part · switch

Gazzew Boba U4

Spec sheet

Type: Silent tactile
Top housing: Nylon
Bottom housing: Nylon
Stem: POM
Spring: 62g actuation · 68g bottom-out
Travel: 4 mm
Factory lubed: yes
Released: Jun 1, 2020

Silent tactile with a round, pronounced bump at the top of the stroke and removable silicone dampening pads seated on the stem at both top-out and bottom-out. The nylon housing produces a muted thud rather than a clack; popular in office environments. Comes lubed at the leaf and spring bottom; slide rails ship dry. Builders often rattle-mod the spring for a cleaner sound.

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Mentioned in 6 articles

Split cross-section line drawing of a mechanical switch. The left half shows a stem with elastomer pads on the foot of its legs and the top of its rails, picked out in a dusty-rose splash; the right half shows a housing with a dampening ring seated at the floor. Rendered in a single warm-grey stroke with a brass-bronze theme dot at the upper right.

Deep Dives

What a silent switch actually silences — and what it can't

Every keystroke lands twice — once on the floor, once on the ceiling. Cherry molds an elastomer pad onto the stem to catch both; Gazzew fits a silicone one. The undamped Boba U4T shows what either approach is buying — about 14 dB on one tester's meter — and what it costs in travel, rebound, and a bump with nowhere left to go.

thockAug 19, 202610 min read

Three switch silhouettes in a row — a tactile, a silent tactile, and a linear — sharing one continuous housing outline drawn in a single warm-grey stroke, with a coral splash pooled beneath the middle silent-tactile silhouette and a brass-bronze theme dot at the upper right

Deep Dives

The Boba Family: One Housing Blend, Five Switches, and the Sound thock Is Named For

Gazzew designs, Outemu molds, and a plastic softer than nylon does the rest. Every Boba is the same chamber with something deliberately left out — and the pattern of subtractions is the whole family tree.

thockJul 27, 202610 min read

Side-view cross-section of a nylon-housing tactile switch — top housing with a faint dashed ghost-ring marking an absent stem-mounted dampening pad, POM stem with a D-shaped flat-plateau tactile bump positioned high in the stroke, coil spring, and nylon bottom housing with a matching absent-pad ghost-ring at the floor, coral resonance arcs radiating above the top housing and below the bottom housing, rendered in a single warm-grey stroke with a coral splash across the plateau contact point

Deep Dives

Why the Gazzew Boba U4T Rings Where the Boba U4 Stays Quiet

Same housing, same bump position — the U4T's whole personality comes down to what Gazzew left out. Pull the dampening pads from a Boba U4 and the bottom-out stops being polite.

thockJun 29, 202611 min read

A switch housing split open in cross-section, with coral accent lines marking the four application points where lube changes a switch's character.

Ideas

Lubing switches: what to use, how much, and what to skip

Four lubes, four application points, and one rule that prevents most mistakes: over-lubing is irreversible, under-lubing is not. Here is the practical reference.

thockJun 5, 202610 min read

Cross-section line drawing of a mechanical keyboard stack — keycaps, switches, plate, PCB, gasket socks, case, and desk surface — each layer labeled with its acoustic role and drawn in a single warm-grey stroke with an ochre splash highlighting the plate and a brass-bronze theme dot at the upper right.

Deep Dives

The physics of thock: how every layer shapes your keyboard's sound

Every component between your fingertip and the desk makes a decision about your keyboard's sound — the switch, the plate, the case, the surface it sits on. Understanding what each layer adds or subtracts is the difference between chasing a sound blindly and engineering it deliberately.

thockJun 3, 202616 min read

Vertical exploded-stack diagram of a mechanical switch, drawn in a single warm-grey stroke with horizontal dashed explode-lines and an ochre splash highlighting the cruciform stem top.

Guides

A beginner's guide to picking your first switch

Switches are the single biggest factor in how a keyboard feels and sounds, and the catalog has grown overwhelming. This guide narrows the entire market into three families, explains who each one is for, and gives a three-step path from curiosity to a confident first purchase. By the end, the reader can pick a category without second-guessing.

thockApr 30, 20268 min read

Gazzew Boba U4 appears in editor-curated build sheets.

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