Muzzle Gate: where to find disk caps in the right values?

[Caldo71]

Guys I’m having a hard time finding the 560nF and 150nF ceramic disk capacitors on either Mouser or Digikey...am I missing something? And yes I looked under their converted uF values as well.

And a related newb question: do they HAVE to be ceramic disk or can I go with box film caps just as well? I always just look at other people’s build pics on this forum and if I see disk caps, that’s what I buy. But I’m too new to all this to understand if that has anything to do with tone, or if it’s just that’s what the dude had lying around.

 

[giovanni]

You can definitely replace with box film. The effect on the tone should be next to none.

The only cap replacement to be careful about is if you are replacing any cap with an electrolytic one since polarity matters for them and thus you need to figure where to put the positive side.

 

[Caldo71]

Thank you Giovanni that was my suspicion but I had to ask!

 

[Paradox916]

The the 150 nf you can find box film or MLCC (multi layered ceramics cap) but the 560nf I found the MLCC works best (.56uf). I like MLCCs better than the cheaper ceramic disks they seem a little quieter, but that’s just me... It’s a phenomenal gate. Parts can be a little bit of a pain to source but it’s totally worth it. With the key input it was a game changer for sure.

 

[Caldo71]

The the 150 nf you can find box film or MLCC (multi layered ceramics cap) but the 560nf I found the MLCC works best (.56uf). I like MLCCs better than the cheaper ceramic disks they seem a little quieter, but that’s just me... It’s a phenomenal gate. Parts can be a little bit of a pain to source but it’s totally worth it. With the key input it was a game changer for sure.

So the key input is like a sidechain thing? Like, you’d somehow split your guitar signal before it goes into any of your pedals and send it to the key input...so that the muzzle is reacting to a pure guitar signal beforr it hits distortion pedals etc?

 

[Paradox916]

Yes. I have a tuner pedal I can split the signal with.
how I run it:
Signal chain:
guitar-tuner-O.D., boost or distortion- gate- amp
Key/side chain:
Tuner bypass to gate key/side chain
If that makes any sense.

 

[Caldo71]

Yes. I have a tuner pedal I can split the signal with.
how I run it:
Signal chain:
guitar-tuner-O.D., boost or distortion- gate- amp
Key/side chain:
Tuner bypass to gate key/side chain
If that makes any sense.

Perfect sense thank you!

 

[Robert]

If you install the key passthrough jacks you don't even need a splitter...

You can run the clean "control" signal through the Key jacks first, then connect the actual gate somewhere later in the chain.

 

[Caldo71]

Hey so can somebody here help me "decode" the proper pinouts on the Tayda jacks that @PedalPCB recommends for passthroughs on the build doc? I've tried wiring them up several ways based on the build doc illustration, the Tayda pinout diagram, and photos from other people's build docs, but nothing seems to be triggering the gate properly.

If you look at the split image I'm attaching to this post below, the top half is the pinout diagram that Tayda provided me with, and circled in red is the specific model they told me was a match for the part I ordered. The bottom half of the image is obviously the illustration from PedalPCB's build doc.

Based on Tayda's provided diagram, plus on common practices (pin 2 hot/tip, pin 3 cold/ring, pin 1 ground/sleeve), and by what I actually see happening when I insert a 1/4" jack into the Tayda part, should it not be that "tip" from the PedalPCB diagram should be lead #2 on the Tayda part, and "switched tip" from the PedalPCB diagram should be lead #4 on the Tayda part?

I've tried wiring it up THAT way, and ALSO swapping leads 2 and 4, and neither of those seem to do the deed. Furthermore, if leads 2 and 4 are what I suspect them to be, they don't even "visually match" the jack orientation in the PedalPCB diagram...like where the little diagonal angle on the part is, etc. I've also tried wiring it up so that it DOES visually match that diagram, and that doesn't seem to work either.

The passthrough wiring in people's build reports photos is all over the map for whatever reason as well (possibly because they aren't using the Tayda part? all the time?) so I don't know what to rely on. HELP!

 

[giovanni]

From the schematic it seems that 3 is tip and 5 the switched tip. It’s a stereo jack so you also have ring and switched ring.

 

[Caldo71]

From the schematic it seems that 3 is tip and 5 the switched tip. It’s a stereo jack so you also have ring and switched ring.

See that's the way the schematic looked to me as well...the way they show 3 and 5 as the LONGER poles in the drawing?

But when I actually, physically stick a 1/4"plug into that jack and look at what is physically happening in its "guts", it really seems like the tip is coming into contact with (the more traditional) pins 2 and 4. So that's what I went with.

But maybe there's something going on in that jack's tracers that is escaping me and I should just try wiring it up with 3 as tip, 5 as switched tip...see what happens.

 

[giovanni]

When in doubt, just use a DMM to figure out the connections.

 

[Robert]

 

[giovanni]

@PedalPCB to the rescue!