for uber gain stuff that just gets a noise floor hiss, nature of the beast and all, this puppy can kill it without stepping on your tone or sustain. I am sure inside the editor I could program much more but I really just use the on board switch options and it is a no hassle solution. I have had a few others but I have never gotten rid of this one, any time I need it, it solves the problem.

it sure did cut the excessive noise from my rig. however, there was a delay after i stoppled playing, before the gate closed, that the hiss was audible. you could literally hear it openening and shutting every time. I tried all configurations including the effects loop and pedalboard placements. Just wasn't for me. I decided to upgrade my preamp instead to something with a lower noise floor. Sent this unit back.

i had high hopes for this pedal. I play bass, through a simple set up of a compressor, and a tube preamp. The tube preamp has an audible hiss that i was hoping to get rid of. Well the sentry got rid of it when i wasn't playing, but there was a significant delay in the hiss going away (the gate shutting) after i stopped playing. i tried setting all the parameters as well as the knobs on the pedal itself but just could not get this thing dialed in right. returned and just dealt with my hiss.

Does the job!!!

I've tried Boss NS2, Fortin Zuul, ISP Decimator , and several others. This one is by far the best!!! There's a reason its 5 star rated.

Does a great job. Would expect nothing less from TC

I'm not the expert on noise gate pedals but one thing I can say about the TC Sentry is it works. It works extremely well. You can really dial in exactly how you want it to work and when you want it to work. Really great deal and I can't understand why anyone would need something else if you're in the market for this style unit.

Great noise gate, no loss of tone, perfect for noisy distortion pedals! Thanks sweetwater!

This is with every penny. I run a ton of effects and after spending a little time dialing it in to my specific rig everything was quiet. So quiet in fact that at my next live performance when I turned everything on I thought I had a dead cable or a pedal that crapped out until I hit the strings on my guitar.

I was using EMG 81 on my guitar, no humming, switched it to EMG ALX, when i have that booster switched on, it creates a small amount of humming/hissing whichever u wanna call it, but this sentry was able to cut that out without altering the tone of my output. Will I recommend TC Sentry to my friends? The answer is yes

I have never had a noise reduction pedal before and wasn’t sure what to expect. I needed something to eliminate the buzz I was getting when I used the overdrive and distortion pedals together when my Telecaster was plugged in. This did the trick! The flexibility of using the threshold, decay and damp knobs let me tweak it until I found the perfect balance. It didn’t kill the tone either. It seems to be pretty rugged and well built, so I am hoping for many years of use. I would definitely recommend this product.

So far another great TC product! Never had a noise gate pedal so I can’t give any comparison but it does what I want it to do!

Couldn't be happier with this pedal, took care of all the noise reduction needs!

...I've been using it for less than a year, but can honestly say it does what it's supposed to. I am connecting this right at the pre amp out of my amplifier's effects loop, and it contains the noise and hiss perfectly. Dialing this in is very easy, and the decay knob allows it to be more organic and dynamic. I have not used the send/return chain on this pedal yet, but I think this is best if you use more pedals in front of the amp and not in the effects loop. Or, you could have one of these in front of the amp to remove noise from gain pedals (e.g. compressor, booster, overdrive, distortion, etc), and one in the effects loop after the pre amp out of your amplifier ... I may try that next!

25 or so years ago, I had a rack setup, with a HUSH noise gate on it. I remember being impressed with that. This little thing is all that and more. I bought it because I'm running a Marshall Origin 50C, with the front end boosted and overdrive added by a Friedman Motor City Drive, which is in turn boosted and overdrive added by a MXL Zakk Wylde OD. This setup pushes some fairly high-gain sounding tones, but is REALLY NOISY. A few minutes of tweaking with the Sentry and the noise is gone. Now, with that much noise, I can't set the sensitivity low enough to let me play with feedback, but that's never been my thing anyhoo. I have hardly begun to explore what this thing can do, and I'm thrilled with it. If you're on the fence, and you need noise removed from your signal, buy this pedal!

TC Electronics makers some great pedals and this noise gate is one of them. Def the best noise gate I've ever used in my 30 years playing music.

So I"m new to playing guitar and got this to cut some hum from my Strat at high volumes cause I hate repeating noises especially buzzing. I have Mogami cables, new amp, power conditioner, so it"s not those things. I plugged this in and gone was the buzz, however if I turned my volume halfway or more a hiss started. When I played and the guitar sound started fading out I noticed an up and down sound before the Sentry cut the sound and went back to silence.

