Mooer Grey Faze Fuzz Test / Review

 Preface:

Good day to all of you fuzz lovers out there! Over the course of the last 5+ years, I had the pleasure to test out a lot of drive pedals. This blog is supposed to help you find not only your sound, but also a device that is well built, nice looking and, ideally, affordable.

And if you are not interested in owning the pedal, the post hopefully makes for a good read on bathroom break!

1. Optics and General Built Quality

I´ll be as blunt as can be and wholeheartedly state that I don´t like the Mooer mini pedals, or almost all of them no matter the manufacturer, due to their mostly very simple visual designs and the fact that they tend to flop around on my desk when I try to use them as they are, without a pedalboard and such. On top of that, many of the affordable Chinese pedals use terrible plastic axes for the pots with the large knobs, rendering them susceptible to breakage. Furthermore, they mostly (One Control and Xotic for the win!) have no space for a battery and I, for myself, am an avid battery enjoyer. Not for the tone or whatever, but for convenience.

When it comes to the rigidity of the enclosure as well as the switch and the input/output jacks, the Mooer feels impeccible. It was obviously mass-manufactured, however, this does not detract from the fact that everything sits neatly and tightly. As per usual for the maker, it comes with a solid true bypass footswitch and the jacks are mounted directly to the casing. In terms of price and availability, these can be bought on and off for around 50 to 60 Euros new here in Central Europe. Used, they go for around 30 bucks, which is a steal for any pedal that fulfills its dedicated function.

Here is a view of the pedal front coming right up:

And here you can observe its insides: 

 

To sum this chapter up, the Grey Faze is not a boutique product. It was designed, however, with a lot of thought going into it and it shows - it feels rigid, heavier than it should be, and works just as advertised, which is a lot for some mass-producers. But how does it sound?

2. Sounds and Tonal Options

I wish, really wish that I could write you a drawn-out chapter about the diverse sounds that the Mooer Grey Faze puts out, however, there is just one setting that even reaches and, at maximum, slightly supercedes unity volume - all out. And it is not even that bad, as the pedal retains some features of the clean sound and the fuzz itself being rather smooth with just the right amound of pick attack, which lends itself to playing power chords or even bar chords over single notes, as these are not layered into the fuzz sound and ring out way too swiftly. Personally, I feel that the pedal immediately goes for the FF-sound it was created to match, copying the big, round, smiley-faced fuzz box at a very limited budget. Don´t get me wrong - this is not a distortion pedal suited for Hard Rock or Metal music, it dabbles in achieving a serious vintage tone.

I personally find it intesting that the sound of the Grey Faze is not too compressed and, thus, does not sustain notes as well as other fuzzes, however, at the same time, it does not care whether you work it with single coil or humbucker type pickups. It is, due to all of the two pots being opened fully, rather noisy all the time. Furthermore, it is the type of fuzz that produces plenty of its own overtones, rendering the tone-knob on your guitar rather useless as well. Closing it off altogether results in some overtones reaching a sort-of dirty octave quality, without going all the way. Lastly, don´t ever think about fiddling with your guitar volume, as the pedal knows only all-out or nothing. Unlike its paragon, it goes from dull and mostly clean to dense fuzz in less than a millimeter of potentiometer travel, just before it reaches its fully opened position. This is rather sad, as I really dig the overdrive a nice Fuzz Face can produce. 

So, what is to like about the Mooer Grey Faze? Well, if you are on a budget and seek the sound of a fully cranked Fuzz Face on a budget, this might be your pedal. It cuts the rumbling lows and the shrill treble frequencies, resulting in a fairly smooth and nice plain Jane of a fuzz pedal that fits almost every board. It also works oddly well with full chords and spices up lead notes with added overtones. I could totally see an optimized, no-knob version of this pedal in an even smaller, Spark-type enclosure that slightly boosts your volume and offers the full fuzz experience by having the pedal clean up nicely at the turn of your guitars´ volume knob. At, like, 50 Euros, this would be a steal!

3. Unique Features and Special Use Cases

There is, unfortunately, nothing unique or special about the Mooer Grey Faze. You can not really use it for bass, as it cuts the low frequencies rather strongly in order to achieve a fuzz sound that does not stumble upon itself, which is nice for guitarists but dreary for bassists. 

With that being said, have a final picture: 

To no surprise, and just like the original, the Grey Faze does not like being further down the pedalboard, it wants to be your number one pedal, as boosts, drive sounds, or even buffers send it into oblivion, overwhelming its simple circuitry and leading to a mumbly mess of a sound. 

4. Conclusion Time

What does one expect of a pedal? Is it possible to perfectly recreate a famous sound at less than half of the budget? I have to admit that I went in with little to no expectations and was surprised by the seriously smooth, predictable, and non-upsetting fuzz sound, while being disappointed by the fact that there is basically just one setting for the knobs. And yes, this is a feature of the originals, too, but why not innovate a bit? Especially when depriving the circuit of the glorious dirt sounds that the Fuzz Faces produce with the guitar volume being rolled back. So please, Mooer - make a no-knob version of this in a tiny enclosure, maybe even with the option for battery power at a competitive price point. It´d be much more interesting to me!