MOOER Black Secret, distortion micro pedal

Wonderful replacement for my broken Rat. Fiddly but great for studio work

I used this I'm front of my HotRod deluxe Fender amp. It delivers a wonderful dirty distorted tone, good value for money

It's my first Rat-style pedal, and it delivers amazing tones with great build quality

Review for MOOER Black Secret, RAT-style distortion micro pedal. I’ve tried out a few RAT-style pedals, including the real-deal Pro-Co RAT 2. Despite the position of the filter (or its equivalent), all pedals seem to attenuate the highs. When playing full barre chords, the skinny B & E strings seem to disappear. The Black Secret, for me at least, changes all that. It has a lovely crisp sound, all strings ringing out evenly. Even when the distortion is pushed to maximum, everything’s there. They’re still there regardless of filter position. The Turbo Mode significantly increases the output; it seems to decrease the amount of distortion. There’s lots of headroom to increase that distortion. Everything’s still present. As often happens with “styled on & suspiciously similar to” pedals, the output of the Black Secret to your amplifier is somewhat more than the pedal it “might be” based on. I very much like the MOOER Black Secret. It’s my favourite RAT-style pedal so far. I don’t see myself moving on from this one. There are many RAT-style pedals available, some of them cheaper that the MOOER Black Secret. In my own experience, the extra tenner is worth it.

I have a Big Muff Pi which I like but don't love. It goes a bit too far too quickly for my taste and I found myself using it less and less. I then heard a demo of the Mooer pedal and found that it gives me exactly the level of control I was looking for. To my ear it sounds like a slightly more gentle Muff, with more control over the tone. My only (minor) criticism would be that there is a big drop in output when switching modes from Turbo to Vintage. I don't gig, only record, so that isn't a major issue for me but I wonder if that might be a problem for gigging guitarists. Generally, I really like these small format pedals. I also have the Mooer Trelicopter, which is fantastic, and I have others on my radar, including the Eleclady flanger and the NinetyOrange phaser, possibly the Re-echo.

Fantastic little addition to the board when you need a little extra oomph to your tone. I’m impressed how it keeps the integrity of your tone even when pushing the gain up. Definition is surprisingly clear and ballsy without turning to mush or brittle sounding like most distortion effects. Very versatile and sounds amazing when turning the gain down too. A great rat clone that’s small, well built and good sounding. It can get a bit noisy when turning up the gain but nothing a good noise gate can’t fix. Buy this, you will not be disappointed

This pedal has a really good sound. Perfect for Blur Song 2. Small footprint and well made.

This is a copy of two ProCo pedals. Rat and Turbo Rat. Works nicely. Low gain distortion to all out fuzziness. Worth the £40