Mooer Black Secret Reviews

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.

Great pedal at amazing value

Love this pedal, massive distortion and easily adjusted to find your ideal sound with two tone options along with filter. For the price it?s top class

Rat clone with vintage + turbo mode

A good Rat clone in mini format. It's good to have the 2 modes: strangely, I found the Turbo mode better on lower gain settings... and you can see the led glowing underneath the knobx ahah...

Nothing not to like if you are a Rat fan except maybe the mini knobs. However, I find them okay as there is a white line indicator.

I cannot direct compare the sound to an actual Rat but it's versatile with the 2 modes. I find that the sound compress a little too much at higher gain but that's a Rat thing apparently.

Great sounding pedal!

Look no further, if you are looking for a mini pedal this one comes packing big fat distortion. Need to listen to this pedal plugged in a tube amp to really appreciate it!

Great pedal for the price

This is my second Mooer pedal, and I find them to be a great budget alternative for my pedalboard. It's really small, so it doesn't take up much space on the pedalboard.

I play only at home, and this pedal fits my needs just fine. No need to spend lots of money on expensive pedals in the situation I'm using it.

It does the trick pretty well

As far as I can tell, the Mooer Black Secret is a clone of the RAT distortion pedal made by ProCo.

In addition to the standard RAT functionality, the Black Secret has a switch to change the distortion type. The label on the pedal indicates "Vintage" and "Turbo". Presumably, the switch allow the selection between standard RAT and Turbo RAT.

Overall, the pedal performs well. To my ears, it is indistinguishable from the RAT.

It also has a very small footprint compared to the ProCo RAT but it doesn't allow internal battery power. Moreover, compared to the RAT, the Black Secret uses a standard/Boss power socket. The RAT uses a 3.5mm jack.

If you look for a distortion pedal that uses a RAT (or RAT-like) distortion circuit, the Black Secret is a good choice. It's cheaper than the RAT, it uses a standard power socket and it has a switch to select standard/turbo clipping. If you can live without the internal battery supply, it's a no-brainer.

A cheap, dirty distortion pedal

This is a copy of the Proco Rat and gives a similar, fuzzy, dirty distortion. Can do lighter distortion (which sounds really good) along with heavier tones. I bought it to replace my Big Muff because i was getting lost in the mix and while this does not that the thickness of the Muff I'm definitely heard better now.

It takes a bit of a while to find a perfect tone and to be honest I'm still looking. With both the turbo and the vintage mode possibilities are endless. The filter knob is also really good, providing a lot of different tone, either doing dark and fuzzy or brighter, with more clarity.

It is very well build and is solid. My only complaint is that while turning it on I sometimes hit the distortion knob.

Sounds great

RATs are kindof a love it or hate it thing. I feel like I often find myself in both camps. The black secret actually sounds better than the current production RAT, and also offers a turbo RAT at the flick of a switch. Very cool!

Amazing little thing

This is a Proco Rat clone in a tiny tiny box. It sounds just like my friend's actual proco rat. However, it takes up hardly any space on my board, which is brilliant.

The two small pots are a bugger to see on a dark stage, so don't try to adjust it too much between songs. Also, the big white one (which you can see) is all too easy to knock with your foot if you're not paying attention when you stomp it (especially if like me you like to play in bare feet). Luckily it's easy enough to poke back with your toe, so not a major problem.

It sounds sublime, huge compressed heavy metal tones, like Motly Crue, Metallica, and all the other guys who used the Rat back in the day. If you don't have space for a real Rat, then get this one, it even switches between vintage and turbo modes.