Mooer Black Secret

Its awesome. What everyone says is true!

This pedal is basically a ProCo RAT and Turbo RAT in the same package. To my ears, it sounds identical to the originals. It even does the RAT thing of wiring the tone potentiometer backwards, so that all the way counterclockwise is full and all the way clockwise is zero. The construction is fantastic and mine has been fully reliable for several years now. My only complaint is with the form factor. In my experience mini-pedals like to fall over or slide around, and on a pedal board they are hard to place because they want to fall through the cable gaps. A small complaint, considering this little guy very faithfully replicates the greatest distortion pedal in history!

It's awesomeness isn't exactly a secret

The Mooer Black Secret is an awesome RAT clone that's widely recognized for it's awesome sound and tiny size. The vintage vs turbo switch offers a world of extra tonal options not available on most other similar pedals. It's a great addition to any guitarists' pedal board providing anything from gritty distortion to scorching fuzz.

Very good value for money

Even though I'm not an avid user of distortion pedals, I needed to buy one for the odd function gig. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on it as I won't be using it lot, so I wasn't expecting much from this pedal.

I was pleasantly surprised with the overall quality of the pedal, considering how much it costed. It serves me well for what I use it for and I'm planning on keeping it on the board.

Pros:

-very cheap

-the distortion knob provides an impressive ammount of gain if turned all the way up

-sounds really close to Proco Rat, most people probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference

-very small pedal and doesn't take up too much space in the pedalboard

Cons:

-not a very professional sound, and wouldn't recommend it for recording scenarios, as it can sound a bit muddy at times

-the filter knob doesn't do that much

-distortion knob is really big and it can sometimes be tricky to turn on the pedal without messing up your settings

Overall I recommend this pedal if your looking for something cheap or temporary as it has a good performance, but if youre looking for a legit distortion pedal, then I'd personally spend some more money in something better.

overhyped

I have seen a lot of positive reviews of this pedal, mostly saying that it copies the revered ProCo Rat, only for less cash and taking up less space on the pedalboard. Just the job, I thought! but then, I received the pedal....indeed, it's small, and I didn't break the bank but its sound indeed reflected the price... and it just sounds bad: to my taste the pedal can only be used if all knobs are set more or less in neutral positions, like, say: from 11 o'clock to 2 o'clock. All the rest sounds fizzy, or too harsh or muffled. I am not even sure if it is just the wrong combination with my amplifier, Marshall Origin 20h and cab Celestion V30, cause I've seen a similar review of this pedal on YT and the guy had different gear but exactly the same conclusions. Also, the two knobs LEVEL and FILTER are so tiny that it's difficult to set them quickly to your liking (live situation), and see/remember the setting. I am afraid this is a clear example of: you get what you pay for. If you can afford sth better - stay away from black secret. If money's an issue - save up for sth better or get a second-hand better stuff.

Is compact worth the compromise?

Overall sound is quite good, but:

- level and filter controls are not very linear in their response, so it's sometimes difficult to find the good spot; I have never used an original RAT, so I cannot tell for sure it is the same, but I'd bet it's because of the mini pots on this Mooer clone.

- the Turbo mode sounds good, but when engaged there is a huge increase in volume. It could have been coupled with a simple volume drop, in order to allow comparing the two sounds.

If I come back, I'd rater buy an original ProCo RAT 2.

I love this one. The filter included makes the whole difference when playing and wanting a different sound out of the same distortion. Makes like way easier. And sounds great. For the small device it is makes the whole difference.

My new love!

Somehow it happened, that only at 38 I tried RAT type pedal (this great copy from Mooer) for the first time, and I found it to be perfect match with my Laney Cub 12R and celestion vintage 30 speaker. My favorite pedal for lead and solo sound now. But too fat for tight heavy riffs.

Here I recorded sound test at different gain levels:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3bMFu7THbo

Mooer

Its good distortion in budget but not in high gain , its soaking on 1o'clock onwards

Great tones, nice build quality

Not sure how it compares to a real Rat but I quite like the tones I'm getting! The small knobs are a bit of a pain but it comes with the small size.