The Mad Professor Double Moon controls are pretty simple, and the added tone control works nicely, giving a bit more cut, as some choruses can tend to soften things up signal-wise. An eleven position rotary switch gives plenty of options of modulations: three modes of chorus, plus three additional modes of dual chorus, three flanger variations, flanger and chorus, as well as vibrato. Now the control knob gives an extra layer of adjustment, and it controls different aspects of that selection, depending up on the position of the rotary knob.
With all of these options, and the varying control functions, it’s hard to believe this is an analog pedal. Starting off with the choruses, it does a lot, and the amazing thing is how subtle it can be. Players who want that little extra sheen, without the warble, should take notice. It can give chords that extra sparkle and shimmer. Even moving up into more noticeable settings, clarity is really well maintained. One effect that sometimes doesn’t mix well with modulations is overdrives and distortions, as the low strings sometimes get too processed, and make a guitar sound out of tune. Not here — as it seems to capture that top end wash nicely, without flubbing out the low end. For players who actually like the warble, don’t worry, increasing the speed and rate controls takes it into Univibe and faux rotary territories quite nicely. The tweak ability of the control knob brings in the LFO waveform, between a sine wave and triangular wave configuration, which can really take things from casual swooping to a more aggressive soundscape.
Want to get more modern? The Dual chorus modes really shine here — think of the dimension of pristine ’80s pop, like the added air of “Purple Rain.” The pedal is using a dual delays to get that extra glassiness. With two modes that cover 180 and 120 degrees out of phase signals, it’s quite refined. The third mode allows the ability to dial in the speed differences of the choruses. Very nice.
At the end of the day, it checks off a lot of desirable boxes: it’s analog, true bypass, and has plenty of great classic choruses and flanges. Our reviewer really liked how it emulated classic
’80s choruses, before everything went digital, as this has warmth and character that lives up to the legend. The perception may be that analog choruses are warbly, over the top and noisy. Nope, Nope and Nope. It can be as subtle as a feather, and it was quite quiet overall.
The downside for some players could be the price tag, but for the players who don’t bat an eye spending that much on a drive pedal, this is worth your attention. Now there are some other chorus pedals that are around the same price that offer up expression pedal inputs, MIDI, Tap Tempo and stereo outputs, but in most cases they’re larger, and a lot of guitar players skip the benefits of MIDI, and don’t run in stereo anyway, so the Double Moon is pretty practical overall.
PROS:
Great analog choruses, plenty of adjustability, small format.
CONS:
A bit expensive.
STREET PRICE:
$289