I"ve spent hours trying different settings, using different tone maps from their website and I can"t get it to a place I"m satisfied with. I also notice a slight tone difference when the Sentry is plugged in wether on or off vs my guitar straight into the amp. The latter is more natural, the Sentry also seems to add some noise to the sound when engaged, you can really hear it when the sound quiets down a bit. I"ve read it"s great for taming gain noise but since I like and am learning on a clean channel I guess it"s not for me.

First off let me go through my rig. I want to do this so you, the reader, can understand how I use this pedal and how it works with my set up....and I love explaining my rig hehe. I play a Fender American Standard Stratocaster HSS into my pedalboard which goes into my Fender 68' deluxe reverb tube amplifier. With the amp cranked and playing on the neck single-coil pickup, there is a good amount of noise already without my gain staging pedals. My gain pedals include a Keeley compressor, Fulltone full drive 2 MOSFET, and a Wampler catapulp distortion. Lots of range of gain. I also have a phaser chorus and a delay. This pedal differs from say an ISP Decimator because of the send/return loop. I can put my noisy pedals into the loop so the sentry only closes "the gate" for those frequencies and doesn't cut off my delay tails. The sentry I have found will work for any rig. And although I have only used it with my rig and the different variations of my rig, I am confident in that claim. The knobs have such a large range that I barely adjust the threshold knob and it fixes my problem instantly. Also with TC's tone print technology, any parameter can be set at any level. When I first got the pedal it took me about 20 minutes to get my settings just right. Ever since then my playing has sounded more articulate and has had a better sense of clarity when using high gain/compression configurations. TC makes some stellar pedals for stellar prices. Sweetwater is the best of course. It came so fast! If you have a problem with unwanted noise/feedback but still want your articulation and regular playing feel to stay intact check out the Sentry!

There is one thing that should come from a noise gate, which is dealing with an issue, without screwing up the sustain and tone of a guitar. Keep in mind, it is really important where you put the noise gate in your signal chain. The closer to the issue, the better. If it is at the end of the chain, you can still have the issue, the beginning you may not be addressing the source of the problem.
I was having some RF issues, and well, this nailed it. Likewise there was no difference in tone before and after the noise gate. Which is the real indication how well this one works.
It is also underlies how important a damp and decay knobs are with a noise gate. While some only have the threshold knob, it is tweaking the damp knob with the threshold that made the difference.
In the end, I was left with a signal without RF. The noise and tone I wanted was coming through loud and clear.
This pedal is a lifesaver, if you are working with high gain music, it is a must to have one of these around, because those RF and other artifacts can be pesky.

Did my research, read multiple reviews and couldn"t be happier with my purchase. Price point is excellent. It"s worth every dollar. I won"t hesitate to recommend it to anyone. The features, settings and tone print are easy and simple to use. Don"t forget the saying, "for the sweetness of the sale you"ll live with the bitterness for life". If you need a gate don"t hesitate Sentry Gate will serve you well.

Had both. Returned the Decimator. The decay control makes all the difference.

I play with a lot of tube gain from a TS808HW and a Laney Studio amp into Helix or Guitar Rig using their IR cabinet emulations. I was using the built in gates from Helix Native and Guitar Rig - and it always felt like it was cutting the sustain off my system, so I thought I would try this out since I have had such great luck with TC Electronic stuff.

I always run my reverb and delay on my DAW so I can mix this appropriately.

I did it a little different than most - I put this at the end of my chain, on the DI out to my Apogee. It got rid of the tube screamer noise as well as the amp noise, so when the signal comes into the DAW it's perfectly clean.

I used their toneprint system via USB into my computer and downloaded "NoiseF*cker" that some famous metalhead created, and WOW. It worked really well right off the bat. Otherwise, the software looks like a deep rabbit hole I'm not sure I have the patience to play with. Maybe some day if I have a problem to solve.

I love having my sustain, harmonics and feedback back in my life!

The Sentry works great, I mainly got it to take the noise out when I use my distortion pedals, especially when I stack them and it took all of the noise away without coloring my sound, Also I switched mine to the buffered position and it"s transparent as well. I had gotten used to the hiss my Strat made going through my tube screamer , and now that"s quiet too. Thanks for another great recommendation Clint Bransteter!!!

