Review: Mad Professor Double Moon

Are your arpeggios lacking movement? Do your clean sounds feel uninspiring? It could be that you need some modulation in your life. Where better to start than Mad Professor’s new Double Moon? This new modulation station comes replete with 11 (count them!) different takes on the theme of tonal oscillation, from gentle chorus and vibrato to jet-plane flange and all points in between.

Consistent with our expectations from this boutique brand, the Double Moon features rugged construction – perhaps even a little too rugged, as the textured gold finish can make the white silkscreen labelling difficult to read from certain angles, especially under lights. Notwithstanding, we are soon up and running with a classic combination of Gretsch guitar and Vox amp.

The Double Moon features five knobs: speed, depth and tone should be self-explanatory, but there is also a mode knob with which to select the kind of modulation most suited to the moment and a control knob which allows for precision adjustment, depending on the chosen mode.

In use

Starting fully counterclockwise on the mode knob, we have three flavours of chorus which increase in intensity from barely there to full Leslie-style gurgles, albeit without any of the ramping control you’d find in a dedicated rotary-speaker emulator. It’s immediately apparent, however, that we are dealing with seriously high-quality sounds, with even the more extreme settings sounding warm and musical.

Modes DC1 to DC3 feature two delay lines, modulated out of phase with one another, giving dual chorus effects. DC1 puts the two voices 180 degrees out of phase, DC2 keeps them 120 degrees apart and DC3 allows you to regulate the speed difference between the two choruses using the control knob.

While this may seem complex on paper, in practice, a dual-chorus voicing adds another dimension to your sound. Gentle swirls and shimmers become intense asymmetric throbs as we ramp up the depth and speed controls. As before, the quality of the sounds on offer remains consistently high. This tonal splendour is no doubt due to the Double Moon’s true analogue bucket-brigade signal path. While this configuration of capacitance is most commonly found on pure delay pedals, it certainly works in this instance.

Next up, we have a trio of flange settings which are so good that we wonder why more modulation pedals don’t offer this texture. That said, there’s a slight question mark at this point over the Double Moon’s place in the signal chain. Many players, this reviewer included, prefer their flangers pre-overdrive/distortion with chorus generally going towards the end of the chain. In this case, we find with relief that the flanged sounds retain their power and clarity post-dirt.

The remaining modes on the Double Moon’s dial are flange and chorus together (a rare combo) and a superb vibrato which, to our ears, may just be the best of an already impressive selection.

Key Features

• PRICE £249
• DESCRIPTION Multi-voice modulation pedal. Made in Finland
• CONTROLS Speed, mode, depth, tone, control knobs
• FEATURES Chorus, dual chorus, flange, vibrato modes; true analogue bucket-brigade signal path
• DIMENSIONS (W x D x H): 60 x 110 x 55mm
• CONTACT mpamp.com

Like this? Try these…

• ThorpyFX The Deep Oggin £249
• Positive Grid Bias Modulation Twin £329
• EHX Good Vibes Modulator £135