Simplest noise gate possible

[Cortexturizer]

Guys, I was just wondering what would make the simplest, and I mean ridiculously simple noise gate that would work in a satisfactory manner with fuzz/drive pedals?
I read on DIYSB a post by Mark Hammer about the minimum requirements of a noise gate, but having built some tone benders and octavias I cannot shake the feeling that it could be done with just a BJT/FET and a couple of other components...What do you guys think? I know there's a muff mod that's supposedly noise gate but I haven't tried.
If all else fails, maybe someone knows about similar mods for other transistor based pedals out there.

Speak out!

P.S. There was also some discussion about making some sort of compressor with a 1:1 ratio that could be a noise gate actually, I have not made any further research on that, maybe that would be the easiest way to go?
I do plan building the Decimator, but what I am looking here, if possible, is something with a low parts count, like I don't know, SHO, AMZ boost, and other simple pedals, that would do gating pretty good, it doesn't need to be excellent.

[midwayfair]

Well, the simplest gate would be to make the fuzz itself gate.

The issue is that you want the gate to open with small signals, but also to close with ... slightly smaller signals. Noise gates are so complicated because they have to figure out if you're actually playing. 50cycle (I think that's what you're on) hum is not exactly quieter than a quiet guitar note, so if you make the gate simply look for pure volume, then pickup noise will open it. Buzz can easily be roughly the same volume as a quiet note. A simple gate will sound ... gated, rather than just "no noise when I'm not playing."

[Cortexturizer]

Good, strong points. But why doesn't the tone bender [when set appropriately, I mean to do gating] open on 50cycle hum, or buzz? Yes, it does sound gated but sometimes that's not bad at all. You are quite an expert on compression, what are your thoughts of modding some compressor circuit that maybe could do noise gating? Possible?

[lincolnic]

Good, strong points. But why doesn't the tone bender [when set appropriately, I mean to do gating] open on 50cycle hum, or buzz? Yes, it does sound gated but sometimes that's not bad at all. You are quite an expert on compression, what are your thoughts of modding some compressor circuit that maybe could do noise gating? Possible?

It might be worth stating that compression and gating are sort of related, in that they both operate with a given threshold, but they're not the same effect. Compression automatically attenuates a signal once it passes above a certain threshold. Gating cuts a signal off once it falls below a certain threshold. One way to think about it is that they operate in different directions. I'm not sure you could mod a compressor to turn it into a gate; even though they're both based on dynamic range, they're different effects.

[alanp]

Quality, thorough, cheap. Pick two. And this is bad, too.

[GrindCustoms]

DOD had a noise gate back then... that was fairly simple... going to make some search and report.

Edit: The DOD230 and MXR noise gates are both pretty much simple, plenty of info on DIYSB and there's some verifed vero layouts for them too.