I've had and used a lot of gates, this one is a keeper. My needs for it come and go but nice to be able to toss this on the board if needed. I try to solve any noise issue which is usually power or cable stuff, ground loops are a nightmare and can get really weird if you have a complex board/rig. Anyway if you have need of a NR gate for like uber high gain hiss shunt or whatever, this puppy does the deal and does it better than any others I have used. I have not even dabbled into messing with the editor or toneprints as the pedal does what it does extremely well with the stock settings. Very transparent to your tone does not mess with your dynamics (providing you of course set it up properly). Great price, great build and tech, nothing compares and its loop puts it way ahead of those who don't have one and most that do! And the ability to have bypass or a decent buffer is also ahead of the others.

Very happy with the purchase.
Silenced my noisy pedals right away through the send-return loop without coloring my tone at all (one of them is a distortion/EQ which I have no intention of doing away with, so very happy about this).
Still figuring out the TonePrint side of things, but that's mainly because of time constraints. Believe I'll be able to finish tweaking everything to my taste when I get the time.

Very nice pedal and so glad I got it over the NS-2, as it fits right into my pedalboard with the smaller profile and color.

Thanks to Roq Martin and Matt South for the excellent service!

First of all, TC Electronic makes great stuff, period. But if there's a better noise gate out there at this price, I haven't seen it. This is INTELLIGENT gating. The options that this pedal offers means there is a solution for you, no matter what your rig is set up like. The level of control TC gives you is insane, yet it's a very simple pedal to use. All in all, a noise gate worth getting excited about.

This is an excellent noise gate. Works really well. The reason for not giving it 5 stars is because Decimator G string II does about the same thing with one botton, although it does cost more. But for less money I got an excellent pedal. And with more knobs to tweak I can get the right amount of gate while letting notes ring out naturally. I"m a big fan of TC Electronic so this was not a hard decision.
I can"t stress enough how great my experience is every time I make a purchase through Sweetwater.

I build pedals. I know pedals. This pedal, like all TC pedals, is rock solid.. but it just simply.. works. Close to studio noise gates.
It has a large amount of adjustment and you can tweak it wherever you want it to be and it will work great.

This is an amazing noice gate. Most gates have a single control and often cut off your sustain and limit your ability to get sounds you want without the sounds you don"t want. I"m using the pedal on a Gibson Explorer with a Floyd Rose tremolo going into a 100 watt Marshall amp. The three controls that this pedal offers gives you an amazing amount of adjustability so you can get great sustain and still clean up your sound. It"s amazing how much cleaner my sound is without chopping off notes. The build quality is great, metal construction and a velvety smooth switch. An added bonus with this switch is the software that you can use to program very specific sounds into it. Additionally it offers four input/output jacks that allow even more versatility to get the perfect noise gate setup for your specific sound. I highly recommend this pedal to anyone who wants to get rid of unwanted hiss or feedback and still maintain all of the sound quality and sustain that they"re rig has to offer.

i have used the boss noise suppressor previously (for many years), but have noted that it colors your tone (it adds high end and can borderline on shrill sounding depending on your settings). I tried the pigtronix gate keeper (due to its small size) and found it too colors your sound (it cuts all the low frequencies). Perhaps you'd like either of these options for a more high & mid sound, but if you are looking for transparency - the Sentry is the best I've found. works great as is designed (using the send and return feature) ... sounds very natural for my use with all the knobs at 12:00 position (i've not even had to mess with the toneprint capability - which could be cool, but there really wasn't a need to mess around when it did exactly what it needed as-is)

this pedal does what it is supposed to but at a cost. This pedal colored my sound made it sound much darker almost like a blanket was put over my cab. Tried hooking it up multiple ways andalso use toneprints but made no real difference. The amp I was using it with is a Soldano SLO 100. I think the main reason this pedal did not work for me is because my amp has a +4db (line level) loop. Most pedals I have tried with this amp just can't handle the output of the loop much more so when on overdrive channel. I guess I can live with a little noise, maybe I will try the MXR Smart Gate since it has a switch for line level.

