The Electro-Harmonix Silencer is a noise gate and effects loop pedal, first shown at Summer NAMM in July 2015 and released that year. Its party trick is flexibility: beyond gating your signal directly, it offers the ability to silence a single pedal or an entire effects loop through its built-in send and return jacks, so a noisy drive or fuzz can sit inside the gate rather than after it1. Premier Guitar demoed it at the show as one of Mike Matthews' three newest stompboxes, alongside the 22500 Stereo Looper and the Bad Stone Phaser2.
What it does
A noise gate mutes or cuts the signal when you are not playing, which is how it removes the hiss and hum that distortion pedals, single-coil pickups and high-gain amps pile up between notes. The Silencer adds an effects loop to that basic job. Put a noisy pedal in the send and return jacks and the gate can clean up that pedal's output on its own, or gate the whole loop at once1.
Its three controls cover the usual gate questions of how fast the gate closes, how loud the signal has to be before it opens, and how much the level is pulled down when it does3.
| Control | What it sets |
|---|---|
| Release | How quickly the gate closes after the signal stops3 |
| Threshold | The signal level above which the gate opens3 |
| Reduction | How much the level is cut when the gate is closed3 |
Where it came from
MusicRadar reported the Silencer's unveiling at Summer NAMM 2015, where Electro-Harmonix introduced it together with the 22500 Dual Stereo Looper, with both pedals available in August1. Premier Guitar's demo coverage from the show grouped it with the 22500 and the Bad Stone Phaser as the three newest stompboxes from the company's founder, Mike Matthews2.
Among noise gates
The Silencer sits in a crowded field of compact gates, from the Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor to the MXR Smart Gate and the Pigtronix Gatekeeper. Its list price is $813. What marks it out among them is the built-in effects loop, which lets it gate a single pedal or a whole loop through its own send and return jacks rather than only the signal passing through it1. For other approaches to the same problem, see the site's Noise Gate Pedals page, and for hum specifically, Electro-Harmonix also makes the Hum Debugger.
Videos
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Questions
What does the Electro-Harmonix Silencer do?
It is a noise gate and effects loop pedal. As a gate, it cuts the hum and hiss that noisy pedals and high-gain amps produce when you stop playing. Its built-in send and return jacks also let it silence a single pedal or an entire effects loop, so the gating happens before those pedals reach the amp rather than after.
When did the Electro-Harmonix Silencer come out?
Electro-Harmonix released the Silencer in 2015. The company unveiled it at Summer NAMM in July 2015 alongside the 22500 Dual Stereo Looper, with availability set for August of that year. Premier Guitar featured it among Mike Matthews' three newest stompboxes in its Summer NAMM demos.
Sources (3)
- SUMMER NAMM 2015: Electro-Harmonix unveils 22500 Dual Stereo Looper and Silencer Noise Gate/Effects Loop pedals, MusicRadar, 2015-07-13
- Electro-Harmonix 22500 Looper & More: SNAMM '15 Demos, Premier Guitar, 2015-07-17
- Guitar Pedal X, Guitar Pedal X, 2025-05-26
