OVERDRIVE- MOEN EFFECTS Dragon Roar ...Sabbath?

MOEN EFFECTS| DRAGON ROAR 

$45.00 USD

This Chinese company has been around forever. They had a rep with the home grown Chinese players as the serious Pro pedal. For a start better made. Back in 2005 players in the West would never consider any Chinese pedal as Pro and they would be written off as junk without anyone trying them. So their 25% higher than other Chinese pedals in 2015 was a non starter. I feel they gave up wasting promo money to get the West to check them out.

The Moen is a take on a cranked 60's Laney Super Group MkI. The amp Tony Iommi used on the first Sabbath record. 

The layout is volume, gain, mids and highs. The bass is fixed and rolled off and tightened to insure you don't get a boomy muddy low end. In many ways it comes off like a Boss pedal. Not gourmet but you love it.

CONCLUSION

It could well be a take on Catalinbreads Abra Caddabra, a Sabbath pedal. 

It has a much more open sound than the modern pedals with their dense 

molten lava sound. 

A very affordable addition to perhaps a favorite upmarket modern Metal 

drive you may already own. It could really give you some variety. 

 

the fine print

It is definitely a contender. Its closest rival is the Catalinbread Sabbra Cadabra that is not in production though they will make you one for $250.00 USD. The Catalinbread suffers from too much gain and the basic voicing needs a lot of tweaking to zero in on the sound and even then it is a bit fizzy. Tony has his own pedal made by Laney but it is geared to his current tastes not the sound on the Classic Sabbath tunes.

Other makes have come and gone over the years but they are gone for a good reason. The charm of the old Sabbath sound in spite of its tricks to increase it's gain and fat sound it still had that trace of an EL34 tube thing coming thru. That sound is still loved and has now in a renaissance thanx to younger players. 

I love and use many modern dirt sounds but the tech has it's limits in short you literally can not add 

more gain than all the gain the tech can make. The most distorted sound the ear recognizes

is a square wave ...we made it there years ago.

It is like a pair of old Levis 501 jeans. I forgot how much I once loved them 

or in other words  ...I bought the Moen, lol

Jan.6,2024

Still on my board still getting well used! 

It appears to be a keeper!!!