E7 Synth Pedal

I struggled a bit with the interface on this pedal at first. After reading the manual, I thought it would work one way, but that wasn't quite right. This pedal has eight different loops in six different styles, and each of those styles has at least one loop that is not in 4/4 time, which is quite interesting. One of the most interesting features on this pedal is that you can activate a fill via the footswitch. That is the feature I had the most trouble figuring out. You have to single press the fill button to toggle that feature on or off. Once on, it works quite well, adding cool and useful fills at a button press. My only issue is that you have to toggle the feature off to stop the drums. You might be able to touch it with your toe if you are very careful, but this is a mini pedal, so you might hit something else. Unfortunately, that limits how much you can use this for live performance. It could still be quite useful for jamming alone or with friends, or for entering complex drum sequences into a looper, for which the inline interface could be quite useful. I tested this out both inline and with an aux input on my looper, and generally prefer using a separate input, personally, but placed late in your effects chain, this could work quite well. The samples sound quite good, and the EQ is helpful for adjusting the drum sound for different styles. It still sounds good through some light overdrive, but would generally be a bit better in a clean amp or through an effects loop. A little bit of reverb is quite nice, and the ability to add some modulation to the drums opens up some interesting possibilities. It is important to realize this is a mini pedal with no MIDI connections or anything, so it will be hard to match this to other things besides live playing, since your tempo controls are either a tempo dial or tap tempo. When switching patterns, your tempo setting is generally kept, though some loops are in half or double time, and it gets more complicated with those loops that are not in 4/4. I like that when switching patterns, the pedal generally waits until the bar is finished to switch to the new pattern, which makes it easier to stay in the groove. Overall, this pedal is a really good way to have some useful, great-sounding drum patterns for jamming or looping in a very small package.

First impression: very cool, subtly. I had been looking for a new headphone amp, because the one I've had makes gobs of crud hiss. So, looking at dozens of options, I kept coming back to this, which seemed like a step or two beyond the others. It can work as a headphone amp on its own, and it sounds absolutely decent, with amazingly low hiss and true to the sound of the instrument. True enough that it doesn't need EQ, or 143 weird, flimsy modelling choices. The cab-sim switch I would have named "smooth warmth" (it’s probably the first cab-sim I might ever use). As a lone headphone amp, it's excellent for bare bone technique analysis, or song writing. I have an awesome tube pre-amp pedal (I won't name it, it's just the one for me). With the Mooer Audiophile, now my adored pre-amp pedal is a real tube overdrive headphone amp. A headphone amp that sounds like my favorite pre-amp, because now it is. With a long effects chain, if the production is off, you can patch the Mooer Audiophile behind each and any of the effects to locate and adjust the EQ's or special effects in question. If the production problem is simply because another pedal, say a wah pedal, seems to weaken the signal, this can act as a buffer to cleanly nudge it back up. You can put it at the end of your signal chain with your amp off, and wail happily and safely through the midnight hours, inspired by a dream, without alerting FEMA. It’s a clean, clever little unit, and works well.

It’s not gonna sound exactly like an acoustic guitar but it does add that ambience and vibe of an acoustic. I wouldnt say a full acoustic more akin to a thin-line or parlor sized acoustic. If you go in thinking this will magically transform your guitar, I would stay away. But if you want something that gets the light snap/punch of a thinline from your electric, then this solves that problem.

My original review followings. This pedal sounds really good "for the price." Hopefully the replacement will last. I'm glad I finally have a working A7 but from a cost-benefit analysis perspective, the product is not worth all the trouble I went through to get it. I'd have been better off spending more money for a product from a company with reliable customer service. Seems most people get a good product though, so up to you, take your chances I guess. I only used this pedal a couple times at home. I went to use it again after a couple weeks and it didn't work at all, no sound, no light, no power. When I contacted the seller I was told that it was past the exchange period but that I should contact Mooer because the pedal was guaranteed. HAH! I had a dozen exchanges with so called "customer service" and technical support. Several requests for a video of the problem - which I provided each time. Several requests for my receipt, again which I provided each time. And each time I responded immediately with the information they requested a week or more would go by with no response. I would follow up and I would go through the same endless circle of hell. Near as I can tell a different person would handle the request each time and then forget about it. ABSOLUTELY THE WORST "CUSTOMER SERVICE" EXPERIENCE EVER. I put that in parenthesis because it's not customer service it's some kind of sadistic alternate world version where they think customer service means do everything they can to ensure the customer not only gets no service but is teased into thinking each time that something is finally going to happen and then... nothing. Absolute torture. Absolute waste of my time. Don't buy from this seller, don't buy any Mooer products. The low price isn't worth the pain, suffering and torture they will inflict on you. What a waste of money and time. My advice is every time you're tempted to spend that $50 or $60 or whatever amount... SAVE IT... save it up... until you have enough to buy a high quality pedal made by a company that will back up their products and treat you fairly and with courtesy and respect.

