Mooer Micro Preamp Series & Baby Bomb 30 Power Amp

SEPTEMBER 2017 TOTAL GUITAR
101
FINaL VeRdICt
Which amp solution is the right one for you?
F
or many players, the fact that you
can even consider eliminating an
amp from your setup to have just a
pedalboard is astonishing. That the
sounds on o er from these
pedalboard amps are so good is equally as
impressive: there now simply isn’t a reason
to have a full-fat ‘real’ amp other than for the
aesthetic and headroom.
For the home studio, the combination of a
Two Notes Le Preamp and the Torpedo CAB is
the way to go. Most players will probably
gravitate towards the Fender-like clean tones
of the Le Clean or the beefi er Marshall heft of
the Le Crunch, but the Le Lead is a great
sounding unit, too, albeit trickier to dial in. By
mixing in the parallel channel ‘A’ set to a
clean tone, the saturation of the ‘B’ channel
can be tamed to a crunchy metal rhythm tone
not unlike that of Adam Jones from Tool. For
the more budget-conscious, the Mooer
preamps are a solid option and the Fender-
voiced models in particular shine.
For live use, the BluGuitar Amp1 is most
akin in feel to a real tube amp and sounds
great through a cab, while the Seymour
Duncan o ers a great mid-price, foolproof
option for running a cab directly from your
pedalboard. It’s got tonnes of headroom and
despite the fact that the Mooer preamps have
more of an amp-like voicing to them, for live,
the PowerStage is the narrow winner. And its
potential usefulness to modelling users,
indeed even Le Preamp users, for driving an
onstage cab should not be overlooked.
For the pure bedroom player, the
combination of DI and recording outs with
simple cab sim as well as headphone out
makes the Le Preamp series a no brainer.
TH
E G
AS
S
T
A
T
I
O
N
TWO NOTES LE PREAMP &
TWO NOTES TORPEDO CAB
BLUGUITAR
AMP 1
MOOER MICRO PREAMP SERIES &
MOOER BABY BOMB 30 POWER AMP
feaTures
sounD quaLiTy
VaLue for Money
BuiLD quaLiTy
usaBiLiTy
oVeraLL raTing
SUMMARY
feaTures
sounD quaLiTy
VaLue for Money
BuiLD quaLiTy
usaBiLiTy
oVeraLL raTing
SUMMARY
feaTures
sounD quaLiTy
VaLue for Money
BuiLD quaLiTy
usaBiLiTy
oVeraLL raTing
SUMMARY
SEYMOUR DUNCAN
POWERSTAGE 170
feaTures
sounD quaLiTy
VaLue for Money
BuiLD quaLiTy
usaBiLiTy
oVeraLL raTing
SUMMARY
BesT Buy
awarD
BesT Buy
awarD
BesT on a
BuDgeT
BesT aLL-
rounDer
BesT for
sTuDio or
hoMe
BesT for
LiVe
TGR297.gear_test.indd 101 8/16/17 12:41 PM