Review:ISP Decimator

February 6th, 2009 by Andres Gallo

ISP Decimator
$124

Design

ISP Technologies did a very great pedal when they came out with the ISP decimator. At least the other users seem very impressed. They are definitely much more impressed than I am, however. I am not saying, the pedal is a bad pedal, as it is indeed the best noise suppressor pedal I have tried. After all, there is a reason why the general consensus, is this is the best suppressor in pedal form out there. It can make the amp dead quite, and according to many without sacrificing the playing dynamics. I love the way the pedal controls the signal with its smart threshold knob. Its very simple and it works. And the physical design is also very attractive with it’s boss pedal like chrome casing. Overall a very simple effective design.

Sound

Here is where I am not impressed with the pedal. I expected this to be the first noise suppressor that does not ruin my playing dynamics. The difference in dynamics is very small but its there, and I am playing without a noise suppressor because of this issue. This is the closest to giving me a transparent sound I have come across, but with the slight side effect I still prefer having the background noise. It works beautifully if the songs have a similar amount of gain through out. For music that goes from low to high gain, the playing dynamics on the lower gain parts will suffer a huge loss of dynamics.
For those of you looking for a suppressor, think twice before you buy. ISP new g-string noise suppressor (yup, that’s what it is called), promised to fix this issue. For those of you looking to buy a new suppressor, I recommend researching the new model.

Reliability

It is built like a boss pedal. It’s build quility is very reliable.

Customer Support

Have not dealt with their customer support.