Mosky Noise Gate

The Mosky Noise Gate, model MP-40, is a mini noise gate pedal from Mosky, hand-made and finished in gold. Mosky describes it as based on the MXR Noise Gate, the analog gate MXR built in Rochester, New York, in 1980¹². A noise gate sits in your signal chain and mutes or attenuates the signal when it drops below a set volume threshold, so hum, hiss and background noise from high-gain pedals and amps do not come through between notes².

Mosky says the pedal works by sensing your guitar's dry signal and reducing the noise level within the effect loop, "coming down hard on even the noisiest signals"¹. It is a compact, single-knob solution for players who want to clean up a noisy pedalboard without a large or complex unit.

How it works and how it is controlled

The MP-40 has a single control: a Gate (Trigger) knob that sets the volume threshold at which the pedal is active¹. Turn it up and the gate only opens for louder signals, cutting more noise but risking clipped note tails; turn it down and quieter passages pass through, along with more of the noise. There is also an on/off LED indicator so you can see at a glance whether the gate is engaged¹.

That single knob is the whole interface, which is what makes it a mini pedal. It is worth knowing how a threshold gate behaves when set hard. Kit Rae, writing about noise gates in the context of David Gilmour's rig, notes¹³:

In other words, the setting matters as much as the circuit: a gate clamped down too tightly can chop the decay of held notes instead of letting them fade naturally.

Where the circuit comes from

Mosky states plainly that the MP-40 is based on the MXR Noise Gate¹. The original was the MXR Noise Gate/Line Driver, model MX-106, made in Rochester, New York, in 1980, and it was developed to solve the problems of background noise and hum that occur in performance². Unlike the Mosky, the MXR unit doubled as a line driver: it was used to boost your signal and cut noise to your amp².

How it compares to other noise gates

The MP-40's closest relative in the current MXR lineup is the MXR Smart Gate (M135), made by MXR under Jim Dunlop⁴¹. The Smart Gate is equipped with three selectable types of noise reduction, Hiss, Mid and Full, so you can target the kind of noise your rig produces⁴. The Mosky offers none of that: one knob, one threshold.

Against other compact gates, the Mosky's single-knob approach is common. The GOKKO KULT uses a sensitivity control that dictates the level when the noise gate kicks in, which is the same idea under a different name⁵. Some gates add a second control for the release behavior: the Boss NF-1 Noise Gate, for example, has a Decay knob that adjusts how fast you want the signal to fade out⁶. The Mosky has no such control, so the fade character is fixed by the circuit.

For context on where the MP-40 sits in the market, Kit Rae's technical analysis notes that "there are good ones on the market like the MXR Smart Gate, Boss NS-2, or ISP Decimator"³¹, with the Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor and ISP's Decimator line among the established names. The Mosky's pitch is different: a small, hand-made, analog, true bypass gate built on a known circuit at mini-pedal size.

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