Mooer Micro PreAMP 002 UK Gold 900

I use mooer pre-amps instead of amps on my pedalboard. I use Regal Tone and UK Gold, together with Moeer Radar impulse response unit.

Both units sound great, very convincing with benefits and drawbacks of corresponding amplifiers. Design is very well thought of, you have two channels to switch on the fly, and the ability to switch cabinet sim on and off easily.

However, quality seems to be very problematic.

Both UK Gold and Mooer Radar crapped out within 6 months of purchase, with very light use, using their own power supply. They both just suddenly started producing digital hiss and skreeching noise. My rig is otherwise powered with Palmer and Dunlop PSUs with regulated outputs, so I dont think some other device cause this.

Shame, great concept and sound, but I cannot fully rely on it. Not gigging for now though, so I did buy another one, fingers crossed.

For (semi-)pro pedalboard-only players it seems all too enticing: a board with all you favorite pedals AND all your favorite amp models. Good call from the guys at Mooer, and a really good effort at that. The pedal is very versatile (two channels, dramatic EQ-range, different switching options, amp sim built-in, ...). The small footprint is another winning feature; the lack of battery holder doesn't bother me. On paper, it checks all the boxes. There are three flaws with the unit as I see it: 1) without an additional amp sim/DI/IR-box, it doesn't sound very good going into an FRFR. 2) With the power handling at ±250 mA, you need a high-priced boutique power supply should you want to power anything else on your board. 3) Though it is really good sounding and "in the ball park", it doesn't come all that close to a JCM900 Marshall. All and all, it is a decent sounding pedal, and I do not regret buying it, but in my humble opinion, it does not live up to the expectation of being your little Marshall in a box. Hey, you get a whole lot for what you pay for!

I became a little fed up with having large amp heads and cabs in my mancave and decided to do a little downsizing to save some space. So I looked into the Mooer mini pedal series and ended up with the Baby Bomb power amp and this UK Gold preamp.
One of the amps I wanted to put into storage is a JCM900 SLX and, long story short, this little pedal is a pretty accurate representation of that. It has quite the range of gain, and has that great Marshall mid range sound to it - at higher levels of gain it gets a bit saggy when palm muting, but that's what the real amp does too. And, as with the real amp, an overdrive pedal infront adds saturation and really tightens up the bottom end - it gives some great heavy tones. The clean channel is very reminiscent of the DSL cleans, which I'm a big fan of.
Another benefit of the pedal is that it is a fair bit quieter than my 25 year old JCM900, even after a cap and valve replacement.
About the only disadvantage I can think of is that you need to use a power supply - no room for a battery.