The photos do not do justice to how small this pedal is. It's teeny tiny, yet still feels solid. This pedal does exactly what it's supposed to, but make sure you understand its purpose before you buy. Unlike the popular headphone amps that are meant to plug directly into your guitar (and usually don't have the headroom to accommodate other pedals well), this pedal is meant to sit at the end of your chain and amplify the signal to headphone levels. Also unlike those pedals, it's not meant to simulate a guitar amp - it just cleanly boosts the signal. Now, legendary guitar amps didn't earn their fame by amplifying the sound of the guitar as cleanly as possible. They heavily color the sound. This means that if you run through this instead of an amp, it's going to sound quite sterile. That's not something the cab sim fixes. That's a problem, right? Not really. First, if you just need to silently practice with some effects, you may not be too worried about the tonal qualities, it's probably fine. If you play with a lot of distortion from pedals, it may not be a big deal either. However, if you use an overdrive pedal to push your amp into distortion, that won't really work with this headphone amp. You can still get great tone. All you need is a preamp, ampsim, amp in a box, etc pedal before it to add that color or gain to your tone. Think of this pedal like a cab (where your headphones are the speakers) and the preamp pedal is the head. I use a pretty cheap joyo amp emulation pedal, and it works great!

The metronome is a useful but undeniably boring tool when practicing music. If you have to keep time, why not make it fun? This is where the Mooer Micro Drummer II comes in. I am going to assume that most people reading this review are guitar players, and a lot of you are probably bedroom guitar players like myself. I do not have access to a drummer, so time keeping has always either been a metronome app or just doing it in my head. But with the Micro Drummer II, I can actually play to a drum beat. And not just one beat with different speeds, but 48 different drum beats, in assorted time signatures, in six different musical styles, and at any speed between 40-240 bpm (not that I'll ever get that fast). You can adjust the EQ with a low or high cut as well. And it can get LOUD! But my favorite part of the Micro Drummer II are the drum fills. Hold down on the foot switch to insert a drum fill at any time during the beat. This is great when practicing the addition of some variations to whatever chords/riffs you are playing. As you can see from the pictures The Micro Drummer II is pretty micro, so it doesn't take up much pedal board space. But not so small someone with larger hands would have trouble with the dials. This is the eighth micro series Mooer pedal I have owned, and they have all been uniformly excellent. They easily compete with the bigger name brands in terms of quality and value. The Micro Drummer II is no exception. If you are looking for a way out of the boring metronome trap, check this pedal out.

The pro's- Order delivered on time. Unit is small, solidly built. It does not introduce any signal/line interference, is true bypass, and 9 volt power is only required to light up the LED. An adaptor is NOT included. The con's- I decided to return it, and Mooer wanted to charge me return postage, which I was absolutely unwilling to pay. I had to reach out to Amazon customer service, whom requested Mooer send a prepaid postage label. Mooer did finally respond and comply after being forced, but really, there is no reason why someone should have to pay to return an item to a company that makes a ton of money from poor musicians. Furthermore, the seller has delayed accepting the return delivery and processing my refund- this is unacceptable. I had to contact Amazon customer service and open up an A-Z claim, which was a 2 day headache. Finally, Mooer paid back the funds. I would NEVER recommend dealing with them after this. The unit uses a manual selector switch, so the user can only choose between A or B, but in order to use A,B,&Y, they have to manually flip the switch. This will be detrimental for a performer who needs to do it mid song. A 3 way wired stomp switch would have resolved the issue. The instruction manual is ridiculously small print. The unit is made in China.

I for one, am a big fan of these cheaper pedal companies especially for experimenting with sounds you might not necessarily mess with. It’s a hit or miss affair most of the time but for the price point, it can be worthwhile gamble. Though one can get some interesting sounds out this pedal, it can also sound like a hot mess. The controls are specific but they don’t always strongly affect the sound in a way where you can a broad palette of sounds and some tonal aspects could be a bit stronger (like the bass for instance).