The Rocktron Guitar Silencer is a rack noise gate that Dime used regularly as part of his setup. According to his guitar tech, Grady Champion, the noise guitar played a huge role in shaping Dime’s sound.
It was more the gate than the EQ. The frequencies in the Furman PQ-3 and PQ-4 that were cut, were boosted with the six-band, and vice-versa. The EQs worked like a giant gain stage. I kept the gate tight. The Rocktron Guitar Silencer was the favourite here.
Dimebag day: Dime’s longtime tech Grady Champion talks guitars, amps and tone
The Rocktron “Guitar Silencer” was Dime’s last rackmount “stereo” gate/NR unit. Where it was used in his signal chain will probably never be known, but every version of the Rocktron “Hush” that he used were “stereo” noise reduction systems (IIC, IICX, Super C, Guitar Silencer), meant to run through the effects loop of two amps (or sometimes through the front and in the loop of a single amp). Since Dime used at least 2 “dirty” amps (and 1 “clean” amp) live, he either used the 2 channel Gate in the effects loop of both “dirty” amps, or he could’ve used one channel at the beginning of his signal chain, and the 2nd channel before his “amp splitter”.