# Accidentally found a trick with Boss NS-2



## sami (Mar 15, 2009)

So my lead guitarist let me borrow his NS-2 until I get a Decimator again. He thought there was a battery in it. When I threw it in my loop and engaged it, I heard my amp's hissing get quiet, but the LED's didn't light up.

So I connected an adapter. Works as expected, which isn't that great since I've been spoiled by Decimators, but honestly I liked it when it had no power. It was set to mute, not reduction btw. In fact, it reminded me more a Decimator this way because of how it acted. I can't get the NS-2 to act the same way when it DOES have power...

For any NS-2 owners out there, try this yourself and see if you like it. I'm going to try this again next practice.


----------



## DrakkarTyrannis (Mar 15, 2009)

OMGBBQ4WTFLULZ!


----------



## ugmung (Mar 15, 2009)

how the hell does that work? maybe you have a retarded LED.


----------



## scottro202 (Mar 15, 2009)

wow, interesting. unfortunately, I dont have a NS-2, ill try it with my rocktron hush though


----------



## sami (Mar 15, 2009)

ugmung said:


> how the hell does that work? maybe you have a retarded LED.



Not sure myself! It didn't have a battery so no power + mute = 



DrakkarTyrannis said:


> OMGBBQ4WTFLULZ!



 
HOMINAHOMINAHOMINAHOMINAHOMINAHOMINAHOMINAHOMINAHOMINAHOMINAHOMINAHOMINAHOMINA


----------



## maat (Mar 15, 2009)

Yup, if they're built right...I use my Marshall Vibra-Trem pedal as a killswitch in a similar way. Connect both input and output sources normally, but don't supply any power to the pedal.


----------



## Necky379 (Mar 15, 2009)

shit now i wish i had mine to try it out. i got rid of it 2 days after i bought it i hated it so much. i rather listen to noise than the poor excuse for tone that the ns-2 makes. still havent tried the decimator yet, but soon...what i dont get is why so many pro guitar players use that piece of shit, can they really not hear how much it affects their tone or do they just not care?


----------



## 7 Strings of Hate (Mar 15, 2009)

i have one and it works perfectly for me


----------



## DrakkarTyrannis (Mar 15, 2009)

Necky379 said:


> shit now i wish i had mine to try it out. i got rid of it 2 days after i bought it i hated it so much. i rather listen to noise than the poor excuse for tone that the ns-2 makes. still havent tried the decimator yet, but soon...what i dont get is why so many pro guitar players use that piece of shit, can they really not hear how much it affects their tone or do they just not care?



Because it doesn't if used correctly.

I've tried millions of times testing the pedal to hear a tone "suck" and there was nothing. It gives a little bit of compression, but that's what I like about it,it's barely there but you can tell. It doesn't cut off my sustain, doesn't make my rig sound like anything other than a rig with no feedback and it works just fine. I see no reason to bother with a decimator since the "advantages" the pedal supposedly has are what my NS-2 already give me


----------



## Distortion (Mar 15, 2009)

DrakkarTyrannis said:


> Because it doesn't if used correctly.
> 
> I've tried millions of times testing the pedal to hear a tone "suck" and there was nothing. It gives a little bit of compression, but that's what I like about it,it's barely there but you can tell. It doesn't cut off my sustain, doesn't make my rig sound like anything other than a rig with no feedback and it works just fine. I see no reason to bother with a decimator since the "advantages" the pedal supposedly has are what my NS-2 already give me



+1 to that.

I'm gonna cut the power to my NS-2 and try that stuff out tomorrow


----------



## Harry (Mar 16, 2009)

I believe this same trick works on the Behringer NR-100 (NS-2 Clone) pedal too if I'm not mistaken.


