Mooer Micro Preamp Series & Mooer Baby Bomb 30 Power Amp

Small and mighty

These are tiny! You can’t be serious...

An amp in a box pedal is nothing new – after all, the earthshaking AmpTweaker line is more or less just valve amp preamps modelled with discrete circuitry. What is new, however, is the diminutive form of these astonishingly small units. They may look cute, but paired with the Baby Bomb 30 power amp, you might blow your neighbours’ eardrums, let alone your own – so treat them with a little caution.

Okay, so how do they sound?

The Fender Blackface model (Regal Tone) comes surprisingly close to a Fender clean tone, while the Vox (Day Tripper) has a similar EQ range to a real Vox, but is difficult to dial in with a classic bright Vox chime. Out of the more ‘rock’ amps, the Marshall JCM900 model (UK Gold 900) is the most convincing. It saturates nicely with a boost or drive in front, although it does lack clarity when cranked. In general, the higher-gain amps like the 5150 (Fifty-Fifty 3) and Diezel (Gas Station) are less realistic, although with the gain rolled right back to about 9 o’clock, the 5150 is almost a passable ‘5150 in a box’ distortion sound, even if it lacks the definition and punch of the original amp.