"The Small Knob Club" Mini Pedals

KevS

I thought I would report the outcome of buying some Chinese Mini Pedals..

Goods and Bads...  I am hoping others will post their experiences..
We can maybe create some shared knowledge here..
There is obviously a lot of rebranding going on..

Donner Morpher Distortion.. £27 I think.. Amazon Prime

This is a really good little pedal with 3 modes Normal ,Tight and Warm..

It goes from loads of distortion to almost clean...
The pots seem to operate through their full range..
Read up on this pot problem later with the Mimidi Delay.. later...

It has plenty of volume on tap..

Normal is a quite open distortion sound..It sounds a bit boutique indeed..
The Middle tight mode is good for heavier higher gain stuff..
The Warm sounds like a really good 1980s Distortion Pedal..
Smoother grain and warmer fuller mids than a Rat,,I would have bought this pedal just for that...
This pedal is useful..

I've been mainly playing it with a Telecaster at the moment.. 

Mooer Blues Crab Overdrive £37. Andertons

I love this pedal.

The gain has to be above 12 ocklock to get unity volume..
So there is hardly any volume on tap..

I don't think the gain sounds  that good cranked,,this is also a low gain pedal..
Less overdrive available than a Tube Screamer..

What it can do for me is one of the most useful things ever..

You know how you have to turn up most guitar amps to get them to come alive..
Well this is a Come Alive pedal..It sounds natural,way less synthetic than a Tubescreamer..
You can get at the edge of breaking up,or before that when your amp gets some body in the sound from coming alive..
This can make a quiet amp sound loud basically..
I have been using it on the Silverface switch on the Roland Micro Cube..
It sounds brilliant with it,,maybe this is an in the house pedal..
To me a useful one though..

Donner Jet Convolution Flanger.. £23 Amazon Prime

This does the sound of the EHX Electric Mistress..

Pretty Much Seventeen Seconds and Faith by the Cure in a Box..

Speed just past 3 O'clock ,,Colour about 1 O'clock,, Range 9 O'clock..

The More we know the less we show..

Pedants,,yes I know I spelled Colour the British way and the Mistress was American.. 

Take the speed down a bit and you have Sister Europe by The Psychedelic Furs.

Most of the Flanging action is above 12 noon on the rate control..

It even has the filter Matrix,,not experimented with that yet..

Right now I like it way more than my BF 2 it just makes the right sounds..

Mimidi Delay £20 Amazon Prime

This pedal sounds Okay,,sound wise it is very usable..Quite smooth and analogue in sounds..

The problem is that all the Delay range is basically between, 9 and 12 noon on the pot so dialling in time is difficult..
You can get the approximate Slap back thing though.. .
Also the 9 Volt DC input is on the side of the pedal..
If you are using pancake jacks it widens the gap a bit more than the jacks do,so it takes up more pedalboard space..


Potential next Pedals..

Donner Ultimate Compressor.......I'm on an optical kick..It may be a rip off of the Boss CS 1
Donner Boost Killer.....

DrCornelius

Lolling for the title, useful post though

Dave_Mc

i think the morpher is a riot clone and the blues crab is a marshall bluesbreaker

i've got the jet convolution, it's pretty nice. i haven't tried the original, though.

KevS

Dave_Mc said:

i think the morpher is a riot clone and the blues crab is a marshall bluesbreaker

i've got the jet convolution, it's pretty nice. i haven't tried the original, though.

The Jet Convolution is an EHX Electric Mistress Clone..
I think it sounds a bit more like the Green one than the Deluxe..It is a bit addictive..
I like it better than my BF 2,BF 3 and Ibanez Master series Flanger..
An FL9 in a different Box..It is a Draw with my MXR 117 R..
Partly because you can get that Banshees and Magazine sound on the 117 R..
It is really good..

I think the MXR and the Donner mix with distortion better than the other 3 too..

I know about the other 2 Clones..

I hope the pedals last because they sound good..

I may buy a spare Jet Convolution in a little while..
.

JerkMoans

DrCornelius said:

Lolling for the title

Sure got your attention.  Like a moth to a flame  

dilbert

Dave_Mc said:

i think the morpher is a riot clone and the blues crab is a marshall bluesbreaker.

Correct on both counts.

DrCornelius

It’s a curiosity thing - how the other half live and all that

Greatape

Mooer Black Secret, Orange Phaser, E-Lady

All very good. 

