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Mooer Tone Capture review
Want to make your Strat sound like a Les Paul? Or your Tele like a Jackson Soloist? Mooer might well have the solution
The Mooer Tone Capture is a handy piece of kit for the gigging musician who wants to switch up tones mid-set.
Pros
+
Very convincing single-coil tones from humbuckers.
+
Easy to use.
+
Affordable.
Cons
-
Not the most convincing with acoustic tones.
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Imagine a pedal that can capture the sound of any guitar you care to plug into it, and then recreate it for whatever guitar you plug in next.
The Mooer Tone Capture’s technology is based on Mooer’s EQ-matching algorithm, and while it sounds too good to be true, we’ve seen this type of objective carried out successfully before.
The pedal works by ‘sampling’ your guitar’s tone to one of seven preset slots. This is done by pressing the target/source button and strumming in a consistent and realistic way while the lights cycle through their sequence.
When they all flash together, your tone has been captured and saved to a slot. You then have to do the same when you plug in your constant – or source – guitar to allow the pedal to work its magic on the incoming signal.
It’s a useful pedal if you find yourself jumping between guitars throughout your set
Mooer’s demo video shows it working between different pickup types and even turning an electric into an acoustic. So, we tried the most obvious first – turning a humbucker into a single coil and vice versa.
This works pretty well, with the Tone Capture recreating the snap of our Tele when played from a humbucker-equipped Jaguar. The other way round is similarly impressive, but to our ears, it has that ‘humbucker in a Strat’ sort of sound.
Finally, we tried it with our Faith electro-acoustic, and this is where we were less convinced. It does a good job of getting a bit of that unplugged woodiness, but reminds us of the acoustic sim on our late-'90s multi-effects.
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It’s a useful pedal if you find yourself jumping between guitars throughout your set, but we won’t be putting down our dreadnought just yet. A solid effort from Mooer.
Stuart has been working for guitar publications since 2008, beginning his career as Reviews Editor for Total Guitar before becoming Editor for six years. During this time, he and the team brought the magazine into the modern age with digital editions, a Youtube channel and the Apple chart-bothering Total Guitar Podcast. Stuart has also served as a freelance writer for Guitar World, Guitarist and MusicRadar reviewing hundreds of products spanning everything from acoustic guitars to valve amps, modelers and plugins. When not spouting his opinions on the best new gear, Stuart has been reminded on many occasions that the 'never meet your heroes' rule is entirely wrong, clocking-up interviews with the likes of Eddie Van Halen, Foo Fighters, Green Day and many, many more. If he's not playing the guitar, you'll likely find Stuart behind the kit playing Valerie to newlyweds.