Sentry Noise Gate

Pedal Chain : Compressor > Sentry Gate {Distortion & Overdrive in loop} > Boost > Chorus > Reverb > Tremolo > Amp


The Gate can work against the sustain given by the Compressor, but by adjusting the Damp and Threshold controls of the Sentry and setting Decay to maximum, this can be minimized or avoided. The Three Band Noise Gate Tone Print works best for me. The Boost after the Gate does not reintroduce noise. The loop is the key that makes the Sentry most effective.

Guitars are Gibson and Ibanez. Pedals in chain are Vise Grip, Sentry, Dracarys, OCD, Spark, Corona+, 30 ms, Supra-Trem2. Pedals are running at 18 volts where possible. Amp is Orange Solid State.

My sales engineer recomended the demo version which had only been used once. Fantastic discount. Best one so far and does not destroy your hard to get sounds. Many others remove the color you so hard worked for. TC is the best at everything.

It says what it does. It does what it says.

With all of the gear that is on my need and want list, I was a bit hesitant about buying a piece of gear that isn't a new effect or mic or pickup, but that just quiets the noise.

I have to say though that this makes my Boss MT2 Metal zone (The noisiest pedal in the land?) all that it can be! It was like buying a new distortion pedal!

It really gives you a much better distorted experience!

I only use the MT2 as an enhancement. For some lead guitar parts I use the dramatic EQ and the boost which really allow you to get a new sound and I also add just a little distortion.

I use amp distortion, so I don't need the pedal distortion, but just a little with the EQ and boost gives me an additional sonic character to use.

However, I'd have to turn it off and on in between guitar phrases or I would need to sustain notes instead of stopping just to prevent the noise from destroying the solo!

Using the loop on the Sentry, I have a pretty wide range on the Sentry settings where this works and depending on where you set it, you can let the distortion pedal be more obnoxious or more tame. I lean towards obnoxious when I use it and the note still stops when I stop it.

I don't have the Sentry set for a hard gate, but I do use it as a gate. I am getting a natural cut off when I stop playing. As long as I don't make a pick or hand noise between notes, there is silence.

Now I can play anything that I want and when I stop between phrases, all that I hear is my delay! Nice.

I love the TC electronic rack gear like the G Force that I use and the D Two delay which has some amazing delays. This Sentry Pedal is also a good investment.

I don't need to download another guitarist's settings because they set it for their rig and I use my rig, so I will use this as TC built it.

It works great!

I picked this up from Sweetwater after my Boss NS-2 started to fail on me. I used the NS-2 for about 15 years and wanted to see if there was something better out there. The Sentry is that something. The Sentry colors the sound much less than the Boss -maybe even not at all. The decay is much more versatile than the NS-2 and allows notes to decay more naturally. I haven't used the TonePrint or editing features yet so it may be even better for me in the future. Thanks to Sweetwater. TC and my salesman Brock!

This pedal did just what I wanted it to do, got rid of the Guitar buzz!

This pedal works just as advertised. I'm putting together a home studio with components that can travel and be used for live performance as well. This unit fits right into my setup as an sux send and despite it being a pedal, works beautifully for both bass as well as kryboards. The release decay and threshold and damping features are sensitive enough for me to quickly adjust operation for anything I throw it's way, bass+ additional pedal noise, hum from a working Prophet 5 synth, or any other sound generators that can sometime have noise issues. I'll echo other comments and say it functions beautifully as as well as much more expensive rack mount studio noise gates. A great buy for the price point!

Wow this thing has worked wonders for the hum and buss my Fender jazz bass was putting off. Just dial in the sensitivity of the Threshold so it activates the noise gate at just the right time. If you are using a delay effect, you will have to dial the threshold back to lessor degree to get the delays to ring out, which is not a problem. My rig sounds great and has never been quieter.

Now for the bonus feature.....the effects loop!!! Before I started using the built in effects loop, I was experiencing tone suck, which was bumming me out. Now I run my Octave pedal, and my Chorus/Delay/Reverb pedal in the send/return loop off the Sentry, and then back out to my Ampeg DI box. That completely solved my issue and my tone is the same now as if my bass is plugged direct into the amplifier. Huge difference! I initially bought the Sentry for the noise gate, but the effects loop was feature that restored my original tone. Awesome product!! You will not be disappointed!!

Coming from expensive and well performing rack mount equipment I was skeptical of how well this pedal would work. Especially after purchasing a Electro-Harmonix Silencer. It was okay but nothing like my Drawmer DS201, or the gate section of my DBX 1066 and ISA 430..