The Reecho is a good delay but a bit noisy. 

DrCornelius

Greatape said:

Mooer Black Secret, Orange Phaser, E-Lady

All very good. 

The Reecho is a good delay but a bit noisy. 

I’m selling all 3 of those in the classifieds atm :-)

Greatape

DrCornelius said:

Greatape said:

Mooer Black Secret, Orange Phaser, E-Lady

All very good. 

The Reecho is a good delay but a bit noisy. 

I’m selling all 3 of those in the classifieds atm :-)

Someone should acquire them post haste.

KevS

I've got a Rat,A Phase 90 and the Jet Convolution is an E Lady..
I'm about to check for any more though.. 

Dave_Mc

KevS said:

Dave_Mc said:

i think the morpher is a riot clone and the blues crab is a marshall bluesbreaker

i've got the jet convolution, it's pretty nice. i haven't tried the original, though.

The Jet Convolution is an EHX Electric Mistress Clone..
I think it sounds a bit more like the Green one than the Deluxe..It is a bit addictive..
I like it better than my BF 2,BF 3 and Ibanez Master series Flanger..
An FL9 in a different Box..It is a Draw with my MXR 117 R..
Partly because you can get that Banshees and Magazine sound on the 117 R..
It is really good..

I think the MXR and the Donner mix with distortion better than the other 3 too..

I know about the other 2 Clones..

I hope the pedals last because they sound good..

I may buy a spare Jet Convolution in a little while..
.

Yeah, I know it's an EHX clone but I haven't tried the original! I think it's too different to really compare it to the MXR- I've got the EVH version. If you want EVH tones the MXR is better, if you want EHX tones the Donner is better!

I'm not sure about the reliability... I've got a bunch of mini pedals, several mooers too, and they all seem ok (I haven't exactly taxed them with light home use, though). That being said I ordered one of the really mini donners (not the mooer-sized ones, they have even smaller ones), the delay, and it was DOA. 

markv

I've had a couple of Mooer pedals, and they seem to be available on Amazon under the Donner brand (and others) as well.

Mooer Blues Mood: as far as I can tell, this is a Boss Blues Driver copy, with a switch for the Keeley mod. I don't know how well it compared with the real thing, since I've never owned a Blues Driver, but I couldn't get a sound I was happy with - although in hindsight this might have been as much to do with my amp as anything else. Not a bad pedal, just not for me.

Mooer Graphic G: this lasted quite a long time on my board as it takes hardly any space and is very useful for shaping a sound. However, it's a bit noisy and with only 5 frequencies, not as flexible as a BOSS GE-7, which is what I now have.

I also have a Hotone Wally+ looper, which is really, really tiny. It has 11 memory slots and, er, plays loops. And takes up almost negative space on a pedal board*.

*this is a slight exaggeration

Greatape

markv said:

I've had a couple of Mooer pedals, and they seem to be available on Amazon under the Donner brand (and others) as well.

Mooer Blues Mood: as far as I can tell, this is a Boss Blues Driver copy, with a switch for the Keeley mod. I don't know how well it compared with the real thing, since I've never owned a Blues Driver, but I couldn't get a sound I was happy with - although in hindsight this might have been as much to do with my amp as anything else. Not a bad pedal, just not for me.

Mooer Graphic G: this lasted quite a long time on my board as it takes hardly any space and is very useful for shaping a sound. However, it's a bit noisy and with only 5 frequencies, not as flexible as a BOSS GE-7, which is what I now have.

I also have a Hotone Wally+ looper, which is really, really tiny. It has 11 memory slots and, er, plays loops. And takes up almost negative space on a pedal board*.

*this is a slight exaggeration

I have the Blues Mood; it's extremely particular about amps. It makes bright amps sound like arse.

Supportact

I've got a Mooer Trelicopter. Very good sound and not as noisy as some other trems. Seems pretty solid and still going after few years' use so can't really fault it.

KevS

I have bought the Donner Ultimate Compressor and the Donner Killer Boost,,
I still have to fully test them,,then live with them for a little while before I can comment..
Both are very useable though...

I'm not a fan of the Blues Driver really..
I thought it was very bright..
I had a Fender amp at the time,,and it indeed did sound like a sphincter and 2 buttocks..

I've only owned the PN 2 and TR 2..So don't know much about Tremolo Pedals.
I have a DOD Vibrothang which has both Tremolo and sort of mild Phasing..