What Mooer pedals are copying

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thermionicthermionic Frets: 9498
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Some of them are obviously wrong though.
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  • Dave_McDave_Mc Frets: 2324
    ^ Yeah that's what I was gonna say. :)) I always wonder why someone would go to the bother of making that, but not actually check the facts. At least a few of them are (lightly) modded versions of the pedals (e.g. the CE2 has a level control), while the blues mood is (presumably) a keeley mod BD2, not the bog standard one, and the black secret has a clipping switch which the bog standard rat doesn't have.

    And honestly, if the strymons sound like the shimverb (I haven't tried them), they'd be out of business within the week :)) The shimverb is just about ok for the £28 I paid for it. :))
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  • ThePrettyDamnedThePrettyDamned Frets: 7472
    edited November 2013
    Shimverb is the bestest budget strymon studio type verb... :) The rest sounded a good as originals or boutique versions. *that I've tried, mostly limited to drive pedals*.

    The eq pedal looks interesting...

    Love the ultra drive. Genuinely brilliant.
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  • dogloaddogload Frets: 1495
    edited November 2013
    Hey guys, have a bit of sensitivity here- I'm trying to sell a ShimVerb! It's actually really good everyone!

    Well, not up there with the Strymons perhaps, but it does a good job of standing in for my old EH Holy Grail. It's certainly more of an amp-style reverb than a massive special effect.

    I'm also not entirely convinced by the ElecLady flanger. It's not quite an Electric Mistress, but it certainly makes more sense, size-wise.
    The phaser is definitely brilliant, and I like the Blue Phaze fuzz too.
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  • Edited for you ;)
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  • dogloaddogload Frets: 1495
    Have a LOL. 

    And a tip of my hat!
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  • For what it's worth, the Ninety Orange is wrong - it's more akin to the EVH Phase 90, with the Vintage/Modern switch.
    <space for hire>
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  • dogload;78807" said:
    Have a LOL. 

    And a tip of my hat!
    In fairness, it's a really nice reverb pedal for most normal uses - prefer it to the digiverb (and I love a lot of the digitech pedals).
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71951
    Now that I've seen one in person (broken), I'm not impressed by the build quality. The pots are not supported by the casing, so if you tread on them - very easy to do because they're so close to the footswitch - they can break. The mini-switch looks like it has a casing nut, but in fact it doesn't have the necessary one on the inside to lock it, so it's little more than for show and if anything, actually stresses the switch (by pulling it upwards) when it's tightened. Pressing down on the knob also then pushes the PCB down which stresses it even more.

    Almost all of them have the wrong control as the main knob too - particularly all the drives, where they have the gain as the big knob and the volume - the one you're much more likely to need to adjust on the fly - as one of the small ones.

    Neat concept, poor execution.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • Is that flex boost really cloning the ac booster? could save me a tonne.
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  • hugbothugbot Frets: 1528
    The black secret is better than the current production rat2s imo and has beaten a few more expensive drives on my board. That said, the switch cracked off. I liked it enough to get another one though.
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  • Dave_McDave_Mc Frets: 2324
    edited November 2013
    Shimverb is the bestest budget strymon studio type verb... :) The rest sounded a good as originals or boutique versions. *that I've tried, mostly limited to drive pedals*.

    The eq pedal looks interesting...

    Love the ultra drive. Genuinely brilliant.
    i thought the shimverb was meh (though as i said, at those old marcmart prices, fine if you just wanted a bog standard reverb pedal, which I did) and the blue faze was a bit noisy (mine may have been faulty, not sure as mine's the only one I've tried). But the rat clone is excellent, and the pure boost and blues crab are pretty good, too (those are all i've tried).

    As ICBM says, though, I wouldn't want to trust their reliability. And my feelings about them are related to the price I paid- ~£28 IIRC. I wouldn't want to pay £50 for them, at that kind of money you have other options which are likely built better etc.
    dogload said:
    Hey guys, have a bit of sensitivity here- I'm trying to sell a ShimVerb! It's actually really good everyone!
    LOL sorry :))
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  • hugbothugbot Frets: 1528
    Oh yeah the blues mood is another one I feel is better than the pedal its copying.

