Moog Minifooger Ring review

Get weird and put a ring on it

  • £129
  • €145
  • $159
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The mix control takes it from subliminal ear candy to aural assault

MusicRadar Verdict

If you want to add some (very) leftfield sounds to your rig, this is the way to go.

Pros

  • +

    Mini version of MF-102 circuit. Sounds excellent with expression pedal.

Cons

  • -

    Not much.

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Ring modulation, the 'black sheep' of the stompbox family, gets an airing here: Moog's MF Ring is based on the Moogerfooger MF-102 (allegedly the world's best-selling ring-mod pedal).

"Juxtaposition of the freq and tone knobs yields a wide range of buzzy, chiming and metallic tones"

Juxtaposition of the freq and tone knobs yields a wide range of buzzy, chiming and metallic tones that can be tuned to be musical with a certain scale, but dissonant on notes outside it.

At the lowest mix-knob settings, you are getting subliminal ear candy - metallic resonance, for example - in the background behind your dry tone; but as you turn the mix up, you gradually lose that dry sound to a full-on aural assault.

What really appeals about the MF Ring is the fact you can use an expression pedal to control the freq parameter for sonic sweeps, or to switch between two keys.

If you want to add some (very) leftfield sounds to your rig, this is the way to go, but make sure you buy an expression pedal with it if you really want to freak out with the freq.

Trevor Curwen

Trevor Curwen has played guitar for several decades – he's also mimed it on the UK's Top of the Pops. Much of his working life, though, has been spent behind the mixing desk, during which time he has built up a solid collection of the guitars, amps and pedals needed to cover just about any studio session. He writes pedal reviews for Guitarist and has contributed to Total Guitar, MusicRadar and Future Music among others.