I needed a high quality gate that worked as well as my rack mount gear but that I could fit on a mobile pedal board. All of the reviews I could find of this pedal were very favorable and promising. I was a little worried that I wouldn't like it.

When I started using this unit my concerns were gone and I was instantly not sorry for purchasing it! I'm very happy to report that this gate is not only dead quiet, but it does almost everything my rack mount units can do.

I say almost simply due to the fact that the rack mount units have a little more overall functionality and options that are usually only necessary in the studio. However don't let that take away from how great and powerful this gate is. My first concern with any device like this is making sure it's transparent.

I don't want anything in the signal chain to adversely affect my sound. As I said this unit is transparent. As far as how well it works? Well just let me say that I had a ear to ear smile when I turned it on! Unlike my EXH Silencer, I was immediately and easily able to get this thing set up to get rid of high gain hiss.

Best of all the settings weren't touchy or finicky. If you've ever tried to set up a gate with guitar or bass effect pedals you know what I mean. With the EHX unit I just couldn't get to a happy medium. If I set my threshold to the point where I got rid of the hiss, my softer notes wouldn't come through.

If I set it to where I could easily open the gate with the softer notes, the gate opened when I didn't want it to and was very touchy. None of this was ever a problem with either of my rack units and certainly isn't a problem with the Sentry!

(Needless to say I wish I would have bought this first instead of the EHX.)

The best thing about this unit is it really gets rid of the unwanted noise but leaves your tone intact while doing it. I mean this thing gets rid of about 85% of the hiss. That's something even the rack mount gats can't do! The processing that's built into this unit is second to none and I'm really surprised that this thing doesn't cost several hundred dollars more for all it does.

Usually I can find at least one thing to criticize about a product but this is one of those rare occasions that the engineers got it 100% on the money! This thing could survive a nuclear explosion and still work! It's built for to hell and back reliability.

Everything on this unit is heavy duty. There's literately no play in the knobs. All the jacks are made out of a heavy gauge metal and secured with metal nuts and screws. The switch for the Tone Print is solid and the power jack is very sturdy. Very, very well done TC!

I'm using this pedal with my Bass rig. I play with a lot of distortion and overdrive compared to some Bass Players. As such many of my pedals are high gain and noisy as a result. Thanks to the Sentry the hiss isn't a issue anymore. Best of all I don't have to lug all that rack mounted gear to a gig now!

I haven't tried it with any guitar pedals yet but considering my playing style and all my high gain pedals, I can't see why this wouldn't work just as well for all you guitar guys as it has for me, This pedal is a real winner. I know I will be buying a few more of these as my guitar pedal board grows larger.

I highly recommend this unit to anyone that uses high gain pedals or any long chain of analog pedals where unwanted analog noise/hiss is a issue. This unit is for you and will serve you very well for many years.

Buy with confidence!

After much research, the Sentry has been my first pedalboard noise gate I actually purchased and use. Over the years, I have tried a few in showrooms and borrowed from fellow players and just did not like the way they sounded. Subsequently, any of my rig floor noise was handled through the FOH and monitor gating systems. This pedal does the trick though and is a pleasure to use.

At first, I tried placing it in a few different places in the signal chain but was simply not happy with the sound. Then I started patching through the loop. Now I was getting somewhere. I eventually settled on running both overdrives, a distortion, and Budda wah through the loop then out to my compressor. Noise problem solved. There is still of course minimal tube amp noise but night and day difference with the gate engaged even with vintage P90s. Against all (my) logic as I have a clean shorter signal path with GeorgeL patches, I tried the buffer amp. Wow! Nice sound from the single coils in particular.

With this setup, I don't even have to roll off the guitar volume after every song now. I would suggest trying a variety of setups in your signal path and with the TonePrint software to determine what is best for your rig and ear. Since I am playing more intimate venues nowadays, it's just nice to have this onboard to keep the stage noise to a minimum. And my 'analog' ears stay happy, too.

TC has created a pretty cool noise gate that works fantastic. I especially needed something to tame single coil noise from my pedalboard. This does an outstanding job plus it also makes it more enjoyable to use fuzz boxes which I tend to have a love hate relationship with due to their noise. Great product, works especially well with high gain rigs to. I haven't had a reason to make a customed tuned tone print just yet but I could see it being a fantastic tool to remove unruly frequencies in studios or certain venues. Once again thanks Sweetwater for making my buying experience fantastic.