    I think in general the drives are all excellent. The pitch shifter one I had was crap though, it didn't sound in tune.
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  • daveyhdaveyh Frets: 681
    ICBM said:
    Now that I've seen one in person (broken), I'm not impressed by the build quality. The pots are not supported by the casing, so if you tread on them - very easy to do because they're so close to the footswitch - they can break. The mini-switch looks like it has a casing nut, but in fact it doesn't have the necessary one on the inside to lock it, so it's little more than for show and if anything, actually stresses the switch (by pulling it upwards) when it's tightened. Pressing down on the knob also then pushes the PCB down which stresses it even more.

    Almost all of them have the wrong control as the main knob too - particularly all the drives, where they have the gain as the big knob and the volume - the one you're much more likely to need to adjust on the fly - as one of the small ones.

    Neat concept, poor execution.
    Would they be good candidates for rehousing?
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  • ICBM said:
    Now that I've seen one in person (broken), I'm not impressed by the build quality. The pots are not supported by the casing, so if you tread on them - very easy to do because they're so close to the footswitch - they can break. The mini-switch looks like it has a casing nut, but in fact it doesn't have the necessary one on the inside to lock it, so it's little more than for show and if anything, actually stresses the switch (by pulling it upwards) when it's tightened. Pressing down on the knob also then pushes the PCB down which stresses it even more.

    Almost all of them have the wrong control as the main knob too - particularly all the drives, where they have the gain as the big knob and the volume - the one you're much more likely to need to adjust on the fly - as one of the small ones.

    Neat concept, poor execution.

    Ignoring the technical details that I was not aware of until this post, my first thought upon recently receiving a Black Secret was 'well this won't work for live'.

    The pedal is too small.  It is way too easy to kick the large dial and the switch at the same time.

    It won't matter for my uses as I got it to play around with for recording, it doesn't suit the music I play with my band.  But if I ever thought I wanted to use a Rat sound live I'd go and buy a full size pedal.  I got the pedal in that Yamaha music sale so didn't pay a lot for it, but at full price I don't think I'd buy a Mooer vs the pedal it models if it was something for a gigging board.
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71951
    daveyh said:
    Would they be good candidates for rehousing?
    Possibly, although it pretty much defeats the point. You would also need to replace the pot with one with a chassis mounting to do the job properly.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • dogloaddogload Frets: 1495
    My initial reasons for getting Mooers (ShimVerb and ElecLady) were the fact that they are so small. I wanted the sound of an Electric Mistress without having to cart around a massive pedalboard with the massive EH pedal.
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  • It depends how often you need to stomp on something and how accurate you can be whilst playing live.  I'm not graceful or light footed so they wouldn't work for me on stage.  It will get used at home for recording though.
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  • monquixotemonquixote Frets: 17485
    tFB Trader
    I've used quite a few Mooers live and I find them no worse than an MXR for accidentally kicking stuff and considerably better than stupid pedals like Zvex which I find completely unusable. 
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  • dogloaddogload Frets: 1495
    Hmmm- the Fuzz Factory is a right faff.
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  • guitarfishbayguitarfishbay Frets: 7953
    edited November 2013
    I've used quite a few Mooers live and I find them no worse than an MXR for accidentally kicking stuff and considerably better than stupid pedals like Zvex which I find completely unusable. 

    Agreed re: Zvex.

    The MXR stuff has about the space from switch to pot but the fact that they're wider and longer just makes them seem more sturdy, and like a bigger target.  I think the bit of extra lip at the bottom allows you to line up your foot more easily.  Probably just psychological for me.

    Found a side by side picture.

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    Ultimately I still think the Boss enclosure design is the best compromise for live use.  A bit bigger than the MXR but the switches are easiest to hit.  I quite like Visual Sound's approach to having a lip at the top (protecting the tone controls slightly better) but I wish they didn't have as pronounced a V at the bottom.
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