Understanding Gates And Placement (US Fuzz!)

[CBA]

Hi there.

I love the Devi US Fuzz, and I've been trying to find a good place for it in my chain. Its placement was/is going to be determined by how the crazy gate on it effects everything else.

I've found a good order for my fuzz pedals, but I don't understand why the US gate (or any gate; but I've not had any other heavily gated pedal or compressor/etc.) works so well at the beginning of a chain and not at the end.

For instance, if I put the US before my Rat, the gate works perfectly. But when I put it after my Rat, there is a lot of buzzing and stuff that doesn't get cut off. Shouldn't it be the opposite? I can't question the way it actually WORKS, because that's the way it works audibly. I'm just wondering why.

Is using water a bad example? Like you pour some water into a big funnel or something, and after the funnel is the US Fuzz, then after that the Rat. The water gets held back by the US, but then goes flows wildly when it goes through the Rat. But the signal doesn't work that way at all. Like if you had three fuzzes in front of the US, and the "water" got all hot and cold and spraying and rapid and everything, and then the US gate was at the END of the chain, wouldn't the gate at the end of the chain tame all the water/signal/sounds?

I don't know the technical terms. I'm not annoyed because it works this way, again, I'm just wondering why/how.

Thanks,

C

p.s. The setup is now guitar > US Fuzz > Soda Meiser > Merkin > Rat > Amp

Everything colors everything else really nicely, especially when run after the US.

[devnulljp]

Is the Rat buffered?
The gate depends on how it's set up in the circuit and it's not really a generic noise gate. My guess would be that with the rat first, there's so much gain that it's higher than the gate's threshold so you're still going to get white noise.

[CBA]

That makes sense. I guess I figured that the gate would take over no matter what was coming into it.

No, the Rat isn't buffered... it's one of the non-LED small boxes from like 85 or 86. I love it.

Thanks!

C

[onyxrhino]

The gate isn't absolute. It can only stop things to a certain point. Once other pedals are flowing into it, it's usually more than it can handle. For instance, the Silver Crank/33 is a gated fuzz. But, you put a Dark Boost before it and the boost defeats the gate and suddenly you have the crazy sustain of a Hyperion.

[Gunner Recall]

Once other pedals are flowing into it, it's usually more than it can handle.

That's pretty much what I was going to say.
It's not a gate in a traditional sense like an ISP or the heavens gate, it's a gated fuzz. The gate works perfectly fine with the fuzz of the US but start adding anything else and it gets blown open.

[CBA]

Understood. I still find it interesting that the gate still works for everything after the US Fuzz, including the SM, Merkin, and Rat. Oh well. It sounds great.

Thanks,

C

[Gunner Recall]

Understood. I still find it interesting that the gate still works for everything after the US Fuzz, including the SM, Merkin, and Rat. Oh well. It sounds great.

We'll just write the US off as a miracle.
Fuckin magnets.

[CBA]

I forget who it was, but some jerk in the "LET'S SEE YOU" thread had an animated pic of glasses coming down onto his face, and then he linked to the Know Your Memes site, and I spent like 3 hours on it the other day like a REAL jerk.

But if it wasn't for that and the knowledge I did procure, I wouldn't have laughed at

"Fuckin magnets."


Noice.

C