I just received this pedal yesterday and it blew me away ! It does what its suppose to do, keeps that hissy sound and feedback away. Highly recommend this pedal! Best noise gate out there!

I have a peavey 6505 and it makes alot of noise compared to my mesa and this gate kills it without killing your sustain ,it takes a little time to get it right with this amp but it works really well once it's dialed in.alot of options with the tc electronics software you can fine tune this peddle to work with your combination.

My pedal board is packed full of pedals and I had a problem with the added noise. I did everything I could to reduce the noise as much as possible, but the noise was still a major problem. After a LOT of research I decided on the Sentry.
I initially plugged my guitar in to the Sentry and used the loop option of the Senty. It didn't work too good. Then I realized I had pedals in the effects loop of my amp. I put the Sentry into the effects loop of the amp and wow! No more noise.
I highly recommend it.

I've used the Decimator,NS-2, and Rocktron Hush in the past. I have and have used many very high gain pedals including several Big Muffs, a Black Arts Destroyer, etc. It is the ONLY gate that has kept my rig dead silent without compromising tone or sustain. I run all the pedals through the loop of the gate, which works differently than the NS-2 loop. It opens and closed the gate based on the direct signal, ignoring the noise from the boxes. I have literally turned on 10 dirt boxes at the same time, and it is dead silent.

Only issue I ran into was with a Golden Cello by Mad Professor. It has an analog echo built in that was gated off when I put in the loop, so I had to run it before the gate. Otherwise, it is a flawless device.

I enjoy this pedal a lot. My amp and setup isn't excessively noisy but I like to keep everything tight. This helps keep things tight, and when I want to play clean just kick it off and get your chime and ring back. I'm sure I can fix that in the toneprint editor, I just haven't been able to get there just yet. Great product though, keeps my overdrive/distortion/dirt pedals at bay!

My Sweetwater rep, Dustin, always takes care of me and helped me get a great deal on this and a few other products that I rounded up. Thanks!

I switched from the original ISP decimator to this and could not be happier. The ISP was good. The sentry is better. I can't speak to how it would stack up against the II or the G-string but I can't imagine it being much better than this. At this price I think it is by far the best value! I can leave it on while playing clean and it does not cut out my signal wile playing lightly or squash my delays. I run a super high gain signal on a Mesa rectifier with a tube screamer in front and I can just leave it on with no issues. I didnt get too deep intop messing with the settings because I am getting everything I want from it already! Im sure the toneprint tech is awesome I just have not seen a need for it.

This thing is amazing! It is bar-none the best gate out there right now. I was using an Isp Decimator, which is a very good pedal in its own right. But the Sentry blows it away. Like the Decimator I hear no affect in my original tone, but this has a lot more options to tweak it how you like it. I play hi-gain, so i like a very fast gate, but at the same time I don't want it to chop off my held/bent notes. The Sentry does just that for me. And using the damp knob lets you either cut the signal all the way off when the gate engages, or just attenuate it. Which is really cool. You can make it sound like there is no gate, just a super quiet hi-gain amp(which we all know doesn't exist.) Lol. Plus the Toneprint is just an awesome feature. Oh,and for you single coil guys/gals,you can gate only your 60 cycle hum! That's just Crazy! If you got noise, you need this.

You WILL be happy! 2 thumbs up :)

It takes a little while to dial it in so that it doesn't alter the attack of your distorted/OD tone. Once it's set, though, it sounds great (meaning it doesn't sound like anything) and works very well. Haven't used the TonePrint feature yet, although I have used it on other TC pedals, but the Hiss and Gate settings are so good I am not sure I'll need to except to satisfy my curiosity.

This pedal lets me eliminate quite a bit of interference from my output signal.

I was using an ISP Decimator II in my rack and it was doing the job just fine except for one problem. It powers up in off state so when I powered up my rack I would have to reach in the back to engage the ISP pedal. That is honestly the reason I tried this pedal. I have not messed around with the tone print functionality as it is working just fine out of the box. I like the added control for damping and decay. Like any gate, still not perfect with dynamic playing like lowering volume knob on the guitar, but i have not gone crazy tweaking it yet! Overall I say this pedal is a winner.