----------



## sami (Mar 16, 2009)

DrakkarTyrannis said:


> Because it doesn't if used correctly.
> 
> I've tried millions of times testing the pedal to hear a tone "suck" and there was nothing. It gives a little bit of compression, but that's what I like about it,it's barely there but you can tell. It doesn't cut off my sustain, doesn't make my rig sound like anything other than a rig with no feedback and it works just fine. I see no reason to bother with a decimator since the "advantages" the pedal supposedly has are what my NS-2 already give me



I owned an NS-2 back in the day as well and it did fine. Honestly I think it's picky with amps since it worked great on my 5150 as well as on a DSL50. It doesn't seem to like my current at all amp though (El Diablo 60TS).

To me, it's not really a tone "suck" but there is a change in dynamics when the pedal is engaged even with all the settings at 0. It sounds the same, but doesn't feel the same. Again, this is with my current amp.


----------



## petereanima (Mar 16, 2009)

i didnt notice a difference when i used it with my old Marshall, but as soon as i used it with the Herbert it did cut some low-end.

of course the Diezel provides WAY more lowend than the Marshall ever could, i guess thats why i didnt noticed that before.

i always found the NS-2 (nto depending on the map) only useable with extreme settings, and then it really starts to suck sustain.


----------



## Scar Symmetry (Mar 16, 2009)

with my NS-2 I find that it does suck a TINY bit of my tone and a TINY bit of my sustain... but not enough for me to want to spend twice as much for the ISP which will sound barely different. if I did upgrade it would be to a Pro Rack G but I won't need that til my band is touring extensively.


----------



## Leuchty (Mar 17, 2009)

sami said:


> So my lead guitarist let me borrow his NS-2 until I get a Decimator again. He thought there was a battery in it. When I threw it in my loop and engaged it, I heard my amp's hissing get quiet, but the LED's didn't light up.
> 
> So I connected an adapter. Works as expected, which isn't that great since I've been spoiled by Decimators, but honestly I liked it when it had no power. It was set to mute, not reduction btw. In fact, it reminded me more a Decimator this way because of how it acted. I can't get the NS-2 to act the same way when it DOES have power...
> 
> For any NS-2 owners out there, try this yourself and see if you like it. I'm going to try this again next practice.



I can confirm this, sami. tried it last night.

I put the pedal into mute mode turned it off and did the same thing as if it was on. The check light was off but the reduction light comes on.


----------



## sami (Mar 18, 2009)

awesome ^_^


----------



## CrashRG (Mar 18, 2009)

i had the blue rocktron hush pedal that i bought brand new and hated it. it was great for distorted sounds, but if i switch to clean, it fuzzed out my sound bad. even if i had it set a loose as possible, sounded like shit.


----------



## CentaurPorn (Mar 18, 2009)

hmm I am using a Boss NS-2 right now and I find that I lose a lot of high end. I have been playing with it for a few weeks now. For fun I took it out of my signal path last night and I had to turn my treble down.. a lot.


----------



## Nialzzz (Mar 15, 2010)

It's totally subjective really. 

I recently got the rocktron hush rackmount. I have it running through the serial loop from my Herbert. It sucks tone pretty badly, leading me to use my Ns-2. 
Coupled with the super high gain diezel it doesn't suck any tone at all. It does make my guitar a lot punchier. At my local practice studio I nearly disintegrated a Mesa rectifier cab with my head and set up. 

I'll be picking up the rackmounted decimator with my next paycheck. Demoting the stombox back into my "back up rig". Granted I always have it in my pedal board, never have it running.


----------



## maliciousteve (Mar 15, 2010)

Just tried it. While it does cut out the back ground hiss, it made my tone fizzy and sterile.


----------



## sami (Mar 15, 2010)

wow how things have changed for me exactly a year later!


----------



## jacksonwarriormg (Jan 3, 2011)

i dont really understand wath im need to do (im french probably)i got my guitar jack plug into my Cry baby---> Boss-FRD1--->BOSS metal zone---->input of NS-2 ----> out put to clean channel of my marshall MG100hdfx all plug with 1 spot and daisy chain sooooo....wath im doing bad


----------



## Hybrid138 (Jan 3, 2011)

Do you need to use the X connection method for this trick to work? I'd like to try it. No battery is needed and you set it to mute, this will remove the hiss from the amp? I'm currently using the X connection method.


----------

